you believe it, Paul Ivanovitch, but this year
I have been unable to sow any wheat! Am I not a fine husbandman? There
was no seed for the purpose, nor yet anything with which to prepare the
ground. No, I am not like Constantine Thedorovitch, who, I hear, is a
perfect Napoleon in his particular line. Again and again the thought
occurs to me, 'Why has so much intellect been put into that head, and
only a drop or two into my own dull pate?' Take care of that puddle,
gentlemen. I have told my peasants to lay down planks for the spring,
but they have not done so. Nevertheless my heart aches for the poor
fellows, for they need a good example, and what sort of an example am I?
How am _I_ to give them orders? Pray take them under your charge, Paul
Ivanovitch, for I cannot teach them orderliness and method when I myself
lack both. As a matter of fact, I should have given them their freedom
long ago, had there been any use in my doing so; for even I can see that
peasants must first be afforded the means of earning a livelihood before
they can live. What they need is a stern, yet just, master who shall
live with them, day in, day out, and set them an example of tireless
energy. The present-day Russian--I know of it myself--is helpless
without a driver. Without one he falls asleep, and the mould grows over
him."

"Yet I cannot understand WHY he should fall asleep and grow mouldy in
that fashion," said Platon. "Why should he need continual surveillance
to keep him from degenerating into a drunkard and a good-for-nothing?"

"The cause is lack of enlightenment," said Chichikov.

"Possibly--only God knows. Yet enlightenment has reached us right
enough. Do we not attend university lectures and everything else that
is befitting? Take my own education. I learnt not only the usual things,
but also the art of spending money upon the latest refinement, the
latest amenity--the art of familiarising oneself with whatsoever money
can buy. How, then, can it be said that I was educated foolishly? And
my comrades' education was the same. A few of them succeeded in annexing
the cream of things, for the reason that they had the wit to do so, and
the rest spent their time in doing their best to ruin their health and
squander their money. Often I think there is no hope for the present-day
Russian. While desiring to do everything, he accomplishes nothing. One
day he will scheme to begin a new mode of existence, a new dietary; yet
before evening he wi