صفحة 478 من 1294

"Listen!" Pulcheria Alexandrovna interrupted timidly, but it only

added fuel to the flames.

"What do you think?" shouted Razumihin, louder than ever, "you

think I am attacking them for talking nonsense? Not a bit! I like

them to talk nonsense. That's man's one privilege over all

creation. Through error you come to the truth! I am a man because

I err! You never reach any truth without making fourteen mistakes

and very likely a hundred and fourteen. And a fine thing, too, in

its way; but we can't even make mistakes on our own account! Talk

nonsense, but talk your own nonsense, and I'll kiss you for it.

To go wrong in one's own way is better than to go right in

someone else's. In the first case you are a man, in the second

you're no better than a bird. Truth won't escape you, but life

can be cramped. There have been examples. And what are we doing

now? In science, development, thought, invention, ideals, aims,

liberalism, judgment, experience and everything, everything,

everything, we are still in the preparatory class at school.