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As he listened to his brother's argument with the professor, he

noticed that they connected these scientific questions with those

spiritual problems, that at times they almost touched on the

latter; but every time they were close upon what seemed to him

the chief point, they promptly beat a hasty retreat, and plunged

again into a sea of subtle distinctions, reservations,

quotations, allusions, and appeals to authorities, and it was

with difficulty that he understood what they were talking about.

"I cannot admit it," said Sergey Ivanovitch, with his habitual

clearness, precision of expression, and elegance of phrase. "I

cannot in any case agree with Keiss that my whole conception of

the external world has been derived from perceptions. The most

fundamental idea, the idea of existence, has not been received by

me through sensation; indeed, there is no special sense-organ for

the transmission of such an idea."