Pagina 658 di 2288

To Konstantin Levin the country was good first because it

afforded a field for labor, of the usefulness of which there

could be no doubt. To Sergey Ivanovitch the country was

particularly good, because there it was possible and fitting to

do nothing. Moreover, Sergey Ivanovitch's attitude to the

peasants rather piqued Konstantin. Sergey Ivanovitch used to say

that he knew and liked the peasantry, and he often talked to the

peasants, which he knew how to do without affectation or

condescension, and from every such conversation he would deduce

general conclusions in favor of the peasantry and in confirmation

of his knowing them. Konstantin Levin did not like such an

attitude to the peasants.