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"No, you can ask anyone you like," Konstantin Levin answered with

decision, "the man that can read and write is much inferior as a

workman. And mending the highroads is an impossibility; and as

soon as they put up bridges they're stolen."

"Still, that's not the point," said Sergey Ivanovitch, frowning.

He disliked contradiction, and still more, arguments that were

continually skipping from one thing to another, introducing new

and disconnected points, so that there was no knowing to which to

reply. "Do you admit that education is a benefit for the people?"

"Yes, I admit it," said Levin without thinking, and he was

conscious immediately that he had said what he did not think. He

felt that if he admitted that, it would be proved that he had

been talking meaningless rubbish. How it would be proved he could

not tell, but he knew that this would inevitably be logically

proved to him, and he awaited the proofs.

The argument turned out to be far simpler than he had expected.