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"No? You don't think so?" Svidrigailov went on, looking at him

deliberately. "But what do you say to this argument (help me with

it): ghosts are, as it were, shreds and fragments of other

worlds, the beginning of them. A man in health has, of course, no

reason to see them, because he is above all a man of this earth

and is bound for the sake of completeness and order to live only

in this life. But as soon as one is ill, as soon as the normal

earthly order of the organism is broken, one begins to realise

the possibility of another world; and the more seriously ill one

is, the closer becomes one's contact with that other world, so

that as soon as the man dies he steps straight into that world. I

thought of that long ago. If you believe in a future life, you

could believe in that, too."

"I don't believe in a future life," said Raskolnikov.

Svidrigailov sat lost in thought.

"And what if there are only spiders there, or something of that

sort," he said suddenly.