“You see, Katya has two distant relations, cousins of some sort, called Levinka and Borinka. One’s a student, the other’s simply a young man.
She’s on friendly terms with them, and they’re simply extraordinary men.
They hardly ever go to the countess’s, on principle.
When Katya and I talked of the destiny of man, of our mission in life and all that, she mentioned them to me, and gave me a note to them at once; I flew immediately to make their acquaintance.
We became close friends that very evening.
There were about twelve fellows of different sorts there. Students, officers, artists. There was one author. They all know you, Ivan Petrovitch. That is, they’ve read your books and expect great things of you in the future.
They told me so themselves.
I told them I knew you and promised to introduce them to you.
They all received me with open arms like a brother.
I told them straight off that I should soon be a married man, so they received me as a married man.
They live on the fifth storey right under the roof. They meet as often as they can, chiefly on Wednesdays at Levinka’s and Borinka’s.
They’re all fresh young people filled with ardent love for all humanity. We all talked of our present, of our future, of science and literature, and talked so well, so frankly and simply. . . . There’s, a highschool boy who comes too.
You should see how they behave to one another, how generous they are!
I’ve never seen men like them before!
Where have I been all this time?
What have I seen?
What ideas have I grown up in?
You’re the only one Natasha, who has ever told me anything of this sort.
Ah, Natasha, you simply must get to know them; Katya knows them already.
They speak of her almost with reverence. And Katya’s told Levinka and Borinka already that when she comes into her property she’ll subscribe a million to the common cause at once.”
“And I suppose Levinka and Borinka and all their crew will be the trustees for that million?” Prince Valkovsky asked.
“That’s false, that’s false! It’s a shame to talk like that, father!” Alyosha cried with heat. “I suspect what you’re thinking!
We certainly have talked about that million, and spent a long time discussing how to use it.
We decided at last on public enlightenment before everything else ...”
“Yes, I see that I did not quite know Katerina Fyodorovna, certainly,” Prince Valkovsky observed as it were to himself, still with the same mocking smile.
“I was prepared for many things from her, but this ...”
“Why this?” Alyosha broke in. “Why do you think it so odd?
Because it goes somewhat beyond your established routine? because no one has subscribed a million before, and she subscribes it?
What of it!
What if she doesn’t want to live at the expense of others, for living on those millions means living at the expense of others (I’ve only just found that out).
She wants to be of service to her country and all, and to give her mite to the common cause.
We used to read of that mite in our copybooks, and when that mite means a million you think there’s something wrong about it!
And what does it all rest on, this common sense that’s so much praised and that I believed in so?
Why do you look at me like that, father?
As though you were looking at a buffoon, a fool!
What does it matter my being a fool?
Natasha, you should have heard what Katya said about that,
‘It’s not the brains that matter most, but that which guides them – the character, the heart, generous qualities, progressive ideas.’
But better still, Bezmygin has a saying about that that’s full of genius.
Bezmygin is a friend of Levinka’s and Borinka’s, and between ourselves he is a man of brains and a real leader of genius.
Only yesterday he said in conversation, ‘The fool who recognizes that he is a fool is no longer a fool.’
How true that is!
One hears utterances like that from him every minute.
He positively scatters truths.”
“A sign of genius, certainly,” observed Prince Valkovsky.
“You do nothing but laugh.
But I’ve never heard anything like that from you, and I’ve never heard anything like it from any of your friends either.
On the contrary, in your circle you seem to be hiding all this, to be grovelling on the ground, so that all figures, all noses may follow precisely certain measurements, certain rules – as though that were possible; as though that were not a thousand times more impossible than what we talk about and what we think.
And yet they call us Utopian!
You should have heard what they said to me yesterday ...”