Sergey Ivanovitch, being practiced in argument, did not reply,
but at once turned the conversation to another aspect of the
subject.
"Oh, if you want to learn the spirit of the people by
arithmetical computation, of course it's very difficult to arrive
at it. And voting has not been introduced among us and cannot be
introduced, for it does not express the will of the people; but
there are other ways of reaching that. It is felt in the air, it
is felt by the heart. I won't speak of those deep currents which
are astir in the still ocean of the people, and which are evident
to every unprejudiced man; let us look at society in the narrow
sense. All the most diverse sections of the educated public,
hostile before, are merged in one. Every division is at an end,
all the public organs say the same thing over and over again, all
feel the mighty torrent that has overtaken them and is carrying
them in one direction."
"Yes, all the newspapers do say the same thing," said the prince.
"That's true. But so it is the same thing that all the frogs
croak before a storm. One can hear nothing for them."
"Frogs or no frogs, I'm not the editor of a paper and I don't
want to defend them; but I am speaking of the unanimity in the
intellectual world," said Sergey Ivanovitch, addressing his
brother. Levin would have answered, but the old prince
interrupted him.
"Well, about that unanimity, that's another thing, one may say,"
said the prince. "There's my son-in-law, Stepan Arkadyevitch,
you know him. He's got a place now on the committee of a
commission and something or other, I don't remember. Only
there's nothing to do in it--why, Dolly, it's no secret!--and a
salary of eight thousand. You try asking him whether his post is
of use, he'll prove to you that it's most necessary. And he's a
truthful man too, but there's no refusing to believe in the
utility of eight thousand roubles."
"Yes, he asked me to give a message to Darya Alexandrovna about
the post," said Sergey Ivanovitch reluctantly, feeling the
prince's remark to be ill-timed.
"So it is with the unanimity of the press. That's been explained
to me: as soon as there's war their incomes are doubled. How can
they help believing in the destinies of the people and the
Slavonic races...and all that?"
"I don't care for many of the papers, but that's unjust," said
Sergey Ivanovitch.