Levin reddened with vexation, not at being defeated, but at
having failed to control himself and being drawn into argument.
"No, I can't argue with them," he thought; "they wear
impenetrable armor, while I'm naked."
He saw that it was impossible to convince his brother and
Katavasov, and he saw even less possibility of himself agreeing
with them. What they advocated was the very pride of intellect
that had almost been his ruin. He could not admit that some
dozens of men, among them his brother, had the right, on the
ground of what they were told by some hundreds of glib volunteers
swarming to the capital, to say that they and the newspapers were
expressing the will and feeling of the people, and a feeling
which was expressed in vengeance and murder. He could not admit
this, because he neither saw the expression of such feelings in
the people among whom he was living, nor found them in himself
(and he could not but consider himself one of the persons making
up the Russian people), and most of all because he, like the
people, did not know and could not know what is for the general
good, though he knew beyond a doubt that this general good could
be attained only by the strict observance of that law of right
and wrong which has been revealed to every man, and therefore he
could not wish for war or advocate war for any general objects
whatever. He said as Mihalitch did and the people, who had
expressed their feeling in the traditional invitations of the
Varyagi: "Be princes and rule over us. Gladly we promise
complete submission. All the labor, all humiliations, all
sacrifices we take upon ourselves; but we will not judge and
decide." And now, according to Sergey Ivanovitch's account, the
people had foregone this privilege they had bought at such a
costly price.
He wanted to say too that if public opinion were an infallible
guide, then why were not revolutions and the commune as lawful as
the movement in favor of the Slavonic peoples? But these were
merely thoughts that could settle nothing. One thing could be
seen beyond doubt--that was that at the actual moment the
discussion was irritating Sergey Ivanovitch, and so it was wrong
to continue it. And Levin ceased speaking and then called the
attention of his guests to the fact that the storm clouds were
gathering, and that they had better be going home before it
rained.