"'An artful and ironical idea, insidious as a larding-needle!' Lebedyev greedily caught up Yevgeny Pavlovitch's paradox; 'an idea expressed with the object of provoking opponents to battle--but a true idea! For you, a worldly scoffer and cavalry officer (though not without brains), are not yourself aware how true and profound your idea is. Yes, sir, the law of self-destruction and the law of self-preservation are equally strong in humanity! The devil has equal dominion over humanity till the limit of time which we know not. You laugh? You don't believe in the devil? Disbelief in the devil is a French idea, a frivolous idea. Do you know who the devil is? Do you know his name? Without even knowing his name, you laugh at the form of him, following Voltaire's example, at his hoofs, at his tail, at his horns, which you have invented; for the evil spirit is a mighty menacing spirit, but he has not the hoofs and horns you've invented for him. But he's not the point now.'
'How do you know that he's not the point now?' cried Ippolit suddenly, and laughed as though in hysterics.
'A shrewd and insinuating thought!' Lebedyev approved. 'But again, that's not the point. Our question is whether the 'springs of life' have not grown weaker with the increase of. . . .'
'There must have been an idea stronger than any misery, famine, torture, plague, leprosy, and all that hell, which mankind could not have endured without that idea, which bound men together, guided their hearts, and fructified the 'springs of life.' Show me anything like such a force in our age of vices and railways. . . .I should say of steamers and railways, but I say vices and railways, because I'm drunk but truthful. Show me any idea binding mankind together to-day with anything like the power it had in those centuries. And dare to tell me that the 'springs of life' have not been weakened and muddied beneath the 'star,' beneath the network in which men are enmeshed. And don't try to frighten me with your prosperity, your wealth, the infrequency of famine, and the rapidity of the means of communication. There is more wealth, but there is less strength. There is no uniting idea; everything has grown softer, everything is limp, and every one is limp! We've all, all of us grown limp. . . .But that's enough. That's not the point now. The point is, honoured prince, whether we shouldn't see to getting the supper, that's being prepared for your visitors.'" Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Idiot, Part III, Chapter 4.
'How do you know that he's not the point now?' cried Ippolit suddenly, and laughed as though in hysterics.
'A shrewd and insinuating thought!' Lebedyev approved. 'But again, that's not the point. Our question is whether the 'springs of life' have not grown weaker with the increase of. . . .'
'There must have been an idea stronger than any misery, famine, torture, plague, leprosy, and all that hell, which mankind could not have endured without that idea, which bound men together, guided their hearts, and fructified the 'springs of life.' Show me anything like such a force in our age of vices and railways. . . .I should say of steamers and railways, but I say vices and railways, because I'm drunk but truthful. Show me any idea binding mankind together to-day with anything like the power it had in those centuries. And dare to tell me that the 'springs of life' have not been weakened and muddied beneath the 'star,' beneath the network in which men are enmeshed. And don't try to frighten me with your prosperity, your wealth, the infrequency of famine, and the rapidity of the means of communication. There is more wealth, but there is less strength. There is no uniting idea; everything has grown softer, everything is limp, and every one is limp! We've all, all of us grown limp. . . .But that's enough. That's not the point now. The point is, honoured prince, whether we shouldn't see to getting the supper, that's being prepared for your visitors.'" Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Idiot, Part III, Chapter 4.
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