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 of offering himself and of marrying her if she would accept him. If not .... he could not think what would become of him.

CHAPTER VII

to Moscow by the morning train, Levin had stopped at the house of his half-brother, Koznuishef. After making his toilet, he went to the library with the intention of telling him why he had come, and asking his advice; but his brother was not alone. He was talking with a famous professor of philosophy who had come up from Kharkof expressly to settle a vexed question which had arisen between them on some very important philosophical subject. The professor was waging a bitter war on materialists, and Sergeï Koznuishef followed his argument with interest; and, having read the professor's latest article, he had written him a letter expressing some objections. He blamed the professor for having made too large concessions to the materialists, and the professor had come on purpose to explain what he meant. The conversation turned on the question then fashionable: Is there a dividing line between the psychical and the physiological phenomena of man's action? and where is it to be found?

Sergeï Ivanovitch welcomed his brother with the same coldly benevolent smile which he bestowed on all, and, after introducing him to the professor, continued the discussion.

The professor, a small man with spectacles, and narrow forehead, stopped long enough to return Levin's bow, and then continued without noticing him further. Levin sat down to wait till the professor should go, but soon began to feel interested in the discussion.

He had read in the reviews articles on this subject, but he had read them with only that general interest which a man who has studied the natural sciences at the university is likely to take in their development; but he had never appreciated the connection that exists between these learned questions of the origin of man, of reflex