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xii Moscow, his entire possessions in a little bag; these consisted of pamphlets, critiques, and newspaper articles mostly inimical to himself. He wandered about with these from house to house. Everything he had of value he gave away to the poor. He ceased work entirely. According to all accounts he spent his last days in praying and fasting. Visions came to him. His death, which came in 1852, was extremely fantastic. His last words, uttered in loud frenzy, were: "A ladder! Quick, a ladder!" This call for a ladder—"a spiritual ladder," the words of Merejkovsky—had been made on an earlier occasion by a certain Russian saint, who used almost the same language. "I shall laugh my bitter laugh" was the inscription placed on Gogol's grave.

JOHN COURNOS.