Page:Dead Souls - A Poem by Nikolay Gogol - vol2.djvu/253

Rh point of view of digestion—to see the world and what people are doing is, so to say, the book of life and a second education. …'

Vassily Mihailovitch pondered. 'The man speaks in rather a stilted way,' he thought, 'but there is a great deal of truth in what he says. My brother Platon has no knowledge of the world or of men or of life.' After a brief silence he said aloud: 'Do you know what, Platon? Travelling really may shake you up a bit. You are suffering from a lethargy of the soul. You are simply asleep, and not asleep from satiety or fatigue, but from lack of vivid impressions or sensations. Now I am quite the opposite. I should be very glad not to feel so keenly and not to take everything that happens so much to heart.'

'Well, why do you take things so much to heart?' said Platonov. 'You are only asking for trouble and you make worries for yourself.'

'How can I help it when there is something unpleasant at every turn?' said Vassily. 'Have you heard the trick that Lyenitsyn has played on us while you have been away? He has seized our waste land up by the Red Hill.'

'He doesn't know, that's why he has taken it,' said Platonov. 'He is a new man, he has only just come from Petersburg. We must talk with him and explain.'

'He knows, he knows perfectly well; I sent to tell him but he answered with rudeness.'

'You ought to have gone and explained it to him yourself. Talk it over with him.'