Page:Dead Souls - A Poem by Nikolay Gogol - vol2.djvu/277

Rh In your position you must be ready to do anything. Do you know Ivan Potapitch?'

'And I have a great respect for him even though he does go about in a peasant's coat.'

'Ivan Potapitch was a millionaire, he married his daughters to officials and lived like a king; when he went bankrupt—what could he do?—he became a clerk. It wasn't pleasant for him to change from a silver dish to a humble bowl: he felt as though he couldn't touch anything. Now Ivan Potapitch could eat from a silver dish but he doesn't care to. He could gather it all together again, but he says: "No, Afanasy Vassilyevitch, now I serve not myself nor for myself, but because it is God's will. … I don't want to do anything to please myself. I listen to you because I want to obey God and not men, and because God speaks only by the lips of the best men. You are wiser than I, and therefore it is not for me to say but for you." That is what Ivan Potapitch says, but to tell the truth he is many times wiser than I am.'

'Afanasy Vassilyevitch! I too am ready to accept your authority over me … to be your servant and what you will; I give myself up to you. But do not give me work beyond my strength: I am no Potapitch, and I tell you I am not fit for anything good.'

'It is not I, Pyotr Petrovitch, sir, that lay it upon you, but since you would like to be of service as you say yourself, here is a godly work for you. There is a church being built by the