Page:Dead Souls - A Poem by Nikolay Gogol - vol2.djvu/308

298 I must tell you in secret that there is something else being discovered, and that no power will save that man now. He of course is glad to drag others down for company and to share the blame. I left you in a very good frame of mind, better than your present one. I am advising you in earnest. Aie, aie, what really matters is not the possessions over which men dispute and for which they murder each other, exactly as though it were possible to gain prosperity in this life without thinking of another life. Believe me, Pavel Ivanovitch, that until men reject everything for which men rend and devour each other on earth, and think of the welfare of their spiritual possessions, it will not be well even with their earthly possessions. Days of hunger and poverty are coming for all the people, and each one severally … that is clear. Whatever you say, you know, the body depends on the soul, how then can you expect things to thrive as they ought? Think not of dead souls but of your own living soul, and in God's name take a different path! I too am leaving the town on the morrow. Make haste or when I am gone there will be trouble.'

Saying this the old man went out. Tchitchikov sank into thought. Again the significance of life seemed to him something worthy of consideration. 'Murazov is right,' he said to himself, 'it is time to take another path!' Saying this he went out of his prison. The sentry carried his case after him. Selifan and Petrushka were indescribably delighted at their master's release.