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RUDIN ‘Undoubtedly,’ cried Pigasov, ‘pride—that I understand, and you, I expect, understand, and every one understands; but truth, what is truth? Where is it, this truth?’

‘You are repeating yourself, let me warn you,’ remarked Darya Mihailovna.

Pigasov shrugged his shoulders.

‘Well, where’s the harm if I do? I ask: where is truth? Even the philosophers don’t know what it is. Kant says it is one thing; but Hegel—no, you’re wrong, it’s something else.’

‘And do you know what Hegel says of it?’ asked Rudin, without raising his voice.

‘I repeat,’ continued Pigasov, flying into a passion, ‘that I cannot understand what truth means. According to my idea, it doesn’t exist at all in the world, that is to say, the word exists but not the thing itself.’

‘Fie, fie!’ cried Darya Mihailovna, ‘I wonder you’re not ashamed to say so, you old sinner! No truth? What is there to live for in the world after that?’

‘Well, I go so far as to think, Darya Mihailovna,’ retorted Pigasov, in a tone of annoyance, ‘that it would be much easier for you, in any case, 58