Page:The Novels of Ivan Turgenev (volume VI).djvu/23

Rh inasmuch as their revolt was a tremendous object-lesson to Europe of the internal evils of their country. And the objection that they borrowed their ideas of revolution from the Commune, and were not a genuine product of Russia, Turgenev has answered once for all in Virgin Soil. Liberty must spring from the soil whence Marianna springs.

In the words of that great poem of Whitman:

The battle rages with many a loud alarm and frequent advance and retreat. The infidel triumphs, or supposes he triumphs, The prison, scaffold, garotte, handcuffs, iron necklace, and lead balls do their work, The named and unnamed heroes pass to other spheres, The great speakers and writers are exiled, they lie sick in distant lands, The cause is asleep, the strongest throats are choked with their own blood. The young men droop their eyelashes towards the ground when they meet. But for all this Liberty has not gone out of the place, nor the infidel entered into full possession.