PART EIGHTH
CHAPTER I
Almost two months had passed by, half the hot summer was gone, but Sergyeï Ivanovitch had only just made up his mind to leave Moscow. An important event for him had just occurred. The year before he had finished his book, entitled, "An Essay on the Principles and the Forms of Government in Europe and in Russia," the fruit of six years of labor. The introduction, as well as some fragments from the book, had already appeared in the reviews, and certain parts had been read by the author to the people of his circle, so that the ideas contained in this treatise could not be a perfect novelty for the public; but nevertheless Sergyeï Ivanovitch expected that the book on its appearance would attract serious attention, and produce, if not a revolution in science, at least a powerful sensation in the learned world.
This book, after careful revision, had been published the year before, and distributed among the booksellers.
Though Sergyeï Ivanovitch answered reluctantly and with pretended indifference the questions of his friends who asked how the book was going, and though he refrained from inquiring of the booksellers how it was selling, nevertheless he followed eagerly and with strained attention every sign of the impression which his book was producing on society and literature.
But a week passed, a second, a third, and there was not a sign of any impression. His friends, specialists and savants, evidently out of politeness, spoke to him about it; but the rest of his acquaintances, not being interested in a book of scientific purport, did not speak about it at all. Society, also, which just at that time
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