man's dependence on his environment, and seeks to find in this dependence the laws of his development."
"That's very interesting," said Metrof .
"I began simply to write a book on rural economy," [1] said Levin, reddening;" but in studying the principal instrument, the laborer, I arrived at a decidedly unexpected conclusion, in spite of myself."
And Levin expatiated on his ideas, trying the ground carefully as he did so, for he knew that Metrof had written an article against the current views on political economy; and how far he could hope for sympathy in his new views, he did not know, and could not tell from the scholar's calm, intellectual face.
"How, in your opinion, does the Russian laborer differ from that of other peoples?" asked Metrof. "Is it from the point of view which you call zoological? or from that of the material conditions in which he finds himself?"
This way of putting the question proved to Levin how widely their opinions diverged; nevertheless, he continued to set forth his theory, which was based on the idea that the Russian people could not have the same relation to the soil as the other European nations; and to prove this position, he hastened to add that, in his opinion, the Russian people feels instinctively predestined to populate the immense uncultivated tracts stretching toward the East.
"It is easy to be mistaken about the general destiny of a people, by forming premature conclusions," said Metrof, interrupting Levin; "and the situation of the laborer will always depend on his relation to land and capital."
And, without giving Levin time to reply, he began to explain the peculiarity of his own views. Levin did not understand, because he did not try to understand, in what consisted the peculiarity of his views; he saw that Metrof, like all the rest, notwithstanding his article, in which he refuted the teachings of the economists, looked on the condition of the Russian people from the
- ↑ Selskoye khozaïstvo.
