Winter Notes on Summer Impressions by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Author:Fyodor Dostoevsky
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Alma Books
Published: 2017-04-20T13:55:01+00:00

7

Continuation of the Preceding

And why are there so many flunkeys among the bourgeois, and of such noble appearance as that? Please don’t blame me and don’t exclaim that I am exaggerating or being libellous or spiteful. What or whom is my spite directed against? Why should I be spiteful? The fact is simply that there are many flunkeys. Servility seeps increasingly into the very nature of the bourgeois and is increasingly taken for virtue. And that’s how it should be in present circumstances. It is their natural consequence. But the main thing, ah, the main thing is that Nature itself lends a hand. It isn’t only that the bourgeois has a strong, innate propensity for spying, for instance. I am, in fact, convinced that the extraordinary development of police spying in France – and not just ordinary spying, but spying which is both a skill and a vocation, an art in itself – is due to their innate servility in that country. What ideally noble Gustave, provided only he has not yet accumulated any possessions, will not immediately hand over his lady love’s letters in exchange for ten thousand francs and will not betray his mistress to her husband? Maybe I am exaggerating, but perhaps my words have a certain basis in fact. The Frenchman loves attracting the attention of authority in order to suck up to it, and he does it in a completely disinterested sort of way, with no thought of an immediate reward; he does it on credit, on account. Think, for example of all those job-seekers every time there was a change of regime, formerly so frequent in France. Think of all the tricks they were up to and to which they themselves admitted. Think of one of Barbier’s iambics* on that score. I remember in a café once, looking at a newspaper dated 3rd July. It had, I noticed, an article by a correspondent in Vichy. The Emperor was then staying in Vichy; and so was the Court, of course; there were riding parties, pleasure trips. The correspondent was describing all this. He begins thus: “We have many excellent horsemen. You have naturally guessed who is the most brilliant of them all. His Majesty rides out every day attended by his retinue, etc.”

It’s understandable, let them admire their Emperor’s brilliant qualities. It is possible to have the greatest respect for his intelligence, his circumspection, his high qualities and so forth. You cannot tell such an enthusiastic gentleman before his face that he is a dissembler.

His reply to you would be: “Such is my conviction – and that’s that” – precisely the reply you would get from some of our own journalists. You see, he is quite safe: he has an answer with which to shut your mouth. The freedom of conscience and of conviction is the first and principal freedom. But in this case what reply can he give you? In this case he no longer pays any regard to the laws of reality, he defies probability and does so intentionally.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.