1 2 Pa llas. Peter Simon ( 1 741-1 8 1 1 ) , German traveller and naturalist who explored the Urals, Kirghiz Steppes, Altai Mountains, and parts of Siberia. ( Tr.)
1 :! Orbis semualium pictus by Yan Amos Komensky ( 1 592- 1 670) , a Czech pedagogue and humanist. (R.)
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flush crimson, devoured with curiosity, but Calot, with a n air of strained gravity, refused to approach the delicate subject.
I lived in agonies until the momentous day. At five o'clock in the morning I was awake and thinking of Calot's preparations; at eight o'clock he would himself appear in a white cravat, a white waistcoat and a dark-blue tail-coat-with empty hands.
When would it end? Had he spoiled it? And time passed and the ordinary presents came, and Yelizaveta Alexeyevna Golokhavastov's footman had already appeared with a costly toy, wrapped up in a napkin, and the Senator had already brought me some marvel, but the uneasy expectation of the surprise troubled my joy.
All at once, as it were casually, after dinner or after tea, Nurse would say to me:
'Go downstairs just a minute; there is somebody asking for you.'
At last, I thought, and went down, sliding on my arms down the banisters of the staircase. The doors into the ball-room were thrown open noisily, music was playing. A transparency with my monogram was lit up, serf-boys dressed up as Turks offered me sweetmeats, then follo\ved a puppet show or indoor fireworks.
Calot, perspiring with his efforts, was with his own hands setting everything in motion, and was no less enraptured than I was.
What presents could be compared with such an entertainment! I have never been fond of things, the bump of ownership and acquisitiveness has never been developed in me at any age, and now, after the prolonged suspense, the numbers of candles, the tinsel and the smell of gunpowder! Only one thing was lacking-a comrade of my own age, but I spent all my childhood in solitude,14 and certainly was not over-indulged in that respect.
14 My father had, besides me, another son ten years older. • I was always fond of him, but he could not be a companion to me. From his twelfth to his thirtieth year he was always in the hands of the surgeons. After a series of tortures, endured with extreme fortitude and rendering his whole existence one intermittent operation, the doctors declared his disease incurable. His health was shattered; circumstances and character contributed to the complete ruin of his life. The pages in which I speak of his lonely and melancholy existence have been omitted. I do not wish to print them without his consent.
• Yegor Ivanovich Herzen ( 1 803--82) . (A.S. )
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14
M y father and the Senator had an elder brother,15 between whom and the two younger brothers there was an open feud, in spite of which they managed their estate in common or rather ruined it in common. The triple control and the quarrel together led to glaring disorganisation. My father and the Senator did everything to thwart the elder brother, who did the same by them. The village elders and peasants lost their heads: one brother was demanding wagons; another, hay; a third, firewood ; each gave orders, each sent his authorised agents. The elder brother would appoint a village elder, the younger ones would remove him in a month, upon some nonsensical pretext, and appoint another whom their senior would not recognise. With all this, of course, backbiting, slander, spies and favourites were naturally plentiful, and under it all the poor peasants, who found neither justice nor defence, were harassed on all sides and oppressed with the double burden of work and the disorganisation caused by the capricious demands of their owners.
The first consequence of the feud between the brothers that made some impression upon them, was the loss of their great la·wsuit with the Counts Devier, though justice was on their side.
Though their interests were the same, they could never agree on a course of action; their opponents naturally profited by this. In addition to the loss of a large and fine estate, the Senate sentenced each of the brothers to pay costs and damages to the amount of thirty thousand paper roubles. This lesson opened their eyes and they made up their minds to divide their property. The preliminary negotiations lasted for about a year, the estate was carved into three fairly equal parts and they were to decide by casting lots which was to come to which. The Senator and my father visited their elder brother, whom they had not seen for several years, to negotiate and be reconciled ; then there was a rumour that he would visit us to complete the arrangements. The rumour of the visit of this elder brother16 excited horror and anxiety in our household.
15 There were originally four brothers: Petr. the grandfather of 'the cousin from Korrheva' mentioned in Chapter 3; Alexander, the elder brother here described. who is belie,·ed to haYe been the model from whom Dostoenky drew the chilracter of fedor PaYlovich in The Brothers Karama::ou: LeY, always referred to as 'the Seuator,' a ud lYall, Herzen's father. Of the sisters one was Y elizaveta Alexeyevna Golokh\"astov and oue was l\Iarya Alexeyevua KhO\· ansky. ThP family of the Yakovlevs was onp of thP oldPst aud most aristocratic in R ussia. ( Tr.) u ; Th is brother. Alexander. had an il legitimate daughter, Natalya, who became the wife of her first cousin, the author of this book. (R.)
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H e was one of those grotesquely odd creatures who are only possible in Russia, where life is so odd as to be grotesque. He was a man gifted by nature, yet he spent his whole life in absurd actions, often almost crimes. He had received a sound education in the French style, was very \Veil read-and spent his time in debauchery and empty idleness up to the day of his death. He, too, had served at first in the Izmaylovsky regiment, had been something like an aide-de-camp in attendance on Potemkin, then served in some mission, and returning to Petersburg was made Procurator of the Synod. Neither diplomatic nor monastic surroundings could restain his unbridled character. For his quarrels with the heads of the Church he was removed from his post; for a slap in the face, which he either tried to give, or gave, to a gentleman at an official dinner at the Governor-General's, he was banished from Petersburg. He went to his Tambov estate; there the peasants nearly murdered him for his brutality and amorous propensities; he was indebted to his coachman and his horses for his life.
After that he settled in Moscow. Deserted by all his relations and also by his acquaintances, he lived in solitude in his big house in the Tverskoy Boulevard, oppressing his house-serfs and ruining his peasants. He amassed a great library of books and collected a regular harem of serf-girls, both of which he kept under lock and key. Deprived of every occupation and concealing a passionate vanity, often extremely naive, he amused himself by buying unnecessary things, and bringing unnecessary lawsuits, which he pursued with great bitterness. His lawsuit concerning an Amati violin lasted tlzirtr years, and ended in his winning it.