NICHOLAS IVÁNOVICH. But I only said that in answer to your aunt. In reality I have no right to this forest. Land belongs to everyone; or rather, it can't belong to anyone. We have never put any labour into this land.
STYÓPA. No, but you saved money and preserved this forest.
NICHOLAS IVÁNOVICH. How did I get my savings? What enabled me to save up? And I didn't preserve the forest myself! However, this is a matter which can't be proved to anyone who does not himself feel ashamed when he strikes at another man—
STYÓPA. But no one is striking anybody!
NICHOLAS IVÁNOVICH. Just as when a man feels no shame at taking toll from others' labour without doing any work himself, you cannot prove to him that he ought to be ashamed; and the object of all the Political Economy you learnt at the University is merely to justify the false position in which we live.
STYÓPA. On the contrary; science destroys all prejudices.
NICHOLAS IVÁNOVICH. However, all this is of no importance to me. What is important is that in Yefím's[24] place I should have acted as he did, and I should have been desperate had I been imprisoned. And as I wish to do to others as I wish them to do to me—I cannot condemn him, but do what I can to save him.
PETER SEMYÓNOVICH. But, if one goes on that line, one cannot possess anything.
Alexándra Ivánovna and Styópa—
| Both speak together | ALEXÁNDRA IVÁNOVNA. Then it is much more profitable to steal than to work. | ||
| STYÓPA. You never reply to one's arguments. I say that a man who saves, has a right to enjoy his savings. |