He went to the Minister of Popular Education and said to him:
"Your Excellency, I can preach that life is meaningless, and that one should not submit to the dictates of nature."
The Minister considered a while whether that would do, then asked:
"Should the orders of the authorities be obeyed?"
"Most decidedly," said the philosopher, reverently inclining his head, which the study of so many books had rendered bald. "Since human passions——"
"Very well, you may have the chair. Your salary will be sixteen roubles a month. But should I require you to take into consideration the laws of nature, take care, have no opinions of your own. I shall not put up with that."
After thinking for some moments the Minister added, in a melancholy voice: "We live at a time when, for the sake of the unity of the state, it will perhaps be necessary to recognise that the laws of nature not only exist, but that they may to a certain extent prove useful."
"Just think of it!" exclaimed the philosopher to himself. "Even I may live to see it." But aloud he said nothing.
So he settled down to his work: every week he ascended the rostrum and spoke for an hour to curly-headed youths in this strain:
"Gentlemen, man is limited from without, he is limited from within. Nature is antagonistic to him. Woman is a blind tool of Nature. All our life, therefore, is meaningless."