“He walked up and patted him on the shoulder.... Gavrilo got angry and pushed Rogov away violently. Rogov almost fell down, laughed, and, with pretended indifference, started along the path. He came up to me, stopped and said:
“‘Most esteemed Pavel Semenovich.... I want to ask you a question: haven’t you read ... it’s in Xenophon ... the conversation between Alcibiades and Pericles?... If you haven’t, I recommend it most highly. Although it’s in a dead language, it’s instructive.’
“He went off singing an indecent song. A little while after I hunted up this dialogue. I wondered what he meant....
“You know it’s a hard but a powerful piece. The subject’s about like this: Young Alcibiades went one day to Pericles.... Remember, Pericles was already a famous man and enjoyed the confidence of every one ... because of past services and a certain air of benevolence.... Anyway his position was secure. Alcibiades was a rascal, worthless, drunkard, in all sorts of scandals with Athenian girls, cut off dogs’ tails, as you know ... A man of no reputation for well-doing. Well, one day, this rogue of a young fellow went up to Pericles and said: ‘Listen, Pericles, you’re a man chock full of benefactions clear to the top of your head, you may say. I’m wandering off the road and twisting up everything, for I have nothing to do. Every one’s angry at me. I want you to explain everything to me.’ Pericles, of course, was willing and thought it was a good idea to talk to the young man. He might bring him to his senses. So he said: ‘Go ahead and ask what you want.’ Then came the question: ‘What is doing well? How do you learn it?’ Pericles, of course, laughed: ‘Honor the gods, obey the laws, and do your duty. To obey the laws is the first duty of a citizen and a man.’ ‘Fine,’ answered the young fellow. ‘Tell me, please, which laws am I to obey: the bad or the good ones?’ Pericles was almost insulted. ‘If a law’s a law, it’s good. What are you talking about?’ ‘No,’ said Alcibiades, ‘wait and don’t get angry.’ ... You know at this time in Athens all these principles were mixed up ... parties, struggle, some robbing others, ostracism, a sort of banishment by administrative order ... usurpers ... favorites ... there really was confusion,—a man jumped forward and drew up his own laws for his own advantage or for his relatives and friends. Then old gods were all mixed up, the oracles answered anything, provided it didn’t apply to the subject. In a word, everything that was clear in life had become unclear: there was no equilibrium, no generally acknowledged truth.... A new system was necessary. Clouds covered the sky and there were no stars to steer by.... That was why Alcibiades asked what laws should be obeyed; those which prescribe good or bad. Of course, Pericles answered the good. ‘How can I tell which are good? What is the mark, so to speak?’ ‘Obey all! That’s what laws are for!...’ ‘That means laws passed by the power of tyrants?’ ‘No, you don’t need to obey those....’ ‘I see, only lawful laws, so to speak. Fine! But suppose the minority coerces the majority to its own advantage, don’t I need to obey those laws?’ ‘Of course not.’ ‘But if the majority coerce the minority, is that contrary to right?...’ You see what the young fellow was driving at: he didn’t need external signs, but he showed that he needed to feel in his soul universal truth, the highest truth, so to speak, the truth of life, sanctity.... Pericles, you see, hadn’t understood this.... Not merely Pericles, the whole country rested on slavery, on past wrong.... Religion had dried up, the old sanctity which had consecrated every step, every motion, the whole order, all human relationships,—people had ceased to feel it.... But Pericles argued around.... He didn’t want to confess that their laws had died.... He patted the dissolute young fellow on the shoulder with a great deal of condescension and said: ‘Yes, yes.... I see you’ve got a head on your shoulders. Years ago we used to settle such hard questions.’ ... Well, Alcibiades saw that Pericles was, so to speak, a recognized authority, was quibbling over trifles, didn’t treat these conflicts as anything alive,—and waved his hand. ‘I’m sorry, my dear sir, that I didn’t know you then.... Now I’m bored; I’m going to fool along.’
“And that’s what he recommended to me, his former teacher....”
VII
The narrator stopped. The train, which was approaching another station, began to slow down. Petr Petrovich reached out his hand and said, as he took his blue cap with a cockade from the hook:
“I’m going again to get something to eat.... I confess, my dear Pavel Semenovich, I don’t see what you’re driving at.... Excuse me, it’s not philosophy, and God only knows what you are after. We began with Budnikov. All right, we know him.... Now the devil knows who this Rogov is, a worn-out rogue, and now I don’t know whether you’re talking of Xenophon or Alcibiades.... Cutting off dogs’ tails.... The devil knows what you mean.... Kindly allow me to ask how all this concerns me.... Just as you wish.... I’d better go and get some more vodka....”
He put on his cap, and, holding on to the wall because of the jolting of the train, he went out of the compartment. Just at that moment the fourth passenger on the other upper bench stirred. He had been lying in the shadow, smoking now and then, and he seemed to be interested in the story. He got down, took a seat beside us and said: