something does or does not appear. What would it be if this labor
were something really worth their while? There is and there always
will be labor of this sort, which is worthy of the devotion of a
whole life, whatever the man's life may be. This labor is the loving
intercourse of man with man, and the breaking-down of the barriers
which men have erected between themselves, so that the enjoyment of
the rich man may not be disturbed by the wild howls of the men who
are reverting to beasts, and by the groans of helpless hunger, cold
and disease.

This census will place before the eyes of us well-to-do and so-called
cultivated people, all the poverty and oppression which is lurking in
every corner of Moscow. Two thousand of our brothers, who stand on
the highest rung of the ladder, will come face to face with thousands
of people who stand on the lowest round of society. Let us not miss
this opportunity of communion. Let us, through these two thousand
men, preserve this communion, and let us make use of it to free
ourselves from the aimlessness and the deformity of our lives, and to
free the condemned from that indigence and misery which do not allow
the sensitive people in our ranks to enjoy our good fortune in peace.

This is what I propose: (1) That all our directors and enumerators
should join to their business of the census a task of assistance,--of
work in the interest of the good of these people, who, in our
opinion, are in need of assistance, and with whom we shall come in
contact; (2) That all of us, directors and enumerators, not by
appointment of the committee of the City Council, but by the
appointment of our own hearts, shall remain in our posts,--that is,
in our relations to the inhabitants of the town who are in need of
assistance,--and that, at the conclusion of the work of the census,