people, and the delights of life in general, it turned out exactly
the reverse: the more intense the labor, the more nearly it
approached what is considered the coarsest agricultural toil, the
more enjoyment and knowledge did I gain, and the more did I come
into close and loving communion with men, and the more happiness did
I derive from life.

In answer to the question (which I have so often heard from persons
not thoroughly sincere), as to what result could flow from so
insignificant a drop in the sea of sympathy as my individual
physical labor in the sea of labor ingulfing me, I received also the
most satisfactory and unexpected of answers. It appeared that all I
had to do was to make physical labor the habitual condition of my
life, and the majority of my false, but precious, habits and my
demands, when physically idle, fell away from me at once of their
own accord, without the slightest exertion on my part. Not to
mention the habit of turning day into night and vice versa, my
habits connected with my bed, with my clothing, with conventional
cleanliness,--which are downright impossible and oppressive with
physical labor,--and my demands as to the quality of my food, were
entirely changed. In place of the dainty, rich, refined,
complicated, highly-spiced food, to which I had formerly inclined,
the most simple viands became needful and most pleasing of all to
me,--cabbage-soup, porridge, black bread, and tea v prikusku. {3}
So that, not to mention the influence upon me of the example of the
simple working-people, who are content with little, with whom I came
in contact in the course of my bodily toil, my very requirements
underwent a change in consequence of my toilsome life; so that my
drop of physical labor in the sea of universal labor became larger
and larger, in proportion as I accustomed myself to, and