world. If there be something on the other side, and that something an
eternal life, then misfortunes and losses on this side are, as
nothing. 'I am content to die,' says Renan, 'but I should like to know
whether death will be of any use to me.' And philosophy replies, 'I do
not know.' And man beats against that blank wall, and like the
bedridden sufferer fancies, if he could lie on this or on that side,
he would feel easier. What is to be done?"*

*Translated by Iza Young.

Those last five words are often heard in Russian mouths. It is a
favourite question. It is, indeed, the title of two Russian books.

The description of the Slavonic temperament given by Sienkiewicz
tallies exactly with many prominent characters in Russian novels.
Turgenev first completely realised it in "Rudin;" he afterwards made
it equally clear in "Torrents of Spring," "Smoke," and other novels.*
Raskolnikov, in Dostoevski's "Crime and Punishment," is another
illustration; he wishes to be a Napoleon, and succeeds only in
murdering two old women. Artsybashev, in his terrible novel, "Sanin,"
has given an admirable analysis of this great Russian type in the
character of Jurii, who finally commits suicide simply because he
cannot find a working theory of life. Writers so different as Tolstoi
and Gorki have given plenty of good examples. Indeed, Gorki, in
"Varenka Olessova," has put into the mouth of a sensible girl an
excellent sketch of the national representative.

*Goncharov devoted a whole novel, "Oblomov," to the elaboration of
this particular type.