'What is then?' asked Pigasov, not without insolence.

In discussions he always first bantered his opponent, then grew cross,
and finally sulked and was silent.

'Here it is,' continued Rudin. 'I cannot help, I own, feeling sincere
regret when I hear sensible people attack----'

'Systems?' interposed Pigasov.

'Yes, with your leave, even systems. What frightens you so much in
that word? Every system is founded on a knowledge of fundamental laws,
the principles of life----'

'But there is no knowing them, no discovering them.'

'One minute. Doubtless they are not easy for every one to get at, and
to make mistakes is natural to man. However, you will certainly agree
with me that Newton, for example, discovered some at least of these
fundamental laws? He was a genius, we grant you; but the grandeur of
the discoveries of genius is that they become the heritage of all. The
effort to discover universal principles in the multiplicity of
phenomena is one of the radical characteristics of human thought, and
all our civilisation----'

'That's what you're driving at!' Pigasov broke in in a drawling tone.
'I am a practical man and all these metaphysical subtleties I don't
enter into and don't want to enter into.'