Anna Karenina - LimpidSoft

PART ONE CHAPTER 14
“Oh, then you don’t believe in it?”
“I can’t believe in it, countess.”
“But if I’ve seen it myself?”
“The peasant women too tell us they have seen goblins.”
“Then you think I tell a lie?”
And she laughed a mirthless laugh.
“Oh, no, Masha, Konstantin Dmitrievitch said he could not believe in it,” said
Kitty, blushing for Levin, and Levin saw this, and, still more exasperated, would
have answered, but Vronsky with his bright frank smile rushed to the support of the
conversation, which was threatening to become disagreeable.
“You do not admit the conceivability at all?” he queried. “But why not? We admit
the existence of electricity, of which we know nothing. Why should there not be
some new force, still unknown to us, which...”
“When electricity was discovered,” Levin interrupted hurriedly, “it was only the
phenomenon that was discovered, and it was unknown from what it proceeded and
what were its effects, and ages passed before its applications were conceived. But
the spiritualists have begun with tables writing for them, and spirits appearing to
them, and have only later started saying that it is an unknown force.”
Vronsky listened attentively to Levin, as he always did listen, obviously interested
in his words.
“Yes, but the spiritualists say we don’t know at present what this force is, but there
is a force, and these are the conditions in which it acts. Let the scientific men find
out what the force consists in. No, I don’t see why there should not be a new force,
if it...”
“Why, because with electricity,” Levin interrupted again, “every time you rub tar
against wool, a recognized phenomenon is manifested, but in this case it does not
happen every time, and so it follows it is not a natural phenomenon.”
Feeling probably that the conversation was taking a tone too serious for a drawing
room, Vronsky made no rejoinder, but by way of trying to change the conversation,
he smiled brightly, and turned to the ladies.
“Do let us try at once, countess,” he said; but Levin would finish saying what he
thought.
“I think,” he went on, “that this attempt of the spiritualists to explain their marvels
as some sort of new natural force is most futile. They boldly talk of spiritual force,
and then try to subject it to material experiment.”
Every one was waiting for him to finish, and he felt it.
“And I think you would be a first-rate medium,” said Countess Nordston; “there’s
something enthusiastic in you.”
Levin opened his mouth, was about to say something, reddened, and said nothing.
“Do let us try table-turning at once, please,” said Vronsky. “Princess, will you
allow it?”
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