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Talks With an Old Friend of God 209afraid of them. Why, I thought, they’re not gods after all, they’resimply men with all the human weaknesses, just like us. And Iwas curious too: I wanted to know what that godlessness of theirswas really like. After a time, though, even that curiosity passed.”He stopped, although he seemed to want to go on talking; thesame serene smile still played on his lips.There are simple and unaffected souls who trust everybodyand are not aware of the ridiculous. Such people are of limitedintelligence because they’re eager to reveal to any comer theirmost sacred secrets. But I felt there was something other thanjust childlike trust that prompted Makar to talk: there was somethingof a preacher in him. I detected with glee a sly little smilehe darted at the doctor or perhaps even at Versilov. This conversationwas probably the continuation of a discussion they’d beenhaving all week. Unfortunately, the fatal phrase, which had electrifiedme so much the day before, slipped in again and this timetriggered an outburst in me that I regret to this day.“Perhaps even now, though,” Makar went on with concentration,“I’d be frightened to meet a truly godless man, but let metell you, Doctor, my friend, I’ve never really met a man like that.What I have met were restless men, for that’s what they shouldreally be called. There are all sorts of people like that and youcan’t tell what makes them the way they are: some are important,others are little men; some are ignorant, others are learned; andthey come from all classes, even the lowest…but it’s all restlessness.For they keep on reading all their lives, and having filledthemselves with bookish wisdom, they talk and talk, althoughthey never find answers to what’s bothering them and remain inthe darkness. Some of them throw themselves in so many differentdirections that they end by losing themselves; the heartsof others turn into stones, although there may still be dreams