yitch was le phénix de la famille, as they used to say. He was neither as chilly and accurate as the eldest brother, nor as unpromising as the youngest. He held the golden mean between them,-an intelligent, lively, agreeable, and polished man. He had studied at the law-school with his younger brother. The younger did not graduate, but was expelled from the fifth class; but Iván Ilyitch finished his course creditably. At the law-school, he showed the same characteristics by which he was afterwards distinguished all his life: he was capable, good-natured even to gayety, and sociable, but strictly fulfilling all that he considered to be his duty duty, in his opinion, was all that is considered to be such by men in the highest station. He was not one to curry favor, either as a boy, or afterwards in manhood: but from his earliest years he had been attracted by men in the highest station in society, just as a fly is by the light; he adopted their ways, their views of life, and entered into relations of friendship with them. All the inclinations of childhood and youth had passed away, not leaving serious scars. He gave way to sensuality and vanity, and, toward the last of his life, to the higher forms of liberality, but all within the proper limits which his nature faithfully prescribed for him.

He had, at the law-school, taken part in certain actions, which, at the time, seemed to him low, and, even while he was engaged in them, aroused in him deep scorn for himself. But afterwards, finding that these things had been done by men of high position, and were not considered by them disgraceful, he came to regard them, not indeed as worthy, but put them entirely out of his mind, and was not in the least troubled by the recollection of them.

1 In Russian, the word for light and society is the same.

When Iván Ilyitch had graduated from the lawschool with the tenth rank, and received from his father some money for his uniform, he ordered a suit of Scharmer, added to his trinkets the little medal with the legend respice finem, bade the prince and principal farewell, ate a dinner with his schoolmates at Donon's, and furnished with new and stylish trunk, linen, uniform, razors, and toilet articles, and a plaid, ordered or bought at the very best shops, he departed for the province, through his father's recommendation, in the capacity of tehinóvnik, with a special message to the governor.

In the province, Iván Ilyitch at once got himself into the same sort of easy and agreeable position as his position in the law-school had been. He attended to his duties, pressed forward in his career, and at the same time enjoyed life in a cheerful and circumspect manner. From time to time, delegated by his chiefs, he visited the districts, bore himself with dignity toward both his superiors and subordinates, and, without overweening conceit, fulfilled with punctuality and incorruptible integrity the duties imposed upon him, pre-eminently in the affair of the raskólniks.2

Notwithstanding his youth, and his tendency to be gay and easy-going, he was, in matters of state, thoroughly discreet, and carried his official reserve even to sternness. But in society he was often merry

1 That is, as Kollyézhski Sekretár, corresponding to Shtaps-Kapitán in the army: the next rank in the Tchin would be titular councillor, titul. yárnui Sovyétnik, - which confers personal nobility.

* Dissenters. The first body of raskólniks, called the "Old Believers," arose in the time of the Patriarch Nikon, who, in 1654, revised the Scriptures, A quarrel as to the number of fingers to be used in giving the blessing, and the manner of spelling Jesus, seems to have been the chief cause of the raskol, or schism. The Greek Church has now to contend with a host of different forms of dissent.-N. H. D.

and witty, and always good-natured, polite, and bon enfant, as he was called by his chief and his chief's wife, at whose house he was intimate.

While he was in the province, he had maintained relations with one of those ladies who are ready to fling themselves into the arms of an elegant young lawyer. There was also a dressmaker; and there were occasional sprees with visiting flügel-adjutants, and visits to some out-of-the-way street after supper: but all dissipation of this sort was attended with such a high tone, that it could not be qualified by hard names; it all squared with the rubric of the French expression, Il faut que jeunesse se passe.2

All was done with clean hands, with clean linen, with French words, and, above all, in company with the very highest society, and therefore with the approbation of those high in rank.

In this way, Iván Ilyitch served five years, and a change was instituted in the service. The new tribunals were established: new men were needed.

And Iván Ilyitch was chosen as one of the new

men.

Iván Ilyitch was offered the position of examining magistrate; and Iván Ilyitch accepted it, notwithstanding the fact that this place was in another government, and that he would be obliged to give up the connections that he had formed, and form new ones.

Iván Ilyitch's friends saw him off. They were photographed in a group: they presented him a silver cigarette-case, and he departed for his new post.

As an examining magistrate, Iván Ilyitch was just

1 In French in the original.

2 "A man must sow his wild oats."

8 Sudyébnui Slyédovatyel: see Anatole Leroy Beaulieu's L'Empire des Tsars, vol. ii.

as comme il faut, just as circumspect, and careful to sunder the obligations of his office from his private life, and as successful in winning universal consideration, as when he was a tchinóvnik with special functions. The office of magistrate itself was vastly more interesting and attractive to Iván Ilyitch than his former position.

To be sure, it used to be agreeable to him, in his former position, to pass with free and easy gait, in his Scharmer-made uniform, in front of trembling petitioners and petty oflicials, waiting for an interview, and envying him, as he went without hesitatior into the nachalnik's private room, and sat down with him to drink a cup of tea, and smoke a cigarette; but the men who were directly dependent upon his pleasure were few, merely isprávniks1 and raskólniks, if he were sent out with special instructions. And he liked to meet these men, dependent upon him, not only politely, but even on terms of comradeship: he liked to make them feel that he, who had the power to crush them, treated them simply, and like friends. He had few such people there.

But now, as examining magistrate, Iván Ilyitch felt that all, all without exception, even men of importance, of distinction, all were in his hands, and that all he had to do was to write such and such words on a piece of paper with a heading, and this important, distinguished man would be brought to him in the capacity of accused or witness, and, unless he wished to ask him to sit down, he would have to stand in his presence, and submit to his questions. Iván Ilyitch never took undue advantage of this power: on the contrary, he tried to temper the expression of it. But

1 Police captains.

the consciousness of this power, and the possibility of tempering it, furnished for him the chief interest and attractiveness of his new office.

In the office itself, especially in investigations, Iván Ilyitch was very quick to master the process of eliminating all circumstances extraneous to the case, and of disentangling the most complicated details in such a manner that the case would be presented on paper, only in its essentials, and absolutely shorn of his own personal opinion, and, last and not least, no necessary formality would be neglected. This was a new mode of doing things. And he was one of the first to be engaged in putting into operation the code of 1864.

When he took up his residence in a new city, as examining magistrate, Iván Ilyitch made new acquaintances and ties: he put himself on a new footing, and adopted a somewhat different tone. He held himself rather aloof from the provincial authorities, and took up with a better circle among the nobles of wealth and position dwelling in the city; and he adopted a tone of easy-going criticism of the government, together with a moderate form of liberalism and “civilized citizenship." At the same time, though Iván Ilyitch in no wise diminished the elegance of his toilet, yet he ceased to shave his chin, and allowed his beard to grow as it would.

Iván Ilyitch's life in the new city also passed very agreeably. The society which fronded against the government was good and friendly; his salary was larger than before; and, while he had no less zest in life, he had the additional pleasure of playing whist, a game in which, as he enjoyed playing cards, he quickly learned to excel, so that he was always on the winning side.