no consolation…. That does not make it an honest method…. Why is it morals and truth cannot be presented in a raw form, but only with mixtures, always sugared and gilded like a pill. This is not normal…. It is falsification, deception … a trick.»

And he thought of those assessors who find it absolutely necessary to make a «speech of the public which understands history only through epics and historical novels; and of himself drawing a philosophy of life not from sermons and laws, but from fables, romances, poetry….

«Medicine must be sweetened, truth made beautiful. … And this good fortune man has taken advantage of from the time of Adam…. And after all maybe it is natural thus, and cannot be otherwise … there are in nature many useful and expedient deceits and illusions….»

He sat down to his work, but idle, domestic thoughts long wandered in his brain. From the third story no longer came the sound of the scales. But the occupant of the second story long continued to walk up and down….