“Have I forgotten them?” re-echoed Oblomov. “No. How could I forget them? How I used to dream over those books, and to whisper to myself my hopes for the future, and to make plans of all sorts!--though I kept them from you for fear lest you would laugh at them. But that expired at Verklevo; and never since has it been repeated. What is the reason, I would ask? Never have I gone through any great mental tempest or upheaval, my conscience is as clear as a mirror, and no adverse stroke of fortune has occurred to destroy my self-conceit. Yet for some reason or another I have gone to pieces.” He sighed. “You see, Andrei, at no point in my life have I been touched with a fire which could either save me or destroy me. I have lived a life different from that of others. With me it has not been a morning dawn which, gradually broadening to a sultry, bustling noon, has faded, imperceptibly, naturally, into eventide. No, I _began_ life with a quenching of the light of day, and, from the first moment that I realized myself, realized also that I was on the wane. I realized that fact as I sat at my desk in the chancellory, as I read, as I consorted with friends, as I squandered my means upon Minia, as I lounged on the Nevski Prospect, as I attended receptions where I was welcomed as an eligible _parti_, as I wasted my life and brains in fluctuating between town and country. Even my self-conceit--upon what was it flung away? Upon figuring in clothes made by a good tailor, upon gaining the _entrée_ to well-known houses, upon having my hand shaken by Prince P------! Yet self-conceit ought to be the very salt of life. Whither is mine gone? Either I have never understood the life of which I speak or it was never suited to me. Oh, that I had never known or seen it, that no one had ever pointed it out to me! For yourself, you entered and left my orbit like a bright, swift comet; and when you were gone I forgot everything, and began to fade.” As Schtoltz listened to Oblomov’s words there was no trace of a contemptuous smile on his features. “Not long ago,” resumed Oblomov, “you said that my face had lost its freshness and colour. Yes, that is so. I am like a ragged, cast-off garment--though less from the fact that during the past twelve years there has lain within me a light that has ever been seeking an outlet, but has been doomed to illumine only its own prison. Now, therefore, unable to gain its freedom, it is becoming altogether extinguished. Am I alone in this, however? Look around you. The name of the tribe to which I belong is legion.” “Nevertheless, I intend to take you travelling with me,” remarked Schtoltz, rising. “We will start to-morrow. It must be done now or never.” With that he went to bed.