[18] “That which some people told me, and of which I sometimes had tried to persuade myself--namely, that a man should desire happiness, not for himself only, but for others, his neighbours, and for all men as well: this did not satisfy me. Firstly, I could not sincerely desire happiness for others as much as for myself; secondly, and chiefly, others, in like manner as myself, were doomed to unhappiness and death, and therefore all my efforts for other people’s happiness were useless. I despaired.” The understanding that personal happiness is best found in the happiness of all did not appeal to him, and the very striving towards the happiness of all, and an advance towards it, he thus found insufficient as a purpose in life. [19] See _Anabaptism from its Rise at Zwickau to its Fall at Münster_, 1521-1536, by Richard Heath (_Baptist Manuals_, I, 1895). [20] _The Christian Teaching_, Introduction, p. vi. In another similar passage he adds Marcus Aurelius and Lao-tse to the above-mentioned teachers. [21] _What is my Belief_, ch. X, p. 145 of Tchertkoff’s edition of _Works prohibited by Russian Censorship_. On pp. 18 and 19 of the little work, _What is Religion and What is its Substance_. Tolstóy expresses himself even more severely about “Church Christianity.” He also gives us in this remarkable little work his ideas about the substance of religion altogether, from which one can deduct its desirable relations to science, to synthetic philosophy, and to philosophical ethics. PART V Goncharóff, Dostoyévskiy, Nekrásoff CHAPTER V GONCHARÓFF--DOSTOYÉVSKIY--NEKRASOFF Goncharóff--_Oblómoff_--The Russian Malady of Oblómoffdom--Is it exclusively Russian?--_The Precipice_--Dostoyévskiy--His first Novel--General Character of his Work--_Memoirs from a Dead House_--_Down-trodden and Offended_--_Crime and Punishment_--_The Brothers Karamázoff_--Nekrasoff--Discussions about his Talent--His Love of the People--Apotheosis of Woman--Other Prose-writers of the same Epoch--Serghéi Aksákoff--Dahl--Ivan Panaeff--Hvoschinskaya (V. Krestovskiy-pseudonyme). Poets of the same Epoch--Koltsoff--Nikitin Pleschéeff. The Admirers of Pure Art: Tutcheff--A. Maykoff--Scherbina--Polonskiy--A. Fet--A. K. Tolstóy--The Translators. GONCHARÓFF. Goncharóff occupies in Russian literature the next place after Turguéneff and Tolstóy, but this extremely interesting writer is almost entirely unknown to English readers. He was not a prolific writer and, apart from small sketches, and a book of travel (_The Frigate Pallas_), he has left only three novels: _A Common Story_ (translated into English by Constance Garnett), _Oblómoff_, and _The Precipice_, of which the second, _Oblómoff_, has conquered for him a position by the side of the two great writers just named.