Twenty-two years ago the above appreciation of _On the Eve_ was written by the present writer, who, on re-reading it, finds it necessary to alter only two or three sentences. The sentence "The respectful, if slightly forced, silence that has been imposed by recent political events on the tribe of faithful watchdogs" is an allusion to the first attempt made by our diplomatists and our Court, on the accession of Nicholas II., to reverse the traditional policy of England's hostility to Russia. The sequel, despite the surprising ups and downs of the political barometer, was determined by Germany's naval policy and the Anglo-French _entente_. VII "FATHERS AND CHILDREN" CHAPTER VII "FATHERS AND CHILDREN" I While _On the Eve_ signalizes the end of the Crimea epoch and the break-up of the crushing, overwhelming régime of Nicholas, _Fathers and Children_ is a forecast of the new Liberal movement which arose in the Russia of the 'sixties, and an analysis of the formidable type appearing on the political horizon--the Nihilist. Turgenev was the first man to detect the existence of this new type, the Nihilist. His own account of his discovery gives us such an interesting glimpse of his method in creative work that we transcribe a passage from his paper on _Fathers and Children_, written at Baden in 1869: "It was in the month of August 1860, when I was taking sea baths at Ventnor, in the Isle of Wight, that the first idea of _Fathers and Children_ came into my head; that novel, thanks to which the favourable opinion of the younger generation about me, has come to an end. Many times I have heard and read in critical journals that I have only been elaborating an idea of my own.... For my part, I ought to confess that I never attempted to create a type without having, not an idea, but a living person, in whom the various elements were harmonised together, to work from. I have always needed some groundwork on which I could tread firmly. This was the case with _Fathers and Children_. At the foundation of the principal figure Bazarov was the personality of a young provincial doctor. He died not long before 1860. In that remarkable man was incarnated to my ideas the just rising element, which, still chaotic, afterwards received the title of Nihilism. The impression produced by this individual was very strong. At first I could not clearly define him to myself. But I strained my eyes and ears, watching everything surrounding me, anxious to trust simply in my own sensations. What confounded me was that I had met not a single idea or hint of what seemed appearing to me on all sides. And the doubt involuntarily suggested itself...."