Kostanzhoglo

Here is a very small and impressive piece of Kostanzhoglo's speech to Chichikov when the latter requests his advice on estate management.

If a carpenter handles his axe well, I am ready to stand and watch him for two hours, such a cheering effect does work produce upon me. But if you can also see with what object all this is being done, how everything about you is multiplying and increasing, bearing increase and income- Well, I cannot express what takes place in your spirit then. And it is not because your money is increasing —money is nothing in itself— but because all this is the work of your own hands, because you see that you are the source of it all; that you are the creator, and that from you, as from some magician, good and abundance are showered upon all. Now, where else will you find me such another enjoyment?