“That, anyway,” said Nikolay Levin, with an ironical smile, his eyes flashing malignantly, “has the charm of⁠—what’s one to call it?⁠—geometrical symmetry, of clearness, of definiteness. It may be a Utopia. But if once one allows the possibility of making of all the past a tabula rasa⁠—no property, no family⁠—then labor would organize itself. But you gain nothing.⁠ ⁠…”

“Why do you mix things up? I’ve never been a communist.”

“But I have, and I consider it’s premature, but rational, and it has a future, just like Christianity in its first ages.”

“All that I maintain is that the labor force ought to be investigated from the point of view of natural science; that is to say, it ought to be studied, its qualities ascertained.⁠ ⁠…”