Notesale: Turn your study into money

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It was a dark autumn night
...
There had
been many clever men there, and there had been interesting conversations
...
The majority of the guests, among whom were many
journalists and intellectual men, disapproved of the death penalty
...
In the opinion of some of
them the death penalty ought to be replaced everywhere by imprisonment for life
...
"I have not tried either the death penalty or imprisonment
for life, but if one may judge a priori, the death penalty is more moral and more humane than
imprisonment for life
...
Which executioner is the more humane, he who kills you in a few minutes or he who
drags the life out of you in the course of many years?"
"Both are equally immoral," observed one of the guests, "for they both have the same object to take away life
...
It has not the right to take away what it cannot restore
when it wants to
...
When he was asked
his opinion, he said:
"The death sentence and the life sentence are equally immoral, but if I had to choose between
the death penalty and imprisonment for life, I would certainly choose the second
...
"
A lively discussion arose
...
"
"If you mean that in earnest," said the young man, "I'll take the bet, but I would stay not five
but fifteen years
...
"Gentlemen, I stake two million!"
"Agreed! You stake your millions and I stake my freedom!" said the young man
...
At supper he made fun of the young man, and
said:
"Think better of it, young man, while there is still time
...
I say three or four, because you won't stay

longer
...
The thought that you have the right to step out in liberty at any moment
will poison your whole existence in prison
...
"
And now the banker, walking to and fro, remembered all this, and asked himself: "What was
the object of that bet? What is the good of that man's losing fifteen years of his life and my
throwing away two million? Can it prove that the death penalty is better or worse than
imprisonment for life? No, no
...
On my part it was the
caprice of a pampered man, and on his part simple greed for money
...
It was decided that the young man should
spend the years of his captivity under the strictest supervision in one of the lodges in the banker's
garden
...
He
was allowed to have a musical instrument and books, and was allowed to write letters, to drink
wine, and to smoke
...
He might have anything he
wanted - books, music, wine, and so on - in any quantity he desired by writing an order, but
could only receive them through the window
...
The slightest attempt on his part to break the conditions, if only
two minutes before the end, released the banker from the obligation to pay him the two million
...
The sounds of the piano could be
heard continually day and night from his lodge
...
Wine, he wrote,
excites the desires, and desires are the worst foes of the prisoner; and besides, nothing could be
more dreary than drinking good wine and seeing no one
...

In the first year the books he sent for were principally of a light character; novels with a
complicated love plot, sensational and fantastic stories, and so on
...
In the fifth year music was audible again, and the prisoner asked for wine
...
He did not read
books
...
More than once he could be heard crying
...
He threw himself eagerly into these studies - so much so that the banker
had enough to do to get him the books he ordered
...
It was during this period that the banker received the
following letter from his prisoner:

"My dear Jailer, I write you these lines in six languages
...
Let them read them
...
That shot will show me that my efforts have not been thrown away
...
Oh, if you
only knew what unearthly happiness my soul feels now from being able to understand them!"
The prisoner's desire was fulfilled
...

< 4 >
Then after the tenth year, the prisoner sat immovably at the table and read nothing but the
Gospel
...

Theology and histories of religion followed the Gospels
...
At one time he was busy with the natural sciences, then he would ask for Byron
or Shakespeare
...
His reading
suggested a man swimming in the sea among the wreckage of his ship, and trying to save his life
by greedily clutching first at one spar and then at another
...
By our agreement I ought to pay
him two million
...
"
Fifteen years before, his millions had been beyond his reckoning; now he was afraid to ask
himself which were greater, his debts or his assets
...
"Cursed
bet!" muttered the old man, clutching his head in despair "Why didn't the man die? He is only
forty now
...
Trying to make no noise, he took from
a fireproof safe the key of the door which had not been opened for fifteen years, put on his
overcoat, and went out of the house
...
Rain was falling
...
The banker strained his eyes, but could see
neither the earth nor the white statues, nor the lodge, nor the trees
...
No answer followed
...

"If I had the pluck to carry out my intention," thought the old man, "Suspicion would fall first
upon the watchman
...
Then
he groped his way into a little passage and lighted a match
...
There
was a bedstead with no bedding on it, and in the corner there was a dark cast-iron stove
...

When the match went out the old man, trembling with emotion, peeped through the little
window
...
He was sitting at the table
...
Open books were lying on the
table, on the two easy-chairs, and on the carpet near the table
...
Fifteen years' imprisonment had taught
him to sit still
...
Then the banker cautiously broke the seals off the door and put
the key in the keyhole
...
The banker
expected to hear at once footsteps and a cry of astonishment, but three minutes passed and it was
as quiet as ever in the room
...

< 6 >
At the table a man unlike ordinary people was sitting motionless
...
His face was
yellow with an earthy tint in it, his cheeks were hollow, his back long and narrow, and the hand
on which his shaggy head was propped was so thin and delicate that it was dreadful to look at it
...
He was asleep
...

"Poor creature!" thought the banker, "he is asleep and most likely dreaming of the millions
...
But let us first
read what he has written here
...


With a clear conscience I tell you, as before God, who beholds me, that I despise freedom and
life and health, and all that in your books is called the good things of the world
...
It is true I have not seen the earth
nor men, but in your books I have drunk fragrant wine, I have sung songs, I have hunted stags
and wild boars in the forests, have loved women
...
In your books I have climbed to the peaks of
Elburz and Mont Blanc, and from there I have seen the sun rise and have watched it at evening
flood the sky, the ocean, and the mountain-tops with gold and crimson
...
I have seen green
forests, fields, rivers, lakes, towns
...
In your books I have flung myself into the bottomless pit, performed miracles, slain,
burned towns, preached new religions, conquered whole kingdoms
...
All that the unresting thought of man has created in the
ages is compressed into a small compass in my brain
...

"And I despise your books, I despise wisdom and the blessings of this world
...
You may be proud, wise, and fine, but
death will wipe you off the face of the earth as though you were no more than mice burrowing
under the floor, and your posterity, your history, your immortal geniuses will burn or freeze
together with the earthly globe
...
You have taken lies for truth, and
hideousness for beauty
...
I don't want to understand
you
...
To deprive myself of the right to
the money I shall go out from here five hours before the time fixed, and so break the compact
...
At no other time, even when he had lost heavily on the
Stock Exchange, had he felt so great a contempt for himself
...

Next morning the watchmen ran in with pale faces, and told him they had seen the man who
lived in the lodge climb out of the window into the garden, go to the gate, and disappear
...
To

avoid arousing unnecessary talk, he took from the table the writing in which the millions were
renounced, and when he got home locked it up in the fireproof safe

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