Dead Souls

by Nikolai Gogol

a Russian, as a man bound to you by the ties of the same blood that runs in our veins, I appeal to you. I appeal to those of you who have some conception of what nobility of thought is. I invite you to remember the duty that a man is faced with in any post. I invite you to examine your duty more closely and the obligations of your earthly duty, because we all see this now darkly, and we barely . . .” [Here the manuscript ends.]