THE evidence of the medical experts, too, was of little use to the prisoner. And it appeared later that Fetyukovitch had not reckoned much upon it. The medical line of defence had only been taken up through the insistence1 of Katerina Ivanovna, who had sent for a celebrated2 doctor from Moscow on purpose. The case for the defence could, of course, lose nothing by it and might, with luck, gain something from it. There was, however, an element of comedy about it, through the difference of opinion of the doctors. The medical experts were the famous doctor from Moscow, our doctor, Herzenstube, and the young doctor, Varvinsky. The two latter appeared also as witnesses for the prosecution3.
The first to be called in the capacity of expert was Doctor Herzenstube. He was a grey and bald old man of seventy, of middle height and sturdy build. He was much esteemed4 and respected by everyone in the town. He was a conscientious5 doctor and an excellent and pious6 man, a Hernguter or Moravian brother, I am not quite sure which. He had been living amongst us for many years and behaved with wonderful dignity. He was a kind-hearted and humane7 man. He treated the sick poor and peasants for nothing, visited them in their slums and huts, and left money for medicine, but he was as obstinate8 as a mule9. If once he had taken an idea into his head, there was no shaking it. Almost everyone in the town was aware, by the way, that the famous doctor had, within the first two or three days of his presence among us, uttered some extremely offensive allusions10 to Doctor Herzenstube’s qualifications. Though the Moscow doctor asked twenty-five roubles for a visit, several people in the town were glad to take advantage of his arrival, and rushed to consult him regardless of expense. All these had, of course, been previously11 patients of Doctor Herzenstube, and the celebrated doctor had criticised his treatment with extreme harshness. Finally, he had asked the patients as soon as he saw them, “Well, who has been cramming12 you with nostrums13? Herzenstube? He he!” Doctor Herzenstube, of course, heard all this, and now all the three doctors made their appearance, one after another, to be examined.
Doctor Herzenstube roundly declared that the abnormality of the prisoner’s mental faculties14 was self-evident. Then giving his grounds for this opinion, which I omit here, he added that the abnormality was not only evident in many of the prisoner’s actions in the past, but was apparent even now at this very moment. When he was asked to explain how it was apparent now at this moment, the old doctor, with simple-hearted directness, pointed15 out that the prisoner had “an extraordinary air, remarkable16 in the circumstances”; that he had “marched in like a soldier, looking straight before him, though it would have been more natural for him to look to the left where, among the public, the ladies were sitting, seeing that he was a great admirer of the fair sex and must be thinking much of what the ladies are saying of him now,” the old man concluded in his peculiar17 language.
I must add that he spoke18 Russian readily, but every phrase was formed in German style, which did not, however, trouble him, for it had always been a weakness of his to believe that he spoke Russian perfectly19, better indeed than Russians. And he was very fond of using Russian proverbs, always declaring that the Russian proverbs were the best and most expressive20 sayings in the whole world. I may remark, too, that in conversation, through absent-mindedness he often forgot the most ordinary words, which sometimes went out of his head, though he knew them perfectly. The same thing happened, though, when he spoke German, and at such times he always waved his hand before his face as though trying to catch the lost word, and no one could induce him to go on speaking till he had found the missing word. His remark that the prisoner ought to have looked at the ladies on entering roused a whisper of amusement in the audience. All our ladies were very fond of our old doctor; they knew, too, that having been all his life a bachelor and a religious man of exemplary conduct, he looked upon women as lofty creatures. And so his unexpected observation struck everyone as very queer.
The Moscow doctor, being questioned in his turn, definitely and emphatically repeated that he considered the prisoner’s mental condition abnormal in the highest degree. He talked at length and with erudition of “aberration21” and “mania22,” and argued that, from all the facts collected, the prisoner had undoubtedly23 been in a condition of aberration for several days before his arrest, and, if the crime had been committed by him, it must, even if he were conscious of it, have been almost involuntary, as he had not the power to control the morbid24 impulse that possessed25 him.
But apart from temporary aberration, the doctor diagnosed mania, which promised, in his words, to lead to complete insanity26 in the future. (It must be noted27 that I report this in my own words, the doctor made use of very learned and professional language.) “All his actions are in contravention of common sense and logic,” he continued. “Not to refer to what I have not seen, that is, the crime itself and the whole catastrophe28, the day before yesterday, while he was talking to me, he had an unaccountably fixed29 look in his eye. He laughed unexpectedly when there was nothing to laugh at. He showed continual and inexplicable30 irritability31, using strange words, ‘Bernard!’ ‘Ethics!’ and others equally inappropriate.” But the doctor detected mania, above all, in the fact that the prisoner could not even speak of the three thousand roubles, of which he considered himself to have been cheated, without extraordinary irritation32, though he could speak comparatively lightly of other misfortunes and grievances33. According to all accounts, he had even in the past, whenever the subject of the three thousand roubles was touched on, flown into a perfect frenzy34, and yet he was reported to be a disinterested35 and not grasping man.
“As to the opinion of my learned colleague,” the Moscow doctor added ironically in conclusion “that the prisoner would, entering the court, have naturally looked at the ladies and not straight before him, I will only say that, apart from the playfulness of this theory, it is radically36 unsound. For though I fully37 agree that the prisoner, on entering the court where his fate will be decided38, would not naturally look straight before him in that fixed way, and that that may really be a sign of his abnormal mental condition, at the same time I maintain that he would naturally not look to the left at the ladies, but, on the contrary, to the right to find his legal adviser39, on whose help all his hopes rest and on whose defence all his future depends.” The doctor expressed his opinion positively40 and emphatically.
But the unexpected pronouncement of Doctor Varvinsky gave the last touch of comedy to the difference of opinion between the experts. In his opinion the prisoner was now, and had been all along, in a perfectly normal condition, and, although he certainly must have been in a nervous and exceedingly excited state before his arrest, this might have been due to several perfectly obvious causes, jealousy41, anger, continual drunkenness, and so on. But this nervous condition would not involve the mental abberation of which mention had just been made. As to the question whether the prisoner should have looked to the left or to the right on entering the court, “in his modest opinion,” the prisoner would naturally look straight before him on entering the court, as he had in fact done, as that was where the judges, on whom his fate depended, were sitting. So that it was just by looking straight before him that he showed his perfectly normal state of mind at the present. The young doctor concluded his “modest” testimony42 with some heat.
“Bravo, doctor!” cried Mitya, from his seat, “just so!”
Mitya, of course, was checked, but the young doctor’s opinion had a decisive influence on the judges and on the public, and, as appeared afterwards, everyone agreed with him. But Doctor Herzenstube, when called as a witness, was quite unexpectedly of use to Mitya. As an old resident in the town, who had known the Karamazov family for years, he furnished some facts of great value for the prosecution, and suddenly, as though recalling something, he added:
“But the poor young man might have had a very different life, for he had a good heart both in childhood and after childhood, that I know. But the Russian proverb says, ‘If a man has one head, it’s good, but if another clever man comes to visit him, it would be better still, for then there will be two heads and not only one.”’
“One head is good, but two are better,” the prosecutor43 put in impatiently. He knew the old man’s habit of talking slowly and deliberately44, regardless of the impression he was making and of the delay he was causing, and highly prizing his flat, dull and always gleefully complacent45 German wit. The old man was fond of making jokes.
“Oh, yes, that’s what I say,” he went on stubbornly. “One head is good, but two are much better, but he did not meet another head with wits, and his wits went. Where did they go? I’ve forgotten the word.” He went on, passing his hand before his eyes, “Oh, yes, spazieren.”27
27 Promenading46.
“Wandering?”
“Oh, yes, wandering, that’s what I say. Well, his wits went wandering and fell in such a deep hole that he lost himself. And yet he was a grateful and sensitive boy. Oh, I remember him very well, a little chap so high, left neglected by his father in the back yard, when he ran about without boots on his feet, and his little breeches hanging by one button.”
A note of feeling and tenderness suddenly came into the honest old man’s voice. Fetyukovitch positively started, as though scenting47 something, and caught at it instantly.
“Oh, yes, I was a young man then. . . . I was . . . well, I was forty-five then, and had only just come here. And I was so sorry for the boy then; I asked myself why shouldn’t I buy him a pound of . . . a pound of what? I’ve forgotten what it’s called. A pound of what children are very fond of, what is it, what is it?” The doctor began waving his hands again. “It grows on a tree and is gathered and given to everyone . . . ”
“Apples?”
“Oh, no, no. You have a dozen of apples, not a pound. . . . No, there are a lot of them, and call little. You put them in the mouth and crack.”
“Quite so, nuts, I say so.” The doctor repeated in the calmest way as though he had been at no loss for a word. “And I bought him a pound of nuts, for no one had ever bought the boy a pound of nuts before. And I lifted my finger and said to him, ‘Boy, Gott der Vater.’ He laughed and said, ‘Gott der Vater’ . . . ‘Gott der Sohn.’ He laughed again and lisped ‘Gott der Sohn.’ ‘Gott der heilige Geist.’ Then he laughed and said as best he could, ‘Gott der heilige Geist.’ I went away, and two days after I happened to be passing, and he shouted to me of himself, ‘Uncle, Gott der Vater, Gott der Sohn,’ and he had only forgotten ‘Gott der heilige Geist.’ But I reminded him of it and I felt very sorry for him again. But he was taken away, and I did not see him again. Twenty-three years passed. I am sitting one morning in my study, a white-haired old man, when there walks into the room a blooming young man, whom I should never have recognised, but he held up his finger and said, laughing, ‘Gott der Vater, Gott der Sohn, and Gott der heilige Geist. I have just arrived and have come to thank you for that pound of nuts, for no one else ever bought me a pound of nuts; you are the only one that ever did.’ then I remembered my happy youth and the poor child in the yard, without boots on his feet, and my heart was touched and I said, ‘You are a grateful young man, for you have remembered all your life the pound of nuts I bought you in your childhood.’ And I embraced him and blessed him. And I shed tears. He laughed, but he shed tears, too . . . for the Russian often laughs when he ought to be weeping. But he did weep; I saw it. And now, alas48! . . . ”
“And I am weeping now, German, I am weeping now, too, you saintly man,” Mitya cried suddenly.
In any case the anecdote49 made a certain favourable50 impression on the public. But the chief sensation in Mitya’s favour was created by the evidence of Katerina Ivanovna, which I will describe directly. Indeed, when the witnesses a decharge, that is, called the defence, began giving evidence, fortune seemed all at once markedly more favourable to Mitya, and what was particularly striking, this was a surprise even to the counsel for the defence. But before Katerina Ivanovna was called, Alyosha was examined, and he recalled a fact which seemed to furnish positive evidence against one important point made by the prosecution.
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insistence
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| n.坚持；强调；坚决主张 | |
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celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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prosecution
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| n.起诉，告发，检举，执行，经营 | |
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esteemed
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| adj.受人尊敬的v.尊敬( esteem的过去式和过去分词 )；敬重；认为；以为 | |
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conscientious
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| adj.审慎正直的，认真的，本着良心的 | |
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pious
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| adj.虔诚的；道貌岸然的 | |
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humane
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| adj.人道的，富有同情心的 | |
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obstinate
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| adj.顽固的，倔强的，不易屈服的，较难治愈的 | |
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mule
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| n.骡子，杂种，执拗的人 | |
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allusions
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| 暗指，间接提到( allusion的名词复数 ) | |
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previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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cramming
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| n.塞满，填鸭式的用功v.塞入( cram的现在分词 )；填塞；塞满；（为考试而）死记硬背功课 | |
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nostrums
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| n.骗人的疗法，有专利权的药品( nostrum的名词复数 )；妙策 | |
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faculties
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| n.能力( faculty的名词复数 )；全体教职员；技巧；院 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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expressive
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| adj.表现的，表达…的，富于表情的 | |
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aberration
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| n.离开正路，脱离常规，色差 | |
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mania
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| n.疯狂；躁狂症，狂热，癖好 | |
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undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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morbid
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| adj.病的；致病的；病态的；可怕的 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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insanity
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| n.疯狂，精神错乱；极端的愚蠢，荒唐 | |
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noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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catastrophe
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| n.大灾难，大祸 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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inexplicable
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| adj.无法解释的，难理解的 | |
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irritability
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| n.易怒 | |
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irritation
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| n.激怒，恼怒，生气 | |
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grievances
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| n.委屈( grievance的名词复数 )；苦衷；不满；牢骚 | |
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frenzy
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| n.疯狂，狂热，极度的激动 | |
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disinterested
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| adj.不关心的，不感兴趣的 | |
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radically
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| ad.根本地，本质地 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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adviser
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| n.劝告者，顾问 | |
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positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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jealousy
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| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
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42
testimony
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| n.证词；见证，证明 | |
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prosecutor
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| n.起诉人；检察官，公诉人 | |
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deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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complacent
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| adj.自满的；自鸣得意的 | |
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promenading
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| v.兜风( promenade的现在分词 ) | |
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scenting
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| vt.闻到（scent的现在分词形式） | |
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alas
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| int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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anecdote
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| n.轶事，趣闻，短故事 | |
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favourable
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| adj.赞成的，称赞的，有利的，良好的，顺利的 | |
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