What is to be Done? by Nikolay Chernyshevsky

Storeshnikof kept thinking more and more frequently, "Well, now, suppose I should take and marry her? " What happened to him was a very common thing, not only with people of weak character of his stamp, but also not seldom with people of more independent character. In the histories of the nations such cases as his fill the volumes of Hume and Gibbon, Ranke and Thierry; men crowd only to one side simply because they do not hear the words, "Now strive, brethren, to take the other side"; and if by chance they hear and turn to the other side of the circle, then they go to crowding just as bad on the other side. Storeshnikof had heard and seen that rich young men were in the habit of taking poor and pretty young girls as mistresses. Well, and so he tried to make Viérotchka his mistress. No other word had entered his head; he heard the other word, "You might marry her"; well, now he begins to think about the word "wife," just as before he thought about the word "mistress."

This is a universal characteristic, and Storeshnikof illustrates very clearly in his own case nine-tenths of the motives in the history of the human race. But historians and psychologists say that in every special fact the universal cause is "individualized," according to their expression, by local, temporary, national, and personal elements, although they -- that is, these elements -- are important; for example, all spoons, albeit they are spoons, yet whoever gobbles soup or shchi with the spoon in his hand must examine that special spoon. Therefore let us examine Storeshnikof!