During the first few years of the child’s life Maxim had believed the
boy’s mental growth to be under his entire control, and its processes,
if not directly guided by his influence, at least so far affected by
it that no new intellectual manifestation or acquisition could evade
his vigilance. But when the boy reached that period of his life which
forms the boundary between childhood and youth, Maxim realized how vain
had been his audacious dreams of education. Nearly every week revealed
something new, oftentimes something he had never anticipated; and in
his efforts to discover the sources of the new idea, or representation
thereof, Maxim was invariably baffled. A certain unknown influence,
either organic growth or hereditary development, was evidently
participating in Maxim’s educational plans; and he often paused
reverently to contemplate the mysterious operations of Nature. In these
outbreaks by which Nature effects her gratuitous revelations, disturbing,
so to speak, the equilibrium between the supply of acquired knowledge on
the one hand and that of personal experience on the other, Maxim had no
trouble in following the connecting links of the phenomena of universal
life, which diverging into thousands of channels enter into separate and
“individual” lives.
This discovery was at first startling to Maxim, inasmuch as it revealed
the fact that the mental growth of the child was subject to other
influences beside his own. He became anxious for the fate of his ward,
alarmed at the possibility of influences which could bring the blind
man nothing but irremediable suffering. Then he tried to trace to their
sources those mysterious springs which had leaped to the surface, hoping
to obstruct their passage and check their influence over the blind child.
Nor had the mother failed to observe these things. One morning Pètrik ran
up to her in an unusual state of excitement.
“Mamma, Mamma,” he exclaimed, “I saw a dream!”
“What did you see, my boy?” she asked; and in her voice there was a
pathetic intonation as of doubt.
“I dreamed that I saw you and Uncle Maxim; and—”
“What else?”
“I don’t remember.”
“And do you remember me?”
“No,” replied the boy, thoughtfully, “I have forgotten everything.”
This was repeated several times; and each time the boy grew sadder and
more restless.