133. TO D. K. MALINOVSKY.

<About March 10, 1847. Naples>

I read the pages of your confession with attention and curiosity. Much is scattered in them and has not come into the order in which it should be, but good principles wander even in chaos itself. And if only the one who arranges everything helps you to arrange yourself according to your strength, you will come out of a useful person and a person who needs your land. Your idea of describing the people around you today in connection with my "Dead Souls" is very clever, and I am sure that it will be of mutual benefit to both you and me, and perhaps even to the public itself, if it turns out that in your notes there is something decent for others to know, and on this occasion it is worth publishing. Visit as little as possible those public places that you mention in your leaflets, such as b. and taverns (except in the sense of an observer, then at least go to prisons and gangs of thieves). Take care of your health, for there is so little of it given to people of the later generation; Therefore, I would not advise you to study much at night and generally do anything by halting and drinking, even the most useful thing. Observe reasonable equanimity in everything and watch over the purity of your heart, because without it the full and perfect development of our powers is impossible.

Sincerely wishing you success in all goodness.

N. Gogol.

Zhukovsky V. A., March 12, 1847*

134. TO V. A. ZHUKOVSKY.

March 12<New Style, 1847> Naples.

Scarcely had I sent an answer to your kindest letter (of February 6/18) when your lines* were brought to me again, informing me of the dispatch of money and bills of exchange. Afterwards I received a letter from Ubril (whom I do not know how to thank for his kindness and trouble for me), enclosing a second of the bill. I informed him at the same time of the receipt of my letter and bill of exchange, two days ago (by letter of March 10)*. I am not at all to blame for the stupidity of this bill of exchange and its wonderful wanderings, because I did not receive any prior notice from St. Petersburg that the bill would be sent to me, below the subsequent notice that the bill had been sent to me. I learned of this incident quite recently: when I met one of Prokopovich's acquaintances and talked with him about Prokopovich himself, I learned unexpectedly and inadvertently that he had sent me money, and at the same moment I let Pletnev know about it, and Pletnev, already in consequence of my recall, made an inquiry. [748] It must be known that this bill of exchange was sent to me at a time when I had not asked for money, and had assigned an entirely different use to the money out of which it was sent to me. That is why it was not his fate to come into my hands. And how strange! And now, at the very moment when the local Neapolitan Rothschild had already given orders to his treasury to give me the money for it, he was suddenly seized with doubt. Neither the certificate of the Hamburg Heine, nor the guarantee of the Frankfort blood brother, could calm him. The Jewish soul felt at that moment only that it was a question of money, that is, of a subject most sacred in the world, and therefore asked me to give him time to make further inquiries on my own behalf and to communicate with Hamburg. And so I gave orders[750] that he should take everything into his own hands, as an explanation of the matter of the bill of exchange, and that it should be delivered back to Baron Stieglitz* for the distribution[751] of the money to Pletnev for the use already appointed, and that he undertook to fulfill everything in a short time. I don't need money now. I'm rich. But aside from this, let's talk about what is closer. I am now very much interested in the health of Elizabeth Alexeevna*. It seems to me that sea bathing would help her best. Of all the women who suffer from nerves, I do not know a single one who would not be helped by surprisingly sea bathing. This treatment is so harmless, so simple and at the same time so pleasant! Then we would all go to Ostend together, because I need the sea. I see this myself: of all the others, it is. Most of all[752] it helped, and I made the only mistake that I did not bathe for two or three years in a row, as I was always advised, but hoped that once would suffice. In the month of June, God willing, I will be in Frankfort, and we will talk about many things that I should have talked about long ago, but God took away my tongue, and I could not tell the simplest matter simply. How glad I am that my departure for the East has been postponed a little: for this journey I must prepare myself at least a little better, not to mention dress myself a little neatly. In the meantime, I embrace you in absentia, my good soul, and may God protect you all healthy and unharmed!

All your G.

With this there is a receipt for the receipt of money*.

On the reverse: Francfort sur Mein. Son excellence monsieur Basile de Joukoffsky. Francfort s/M. Saxenhausen. Salzwedelsgarten vor dem Schaumeinthor.