Are they really so stupid?
Of course! Take your father, for example." "The theatre and the school are one and the same, Foma," said Luba, instructively.

"The merchants used to be like this.

And what deceit can there be in books ?" "Just as in fairy--tales, nothing is real." "You are wrong! You have read no books; how can you judge?
Books are precisely real.

They teach you how to live." "Come, come!" Foma waved his hand.

"Drop it; no good will come out of your books! There, take your father, for example, does he read books?
And yet he is clever! I looked at him today and envied him.