Listening to his brother's conversation with the professor, he noticed that they connected the scientific question with the spiritual and several times almost reached the latter, but every time they approached this, which seemed to him the most important question, they at once hurriedly retreated and again plunged into the domain of fine sub-divisions, reservations, quotations hints and references to authorities; and he found it difficult to understand what they were talking about.
En cambio, su hermano y el profesor, en el curso de su discusión, mezclaban las cuestiones científicas con las referentes al alma, y cuando parecía que iban a tocar el tema principal, se desviaban en seguida, y se hundían de nuevo en la esfera de las sutiles distinciones, las reservas, las citas, las alusiones, las referencias a opiniones autorizadas, con lo que Levin apenas podía entender de lo que trataban.