Illustration for "Crime and Punishment"

Svidrigailov's Eternity
"Svidrigailov sat thinking.
“And what if there are only spiders there, or something of the sort,” he said suddenly.
“He's a madman,” thought Raskolnikov.
“We keep imagining eternity as an idea that cannot be grasped, something vast, vast! But why must it be vast? Instead of all that, imagine suddenly that there will be one little room there, something like a village bathhouse, covered with soot, with spiders in all the corners, and that's the whole of eternity. I sometimes fancy something of the sort.”
“But surely, surely you can imagine something more just and comforting than that!” Raskolnikov cried out with painful feeling.
“More just? Who knows, perhaps that is just—and, you know, if I had my way, it's certainly how I would do it!” Svidrigailov answered, smiling vaguely.
A sort of chill came over Raskolnikov at this hideous answer. Svidrigailov raised his head, looked at him intently, and suddenly burst out laughing."
Fyodor Dostoevsky. Crime and Punishment