Query: quote source (fwd)

[Donald Barton Johnson]

Can any kind soul identify this line?

         "ni sadisticheskiia laski beznosoi smerti"?

        Nabokov uses it in a 1921 Russian critical essay. Since the term
"sadistic" entered English only circa the 1890s (and, presumably no
earlier into Russian), the source must have been composed between, say,
1890 & 1920. It is conceivable that the original source is not in either
Russian or English.
                        With Thanks in advance....

D. Barton Johnson
Department of Germanic, Slavic and Semitic Studies
Phelps Hall
University of California at Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA  93106
Phone and Fax: (805) 687-1825
Home Phone: (805) 682-4618