diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 4 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/65159-0.txt | 4915 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/65159-0.zip | bin | 86516 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/65159-h.zip | bin | 427090 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/65159-h/65159-h.htm | 4879 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/65159-h/images/ad1.jpg | bin | 49153 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/65159-h/images/ad2.jpg | bin | 49856 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/65159-h/images/ad3.jpg | bin | 49949 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/65159-h/images/ad4.jpg | bin | 49374 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/65159-h/images/ad5.jpg | bin | 50045 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/65159-h/images/cover.jpg | bin | 49970 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/65159-h/images/front.jpg | bin | 44143 -> 0 bytes |
14 files changed, 17 insertions, 9794 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..48da7d6 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #65159 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/65159) diff --git a/old/65159-0.txt b/old/65159-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 9d0e7fc..0000000 --- a/old/65159-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,4915 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook, Talks with Tolstoi, by Aleksandr Borisovich -Golʹdenveĭzer, Translated by S. S. Koteliansky and VIrginia Woolf - - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - - -Title: Talks with Tolstoi - - -Author: Aleksandr Borisovich Golʹdenveĭzer - - - -Release Date: April 25, 2021 [eBook #65159] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - - -***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TALKS WITH TOLSTOI*** - - -E-text prepared by Tim Lindell, Martin Pettit, and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made -available by Internet Archive (https://archive.org) - - - -Note: Images of the original pages are available through - Internet Archive. See - https://archive.org/details/rstalkswithtolst00golduoft - - - - - -TALKS WITH TOLSTOI - -by - -A. B. GOLDENVEIZER - -Translated by - -S. S. Koteliansky and Virginia Woolf - - - - - - -Published by Leonard & Virginia Woolf at -The Hogarth Press, Paradise Road, Richmond -1923 - - - - -TRANSLATORS’ NOTE - - -In the following pages we have made a selection from vol. i. of the -diary of the well-known Russian musician, A. B. Goldenveizer, which -was published at the end of 1922 in Moscow under the title _Vblizi -Tolstovo_ (literally _Near Tolstoi_). - - - - -INTRODUCTORY NOTE - - -In publishing the diary devoted to my friendship of nearly fifteen -years with Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoi, I think it best to state first what -my aim was in making notes, and the method I pursued in doing so. - -I put down chiefly Tolstoi’s words, and to some extent the events of -his private life, making no attempt to select what would be interesting -from some special point of view, but adopting no method and attempting -to supply no connection between one entry and another. - -My diary, therefore, is in no sense “literature.” Its aim is to be a -document. - -Unfortunately, I did not always make notes and was far from writing -down everything. After 1908 my records were fuller; in 1909-1910, the -last year of Tolstoi’s life, my reports were voluminous; but it was -only in 1910 that my records were as complete as they could possibly -be. This is the cause of a great disproportion between the parts. The -first volume of my diary contains the long period from January 1896 to -January 1st, 1910, the second volume records and materials for the year -1910 only, yet vol. ii. is considerably larger than vol. i. - -My notes from 1896 to 1904 are now published for the first time. The -notes from 1904 to 1908 were published in _Russ. Prop._ vol. ii., -and the notes from the end of 1908 to January 1st, 1910, appeared -in _Tolstoi: Pamyatniki Zhizni i Tvorchestva_. The parts of the -diary which have been previously published are here published in a -considerably enlarged form. - -A. GOLDENVEIZER. - - - - -1896 - - -My first visit to the house of Leo Nikolaevich was on January 20th, -1896. I was not then twenty-one years old. I was almost a boy. I was -taken to the Tolstois’ by a well-known Moscow lady singer who used to -visit the Tolstois. She took me there in my capacity as pianist, of -course. If one is so unlucky as to play some instrument, or to sing or -recite, one has a constant impediment in one’s relations with people. -People do not take to one, are not interested in one as in a person: -one is asked to play something, to sing, to recite.... Hence one feels -so embarrassed, so awkward, in other people’s society. - -I felt awkward then, and painfully shy. I was introduced. I went into -the drawing-room, where, fortunately, two or three people I knew were -sitting. I did not yet see Tolstoi. Shortly afterwards he came in, -dressed in a blouse, with his hands in his belt. He greeted us all. I -do not remember whether he spoke to me then. Then I played, and played -badly. Of course, out of politeness I was thanked and complimented, -which made me inexpressibly ashamed. And then, when I stood in the -middle of the large room, at a loss, not knowing what to do with -myself, not daring to raise my eyes, Leo Nikolaevich came up to me, -and, speaking with a simplicity which was his alone, began to talk to -me. - -Among other things, talking of the piece I had played, he asked me: - -“Which composer do you like best?” - -“Beethoven,” I replied. - -Tolstoi looked straight into my eyes and said quietly as if doubting me: - -“Is that so?” - -It seemed as if I were repeating what every one says; but I spoke the -truth. - -Leo Nikolaevich observed that he loved Chopin beyond almost all other -composers. - -He said to me: - -“In every art--this I know from my own experience too--there are two -extremes which it is difficult to avoid: emptiness and virtuosity. -For instance, Mozart, whom I love so much, is at times empty, but -after that he soars to an extraordinary height. Schumann’s defect is -virtuosity. Of these two faults virtuosity is the worse, if only for -this reason, that it is harder to get rid of it. Chopin’s greatness -consists in the fact that, however simple he may be, he is never empty, -and in his most complicated works he is never a mere virtuoso.” - -I left the Tolstois’ house with a vague feeling of happiness that I had -seen Tolstoi and spoken to him, and also with a bitter sense of my own -unworthiness. - -One evening as I approached the Tolstois’ house in Khamovniki I met -Leo Nikolaevich, who was going for a walk. He asked me to come with -him. We walked in the Prechistenka. The street was deserted and -quiet. The few passers-by whom we met at intervals nearly all bowed -to Leo Nikolaevich. By degrees Leo Nikolaevich brought me to talk -about myself. At that time I was carried away by the philosophy of -pessimism; I raved about Schopenhauer. Probably everything I said to -Leo Nikolaevich was naïve and silly, but Leo Nikolaevich listened to me -attentively and spoke to me seriously without making me feel my naïveté. - -In passing, Leo Nikolaevich said to me: - -“The most complete and profound philosophy is to be found in the -Gospels.” - -I remember that at that time it seemed to me strange. I was used to -thinking the Gospels a book of moral teaching; and I did not understand -that all the wisdom of the most profound philosophy was contained in -its simplicity and lucidity. - -Once I met Leo Nikolaevich in the street. He again asked me to walk -with him. We were somewhere near the Novinsky Boulevard, and Leo -Nikolaevich suggested we should take the tram. We sat down and took our -tickets. - -Leo Nikolaevich asked me: - -“Can you make a Japanese cockerel?” - -“No.” - -“Look.” - -Tolstoi took his ticket and very skilfully made it into a rather -elaborate cockerel, which, when you pulled its tail, fluttered its -wings. - -An inspector entered the car and began checking the tickets. L. N., -with a smile, held out the cockerel to him and pulled its tail. The -cockerel fluttered its wings. But the inspector, with the stern -expression of a business man who has no time for trifling, took the -cockerel, unfolded it, looked at the number, and tore it up. - -L. N. looked at me and said: - -“Now our little cockerel is gone.” ... - -I arrived at Yasnaya on July 6th after eleven o’clock at night. - -I got up early in the morning and went to the river with L. N. to -bathe. L. N. works every day from breakfast till lunch. He seemed to me -to be in good spirits. In the morning at coffee he said: - -“I feel as though I were nineteen or twenty.” - -Yasnaya then used to be crowded and gay. Nearly all the children were -at home. All the young people played tennis and enjoyed themselves. -Occasionally L. N. would also play tennis. In the evening all used to -go out for long walks in the woods. L. N. always loved to find short -cuts, and would take us all into wonderful places in the forests. It -must be admitted that the ‘short-cuts’ nearly always made the walks -longer. - -Once L. N. and myself were left far behind the others. L. N. said: “Let -us catch them up!” And for half a mile or three-quarters I, twenty-one -years old, and he, sixty-eight, ran neck and neck. On another occasion -his physical vigour struck me even more. Mikhail Lvovich was doing a -very difficult gymnastic exercise which he could not bring off. L. N. -looked and looked, could not stand it any longer, and said: “Let me -try,” and to the surprise of all present he at once did the exercise -better than his son. - -When I was leaving Yasnaya and my carriage was waiting for me, L. N. -took my arm, led me aside, and said: - -“I have been meaning all this time to tell you, and now as you are -going I shall tell you: however great a gift for music you may have, -and however much time and power you may spend on it, do remember that, -above all, the most important of all is to be a man. It is always -necessary to remember that art is not everything.... In your relations -with people it is necessary to try to give them as much as possible and -to take from them as little as possible. Forgive me for saying this, -but I did not want to say good-bye to you without having told you what -I think.” - -Another of L. N.’s sayings at this time was: “The ego is the temporary -thing that limits our immortal essence. Belief in personal immortality -always seems to me a misunderstanding.” - -“Materialism is the most mystical of all doctrines: it makes a belief -in some mythical matter, which creates everything out of itself, the -foundation of everything. It is sillier than a belief in the Trinity!” - - - - -1897 - - -_Moscow, January 6th._ To-day I spent the evening at the Tolstois’. L. -N. was talkative. The conversation was on various topics, beginning -with the peasants and ending with the latest “decadent” movement in art. - -L. N. read aloud certain passages of Maeterlinck’s new play _Aglavaine -et Sélysette_. His attitude to it is one of complete indifference. - -L. N. reads aloud most wonderfully; very simply and at the same time -with remarkable expression. Wonderful also is his capacity of telling -in a few words the contents of a story. There is nothing superfluous, -and a clear, definite picture is given. - - -_April 22nd._ At the Tolstois’. - -Speaking of modern art, L. N. said: - -“If an impressionist was asked to draw a hoop, he would draw a -straight line ----; a child would draw a circle like this O” (L. N. -made the circle with his finger on the table). “And the child is more -in the right, because he naïvely represents what he sees, and the -impressionist represents what may be a hoop or a stick or anything you -like; in a word, he does not represent the characteristic properties -of the thing, but only a symbol of it, a part, and that not always the -most characteristic one. - -“A really remarkable and powerful mind can look for a method of -expressing his idea, and if the idea is strong he will find new methods -of expressing it. But modern artists invent a technical method and then -are on the look-out for an idea, which they arbitrarily squeeze into -their method. - -“The great mistake is that people have introduced into art the vague -conception of ‘beauty,’ which obscures and confuses everything.... Art -consists in this--when some one sees or feels something, and expresses -it in such a form that he who listens, reads, or sees his work feels, -sees, and hears the same thing in the same way as the artist. Therefore -art can be of the highest quality, or indifferent, or, finally, simply -hateful, but still it is art. The most immoral picture if it achieves -its end is art, although it serves low ends. - -“If I yawn, cry, or laugh, and infect another person by the same -thing, that is not art, for I produce the impression by the fact -itself; but, if a beggar, for instance, seeing that his tears affected -you and you gave him money, should on the following day pretend to cry -and should arouse pity in you, then that is art.” - - -_August 2nd_, 4 P.M. I have just had a long talk with L. N. on art. He -was repeating the contents of his article on art which he is writing, -and which he goes on working over and rewriting. In the course of it L. -N. said: - -“When art became the inheritance of a small circle of rich people, and -left its main course, it entered the cul-de-sac in which we see it now. - -“Art is the expression of feeling, and the higher it is the greater -the public which it can draw to itself. Therefore the highest art must -reflect those states of mind which are religious in the best sense -of the word, as they are the most universal and typical of all human -beings. - -“The majority of so-called works of art consist in a more or less -skilful combination of four elements: (1) borrowing--for instance, -the working out of some legend in a poem, of a song in music, etc. -Or unconscious borrowing--that is, an imitation now of one thing, -now of another, not intended by the author. (2) Embellishments: -pretty metaphors which cover up insignificant ideas, flourishes in -music, ornament in architecture, etc. (3) Effects: violent colours in -painting, accumulated dissonances, sharp crescendos in music, and so -on. Finally, (4) the interest--that is, the desire to surprise by the -novelty of the method, by the new combination of colours, etc. Modern -works of art are usually distinguished by these four qualities. - -“The following are the chief obstacles which hinder even -very remarkable men from creating true works of art: first, -professionalism--that is, a man ceases to be a man, but becomes a poet, -a painter, and does nothing but write books, compose music, or paint -pictures; wastes his gift on trifles and loses the power of judging -his work critically. The second, also a very serious obstacle, is the -school. You can’t teach art, as you cannot teach a man to be a saint. -True art is always original and new, and has no need of preconceived -models. The third obstacle, finally, is criticism, which, as some one -has justly said, is made up of fools’ ideas about wise men. - -“I know that my article will be received by most people as a series of -paradoxes, but I am convinced that I am right.” - -L. N. is evidently much carried away by his work. - - -_August 9th._ This evening I am going to leave Yasnaya Polyana, where I -have spent nearly a fortnight. The whole time passed wonderfully well. -The days were spent more or less in this way: After breakfast every one -goes to his work. L. N. takes his barley-coffee in a little kettle, and -with the kettle in one hand and a few little pieces of bread in the -other he goes to his room to work there, and does not come out till -lunch. - - -_A Note without a Date._ In the summer of 1897 the famous Lombroso came -to Yasnaya. I was not at Yasnaya at the time, but from what L. N. and -others told me I can say that Lombroso, whose writings L. N. regarded -without enthusiasm, had made no particular impression personally. -I will give one example to show how superficially and inaccurately -Lombroso related what he saw in Yasnaya. There was a round patch on one -of L. N.’s boots, which came off, and L. N., while waiting to send the -boot to be repaired, wore it with the hole in it. At that time Sophie -Andreevna, I believe, took a snapshot of L. N., and the little hole on -the boot was clearly seen in the photograph. I have that snapshot. -Lombroso, in describing his visit to Yasnaya in the Press and in -numerous interviews, said that L. N. pretended the ‘simple life,’ and, -wanting to show that he wore torn boots, had made a round hole in one -of them, evidently cut on purpose. - - - - -1899 - - -_May 11th._ The conversation turned upon Katkov. L. N. expressed the -opinion that Katkov was not clever. Sophie Andreevna became annoyed and -said: - -“Any one who disagrees with us must be a fool.” - -To which L. N. said: - -“The mark of foolish people is: when you say anything to them they -never answer your words, but keep on repeating their own. That was -always Katkov’s way. That is why I say that Katkov was a stupid man. -Now, there is something of the same sort in Chicherin, yet can they be -put even approximately on the same level? - -“Though,” L. N. added, “one has to respect every one. Among the virtues -the Chinese place respect first. Simply, without any relation to -anything definite. Respect for the individual and for the opinion of -every man.” - -The conversation turned upon ancient languages and classical education. -L. N. said: - -“When I studied and read a great deal of Greek, I could easily -understand almost any Greek book. I used to be at the examinations -in the Lyceum, and saw that nearly always the pupil only understood -what he had learnt beforehand. He did not understand new passages. -And, indeed, at school for every fifty words that were learnt at least -sixty-five rules were taught. In such a way one can’t learn anything. - -“I am always surprised how firmly all sorts of superstitions possess -people. Superstitions, such as the Church, the Tsar, the army, etc., -live for centuries, and people have got so accustomed to them that they -are not now thought to be strange. But the superstition of classical -education arose with us in Russia before my very eyes. Above all, not -one of the most zealous partisans of classical education can give a -single sensible argument in favour of the system.” Then L. N. added: - -“There is also the superstition of the possibility of a ‘school’ in -art. Hence all institutes and academies. The abnormal form which -art takes now, however, is not the root of the evil, but one of its -symptoms. When the religious conception of life changes, then art, -too, will find its true methods.” - -L. N. returned to the Chinese virtue of ‘respect,’ and said: - -“Often remarkable men suffer from the lack of that Chinese ‘respect.’ -For instance, in Henry George’s _Progress and Poverty_ Marx’s name is -not mentioned at all; and in his recently published posthumous work -hardly eight lines refer to Marx, and those speak of the obscurity, -complexity, and emptiness of Marx’s works. - -“Apropos of obscurity and complexity, they are nearly always a proof of -the absence of true meaning. But there is one great exception--Kant, -who wrote horribly, and yet he makes an epoch in the development of -mankind. In many respects he discovered perfectly new horizons.” - -To-day after lunch L. N. went on horseback to Sokolniki and came back -late in the evening. Nevertheless, when Mme. M. A. Maklakov and myself -began to say good-bye, he said he would come with us. On the way Mme. -Maklakov kept saying all the time how much she would like to live in -the country. L. N. interrupted her: - -“How it annoys me when people abuse the town with such exaggeration and -say: To the country, to the country! All depends on the person,--in -town, too, one can be with Nature. Don’t you remember,” L. N. asked -her, “we had an old gatekeeper, Vasili? He lived all his life in -town; in the summer he used to get up at 3 o’clock in the morning, -and enjoyed his intercourse with Nature in our garden much more than -country gentlemen do, who spend their evenings in the country playing -cards. Besides, compared with the enormously important question of how -to live one’s life in the best and most moral way, the question of town -or country has no value at all.” - -Before this L. N. said with a smile: - -“I once said, but you must not talk about it, and I tell it you in -secret: woman is generally so bad that the difference between a good -and a bad woman scarcely exists.” - - -_Yasnaya Polyana, July 31st._ I am working with N. N. Ge on the -proofs of _Resurrection_. The corrections are to be inserted in the -proof-sheets from L. N.’s draft copy, and two copies of the same are -made. The draft copy remains here, and the fair copies are sent, one to -Marx for the weekly _Niva_, and the other to Chertkov in England for -the English edition. - -It is an interesting, but worrying and difficult work. Throughout, -instead of the one printed proof-sheet, one has to copy out afresh -three or four long pages. Often L. N.’s corrections are written so -closely that a magnifying glass has to be used to read them. Unless -one has seen L. N.’s incredible work, the numerous passages that are -rewritten, the additions and alterations, the same incident being -sometimes written dozens of times over, one can have not the remotest -idea of this labour. - - -_August 2nd._ I have been here from July 27th (in Yasnaya Polyana). - -A queer young man, K., came to L. N., and, on my asking him what he was -doing, he said that “he was the free son of air.” K. told L. N. that he -wanted to settle down in the country among the people. - -L. N. in recounting it said: - -“Of course, I did not advise him to do it. Usually nothing comes from -such attempts. For instance, some very nice people, the N. N.’s, bought -a small plot of land and settled like that in the country. A peasant -cut down one of their trees; they did not want to take action in the -court against him, and soon, when the peasants learnt about it, they -cut down the whole woods. The peasant boys stole their peas; they were -not beaten nor driven away, and then nearly the whole village came and -stole all the peas, etc., etc. - -“One should not, _above all_, look for new ways of life, for usually, -in doing so, one’s whole energy is spent on the external arrangement of -life. And when all the external arrangement is over, one begins to feel -bored and does nothing. Let every one first do his own work, if only it -does not clash sharply with his convictions, and let him try to become -better and better in his own situation, and then he will find new ways -of life into the bargain. For the most part, all the external side of -life must be neglected; one should not bother about it. Do your own -work.” - -To-day L. N. said of some one: - -“He is a Tolstoian--that is, a man with convictions utterly opposed to -mine.” - -Yesterday L. N. spoke of the process of creative work: - -“I can’t understand how any one can write without rewriting everything -over and over again. I scarcely ever re-read my published writings, but -if by chance I come across a page, it always strikes me: All this must -be rewritten; this is how I should have written it.... - -“I am always interested to trace the moment, which comes quite early, -when the public is satisfied; and the artist thinks: They say it is -good; but it is just at this point that the real work begins!” - -To-day L. N. was not well. I went to him; he was lying on the little -sofa in the drawing-room. He told me of S. G. Verus’s book on the -Gospels. - -“His final conclusion is the denial of Christ as a historical person. -In the earliest written parts of the New Testament--in Paul’s -messages--there is not a single biographical fact about Christ. All the -Gospels that have come down to us were composed between the second and -fourth century A.D. Of the writers who were Christ’s contemporaries -(Tacitus, Suetonius, Philo, J. Flavius) not a single one of them -mentions Christ; so that his personality is not historical, but -legendary. - -“All this is very interesting and even valuable, for it makes it -unnecessary to quarrel any more over refuting the authenticity of -the Gospel stories about the miracles; and it proves the teaching of -the Gospels to be not the words of one superman, but the sum of the -wisdom of all the best moral teaching expressed by many people and at -different times.” - -L. N. also said this to me: - -“Perhaps it is because I am unwell, but at moments to-day I am simply -driven to despair by everything that is going on in the world: the new -form of oath, the revolting proclamation about enlisting university -students in the army, the Dreyfus affair, the situation in Serbia, -the horrors of the diseases and deaths in the Auerbach quicksilver -works.... I can’t make out how mankind can go on living like this, with -the sight of all this horror round them! - -“It always strikes me how little man is valued, even in the simplest -way as a valuable and useful animal. We value a horse which can carry, -but man can also make boots, work in a factory, play the piano! And -50 per cent are dying! When I used to breed merino sheep and their -death-rate reached 5 per cent, I was indignant and thought the shepherd -very bad. And 50 per cent of the people are dying!” - -I read L. N.’s most wonderful _Father Sergius_. - - -_Moscow, August 9th._ I returned from Yasnaya in the evening of the -6th. This is what I find I have written down. - -The talk turned upon the woman question. The conversation was carried -on in a half-jocular tone. - -L. N. said: - -“Woman, as a Christian, has a right to equality. Woman, as member -of the modern and perfectly pagan family, must not struggle for an -impossible equality. The modern family is like a tiny little boat -sailing in a storm on the vast ocean. It can keep afloat if it is ruled -by _one_ will. But when those in the boat begin struggling, the boat -is upset, and the result is what we see now in most families. The man, -however bad, is in the majority of cases the more sensible of the two. -Woman is nearly always in opposition to any progress. When man wants -to break with the old life and to go ahead, he nearly always meets -with energetic resistance from the woman. The wife catches hold of his -coat-tails and will not allow him. In woman a great evil is terribly -highly developed--family egotism. It is a dreadful egotism, for it -commits the greatest cruelties in the name of love; as if to say, let -the whole world perish so that my Serge may be happy!...” - -Then L. N. recalled scenes which he had observed in Moscow: - -“There issues from Minangua’s a gentleman in a beaver coat, with a sad -face, and after him his lady, and the porter carries boxes and helps -the lady into the sledge. - -“I love at times to stand near the colonnade by the great theatre and -watch the ladies driving up to stop at Meriliz’s. I only know of two -similar sights: (1) when peasant women go to Zaseka to pick up nuts the -watchmen catch them, so that sometimes they give birth out of fright, -and yet they go on doing it; and (2) so it is with ladies shopping at -sales. - -“And their coachmen wait in the bitter cold and talk among themselves: -‘My lady must have spent five thousand to-day!’ - -“I shall one day write about women. When I am quite old, and my -digestion is completely out of order, and I am still looking out into -the world through one eye, then I shall pop my head out and tell them: -That’s what you are! and disappear completely, or they would peck me to -death.” ... - -Doctor E. N. Maliutin was in Yasnaya. L. N. said to him: - -“I can’t understand the usual attitude that a doctor always serves a -good cause. There is no profession that is good in itself. One may be -a cobbler and be better and nicer than a doctor. Why is restoring some -one to health good? At times it is quite the opposite. Man’s deeds are -good, not in themselves, but because of the feelings which inspire -him. That’s why I do not understand the desire of women to be doctors, -trained nurses, midwives, as though by becoming a midwife everything is -settled for the best.” - -On some occasion L. N. said: - -“When you are told about a complicated and difficult affair, for the -most part about some one’s disgusting behaviour, reply to it: Did _you_ -make the jam? or: Won’t you like to have tea?--and that’s all. Much -harm comes from the so-called attempt to understand circumstances and -relations.” - - -_October 1st._ I came to Yasnaya Polyana yesterday. It is very nice -here now the weather is mild, almost bright, but rather cold. There are -no strangers. I am copying _Resurrection_ again, on which L. N. is hard -at work. Now I am doing the first chapters of Part III. - -There is little joy in the Tolstois’ family life, and to an intimate -friend this is extremely marked. - - -_Moscow, November 26th._ I am much distressed by L. N.’s serious -illness, which at the bottom of my mind I consider hopeless. I called -on Wednesday to inquire after his health, and the news was very -unfavourable. - - -_December 7th._ When Tolstoi was ill (he is much better now) and I was -for the first time in his room, he seemed glad to see me, which was a -great delight to me. On his table was the volume of Tyutchev’s poems. -In his hand he had an English book, _Empire and Freedom_ (I don’t -remember by whom). As is always his way, Tolstoi at once spoke of what -he was reading. - -“Here is a remarkable book!” said Tolstoi. “He (the author) is -American, therefore an Anglo-Saxon; nevertheless, he denies the -so-called civilizing influence of the Anglo-Saxon race. I can’t -understand how people can stick to such superstitions! I understand a -Muhammad preaching his doctrine,--mediæval Christianity, the Crusades. -Whatever the convictions of those people may have been, they did it in -the belief that they knew the truth and were giving that knowledge to -others. But now there is nothing! Everything is done for the sake of -profit!” - -Then Tolstoi began to talk about a French pamphlet on the workers’ -co-operative societies which he had read. - -“Why not introduce in the villages here such co-operative societies? -That is a vital thing! You, instead of doing nothing,” he turned to -Ilya Lvovich, who sat there, “ought to do it here in the village. - -“Socialist ideas have become a truism. Who can now seriously dispute -the idea that every one should have the right to enjoy the result of -his labour?” - -Then the conversation turned upon the _obschina_. - -Tolstoi said: - -“Everything is taken away from the peasants; they are overtaxed, -oppressed in all ways. The only good thing left is the _obschina_. -And then every one criticizes it and makes it responsible for all the -miseries of the peasants, in their wish to take away from the peasants -their last good thing. They make out that the mutual responsibility -of the members is one of the evils of the _obschina_. But mutual -responsibility is only one of the principles of the _obschina_ with -regard to fiscal purposes. If I use a good thing for an evil end, that -does not prove that the thing is in itself bad.” - -Then the conversation turned upon Tyutchev. The other day Tolstoi saw -in the _Novoe Vremya_ his poem “Twilight.” He therefore took down all -Tyutchev’s poems and read them during his illness. - -Tolstoi said to me: - -“I am always saying that a work of art is either so good that there is -no standard by which to define its qualities--that is real art,--or -it is quite bad. Now, I am happy to have found a real work of art. I -cannot read it without tears. I know it by heart. Listen, I’ll read it -to you.” - -Tolstoi began in a voice broken with tears: - -“The dove-coloured shadows melted together....” - -When I am on my death-bed I shall not forget the impression then -produced on me by Tolstoi. He lay on his back, convulsively twisting -the edge of his blanket with his fingers and trying in vain to restrain -the tears that choked him. He broke down several times and began again. -But at last, when he read the end of the stanza, “Everything is in me, -and I in everything,” his voice gave way. The entrance of A. N. Dunaev -stopped him. He grew calmer. - -“What a pity that I spoilt the poem for you!” he said to me later. - -Then I played the piano. - -Tolstoi asked me not to play Chopin, saying: “I am afraid I might burst -into tears.” - -Tolstoi asked for something by Mozart or Haydn. - -He asked: “Why do pianists never play Haydn? You ought to. How good it -is--beside a modern complicated, artificial work--to play something of -Mozart or Haydn!” - - - - -1900 - - -_Moscow, January 29th._ Tolstoi had a conversation with V. E. Den when -Chalyapin was here. Tolstoi is working now on the article on the labour -question, “New Slavery,” and the conversation turned upon labour. - -Tolstoi said: “We are going through a new stage in the evolution of -slavery: the slavery of the working men suffering under the yoke of the -well-to-do classes. - -“Slavery will never cease at the bottom first, exclusively from the -movement of the slaves themselves. We saw it in America, and here -during the serfdom of the peasants. So must it happen now again. It is -only when we realize that it is a shame to have slaves, that we shall -cease to be slave-drivers, and shall voluntarily give up exploiting the -working classes. - -“Freedom cannot come from the slaves. Individual slaves who have rid -themselves of the yoke of slavery become in the majority of cases -particularly harsh oppressors and tyrants over their late brothers. -Nor can it be otherwise. How can you expect from them--harassed and -tortured--anything else? It is only when we voluntarily give up the -shameful use of the labour of the slaves, our brothers, that slavery -will come to an end. - -“Science, in so far as it describes and clarifies the real state of -things, does a useful and necessary work. But as soon as it starts -laying down programmes for the future, it becomes useless. All these -ideas about an eight-hour working day, etc., only increase and legalize -the evil. Labour must be free, not slavish, and that is all. - -“When a peasant gets up before sunrise and works all day long in the -field, he is not a slave. He has intercourse with nature, he does a -useful work. But when he stands by a piece of machinery in a Morosov’s -factory all his life long, manufacturing textiles which he will never -see, and neither himself nor any one of his people will ever use, then -he is a slave and perishes in slavery. - -“Railways, telephones, and the other accessories of the civilized -world--all that is useful and good. But if one had to choose either -the whole of this civilization, for which not hundreds of thousands of -ruined lives are required, but only the certain destruction of one -single existence, or, on the other hand, no civilization at all, then -no thank you for this civilization with its railways and telephones, if -a necessary condition of them is the destruction of human life.” - - -_February 24th._ On the 18th and 20th I was at the Tolstois’. On -the 18th Tolstoi went to the “Pod Deviche” playhouse and afterwards -to a dirty public-house, where there is an extraordinary amount of -drunkenness and debauchery, to make observations. - -Tolstoi said: - -“Twenty years ago I saw at the ‘Pod Deviche,’ _Churkin_, a play -composed by a drunken tramp, and this time I saw _Stenka Rasin_--and it -is all the same thing. Murder and violence are represented as heroic -and are acclaimed by the crowd. And it is remarkable that whilst every -word in a book which may enlighten the minds of the people is carefully -struck out by the censorship, such performances are readily allowed, -under the police inspector’s censorship. During the last twenty years -probably over a million people have seen these _Churkins_ and _Rasins_.” - -In telling this, Tolstoi recollected how he was once in a workhouse -where the priest explained the Gospels: - -“The passage was read where Christ says: ‘It is said: thou shalt not -kill; but I say unto you, do not be angry without cause.’ The priest -began to explain that one must not be angry without cause, but, if -the authorities become angry, that is right and as it should be. ‘Do -not kill’ also does not mean that one should never kill. In war or -at an execution, killing is necessary and is not a sin. This is the -only chance that an illiterate person has to understand the meaning of -the Gospels, for in church all the chapters are either indistinctly -read by the sexton, or shouted so loud that they are perfectly -unintelligible--and this is the way in which the Gospels are explained -to the people!” - -A long talk about the Boers and the English took place. - -Tolstoi said: - -“I always consider that moral motives are effective and decisive -historically. And now, when the universal dislike of the English is -so clearly pronounced--I shall not live to see it, but it seems to me -that the power of England will be much shaken. And I say this not out -of an unconscious Russian patriotism. If Poland or Finland rose against -Russia and success were on their side, my sympathy would be on their -side as the oppressed. - -“The Russian people, speaking impartially, is perhaps the most -Christian of all in its moral character. It is partly to be explained -by the fact that the Gospels have been read by the Russian people for -nine hundred years; Catholics don’t know the Gospels even now, and -other races came to know the Gospel only after the Reformation. - -“I was struck when I saw in the streets of London a criminal escorted -by the police, and the police had to protect him energetically from -the crowd, which threatened to tear him to pieces. With us it is just -the opposite: police have to drive away by force the people who try to -give the criminal money and bread. With us, criminals and prisoners are -‘little unhappy ones.’ But now, unfortunately, there is a change for -the worse, and our abominable Government tries with all its might and -main to rouse hatred against the condemned. In Siberia, even prizes are -given to any one who kills an escaped prisoner.” - - -_April 29th._ The conversation was on Shakespeare. Tolstoi is not very -fond of him. Tolstoi said: - -“Three times in my life I have read through Shakespeare and Goethe from -end to end, and I could never make out in what their charm consisted.” - -According to Tolstoi, Goethe is cold. Among his (Goethe’s) works he -likes many of the lyrics and _Hermann and Dorothea_. He does not like -Goethe’s dramatic works, and his novels he considers quite weak. -Tolstoi did not speak about _Faust_. - -Tolstoi is very fond of Schiller, and said: “He is a genuine man!” -He loves almost all his works, particularly _The Robbers_ and _Don -Carlos_, also _Mary Stuart_, _William Tell_, and _Wallenstein_. - -Then A. M. Sukhotin, a man over seventy, read aloud Turgenev’s _Old -Portraits_ superbly. Tolstoi did not remember the story, and was in -great delight over it. He said: - -“It is only after reading all these moderns that one really appreciates -Turgenev.” - -Tolstoi remembered Turgenev with great love. He said, in passing: - -“When Turgenev died I wanted to read a paper about him. I wanted -especially, in view of the misunderstandings that there had been -between us, to remember and relate all the good that was so abundant -in him, and to tell what I loved in him. The lecture was not given. -Dolgorukov did not allow it.” - -The conversation turned on Chekhov and Gorky. Tolstoi as usual praised -Chekhov’s artistic gift very highly. The lack of a definite world -conception grieves him in Chekhov; and in this respect Tolstoi prefers -Gorky. Of Gorky Tolstoi said: - -“You know what he is from his works. Gorky’s great and very serious -essential defect is a poorly developed sense of proportion, and this -is extremely important. I pointed out this defect to Gorky himself, -and as an instance I drew his attention to his misuse of the method -of animating inanimate things. Then Gorky said that in his opinion it -was a good method, and gave an instance of it in his story _Malva_, -where it says: ‘the sea laughed.’ I replied to him that, if on certain -occasions the method might be very successful, nevertheless one ought -not to abuse it.” - -Yesterday Ushakov asked Tolstoi about Gromeka. Tolstoi and Tatyana -Lvovna spoke a great deal about him. - -Tolstoi said: - -“He was a sympathetic, passionate, and gifted man. He shot himself when -still a young man, it was said because he was mentally deranged.” - -Tatyana Lvovna says, by the way, that Gromeka was her first admirer -and proposed to her when she was sixteen. - -Tolstoi values Gromeka’s criticism very much. He said: - -“It was a pleasure to me that a man who sympathized with me could see -_even_ in _War and Peace_ and in _Anna Karenin_ a great deal of what I -was afterwards to say and write.” - -Tolstoi also said: - -“When I wrote the story _What Men Live by_, Fet said, ‘Well, what do -people live by? By money, of course.’” - -I observed that Fet had probably said it in joke. Tolstoi replied: - -“No, it was his conviction. And, as often happens, what people try very -stubbornly to get, they do get. Fet all his life long wanted to become -rich, and he became rich. His brothers and sisters, it seems, went out -of their minds, and all their fortunes came to him.” - -Fet wrote in Tatyana Lvovna’s album that the unhappiest day of his life -was the one when he saw that he was going to be ruined. - -I talked a good deal with Tolstoi to-day. Tolstoi said about current -events: - -“I am not so much horrified at these murders in the Transvaal, and now -in China, as by the open declaration of immoral motives. They used at -least to cloak themselves hypocritically in good motives, but now that -this is no longer possible they express all their immoral and cruel -intentions and claims openly.” - -We spoke about the abolition of deportation. Tolstoi considers it worse -than the other method. He said: - -“Instead of making it possible for a man to order his life in a new -place, he is put into prison. The Government has already voted six and -a half millions for the enlargement of prisons. And this money will -again be flayed off the peasants, for there is nowhere else to take it -from.” - -Of our courts of justice Tolstoi said: - -“How absurd our courts are can be seen at each stage. For example, take -the case of the Tula priest. How was it that the Tula court acquitted -him, and then after the acquittal the Oriol court sentenced him to hard -labour for twenty years? If such uncertainty is possible, what are -those verdicts worth? Indeed, it depends on a thousand accidents: the -temper of the jurymen, the behaviour of the prisoner at the bar--the -prisoner bursts into tears, and the impression produced secures his -acquittal. It is merely a game of heads and tails! It would be simpler -and easier to say: Heads or tails, and to give sentence accordingly. -It simply baffles me how decent people can be judges!” - -Of the case of S. I. Mamontov, Tolstoi said: - -“One is certainly very sorry for him: he is an old, unhappy man; but, -on the other hand, you have to remember that the man has squandered -twelve millions, or whatever it may be; he certainly spent between one -and two hundred thousand roubles per annum, and is then acquitted, -while another wretched man steals a trifle and is condemned for it. And -in his case, too, money was spent on expensive lawyers. This reminds -me of the anecdote I read in the papers. A cashier who embezzled -twenty-five thousand roubles came to a lawyer to ask him to undertake -his defence. The lawyer asked him: ‘Is there any more money left?’ -The cashier said that there was another twenty-five thousand. Then -the lawyer said: ‘Take the rest and give it to me, and then I will -undertake your case.’ - -“And why should the jury be able to pardon? Only the plaintiff can -pardon; but the jury whom he has not hurt have nothing to pardon him -for. - -“I once talked to N. V. Davidov, and said to him that all punishment -may be dispensed with, yet an enquiry ought to be made; and when the -crime is proved, they should go to the criminal and accuse him in the -presence of all of his crime, and should bring forward the proof of -his guilt. It is quite likely that the man will say: ‘Be damned to -you, it is none of your business!’ But still I think that this method -would more often give positive results than the existing system of -punishment.” - -Speaking of the Government, Tolstoi said: - -“I wonder why they have not put me into prison yet? Particularly now, -after my article on ‘Patriotism.’ Perhaps they have not read it yet? It -ought to be sent to them.” - -Tolstoi spoke again of his indifference to modern complicated music: - -“I tried to accustom myself to modern dissonances, but these are all a -perversion of taste. A modern composer takes a musical idea, now and -then even a lovely one, and twists it round and round without end or -measure, combines it with other themes, and, when at last he manages to -express something simple, one is ready to heave a sigh of relief and -say: Thank God!” - - -_July 4th._ Yesterday Tolstoi said to me: - -“Buddha says that happiness consists in doing as much good as possible -to others. However strange this may seem on the face of it, yet it is -true without a doubt: happiness is only possible when the struggle for -personal happiness is renounced.” - -Then Tolstoi smiled and said: - -“And yet you play the piano! But certainly that is better than many -other things. At any rate you need not pass sentence on any one, or -commit murder.” - -Tolstoi said of newspapers: - -“At present the newspaper infection has reached its ultimate limits. -All the questions of the day are artificially puffed up by the -newspapers. The worst danger is that the newspapers present everything -ready made, without making people stop to think about anything. A -liberal Kuzminsky, or even a Koni, takes his fresh newspaper with his -morning coffee, reads it, goes to his court, where he meets others who -have just read the very same newspaper, and the contagion is spread!” - -Tolstoi went on to say: - -“It has suddenly become perfectly clear to me that the evil lies in -regulations, _i.e._ the chief thing is not that people do wrong, but -that some force others to do a wrong which is considered to be right. -Hitherto not a single one even of the most extreme socialist doctrines -has dispensed with compulsion. But slavery will only cease when every -one is free to choose his work and the time needed for it. - -“People always put an end to things by asking: ‘Well; let us suppose -that we have liberated the slave, what will follow next? How is it -going to be done?’ I do not know how it is going to be done, but I do -know that the existing order is the greatest evil, and therefore I -must try to take as little part as possible in keeping it going. But -what will come in place of that evil--I do not and must not know. For -what reason did we, the well-to-do classes, take upon ourselves the -rôle of the controllers of life? Let the freed slaves arrange things -for themselves. I know only this, that it is bad to be a slave and -worse still to own slaves, and therefore I must rid myself of the evil. -That’s all.” - -Tolstoi wanted to take for the motto of his new book, _The Slavery of -our Times_, Marx’s saying that since the capitalists made themselves -masters of the working classes the European governments lost all shame. - -Tolstoi praised Elzbacher’s book on anarchy, in which the doctrines -of seven anarchists are expounded: of Godwin, Proudhon, Max Stirner, -Bakunin, Kropotkin, B. P. Tucker, and Tolstoi himself. - -Tolstoi said: - -“I myself can remember at the beginning of the socialist movement in -Russia that the word ‘socialist’ was only spoken in a whisper; but when -Professor Ivanyukov in the first years of the eighties openly wrote his -book on socialism, it was already a widely spread doctrine in Western -Europe. It is in the same way that the public now regard anarchism, -often crudely identifying this doctrine with the throwing of bombs.” - -Of Elzbacher’s book Tolstoi said: - -“At the end of the book is an alphabetical index of the words used by -the seven anarchists. It appears that the word _Zwang_, compulsion, -violence, is absent only in the exposition of my views.” - -Sergeenko was telling Tolstoi about Volinsky’s book on Leonardo da -Vinci, and said it was a fine book. - -Tolstoi remarked: - -“Yes, it seems to be one of those books which are good in that it is -not necessary to read them.” - -Tolstoi said yesterday about doctors and science generally: - -“How trivial and unnecessary are all our sciences! It is true that -exact sciences--mathematics and chemistry, although quite unimportant -for the improvement of moral life, are at any rate exact and positive. -But, although medical science has a great deal of knowledge, that -amount is nothing in proportion to what is needed in order actually to -know anything. And what is the good of it?” - -I replied to Tolstoi that, although in theory it may be so, yet in -practice, when some one is ill, one always wants to help them. - -To this Tolstoi replied: - -“It often happens that if some one is seriously ill, those around him, -at the bottom of their hearts, want him to die, in order to be rid of -him--he is in their way.” - -Tolstoi said to Sophie Andreevna: - -“It’s time for us to die,” and he quoted Pushkin’s lines: - -“And then our heir in a lucky moment will crush us down with a heavy -monument.” - - -_July 5th._ Tolstoi went for a walk to-day with myself and P. A. -Sergeenko. We passed through the splendid young fir-tree forest on the -left of the road to Kozlovka. - -Tolstoi said: - -“I am trying to like and appreciate the modern writers, but it -is so difficult. Dostoevsky often wrote so badly, so weakly and -incompetently, from the point of view of technique; but what a lot he -always has to say! Taine said that for one page of Dostoevsky’s he -would give all French novels. - -“And technique has now reached a wonderful perfection. A Mme. Lukhmanov -or Mme. D. writes quite wonderfully. What are Turgenev or myself -compared with her! She could give us forty points’ start of her!” - -Tolstoi has recently re-read all Chekhov’s short stories. To-day he -said of Chekhov: - -“His mastery is of the highest order. I have been re-reading his -stories with the greatest pleasure. Some, as, for instance, ‘Children,’ -‘Sleepy,’ ‘In Court,’ are real masterpieces. I really read one story -after another with great pleasure. And yet it is all a mosaic; there is -no connecting inner link. - -“The most important thing in a work of art is that it should have a -kind of focus, _i.e._ there should be some place where all the rays -meet or from which they issue. And this focus must not be able to be -completely explained in words. This indeed is one of the significant -facts about a true work of art--that its content in its entirety can be -expressed only by itself.” - -Tolstoi finds a great likeness between the talents of Chekhov and -Maupassant. He prefers Maupassant for his greater joy in life. But, on -the other hand, Chekhov’s gift is a purer gift then Maupassant’s. - -Sergeenko, I don’t remember in what connection, recalled a poem by -Lermontov. - -Tolstoi said: - -“He had indeed a permanent and powerful seeking after truth! Pushkin -has not that moral significance, but the sense of beauty is developed -in him more highly than in any one else. In Chekhov, and in modern -writers generally, there is an extraordinary development of the -technique of realism. In Chekhov everything is real to the verge of -illusion. His stories give the impression of a stereoscope. He throws -words about in apparent disorder, and, like an impressionist painter, -he achieves wonderful results by his touches.” - -Tolstoi likes M. Gorky very much as a man. He begins, however, to be -disappointed with his work. - -Tolstoi said of him: - -“Gorky lacks a sense of proportion. He has a familiar style which is -unpleasant.” - -Tolstoi wrote a short preface to Von Polenz’s novel _Der Büttnerbauer_. - -On that occasion he said: - -“As I read the novel, I kept saying to myself: ‘Why did not you, you -fool, write this novel?’--indeed, I know this world; and how very -important it is to point out the poetry of peasant life! Men with their -civilization will cut down this lime tree here, this forest; they will -lay pavements and make houses with tall chimneys, and they will destroy -the boundless beauty of natural life.” - -On my asking him whether he had ever tried to write such a novel, -Tolstoi said that he had done so several times long ago. - -Tolstoi said of Grigorovich: - -“He is now old-fashioned and seems feeble, but he is an important and -remarkable writer, and God grant that Chekhov may be a tenth part as -important as Grigorovich was. He belonged to the number of the best -men who found an important movement. He has also many artistic merits. -For instance, in the beginning of his _Anton Goremika_, when the old -peasant comes home and gives his son or grandson a twig, it is a moving -incident which depicts the old peasant as well as the simplicity and -artlessness of his life.” - -Of Turgenev, Tolstoi said: - -“He was a typical representative of the men of the ’fifties--a radical -in the best sense of the word. His struggle against serfdom is -remarkable, and also his love for what he describes; for instance, the -way he describes the old man in _Old Portraits_. And then there is his -sensitiveness to the beauties of nature.” - -Speaking of the province of criticism, Tolstoi said: - -“The value of criticism consists in pointing out all the good that -there is in this or that work of art, and in thus directing the opinion -of the public, whose tastes are mostly crude and the majority of whom -have no feeling for beauty. Just as it is difficult to be a really good -critic, so it is easy for the most stupid and limited man to become -a critic; and as good critics are needed, so bad critics are merely -harmful. It is a particularly absurd and cheap habit of critics to -express, in talking of other people’s work, all sorts of personal ideas -which have nothing to do with the book they are criticizing. This is -the most useless gossip.” - - -_July 7th._ Tolstoi said that all human vices can be reduced to three -classes: (1) anger, malevolence; (2) vanity; and (3) lust--in the -widest sense of the word. The last is the most powerful. - -In the morning, at coffee, Tolstoi sighed and said: - -“Yes, it is hard, it is hard.... It is hard because falsehood and -arrogance prevail in the higher ranks of society, and because there -is much darkness among the people. The other day two sectarians of -the priestless sect came to me from Tula: one a young one, evidently -of little understanding, and the other an old man, who, while we -talked, kept putting on his spectacles. The old man turned out to be -understanding, wise, and said many things to the point, as though he -agreed with my religious views; and yet when I offered them tea they -refused because they had not brought their tea things with them.” - -On the occasion of the Boxer rising Tolstoi said: - -“It is terrible that it should happen in such an awful way. But, -although it is difficult to foresee, yet it is to be expected that -after the war a greater understanding will take place between Europeans -and the Chinese; and I think that the Chinese are bound to have a most -beneficial influence on us, if only because of their extraordinary -capacity for work and of their ability to grow more on a small plot -of land and obtain better results than we do on a space a dozen times -larger.” - -Tolstoi compares the present state of Europe with the end of the Roman -Empire. The Chinese, in his opinion, play the part of the “barbarians.” - - -Tolstoi said to-day: - -“All our actions are divided into those which have a value, and those -which have no value at all, in the face of death. If I were told that I -had to die to-morrow, I should not go out for a ride on horseback; but -if I were about to die this moment, and Levochka here” (Leo Lvovich’s -son, who passed across the terrace at that moment with his nurse) “fell -and burst into tears, I should run to him and pick him up. We are all -in the position of passengers from a ship which has reached an island. -We have gone on shore, we walk about and gather shells, but we must -always remember that, when the whistle sounds, all the little shells -will have to be thrown away and we must run to the boat.” - -Sophie Andreevna, who was present during some of the talks, argued all -the time, and answered Tolstoi in a very feminine way. When Sophie -Andreevna on a walk said that a woman, while her husband writes novels -and philosophical articles, has to bear, to give birth to, and to rear -her children, and how difficult all this is, Tolstoi became indignant -and exclaimed with a bitterness that was rare in him: - -“What terrible things you are saying, Sonechka! A woman who is annoyed -at having children and does not desire them is not a woman, but a -whore!” - -In the evening we sat on the balcony: Tolstoi, Sergeenko, and myself. - -Tolstoi wondered at the illogicality of women, and turning to me said: - -“Peter Alexeevich and myself have a right to speak about women, but you -have none. One must have a wife and daughters to do this. Daughters are -perhaps the more important of the two. Daughters are the only women who -are not ‘women’ at all to a man, and who can be known fully from the -beginning. With sisters such a relation is impossible, for one grows up -side by side with them; a certain rivalry enters into the relation, and -one cannot know one’s sister, entirely, as a whole.” - -Sergeenko asked Tolstoi’s advice as to how to educate his son sexually. - -Tolstoi said to him: - -“These questions are so dangerous that it is better that parents should -not speak of them at all to their children. It is only necessary to -watch the influence of surroundings. At times a vicious boy, or one who -is not vicious at all, but spoilt in this sense, can corrupt a whole -circle of boys. It is best of all that a growing boy should be as much -as possible among young girls. But there are among modern girls some -that are worse than young men. If a feeling of romance is felt for any -girl, this is the best protection against immorality....” - - -_July 12th._ Yesterday I returned home. On the day of my departure -during our walk Sophie Andreevna was talking about the sale of the -Samara estate, which she has completed for four hundred and fifty -thousand roubles (Tolstoi originally bought the estate cheap), and -by the sale of which Andrey, Michael, and Alexandra will get 150,000 -roubles each. This money was the topic of conversation during the last -few days, and how the sons meant to buy this or some other estate. At -the end of the walk Tolstoi and myself found ourselves ahead of the -others. Suddenly he gave a heavy sigh. - -I asked him: “Why do you sigh, Leo Nikolaevich?” - -“If you knew how painful it is to me to hear it all! I have it always -on my conscience that I, with my wish to renounce property, once bought -estates. It is funny to think that it seems now as if I had wished -to make provision for my children, and in doing so I did them the -greatest injury. Look at my Andryusha. He is completely incapable of -doing anything, and lives on the people whom I once robbed and whom my -children keep on robbing. How terrible it is to listen to all this talk -now, to watch it all going on! It is so opposed to my ideas and desires -and to everything I live by.... Oh! that they would spare me!...” - -Tolstoi was silent for a time, and then said: - -“Why did I suddenly begin complaining?” - -At that moment Tatyana Lvovna came up, and our conversation turned on -other subjects. - - -Tolstoi talked about poetry. - -“When a poem deals with love, flowers, etc., it is a comparatively -innocent occupation until the age of sixteen. But to express in verse -an important and serious idea without distorting the idea is almost -impossible. How very difficult it is to express one’s thoughts by words -only, so that every one understands just what you want to express! How -much more difficult, then, it is when the writer is bound by metre and -rhyme! Only the very great poets have succeeded in doing it, and rarely -too. Perfectly false ideas are often hidden behind verses.” - -An undergraduate who had written an article upon Tolstoi in reply to -Nordau’s criticism came, and turned out to be a foolish young man. -Tolstoi had been unwell for the last few days and in a bad temper, so -that he came to us quite upset and said: - -“No, it is time, it is time for me to die! They stick to some single -idea, which they arbitrarily choose from the rest, and go on and on -repeating: Non-resistance! non-resistance! How am I to blame for it?” - -Sophie Andreevna said to me: - -“The private life of famous men is always distorted in their -biographies. They are sure to make me out a Xantippe. You must take my -side, Alexander Borisovich!” ... - -During our walk Sophie Andreevna showed me the spot which is called -“the apiary,” and said: - -“There actually was an apiary here once. Leo N. was at one time mad -about bees, and used to spend whole days in the apiary. We often drove -here, taking a samovar and having tea here. Once Fet came here, and we -went to join Leo N. at the apiary. It was a wonderful evening; we sat -here for a long time; and there were many glow-worms in the grass. Leo -N. said to me: ‘Now, Sonia, you always wanted emerald earrings; take -two glow-worms for earrings.’ Thereupon Fet wrote a poem in which were -these lines: - - - In my hand is thy hand--what a marvel! - On the ground are two glow-worms, two emeralds.” - - -At another point Sophie Andreevna showed me the field where Tolstoi and -Turgenev once stood when shooting, and she was with them. - -Sophie Andreevna said: - -“It was the last time Turgenev stayed at Yasnaya, not long before his -death. I asked him: ‘Ivan Sergeevich, why don’t you write now?’ He -answered: ‘In order to write I had always to be a little in love. Now I -am old, I can’t fall in love any more, and that is why I have stopped -writing.’” - - -_December 27th._ Last night I was at the Tolstois’. There were Tolstoi, -Ilya, and Andrey (Tolstoi’s sons). A message arrived that Tatyana -Lvovna had given birth prematurely to a stillborn child; a day before, -news reached Yasnaya Polyana that the son of Leo Lvovich, a boy of -about two, was dead. Sophie Andreevna left for Yasnaya. There was an -atmosphere of depression. - -Tolstoi played chess with me. Later P. S. Usov came, who also played a -game of chess with Tolstoi. We began to talk. Tolstoi became animated. -The post arrived. There were three letters from Chertkov. In one of -them there were many pages of closely written manuscript. - -Tolstoi glanced at it and said: - -“It is probably a woman’s writing. How nice it would be if one need not -read it!” - -The manuscript, however, turned out not to be from a woman, so that -Tolstoi put it aside to read it. - -Referring to his daughter’s misfortune, Tolstoi said: - -“I am not sorry that my daughters have no children; I cannot be glad -that I have grandchildren. I know that they will inevitably grow up -to be idlers. My daughters are certainly anxious that this should not -be so, but considering the surroundings in which they will have to be -brought up, it is very difficult to avoid it. All my life long I have -had these surroundings, and, however much I struggle, I can do nothing. -Now, during the Christmas season I can’t bear to look at this mad -extravagance; these visits. What a terrible absurdity it is!” - -Usov was saying in what circumstances a doctor has the right to bring -on birth artificially, thereby killing the baby. - -Tolstoi replied: - -“It is always immoral. For the most part, when there are various ways -of relieving the patient, oxygen, etc., it is difficult to abstain -from using them; but it would be better if they did not exist. We shall -all die without fail, and the doctors’ activity is directed towards -fighting death. But to die--in ten days or in ten years--is all the -same. How terrible it is that it is always concealed from the patient -that he is dying! We are none of us accustomed to look death in the -face!” - -Usov defended the activity of doctors, considering it a useful one. - -Tolstoi said: - -“It is for this reason that I consider the activity of doctors harmful: -people are crowded in towns; they are infected with syphilis and -consumption; they are kept in terrible conditions, and then millions -are spent on the establishment of hospitals and clinics. But why -not spend that energy, not in curing people, but in improving the -conditions of their lives? While numbers of healthy, useful peasants -are infected with all sorts of diseases, and are worn out by work -beyond their strength, so that they die at thirty instead of seventy, -some useless old woman who is quite incurable has spent upon her all -the treatment that medicine can supply. - -“All modern sciences do the very opposite of what they set out to do. -Theology hides moral truths, jurisprudence obscures in every possible -way the conception of justice, the natural sciences teach materialism, -and history distorts the true life of the people. Darwin’s theory is in -agreement with the crude fable of Moses. All discussions on Darwinism -are polemics against Moses. - -“Every young man growing up in Russia passes through a terrible -contagion, a sort of moral syphilis; in the first place, the Orthodox -Church, and then, when he frees himself from that, the doctrines of -materialism. The best physiologists, like Krafft-Ebing or Claude -Bernard, openly admit that, however carefully we investigate even a -simple cell, there is always some _x_ in its composition which we do -not understand. Consequently the complex of organisms and the social -conditions of life are an _x_ raised to the _x_ degree. And if we -cannot investigate a cell completely, then how can we realize the laws -which govern the life of human societies? Yet some blockhead like B. -assures us that it is all very simple, and the science of history can -deduce immutable laws by which human life is shaped. - -“Look at all our historians: what dull, stupid men they are! For -instance, Solovev. He was an incredibly dull man. And when some one -gifted appears among them--a Granovsky, Kostomarov, Kudryavzev--and -you ask, ‘What after all have they done?’ it turns out that they have -done nothing of any importance or value. Take Kluchevsky, for instance: -what has he done? He talks brilliantly, toys with the liberal point of -view about Catherine the Great, and says that she was a whore--well, we -knew that without him. Or take the man who dances the mazurka in the -Moscovskya Vedomsti, Ilovaisky--he is an historian too! - -“What should be taught at school? Long ago, when I was interested in -education, I came to the conclusion that school teaching ought to -consist of two branches only, of languages and mathematics. This is the -only positive knowledge that one can give a pupil. There is no humbug -about this. Either you know it or you don’t know it. Besides, from -this fundamental knowledge all science can develop. From mathematics -come astronomy, physics, natural sciences. From languages, history, -geography, and so on. But with us, who is taught and what are they -taught? To-day I walked in the street. Drunken men were going about, -swearing obscenely, dragging women after them. Who has ever said a -single word to these men about their moral needs? What did we teach -them? - -“The other evening I was coming home from the Turkish bath and walked -near the theatres. Policemen on horseback were lounging about; coachmen -with buttocks like this” (Tolstoi illustrated it with his hands) “and -rows of buttons on their backs sit on the boxes. And in the illuminated -theatres, crowded with people, a divine service is performed: a silly -and distorted story _Sadko_ (an opera) is acted, or ‘When we dead -awaken’ is played. It’s sheer madness!” - - - - -1901 - - -_Moscow, February 1st._ Tolstoi began about a couple of months ago to -learn Dutch, and now he reads quite easily, at the age of seventy-three! - -He has an original way of learning languages: he gets the New Testament -in the language he wants to know, and whilst reading it through he -learns the language. - -Tolstoi said to me recently about modern art: - -“The sense of shame is lost. I cannot call it anything else--the sense -of æsthetic shame. I wonder if you know the feeling? I feel it most -strongly when I read something that is artistically false, and I can -call it nothing else but shame.” - -With regard to his play, _The Corpse_, Tolstoi said to me: - -“The son of the wife of the man I described came to me, and then the -man himself. The son on behalf of his mother asked me not to publish -the play,[1] because it would be very painful to her, and also because -she was afraid of the consequences. I of course promised. - -“Their visit was very interesting and useful to me. Once more, as so -many times before, I was convinced how much feebler and more unreal are -the psychological motives which one invents oneself in order to explain -actions. The actions of one’s imaginary characters are then the motives -which guided those people in real life. After talking to these people I -cooled to my work.” - -On another occasion, in the dining-room downstairs, animated -conversation was going on among the younger people. Tolstoi, who -was resting in the next room in the dark, afterwards came into the -dining-room and said to me: - -“I lay there and listened to your talk. It interested me from two -points of view: it was interesting simply to hear young people talking, -and then it was also interesting from the dramatic point of view. I -listened and said to myself: This is how one ought to write for the -stage. It is not one speaking and the others listening. It is never -like that. It is necessary that all should speak, and the art of the -writer consists in making what he wants run through it like a beautiful -thread.” - - -_March 8th._ Yesterday Tolstoi was in good form. At tea he laughed and -joked. The conversation was about luxury. - -Tolstoi said: - -“How much more money people spend nowadays than they used! When Sophie -Andreevna and I lived in Yasnaya, our income from the Nikolsky estate -was about five thousand roubles and we lived superbly. I remember when -Sophie Andreevna bought little mats to lay by the beds, it seemed -to me a useless and incredible luxury. And now my sons--I seem to -have about twenty of them--squander money right and left, buy dogs, -horses, gramophones. I asked myself then, why buy carpets when we have -slippers? Certainly we did not go barefoot, but, behold, Riepin painted -me _décolleté_, barefooted, in a shirt! I have to thank him for not -having taken off my nether garments! And he never asked me, if I liked -it! But I have long since got used to being treated as if I were dead. -There, in the Peredvizhni exhibition, you will see the Devil (Riepin’s -‘Temptation of Christ’), and you’ll also see the man possessed by the -Devil!” - - -On February 25th Tolstoi’s excommunication was announced. That day -Tolstoi and A. N. Dunaev went on some business to a doctor and came -into the Lubiansky Square. In the square, by the fountain, the crowd -recognized Tolstoi. At first, as Dunaev relates, an ironical voice was -heard: “Here’s the Devil in the likeness of a man!” This served for a -signal. The crowd threw themselves like one man on Tolstoi. All shouted -and threw up their hats. Tolstoi was confused; he didn’t know what to -do and walked away almost at a run. The crowd followed him. With great -difficulty Tolstoi and Dunaev managed to get a sledge at the corner of -Neglinny. The crowd wanted to stop the cabman and many held on to the -sledge. At that moment a troop of mounted police appeared, let the cab -through, and immediately made a ring and cut off the crowd. - -On the occasion of his excommunication Tolstoi received, and is still -receiving, a number of addresses, letters of sympathy, etc. One lady -sent him a piece of holy bread and a letter in which she said that she -had just received the Sacrament and took the Host for his benefit. -She ends her letter: “Eat it in health and pay no heed to these stupid -priests.” - - -_August 9th._ I was the other day in Yasnaya Polyana. Tolstoi is hale -and hearty. I have not seen him like that for a long time. - -The conversation was about Russian writers. - -Tolstoi said: - -“I was fond of Turgenev as a man. As a writer, I do not attribute -particular importance to him or to Goncharov. Their subjects, the -number of ordinary characters and love scenes, have too ephemeral an -importance. If I were asked which of the Russian writers I consider the -most important, I would say: Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, Hertzen, whom -our Liberals have forgotten, and Dostoevsky, whom they do not read at -all. Well, and then: Griboedov, Ostrovsky, Tyutchev.” - -Of Gogol’s works Tolstoi does not like _Taras Bulba_ at all. He far -prefers _The Revisor_ (_Inspector General_), _Dead Souls_, _Shinel_, -_Koliaska_ (“it’s a masterpiece in miniature”), _Nevsky Prospect_. Of -Pushkin’s works, he considers _Boris Godunov_ a failure. - -It is characteristic that in making his selection Tolstoi said: - - - “I do not speak of myself; it’s not for me, but for others, to - judge of my importance.” - - -That evening in his study Tolstoi said to me: - -“Alexander Borisovich, an image comes before me. Rays spread out -from a centre. The centre is the spiritual essence; the rays are the -perpetually growing needs of the body. A time comes when a spiritual -life begins to exist inside these rays. They spread out at an ever -diminishing angle, become parallel, and at last draw together and -finally unite in the one infinitely small and entirely spiritual -centre--death.” - - -_Gaspra, Crimea, September 12th._ Chekhov was here yesterday. He -does not look well; he looks old and coughs perpetually. He speaks -little, in short sentences, but they are always to the point. He gave -a touching account of his life with his mother in the winter at Yalta. -Tolstoi was very glad to see him. - - -_Gaspra, Crimea, September 16th._ Life here goes on very quietly. - -After dinner I or N. L. Obolensky, or both in turn, read Chekhov’s -stories aloud, which Tolstoi greatly enjoys. The other day I read -_The Tedious Story_. Tolstoi was in constant raptures over Chekhov’s -understanding. He also liked, for the originality of the idea and the -mastery of the writing, _The Bet_, and particularly _The Steppe_. - -Of Chekhov Tolstoi said: - -“He is a strange writer: he throws words about as if at random, -and yet everything is alive. And what understanding! He never has -any superfluous details; every one of them is either necessary or -beautiful.” - - -_September 20th._ I told Tolstoi about the article in the _Moscow -Courier_ where Maeterlinck’s is quoted as saying that _Power of -Darkness_ is in his opinion almost the greatest play. - -Tolstoi laughed and said: - -“Why doesn’t he imitate it, then?” - -FOOTNOTE: - -[1] The theme of _The Corpse_ became known to the newspapers through -Tolstoi’s copyist, Alexander Petrovich, who, in a drunken bout in the -Khitrovka, told a fellow drunkard, a reporter of the _Novosti Dnya_, -that Tolstoi was writing a play, and also told him the subject of the -play. The reporter made an article of it and published it in the paper. -This was the cause of the _dramatis personae_ coming to Tolstoi, and -it was also one of the reasons why Tolstoi left the play unfinished. -(Years afterwards the play, finished, was published and entitled _The -Living Corpse_.) - - - - -1902 - - -_Moscow, January 13th._ Tolstoi once told me: - -“When I went to see _Power of Darkness_ acted I sat in the gallery on -purpose so as not to be recognized. Yet I was recognized; they began to -tell me to go on the stage, and I hurried home at once. But there was -a moment when I could hardly restrain myself from stepping on to the -stage and beginning to speak, to say everything--whatever that may be.” - - -_January 15th._ Gorky read aloud to Tolstoi the end of Mazzini’s book -_On the Duties of Man_, which Tolstoi likes very much. While Gorky was -reading, Tolstoi, who had read the book more than once, was almost -moved to tears. - -Madame N. N. Den told me the following story, which she had from her -sister. When Tolstoi was very ill he thought he was dying, and took -leave and said good-bye to all who were present. Leo Lvovich was the -only one of Tolstoi’s children who was absent, and Tolstoi dictated -a letter to him. Those who read it say that this farewell letter at -the point of death was deeply moving. The letter, however, was not -sent, for Leo Lvovich arrived at Gaspra in person. When he came into -Tolstoi’s room, Tolstoi said that it was difficult for him to speak, -but that he had expressed all his thoughts and feelings in the letter, -which he handed to his son. Leo Lvovich read the letter at once in -Tolstoi’s room, then came into the next room, and, in the presence -of all those who were there (Countess Sophie Nicolaevna included), -tore his dying father’s letter into little bits and threw it in the -wastepaper basket.... - - -_Yasnaya Polyana, July 25th._ I have been here a few days. Tolstoi is -well physically. - -To-day Tolstoi said to Doctor Butkevich: - -“The only true way for a man to improve human life is by the way of -moral perfection in his personal life. Spiritual life is a constant -progress, a constant effort towards the realization of truth.” - -The conversation turned upon literature. It began with my saying that -Sienkewicz’s novel, _The Sword Bearers_, was a boring book. - -Tolstoi said: - -“Yes, for some reason I began it, but I could not read it. Do you -remember how, when one is a child, one sometimes gets a piece of meat -which one chews and chews and chews, and one can’t deal with it, and at -last one quietly spits it out and throws it under the table.” - -Then Tolstoi remembered B.’s story which he read recently: - -“It begins with a superb description of nature--a little shower, which -is done as Turgenev even could not do it, let alone myself. And then -there is a girl. She dreams of him” (Tolstoi shortly told the plot -of the story), “and all this--the girl’s silly emotion, the little -shower--all this is needed, in order that B. may write a story. Just -as in ordinary life, when people have nothing to say they talk about -the weather, so writers, when they have nothing to write about, write -about the weather, and it is time to put an end to it. Yes, there was -a little shower; there might just as well have been no shower at all. -I think that all this must come to an end in literature. It is simply -impossible to read any longer. - -“I once belonged to the guild of authors, and from habit I watch and am -interested in everything that goes on there.” - -Tolstoi quoted a few instances of misstatements and inaccuracies in -writers like Uspensky and Korolenko, but said that these were only -slips. But when psychological mistakes are made, when the characters in -novels and stories do what, from their spiritual nature, they cannot -do, it is a terrible failing, and the works of the Andreevs, etc., -are full of such mistakes. Even in Gorky it is always happening. For -instance, it is the case in his story about the silver clasps, or -in the opinions of the women in _Three_. His _Burghers_ is utterly -uninteresting. The surroundings are indefinite, untypical; nobody can -make anything of it at all. - -“I am always afraid of falling into the old man’s habit of being unable -to appreciate or to understand the present. But I try my best and -genuinely can find no beauty in the modern tendencies of art. There -has recently appeared a very just article by E. Markov on Gorky. The -writer, rather timidly--for Gorky has become such an idol that people -dare not speak of him--has pointed out correctly that modern Russian -literature has completely turned away from those high moral problems -which it formerly pursued. And indeed what a complete denial of moral -principles there is! You may be vicious, you may rob or kill; there is -nothing to restrain the individual; all is allowed.... - -“But still I am impressed by the fact that Gorky is translated in -Europe and greatly read there. Undoubtedly there is something new -in him. His chief merit is that he was the first to draw the world -of outcasts and tramps from the life, which until then no one had -attempted. In this respect he did what Turgenev and Grigorovich did in -their day for the world of peasants. - -“I love Chekhov very much and value his writings, but I could not -make myself read his play, _The Three Sisters_. What is it all for? -Generally speaking, modern writers have lost the conception of drama. -Drama, instead of telling us the whole of a man’s life, must place -him in such a situation, tie such a knot, that, when it is untied, -the whole man is made visible. Now, I allowed myself to criticize -Shakespeare. But with him every character is alive; and it is always -clear why he acts as he does. In Shakespeare’s theatre there were -boards with inscriptions ‘moonlight,’ ‘a house,’ because (Heaven be -praised!) the whole attention was concentrated on the substance of the -drama. Now it is just the opposite.” - -Tolstoi spoke with disgust of Andreev’s _Abyss_, and said: - -“With regard to Leonid Andreev, I always remember a story by Ginzburg -about a boy who cannot pronounce the letter ‘r’ and says to his -friend: ‘I went for a walk and suddenly I see a wolf.... Are you -fwightened? Are you fwightened?’ - -“So Andreev also keeps on asking me: ‘Are you fwightened?’ and I am not -in the least frightened.” - -Yesterday the conversation was about the Hertzen, Bakunin, and Belinsky -circle. Tolstoi said: - -“The most characteristic thing about that circle was a kind of -epicureanism, or at least the denial of, the complete failure to -understand, a religious conception of the world. Doctor Nikitin, for -instance, was surprised that I did not think Gogol mad. They thought -him mad, because he believed in God. And they could not even understand -what was going on in his soul.” - -Tolstoi spoke very disapprovingly of Belinsky’s famous letter to Gogol. - -Doctor Butkevich asked Tolstoi if he had read Maeterlinck’s new play, -_Monna Vanna_. - -Tolstoi replied: - -“Why should I? Have I committed a crime?” - -Some one observed that common people are very seldom interested by -_Power of Darkness_. - -Tolstoi said: - -“To interest the people one must write more simply and much more -shortly, as Sophie Andreevna paints; everything in profile and -everything on the plane, and yet no other pictures are enjoyed so much -by children. In the same way, form must be simple and primitive if it -is to be enjoyed by the people.” - -Tolstoi went on to say: - -“I have been thinking a great deal about it lately. There are two kinds -of art, and both are equally needed--one simply gives pleasure and -comfort to people, the other teaches them.” - -Yesterday Tolstoi criticized the scientists (he mentioned Mechnikov) -for their denial and misunderstanding of a religious conception of the -world. - -Some one mentioned the new Russian University in Paris. - -Tolstoi is sceptical about it and said: - -“Some seventy young women come and listen to the professors who teach -them.” - -Mme. Stakhovich said something about the harm that is done to the girl -students, but Tolstoi said: - -“Well, they are bad enough already without that.” - - -_July 28th._ The other day we walked in the woods. Tolstoi sat down on -his camp stool, which was given him by N. He sighed and said: - -“Yes, poor fellow!” - -Then he turned to Marie Lvovna and asked: - -“Masha, who’s the poor fellow?” - -“I do not know, papa.” - -“Buddha. N. bespattered Socrates, and now he is going to do the same to -Buddha.” - -Yesterday Tolstoi was showing us a portrait group of the Tolstoi -brothers, and, pointing to his brother Nicolay, said: - -“He was my beloved brother. He was the man of whom Turgenev justly said -that he had not a single one of the faults which one must have in order -to be a writer. And I, although it is wrong of me, must say of my son -Leo, that he, on the contrary, has all these faults, but none of the -gifts, which are needed for a writer.” - -Ilya Lvovich said to Mme. Stakhovich that a writer must himself -experience everything in order to tell it to others. - -Tolstoi replied: - -“Mere technique is sometimes enough to describe what he has -experienced. A real writer, as Goethe justly observed, must be able to -describe everything. And I must say that, although I am not very fond -of Goethe, he could do it.” - -To-day Tolstoi was enthusiastic about Mozart’s operas, particularly -about _Don Juan_. Together with the extraordinary richness of its -melody, he rates very high its power to give in music the reflection -of characters and situations. Tolstoi recalled the statue of the -commander, the village scene, and especially the duel. - -He said: - -“I hear there a presentiment, as it were, of the tragic _dénouement_, -together with the excitement and even the romance of the duel.” ... - -Then Tolstoi turned the conversation to the importance and province of -form in art: - -“I think that every great artist necessarily creates his own form also. -If the content of works of art can be infinitely varied, so also can -their form. Once Turgenev and I came back from the theatre in Paris and -discussed this. He completely agreed with me. We recalled all that is -best in Russian literature and it seemed that in these works the form -was perfectly original. Omitting Pushkin, let us take Gogol’s _Dead -Souls_. What is it? Neither a novel nor a story. It is a something -perfectly original. Then there is the _Memoirs of a Sportsman_, the -best book Turgenev ever wrote; then Dostoevsky’s _House of the Dead_, -and then, sinner that I am, my _Childhood_; Hertzen’s _Past and -Thoughts_; Lermontov’s _Hero of our Time_....” - - -_August 1st._ Tolstoi talked with Marie Alexandrovna Schmidt in my -presence about a certain Khokhlov who went mad. - -Tolstoi told me his story briefly, and then said: - -“What a riddle insanity is! What is he--alive or dead?” - -I said that insanity is not a greater riddle than sanity. The mystery -is how the personality which lives in me manifests itself through the -brain. But if I admit that the first cause is not in my brain, but -outside it, and the brain is only a means by which my personality is -shown, then it is for me no _fresh_ mystery that that personality of -mine cannot be manifested when the machine of the brain is disordered. - -Tolstoi said: - -“Yes, it is all a mystery! Let us take a child. When it is born, has -it conscious life? When does consciousness begin in a child? And what -is it when it moves in its mother’s womb? To me life is a ceaseless -liberation of the ‘I’ of the spirit. Recently N. N. came to me and -asked me whether I believe in a future life? But to me there is a -contradiction contained in the question. What does ‘future life’ mean? -One may believe in life, but for eternal life our conception ‘future’ -is quite inapplicable. - -“But if we speak of life as we can realize it, as life _after_ our -present life, then it seems to me that it can be conceived only in -two possible forms: either as a fusion with the eternal spiritual -principle, with God, or as a continuation, in a different form, of the -same process of liberation of the spiritual ‘I’ from what is called -matter. - -“It may be accidental, but it is remarkable that Christ said to the -Pharisees: ‘Before Abraham was, I am.’” - - -I came into the dining-room while Tolstoi was talking with K. A. -Mikhailov about art: - -“Among the sensations experienced by our senses of touch, sight, -hearing, etc., there are some which are unpleasant and painful--for -instance, a violent knock, a deafening noise, a bitter taste, etc. Now -modern art often works upon us not so much by means of its content, as -by irritating our organs of sensation, painfully. As regards taste, -an unhealthy taste needs mustard, whilst it produces an unpleasant -impression upon a pure taste. So it is in the arts. It is necessary to -draw a dividing line and to find where that artistic mustard begins, -and I think it is a problem of enormous importance. In painting, it -seems to me, it is particularly difficult to draw that line.” - - -Tolstoi said to Count Yashvil: - -“I have been learning all my life and do not cease to learn, and this -is what I have noticed: learning is only fruitful when it corresponds -to one’s needs. Otherwise it is useless. I remember I was a Justice of -the Peace; I used to take the laws and tried to study them, but I could -not fix anything in my mind. But whenever for some particular case, I -needed certain legal knowledge, I always kept it in my mind and could -use it in practice.” - -The conversation turned on our government. Count Yashvil began giving -instances to prove how bad it is in Europe. - -To this Tolstoi replied even with some irritation: - -“What right have we to condemn anything in the West, when we are still -so far behind them? Our government is so abominable that we have no -right at all to condemn any one. We are without the possibility of -satisfying the most elementary needs of every man: to read, write, -think what and how one wishes.” - -Tolstoi was now writing _Hadji-Murat_, and he said: - -“I remember how a long time ago some one gave me a travelling -candlestick for a present. When I showed the candlestick to our Yasnaya -Polyana carpenter, he looked at it, looked again, and then sighed and -said: ‘It is crude stuff!’ The same applies to my present work: it is -crude stuff!” - - -_Yasnaya Polyana, August 30th._ I have been here now for three days. -Tolstoi talked with Ilya Lvovich and some one else about farming and -about the new machine called “The Planet.” - -Tolstoi said: - -“It is surprising how few technical inventions and improvements have -been made in agriculture, compared with what has been done in industry.” - -Afterwards Tolstoi said: - -“Ruskin says how much more valuable human lives are than any -improvements and mechanical progress.” - -Then Tolstoi added: - -“It is difficult to argue with Ruskin: he by himself has more -understanding than the whole House of Commons.” - - -Tolstoi went for a walk, and I fetched him his overcoat. I met him on -the road. We walked home together and walked through the fields. - -Tolstoi looked at the bad harvest and said: - -“My farmer’s eye is exasperated: God alone knows how they sowed!” - -When we reached the boundary of the Yasnaya Polyana forest, we heard -the loud voices of children, and soon we saw a motley crowd of village -boys discussing something. They noticed Tolstoi and began urging one -another to go up to him--then they felt shy and hid themselves. Tolstoi -became interested in them and beckoned to them. They began to approach, -at first timidly and one by one, but gradually all came together. -I particularly remember one of them dressed in grey calico striped -trousers, in a ragged cap and shirt, with huge heavy boots, probably -belonging to his father. - -Tolstoi showed them his camp stool, which was a great success. He asked -them what they were doing there. It appeared they had been picking -pears and the watchman ran after them. Tolstoi walked with them. On the -way he enquired about their parents. One boy turned out to be the son -of Taras Fokanich. - -Tolstoi said to me: - -“He was one of my very best pupils. What a happy time that was! How -I loved that work! And, above all, there was nobody in my way. Now -my fame is always in my way: whatever I do, it is all talked about. -But at that time nobody knew or interfered, neither strangers nor my -family--though, there was no family then.” - -When we reached the spot Tolstoi told the children to gather the pears. -They climbed the trees, some knocking down the pears, others shaking -them down, others again picking them up. There was a hubbub, a happy -noise of children; and the figure of the good old Tolstoi lovingly -protecting the children from the attack of the watchman moved one to -tears. Then two or three peasants came to ask his advice on some legal -point. - - -Tolstoi, Nikitin, and I talked of Dostoevsky. - -Tolstoi said: - -“Certain characters of his are, if you like, decadent, but how -significant it all is!” - -Tolstoi mentioned Kirilov in _The Possessed_, and said: - -“Dostoevsky was seeking for a belief, and, when he described profoundly -sceptical characters, he described his own unbelief.” - -Of Dostoevsky’s attitude to “Liberalism” Tolstoi observed: - -“Dostoevsky, who suffered in person from the Government, was revolted -by the banality of Liberalism.” - -Tolstoi said: - -“During the sixty years of my conscious life a great change has -come over us in Russia--I am speaking of the so-called educated -society--with regard to religious questions: religious convictions were -differentiated; it is a bad word, but I don’t know how to express it -differently. In my youth there were three, or rather four, categories -into which society in this respect could be divided. The first was a -very small group of very religious people, who had been freemasons -previously, or sometimes monks. The second, about 70 per cent of the -whole, consisted of people who from habit observed church rituals, -but in their souls were perfectly indifferent to religious problems. -The third group consisted of unbelievers who observed the conventions -in cases of necessity; and, finally, there were the Voltairians, -unbelievers who openly and courageously expressed their unbelief. The -latter were few in number--about 2 or 3 per cent. Now one has no idea -whom one is going to meet. One finds the most contrary convictions -existing side by side. Recently there have appeared the latest -decadents of orthodoxy, the orthodox churchmen like Merezhkovsky and -Rosanov. - -“Many people were attracted to orthodoxy through Khomyakov’s definition -of the Orthodox Church, as a congregation of people united by love. -What could be better than that? But the point is that it is merely -the arbitrary substitution of one conception for another. Why is the -Orthodox Church such a congregation of love-united people? It is the -contrary rather.” - - - - -1903 - - -_March 21st._ Last week I went for a day to Yasnaya Polyana. I found -Tolstoi well and cheerful. - -Tolstoi is always much interested in the question of man’s spiritual -state during sleep. - -He told me this time: - -“In a dream one cries, or is happy or excited, and, when one wakes up -and remembers the dream, one does not understand what made one cry or -be happy or excited. I explain it to myself in this way: Apart from -the happiness, excitement, or bitterness which are caused by definite -events, there are also states of happiness, excitement, ecstasy, and -grief. In such states an insignificant event is often sufficient -to throw us into ecstasy, excitement, etc. In a dream, when one’s -consciousness does not act so consistently and logically, this state is -expressed by the corresponding sensation which has often no external -cause. For instance, in a dream one often feels utterly ashamed, and -when one wakes up and sees that one’s trousers are quietly hanging over -a chair, one feels an extraordinary joy. That is why I so much love -‘Popov’s Dream.’[2] It gives a wonderful account of that sensation of -shame in a dream, and, besides, all the characters are magnificently -described. In spite of its comic nature, it is a real work of art.” - - -_June 1st._ I returned from Yasnaya Polyana, where I spent a day. -Tolstoi is planning a work of a philosophical nature, which he is -greatly excited about at present. Speaking of it, Tolstoi said to me: - -“Everything in the world is alive. Everything that seems to us dead -seems so only because it is either too large or, on the contrary, too -small. We do not see microbes, and heavenly bodies seem dead to us, for -the same reason that we seem dead to an ant. The earth is undoubtedly -alive, and a stone on the earth is the same as a nail on a finger. The -materialists make matter the basis of life. All these theories of the -origin of species, of protoplasm, of atoms, are all of value in so far -as they help us to know the laws governing the visible world. But it -must not be forgotten that all these, including ether, are working -hypotheses, and nothing else. Astronomers in their calculations assume -that the earth is a motionless body, and only afterwards correct the -mistake. Materialists too make false premises, but they do not observe -the fact that this is so, but let them pass as basic truths. - -“True life exists where the living being is conscious of itself as an -indivisible ‘I,’ in whom all impressions, feelings, etc., become one. -So long as the ‘I’ struggles, as nearly the whole animal world does, -merely to crush the other creatures known to him, in order to attain -his own temporary advantage, true spiritual life which is without time -and space remains unexpressed and imprisoned. True spiritual life is -liberated when a man neither rejoices in his own happiness, nor suffers -from his own suffering, but suffers and rejoices with the worries and -pleasures of others and is fused with them into a common life. - -“Of the life to come, although of course the words ‘to come’ are -inappropriate here, of life beyond our physical being, it is impossible -to have knowledge. We can imagine two forms only: either a new form of -the individual life, or a fusion of personal life in the life of the -whole. The former seems to us more comprehensible and more likely, -since we only know our individual life and we can more easily accept -the idea of the same life in a different form.” - - -_July 14th._ In the beginning of July my wife and I spent two days in -Yasnaya Polyana. - -On the occasion of Mme. Kolokoltsev’s[3] suicide Tolstoi said to me: -“I can’t understand why people look upon suicide as a crime. It seems -to me to be man’s right. It gives a man the chance of dying when he no -longer wishes to live. The Stoics thought like that.” - -As Mme. Kolokoltsev was insane, the conversation turned on insanity. -I said, as I had done previously, that the spiritual life of the -so-called insane remains unchanged. All that happens is that a mad -person cannot make his personality felt. Tolstoi agreed with me. - -Next day he said to me: - -“Yesterday’s conversation on insanity was of great interest to -me. I have been thinking a great deal about it. There are two -consciousnesses in us: one--the animal; the other--the spiritual. The -spiritual is not always shown in us, but it is this that makes our true -spiritual life, which is not subject to time. I do not know how it is -with you who are comparatively young, but with me there are times in -my long life which are clearly preserved in my memory, and other times -which have completely disappeared, they no longer exist. The moments -which remain are most frequently the moments when the spirit in me -awoke. It often happens at a time when one has done something wrong, -and suddenly one wakes up, realizes that it is bad, and feels the -spirit in one with special force. Spiritual life is a recollection. -A recollection is not the past, it is always the present. It is our -spirit, which shows itself more or less clearly, that contains the -progress of man’s temporary existence. There can be no progress for the -spirit, for it is not in time. What the life in time is for, we do not -know; it is only a transitory phenomenon. Speaking metaphorically, I -see this manifestation of the spirit in us as the breathing of God. - -“There is a beautiful story about the unreality of time in _The Arabian -Nights_. Some one was put into a bath; he dipped his head in the water -and saw a long history with most complicated adventures; and then -when he raised his head from the water, it turned out that he had only -dipped his head in once!” - - -Tolstoi was talking about Fedorov and Peterson, particularly about -Fedorov: - -“They belonged to the sect which believes in the resurrection of the -dead here on earth. Their idea is that people must try to resurrect -all those who have died in the past. They believe that by hard work -for centuries mankind will achieve it. For this purpose one must study -all things of antiquity and restore them. Fedorov was librarian to the -Rumyantsev Museum and was a passionate collector of all old things: -portraits, objects, etc. Mankind must cease to multiply and everything -will be resurrected. That is their ideal. It turns out that Vladimir -Solovev and Dostoevsky to some extent--there is a letter to this -effect--believed in this idea. - -“Fedorov, I think, is still alive. He must be over eighty. All his -life he has lived as an ascetic. When I once visited him in the spring -and saw his thin overcoat, I asked him: ‘Do you wear a thin overcoat -already?’ and he replied: ‘Christ said, if you have two cloaks, give -them to him who has none, and I have two overcoats.’ And after that he -always wore only a thin coat. He received a very small salary, ate -very, very little, slept almost on the bare boards, helped the poor, -and denied himself everything. He wrote a great deal, but his works -remain in manuscript: his disciples have no money to publish them, and -no publisher can be found to publish them.” - -There was a plague of poisonous flies at Yasnaya Polyana this summer -which made one’s face swell when they bit one. - -Tolstoi said: - -“Once, when I was younger, I wanted to write a story about a young -man who stayed in the summer at a friend’s house where there was a -young girl. The very first day they fell in love and raved about each -other. At night, when he was asleep, a fly bit his lip, and half his -face swelled up. His lip and cheek were swollen, and his face looked -idiotic. When the girl saw him in the morning their love at once came -to an end. There were no more illusions: she noticed a number of faults -in him which she had not noticed at all the day before.” - - -The conversation was about Father Gregory Petrov.[4] - -Tolstoi said of him: - -“As was the case with Ambrosii of the Optino Monastery, he is becoming -the slave of his popularity. Generally speaking, fame, popularity, is -a dangerous thing. It is also harmful because it prevents one from -looking upon people simply, in a Christian way. Now, for instance, I -find Gorky very pleasant as a man, and yet I can’t behave to him with -perfect sincerity. His popularity prevents me from doing so. It is -as if he were not in his right place. To him, too, his popularity is -dangerous. His long novels are worse than his short stories, his plays -are worse than his novels, and his addresses to the public are simply -revolting. - -“Yet as some one said: if my work is abused by every one, it means -that there is something in it. If all praise it, it means that it is -bad; but if some praise it very much, and others dislike it very much, -then it is first-rate. According to this theory Gorky’s works are -first-rate. Well, it may be so.” ... - -A blind man came to Tolstoi, and Tolstoi was very much interested in -him. The blind man was trying to get into a school for the blind, so as -to complete his education, and Tolstoi wanted to help him. The blind -man intended to give an account of his life. After lunch we were going -for a walk. Tolstoi was talking to the blind man. Then he took him to -the kitchen to give him some food, and said good-bye to him. - -The blind man said to him: - -“I should like to go on talking to you.” - -Tolstoi replied: - -“Later, perhaps, I will talk to you again.” - -We went for a walk. But before reaching the gate Tolstoi said that he -had changed his mind and would return home. - -Sophie Andreevna observed: - -“He probably regrets having left the blind man.” - -And it was true. We walked for a long time, and when we got back -Tolstoi was still sitting with the blind man. - -Tolstoi said to me later: - -“The blind man told me many legends. One of them I never heard before: - -“‘Once upon a time Christ and Peter the Apostle walked in the country -and saw an old peasant making a fence out of reeds. Christ asked him: -“Why, father, are you making such a weak fence of reeds?” and the -peasant replied: “I am old, it will last my lifetime.” After that God -saw to it that people should not know their age.’ He also told me -another legend, which I had heard before but in a different version: - -“‘A just old man once lived in the woods. And people came to him and -said: “Why do you never go to church?” The old man listened to them and -went with them. But while they took a boat to cross the river, the old -man walked upon the water. They arrived and went into the church, but -inside the church the devils stretched a skin on the floor and wrote -down the names of the sinners on it. The old man looked and looked at -this, then called the devils bad names, and they wrote his name down. -On returning home he was unable to walk upon the water, but had to take -the boat.’” - -Tolstoi said: - -“It is time for me to die, and I have a whole mass of subjects, and -even a new one to-day. I have a whole long list of them.” ... - -Tolstoi is going to expound in an artistic form Buddha’s teaching, “Ta -Twam Asi,” the meaning of which is that in every man and his actions -one can always recognize oneself. - - -Tolstoi recalled the following: - -“When I was taken for the first time to a box in the Grand Theatre as a -young child I saw nothing: I did not know that it was necessary to look -at the stage sideways, and I looked straight in front of me at the -opposite boxes.” - - -_August 12th._ I spent the 7th and 8th in Yasnaya Polyana. - -M. S. Sukhotin was talking about Count Bludov. Tolstoi said: - -“His was a very interesting house where authors and the most -interesting men of their time used to meet. I remember that I read -there for the first time my _Two Hussars_. Bludov was once intimate -with the Decembrists and sympathized in his soul with every progressive -movement. And he kept on serving under Nicolas I.” - -Mikhail Sergeevich Sukhotin asked whether Bludov was a Russian, and why -was he a Count? - -Tolstoi said: - -“The Bludovs were a purely Russian family, to whom the title of Count -was granted. I remember, when I gathered the peasants to read to them -the Ukase of their liberation, at the bottom were the names of the -signatories and it finished with the words: Countersigned by Count -Bludov. An elderly peasant, Eremey, shook his head all the while and -said: ‘That Blud, he must be a brainy fellow!’ Evidently he took it to -mean that Bludov was at the head of the whole affair.” - -The conversation was about medicine. Tolstoi said: - -“Medicine cannot possibly be called an ‘experimental’ science, for in -medicine experiment in the strict sense is impossible. With experiments -in chemistry a repetition of the more or less same conditions is -possible, and so there can be approximately an exact conclusion as to -the results. But in medicine there is no exact experiment nor can there -be, for it is never possible to repeat the conditions that existed -previously; if only because the individuality of the patient changes, -and nearly, if not quite, everything changes in sympathy with that.” - - -Tolstoi related this episode from his childhood: - -“We had a distant relation--an old woman Yakovlev. She lived in her own -house in the Staro-Konyushenna Street in Moscow. She was a great miser, -and, when she went to the country in the summer, she sent her children -ahead in the luggage van. Once, when I was quite a small child, old -Yakovlev came to pay us a visit. She sat with the grown-up people, and -my brother Nikolenka got a box, put dolls into it, and began dragging -it across the rooms. When he dragged it into the room where old -Yakovlev sat, she asked him: ‘Nicolas, what have you got there?’ and he -replied, ‘It is old Yakovlev going into the country, and her children -are being sent ahead in the luggage van.’” ... - - -During the two days (the 6th and 7th August) of my stay in Yasnaya, -Tolstoi wrote a perfectly new and very powerful story called _Father -and Daughter_,[5] which, he said, “will stay as it is for the time -being.” Tolstoi himself seems to be very well pleased with the story, -and he thinks he may not have to alter it. - -Tolstoi recalled the folk-story of “Vanka Kliushnik,” who asked before -his execution to be allowed to sing a song; and Tolstoi was in raptures -over the beauty of it. - - -Tolstoi is much amused because he is riding a young horse and training -it. He is a great connoisseur of horses; he loves them and is a perfect -horseman. He trains his horse to various paces. He showed me and Ilya -Vasilevich how the horse started to gallop with the right leg. At the -beginning of the ride I asked Tolstoi how to train a horse to start -with this or that leg. Tolstoi explained to me how it was done, and -then observed: - -“Once a horse leads off with a certain leg, it wants to start with the -same leg next time. In a man’s life, too, custom plays an enormous -part. Once a certain habit is formed, a man unconsciously tries to act -in accordance with it. It is very seldom that people act in accordance -with reason, and only very remarkable people do so; usually people -live and act by habit. How otherwise could it be possible that moral -truths, announced so long ago by the great thinkers and admitted by -most people, so rarely guide their actions? Very few people overcome -the habits of animal life and oppose them by the convictions of reason.” - -When later we drove past a beautiful wood Tolstoi said: - -“Once upon a time this forest belonged to Dolin-Ivansky. He was about -to sell it and I wanted to buy it, but for some reason I bargained, -although the price was reasonable. We did not settle the business. When -I came home and thought it over, I saw that the price was reasonable -and the forest good, and I sent the steward to say that I was ready to -buy it. But when the steward arrived, the forest was already sold. For -a long time afterwards I could not remember without annoyance that I -had let that forest slip through my hands.” - -Then we drove by the forest called “Limonov Woods.” It is a young -forest planted by Tolstoi. He had not been there for a long time and -was surprised to see how everything had flourished and grown up. - -Tolstoi said: - -“Yes, it is a queer sense, that of ownership: here, too, one finds -the same habit. When one analyses it in one’s own mind, the feeling -disappears; but instinctively one always sees in oneself a particular -interest in what was or is one’s property, although one considers -ownership harmful and unnecessary.” - -Speaking later of the present political events Tolstoi said: - -“The same is true also with regard to patriotism: unconsciously one’s -sympathies are on the side of Russia and her fortunes, and one catches -oneself at it. But it is clear that with these internal and foreign -troubles one fine day all of a sudden Russia may fall to pieces. As -the saying goes: _sic transit gloria mundi_. Now it is an enormous and -powerful state, and suddenly everything may go to pieces!” - -Tolstoi drew my attention to the fact that the road was beautifully lit -up by the rays of the sun coming through the branches of the trees. He -recalled that Turgenev in _Virgin Soil_ has described how Sipyagin met -Mariana and Nezhdanov lit up by such rays. He asked me if I remembered -the passage. I did not remember it and said: - -“How do you remember it, Tolstoi?” - -Tolstoi laughed and said: - -“But you remember in your music, and so we writers remember things in -our art.” - -Tolstoi said about _Virgin Soil_ that he did not share the general -indifference towards that novel and considered it very successful. -Among other things, he thought the new type of Sipyagin successful and -observed at the right time. - -On this occasion Tolstoi said: - -“But for the most part I object to the trick of guessing at modern -types and phenomena. The other day the painter K. was here. I told him -a great deal about his work which must be unpleasant to him. He is -always occupied with these modern themes. I said to him that one ought -never to paint what is talked about in the newspapers. Besides, he -simply can’t make a picture intelligible, clear. In his works you can’t -make out what he wants to represent. How inferior he is to Orlov[6] in -this respect!” - -I. V. Denisenko read aloud the chapters about Nicolas from -_Hadji-Murat_. - -Tolstoi sat in his room, but he wanted to come where we were all -sitting. - -He came in several times and said: - -“It is not interesting; let it be!” - -At last he even said with irritation: - -“It is rubbish!” - -Then M. S. Sukhotin asked him: - -“Why did you write it, then, Leo Nickolaevich?” - -Tolstoi replied: - -“But it is not finished yet. You came into my kitchen, and no wonder it -stinks with the smell of cooking.” - -Tolstoi explained why he had made up his mind never to write to the -papers to deny what was said about him. - -“When I stayed with Turgenev in Petersburg, Mefodii Katkov[7] arrived -from Moscow, and, on behalf of his brother, asked Turgenev and myself -to let him have something for his _Russkii Vestnik_. I promised -nothing, but Turgenev with his characteristic kindness said, rather -vaguely, that he might perhaps let him have something. - -“Soon after this a group of writers in Petersburg, Nekrasov, Turgenev, -myself, Panaev, Druzhinin, Grigorovich, formed ourselves into a group -and decided to publish only in the _Sovremennik_. When Katkov heard -this, he accused Turgenev in print of breaking his promise. Then I -wrote a letter to Katkov, and asked him to publish it, in which I, as -a witness, refuted Katkov’s statement and proved that Turgenev had not -promised Katkov anything. - -“At first Katkov did not publish the letter; afterwards he published -it, but in such a mutilated form that it quite changed its character. -After that I made a vow to myself that I would never make any reply to -attacks in the Press.” - -The talk turned on our Government. - -Tolstoi said: - -“Do you know, Peter Alexeevich, I want to found a society whose members -would bind themselves not to abuse the Government.” - -Sergeenko and others replied that, although it was true that people -made too much of that subject, still, when the Government prevented -people from living freely or breathing freely, it was difficult not to -criticize it. - -To this Tolstoi said: - -“It is only necessary to remember that the Government, however strong -and cruel it may be, can never prevent the real, spiritual life of man, -which alone is of importance. And why wonder that the Government is -cruel and wicked? So it must be. Mosquitoes bite, worms devour leaves, -pigs grout in manure--all this suits them and it is not worth while -to be indignant about it. I remember many years ago--my sons are now -tall, bearded men, but they were then children--I once came into the -dining-room downstairs in the Khamovniki house and saw that a ray -of the sun fell across the whole room through the windows and made -a bright spot on the sideboard which stood by the wall opposite the -window. The ventilator was not tight shut and was moved by the wind, -and as it moved the bright spot slid over the sideboard. I went in, -showed the children the bright spot, and cried out: ‘Catch it!’ They -all threw themselves on to the bright spot to catch it, but it raced, -and it was difficult to catch it. But if one of the children succeeded -in putting his hand on it, the bright spot showed on the top of his -hand. That is like the spiritual nature of man: however you hide it, -however much you try to suppress it or extinguish it, it will always -remain the same and unchanged.” - -About writing Tolstoi said: - -“If you ask some one: ‘Can you play the violin?’ and he says: ‘I don’t -know, I have not tried, perhaps I can,’ you laugh at him. Whereas -about writing, people always say: ‘I don’t know, I have not tried,’ as -though one had only to try and one would become a writer.” - - -Tolstoi said about Jews: - -“There are three kinds of Jews. Some are believers, religious, -respecting their religion and strictly following its teaching. Others -are cosmopolitan, standing on the highest step of consciousness; and -finally a third kind, the middle kind, almost the biggest class, at -any rate of educated Jews, are even ashamed of being Jews or hide the -fact, and at the same time they are hostile to other races; but it is -as if they hid their hostility behind the skirts of their overcoats. -As my sympathies are with the first two classes, so the third is -unsympathetic to me.” - - -The conversation was about religion. Tolstoi said: - -“Rousseau expressed a perfectly true idea that the Jewish religion -admitted one revelation--the past; the Christian religion two--the -past and present; and the Muhammadan three--the past, the present, and -the future. Historically it is undoubtedly a progressive movement. -Christianity is higher than Judaism, which is no longer alive. It is -all in the past; and Muhammadanism is higher than Christianity: it has -not the superstitions, the idolatry. To me personally Christianity, to -be sure, is above all religions, but I speak about Christianity, not as -the highest religious moral teaching, but as a historical fact. And as -there is ever much in common between the opposite poles, so there is -here; both Judaism and Muhammadanism keep strictly to monotheism, and -there is no intoxication in either; but in the historical Christianity -of the churches there is polytheism, as well as all kinds of ignorance -and cruelty. Everything is justified and even encouraged.” - -FOOTNOTES: - -[2] A comic poem by Count Alexey K. Tolstoi. - -[3] Mme. Kolokoltsev was the wife of the landowner N. A. Kolokoltsev. -She suffered from nervous disorder and made several attempts at -suicide. In spite of constant observation, she managed one night to -make the blanket on the bed into a figure, and thus deceived her -husband. She went into his study, opened the drawer of his table with -a skeleton key, took out his revolver and shot herself. She was an -elderly woman, the mother of two grown-up daughters. - -[4] G. S. Petrov, a publicist and politician who started his career as -a preacher of the Church and then resigned his priesthood. - -[5] Called in its final version, _After the Ball_. - -[6] N. V. Orlov, a painter from the people, of whose pictures Tolstoi -was very fond. Reproductions of most of his paintings hang in Tolstoi’s -room. - -[7] The brother of the well-known editor M. N. Katkov. - - - - -1904 - - -At Christmas Alexandra Lvovna made a Christmas tree in the lodge to -entertain the village children. I do not know who made the choice, -but, as there was not enough room, all the children were not admitted. -Tolstoi, myself, and some one else, I don’t remember who, came in -rather later when the entertainment was at its height. At the door of -the lodge stood the children who could not be admitted. When they saw -us, the mothers of the children began asking Tolstoi to take their -children with him. Tolstoi took two or three inside with him. It was -bright and hot. Inside the burning candles flamed. It smelt of burnt -branches. We soon came out. - -Tolstoi said with a sigh: - -“How wrong it is! Some are inside and the others are not allowed in. -When our children were small, Sophie Andreevna always had a Christmas -tree, and the village children came to it. Once they gave us the -scarlet fever, and after that they were no longer admitted, except a -few who were carefully chosen. I remember once there was a Christmas -tree upstairs. I was lying downstairs on the sofa (where the library -now is), and I was terribly ashamed to think of the children crowding -outside and not being let in. I remember I could not endure it, came -out, and gave them three roubles, and of course made things still -worse--they began to dispute and quarrel over the division of it, and -it was revolting, shameful, and painful!” - - -_June 5th._ Yasnaya Polyana. - -On the day of our arrival, May 27th, Tolstoi talked at dinner about -the Decembrists whom he knew after their return from banishment (he is -again studying that period). - -He spoke of Prince Volkonsky:[8] - -“His appearance with his long grey hair was altogether like that of an -Old Testament prophet. What a pity I spoke so little to him then, when -I need him so much now! He was a wonderful old man, the flower of the -Petersburg aristocracy both by birth and by his position at Court. And -then in Siberia, after he had already served hard labour, and his wife -had something like a salon, he worked with the peasants; all sorts of -tools for peasants’ work were in his room.” - -Tolstoi does not believe the story about the affair between Poggio and -Princess Volkonsky. - -He said: - -“I do not want to believe it: such scandals are so often invented and -people’s memory spoilt. Moreover, Poggio loved Volkonsky so much that -when later (Volkonsky’s wife being already dead) he felt the approach -of death himself, he came to Volkonsky to die there.” - -Tolstoi went on to say: - -“I made Volkonsky’s acquaintance in Florence at Dolgorukov’s, Koko -Dolgorukov, the doctor. At that time it was rare for an aristocrat -to become a doctor. It was when Nicolas I. limited the number of -university students to three hundred, and Dolgorukov could not be -admitted to any other faculty. He was a wonderfully capable man: he -wrote poems, was a superb musician, painted pictures. He was married -to (?). When I visited them for the first time in Florence, this was -the scene I found: his wife and the well-known Marquis de Rogan were -playing an extraordinary game: they made a mark on the wall and tried, -by lifting their feet, to touch the mark; each tried to lift his or her -leg higher and higher. - -“There was also present the very gifted painter Nikitin. He drew -wonderfully in pencil. I remember he had an album and drew Volkonsky’s -portrait in it. He also drew mine. I wonder where the album is. If some -collector were to get hold of it now!” - -Then at dinner Tolstoi told us two anecdotes from his life. The first -was how he ate some earth-worms (Tolstoi told it because Alexandra -Lvovna and Ilya Lvovich’s children were going fishing). Tolstoi said he -was carrying the worms in one hand, and a loaf of black bread in the -other. He had finished eating the bread, and, thinking of something -else, put the worms in his mouth and began chewing them, and for some -time could not think what mess he had put in his mouth. - -Tolstoi said: - -“I remember the taste of them as if I were eating them now.” - -My wife asked him if it was very unpleasant. - -“The taste of earth; but I don’t advise you to taste it.” - -Some one sneezed and Tolstoi told another story. - -“I used to sneeze very loudly; once at night I woke and felt I was -going to sneeze immediately, and as Sophie Andreevna was going to have -a baby, I was afraid to frighten her by sneezing. Half asleep I cried -out: ‘Sonia, I am going to sneeze!’ Sophie Andreevna of course woke up -and was frightened, and I instantly fell asleep without having sneezed.” - -Tolstoi also talked about Belogolovy’s _Reminiscences_.[9] He seemed to -Tolstoi a narrow-minded man. Speaking of the terrible impression made -by his description of the diseases and deaths of Nekrasov, Turgenev, -and Saltikov, Tolstoi said: - -“How they dreaded death! And then there were those horrible disgusting -details of their illnesses, particularly Nekrasov’s.” - -Last winter my wife and I stayed at Yasnaya Polyana, and, when we had -to leave, Tolstoi was sitting in his room with P. A. Boulanger. We -came into the room to say good-bye, and probably they were talking of -Boulanger’s family affairs. - -We entered just as Tolstoi was saying: - -“ ... if people only said more often: ‘Do you remember?’ People should -make it a rule that if one person says or does something wrong in the -heat of a quarrel, or when one is angry, the other should say: ‘Do you -remember?’” - -Tolstoi noticed my wife and me and said: - -“Now, you young people, you ought to make that your rule! No one can be -such a friend as one’s wife, a real friend. In marriage it is either -paradise, or simple hell; there is no ‘purgatory.’” - -Boulanger said that generally it was a case of purgatory. - -Tolstoi thought for a time and then said with a sigh: - -“Yes, perhaps, unfortunately.” ... - -That same evening, looking at Andrey Lvovich’s little girl, Sonechka, -playing on the floor, Tolstoi said: - -“Faust speaks of the rare moment of which one can say: ‘Verweile doch, -du bist so schön!’ Now there it is, that moment!” (Tolstoi pointed -to the little girl.) “There is a perfectly happy, pure, and innocent -moment.” - - -_June 20th._ Some time ago, in May, Tolstoi said: - -“Religions are usually based on one of these three principles: on -sentiment, reason, or illusion. Stoicism is an example of the religion -of reason; Mormonism of illusion; Muhammadanism of sentiment. I have -lately received many letters from Muhammadans. I had a letter from -Cairo from a representative of the Baptist sect, it is an example of -the religion of sentiment. I also had a letter from India, written by -a wonderful and very religious man. He writes that true Muhammadanism -is a perfectly different thing from what people usually think it to be. -Indeed, I know some very religious Moslems. And how movingly simple and -lofty is their worship!” - - -To-day at sunset we walked in the garden. We talked of Gorky and his -feeble “Man.” Tolstoi was saying that to-day on his walk he met on -the road (he likes to go out on to the road, and sit down on a little -stone, a milestone, and to observe or to speak to the passers-by) a man -who turned out to be a rather well-educated working-man. - -Tolstoi said: - -“His outlook on the world agrees perfectly with Gorky’s so-called -Nietzscheism and the cult of the personality. It is evidently the -spirit of the time. Nietzsche did not say anything new--his is now a -very popular world-conception.” - -Then Tolstoi said: - -“When I was a Justice of the Peace, there lived in Krapivna a merchant -called Gurev, who used to say about young people of education: ‘Well, -I look at your students--they are all scholars, they know everything, -only they have no invention.’ Turgenev, I remember, liked this -expression very much.” - - -Recently a party of gypsies camped on the road near Yasnaya Polyana. -Gypsies often roam about Yasnaya Polyana. The party usually stay for -two or three days, and in the evenings the Yasnaya Polyana household -comes out to hear the gypsy songs and enjoy their dances. - -Tolstoi, looking at the gypsies, became a changed man, and -involuntarily began to dance to their tunes, and to cry out again and -again approvingly. - -“What a wonderful people!” - -The old gypsies all know Tolstoi and always enter into conversation -with him. Tolstoi from his youngest days loved and knew the gypsies and -their peculiar life. - -When we left the house, it was drizzling. Soon the rain got worse, and -we returned. - -Andrey Lvovich said: - -“Now we have come to the house, the rain will stop.” - -And, indeed, on our way home the rain stopped, and we went back to the -gypsies. - -Tolstoi said: - -“Yes, it is always like that: as soon as you turn to go home the rain -stops. Something like this happens in Moscow too. When you have to -find some one in a large building and ring for the porter, he is never -there. But no sooner do you go into the yard to make water than the -porter is sure to catch you. So I advise you that if you have to find -some one, don’t ring for the porter, but do the second thing first.” - - -When Andrey Lvovich was made an aide-de-camp, Tolstoi said to him: - -“My only comfort is that you are sure not to kill a single Japanese. -An aide-de-camp is always exposed to great danger, but seldom takes -part in the fighting. I spent a great deal of time on the fourth -bastion at Sevastopol when I was in the army on the Danube. I was -aide-de-camp, and I believe I had not to fire even once. I remember -once on the Danube, near Silistria, we were on our side of the river, -but there was also a battery on the other side, and I was sent across -with some order. The commander of the battery, Schube, on seeing me, -thought: ‘Well, there’s that little Count, I’ll give him a lesson!’ -And he took me across the whole line under fire, and with deadly -slowness on purpose. I passed that test well outwardly, but my -feelings were not pleasant. I also remember how one of the highest -officers--Kotsebu--visited the bastion in Sevastopol, and some one, -I think it was Novosilzev, wanted to put him to the test, and began -saying perpetually: ‘Look, Your Excellency, just there at their line,’ -forcing him to put his head out from behind the fortifications. He put -his head out once or twice, and then, realizing what was up, he, as the -superior officer, began in his turn to order the other man to look at -the firing, and, after teasing him for some time, he said: ‘Next time I -advise you not to doubt the courage of your superiors.’” - -Tolstoi recalled Lichtenberg’s[10] aphorism to the effect that mankind -will finally perish when not a single savage is left. - -Tolstoi added: - -“I first turned to the Japanese, but they have already successfully -adopted all the bad sides of our culture. The Kaffirs are the only hope -remaining.” - -Tolstoi said: - -“I do not remember during any previous war such depression and -anxiety as are now in Russia. I think it is a good sign, a proof that -a realization of the evil and uselessness and absurdity of war is -permeating deeper and deeper the social consciousness; so that perhaps -the time is coming when wars will be impossible--nobody will want to go -to war. Now Lisanka, who always sees the good in things, was telling me -about a peasant--a porter, I think--who was called up and, before going -to the front, took off his cross. That is a truly Christian spirit! -Although he is not able to resist the general will and has to yield to -it, yet he clearly realizes that it is not God’s doing.” - -Tolstoi described with horror how a priest marched with his cross in -his hand in front of the soldiers. - - -_June 26th._ Last week I reached Yasnaya in the evening. The Sukhotins -were there. During tea Misha Sukhotin began to tell Tolstoi that on -completing his studies at the School of Jurisprudence he would like -to go to Paris to continue his studies; and he began to argue with -Tolstoi. I did not hear the beginning of the argument. I came in when -Tolstoi was saying: - -“ ... Every man is a perfectly individual being, who has never existed -before and will never happen again. It is just the individuality, the -singularity of him, which is valuable; but school tries to efface all -this and to make man after its own pattern. The pupils of the Tula -secondary school came to me lately and asked what they should do. I -said to them: above all, try to forget everything you have been taught.” - -Tolstoi thinks the Russian University in Paris perfectly useless and -good-for-nothing. He said: - -“The best educational institution that I know is the Kensington Museum -in London. There is a large public library where many people work, and -they have professors of various special subjects. Every one who works, -if he has a question to ask, gives notice of it, and, when several such -questions have accumulated, the professor issues a notice to say that -he will lecture on such and such subjects, and those who wish may come -and hear him. Such an arrangement is most in keeping with the true -object of teaching--to answer the questions which arise in the minds -of the students. But in every other institution, lectures which are of -no use to the student are read by professors who are for the most part -entirely without gift. None of these lecturers would dare to publish -their lectures. Goethe said: - -“‘When I speak it turns out better than when I think; I write better -than I speak; and what I publish is better than what I write.’ He -meant by this that what a man publishes is usually the cream of his -thought, the thing he most believes in. Instead of going to Paris to -attend lectures, go to the public library, and you won’t come out for -twenty years, if you really wish to learn. One ought not to talk about -oneself, but I must say this: when I was at the University in Kazan -I did practically nothing the first year. The second year I began to -work. There was a Professor Mayer who took an interest in me and gave -me, as a subject, to compare the code of Catherine the Great with -Montesquieu’s _Esprit des lois_. And, I remember, I became infatuated -with the work. I went into the country and began to read Montesquieu; -this reading opened up endless horizons; I began reading Rousseau, and -left the University for the simple reason that I wanted to work; for at -the University I should have to occupy myself with subjects that did -not interest me and were of no use to me.” - -Sergey Lvovich asked Tolstoi why he did not go in for his examinations -at Petersburg University. - -Tolstoi said: - -“I began to work hard, passed two examinations, was awarded two marks -of distinction, but then it was spring; it drew me to the country; -well, I gave it up and went away.” ... Speaking of the good effects -upon men of having received no education, Tolstoi said: - -“I know two musicians who never went to school, and yet they are very -well-educated men, who, whatever subject you talk about, know it -thoroughly,--G. and Sergey Ivanovich Taneev.” - - -I played. Then Tolstoi said: - -“Anton Rubinstein told me that, if he is moved himself by what he is -playing, he ceases to move his audience. This shows that the creation -of a work of art is only possible when the emotion has settled in the -artist’s mind.” - -I do not remember how the conversation now got upon writing, but -Tolstoi said: - -“Usually when I begin a new book I am very pleased with it myself and -work with great interest. But as the book work goes on, I become more -and more bored, and often in rewriting it I omit things, substitute -others, not because the new idea is better, but because I get tired of -the old. Often I strike out what is vivid and replace it by something -dull.” - -The conversation turned upon Hertzen. Tolstoi read aloud extracts from -his book (a collection of articles published in the _Kolokol_). Tolstoi -is extremely fond of Hertzen and values him very highly. He spoke of -Hertzen’s unhappy private life and of the suffering he went through -when the representatives (particularly the younger representatives) of -the party with whom he had worked throughout his life deserted him and -ceased to understand him. - -Tolstoi saw Hertzen in London, when Hertzen lived with Mme. -Tuchkov-Ogarev. - -Biryukov asked Tolstoi (for the biography of Tolstoi which he is -writing) about his conversation with Hertzen which Mme. Ogarev refers -to in her _Reminiscences_. - -Tolstoi said that he remembered a great many of their talks, but not -that particular one. And he added: - -“Perhaps she merely invented the conversation, as the authors of -memoirs and reminiscences so often do.” - -On the whole, Tolstoi has not a high opinion of Mme. Ogarev, although -he says he knows her but little. - -He said: - -“I received a letter from her in which she, as though to justify -herself, gives an account of the affair with the peasants which had -lately taken place on her estate. There were some fields there which -the peasants had had the use of from time immemorial. The fields -belonged legally to the landowner. A bailiff was engaged, a Pole -called Stanislavski, and he drove the peasants’ cattle from the fields -on to the estate. The peasants collected with thick sticks in their -hands to free their cattle, determined not to give up the use of the -fields. They arrived at the Manor and began by demanding their cattle. -Finally, Stanislavski fired, and killed or wounded, I do not remember -which, some one in the crowd. The crowd became furious and threw -themselves on Stanislavski, who tried to save himself by flight, but -he was overtaken on a moor and was murdered in a most brutal way. As -a result of the affair, a military court was held and two or three -peasants were hanged.” - -Tolstoi had known of this before he got her letter, and was horrified -at the incredible verdict. - -Afterwards Tolstoi said: - -“Lately I got a letter from a lady asking me why, strictly speaking, -it is a crime to kill. Anyhow man must die sooner or later--is it -not all the same? I replied that since every man represents a unique -type, which never occurs again, we have and can have no absolute -knowledge of why he is needed for the life of all. In life everything -is very carefully arranged, and we do not know the reason why just -this individual should be alive, and it is for this reason that the -destruction of this unique creature appears so terrible.” - -Of being afraid in battle, Tolstoi said: - -“It is impossible not to be afraid. Everyone is afraid, but tries to -conceal it. When wounded have to be carried off the battlefield, so -many men volunteer for the work that the officers have to use great -force to keep the soldiers back, since every one wants, even for a -time, to get out of fire.” - -Of himself Tolstoi said that he was never so much afraid as upon the -night before the attack on Silistria, which after all did not take -place. - -Then Tolstoi said: - -“The Japanese are less afraid, for they evidently value life much less -than Europeans do. The absence of the fear of death goes to extreme -lengths with some people. For instance, if a Chukcha wants to spite his -enemy, he comes to his hut and kills himself near it, knowing that his -enemy will then have much trouble with legal proceedings.” - - -_July 8th._ Tolstoi said with regard to his article about war, “Bethink -Yourselves”: - -“It is painful to feel that my words go unheeded. If one is dealing -with the so-called men of science who regard war, apart from its moral -significance, as one of the stages in the evolution of human relations, -then, at any rate, one knows where one is. But what is one to do and -how is one to speak to people who evidently cannot understand my point -of view? Whatever I say glides off them. They are, as it were, greased -with a sort of oil, so that everything runs off them, like water, -without wetting them.” - -After this Tolstoi said that, when he wrote to Nicolas II. (from the -Crimea, in the winter of 1901-1902), he was told that Nicolas II. “read -his letter with pleasure.” He also recollected Hertzen’s letters to -Alexander II. - -Tolstoi wrote to Nicolas II. about the land question. - -With reference to the attitude in Government circles to that question -Tolstoi said: - -“I can’t possibly put myself at their point of view. I remember when -I was young and an officer I was never bothered by these questions; -somehow they did not arise in me. But I cannot imagine that I should -pass by such a problem, if I happened to come across it. I remember two -such cases in my life. One, when Vasili Ivanovich Alexeev,[11] when I -was at the height of my career as a landlord, expressed to me for the -first time the idea that the ownership of land is evil. I remember how -much I was struck by the idea, and how at once perfectly new horizons -opened before me. So it also happened when some one, I don’t remember -who it was, I think a Frenchman, told me that prostitution was an -abnormal thing, and not only useless, but really harmful to mankind. -Schopenhauer, for instance, says that it is only owing to prostitution -that family relations are still preserved in the community. I had not -previously thought about it, but, on hearing the Frenchman speak, I at -once felt the truth of what he said and could no longer go back. I can -imagine that one’s thoughts may not tend in a certain direction; one -may be ignorant of some point of view. But I cannot understand that -incapacity and unwillingness to learn.” - - -_July 9th._ Speaking of Lichtenberg’s aphorisms Tolstoi said: - -“Aphorisms are perhaps the best way of expounding philosophical -judgments. For instance, Schopenhauer’s aphorisms (_Parerga and -Paralipomena_) express his conception of the world much more clearly -than _The World as Will and Imagination_. A philosopher, in explaining -a whole complicated system, sometimes involuntarily ceases to be -honest. He becomes the slave of his system, for the symmetry of which -he is often prepared to sacrifice the truth.” - -Speaking of Lichtenberg’s beautiful German style, Tolstoi said: - -“Every literary language reaches its highest point and then begins -to decline. In the German language that time was at the end of the -eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth century; it was the -same with the French language. Now both in Germany and France the -language has become utterly spoilt. In Russia we are now finding -ourselves on the border-line. The Russian language has quite lately -reached its apex and now it begins to decay.” - -Tolstoi praised Chekhov’s language very highly for its simplicity, -compactness, and expressiveness. Gorky’s language he disapproves of, -thinking it artificial and rhetorical. - - -When Nicolas II. appeared in many places to bless the troops going to -the Japanese war with icons, Tolstoi said: - -“If A, the ruler of a huge country, takes a board, B, in his hand and -kisses it in the presence of crowds of many thousands of kneeling -troops and then waves the board over the heads of those who stand in -front of him, and does this all over the country, what except trash -can come from such a country? This has never happened before. In your -own room you may do whatever you like. One man likes to wash himself -with wine or eau-de-Cologne, another kisses icons if he likes, but such -idolatry on a large scale in the face of all and such deception of the -crowd are simply incredible!” ... - -During the war Tolstoi always said that in spite of his attitude to -war and to patriotism generally, he felt in the depth of his soul an -instinctive sorrow at Russian defeats. - -I heard him say this in the presence of G., B., and some others. All of -them energetically denied in themselves any such instinctive “patriotic -bias.” It seems to me that they were simply afraid of admitting it even -to themselves. - - -_October 22nd._ Mechnikov sent Tolstoi his book (_Studies on the Nature -of Man_) in French. Tolstoi read it through. - -To-day he said to me: - -“I got much interesting information out of the book, for Mechnikov -is undoubtedly a great scientist. But the self-satisfied narrowness -with which he is convinced that he has solved almost all problems that -agitate man is surprising in him. He is so sure that man’s happiness -consists in a state of animal contentment that he calls old age an -evil (because of its limited capacity of physical enjoyment), and does -not even understand that there are men who think and feel precisely -the opposite. But I value my old age and would not exchange it for any -earthly blessings.” - -The conversation turned on the tendency of women to crowd to -universities. - -Tolstoi said smilingly: - -“If I were a Minister of Education, I should issue a Ukase by which all -women were obliged to enter universities and would be deprived of the -right to marry and have children. For the infringement of this law the -guilty would be liable to a heavy fine. Then all of them would be sure -to marry!” - -Tolstoi spoke on August 28th with exasperation about writing as a -profession. I have rarely seen him so agitated: - -He said: - -“One ought only to write when one leaves a piece of one’s flesh in the -ink-pot each time one dips one’s pen.” - -FOOTNOTES: - -[8] Prince S. G. Volkonsky (1788-1865), one of the most famous -Decembrists, and his wife, _née_ Raevsky (1805-1863). Both left -remarkable memoirs. - -[9] N. A. Belogolovy (1834-1895), doctor, author of the well-known -_Reminiscences_, in which there is a chapter devoted to Tolstoi called -“A Meeting with L. N. Tolstoi.” - -[10] G. C. Lichtenberg (1742-1799), German physicist, critic, and -publicist. - -[11] V. I. Alexeev, at that time tutor of Tolstoi’s son Ilya. - - - - -1905 - - -_January 5th._ During the Christmas holidays Misha Sukhotin read -Professor Korkunov’s book on Russian State Law. Tolstoi took it and -began to read it. He sat nearly the whole evening in his room, and -came out in a state of agitation and disturbance saying: “It gave me -palpitation of the heart to read that! In this, as in almost all legal -books which deal with ‘rights’ of different kinds, it talks of anything -and everything except the truth of the matter. It deals with the -‘subject’ and ‘object’ of right--I never could make out what precisely -those words and others of the same sort mean, nor could I ever get any -one to explain them to me. But whenever the argument approaches the -real question, the author immediately swerves aside and hides himself -behind his objects and subjects.” - -Further Tolstoi said: - -“This is what surprises me; all my life I have striven for knowledge. -I sought and still seek for it, and the so-called men of science -say that I denounce science. All my life I have been occupied with -religious questions, and outside of them I see no sense in human life; -yet the so-called religious men consider me an atheist.” ... - -About that time, in January, Tolstoi said that he should like to write -a whole series of stories for his “Reading Circle” which he is now -planning, and that he had already many subjects in mind. - -“Only one minute of life remains, and there’s work for a hundred -years,” he said. - -When later in the evening I played Chopin’s prelude, Tolstoi said: - -“Those are the kind of short stories one ought to write!” - -There was then an interesting talk about Chekhov’s story, _The -Darling_, with reference to Gorbunov’s letter dissuading him from -publishing the story in the “Reading Circle.” Tolstoi on the contrary -decided to include the story without fail, and expressed his very high -opinion of it; and in a few days he wrote a preface to _The Darling_ in -which he expressed his feeling for it. - -Of Gorbunov’s letter Tolstoi said: - -“I feel a woman’s influence on him in this. The confused modern idea is -that a woman’s capacity to give herself up with all her being to love -is obsolete and done with; and yet this is the most precious and the -best thing in her and her true vocation; and not political meetings, -scientific courses, revolutions, etc.” - -Of Beethoven’s music Tolstoi said that at times he felt a little bored -by it, as he thought often happens with what has once struck one -greatly. He felt the same, for instance, about Ge’s paintings. - - -_June 16th._ In February I made a note of Tolstoi’s words: - -“Immortality, incomplete, of course, is certainly realized in our -children. How strongly man desires immortality, is most clearly shown -by his endeavour to leave some trace after his death. It might seem of -no importance to a man what is said of him and whether he is remembered -after he has gone; and yet what efforts he makes for it!” - -Tolstoi said of the Molokans that he had no sympathy with their -religious formalism. In this respect he draws a parallel between the -Molokans and the English. - -The son of Vicomte de Vogüé visited Tolstoi in the spring; Tolstoi said -of him: - -“He is a typical Frenchman in everything--from his trousers to his way -of thought. His father translated _Three Deaths_ and wrote to me about -it long ago. It was on my conscience that I did not answer him, and was -glad to have the opportunity of apologizing to his son.” - -Tolstoi was surprised by young de Vogüé’s saying that his father worked -at night and smoked a great deal during his work. - -Tolstoi said: - -“I imagine that a Frenchman must in the morning rub himself red with -eau-de-Cologne, drink his coffee, and sit down quietly to work. - -“I always write in the morning. I was pleased to hear lately that -Rousseau too, after he got up in the morning, went for a short walk -and sat down to work. In the morning one’s head is particularly fresh. -The best thoughts most often come in the morning after waking, while -still in bed or during the walk. Many writers work at night. Dostoevsky -always wrote at night. In a writer there must always be two people--the -writer and the critic. And, if one works at night, with a cigarette in -one’s mouth, although the work of creation goes on briskly, the critic -is for the most part in abeyance, and this is very dangerous.” - -Tolstoi often says that he cannot find a suitable definition of music. - -Once in the spring he said: - -“Music is the shorthand of emotion. Emotions which let themselves be -described in words with such difficulty, are directly conveyed to man -in music, and in that is its power and significance.” - -Once, a long time ago, Tolstoi said: - -“Life is the present. All that a man has felt remains with him as a -memory. We always live by memories. I often feel more strongly not what -I have actually felt, but what I have written and felt in describing -my characters. They too have become my memories, as if they had been -actual experiences.” - -The other day the talk was on the same lines. - -Tolstoi said: - -“A so-called misfortune happens; one does not usually feel it, just as -one does not feel a wound at the moment it is inflicted; and it is only -by degrees that the sorrow grows in strength, having become a memory, -placed, that is, not outside me, but already within. Yet, after a long -life, I notice that the bad and painful things have not become me; they -have somehow passed by; but on the contrary, all the pleasant feelings, -all the loving relations towards people--my childhood, all that has -been good--rise with particular clearness in my memory.” - -Tatyana Lvovna said: - -“But how do you explain Pushkin’s poem; ‘Memory unfolding its long -scroll,’ and further: ‘And reading my life with disgust, I tremble and -curse’?” - -Tolstoi replied: - -“That is quite different. To be able to experience and feel all that is -bad in one with such power--that is a precious and necessary quality. -Happy and of great importance is the man who can go through it with the -vigour of Pushkin.” - - -_July 6th._ We went for a walk to the sandpits. During the walk -Gorbunov asked Tolstoi about Alexander Dobrolyubov’s[12] religious and -philosophic book. Tolstoi said of the book: - -“It is vague, false, and artificial.” - -On that occasion the talk was about the literary profession. - -Tolstoi said: - -“It is surprising how in even a little piece of work one must think it -over from all points of view before starting it. It does not matter -whether you are making a shirt or a move in chess. And if you do not -think it out, you at once spoil it all--you won’t make the shirt, -you’ll lose the game. It is only in writing that one can do what one -likes, and people never notice--indeed one can become a famous writer.” - -Tolstoi went on to say: - -“The whole business of the writer is to perfect himself. I have always -tried and try now to make a question which interests me clear to the -highest degree that I am capable of making it. The writer’s work -consists in that. The most dangerous thing is to be a teacher. I do not -think I have tried to be that. Yes, I have.... But always badly.” - -I. Gorbunov was saying that the “Posrednik” had the Censor’s permission -to publish an excellent little book, in which a visit to Sarov is -described impartially. - -Tolstoi said: - -“I have no sympathy when such things are described in a joking or -jeering way. There is a great deal of sincere, simple belief there -which should be treated carefully. In some old credulous woman you -feel, in spite of the absurd superstition, that the foundation of her -faith is a real striving for the highest and for the truth. Her outlook -on the world is much higher than that of a professor who has solved all -questions long ago.” - -V. G. Kristi who walked with us asked Tolstoi: - -“If such an old woman talked about religion, must one destroy her -illusions and tell her honestly what one thinks?” - -Tolstoi replied to him: - -“The question does not exist to me. If I talk about religious -questions, I always express my thoughts, if I believe the truth of what -I say; and if my words are not understood, it is none of my business, -but I can say only what I think.” - - -Last year two young men came to Tolstoi, and now they have been again. -They are very nice and in search of a better life. They turned out -to be ballet dancers from the Moscow Grand Theatre. The necessity of -maintaining their family prevents them from changing their profession. -Tolstoi praised them highly. Then with a smile he said: - -“If I had children now, I should send them to the ballet. At any rate -it is better than the university. Their feet alone might be spoilt in -the ballet, but at the university it is their heads.” - -Tolstoi compared marriage to a little boat in which two people sail -over a stormy ocean. - -“Each must sit tight and not make sharp movements or the boat will -upset.” - - -Speaking of the present schemes for a constitution in Russia Tolstoi -said: - -“The misfortune is in that the Radicals and their set will only try -to say something very clever, to play the part of Russian Bebels, -and the party game will constitute the whole of the activity of the -representatives of the people.” - - -Of the war Tolstoi said: - -“The comforting side of the Russian failure in the war consists in -this, that, however much people distort the genuine Christian teaching, -yet its meaning has already permeated the consciousness of the people -so deeply that war cannot become to them, as to the Japanese, a sacred -cause by sacrificing his life to which a man becomes a hero and does a -great deed. The view of war, as an evil, permeates the consciousness of -the people, deeper and deeper.” - -Tolstoi said about the Japanese: - -“The Japanese are perfectly incomprehensible and unknown to me. I see -their wonderful capacity for adapting and even for carrying further the -superficial side of European culture, chiefly in its worse aspects, -but the soul of the Japanese is absolutely dark to me. Japan, by -the way, proved that the whole of the boasted European civilization -of a thousand years could be taken over and even surpassed in a few -decades.” - -The conversation was about crowd psychology. - -Tolstoi said: - -“It is an interesting and still little explored problem. It is a -hypnotism which has a terrible power over men. There is one moment -when it is still possible to resist it. I am now no longer infected by -others’ yawning, because I always remember it. When you see a crowd -running, you have to remember that you do not know why they run, and -to look back; and immediately you have dissociated yourself from the -crowd, you are at once saved from the danger of succumbing to the -hypnotism.” - -We played chess on the terrace, and in the hall Sophie Nicolaevna sang -Schubert’s “Wanderer.” - -Tolstoi said: - -“Ah that Schubert! he did a lot of harm!” - -I asked how? - -“Because he had in a high degree the power of making music correspond -to the poetry of the text. This rare power of his has brought to birth -a great deal of music which pretends to correspond to poetry, and that -is a revolting kind of art.” - -They sang Glinka. Tolstoi said: - -“Now, sinful man....” The interesting state of the game prevented him -from finishing his sentence. - -Later he said: - -“I feel that Glinka was coarse, a sensual man. One always feels the man -himself in his music. The young Mozart--bright and direct; the simple -Haydn; the stern, conceited Beethoven--are all heard in their music.” - - -Tolstoi is writing an article which is called “The Beginning of the -End.” - -There was a newspaper correspondent to whom Tolstoi expressed a few of -the ideas which made the basis of his article. - -“The present movement in Russia is a world movement, the importance -of which is still little understood. This movement, like the French -Revolution formerly, will perhaps give, by means of its ideas, an -impetus for hundreds of years to come. The Russian people has in the -highest degree the capacity for organization and self-government. They -gave up their power to the Government and waited, as they formerly did -for the liberation of the serfs, for the liberation of the land. They -have not been given the land, and they themselves will carry out that -great reform. Our revolutionaries are perfectly ignorant of the people -and do not understand this movement. They might help it, but they only -hamper it. In the Russian people, it seems to me, and I think I am not -biased, there is more of the Christian spirit than in other peoples. -Probably the reason is that the Russian people got to know the New -Testament about five centuries before the people of Europe, who until -the Reformation hardly knew it.” - - -Tolstoi criticized the complexity and artificiality of modern art in -general, and of music in particular. He said: - -“Certainly, if I love art, I can’t love _no_ art, but I must love that -which exists. Still I have always before me the ideal of the highest -art: to be clear, simple, and accessible to all.” - -I was saying how long and systematically one must teach piano-playing -in order to be able to play well. Tolstoi found that “system” dangerous. - -He said: - -“In doing this one may lose the direct fresh feeling with which you -regard a new work of art. I know it from my own experience--when one -begins to write something, one works with excitement and interest, and -the work goes well; but then the same old thing begins to tire one and -it becomes boring. Of course, there is the love of one’s work, and the -love is stronger than the boredom, and by love the boredom is overcome, -but still boredom there is.” - -I spoke about the complexity of certain of Chopin’s works, whom Tolstoi -loves very much. - -“Well, he too makes mistakes,” Tolstoi replied smilingly. “Once I -stayed with the Olsufevs in the country, and, referring to the weather -and the gathering in of the harvest, I said to the old butler there--he -was a sceptic and pessimist--that God knows what He does, to which he -replied: ‘He too makes mistakes!’” - -Of creative activity Tolstoi said: - -“The worst thing of all is to begin a work with the details; then one -gets muddled and loses the power of seeing the whole. One has to behave -like Pokhitonov who has spectacles with double glasses divided in two -(looking at the distance and at his work), to look now through these -and now through those and to put on now the bright and now the dark -glasses.” - - -_July 28th._ Biryukov showed Marie Nikolaevna (Tolstoi’s sister) some -old letters written by her brother Nikolay in French. Tolstoi recalled -then that from childhood he was so much used to writing French that he -kept the habit until he was quite grown up. When he lived in Paris with -Turgenev, he once sat down to write a letter to his brother. Turgenev -came up and, seeing that he was writing in French, was surprised and -asked Tolstoi why he did it. Tolstoi said that until that moment it -seemed to him that it was impossible to do otherwise, so used was he to -writing letters in French. - -On account of Biryukov’s visit (he is writing Tolstoi’s biography) and -the arrival of his sister Marie Nikolaevna, Tolstoi again turned to -memories of the past. He said: - -“It is surprising how all the past becomes _me_. It is in me, like -something folded. But it is difficult to be perfectly sincere. -Sometimes I remember the bad only, another time the opposite. Lately I -have remembered only the bad acts and events. It is difficult in this -to keep the balance, so as not to exaggerate one way or another.” - -Tolstoi said: - -“It is impossible to know anything about God; He is a necessary -hypothesis or, more truly speaking, the only possible condition of a -right moral life. As an astronomer must base his observations upon -the earth as a motionless centre, so also man cannot live rightly and -morally without the idea of God. Christ always speaks of God as of a -father, that is, as if He were the condition of our existence.” - - -_August 2nd._ Tolstoi and Marie Nikolaevna were recalling a certain -Voeikov. He was once a hussar, and then became a monk. When Tolstoi was -young, Voeikov was continually at Yasnaya, permanently drunk, ragged, -in monk’s clothing, and telling lies unmercifully. - -Tolstoi remembered a story that Voeikov told: - -“‘We were once in a box: Mikhail Illarionovich (Kutuzov), Alexander -Pavlovich (Alexander I.), myself, and some one else. Sontag sang. She -came out to the front of the stage. Her bosom--oh! (he makes a gesture -with his hand showing the size of her bust). Alexander Pavlovich said -to me: “Voeikov, what is it?” And I said to him: “An organism, Your -Majesty!”’ - -“And once, after all his mad ways and lies, he suddenly came up to me -in the garden and said: ‘I am tired of life, Levochka!’” - -Marie Nikolaevna asked Tolstoi why he had never described Voeikov. -Tolstoi said: - -“There are some events and people in life, as there are scenes in -nature, which cannot be described: they are too exceptional and seem to -be impossible. Voeikov was like that. Dickens described such types.” - - -_August 3rd._ The conversation turned on Lobachevsky[13] and on his -theory that space is of many dimensions. Tolstoi remembers Lobachevsky, -who was Professor and Principal of the Kazan University when Tolstoi -was an undergraduate there. Then the company began to recall various -mathematicians, amongst whom there are often queer fellows to be met. -Tolstoi mentioned Prince S. U. Urusov, the Sevastopol hero, who was a -mathematician and a splendid chess player. - -Tolstoi said of him: - -“He used to get up at three o’clock in the morning, light his samovar, -which was prepared for him the night before by his orderly, and begin -his calculations. Urusov was trying to find a way of solving the -different forms of equations. Later he went quite mad. Nothing came of -his calculations. When, in the belief that he had arrived at a positive -result, he decided to read a paper to the Mathematical Society, there -was so awkward a silence after his paper was read that all felt -ashamed.” ... - -Tolstoi went on to say: - -“I was always surprised that mathematicians who are so exact in their -own science are so vague and inexact when they try to philosophize.” - -Tolstoi also mentioned Professors Nekrasov and B., whom he knew -personally. Tolstoi recollected how one evening he visited B.: - -“His wife was an unpleasant woman. That evening she was decolletée, -and, as is always the case on such occasions, one feels something -superfluous, unnecessary--one doesn’t know where to look. Looking at -her I remembered Turgenev’s story,--how in Paris he always bought -himself a loaf in the morning, and the baker’s girl would hand it over -to him with her bare arm, which was more like a leg than an arm.” - - -_August 20th._ A certain gentleman from Petersburg (I don’t remember -his name) now and then sends books to Tolstoi. Recently he sent -him the _Sovremennik_ for 1852 in which Tolstoi’s _Childhood_ was -published. Tolstoi read the books with great interest and said that -the _Sovremennik_ was at that time a very interesting review. Marie -Nikolaevna, who was on a visit to Yasnaya, described how she read -_Childhood_ for the first time. She lived then with her husband in -the country, in the Chernsky district of the Tula province, and -Turgenev used to come to visit them fairly often. Her brother Sergey -Nikolaevich also lived there. During one visit Turgenev read them the -MS. of his _Rudin_. Next time he brought a number of the _Sovremennik_ -and said to them: - -“There is a wonderful new writer; a remarkable work by him is published -here, _Childhood_”; and he began to read it aloud. - -From the very first words Marie Nikolaevna and Sergey Nikolaevna were -amazed: - -“But he is describing us! Who is he?” - -“At first we did not think of Levochka,” Marie Nikolaevna went on. “He -was in debt and had been sent to the Caucasus. We were rather inclined -to think that our brother Nikolay had written _Childhood_.” - -It is said that Turgenev in his _Faust_ described Marie Nikolaevna. - -The conversation turned on Dostoevsky’s hatred of Turgenev. Tolstoi -greatly blamed the libel on Turgenev in _The Possessed_. This hatred -always surprised Tolstoi, and so did that between Goncharov and -Turgenev. - -Tolstoi went on to say: - -“Now books are written by people who have nothing to say. You read, but -you do not see the writer. They always try to give ‘the last word.’ -They reject the real writers and say that they have become obsolete. -It is an absurd notion--to become obsolete. Modern books are read -just because one can get to know ‘the last word’ from them; and this -is easier than to read and know the real writers. These purveyors of -‘the last word’ do enormous harm, they make people unused to thinking -independently.” - -Some one mentioned Kant, and Tolstoi said: - -“What is particularly valuable in Kant is that he always thought for -himself. In reading him you deal all the time with _his_ thoughts, and -this is extraordinarily valuable.” - -About reading modern literature Tolstoi said: - -“I am much more ready to read the memoirs of some old General in the -_Russkaia Starina_; he romances a little, like Zavalishin, about his -merits and successes, but this can be excused, and there is always -something of interest in it.” - -Tolstoi said further: - -“Brain work often tires the head, and when tired, you can’t work as -fruitfully as with a fresh head. Generally speaking, in brain work the -moment is very important. There are moments when your thoughts come out -as if moulded in bronze; at other moments nothing happens.” - - -_December 31st._ Tolstoi said: - -“I am always interested to see what can become obsolete in -literature. I am curious to know what in modern literature will seem -old-fashioned, as, for instance, Karamzin’s ‘Oh soever!’ etc., seems -to us now. Within my memory it has become impossible to write a long -poem in verse. It seems to me that in time works of art will cease to -be invented. It will be a shame to invent a story about a fictitious -Ivan Ivanovich or Marie Petrovna. Writers, if such there be, will not -invent, but will only describe the significant or interesting things -which they have happened to observe in life.” - -FOOTNOTES: - -[12] A. M. Dobrolyubov (1876), religious seeker. His adherents formed a -“Dobrolyubovian sect” on the basis of Christian anarchy. D. began his -literary activity as a poet of the decadent school. - -[13] Nikolay Ivanovich Lobachevsky (1793-1856), the great Russian -mathematician and geometrist (founder of the non-Euclidean geometry). - - - - -1906 - - -_August 21st._ Speaking about art Tolstoi said: - -“Great works of art are for all time. They exist. They must only be -revealed, as Michael Angelo said.” - -Tolstoi was reminded by this saying of Michael Angelo’s of a peasant -who without any training cut wonderful figures in wood and said, when -Tolstoi expressed surprise at the art with which he did it: - -“It is inside there. I am only taking off what is not needed.” - - -Tolstoi said that Turgenev, in his ecstasy over Pushkin’s description -of Lensky’s death in Onegin, said that the wonderful rhyme--_ranen, -stranen_--seemed to be inevitable. - -Then Tolstoi recollected certain of Tyutchev’s poems, whom he rates -very highly. - -I asked him if he knew Tyutchev. - -Tolstoi said: - -“When after the Sevastopol campaign I lived in Petersburg, Tyutchev, -then a famous author, did me, a young writer, the honour to call on -me. And then, I remember, how surprised I was that he, who had all his -life mixed in court circles--he was a friend, in the purest sense, of -the Empress Marie Alexandrovna--who spoke and wrote French more easily -than Russian, picked out for special praise, when he expressed his -admiration for my Sevastopol stories, a certain soldiers’ expression; -and this sensitiveness to the Russian language surprised me in him -extraordinarily.” - - -The conversation arose about writers’ fees. - -Tolstoi turned to P. Biryukov and said: - -“I understand fees in the case of a work like your biography (of -Tolstoi), but fees to writers for their artistic work always seemed -strange and wrong to me. The man wrote and enjoyed writing, and -suddenly for that enjoyment he asks five hundred roubles per printed -sheet!” ... - -Tolstoi said: - -“I became more and more convinced that a sensible man is to be known by -his humility. Conceit is incompatible with understanding.” - -Of conceit Tolstoi said a long time ago in my presence: - -“Every man can be seen as a fraction, whose numerator is his actual -qualities, and its denominator his opinion of himself. The greater the -denominator the less is the absolute quantity of the fraction.” - - - - -1907 - - -_September 7th._ Tolstoi went to-day to Mme. Zveginzev to ask the -police inspector, who lives on her estate, to release from prison the -house-painter, Ivan Grigorevich; and also to thank her for the peaches -she had sent him. - -Tolstoi said: - -“There was her daughter, Princess Volkonsky, there. They all wanted to -direct me on the path of truth. I tried to speak with all seriousness; -but hardly anything could penetrate through their diamonds and luxury. -They now employ the stove-maker who used to come to me to borrow -books. And he has been telling them that I said that one should not -believe in God, and various other bits of nonsense. I told them that -there was nothing strange in my words being distorted. If even from -Christ’s teaching people can deduce the rites of the Church, the -blessing of war, etc., then it is no wonder that our words are always -misrepresented and distorted. - -“Then they asked me how I explained the fact that in my family no one -followed my teaching. I told them that it probably happened because I -lived like a Pharisee, and did not fulfil my own teaching. To this they -made no reply.” - -Tolstoi said that he saw to-day a review of a new book on Turgenev. -The book is partly of a polemical kind. The author gives an account of -Turgenev’s quarrels with all writers (Dostoevsky, Tolstoi, Hertzen, -Fet, etc.), as if it were his object to vindicate Turgenev and to prove -that on all occasions he was right. - -Tolstoi said: - -“Really, it is strange that he quarrelled with every one. He was a -very nice, good man. Only he was very weak, and was conscious of his -weakness. Once, I remember, Count Urusov was here, my good friend. -There were two brothers, and for some reason people considered them -stupid. Now knowing this, Turgenev began arguing with them arrogantly -as though feeling his superiority, but Urusov quietly, easily, and -confidently refuted his argument. And no wonder: Urusov had his own -definite religious convictions, whatever they might be, and Turgenev -had none.” - -“I was fond of him,” Tolstoi said of Turgenev. - -Sophie Andreevna said that Turgenev had loved Tolstoi very much. - -“No, on the contrary,” Tolstoi replied. “He rather liked me as a -writer, but, as man, I did not find in him real warmth and cordiality. -Well, he liked no one in that way, except women with whom he happened -to be in love. He had no friends.” - -Tolstoi asked me about my work, whether I was composing music, and said -how bad it was when people force work out of themselves, and how great -artists lose by immediately starting a new work when they have finished -the old one. - -Tolstoi mentioned Pushkin and said: - -“The best writers are always strict with themselves. I re-write until -I feel that I am beginning to spoil. And then, of course, I leave it -alone. And one begins to spoil because at first, when you enjoy your -work, whilst it is _yours_, you apply all your spiritual force to it. -Later when the fundamental original idea ceases more and more to be -new, and becomes, as it were, someone else’s, it bores you. You begin -to try to say something new and you spoil and distort the first idea.” - -A telegram arrived from Leonid Andreev asking to be allowed to come. - -Tolstoi said: - -“How terribly undeserved fame, like that of Andreev, spoils a man!” - -Then Tolstoi could not compose a telegram in reply. - -“How shall I answer? ‘Come.’ ... But that is too short. ‘Shall be very -glad to see you’--that is not altogether true. Well, Dushan Petrovich, -write simply: ‘You are welcome.’” - -Tolstoi said: - -“I had a letter to-day from a man who congratulates me on my -fifty-fifth anniversary, and writes that he so much loves my works that -he is always reading and re-reading _War and Peace_, for instance, but -he says: ‘However much I tried, I could not read a single one of your -philosophical writings to the end.’ He tries to persuade me to give up -that kind of writing.” - -“Why should he have written all that?” Tolstoi said, laughing. “There -was a man living and nobody knew he was a fool, and suddenly he got up -and told me so!” ... - - - - -1908 - - -_January 6th._ Yesterday, when many letters came, Tolstoi said: - -“In old age one becomes indifferent to the fact that one will never see -the results of one’s activity. But the results will be there. It is not -modesty on my part, but I know there will be results.” - -To-day, speaking of the revolutionaries, Tolstoi said: - -“Their chief mistake is the superstition that one can arrange human -life.” - - -_April 12th._ Tatyana Lvovna was saying that A. N. Volkov is writing a -book on art. Tolstoi became interested. Volkov says in his book that -art must follow Nature blindly in everything. - -Tolstoi said: - -“It is absolutely untrue. It is always like that. When people are -discussing art, they either say, like the modern decadents, that -everything is allowed, everything is possible, that there is complete -freedom in art. Or they talk about the slavish imitation of Nature. -Both views are false. Just as every man is perfectly individual and -never occurs twice over, so also his thoughts, his feelings are always -new; they are _his_ thoughts and feelings alone. At the basis of a true -work of art there must lie some perfectly original idea or feeling, but -it must be expressed with slavish adherence to the smallest details of -life.” - - -_July 27th._ A fortnight ago Mme. E--v, the wife of a privy councillor, -came here on a visit. Tolstoi played chess with me on the balcony and -the lady talked at first to Sophie Andreevna, and then, I think, to -Marie Nikolaevna, about the great service which landowners performed, -and how the peasants are beasts, and how, but for the landed -aristocracy and their culture, they would become absolute brutes. - -Tolstoi kept silent, but at last could stand it no longer. He got up -from his chair and said to her: - -“You must forgive me, but what you are saying is terrible, one can’t -listen to it with indifference. If one is speaking of beasts, then -certainly it is not the peasants who are beasts, but all of us who rob -them and live on them. And all the ‘work’ of the landowners is nothing -but playing about for want of anything else to do!” - -Tolstoi was in a state of agitation and could not get calm for a long -time afterwards. - -The same evening at tea, when Mme. E--v had gone, the talk was about -executions. Sophie Andreevna tried to prove that any murder is as bad -as an execution, and yet people don’t talk about them. Elisabetha -Valerianovna replied that an execution is a murder which is considered -to be just, and the horror of it lies in that. - -Tolstoi said: - -“If one were to ask who is worse, the wretched executioner, hired, -intoxicated, spiritually destroyed, or those who hire him and those who -pass sentence of death, the prosecutors, the judges, then it seems to -me there can be no doubt.” - -At tea Elisabetha Valerianovna asked her mother, Marie Nikolaevna, to -have some milk, and she began to drink it. - -Tolstoi said: - -“How is it, Mashenka, that you drink it? For myself, if I am told to -drink milk, I want sherry, and, when I’m told to drink sherry, I want -milk.” ... - -Marie Nikolaevna began recalling the past. When they lived in Moscow, -soon after the death of their father in 1837-38, Tolstoi, who was then -about eight or nine, jumped out of the first-floor window and was badly -hurt. - -Tolstoi said: - -“I remember that quite well. I wanted to see what would happen, and I -even remember that, as I jumped, I tried to jump upwards.” - - -_July 28th._ Yesterday my wife and I were at Yasnaya. Tolstoi’s leg is -still painful. He lies in a chair with it stretched out. He suffers -from inflammation and from embolism of the vein. They say he must lie -like that for six weeks. - -We arrived at Yasnaya about eight o’clock. Tolstoi sat in a chair in -the dining-room. He played chess with S. Then he began to play chess -with me. S. looked on at our game for a time, and then sitting near the -round table he began to talk to Sophie Andreevna about the children’s -anthology to be chosen from Tolstoi’s works, which he wishes to -publish for his Jubilee (Tolstoi’s eighty years). The conversation was -terrible. Sophie Andreevna said in the sharpest way that she was not -going to be cheated out of her rights, that she would go to a lawyer -and would write to the papers about it. S. behaved rather well, and -asked her to point out what she would allow to be published; but she -would not listen to reason. At last she said that it was the same as if -he stole her silver spoons. It was intolerably humiliating and painful. - -Sophie Andreevna made attempts to draw Tolstoi into the dispute. Poor -Tolstoi! He suffered, frowned, shook his head in horror, but kept -silent. The greatest deed in his life is his humility and patience with -Sophie Andreevna. His behaviour is all the more difficult, because -people criticize him for being humble and long-suffering in this way. -How much easier it would be for him to leave this kind of life, which -he not only does not want, but which is intolerable to him. - -Then it became even worse. S. left the room for a time, and when he -returned and sat down near us watching the chess, Sophie Andreevna -did not see him and began talking about something and, as usual, -complaining of the worries of managing the household, and said: - -“When I get rid of the steward, of the thieving, of S., and ...” of -something else, I don’t remember what. - -Every one was overcome with shame. Tolstoi even uttered a groan. S. -turned deadly white. Some one managed to whisper to Sophie Andreevna -that he, S., was in the room. She was not in the least put out, and -only began saying how much she regretted that she had not died under -her operation. - -Tolstoi glanced at S.; S. said: - -“Did you want to say something, Leo Nikolaevich?” - -Tolstoi was silent for a time and then said: - -“You understood me.” - -Then he added: - -“Whom God loves, him He tries.” - -It was intolerable. S. left the room quickly and went away without -saying good-bye to any one. - -There the matter rested. Mme. Zveginzev then arrived. Tolstoi talked -about Chertkov’s father:[14] - -“When he was about forty-five, gangrene attacked his toe. Then it -went further, and his leg had to be amputated at the knee. He went -to England. There they made him an artificial leg on which he walked -fairly easily. Then the gangrene attacked the other leg. This, too, had -to be amputated, but this time much above the knee. He sat in a chair -and was carried about. He was very patient and did not groan, although -he shuddered with pain all day long. In the evenings he would be given -an injection of morphia; he would then revive, read the papers, and -talk. He was a brilliant man, a wit, and a great success in society. -He used to be taken in his chair to parties. There was even a cult for -him; he used to visit the Empress. In society invitations were issued: -‘Venez; M. Chertkoff sera ce soir chez nous.’ He died early. He never -drank and never could drink, for the wine went to his head. But once -at dinner some one drank, and he took a little glass of vodka, and -suddenly died then and there at the dinner party.” - -Some one began to talk about bugs. - -Tolstoi said: - -“When he has bugs, Perna does not scratch, but lies quietly--he -allows them to have their fill, like Buddha, who gave himself to be -devoured by the tigress; and when the bugs have eaten enough, he sleeps -peacefully. In olden days, under the serfdom, when the landed gentry -lived very dirtily and bugs were everywhere, if a guest remained for -the night, the butler used to be put into the bed first, so as to feed -the bugs, and only after that was the bed made for the guest.” - -Then I came up to Tolstoi and he talked to me. At first, with a smile, -he winked at Mme. Zveginzev’s colossal hat. - -I asked him if he was still working on the new “Circle of Reading.” -Tolstoi said that he is already working at the twenty-first day. He -makes the same number of days in all the twelve months. I told him that -I had read the first day and that it seemed to me very good. - -Tolstoi said: - -“Yes, but it must all be gone over again. At the beginning of each day -I put the ideas which can be understood by children and simple people. -This is very difficult. I am doing it now, when I am an old man, but I -ought to have begun my career as a writer by doing it. I ought to have -written so that it could be understood by every one. This is true, too, -of your art. And, generally speaking, of all the arts.” - -I said to him that in music the most musical language happens to be -beyond one’s reach, whether or not one belongs to intellectual circles, -either because one is not trained or because one is unmusical by nature. - -Tolstoi agreed with me partly, but said that this was the case in other -arts as well: - -“There are some ideas which can be understood by all and are necessary -to all, but are expressed in the language of a small group of people. -For instance, the poem ‘I remember the wonderful moment,’ or ‘When to -the mortal the noisy day passes into silence’--do you remember them? A -peasant couldn’t understand them.” - -Tolstoi said: - -“I was thinking a great deal about art to-day and I re-read my article, -and I must confess I agreed with my ideas.” - -Tolstoi is reading the English biography of Chopin (by Huneker). He -does not like it. He said to me: - -“I have not read books of that kind for a long time. The author does -not reveal Chopin’s inner life, but displays his own erudition, his -ability to write well and wittily. He is controversial and proves the -faults of other biographers. But there is no Chopin here.... Yet there -are many interesting facts in it. It is the life of a small circle of -poets, writers, and musicians--what a perverted and terrible life! And -George Sand, that disgusting woman!... I can’t understand her success.” - -Marie Nikolaevna, who was listening, said: - -“No! she has done good things. Take, for instance, her _Consuelo_.” - -“No, that is not good. It is all false and bad and tedious; I could -never read it.” - - -_July 30th._ There were staying at Yasnaya Marie Alexandrovna, I. -Gorbunov, and E. I. Popov. Tolstoi was not well. His leg was still -painful. We played chess. Then there was tea. Before the game of -chess, when I had come into the drawing-room by myself, Tolstoi was -telling Obolensky and the others, whom I mentioned, the plot of Anatole -France’s novel, a very complicated novel. I believe it is called -_Jocaste_. Tolstoi was telling the plot in detail and was surprised at -its absurdity, but said it was written with A. France’s usual mastery. - -As I came in, I had met two men downstairs who wished to see Tolstoi. -As Tolstoi is ill, Gusev (the secretary) went downstairs. One of the -men turned out to be a sectarian, “an immortalist,” and the other -sent up by Gusev a strange note in which, referring to Boulanger’s -promise to try to find a job for him, he said something foolish about -his desire to be useful to Tolstoi. Altogether there was no sense, no -purpose in it. - -Tolstoi said: - -“It is amazing, why can’t they understand? It seems to him that only he -and myself exist, and yet there are hundreds of him, and only one of -me. And what can I do for him?” - -At tea Tolstoi talked about the ‘immortalist.’ Marie Nikolaevna asked -what sect it was. - -Tolstoi said to her: - -“The ‘immortalists’ believe that if they go on believing they will -never die. And when one of them dies they say: he did not really -believe.... I quite understand it. With them immortality is identified -with the body. At a low level of religious development that is -understandable. The Church doctrine also thinks of resurrection as a -resurrection in the flesh.” - -Marie Nikolaevna began to say that she believed that there _would_ be -something after death. - -Tolstoi said: - -“In the first place, as to our state after death, it is impossible to -say that it _will_ be. Immortality neither will be, nor was, but _is_. -It is outside the forms of time and space. People who keep on asking -what is going to happen after death should be told: the very same thing -that _was_ before birth. We do not know, neither can we or must we know -what existence outside of the body, fusion with God, is like, and, when -people begin telling me about it--even if some one from the other world -were to come to tell me about it--I would not believe and I should say -that I do not need it. That which we need, we always are aware of and -know without doubting. One ought to live so that one’s life should help -on the happiness of other people.” - -Marie Nikolaevna said that although she neither believes in nor admits -the existence of paradise and hell with real suffering, nevertheless -there is hell for the soul in the constant suffering which comes from -realization of evil done or of good undone. - -“I can’t admit,” she added, “that one who lives badly and has done no -good will achieve the same fusion with God as the man who has lived -justly.” - -Tolstoi was about to say something, but Marie Nikolaevna interrupted -him. - -Tolstoi said quietly and gently: - -“I listened to you, Mashenka; now do you listen to me. Compared with -the perfection of God, the difference which exists in life between the -most righteous man and the most wicked is so insignificant that it is -simply equal to nothing. And how am I to admit that God, the God whom I -realize through love, can be revengeful and punish?” - -“But suppose one lived wickedly all one’s life and died without -repenting?” Marie Nikolaevna said. - -“Ah, Mashenka,” Tolstoi said, “but what man wishes to be bad? The man -whom we think bad we must love and pity for his sufferings. Nobody -wants to live a bad life and to suffer. He must not be punished, he -must be pitied, because he does not know the truth.” - -Marie Nikolaevna still could not give up her point of view. - -Tolstoi said to her: - -“Very well, if what you believe in satisfies you; and this must -never be condemned, only you must not prevent people from believing -what their conscience prompts them to, and you must not try to make -them believe differently, as all the Churches do, the Catholic, the -Protestant, the Orthodox, the Buddhist, the Muhammadan.” ... - -Towards the end of July, Klechkovsky came to Yasnaya and played. - -Tolstoi lay on the sofa, and, after Klechkovsky had finished playing, -we sat by Tolstoi. Klechkovsky began talking about himself, how -dissatisfied he was with his life, how he would like to live on the -land, to give up his music teaching and the Institute. But he can’t do -it because his father would be much upset by such a sudden change in -his life. He also said that he would like to go and live in a community. - -Tolstoi replied to him: - -“Why in a community? One ought not to separate oneself from other -people. If there is anything good in a man, let that light be spread -about him wherever he lives. What numbers of people settled in -communities, yet nothing came of it! All their energies went at first -into external arrangement of life, and when at length they settled -down, there began to be quarrels and gossip, and it all fell to -pieces.... You are grumbling at the Institute, yet there is the porter -there whom you could treat kindly, like a human being, and then you -would have done a good act. And the girls, your pupils? Can’t you make -a great deal that is good out of those relations? One can always shut -oneself off from people, but nothing good will come of it. I say this -not because I want to justify my own life. I live in the wrong way and -know it is the wrong way, but I have always wanted and tried to live -better, only I could not.... I shall go to God in the consciousness -that I did what I could to make my life better. - -“One should never attempt to arrange life beforehand. At times I ask -myself what I should do if I remained here alone? For instance, I -should say to Ilya Vasilevich: ‘It would be nice if you did the rooms -and tidied them to-day, and I will do them to-morrow.’ Then we should -eat together. And so on with one thing after another, as things would -arrange themselves. Only it has to be remembered that the ideal of the -material life cannot be fully realized, any more than the ideal of the -spiritual life. The whole point is in the constant effort to approach -the ideal. If I gave up everything now and went away, Sophie Andreevna -would hate me, and the evil of that would perhaps be worse. You have -your father ... and so it is with every one.” - -Tolstoi said before this: - -“I said to Sophie Andreevna to-day, and I believe she was hurt by it: -the first concern in life must be for the things of the soul, and, if -household duties interfere with that, then damn household duties.” - - -Last night we sat on the balcony. - -Tolstoi said that he had had a nice letter from a simple man who had -read several of his books, and who asked, at the end of his letter, -where there were people who live a Christian life, for he would leave -everything and go and live with them. Tolstoi said that he replied to -him much in the same way as he had done to Klechkovsky. - -Tolstoi added: - -“I think that even if one was a woman in a brothel, or a gaoler, -one ought not suddenly to give up one’s work. Certainly any one who -realizes the evil of such a life will not go on with it, but the -important thing is not the external change.” - -Tolstoi said he had received three letters: one from Mr. Grekov, who -sent him three copies of his book, _The Message of Peace_, and wrote -that his book was so remarkable that, if it were widely read, it would -revolutionize human life; the second letter was from an intellectual -who asked for a loan of 800 roubles; and the third from a simple -illiterate peasant, a good serious letter. Tolstoi said that, besides -letters asking for money, he also receives letters from authors sending -him their books, and begging that Tolstoi will use his authority to -make their books known. - -“An odd idea,” Tolstoi said, “that I should try to spread opinions -which I neither sympathize with nor share.” - - -_August 5th._ Marie Nikolaevna told how the steward Fokanich had -once stolen 400 roubles from Tolstoi, and Tolstoi took it rather -indifferently. Soon afterwards Sergey Nikolaevich, Tolstoi’s brother, -was very much worried about his affairs, and when he was told that it -was not worth while to be so worried, he said: - -“It doesn’t matter to Levochka that Fokanich stole 400 roubles from -him; he will write a story and get the money back; and he will describe -Fokanich into the bargain; but where shall I get my money?” - -Tolstoi replied to this: - -“Mashenka, how can you remember all this? But I heard an expression -to-day that keeps on coming back into my mind.” - -And Tolstoi told how during lunch to-day an unusually importunate -beggar arrived. He stood by the balcony and began saying how happy he -was to see and salute Tolstoi, etc.... He was given something, but -he was not satisfied, went to the kitchen, and began begging with -extraordinary importunity. After lunch when Tolstoi was coming down -from the balcony, Ilya Vasilevich, pointing to the beggar, said to -Tolstoi: - -“Yes, that fellow could beg the parson’s mare off him.” - - -_August 19th._ At tea the conversation turned upon modern literature. -Tolstoi asked Buturlin to send him anything new he could find by -Anatole France, whom Tolstoi values very highly. He spoke again. - -Tolstoi said: - -“I cannot remember getting a strong impression from a book for a long -time. I do not think it is because I am old; it seems to me that modern -literature, like the Roman literature in the past, is coming to an end. -There is no one, neither in the West nor here.” - -Buturlin asked Tolstoi if he remembered Oscar Wilde’s _De Profundis_. - -Tolstoi had not read it, but said: - -“I forget everything now, but I remember having tried to read Wilde, -and it has left me with an impression that he was not worth reading.” - -Speaking of modern Russian writers Tolstoi mentioned Kuprin. - -“His scope is small; he knows the life of the soldiers, but still he -has real artistic power. The others simply have nothing to say, and are -on the look-out for new forms. But why look for new forms? If you have -something to say, you should only ask for time in which to say what you -want, but you won’t need to seek new forms.” - -Apropos of Eltzbacher’s book on anarchy, which Tolstoi was re-reading, -he said: - -“Christian anarchy is a narrow definition of the Christian conception -of the world, but anarchy follows certainly from Christianity in its -application to social life.” - - -_September 3rd._ Tolstoi again spoke about the old German mystic, -Angelus Silesius. Tolstoi asked some one to fetch his book (a large old -volume) and read aloud several aphorisms, translating them as he read. -When he came to the passage: “If God did not love Himself in us, we -could neither love ourselves, nor God,” Tolstoi exclaimed: - -“Ah, how well that’s said!” - -Referring to some account in the papers of a conversation with him, -Tolstoi said: - -“If I were to live for another eighty years, and were never to cease -talking, I could not manage to say all the sayings that are attributed -to me.” - - -_September 6th._ Tolstoi said, with reference to the addresses and -congratulations on his eightieth birthday (August 28th, 1908) which -keep on coming: - -“I believe I am right in saying that I have no vanity, but I can’t help -being touched involuntarily. And yet, at my age, I live so far away -from all this, it is all so unnecessary and so humiliating. Only one -thing is necessary, the inner life of the spirit.” - -On August 29th, when more than two thousand telegrams of congratulation -arrived, Tolstoi said: - -“I feel with joy that I have utterly lost the power of being interested -in all this. In the past, I remember, I experienced a feeling of -pride; I was glad at my success. But now--and I think it is not false -modesty--it is a matter of absolute indifference to me. Perhaps it is -because I have had too much success. It is like sweets: if you have too -many, you feel surfeited. But one thing is pleasant: in nearly all the -letters, congratulations, addresses, the same thing is repeated--it has -simply become a truism--that I have destroyed religious delusions and -opened the way for the search after truth. If it is true, it is just -what I have wanted and tried to do all my life, and this is very dear -to me.” - -FOOTNOTE: - -[14] Gregory Ivanovich Chertkov (1828-1884), Adjutant-General. - - - - -1909 - - -_February 10th._ Once in the winter Sophie Andreevna in Tolstoi’s -presence criticized V. G. Chertkov bitterly, which, as usual, -pained him very much. This was in the morning. In the middle of the -conversation Tolstoi got up and went into his room. - -Some time later he came into the dining-room, stood at the door, and -said in an agitated voice: - -“There is an old nurse in our house. I scarcely know her, but I love -her because she loves Sasha, and when there is nothing like that in a -house, there is no real love.” ... - -After saying this, Tolstoi turned and quietly went to his room. - -To-night Tolstoi said: - -“When one listens to music, it agitates, excites, elates, but one does -not think. But when I play patience in my room, the finest thoughts -come to me.” - -During work, especially if he found some difficulty, Tolstoi used to -play patience. This was his habit throughout his life. When he was -writing Part III. of _Resurrection_, Tolstoi was undecided for a long -time about the fate of Katyusha Maslov. Now he decided that Nekhlyudov -should marry her, now that he should not. At last he decided to play -a game of patience: if the patience came out, Nekhlyudov should marry -her; if not, then he should not marry her. The patience did not come -out. Once Tolstoi told me that he had found a passage in a book, which -he was writing, very difficult. He hesitated for a long time what to -do, but made up his mind and wrote it. Then he decided to test it by -means of a game of patience; if the patience came out, that meant that -what he had written was good; if it did not come out, then it was bad. -The patience did not come out, and Tolstoi said to himself: “Never -mind, it is good as it is!” and he left it as he had written it. - - -_May 24th._ Tolstoi was speaking about Dietrich’s German book on -Goethe. The author sent him the book and asked him his opinion. - -Tolstoi said: - -“It is amazing! So far back as 1824 Goethe wrote that sincerity -was become almost impossible in art, because of the multitude of -newspapers, journals, and reviews. The artist reads them, involuntarily -pays attention to them, and cannot be perfectly sincere. What would he -say if he lived now!” - - -THE END - - -_Printed in Great Britain by_ R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, _Edinburgh_. - - - - -THE - -HOGARTH PRESS - -HOGARTH HOUSE, PARADISE ROAD, - -RICHMOND - -_FORTHCOMING PUBLICATIONS_ - - -E. M. FORSTER. Pharos and Pharillon. 5s. - - A book of essays on Alexandria ancient and modern by E. M. - FORSTER, the author of _Howards End_. - - -THE LETTERS OF STEPHEN REYNOLDS. 16s. - - This volume of letters by the author of _A Poor Man’s House_ and - _Seems So!_ has been edited by Mr. HAROLD WRIGHT. - - -TOLSTOI’S LOVE LETTERS. 5s. - - This book contains the extremely interesting letters written by - Tolstoi to a young girl to whom he was engaged for a short time, - and which have not previously been translated into English. It - also contains a study of the autobiographical elements in the - writings of Tolstoi by Tolstoi’s friend and biographer, M. Paul - Biryukov. - - - - -_RECENT PUBLICATIONS_ - - -NEW DOSTOEVSKY. - - -STAVROGIN’S CONFESSION, etc. (The unpublished - chapter from “The Possessed,” and the - plan of “The Life of a Great Sinner.”) 6s. - - “This so-called chapter of ‘The Possessed’ is a precious survival. - It has value in itself, by reason of the beauty and terror it - contains; it has value as throwing light on some of Dostoevsky’s - most secret and intimate thoughts ... but its greatest value is - as an evidence of the creative process in Dostoevsky.”--_Times - Literary Supplement._ - - -JACOB’S ROOM. A New Novel by VIRGINIA - WOOLF. Second Impression. 7s. 6d. - - “Whose curious and original genius,” says the _Spectator_, “has - already provoked conflicting opinions.” - - “A supremely important writer.”--REBECCA WEST in _The New - Statesman_. - - “How much more amusing is ‘Jacob’s Room’ than the competent, - true-to-type novel.”--_The Observer._ - - “Read the book for yourself.... I find myself repeating the words - of M. Bergeret: ‘Si pourtant c’était un chef-d’œuvre?’”--FORREST - REID in _The Nation_. - - “‘Jacob’s Room’ is the best thing she has done. It reads like an - absolute transcript of life.”--_John o’ London’s Weekly._ - - -LEONID ANDREEV. The Dark. Translated by - K. WALTER and L. A. MAGNUS. 2s. - - “It is a notable story.”--J. MIDDLETON MURRY in _The Nation_. - - - - - THE GENTLEMAN FROM SAN FRANCISCO, AND OTHER STORIES. By I. A. - BUNIN. Translated from the Russian by D. H. LAWRENCE, S. S. - KOTELIANSKY, and LEONARD WOOLF. 4s. net. - -I. A. Bunin is a well-known Russian writer, but his short stories have -not hitherto been published in an English translation. Four stories are -included in this volume. The _Times Literary Supplement_ in reviewing -a French translation of the first story in this volume says: “Whatever -its faults this is certainly one of the most impressive stories of -modern times.” - - - DAYBREAK. A Book of Poems. By FREDEGOND SHOVE. - -3s. 6d. - -Mrs. Shove has the distinction of being the only woman poet whose work -has been included in _Georgian Poetry_, although she has previously -published only one volume, _Dreams and Journeys_. - - - KARN. A Poem. By RUTH MANNING-SANDERS. - -3s. 6d. net. - -This is an ambitious narrative poem by a young writer who has -previously published one book of short poems. Unlike most narrative -poems, it is vivid and readable. - - - - - THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF COUNTESS SOPHIE TOLSTOI. With Introduction - and Notes by VASILII SPIRIDONOV. Translated from the Russian by S. - S. KOTELIANSKY and LEONARD WOOLF. - -4s. net. - -This autobiography was written by Tolstoi’s wife in 1913, and is -extraordinarily interesting, not only “as a human document,” but in the -light which it throws upon Tolstoi’s life and teaching and on those -relations with his wife and family which led up to his “going away.” -Countess Tolstoi wrote it at the request of the late S. A. Vengerov, -a well-known Russian critic. He intended to publish it, but this -intention was not carried out owing to the war and his death. The MS. -was discovered recently among his papers, and has just been published -in Russia. It deals with the whole of Tolstoi’s married life, but in -particular with the differences which arose between him and his wife -over his doctrines and his desire to put them into practice in their -way of living. It also gives an account of Tolstoi’s “going away” and -death. The book is published with an introduction by Vasilii Spiridonov -and notes and appendices which contain information regarding Tolstoi’s -life and teachings not before available to English readers. - - - - -_PREVIOUS PUBLICATIONS_ - - -CLIVE BELL - Poems. 2s. 6d. net. - -T. S. ELIOT - Poems. _Out of print._ - -E. M. FORSTER - The Story of the Siren. _Out of print._ - -ROGER FRY - Twelve Original Woodcuts. Third impression. 5s. net. - -MAXIM GORKY - Reminiscences of Tolstoi. Second edition. 5s. net. - -KATHERINE MANSFIELD - Prelude. _Out of print._ - -HOPE MIRRLEES - Paris. A Poem. _Out of print._ - -J. MIDDLETON MURRY - The Critic in Judgment. 2s. 6d. net. - -LOGAN PEARSALL SMITH - Stories from the Old Testament retold. _Out of print._ - -The Note-books of ANTON TCHEKHOV, together - with Reminiscences of TCHEKHOV by MAXIM GORKY. 5s. net. - -LEONARD WOOLF - Stories of the East. 3s. net. - -VIRGINIA WOOLF - Monday or Tuesday. _With Woodcuts - by Vanessa Bell._ 4s. 6d. net. - The Mark on the Wall. Second edition. 1s. 6d. net. - Kew Gardens. _Out of print._ - -LEONARD & VIRGINIA WOOLF - Two Stories. _Out of print._ - - - -***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TALKS WITH TOLSTOI*** - - -******* This file should be named 65159-0.txt or 65159-0.zip ******* - - -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: -http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/6/5/1/5/65159 - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, -and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you receive -specific permission. If you do not charge anything for copies of this -eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You may use this eBook -for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports, -performances and research. They may be modified and printed and given -away--you may do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks -not protected by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the -trademark license, especially commercial redistribution. - -START: FULL LICENSE - -THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE -PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK - -To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free -distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work -(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full -Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at -www.gutenberg.org/license. - -Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works - -1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to -and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property -(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all -the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or -destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your -possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a -Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound -by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the -person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph -1.E.8. - -1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be -used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who -agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few -things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See -paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this -agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. - -1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the -Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection -of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual -works in the collection are in the public domain in the United -States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the -United States and you are located in the United States, we do not -claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, -displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as -all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope -that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting -free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm -works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the -Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily -comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the -same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when -you share it without charge with others. - -1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern -what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are -in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, -check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this -agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, -distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any -other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no -representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any -country outside the United States. - -1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: - -1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other -immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear -prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work -on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the -phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, -performed, viewed, copied or distributed: - - This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and - most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no - restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it - under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this - eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the - United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you - are located before using this ebook. - -1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is -derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not -contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the -copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in -the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are -redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply -either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or -obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm -trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted -with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution -must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any -additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms -will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works -posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the -beginning of this work. - -1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this -work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. - -1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this -electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without -prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with -active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project -Gutenberg-tm License. - -1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, -compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including -any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access -to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format -other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official -version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site -(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense -to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means -of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain -Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the -full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. - -1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, -performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works -unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing -access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -provided that - -* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from - the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method - you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed - to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has - agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid - within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are - legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty - payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in - Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg - Literary Archive Foundation." - -* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies - you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he - does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm - License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all - copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue - all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm - works. - -* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of - any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the - electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of - receipt of the work. - -* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free - distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than -are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing -from both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and The -Project Gutenberg Trademark LLC, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm -trademark. Contact the Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. - -1.F. - -1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable -effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread -works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project -Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may -contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate -or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other -intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or -other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or -cannot be read by your equipment. - -1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right -of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project -Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all -liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal -fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT -LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE -PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE -TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE -LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR -INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH -DAMAGE. - -1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a -defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can -receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a -written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you -received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium -with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you -with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in -lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person -or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second -opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If -the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing -without further opportunities to fix the problem. - -1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth -in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO -OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT -LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. - -1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied -warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of -damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement -violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the -agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or -limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or -unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the -remaining provisions. - -1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the -trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone -providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in -accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the -production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, -including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of -the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this -or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or -additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any -Defect you cause. - -Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm - -Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of -electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of -computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It -exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations -from people in all walks of life. - -Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the -assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's -goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will -remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure -and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future -generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see -Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at -www.gutenberg.org - -Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation - -The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit -501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the -state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal -Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification -number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by -U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. - -The Foundation's principal office is in Fairbanks, Alaska, with the -mailing address: PO Box 750175, Fairbanks, AK 99775, but its -volunteers and employees are scattered throughout numerous -locations. Its business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, Salt -Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up to -date contact information can be found at the Foundation's web site and -official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact - -For additional contact information: - - Dr. Gregory B. Newby - Chief Executive and Director - gbnewby@pglaf.org - -Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation - -Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide -spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of -increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be -freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest -array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations -($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt -status with the IRS. - -The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating -charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United -States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a -considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up -with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations -where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND -DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular -state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate - -While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we -have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition -against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who -approach us with offers to donate. - -International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make -any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from -outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. - -Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation -methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other -ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To -donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate - -Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. - -Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project -Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be -freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and -distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of -volunteer support. - -Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed -editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in -the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not -necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper -edition. - -Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search -facility: www.gutenberg.org - -This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. - diff --git a/old/65159-0.zip b/old/65159-0.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 7ee2a5c..0000000 --- a/old/65159-0.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/65159-h.zip b/old/65159-h.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 7a44283..0000000 --- a/old/65159-h.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/65159-h/65159-h.htm b/old/65159-h/65159-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index d0dd0a6..0000000 --- a/old/65159-h/65159-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,4879 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" - "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> -<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> -<head> -<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /> -<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Talks with Tolstoi, by Aleksandr Borisovich Golʹdenveĭzer</title> - <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> - <style type="text/css"> - - p { margin-top: .75em; - text-align: justify; - margin-bottom: .75em; - } - - p.bold {text-align: center; font-weight: bold;} - p.bold2 {text-align: center; font-weight: bold; font-size: 150%;} - - h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { - text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ - clear: both; - } - h1 span, h2 span { display: block; text-align: center; } - #id1 { font-size: smaller } - - - hr { - width: 33%; - margin-top: 2em; - margin-bottom: 2em; - margin-left: 33.5%; - margin-right: 33.5%; - clear: both; - } - - body{margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%; - } - - table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 5px; border-collapse: collapse; border: none; text-align: right;} - - .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ - /* visibility: hidden; */ - position: absolute; - left: 92%; - font-size: smaller; - text-align: right; - text-indent: 0px; - } /* page numbers */ - - .center {text-align: center;} - .smaller {font-size: smaller;} - .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} - .space-above {margin-top: 3em;} - .right {text-align: right;} - - .poem {display: inline-block; text-align: left;} - .poem br {display: none;} - .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} - .poem div {margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} - - - h1.pgx { text-align: center; - clear: both; - font-weight: bold; - font-size: 190%; - margin-top: 0em; - margin-bottom: 1em; - word-spacing: 0em; - letter-spacing: 0em; - line-height: 1; } - h2.pgx { text-align: center; - clear: both; - font-weight: bold; - font-size: 135%; - margin-top: 2em; - margin-bottom: 1em; - word-spacing: 0em; - letter-spacing: 0em; - page-break-before: avoid; - line-height: 1; } - h3.pgx { text-align: center; - clear: both; - font-weight: bold; - font-size: 110%; - margin-top: 2em; - margin-bottom: 1em; - word-spacing: 0em; - letter-spacing: 0em; - line-height: 1; } - h4.pgx { text-align: center; - clear: both; - font-weight: bold; - font-size: 100%; - margin-top: 2em; - margin-bottom: 1em; - word-spacing: 0em; - letter-spacing: 0em; - line-height: 1; } - hr.pgx { width: 100%; - margin-top: 3em; - margin-bottom: 0em; - margin-left: auto; - margin-right: auto; - height: 4px; - border-width: 4px 0 0 0; /* remove all borders except the top one */ - border-style: solid; - border-color: #000000; - clear: both; } - </style> -</head> -<body> -<h1 class="pgx" title="">The Project Gutenberg eBook, Talks with Tolstoi, by Aleksandr Borisovich -Golʹdenveĭzer, Translated by S. S. Koteliansky and VIrginia Woolf</h1> -<p>This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States -and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no -restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it -under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this -eBook or online at <a -href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you are not -located in the United States, you'll have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this ebook.</p> -<p>Title: Talks with Tolstoi</p> -<p>Author: Aleksandr Borisovich Golʹdenveĭzer</p> -<p>Release Date: April 25, 2021 [eBook #65159]</p> -<p>Language: English</p> -<p>Character set encoding: UTF-8</p> -<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TALKS WITH TOLSTOI***</p> -<p> </p> -<h4 class="pgx" title="">E-text prepared by Tim Lindell, Martin Pettit,<br /> - and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> - (https://www.pgdp.net)<br /> - from page images generously made available by<br /> - Internet Archive<br /> - (https://archive.org)</h4> -<p> </p> -<table border="0" style="background-color: #ccccff;margin: 0 auto;" cellpadding="10"> - <tr> - <td valign="top"> - Note: - </td> - <td> - Images of the original pages are available through - Internet Archive. See - https://archive.org/details/rstalkswithtolst00golduoft - </td> - </tr> -</table> -<p> </p> -<hr class="pgx" /> -<p> </p> -<p> </p> -<p> </p> - -<div class="center"><img src="images/front.jpg" alt="title page" /></div> - -<hr /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i">[Pg i]</a></span></p> - -<h1>TALKS WITH TOLSTOI </h1> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[Pg iii]</a></span></p> - -<p class="bold2">TALKS<br />WITH TOLSTOI</p> - -<p class="bold space-above">BY</p> - -<p class="bold2">A. B. GOLDENVEIZER</p> - -<p class="bold space-above">TRANSLATED BY<br /> -S. S. KOTELIANSKY <span class="smaller">AND</span> VIRGINIA WOOLF</p> - -<p class="bold space-above">PUBLISHED BY LEONARD & VIRGINIA WOOLF AT<br /> -THE HOGARTH PRESS, PARADISE ROAD, RICHMOND<br />1923</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span></p> - -<h2>TRANSLATORS’ NOTE</h2> - -<p>In the following pages we have made a selection from vol. i. of the -diary of the well-known Russian musician, A. B. Goldenveizer, which -was published at the end of 1922 in Moscow under the title <i>Vblizi -Tolstovo</i> (literally <i>Near Tolstoi</i>). </p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span></p> - -<h2>INTRODUCTORY NOTE</h2> - -<p>In publishing the diary devoted to my friendship of nearly fifteen -years with Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoi, I think it best to state first what -my aim was in making notes, and the method I pursued in doing so.</p> - -<p>I put down chiefly Tolstoi’s words, and to some extent the events of -his private life, making no attempt to select what would be interesting -from some special point of view, but adopting no method and attempting -to supply no connection between one entry and another.</p> - -<p>My diary, therefore, is in no sense “literature.” Its aim is to be a -document.</p> - -<p>Unfortunately, I did not always make notes and was far from writing -down everything. After 1908 my records were fuller; in 1909-1910, the -last year of Tolstoi’s life, my reports were voluminous; but it was -only in 1910 that my records were as complete as they could<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span> possibly -be. This is the cause of a great disproportion between the parts. The -first volume of my diary contains the long period from January 1896 to -January 1st, 1910, the second volume records and materials for the year -1910 only, yet vol. ii. is considerably larger than vol. i.</p> - -<p>My notes from 1896 to 1904 are now published for the first time. The -notes from 1904 to 1908 were published in <i>Russ. Prop.</i> vol. ii., -and the notes from the end of 1908 to January 1st, 1910, appeared -in <i>Tolstoi: Pamyatniki Zhizni i Tvorchestva</i>. The parts of the -diary which have been previously published are here published in a -considerably enlarged form.</p> - -<p class="right">A. GOLDENVEIZER.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p> - -<h2>1896</h2> - -<p>My first visit to the house of Leo Nikolaevich was on January 20th, -1896. I was not then twenty-one years old. I was almost a boy. I was -taken to the Tolstois’ by a well-known Moscow lady singer who used to -visit the Tolstois. She took me there in my capacity as pianist, of -course. If one is so unlucky as to play some instrument, or to sing or -recite, one has a constant impediment in one’s relations with people. -People do not take to one, are not interested in one as in a person: -one is asked to play something, to sing, to recite.... Hence one feels -so embarrassed, so awkward, in other people’s society.</p> - -<p>I felt awkward then, and painfully shy. I was introduced. I went into -the drawing-room, where, fortunately, two or three people I knew were -sitting. I did not yet see Tolstoi. Shortly afterwards he came in, -dressed in a blouse, with his hands in his belt. He greeted us all. I -do<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> not remember whether he spoke to me then. Then I played, and played -badly. Of course, out of politeness I was thanked and complimented, -which made me inexpressibly ashamed. And then, when I stood in the -middle of the large room, at a loss, not knowing what to do with -myself, not daring to raise my eyes, Leo Nikolaevich came up to me, -and, speaking with a simplicity which was his alone, began to talk to -me.</p> - -<p>Among other things, talking of the piece I had played, he asked me:</p> - -<p>“Which composer do you like best?”</p> - -<p>“Beethoven,” I replied.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi looked straight into my eyes and said quietly as if doubting me:</p> - -<p>“Is that so?”</p> - -<p>It seemed as if I were repeating what every one says; but I spoke the -truth.</p> - -<p>Leo Nikolaevich observed that he loved Chopin beyond almost all other -composers.</p> - -<p>He said to me:</p> - -<p>“In every art—this I know from my own experience too—there are two -extremes which it is difficult to avoid: emptiness and virtuosity. -For instance, Mozart, whom I love so much, is at times empty, but -after that he soars to an extraordinary height. Schumann’s defect is -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>virtuosity. Of these two faults virtuosity is the worse, if only for -this reason, that it is harder to get rid of it. Chopin’s greatness -consists in the fact that, however simple he may be, he is never empty, -and in his most complicated works he is never a mere virtuoso.”</p> - -<p>I left the Tolstois’ house with a vague feeling of happiness that I had -seen Tolstoi and spoken to him, and also with a bitter sense of my own -unworthiness.</p> - -<p>One evening as I approached the Tolstois’ house in Khamovniki I met -Leo Nikolaevich, who was going for a walk. He asked me to come with -him. We walked in the Prechistenka. The street was deserted and -quiet. The few passers-by whom we met at intervals nearly all bowed -to Leo Nikolaevich. By degrees Leo Nikolaevich brought me to talk -about myself. At that time I was carried away by the philosophy of -pessimism; I raved about Schopenhauer. Probably everything I said to -Leo Nikolaevich was naïve and silly, but Leo Nikolaevich listened to me -attentively and spoke to me seriously without making me feel my naïveté.</p> - -<p>In passing, Leo Nikolaevich said to me:</p> - -<p>“The most complete and profound philosophy is to be found in the -Gospels.”</p> - -<p>I remember that at that time it seemed to me<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> strange. I was used to -thinking the Gospels a book of moral teaching; and I did not understand -that all the wisdom of the most profound philosophy was contained in -its simplicity and lucidity.</p> - -<p>Once I met Leo Nikolaevich in the street. He again asked me to walk -with him. We were somewhere near the Novinsky Boulevard, and Leo -Nikolaevich suggested we should take the tram. We sat down and took our -tickets.</p> - -<p>Leo Nikolaevich asked me:</p> - -<p>“Can you make a Japanese cockerel?”</p> - -<p>“No.”</p> - -<p>“Look.”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi took his ticket and very skilfully made it into a rather -elaborate cockerel, which, when you pulled its tail, fluttered its -wings.</p> - -<p>An inspector entered the car and began checking the tickets. L. N., -with a smile, held out the cockerel to him and pulled its tail. The -cockerel fluttered its wings. But the inspector, with the stern -expression of a business man who has no time for trifling, took the -cockerel, unfolded it, looked at the number, and tore it up.</p> - -<p>L. N. looked at me and said:</p> - -<p>“Now our little cockerel is gone.” ...</p> - -<p>I arrived at Yasnaya on July 6th after eleven o’clock at night. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p> - -<p>I got up early in the morning and went to the river with L. N. to -bathe. L. N. works every day from breakfast till lunch. He seemed to me -to be in good spirits. In the morning at coffee he said:</p> - -<p>“I feel as though I were nineteen or twenty.”</p> - -<p>Yasnaya then used to be crowded and gay. Nearly all the children were -at home. All the young people played tennis and enjoyed themselves. -Occasionally L. N. would also play tennis. In the evening all used to -go out for long walks in the woods. L. N. always loved to find short -cuts, and would take us all into wonderful places in the forests. It -must be admitted that the ‘short-cuts’ nearly always made the walks -longer.</p> - -<p>Once L. N. and myself were left far behind the others. L. N. said: “Let -us catch them up!” And for half a mile or three-quarters I, twenty-one -years old, and he, sixty-eight, ran neck and neck. On another occasion -his physical vigour struck me even more. Mikhail Lvovich was doing a -very difficult gymnastic exercise which he could not bring off. L. N. -looked and looked, could not stand it any longer, and said: “Let me -try,” and to the surprise of all present he at once did the exercise -better than his son. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span></p> - -<p>When I was leaving Yasnaya and my carriage was waiting for me, L. N. -took my arm, led me aside, and said:</p> - -<p>“I have been meaning all this time to tell you, and now as you are -going I shall tell you: however great a gift for music you may have, -and however much time and power you may spend on it, do remember that, -above all, the most important of all is to be a man. It is always -necessary to remember that art is not everything.... In your relations -with people it is necessary to try to give them as much as possible and -to take from them as little as possible. Forgive me for saying this, -but I did not want to say good-bye to you without having told you what -I think.”</p> - -<p>Another of L. N.’s sayings at this time was: “The ego is the temporary -thing that limits our immortal essence. Belief in personal immortality -always seems to me a misunderstanding.”</p> - -<p>“Materialism is the most mystical of all doctrines: it makes a belief -in some mythical matter, which creates everything out of itself, the -foundation of everything. It is sillier than a belief in the Trinity!”</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span></p> - -<h2>1897</h2> - -<p><i>Moscow, January 6th.</i> To-day I spent the evening at the Tolstois’. L. -N. was talkative. The conversation was on various topics, beginning -with the peasants and ending with the latest “decadent” movement in art.</p> - -<p>L. N. read aloud certain passages of Maeterlinck’s new play <i>Aglavaine -et Sélysette</i>. His attitude to it is one of complete indifference.</p> - -<p>L. N. reads aloud most wonderfully; very simply and at the same time -with remarkable expression. Wonderful also is his capacity of telling -in a few words the contents of a story. There is nothing superfluous, -and a clear, definite picture is given.</p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>April 22nd.</i> At the Tolstois’.</p> - -<p>Speaking of modern art, L. N. said:</p> - -<p>“If an impressionist was asked to draw a hoop, he would draw a -straight line ——; a child would draw a circle like this O” (L. N.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> -made the circle with his finger on the table). “And the child is more -in the right, because he naïvely represents what he sees, and the -impressionist represents what may be a hoop or a stick or anything you -like; in a word, he does not represent the characteristic properties -of the thing, but only a symbol of it, a part, and that not always the -most characteristic one.</p> - -<p>“A really remarkable and powerful mind can look for a method of -expressing his idea, and if the idea is strong he will find new methods -of expressing it. But modern artists invent a technical method and then -are on the look-out for an idea, which they arbitrarily squeeze into -their method.</p> - -<p>“The great mistake is that people have introduced into art the vague -conception of ‘beauty,’ which obscures and confuses everything.... Art -consists in this—when some one sees or feels something, and expresses -it in such a form that he who listens, reads, or sees his work feels, -sees, and hears the same thing in the same way as the artist. Therefore -art can be of the highest quality, or indifferent, or, finally, simply -hateful, but still it is art. The most immoral picture if it achieves -its end is art, although it serves low ends.</p> - -<p>“If I yawn, cry, or laugh, and infect another<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> person by the same -thing, that is not art, for I produce the impression by the fact -itself; but, if a beggar, for instance, seeing that his tears affected -you and you gave him money, should on the following day pretend to cry -and should arouse pity in you, then that is art.”</p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>August 2nd</i>, 4 <span class="smaller">P.M.</span> I have just had a long talk with L. N. on -art. He was repeating the contents of his article on art which he is -writing, and which he goes on working over and rewriting. In the course -of it L. N. said:</p> - -<p>“When art became the inheritance of a small circle of rich people, and -left its main course, it entered the cul-de-sac in which we see it now.</p> - -<p>“Art is the expression of feeling, and the higher it is the greater -the public which it can draw to itself. Therefore the highest art must -reflect those states of mind which are religious in the best sense -of the word, as they are the most universal and typical of all human -beings.</p> - -<p>“The majority of so-called works of art consist in a more or less -skilful combination of four elements: (1) borrowing—for instance, -the working out of some legend in a poem, of a song in music, etc. -Or unconscious borrowing—that is, an imitation now of one thing, -now of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> another, not intended by the author. (2) Embellishments: -pretty metaphors which cover up insignificant ideas, flourishes in -music, ornament in architecture, etc. (3) Effects: violent colours in -painting, accumulated dissonances, sharp crescendos in music, and so -on. Finally, (4) the interest—that is, the desire to surprise by the -novelty of the method, by the new combination of colours, etc. Modern -works of art are usually distinguished by these four qualities.</p> - -<p>“The following are the chief obstacles which hinder even -very remarkable men from creating true works of art: first, -professionalism—that is, a man ceases to be a man, but becomes a poet, -a painter, and does nothing but write books, compose music, or paint -pictures; wastes his gift on trifles and loses the power of judging -his work critically. The second, also a very serious obstacle, is the -school. You can’t teach art, as you cannot teach a man to be a saint. -True art is always original and new, and has no need of preconceived -models. The third obstacle, finally, is criticism, which, as some one -has justly said, is made up of fools’ ideas about wise men.</p> - -<p>“I know that my article will be received by most people as a series of -paradoxes, but I am convinced that I am right.” </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></p> - -<p>L. N. is evidently much carried away by his work.</p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>August 9th.</i> This evening I am going to leave Yasnaya Polyana, where I -have spent nearly a fortnight. The whole time passed wonderfully well. -The days were spent more or less in this way: After breakfast every one -goes to his work. L. N. takes his barley-coffee in a little kettle, and -with the kettle in one hand and a few little pieces of bread in the -other he goes to his room to work there, and does not come out till -lunch.</p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>A Note without a Date.</i> In the summer of 1897 the famous Lombroso came -to Yasnaya. I was not at Yasnaya at the time, but from what L. N. and -others told me I can say that Lombroso, whose writings L. N. regarded -without enthusiasm, had made no particular impression personally. -I will give one example to show how superficially and inaccurately -Lombroso related what he saw in Yasnaya. There was a round patch on one -of L. N.’s boots, which came off, and L. N., while waiting to send the -boot to be repaired, wore it with the hole in it. At that time Sophie -Andreevna, I believe, took a snapshot of L. N., and the little hole on -the boot<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> was clearly seen in the photograph. I have that snapshot. -Lombroso, in describing his visit to Yasnaya in the Press and in -numerous interviews, said that L. N. pretended the ‘simple life,’ and, -wanting to show that he wore torn boots, had made a round hole in one -of them, evidently cut on purpose.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span></p> - -<h2>1899</h2> - -<p><i>May 11th.</i> The conversation turned upon Katkov. L. N. expressed the -opinion that Katkov was not clever. Sophie Andreevna became annoyed and -said:</p> - -<p>“Any one who disagrees with us must be a fool.”</p> - -<p>To which L. N. said:</p> - -<p>“The mark of foolish people is: when you say anything to them they -never answer your words, but keep on repeating their own. That was -always Katkov’s way. That is why I say that Katkov was a stupid man. -Now, there is something of the same sort in Chicherin, yet can they be -put even approximately on the same level?</p> - -<p>“Though,” L. N. added, “one has to respect every one. Among the virtues -the Chinese place respect first. Simply, without any relation to -anything definite. Respect for the individual and for the opinion of -every man.” </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span></p> - -<p>The conversation turned upon ancient languages and classical education. -L. N. said:</p> - -<p>“When I studied and read a great deal of Greek, I could easily -understand almost any Greek book. I used to be at the examinations -in the Lyceum, and saw that nearly always the pupil only understood -what he had learnt beforehand. He did not understand new passages. -And, indeed, at school for every fifty words that were learnt at least -sixty-five rules were taught. In such a way one can’t learn anything.</p> - -<p>“I am always surprised how firmly all sorts of superstitions possess -people. Superstitions, such as the Church, the Tsar, the army, etc., -live for centuries, and people have got so accustomed to them that they -are not now thought to be strange. But the superstition of classical -education arose with us in Russia before my very eyes. Above all, not -one of the most zealous partisans of classical education can give a -single sensible argument in favour of the system.” Then L. N. added:</p> - -<p>“There is also the superstition of the possibility of a ‘school’ in -art. Hence all institutes and academies. The abnormal form which -art takes now, however, is not the root of the evil, but one of its -symptoms. When the religious<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> conception of life changes, then art, -too, will find its true methods.”</p> - -<p>L. N. returned to the Chinese virtue of ‘respect,’ and said:</p> - -<p>“Often remarkable men suffer from the lack of that Chinese ‘respect.’ -For instance, in Henry George’s <i>Progress and Poverty</i> Marx’s name is -not mentioned at all; and in his recently published posthumous work -hardly eight lines refer to Marx, and those speak of the obscurity, -complexity, and emptiness of Marx’s works.</p> - -<p>“Apropos of obscurity and complexity, they are nearly always a proof of -the absence of true meaning. But there is one great exception—Kant, -who wrote horribly, and yet he makes an epoch in the development of -mankind. In many respects he discovered perfectly new horizons.”</p> - -<p>To-day after lunch L. N. went on horseback to Sokolniki and came back -late in the evening. Nevertheless, when Mme. M. A. Maklakov and myself -began to say good-bye, he said he would come with us. On the way Mme. -Maklakov kept saying all the time how much she would like to live in -the country. L. N. interrupted her:</p> - -<p>“How it annoys me when people abuse the town with such exaggeration and -say: To the country, to the country! All depends on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> person,—in -town, too, one can be with Nature. Don’t you remember,” L. N. asked -her, “we had an old gatekeeper, Vasili? He lived all his life in -town; in the summer he used to get up at 3 o’clock in the morning, -and enjoyed his intercourse with Nature in our garden much more than -country gentlemen do, who spend their evenings in the country playing -cards. Besides, compared with the enormously important question of how -to live one’s life in the best and most moral way, the question of town -or country has no value at all.”</p> - -<p>Before this L. N. said with a smile:</p> - -<p>“I once said, but you must not talk about it, and I tell it you in -secret: woman is generally so bad that the difference between a good -and a bad woman scarcely exists.”</p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>Yasnaya Polyana, July 31st.</i> I am working with N. N. Ge on the -proofs of <i>Resurrection</i>. The corrections are to be inserted in the -proof-sheets from L. N.’s draft copy, and two copies of the same are -made. The draft copy remains here, and the fair copies are sent, one to -Marx for the weekly <i>Niva</i>, and the other to Chertkov in England for -the English edition.</p> - -<p>It is an interesting, but worrying and difficult work. Throughout, -instead of the one printed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> proof-sheet, one has to copy out afresh -three or four long pages. Often L. N.’s corrections are written so -closely that a magnifying glass has to be used to read them. Unless -one has seen L. N.’s incredible work, the numerous passages that are -rewritten, the additions and alterations, the same incident being -sometimes written dozens of times over, one can have not the remotest -idea of this labour.</p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>August 2nd.</i> I have been here from July 27th (in Yasnaya Polyana).</p> - -<p>A queer young man, K., came to L. N., and, on my asking him what he was -doing, he said that “he was the free son of air.” K. told L. N. that he -wanted to settle down in the country among the people.</p> - -<p>L. N. in recounting it said:</p> - -<p>“Of course, I did not advise him to do it. Usually nothing comes from -such attempts. For instance, some very nice people, the N. N.’s, bought -a small plot of land and settled like that in the country. A peasant -cut down one of their trees; they did not want to take action in the -court against him, and soon, when the peasants learnt about it, they -cut down the whole woods. The peasant boys stole their peas; they were -not beaten nor driven away, and then<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> nearly the whole village came and -stole all the peas, etc., etc.</p> - -<p>“One should not, <i>above all</i>, look for new ways of life, for usually, -in doing so, one’s whole energy is spent on the external arrangement of -life. And when all the external arrangement is over, one begins to feel -bored and does nothing. Let every one first do his own work, if only it -does not clash sharply with his convictions, and let him try to become -better and better in his own situation, and then he will find new ways -of life into the bargain. For the most part, all the external side of -life must be neglected; one should not bother about it. Do your own -work.”</p> - -<p>To-day L. N. said of some one:</p> - -<p>“He is a Tolstoian—that is, a man with convictions utterly opposed to -mine.”</p> - -<p>Yesterday L. N. spoke of the process of creative work:</p> - -<p>“I can’t understand how any one can write without rewriting everything -over and over again. I scarcely ever re-read my published writings, but -if by chance I come across a page, it always strikes me: All this must -be rewritten; this is how I should have written it....</p> - -<p>“I am always interested to trace the moment, which comes quite early, -when the public is satisfied; and the artist thinks: They say it is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> -good; but it is just at this point that the real work begins!”</p> - -<p>To-day L. N. was not well. I went to him; he was lying on the little -sofa in the drawing-room. He told me of S. G. Verus’s book on the -Gospels.</p> - -<p>“His final conclusion is the denial of Christ as a historical person. -In the earliest written parts of the New Testament—in Paul’s -messages—there is not a single biographical fact about Christ. All -the Gospels that have come down to us were composed between the second -and fourth century <span class="smaller">A.D.</span> Of the writers who were Christ’s -contemporaries (Tacitus, Suetonius, Philo, J. Flavius) not a single one -of them mentions Christ; so that his personality is not historical, but -legendary.</p> - -<p>“All this is very interesting and even valuable, for it makes it -unnecessary to quarrel any more over refuting the authenticity of -the Gospel stories about the miracles; and it proves the teaching of -the Gospels to be not the words of one superman, but the sum of the -wisdom of all the best moral teaching expressed by many people and at -different times.”</p> - -<p>L. N. also said this to me:</p> - -<p>“Perhaps it is because I am unwell, but at moments to-day I am simply -driven to despair<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> by everything that is going on in the world: the new -form of oath, the revolting proclamation about enlisting university -students in the army, the Dreyfus affair, the situation in Serbia, -the horrors of the diseases and deaths in the Auerbach quicksilver -works.... I can’t make out how mankind can go on living like this, with -the sight of all this horror round them!</p> - -<p>“It always strikes me how little man is valued, even in the simplest -way as a valuable and useful animal. We value a horse which can carry, -but man can also make boots, work in a factory, play the piano! And -50 per cent are dying! When I used to breed merino sheep and their -death-rate reached 5 per cent, I was indignant and thought the shepherd -very bad. And 50 per cent of the people are dying!”</p> - -<p>I read L. N.’s most wonderful <i>Father Sergius</i>.</p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>Moscow, August 9th.</i> I returned from Yasnaya in the evening of the -6th. This is what I find I have written down.</p> - -<p>The talk turned upon the woman question. The conversation was carried -on in a half-jocular tone.</p> - -<p>L. N. said:</p> - -<p>“Woman, as a Christian, has a right to equality. Woman, as member -of the modern<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> and perfectly pagan family, must not struggle for an -impossible equality. The modern family is like a tiny little boat -sailing in a storm on the vast ocean. It can keep afloat if it is ruled -by <i>one</i> will. But when those in the boat begin struggling, the boat -is upset, and the result is what we see now in most families. The man, -however bad, is in the majority of cases the more sensible of the two. -Woman is nearly always in opposition to any progress. When man wants -to break with the old life and to go ahead, he nearly always meets -with energetic resistance from the woman. The wife catches hold of his -coat-tails and will not allow him. In woman a great evil is terribly -highly developed—family egotism. It is a dreadful egotism, for it -commits the greatest cruelties in the name of love; as if to say, let -the whole world perish so that my Serge may be happy!...”</p> - -<p>Then L. N. recalled scenes which he had observed in Moscow:</p> - -<p>“There issues from Minangua’s a gentleman in a beaver coat, with a sad -face, and after him his lady, and the porter carries boxes and helps -the lady into the sledge.</p> - -<p>“I love at times to stand near the colonnade by the great theatre and -watch the ladies driving up to stop at Meriliz’s. I only know of two<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> -similar sights: (1) when peasant women go to Zaseka to pick up nuts the -watchmen catch them, so that sometimes they give birth out of fright, -and yet they go on doing it; and (2) so it is with ladies shopping at -sales.</p> - -<p>“And their coachmen wait in the bitter cold and talk among themselves: -‘My lady must have spent five thousand to-day!’</p> - -<p>“I shall one day write about women. When I am quite old, and my -digestion is completely out of order, and I am still looking out into -the world through one eye, then I shall pop my head out and tell them: -That’s what you are! and disappear completely, or they would peck me to -death.” ...</p> - -<p>Doctor E. N. Maliutin was in Yasnaya. L. N. said to him:</p> - -<p>“I can’t understand the usual attitude that a doctor always serves a -good cause. There is no profession that is good in itself. One may be -a cobbler and be better and nicer than a doctor. Why is restoring some -one to health good? At times it is quite the opposite. Man’s deeds are -good, not in themselves, but because of the feelings which inspire -him. That’s why I do not understand the desire of women to be doctors, -trained nurses, midwives, as though by becoming a midwife everything is -settled for the best.” </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span></p> - -<p>On some occasion L. N. said:</p> - -<p>“When you are told about a complicated and difficult affair, for the -most part about some one’s disgusting behaviour, reply to it: Did <i>you</i> -make the jam? or: Won’t you like to have tea?—and that’s all. Much -harm comes from the so-called attempt to understand circumstances and -relations.”</p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>October 1st.</i> I came to Yasnaya Polyana yesterday. It is very nice -here now the weather is mild, almost bright, but rather cold. There are -no strangers. I am copying <i>Resurrection</i> again, on which L. N. is hard -at work. Now I am doing the first chapters of Part III.</p> - -<p>There is little joy in the Tolstois’ family life, and to an intimate -friend this is extremely marked.</p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>Moscow, November 26th.</i> I am much distressed by L. N.’s serious -illness, which at the bottom of my mind I consider hopeless. I called -on Wednesday to inquire after his health, and the news was very -unfavourable.</p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>December 7th.</i> When Tolstoi was ill (he is much better now) and I was -for the first time in his room, he seemed glad to see me, which was a -great delight to me. On his table was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> the volume of Tyutchev’s poems. -In his hand he had an English book, <i>Empire and Freedom</i> (I don’t -remember by whom). As is always his way, Tolstoi at once spoke of what -he was reading.</p> - -<p>“Here is a remarkable book!” said Tolstoi. “He (the author) is -American, therefore an Anglo-Saxon; nevertheless, he denies the -so-called civilizing influence of the Anglo-Saxon race. I can’t -understand how people can stick to such superstitions! I understand a -Muhammad preaching his doctrine,—mediæval Christianity, the Crusades. -Whatever the convictions of those people may have been, they did it in -the belief that they knew the truth and were giving that knowledge to -others. But now there is nothing! Everything is done for the sake of -profit!”</p> - -<p>Then Tolstoi began to talk about a French pamphlet on the workers’ -co-operative societies which he had read.</p> - -<p>“Why not introduce in the villages here such co-operative societies? -That is a vital thing! You, instead of doing nothing,” he turned to -Ilya Lvovich, who sat there, “ought to do it here in the village.</p> - -<p>“Socialist ideas have become a truism. Who can now seriously dispute -the idea that every<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> one should have the right to enjoy the result of -his labour?”</p> - -<p>Then the conversation turned upon the <i>obschina</i>.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“Everything is taken away from the peasants; they are overtaxed, -oppressed in all ways. The only good thing left is the <i>obschina</i>. -And then every one criticizes it and makes it responsible for all the -miseries of the peasants, in their wish to take away from the peasants -their last good thing. They make out that the mutual responsibility -of the members is one of the evils of the <i>obschina</i>. But mutual -responsibility is only one of the principles of the <i>obschina</i> with -regard to fiscal purposes. If I use a good thing for an evil end, that -does not prove that the thing is in itself bad.”</p> - -<p>Then the conversation turned upon Tyutchev. The other day Tolstoi saw -in the <i>Novoe Vremya</i> his poem “Twilight.” He therefore took down all -Tyutchev’s poems and read them during his illness.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said to me:</p> - -<p>“I am always saying that a work of art is either so good that there is -no standard by which to define its qualities—that is real art,—or -it is quite bad. Now, I am happy to have found a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> real work of art. I -cannot read it without tears. I know it by heart. Listen, I’ll read it -to you.”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi began in a voice broken with tears:</p> - -<p>“The dove-coloured shadows melted together....”</p> - -<p>When I am on my death-bed I shall not forget the impression then -produced on me by Tolstoi. He lay on his back, convulsively twisting -the edge of his blanket with his fingers and trying in vain to restrain -the tears that choked him. He broke down several times and began again. -But at last, when he read the end of the stanza, “Everything is in me, -and I in everything,” his voice gave way. The entrance of A. N. Dunaev -stopped him. He grew calmer.</p> - -<p>“What a pity that I spoilt the poem for you!” he said to me later.</p> - -<p>Then I played the piano.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi asked me not to play Chopin, saying: “I am afraid I might burst -into tears.”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi asked for something by Mozart or Haydn.</p> - -<p>He asked: “Why do pianists never play Haydn? You ought to. How good it -is—beside a modern complicated, artificial work—to play something of -Mozart or Haydn!”</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span></p> - -<h2>1900</h2> - -<p><i>Moscow, January 29th.</i> Tolstoi had a conversation with V. E. Den when -Chalyapin was here. Tolstoi is working now on the article on the labour -question, “New Slavery,” and the conversation turned upon labour.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said: “We are going through a new stage in the evolution of -slavery: the slavery of the working men suffering under the yoke of the -well-to-do classes.</p> - -<p>“Slavery will never cease at the bottom first, exclusively from the -movement of the slaves themselves. We saw it in America, and here -during the serfdom of the peasants. So must it happen now again. It is -only when we realize that it is a shame to have slaves, that we shall -cease to be slave-drivers, and shall voluntarily give up exploiting the -working classes.</p> - -<p>“Freedom cannot come from the slaves. Individual slaves who have rid -themselves of the yoke of slavery become in the majority of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> cases -particularly harsh oppressors and tyrants over their late brothers. -Nor can it be otherwise. How can you expect from them—harassed and -tortured—anything else? It is only when we voluntarily give up the -shameful use of the labour of the slaves, our brothers, that slavery -will come to an end.</p> - -<p>“Science, in so far as it describes and clarifies the real state of -things, does a useful and necessary work. But as soon as it starts -laying down programmes for the future, it becomes useless. All these -ideas about an eight-hour working day, etc., only increase and legalize -the evil. Labour must be free, not slavish, and that is all.</p> - -<p>“When a peasant gets up before sunrise and works all day long in the -field, he is not a slave. He has intercourse with nature, he does a -useful work. But when he stands by a piece of machinery in a Morosov’s -factory all his life long, manufacturing textiles which he will never -see, and neither himself nor any one of his people will ever use, then -he is a slave and perishes in slavery.</p> - -<p>“Railways, telephones, and the other accessories of the civilized -world—all that is useful and good. But if one had to choose either -the whole of this civilization, for which not hundreds of thousands of -ruined lives are required, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> only the certain destruction of one -single existence, or, on the other hand, no civilization at all, then -no thank you for this civilization with its railways and telephones, if -a necessary condition of them is the destruction of human life.”</p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>February 24th.</i> On the 18th and 20th I was at the Tolstois’. On -the 18th Tolstoi went to the “Pod Deviche” playhouse and afterwards -to a dirty public-house, where there is an extraordinary amount of -drunkenness and debauchery, to make observations.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“Twenty years ago I saw at the ‘Pod Deviche,’ <i>Churkin</i>, a play -composed by a drunken tramp, and this time I saw <i>Stenka Rasin</i>—and it -is all the same thing. Murder and violence are represented as heroic -and are acclaimed by the crowd. And it is remarkable that whilst every -word in a book which may enlighten the minds of the people is carefully -struck out by the censorship, such performances are readily allowed, -under the police inspector’s censorship. During the last twenty years -probably over a million people have seen these <i>Churkins</i> and <i>Rasins</i>.”</p> - -<p>In telling this, Tolstoi recollected how he was once in a workhouse -where the priest explained the Gospels: </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span></p> - -<p>“The passage was read where Christ says: ‘It is said: thou shalt not -kill; but I say unto you, do not be angry without cause.’ The priest -began to explain that one must not be angry without cause, but, if -the authorities become angry, that is right and as it should be. ‘Do -not kill’ also does not mean that one should never kill. In war or -at an execution, killing is necessary and is not a sin. This is the -only chance that an illiterate person has to understand the meaning of -the Gospels, for in church all the chapters are either indistinctly -read by the sexton, or shouted so loud that they are perfectly -unintelligible—and this is the way in which the Gospels are explained -to the people!”</p> - -<p>A long talk about the Boers and the English took place.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“I always consider that moral motives are effective and decisive -historically. And now, when the universal dislike of the English is -so clearly pronounced—I shall not live to see it, but it seems to me -that the power of England will be much shaken. And I say this not out -of an unconscious Russian patriotism. If Poland or Finland rose against -Russia and success were on their side, my sympathy would be on their -side as the oppressed. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p> - -<p>“The Russian people, speaking impartially, is perhaps the most -Christian of all in its moral character. It is partly to be explained -by the fact that the Gospels have been read by the Russian people for -nine hundred years; Catholics don’t know the Gospels even now, and -other races came to know the Gospel only after the Reformation.</p> - -<p>“I was struck when I saw in the streets of London a criminal escorted -by the police, and the police had to protect him energetically from -the crowd, which threatened to tear him to pieces. With us it is just -the opposite: police have to drive away by force the people who try to -give the criminal money and bread. With us, criminals and prisoners are -‘little unhappy ones.’ But now, unfortunately, there is a change for -the worse, and our abominable Government tries with all its might and -main to rouse hatred against the condemned. In Siberia, even prizes are -given to any one who kills an escaped prisoner.”</p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>April 29th.</i> The conversation was on Shakespeare. Tolstoi is not very -fond of him. Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“Three times in my life I have read through Shakespeare and Goethe from -end to end, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> I could never make out in what their charm consisted.”</p> - -<p>According to Tolstoi, Goethe is cold. Among his (Goethe’s) works he -likes many of the lyrics and <i>Hermann and Dorothea</i>. He does not like -Goethe’s dramatic works, and his novels he considers quite weak. -Tolstoi did not speak about <i>Faust</i>.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi is very fond of Schiller, and said: “He is a genuine man!” -He loves almost all his works, particularly <i>The Robbers</i> and <i>Don -Carlos</i>, also <i>Mary Stuart</i>, <i>William Tell</i>, and <i>Wallenstein</i>.</p> - -<p>Then A. M. Sukhotin, a man over seventy, read aloud Turgenev’s <i>Old -Portraits</i> superbly. Tolstoi did not remember the story, and was in -great delight over it. He said:</p> - -<p>“It is only after reading all these moderns that one really appreciates -Turgenev.”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi remembered Turgenev with great love. He said, in passing:</p> - -<p>“When Turgenev died I wanted to read a paper about him. I wanted -especially, in view of the misunderstandings that there had been -between us, to remember and relate all the good that was so abundant -in him, and to tell what I loved in him. The lecture was not given. -Dolgorukov did not allow it.” </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p> - -<p>The conversation turned on Chekhov and Gorky. Tolstoi as usual praised -Chekhov’s artistic gift very highly. The lack of a definite world -conception grieves him in Chekhov; and in this respect Tolstoi prefers -Gorky. Of Gorky Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“You know what he is from his works. Gorky’s great and very serious -essential defect is a poorly developed sense of proportion, and this -is extremely important. I pointed out this defect to Gorky himself, -and as an instance I drew his attention to his misuse of the method -of animating inanimate things. Then Gorky said that in his opinion it -was a good method, and gave an instance of it in his story <i>Malva</i>, -where it says: ‘the sea laughed.’ I replied to him that, if on certain -occasions the method might be very successful, nevertheless one ought -not to abuse it.”</p> - -<p>Yesterday Ushakov asked Tolstoi about Gromeka. Tolstoi and Tatyana -Lvovna spoke a great deal about him.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“He was a sympathetic, passionate, and gifted man. He shot himself when -still a young man, it was said because he was mentally deranged.”</p> - -<p>Tatyana Lvovna says, by the way, that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> Gromeka was her first admirer -and proposed to her when she was sixteen.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi values Gromeka’s criticism very much. He said:</p> - -<p>“It was a pleasure to me that a man who sympathized with me could see -<i>even</i> in <i>War and Peace</i> and in <i>Anna Karenin</i> a great deal of what I -was afterwards to say and write.”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi also said:</p> - -<p>“When I wrote the story <i>What Men Live by</i>, Fet said, ‘Well, what do -people live by? By money, of course.’”</p> - -<p>I observed that Fet had probably said it in joke. Tolstoi replied:</p> - -<p>“No, it was his conviction. And, as often happens, what people try very -stubbornly to get, they do get. Fet all his life long wanted to become -rich, and he became rich. His brothers and sisters, it seems, went out -of their minds, and all their fortunes came to him.”</p> - -<p>Fet wrote in Tatyana Lvovna’s album that the unhappiest day of his life -was the one when he saw that he was going to be ruined.</p> - -<p>I talked a good deal with Tolstoi to-day. Tolstoi said about current -events:</p> - -<p>“I am not so much horrified at these murders in the Transvaal, and now -in China, as by the open declaration of immoral motives. They<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> used at -least to cloak themselves hypocritically in good motives, but now that -this is no longer possible they express all their immoral and cruel -intentions and claims openly.”</p> - -<p>We spoke about the abolition of deportation. Tolstoi considers it worse -than the other method. He said:</p> - -<p>“Instead of making it possible for a man to order his life in a new -place, he is put into prison. The Government has already voted six and -a half millions for the enlargement of prisons. And this money will -again be flayed off the peasants, for there is nowhere else to take it -from.”</p> - -<p>Of our courts of justice Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“How absurd our courts are can be seen at each stage. For example, take -the case of the Tula priest. How was it that the Tula court acquitted -him, and then after the acquittal the Oriol court sentenced him to hard -labour for twenty years? If such uncertainty is possible, what are -those verdicts worth? Indeed, it depends on a thousand accidents: the -temper of the jurymen, the behaviour of the prisoner at the bar—the -prisoner bursts into tears, and the impression produced secures his -acquittal. It is merely a game of heads and tails! It would be simpler -and easier to say: Heads or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> tails, and to give sentence accordingly. -It simply baffles me how decent people can be judges!”</p> - -<p>Of the case of S. I. Mamontov, Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“One is certainly very sorry for him: he is an old, unhappy man; but, -on the other hand, you have to remember that the man has squandered -twelve millions, or whatever it may be; he certainly spent between one -and two hundred thousand roubles per annum, and is then acquitted, -while another wretched man steals a trifle and is condemned for it. And -in his case, too, money was spent on expensive lawyers. This reminds -me of the anecdote I read in the papers. A cashier who embezzled -twenty-five thousand roubles came to a lawyer to ask him to undertake -his defence. The lawyer asked him: ‘Is there any more money left?’ -The cashier said that there was another twenty-five thousand. Then -the lawyer said: ‘Take the rest and give it to me, and then I will -undertake your case.’</p> - -<p>“And why should the jury be able to pardon? Only the plaintiff can -pardon; but the jury whom he has not hurt have nothing to pardon him -for.</p> - -<p>“I once talked to N. V. Davidov, and said to him that all punishment -may be dispensed with, yet an enquiry ought to be made; and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> when the -crime is proved, they should go to the criminal and accuse him in the -presence of all of his crime, and should bring forward the proof of -his guilt. It is quite likely that the man will say: ‘Be damned to -you, it is none of your business!’ But still I think that this method -would more often give positive results than the existing system of -punishment.”</p> - -<p>Speaking of the Government, Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“I wonder why they have not put me into prison yet? Particularly now, -after my article on ‘Patriotism.’ Perhaps they have not read it yet? It -ought to be sent to them.”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi spoke again of his indifference to modern complicated music:</p> - -<p>“I tried to accustom myself to modern dissonances, but these are all a -perversion of taste. A modern composer takes a musical idea, now and -then even a lovely one, and twists it round and round without end or -measure, combines it with other themes, and, when at last he manages to -express something simple, one is ready to heave a sigh of relief and -say: Thank God!”</p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>July 4th.</i> Yesterday Tolstoi said to me:</p> - -<p>“Buddha says that happiness consists in doing as much good as possible -to others. However strange this may seem on the face of it, yet<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> it is -true without a doubt: happiness is only possible when the struggle for -personal happiness is renounced.”</p> - -<p>Then Tolstoi smiled and said:</p> - -<p>“And yet you play the piano! But certainly that is better than many -other things. At any rate you need not pass sentence on any one, or -commit murder.”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said of newspapers:</p> - -<p>“At present the newspaper infection has reached its ultimate limits. -All the questions of the day are artificially puffed up by the -newspapers. The worst danger is that the newspapers present everything -ready made, without making people stop to think about anything. A -liberal Kuzminsky, or even a Koni, takes his fresh newspaper with his -morning coffee, reads it, goes to his court, where he meets others who -have just read the very same newspaper, and the contagion is spread!”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi went on to say:</p> - -<p>“It has suddenly become perfectly clear to me that the evil lies in -regulations, <i>i.e.</i> the chief thing is not that people do wrong, but -that some force others to do a wrong which is considered to be right. -Hitherto not a single one even of the most extreme socialist doctrines -has dispensed with compulsion. But slavery will only cease<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> when every -one is free to choose his work and the time needed for it.</p> - -<p>“People always put an end to things by asking: ‘Well; let us suppose -that we have liberated the slave, what will follow next? How is it -going to be done?’ I do not know how it is going to be done, but I do -know that the existing order is the greatest evil, and therefore I -must try to take as little part as possible in keeping it going. But -what will come in place of that evil—I do not and must not know. For -what reason did we, the well-to-do classes, take upon ourselves the -rôle of the controllers of life? Let the freed slaves arrange things -for themselves. I know only this, that it is bad to be a slave and -worse still to own slaves, and therefore I must rid myself of the evil. -That’s all.”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi wanted to take for the motto of his new book, <i>The Slavery of -our Times</i>, Marx’s saying that since the capitalists made themselves -masters of the working classes the European governments lost all shame.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi praised Elzbacher’s book on anarchy, in which the doctrines -of seven anarchists are expounded: of Godwin, Proudhon, Max Stirner, -Bakunin, Kropotkin, B. P. Tucker, and Tolstoi himself. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span></p> - -<p>Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“I myself can remember at the beginning of the socialist movement in -Russia that the word ‘socialist’ was only spoken in a whisper; but when -Professor Ivanyukov in the first years of the eighties openly wrote his -book on socialism, it was already a widely spread doctrine in Western -Europe. It is in the same way that the public now regard anarchism, -often crudely identifying this doctrine with the throwing of bombs.”</p> - -<p>Of Elzbacher’s book Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“At the end of the book is an alphabetical index of the words used by -the seven anarchists. It appears that the word <i>Zwang</i>, compulsion, -violence, is absent only in the exposition of my views.”</p> - -<p>Sergeenko was telling Tolstoi about Volinsky’s book on Leonardo da -Vinci, and said it was a fine book.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi remarked:</p> - -<p>“Yes, it seems to be one of those books which are good in that it is -not necessary to read them.”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said yesterday about doctors and science generally:</p> - -<p>“How trivial and unnecessary are all our sciences! It is true that -exact sciences—<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>mathematics and chemistry, although quite unimportant -for the improvement of moral life, are at any rate exact and positive. -But, although medical science has a great deal of knowledge, that -amount is nothing in proportion to what is needed in order actually to -know anything. And what is the good of it?”</p> - -<p>I replied to Tolstoi that, although in theory it may be so, yet in -practice, when some one is ill, one always wants to help them.</p> - -<p>To this Tolstoi replied:</p> - -<p>“It often happens that if some one is seriously ill, those around him, -at the bottom of their hearts, want him to die, in order to be rid of -him—he is in their way.”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said to Sophie Andreevna:</p> - -<p>“It’s time for us to die,” and he quoted Pushkin’s lines:</p> - -<p>“And then our heir in a lucky moment will crush us down with a heavy -monument.”</p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>July 5th.</i> Tolstoi went for a walk to-day with myself and P. A. -Sergeenko. We passed through the splendid young fir-tree forest on the -left of the road to Kozlovka.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“I am trying to like and appreciate the modern writers, but it -is so difficult. Dostoevsky often<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> wrote so badly, so weakly and -incompetently, from the point of view of technique; but what a lot he -always has to say! Taine said that for one page of Dostoevsky’s he -would give all French novels.</p> - -<p>“And technique has now reached a wonderful perfection. A Mme. Lukhmanov -or Mme. D. writes quite wonderfully. What are Turgenev or myself -compared with her! She could give us forty points’ start of her!”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi has recently re-read all Chekhov’s short stories. To-day he -said of Chekhov:</p> - -<p>“His mastery is of the highest order. I have been re-reading his -stories with the greatest pleasure. Some, as, for instance, ‘Children,’ -‘Sleepy,’ ‘In Court,’ are real masterpieces. I really read one story -after another with great pleasure. And yet it is all a mosaic; there is -no connecting inner link.</p> - -<p>“The most important thing in a work of art is that it should have a -kind of focus, <i>i.e.</i> there should be some place where all the rays -meet or from which they issue. And this focus must not be able to be -completely explained in words. This indeed is one of the significant -facts about a true work of art—that its content in its entirety can be -expressed only by itself.”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi finds a great likeness between the talents of Chekhov and -Maupassant. He prefers<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> Maupassant for his greater joy in life. But, on -the other hand, Chekhov’s gift is a purer gift then Maupassant’s.</p> - -<p>Sergeenko, I don’t remember in what connection, recalled a poem by -Lermontov.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“He had indeed a permanent and powerful seeking after truth! Pushkin -has not that moral significance, but the sense of beauty is developed -in him more highly than in any one else. In Chekhov, and in modern -writers generally, there is an extraordinary development of the -technique of realism. In Chekhov everything is real to the verge of -illusion. His stories give the impression of a stereoscope. He throws -words about in apparent disorder, and, like an impressionist painter, -he achieves wonderful results by his touches.”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi likes M. Gorky very much as a man. He begins, however, to be -disappointed with his work.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said of him:</p> - -<p>“Gorky lacks a sense of proportion. He has a familiar style which is -unpleasant.”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi wrote a short preface to Von Polenz’s novel <i>Der Büttnerbauer</i>.</p> - -<p>On that occasion he said:</p> - -<p>“As I read the novel, I kept saying to myself:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> ‘Why did not you, you -fool, write this novel?’—indeed, I know this world; and how very -important it is to point out the poetry of peasant life! Men with their -civilization will cut down this lime tree here, this forest; they will -lay pavements and make houses with tall chimneys, and they will destroy -the boundless beauty of natural life.”</p> - -<p>On my asking him whether he had ever tried to write such a novel, -Tolstoi said that he had done so several times long ago.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said of Grigorovich:</p> - -<p>“He is now old-fashioned and seems feeble, but he is an important and -remarkable writer, and God grant that Chekhov may be a tenth part as -important as Grigorovich was. He belonged to the number of the best -men who found an important movement. He has also many artistic merits. -For instance, in the beginning of his <i>Anton Goremika</i>, when the old -peasant comes home and gives his son or grandson a twig, it is a moving -incident which depicts the old peasant as well as the simplicity and -artlessness of his life.”</p> - -<p>Of Turgenev, Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“He was a typical representative of the men of the ’fifties—a radical -in the best sense of the word. His struggle against serfdom is -remarkable, and also his love for what he describes;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> for instance, the -way he describes the old man in <i>Old Portraits</i>. And then there is his -sensitiveness to the beauties of nature.”</p> - -<p>Speaking of the province of criticism, Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“The value of criticism consists in pointing out all the good that -there is in this or that work of art, and in thus directing the opinion -of the public, whose tastes are mostly crude and the majority of whom -have no feeling for beauty. Just as it is difficult to be a really good -critic, so it is easy for the most stupid and limited man to become -a critic; and as good critics are needed, so bad critics are merely -harmful. It is a particularly absurd and cheap habit of critics to -express, in talking of other people’s work, all sorts of personal ideas -which have nothing to do with the book they are criticizing. This is -the most useless gossip.”</p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>July 7th.</i> Tolstoi said that all human vices can be reduced to three -classes: (1) anger, malevolence; (2) vanity; and (3) lust—in the -widest sense of the word. The last is the most powerful.</p> - -<p>In the morning, at coffee, Tolstoi sighed and said:</p> - -<p>“Yes, it is hard, it is hard.... It is hard because falsehood and -arrogance prevail in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> higher ranks of society, and because there -is much darkness among the people. The other day two sectarians of -the priestless sect came to me from Tula: one a young one, evidently -of little understanding, and the other an old man, who, while we -talked, kept putting on his spectacles. The old man turned out to be -understanding, wise, and said many things to the point, as though he -agreed with my religious views; and yet when I offered them tea they -refused because they had not brought their tea things with them.”</p> - -<p>On the occasion of the Boxer rising Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“It is terrible that it should happen in such an awful way. But, -although it is difficult to foresee, yet it is to be expected that -after the war a greater understanding will take place between Europeans -and the Chinese; and I think that the Chinese are bound to have a most -beneficial influence on us, if only because of their extraordinary -capacity for work and of their ability to grow more on a small plot -of land and obtain better results than we do on a space a dozen times -larger.”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi compares the present state of Europe with the end of the Roman -Empire. The Chinese, in his opinion, play the part of the “barbarians.”</p> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span></p> - -<p>Tolstoi said to-day:</p> - -<p>“All our actions are divided into those which have a value, and those -which have no value at all, in the face of death. If I were told that I -had to die to-morrow, I should not go out for a ride on horseback; but -if I were about to die this moment, and Levochka here” (Leo Lvovich’s -son, who passed across the terrace at that moment with his nurse) “fell -and burst into tears, I should run to him and pick him up. We are all -in the position of passengers from a ship which has reached an island. -We have gone on shore, we walk about and gather shells, but we must -always remember that, when the whistle sounds, all the little shells -will have to be thrown away and we must run to the boat.”</p> - -<p>Sophie Andreevna, who was present during some of the talks, argued all -the time, and answered Tolstoi in a very feminine way. When Sophie -Andreevna on a walk said that a woman, while her husband writes novels -and philosophical articles, has to bear, to give birth to, and to rear -her children, and how difficult all this is, Tolstoi became indignant -and exclaimed with a bitterness that was rare in him:</p> - -<p>“What terrible things you are saying, Sonechka! A woman who is annoyed -at having<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> children and does not desire them is not a woman, but a -whore!”</p> - -<p>In the evening we sat on the balcony: Tolstoi, Sergeenko, and myself.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi wondered at the illogicality of women, and turning to me said:</p> - -<p>“Peter Alexeevich and myself have a right to speak about women, but you -have none. One must have a wife and daughters to do this. Daughters are -perhaps the more important of the two. Daughters are the only women who -are not ‘women’ at all to a man, and who can be known fully from the -beginning. With sisters such a relation is impossible, for one grows up -side by side with them; a certain rivalry enters into the relation, and -one cannot know one’s sister, entirely, as a whole.”</p> - -<p>Sergeenko asked Tolstoi’s advice as to how to educate his son sexually.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said to him:</p> - -<p>“These questions are so dangerous that it is better that parents should -not speak of them at all to their children. It is only necessary to -watch the influence of surroundings. At times a vicious boy, or one who -is not vicious at all, but spoilt in this sense, can corrupt a whole -circle of boys. It is best of all that a growing boy should be as much -as possible among young<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> girls. But there are among modern girls some -that are worse than young men. If a feeling of romance is felt for any -girl, this is the best protection against immorality....”</p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>July 12th.</i> Yesterday I returned home. On the day of my departure -during our walk Sophie Andreevna was talking about the sale of the -Samara estate, which she has completed for four hundred and fifty -thousand roubles (Tolstoi originally bought the estate cheap), and -by the sale of which Andrey, Michael, and Alexandra will get 150,000 -roubles each. This money was the topic of conversation during the last -few days, and how the sons meant to buy this or some other estate. At -the end of the walk Tolstoi and myself found ourselves ahead of the -others. Suddenly he gave a heavy sigh.</p> - -<p>I asked him: “Why do you sigh, Leo Nikolaevich?”</p> - -<p>“If you knew how painful it is to me to hear it all! I have it always -on my conscience that I, with my wish to renounce property, once bought -estates. It is funny to think that it seems now as if I had wished -to make provision for my children, and in doing so I did them the -greatest injury. Look at my Andryusha. He is completely incapable of -doing anything, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> lives on the people whom I once robbed and whom my -children keep on robbing. How terrible it is to listen to all this talk -now, to watch it all going on! It is so opposed to my ideas and desires -and to everything I live by.... Oh! that they would spare me!...”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi was silent for a time, and then said:</p> - -<p>“Why did I suddenly begin complaining?”</p> - -<p>At that moment Tatyana Lvovna came up, and our conversation turned on -other subjects.</p> - -<p class="space-above">Tolstoi talked about poetry.</p> - -<p>“When a poem deals with love, flowers, etc., it is a comparatively -innocent occupation until the age of sixteen. But to express in verse -an important and serious idea without distorting the idea is almost -impossible. How very difficult it is to express one’s thoughts by words -only, so that every one understands just what you want to express! How -much more difficult, then, it is when the writer is bound by metre and -rhyme! Only the very great poets have succeeded in doing it, and rarely -too. Perfectly false ideas are often hidden behind verses.”</p> - -<p>An undergraduate who had written an article upon Tolstoi in reply to -Nordau’s criticism came, and turned out to be a foolish young man.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> -Tolstoi had been unwell for the last few days and in a bad temper, so -that he came to us quite upset and said:</p> - -<p>“No, it is time, it is time for me to die! They stick to some single -idea, which they arbitrarily choose from the rest, and go on and on -repeating: Non-resistance! non-resistance! How am I to blame for it?”</p> - -<p>Sophie Andreevna said to me:</p> - -<p>“The private life of famous men is always distorted in their -biographies. They are sure to make me out a Xantippe. You must take my -side, Alexander Borisovich!” ...</p> - -<p>During our walk Sophie Andreevna showed me the spot which is called -“the apiary,” and said:</p> - -<p>“There actually was an apiary here once. Leo N. was at one time mad -about bees, and used to spend whole days in the apiary. We often drove -here, taking a samovar and having tea here. Once Fet came here, and we -went to join Leo N. at the apiary. It was a wonderful evening; we sat -here for a long time; and there were many glow-worms in the grass. Leo -N. said to me: ‘Now, Sonia, you always wanted emerald earrings; take -two glow-worms for earrings.’ Thereupon Fet wrote a poem in which were -these lines: </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span></p> - -<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<div>In my hand is thy hand—what a marvel!</div> -<div>On the ground are two glow-worms, two emeralds.”</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>At another point Sophie Andreevna showed me the field where Tolstoi and -Turgenev once stood when shooting, and she was with them.</p> - -<p>Sophie Andreevna said:</p> - -<p>“It was the last time Turgenev stayed at Yasnaya, not long before his -death. I asked him: ‘Ivan Sergeevich, why don’t you write now?’ He -answered: ‘In order to write I had always to be a little in love. Now I -am old, I can’t fall in love any more, and that is why I have stopped -writing.’”</p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>December 27th.</i> Last night I was at the Tolstois’. There were Tolstoi, -Ilya, and Andrey (Tolstoi’s sons). A message arrived that Tatyana -Lvovna had given birth prematurely to a stillborn child; a day before, -news reached Yasnaya Polyana that the son of Leo Lvovich, a boy of -about two, was dead. Sophie Andreevna left for Yasnaya. There was an -atmosphere of depression.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi played chess with me. Later P. S. Usov came, who also played a -game of chess with Tolstoi. We began to talk. Tolstoi became animated. -The post arrived. There were three letters from Chertkov. In one of -them<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> there were many pages of closely written manuscript.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi glanced at it and said:</p> - -<p>“It is probably a woman’s writing. How nice it would be if one need not -read it!”</p> - -<p>The manuscript, however, turned out not to be from a woman, so that -Tolstoi put it aside to read it.</p> - -<p>Referring to his daughter’s misfortune, Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“I am not sorry that my daughters have no children; I cannot be glad -that I have grandchildren. I know that they will inevitably grow up -to be idlers. My daughters are certainly anxious that this should not -be so, but considering the surroundings in which they will have to be -brought up, it is very difficult to avoid it. All my life long I have -had these surroundings, and, however much I struggle, I can do nothing. -Now, during the Christmas season I can’t bear to look at this mad -extravagance; these visits. What a terrible absurdity it is!”</p> - -<p>Usov was saying in what circumstances a doctor has the right to bring -on birth artificially, thereby killing the baby.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi replied:</p> - -<p>“It is always immoral. For the most part, when there are various ways -of relieving the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> patient, oxygen, etc., it is difficult to abstain -from using them; but it would be better if they did not exist. We shall -all die without fail, and the doctors’ activity is directed towards -fighting death. But to die—in ten days or in ten years—is all the -same. How terrible it is that it is always concealed from the patient -that he is dying! We are none of us accustomed to look death in the -face!”</p> - -<p>Usov defended the activity of doctors, considering it a useful one.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“It is for this reason that I consider the activity of doctors harmful: -people are crowded in towns; they are infected with syphilis and -consumption; they are kept in terrible conditions, and then millions -are spent on the establishment of hospitals and clinics. But why -not spend that energy, not in curing people, but in improving the -conditions of their lives? While numbers of healthy, useful peasants -are infected with all sorts of diseases, and are worn out by work -beyond their strength, so that they die at thirty instead of seventy, -some useless old woman who is quite incurable has spent upon her all -the treatment that medicine can supply.</p> - -<p>“All modern sciences do the very opposite of what they set out to do. -Theology hides<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> moral truths, jurisprudence obscures in every possible -way the conception of justice, the natural sciences teach materialism, -and history distorts the true life of the people. Darwin’s theory is in -agreement with the crude fable of Moses. All discussions on Darwinism -are polemics against Moses.</p> - -<p>“Every young man growing up in Russia passes through a terrible -contagion, a sort of moral syphilis; in the first place, the Orthodox -Church, and then, when he frees himself from that, the doctrines of -materialism. The best physiologists, like Krafft-Ebing or Claude -Bernard, openly admit that, however carefully we investigate even a -simple cell, there is always some <i>x</i> in its composition which we do -not understand. Consequently the complex of organisms and the social -conditions of life are an <i>x</i> raised to the <i>x</i> degree. And if we -cannot investigate a cell completely, then how can we realize the laws -which govern the life of human societies? Yet some blockhead like B. -assures us that it is all very simple, and the science of history can -deduce immutable laws by which human life is shaped.</p> - -<p>“Look at all our historians: what dull, stupid men they are! For -instance, Solovev. He was an incredibly dull man. And when some one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> -gifted appears among them—a Granovsky, Kostomarov, Kudryavzev—and -you ask, ‘What after all have they done?’ it turns out that they have -done nothing of any importance or value. Take Kluchevsky, for instance: -what has he done? He talks brilliantly, toys with the liberal point of -view about Catherine the Great, and says that she was a whore—well, we -knew that without him. Or take the man who dances the mazurka in the -Moscovskya Vedomsti, Ilovaisky—he is an historian too!</p> - -<p>“What should be taught at school? Long ago, when I was interested in -education, I came to the conclusion that school teaching ought to -consist of two branches only, of languages and mathematics. This is the -only positive knowledge that one can give a pupil. There is no humbug -about this. Either you know it or you don’t know it. Besides, from -this fundamental knowledge all science can develop. From mathematics -come astronomy, physics, natural sciences. From languages, history, -geography, and so on. But with us, who is taught and what are they -taught? To-day I walked in the street. Drunken men were going about, -swearing obscenely, dragging women after them. Who has ever said a -single word to these men about their moral needs? What did we teach -them? </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span></p> - -<p>“The other evening I was coming home from the Turkish bath and walked -near the theatres. Policemen on horseback were lounging about; coachmen -with buttocks like this” (Tolstoi illustrated it with his hands) “and -rows of buttons on their backs sit on the boxes. And in the illuminated -theatres, crowded with people, a divine service is performed: a silly -and distorted story <i>Sadko</i> (an opera) is acted, or ‘When we dead -awaken’ is played. It’s sheer madness!”</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span></p> - -<h2>1901</h2> - -<p><i>Moscow, February 1st.</i> Tolstoi began about a couple of months ago to -learn Dutch, and now he reads quite easily, at the age of seventy-three!</p> - -<p>He has an original way of learning languages: he gets the New Testament -in the language he wants to know, and whilst reading it through he -learns the language.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said to me recently about modern art:</p> - -<p>“The sense of shame is lost. I cannot call it anything else—the sense -of æsthetic shame. I wonder if you know the feeling? I feel it most -strongly when I read something that is artistically false, and I can -call it nothing else but shame.”</p> - -<p>With regard to his play, <i>The Corpse</i>, Tolstoi said to me:</p> - -<p>“The son of the wife of the man I described came to me, and then the -man himself. The son on behalf of his mother asked me not to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> publish -the play,<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" >[1]</a> because it would be very painful to her, and also because -she was afraid of the consequences. I of course promised.</p> - -<p>“Their visit was very interesting and useful to me. Once more, as so -many times before, I was convinced how much feebler and more unreal are -the psychological motives which one invents oneself in order to explain -actions. The actions of one’s imaginary characters are then the motives -which guided those people in real life. After talking to these people I -cooled to my work.”</p> - -<p>On another occasion, in the dining-room downstairs, animated -conversation was going on among the younger people. Tolstoi, who -was resting in the next room in the dark, afterwards came into the -dining-room and said to me:</p> - -<p>“I lay there and listened to your talk. It interested me from two -points of view: it was interesting simply to hear young people talking, -and then it was also interesting from the dramatic<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> point of view. I -listened and said to myself: This is how one ought to write for the -stage. It is not one speaking and the others listening. It is never -like that. It is necessary that all should speak, and the art of the -writer consists in making what he wants run through it like a beautiful -thread.”</p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>March 8th.</i> Yesterday Tolstoi was in good form. At tea he laughed and -joked. The conversation was about luxury.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“How much more money people spend nowadays than they used! When Sophie -Andreevna and I lived in Yasnaya, our income from the Nikolsky estate -was about five thousand roubles and we lived superbly. I remember when -Sophie Andreevna bought little mats to lay by the beds, it seemed -to me a useless and incredible luxury. And now my sons—I seem to -have about twenty of them—squander money right and left, buy dogs, -horses, gramophones. I asked myself then, why buy carpets when we have -slippers? Certainly we did not go barefoot, but, behold, Riepin painted -me <i>décolleté</i>, barefooted, in a shirt! I have to thank him for not -having taken off my nether garments! And he never asked me, if I liked -it! But I have long since got used to being treated as if I were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> dead. -There, in the Peredvizhni exhibition, you will see the Devil (Riepin’s -‘Temptation of Christ’), and you’ll also see the man possessed by the -Devil!”</p> - -<p class="space-above">On February 25th Tolstoi’s excommunication was announced. That day -Tolstoi and A. N. Dunaev went on some business to a doctor and came -into the Lubiansky Square. In the square, by the fountain, the crowd -recognized Tolstoi. At first, as Dunaev relates, an ironical voice was -heard: “Here’s the Devil in the likeness of a man!” This served for a -signal. The crowd threw themselves like one man on Tolstoi. All shouted -and threw up their hats. Tolstoi was confused; he didn’t know what to -do and walked away almost at a run. The crowd followed him. With great -difficulty Tolstoi and Dunaev managed to get a sledge at the corner of -Neglinny. The crowd wanted to stop the cabman and many held on to the -sledge. At that moment a troop of mounted police appeared, let the cab -through, and immediately made a ring and cut off the crowd.</p> - -<p>On the occasion of his excommunication Tolstoi received, and is still -receiving, a number of addresses, letters of sympathy, etc. One lady -sent him a piece of holy bread and a letter in which she said that she -had just received the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> Sacrament and took the Host for his benefit. -She ends her letter: “Eat it in health and pay no heed to these stupid -priests.”</p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>August 9th.</i> I was the other day in Yasnaya Polyana. Tolstoi is hale -and hearty. I have not seen him like that for a long time.</p> - -<p>The conversation was about Russian writers.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“I was fond of Turgenev as a man. As a writer, I do not attribute -particular importance to him or to Goncharov. Their subjects, the -number of ordinary characters and love scenes, have too ephemeral an -importance. If I were asked which of the Russian writers I consider the -most important, I would say: Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, Hertzen, whom -our Liberals have forgotten, and Dostoevsky, whom they do not read at -all. Well, and then: Griboedov, Ostrovsky, Tyutchev.”</p> - -<p>Of Gogol’s works Tolstoi does not like <i>Taras Bulba</i> at all. He far -prefers <i>The Revisor</i> (<i>Inspector General</i>), <i>Dead Souls</i>, <i>Shinel</i>, -<i>Koliaska</i> (“it’s a masterpiece in miniature”), <i>Nevsky Prospect</i>. Of -Pushkin’s works, he considers <i>Boris Godunov</i> a failure.</p> - -<p>It is characteristic that in making his selection Tolstoi said: </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span></p> - -<blockquote><p>“I do not speak of myself; it’s not for me, but for others, to -judge of my importance.”</p></blockquote> - -<p>That evening in his study Tolstoi said to me:</p> - -<p>“Alexander Borisovich, an image comes before me. Rays spread out -from a centre. The centre is the spiritual essence; the rays are the -perpetually growing needs of the body. A time comes when a spiritual -life begins to exist inside these rays. They spread out at an ever -diminishing angle, become parallel, and at last draw together and -finally unite in the one infinitely small and entirely spiritual -centre—death.”</p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>Gaspra, Crimea, September 12th.</i> Chekhov was here yesterday. He -does not look well; he looks old and coughs perpetually. He speaks -little, in short sentences, but they are always to the point. He gave -a touching account of his life with his mother in the winter at Yalta. -Tolstoi was very glad to see him.</p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>Gaspra, Crimea, September 16th.</i> Life here goes on very quietly.</p> - -<p>After dinner I or N. L. Obolensky, or both in turn, read Chekhov’s -stories aloud, which Tolstoi greatly enjoys. The other day I read -<i>The Tedious Story</i>. Tolstoi was in constant<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> raptures over Chekhov’s -understanding. He also liked, for the originality of the idea and the -mastery of the writing, <i>The Bet</i>, and particularly <i>The Steppe</i>.</p> - -<p>Of Chekhov Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“He is a strange writer: he throws words about as if at random, -and yet everything is alive. And what understanding! He never has -any superfluous details; every one of them is either necessary or -beautiful.”</p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>September 20th.</i> I told Tolstoi about the article in the <i>Moscow -Courier</i> where Maeterlinck’s is quoted as saying that <i>Power of -Darkness</i> is in his opinion almost the greatest play.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi laughed and said:</p> - -<p>“Why doesn’t he imitate it, then?”</p> - -<h3>FOOTNOTE:</h3> - -<p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1">[1]</a> The theme of <i>The Corpse</i> became known to the newspapers -through Tolstoi’s copyist, Alexander Petrovich, who, in a drunken bout -in the Khitrovka, told a fellow drunkard, a reporter of the <i>Novosti -Dnya</i>, that Tolstoi was writing a play, and also told him the subject -of the play. The reporter made an article of it and published it in -the paper. This was the cause of the <i>dramatis personae</i> coming to -Tolstoi, and it was also one of the reasons why Tolstoi left the play -unfinished. (Years afterwards the play, finished, was published and -entitled <i>The Living Corpse</i>.)</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p> - -<h2>1902</h2> - -<p><i>Moscow, January 13th.</i> Tolstoi once told me:</p> - -<p>“When I went to see <i>Power of Darkness</i> acted I sat in the gallery on -purpose so as not to be recognized. Yet I was recognized; they began to -tell me to go on the stage, and I hurried home at once. But there was -a moment when I could hardly restrain myself from stepping on to the -stage and beginning to speak, to say everything—whatever that may be.”</p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>January 15th.</i> Gorky read aloud to Tolstoi the end of Mazzini’s book -<i>On the Duties of Man</i>, which Tolstoi likes very much. While Gorky was -reading, Tolstoi, who had read the book more than once, was almost -moved to tears.</p> - -<p>Madame N. N. Den told me the following story, which she had from her -sister. When Tolstoi was very ill he thought he was dying, and took -leave and said good-bye to all who were present. Leo Lvovich was the -only one of Tolstoi’s children who was absent, and Tolstoi<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> dictated -a letter to him. Those who read it say that this farewell letter at -the point of death was deeply moving. The letter, however, was not -sent, for Leo Lvovich arrived at Gaspra in person. When he came into -Tolstoi’s room, Tolstoi said that it was difficult for him to speak, -but that he had expressed all his thoughts and feelings in the letter, -which he handed to his son. Leo Lvovich read the letter at once in -Tolstoi’s room, then came into the next room, and, in the presence -of all those who were there (Countess Sophie Nicolaevna included), -tore his dying father’s letter into little bits and threw it in the -wastepaper basket....</p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>Yasnaya Polyana, July 25th.</i> I have been here a few days. Tolstoi is -well physically.</p> - -<p>To-day Tolstoi said to Doctor Butkevich:</p> - -<p>“The only true way for a man to improve human life is by the way of -moral perfection in his personal life. Spiritual life is a constant -progress, a constant effort towards the realization of truth.”</p> - -<p>The conversation turned upon literature. It began with my saying that -Sienkewicz’s novel, <i>The Sword Bearers</i>, was a boring book.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“Yes, for some reason I began it, but I could<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> not read it. Do you -remember how, when one is a child, one sometimes gets a piece of meat -which one chews and chews and chews, and one can’t deal with it, and at -last one quietly spits it out and throws it under the table.”</p> - -<p>Then Tolstoi remembered B.’s story which he read recently:</p> - -<p>“It begins with a superb description of nature—a little shower, which -is done as Turgenev even could not do it, let alone myself. And then -there is a girl. She dreams of him” (Tolstoi shortly told the plot -of the story), “and all this—the girl’s silly emotion, the little -shower—all this is needed, in order that B. may write a story. Just -as in ordinary life, when people have nothing to say they talk about -the weather, so writers, when they have nothing to write about, write -about the weather, and it is time to put an end to it. Yes, there was -a little shower; there might just as well have been no shower at all. -I think that all this must come to an end in literature. It is simply -impossible to read any longer.</p> - -<p>“I once belonged to the guild of authors, and from habit I watch and am -interested in everything that goes on there.”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi quoted a few instances of misstatements and inaccuracies in -writers like Uspensky<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> and Korolenko, but said that these were only -slips. But when psychological mistakes are made, when the characters in -novels and stories do what, from their spiritual nature, they cannot -do, it is a terrible failing, and the works of the Andreevs, etc., -are full of such mistakes. Even in Gorky it is always happening. For -instance, it is the case in his story about the silver clasps, or -in the opinions of the women in <i>Three</i>. His <i>Burghers</i> is utterly -uninteresting. The surroundings are indefinite, untypical; nobody can -make anything of it at all.</p> - -<p>“I am always afraid of falling into the old man’s habit of being unable -to appreciate or to understand the present. But I try my best and -genuinely can find no beauty in the modern tendencies of art. There -has recently appeared a very just article by E. Markov on Gorky. The -writer, rather timidly—for Gorky has become such an idol that people -dare not speak of him—has pointed out correctly that modern Russian -literature has completely turned away from those high moral problems -which it formerly pursued. And indeed what a complete denial of moral -principles there is! You may be vicious, you may rob or kill; there is -nothing to restrain the individual; all is allowed....</p> - -<p>“But still I am impressed by the fact that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> Gorky is translated in -Europe and greatly read there. Undoubtedly there is something new -in him. His chief merit is that he was the first to draw the world -of outcasts and tramps from the life, which until then no one had -attempted. In this respect he did what Turgenev and Grigorovich did in -their day for the world of peasants.</p> - -<p>“I love Chekhov very much and value his writings, but I could not -make myself read his play, <i>The Three Sisters</i>. What is it all for? -Generally speaking, modern writers have lost the conception of drama. -Drama, instead of telling us the whole of a man’s life, must place -him in such a situation, tie such a knot, that, when it is untied, -the whole man is made visible. Now, I allowed myself to criticize -Shakespeare. But with him every character is alive; and it is always -clear why he acts as he does. In Shakespeare’s theatre there were -boards with inscriptions ‘moonlight,’ ‘a house,’ because (Heaven be -praised!) the whole attention was concentrated on the substance of the -drama. Now it is just the opposite.”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi spoke with disgust of Andreev’s <i>Abyss</i>, and said:</p> - -<p>“With regard to Leonid Andreev, I always remember a story by Ginzburg -about a boy who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> cannot pronounce the letter ‘r’ and says to his -friend: ‘I went for a walk and suddenly I see a wolf.... Are you -fwightened? Are you fwightened?’</p> - -<p>“So Andreev also keeps on asking me: ‘Are you fwightened?’ and I am not -in the least frightened.”</p> - -<p>Yesterday the conversation was about the Hertzen, Bakunin, and Belinsky -circle. Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“The most characteristic thing about that circle was a kind of -epicureanism, or at least the denial of, the complete failure to -understand, a religious conception of the world. Doctor Nikitin, for -instance, was surprised that I did not think Gogol mad. They thought -him mad, because he believed in God. And they could not even understand -what was going on in his soul.”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi spoke very disapprovingly of Belinsky’s famous letter to Gogol.</p> - -<p>Doctor Butkevich asked Tolstoi if he had read Maeterlinck’s new play, -<i>Monna Vanna</i>.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi replied:</p> - -<p>“Why should I? Have I committed a crime?”</p> - -<p>Some one observed that common people are very seldom interested by -<i>Power of Darkness</i>. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span></p> - -<p>Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“To interest the people one must write more simply and much more -shortly, as Sophie Andreevna paints; everything in profile and -everything on the plane, and yet no other pictures are enjoyed so much -by children. In the same way, form must be simple and primitive if it -is to be enjoyed by the people.”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi went on to say:</p> - -<p>“I have been thinking a great deal about it lately. There are two kinds -of art, and both are equally needed—one simply gives pleasure and -comfort to people, the other teaches them.”</p> - -<p>Yesterday Tolstoi criticized the scientists (he mentioned Mechnikov) -for their denial and misunderstanding of a religious conception of the -world.</p> - -<p>Some one mentioned the new Russian University in Paris.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi is sceptical about it and said:</p> - -<p>“Some seventy young women come and listen to the professors who teach -them.”</p> - -<p>Mme. Stakhovich said something about the harm that is done to the girl -students, but Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“Well, they are bad enough already without that.” </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span></p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>July 28th.</i> The other day we walked in the woods. Tolstoi sat down on -his camp stool, which was given him by N. He sighed and said:</p> - -<p>“Yes, poor fellow!”</p> - -<p>Then he turned to Marie Lvovna and asked:</p> - -<p>“Masha, who’s the poor fellow?”</p> - -<p>“I do not know, papa.”</p> - -<p>“Buddha. N. bespattered Socrates, and now he is going to do the same to -Buddha.”</p> - -<p>Yesterday Tolstoi was showing us a portrait group of the Tolstoi -brothers, and, pointing to his brother Nicolay, said:</p> - -<p>“He was my beloved brother. He was the man of whom Turgenev justly said -that he had not a single one of the faults which one must have in order -to be a writer. And I, although it is wrong of me, must say of my son -Leo, that he, on the contrary, has all these faults, but none of the -gifts, which are needed for a writer.”</p> - -<p>Ilya Lvovich said to Mme. Stakhovich that a writer must himself -experience everything in order to tell it to others.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi replied:</p> - -<p>“Mere technique is sometimes enough to describe what he has -experienced. A real writer, as Goethe justly observed, must be able to -describe everything. And I must say that,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> although I am not very fond -of Goethe, he could do it.”</p> - -<p>To-day Tolstoi was enthusiastic about Mozart’s operas, particularly -about <i>Don Juan</i>. Together with the extraordinary richness of its -melody, he rates very high its power to give in music the reflection -of characters and situations. Tolstoi recalled the statue of the -commander, the village scene, and especially the duel.</p> - -<p>He said:</p> - -<p>“I hear there a presentiment, as it were, of the tragic <i>dénouement</i>, -together with the excitement and even the romance of the duel.” ...</p> - -<p>Then Tolstoi turned the conversation to the importance and province of -form in art:</p> - -<p>“I think that every great artist necessarily creates his own form also. -If the content of works of art can be infinitely varied, so also can -their form. Once Turgenev and I came back from the theatre in Paris and -discussed this. He completely agreed with me. We recalled all that is -best in Russian literature and it seemed that in these works the form -was perfectly original. Omitting Pushkin, let us take Gogol’s <i>Dead -Souls</i>. What is it? Neither a novel nor a story. It is a something -perfectly original. Then there is the <i>Memoirs of a Sportsman</i>, the -best book Turgenev ever wrote; then <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span>Dostoevsky’s <i>House of the Dead</i>, -and then, sinner that I am, my <i>Childhood</i>; Hertzen’s <i>Past and -Thoughts</i>; Lermontov’s <i>Hero of our Time</i>....”</p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>August 1st.</i> Tolstoi talked with Marie Alexandrovna Schmidt in my -presence about a certain Khokhlov who went mad.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi told me his story briefly, and then said:</p> - -<p>“What a riddle insanity is! What is he—alive or dead?”</p> - -<p>I said that insanity is not a greater riddle than sanity. The mystery -is how the personality which lives in me manifests itself through the -brain. But if I admit that the first cause is not in my brain, but -outside it, and the brain is only a means by which my personality is -shown, then it is for me no <i>fresh</i> mystery that that personality of -mine cannot be manifested when the machine of the brain is disordered.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“Yes, it is all a mystery! Let us take a child. When it is born, has -it conscious life? When does consciousness begin in a child? And what -is it when it moves in its mother’s womb? To me life is a ceaseless -liberation of the ‘I’ of the spirit. Recently N. N. came to me and -asked me whether I believe in a future life? But to me there is a -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>contradiction contained in the question. What does ‘future life’ mean? -One may believe in life, but for eternal life our conception ‘future’ -is quite inapplicable.</p> - -<p>“But if we speak of life as we can realize it, as life <i>after</i> our -present life, then it seems to me that it can be conceived only in -two possible forms: either as a fusion with the eternal spiritual -principle, with God, or as a continuation, in a different form, of the -same process of liberation of the spiritual ‘I’ from what is called -matter.</p> - -<p>“It may be accidental, but it is remarkable that Christ said to the -Pharisees: ‘Before Abraham was, I am.’”</p> - -<p class="space-above">I came into the dining-room while Tolstoi was talking with K. A. -Mikhailov about art:</p> - -<p>“Among the sensations experienced by our senses of touch, sight, -hearing, etc., there are some which are unpleasant and painful—for -instance, a violent knock, a deafening noise, a bitter taste, etc. Now -modern art often works upon us not so much by means of its content, as -by irritating our organs of sensation, painfully. As regards taste, -an unhealthy taste needs mustard, whilst it produces an unpleasant -impression upon a pure taste. So it is in the arts. It is necessary to -draw a dividing line and to find<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> where that artistic mustard begins, -and I think it is a problem of enormous importance. In painting, it -seems to me, it is particularly difficult to draw that line.”</p> - -<p class="space-above">Tolstoi said to Count Yashvil:</p> - -<p>“I have been learning all my life and do not cease to learn, and this -is what I have noticed: learning is only fruitful when it corresponds -to one’s needs. Otherwise it is useless. I remember I was a Justice of -the Peace; I used to take the laws and tried to study them, but I could -not fix anything in my mind. But whenever for some particular case, I -needed certain legal knowledge, I always kept it in my mind and could -use it in practice.”</p> - -<p>The conversation turned on our government. Count Yashvil began giving -instances to prove how bad it is in Europe.</p> - -<p>To this Tolstoi replied even with some irritation:</p> - -<p>“What right have we to condemn anything in the West, when we are still -so far behind them? Our government is so abominable that we have no -right at all to condemn any one. We are without the possibility of -satisfying the most elementary needs of every man: to read, write, -think what and how one wishes.” </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p> - -<p>Tolstoi was now writing <i>Hadji-Murat</i>, and he said:</p> - -<p>“I remember how a long time ago some one gave me a travelling -candlestick for a present. When I showed the candlestick to our Yasnaya -Polyana carpenter, he looked at it, looked again, and then sighed and -said: ‘It is crude stuff!’ The same applies to my present work: it is -crude stuff!”</p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>Yasnaya Polyana, August 30th.</i> I have been here now for three days. -Tolstoi talked with Ilya Lvovich and some one else about farming and -about the new machine called “The Planet.”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“It is surprising how few technical inventions and improvements have -been made in agriculture, compared with what has been done in industry.”</p> - -<p>Afterwards Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“Ruskin says how much more valuable human lives are than any -improvements and mechanical progress.”</p> - -<p>Then Tolstoi added:</p> - -<p>“It is difficult to argue with Ruskin: he by himself has more -understanding than the whole House of Commons.”</p> - -<p class="space-above">Tolstoi went for a walk, and I fetched him his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> overcoat. I met him on -the road. We walked home together and walked through the fields.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi looked at the bad harvest and said:</p> - -<p>“My farmer’s eye is exasperated: God alone knows how they sowed!”</p> - -<p>When we reached the boundary of the Yasnaya Polyana forest, we heard -the loud voices of children, and soon we saw a motley crowd of village -boys discussing something. They noticed Tolstoi and began urging one -another to go up to him—then they felt shy and hid themselves. Tolstoi -became interested in them and beckoned to them. They began to approach, -at first timidly and one by one, but gradually all came together. -I particularly remember one of them dressed in grey calico striped -trousers, in a ragged cap and shirt, with huge heavy boots, probably -belonging to his father.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi showed them his camp stool, which was a great success. He asked -them what they were doing there. It appeared they had been picking -pears and the watchman ran after them. Tolstoi walked with them. On the -way he enquired about their parents. One boy turned out to be the son -of Taras Fokanich.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said to me:</p> - -<p>“He was one of my very best pupils. What a happy time that was! How -I loved that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> work! And, above all, there was nobody in my way. Now -my fame is always in my way: whatever I do, it is all talked about. -But at that time nobody knew or interfered, neither strangers nor my -family—though, there was no family then.”</p> - -<p>When we reached the spot Tolstoi told the children to gather the pears. -They climbed the trees, some knocking down the pears, others shaking -them down, others again picking them up. There was a hubbub, a happy -noise of children; and the figure of the good old Tolstoi lovingly -protecting the children from the attack of the watchman moved one to -tears. Then two or three peasants came to ask his advice on some legal -point.</p> - -<p class="space-above">Tolstoi, Nikitin, and I talked of Dostoevsky.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“Certain characters of his are, if you like, decadent, but how -significant it all is!”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi mentioned Kirilov in <i>The Possessed</i>, and said:</p> - -<p>“Dostoevsky was seeking for a belief, and, when he described profoundly -sceptical characters, he described his own unbelief.”</p> - -<p>Of Dostoevsky’s attitude to “Liberalism” Tolstoi observed: </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Dostoevsky, who suffered in person from the Government, was revolted -by the banality of Liberalism.”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“During the sixty years of my conscious life a great change has -come over us in Russia—I am speaking of the so-called educated -society—with regard to religious questions: religious convictions were -differentiated; it is a bad word, but I don’t know how to express it -differently. In my youth there were three, or rather four, categories -into which society in this respect could be divided. The first was a -very small group of very religious people, who had been freemasons -previously, or sometimes monks. The second, about 70 per cent of the -whole, consisted of people who from habit observed church rituals, -but in their souls were perfectly indifferent to religious problems. -The third group consisted of unbelievers who observed the conventions -in cases of necessity; and, finally, there were the Voltairians, -unbelievers who openly and courageously expressed their unbelief. The -latter were few in number—about 2 or 3 per cent. Now one has no idea -whom one is going to meet. One finds the most contrary convictions -existing side by side. Recently there have appeared the latest -decadents<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> of orthodoxy, the orthodox churchmen like Merezhkovsky and -Rosanov.</p> - -<p>“Many people were attracted to orthodoxy through Khomyakov’s definition -of the Orthodox Church, as a congregation of people united by love. -What could be better than that? But the point is that it is merely -the arbitrary substitution of one conception for another. Why is the -Orthodox Church such a congregation of love-united people? It is the -contrary rather.”</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span></p> - -<h2>1903</h2> - -<p><i>March 21st.</i> Last week I went for a day to Yasnaya Polyana. I found -Tolstoi well and cheerful.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi is always much interested in the question of man’s spiritual -state during sleep.</p> - -<p>He told me this time:</p> - -<p>“In a dream one cries, or is happy or excited, and, when one wakes up -and remembers the dream, one does not understand what made one cry or -be happy or excited. I explain it to myself in this way: Apart from -the happiness, excitement, or bitterness which are caused by definite -events, there are also states of happiness, excitement, ecstasy, and -grief. In such states an insignificant event is often sufficient -to throw us into ecstasy, excitement, etc. In a dream, when one’s -consciousness does not act so consistently and logically, this state is -expressed by the corresponding sensation which has often no external -cause. For instance, in a dream one often feels<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> utterly ashamed, and -when one wakes up and sees that one’s trousers are quietly hanging over -a chair, one feels an extraordinary joy. That is why I so much love -‘Popov’s Dream.’<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" >[2]</a> It gives a wonderful account of that sensation of -shame in a dream, and, besides, all the characters are magnificently -described. In spite of its comic nature, it is a real work of art.”</p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>June 1st.</i> I returned from Yasnaya Polyana, where I spent a day. -Tolstoi is planning a work of a philosophical nature, which he is -greatly excited about at present. Speaking of it, Tolstoi said to me:</p> - -<p>“Everything in the world is alive. Everything that seems to us dead -seems so only because it is either too large or, on the contrary, too -small. We do not see microbes, and heavenly bodies seem dead to us, for -the same reason that we seem dead to an ant. The earth is undoubtedly -alive, and a stone on the earth is the same as a nail on a finger. The -materialists make matter the basis of life. All these theories of the -origin of species, of protoplasm, of atoms, are all of value in so far -as they help us to know the laws governing the visible world. But it -must not be forgotten that all these, including<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> ether, are working -hypotheses, and nothing else. Astronomers in their calculations assume -that the earth is a motionless body, and only afterwards correct the -mistake. Materialists too make false premises, but they do not observe -the fact that this is so, but let them pass as basic truths.</p> - -<p>“True life exists where the living being is conscious of itself as an -indivisible ‘I,’ in whom all impressions, feelings, etc., become one. -So long as the ‘I’ struggles, as nearly the whole animal world does, -merely to crush the other creatures known to him, in order to attain -his own temporary advantage, true spiritual life which is without time -and space remains unexpressed and imprisoned. True spiritual life is -liberated when a man neither rejoices in his own happiness, nor suffers -from his own suffering, but suffers and rejoices with the worries and -pleasures of others and is fused with them into a common life.</p> - -<p>“Of the life to come, although of course the words ‘to come’ are -inappropriate here, of life beyond our physical being, it is impossible -to have knowledge. We can imagine two forms only: either a new form of -the individual life, or a fusion of personal life in the life of the -whole. The former seems to us more comprehensible<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> and more likely, -since we only know our individual life and we can more easily accept -the idea of the same life in a different form.”</p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>July 14th.</i> In the beginning of July my wife and I spent two days in -Yasnaya Polyana.</p> - -<p>On the occasion of Mme. Kolokoltsev’s<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" >[3]</a> suicide Tolstoi said to me: -“I can’t understand why people look upon suicide as a crime. It seems -to me to be man’s right. It gives a man the chance of dying when he no -longer wishes to live. The Stoics thought like that.”</p> - -<p>As Mme. Kolokoltsev was insane, the conversation turned on insanity. -I said, as I had done previously, that the spiritual life of the -so-called insane remains unchanged. All that happens is that a mad -person cannot make his personality felt. Tolstoi agreed with me.</p> - -<p>Next day he said to me:</p> - -<p>“Yesterday’s conversation on insanity was of great interest to -me. I have been thinking a great deal about it. There are two -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>consciousnesses in us: one—the animal; the other—the spiritual. The -spiritual is not always shown in us, but it is this that makes our true -spiritual life, which is not subject to time. I do not know how it is -with you who are comparatively young, but with me there are times in -my long life which are clearly preserved in my memory, and other times -which have completely disappeared, they no longer exist. The moments -which remain are most frequently the moments when the spirit in me -awoke. It often happens at a time when one has done something wrong, -and suddenly one wakes up, realizes that it is bad, and feels the -spirit in one with special force. Spiritual life is a recollection. -A recollection is not the past, it is always the present. It is our -spirit, which shows itself more or less clearly, that contains the -progress of man’s temporary existence. There can be no progress for the -spirit, for it is not in time. What the life in time is for, we do not -know; it is only a transitory phenomenon. Speaking metaphorically, I -see this manifestation of the spirit in us as the breathing of God.</p> - -<p>“There is a beautiful story about the unreality of time in <i>The Arabian -Nights</i>. Some one was put into a bath; he dipped his head in the water -and saw a long history with most complicated<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> adventures; and then -when he raised his head from the water, it turned out that he had only -dipped his head in once!”</p> - -<p class="space-above">Tolstoi was talking about Fedorov and Peterson, particularly about -Fedorov:</p> - -<p>“They belonged to the sect which believes in the resurrection of the -dead here on earth. Their idea is that people must try to resurrect -all those who have died in the past. They believe that by hard work -for centuries mankind will achieve it. For this purpose one must study -all things of antiquity and restore them. Fedorov was librarian to the -Rumyantsev Museum and was a passionate collector of all old things: -portraits, objects, etc. Mankind must cease to multiply and everything -will be resurrected. That is their ideal. It turns out that Vladimir -Solovev and Dostoevsky to some extent—there is a letter to this -effect—believed in this idea.</p> - -<p>“Fedorov, I think, is still alive. He must be over eighty. All his -life he has lived as an ascetic. When I once visited him in the spring -and saw his thin overcoat, I asked him: ‘Do you wear a thin overcoat -already?’ and he replied: ‘Christ said, if you have two cloaks, give -them to him who has none, and I have two overcoats.’ And after that he -always wore only<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> a thin coat. He received a very small salary, ate -very, very little, slept almost on the bare boards, helped the poor, -and denied himself everything. He wrote a great deal, but his works -remain in manuscript: his disciples have no money to publish them, and -no publisher can be found to publish them.”</p> - -<p>There was a plague of poisonous flies at Yasnaya Polyana this summer -which made one’s face swell when they bit one.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“Once, when I was younger, I wanted to write a story about a young -man who stayed in the summer at a friend’s house where there was a -young girl. The very first day they fell in love and raved about each -other. At night, when he was asleep, a fly bit his lip, and half his -face swelled up. His lip and cheek were swollen, and his face looked -idiotic. When the girl saw him in the morning their love at once came -to an end. There were no more illusions: she noticed a number of faults -in him which she had not noticed at all the day before.”</p> - -<p class="space-above">The conversation was about Father Gregory Petrov.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" >[4]</a> </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p> - -<p>Tolstoi said of him:</p> - -<p>“As was the case with Ambrosii of the Optino Monastery, he is becoming -the slave of his popularity. Generally speaking, fame, popularity, is -a dangerous thing. It is also harmful because it prevents one from -looking upon people simply, in a Christian way. Now, for instance, I -find Gorky very pleasant as a man, and yet I can’t behave to him with -perfect sincerity. His popularity prevents me from doing so. It is -as if he were not in his right place. To him, too, his popularity is -dangerous. His long novels are worse than his short stories, his plays -are worse than his novels, and his addresses to the public are simply -revolting.</p> - -<p>“Yet as some one said: if my work is abused by every one, it means -that there is something in it. If all praise it, it means that it is -bad; but if some praise it very much, and others dislike it very much, -then it is first-rate. According to this theory Gorky’s works are -first-rate. Well, it may be so.” ...</p> - -<p>A blind man came to Tolstoi, and Tolstoi was very much interested in -him. The blind man was trying to get into a school for the blind, so as -to complete his education, and Tolstoi wanted to help him. The blind -man intended to give an account of his life. After lunch we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> were going -for a walk. Tolstoi was talking to the blind man. Then he took him to -the kitchen to give him some food, and said good-bye to him.</p> - -<p>The blind man said to him:</p> - -<p>“I should like to go on talking to you.”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi replied:</p> - -<p>“Later, perhaps, I will talk to you again.”</p> - -<p>We went for a walk. But before reaching the gate Tolstoi said that he -had changed his mind and would return home.</p> - -<p>Sophie Andreevna observed:</p> - -<p>“He probably regrets having left the blind man.”</p> - -<p>And it was true. We walked for a long time, and when we got back -Tolstoi was still sitting with the blind man.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said to me later:</p> - -<p>“The blind man told me many legends. One of them I never heard before:</p> - -<p>“‘Once upon a time Christ and Peter the Apostle walked in the country -and saw an old peasant making a fence out of reeds. Christ asked him: -“Why, father, are you making such a weak fence of reeds?” and the -peasant replied: “I am old, it will last my lifetime.” After that God -saw to it that people should not know their age.’ He also told me -another legend, which I had heard before but in a different version: </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span></p> - -<p>“‘A just old man once lived in the woods. And people came to him and -said: “Why do you never go to church?” The old man listened to them and -went with them. But while they took a boat to cross the river, the old -man walked upon the water. They arrived and went into the church, but -inside the church the devils stretched a skin on the floor and wrote -down the names of the sinners on it. The old man looked and looked at -this, then called the devils bad names, and they wrote his name down. -On returning home he was unable to walk upon the water, but had to take -the boat.’”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“It is time for me to die, and I have a whole mass of subjects, and -even a new one to-day. I have a whole long list of them.” ...</p> - -<p>Tolstoi is going to expound in an artistic form Buddha’s teaching, “Ta -Twam Asi,” the meaning of which is that in every man and his actions -one can always recognize oneself.</p> - -<p class="space-above">Tolstoi recalled the following:</p> - -<p>“When I was taken for the first time to a box in the Grand Theatre as a -young child I saw nothing: I did not know that it was necessary to look -at the stage sideways, and I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> looked straight in front of me at the -opposite boxes.”</p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>August 12th.</i> I spent the 7th and 8th in Yasnaya Polyana.</p> - -<p>M. S. Sukhotin was talking about Count Bludov. Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“His was a very interesting house where authors and the most -interesting men of their time used to meet. I remember that I read -there for the first time my <i>Two Hussars</i>. Bludov was once intimate -with the Decembrists and sympathized in his soul with every progressive -movement. And he kept on serving under Nicolas I.”</p> - -<p>Mikhail Sergeevich Sukhotin asked whether Bludov was a Russian, and why -was he a Count?</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“The Bludovs were a purely Russian family, to whom the title of Count -was granted. I remember, when I gathered the peasants to read to them -the Ukase of their liberation, at the bottom were the names of the -signatories and it finished with the words: Countersigned by Count -Bludov. An elderly peasant, Eremey, shook his head all the while and -said: ‘That Blud, he must be a brainy fellow!’ Evidently he took it to -mean that Bludov was at the head of the whole affair.” </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span></p> - -<p>The conversation was about medicine. Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“Medicine cannot possibly be called an ‘experimental’ science, for in -medicine experiment in the strict sense is impossible. With experiments -in chemistry a repetition of the more or less same conditions is -possible, and so there can be approximately an exact conclusion as to -the results. But in medicine there is no exact experiment nor can there -be, for it is never possible to repeat the conditions that existed -previously; if only because the individuality of the patient changes, -and nearly, if not quite, everything changes in sympathy with that.”</p> - -<p class="space-above">Tolstoi related this episode from his childhood:</p> - -<p>“We had a distant relation—an old woman Yakovlev. She lived in her own -house in the Staro-Konyushenna Street in Moscow. She was a great miser, -and, when she went to the country in the summer, she sent her children -ahead in the luggage van. Once, when I was quite a small child, old -Yakovlev came to pay us a visit. She sat with the grown-up people, and -my brother Nikolenka got a box, put dolls into it, and began dragging -it across the rooms. When he dragged it into the room where old<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> -Yakovlev sat, she asked him: ‘Nicolas, what have you got there?’ and he -replied, ‘It is old Yakovlev going into the country, and her children -are being sent ahead in the luggage van.’” ...</p> - -<p class="space-above">During the two days (the 6th and 7th August) of my stay in Yasnaya, -Tolstoi wrote a perfectly new and very powerful story called <i>Father -and Daughter</i>,<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" >[5]</a> which, he said, “will stay as it is for the time -being.” Tolstoi himself seems to be very well pleased with the story, -and he thinks he may not have to alter it.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi recalled the folk-story of “Vanka Kliushnik,” who asked before -his execution to be allowed to sing a song; and Tolstoi was in raptures -over the beauty of it.</p> - -<p class="space-above">Tolstoi is much amused because he is riding a young horse and training -it. He is a great connoisseur of horses; he loves them and is a perfect -horseman. He trains his horse to various paces. He showed me and Ilya -Vasilevich how the horse started to gallop with the right leg. At the -beginning of the ride I asked Tolstoi how to train a horse to start -with this or that leg. Tolstoi explained to me how it was done, and -then observed: </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Once a horse leads off with a certain leg, it wants to start with the -same leg next time. In a man’s life, too, custom plays an enormous -part. Once a certain habit is formed, a man unconsciously tries to act -in accordance with it. It is very seldom that people act in accordance -with reason, and only very remarkable people do so; usually people -live and act by habit. How otherwise could it be possible that moral -truths, announced so long ago by the great thinkers and admitted by -most people, so rarely guide their actions? Very few people overcome -the habits of animal life and oppose them by the convictions of reason.”</p> - -<p>When later we drove past a beautiful wood Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“Once upon a time this forest belonged to Dolin-Ivansky. He was about -to sell it and I wanted to buy it, but for some reason I bargained, -although the price was reasonable. We did not settle the business. When -I came home and thought it over, I saw that the price was reasonable -and the forest good, and I sent the steward to say that I was ready to -buy it. But when the steward arrived, the forest was already sold. For -a long time afterwards I could not remember without annoyance that I -had let that forest slip through my hands.” </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span></p> - -<p>Then we drove by the forest called “Limonov Woods.” It is a young -forest planted by Tolstoi. He had not been there for a long time and -was surprised to see how everything had flourished and grown up.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“Yes, it is a queer sense, that of ownership: here, too, one finds -the same habit. When one analyses it in one’s own mind, the feeling -disappears; but instinctively one always sees in oneself a particular -interest in what was or is one’s property, although one considers -ownership harmful and unnecessary.”</p> - -<p>Speaking later of the present political events Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“The same is true also with regard to patriotism: unconsciously one’s -sympathies are on the side of Russia and her fortunes, and one catches -oneself at it. But it is clear that with these internal and foreign -troubles one fine day all of a sudden Russia may fall to pieces. As -the saying goes: <i>sic transit gloria mundi</i>. Now it is an enormous and -powerful state, and suddenly everything may go to pieces!”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi drew my attention to the fact that the road was beautifully lit -up by the rays of the sun coming through the branches of the trees. He -recalled that Turgenev in <i>Virgin Soil</i> has<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> described how Sipyagin met -Mariana and Nezhdanov lit up by such rays. He asked me if I remembered -the passage. I did not remember it and said:</p> - -<p>“How do you remember it, Tolstoi?”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi laughed and said:</p> - -<p>“But you remember in your music, and so we writers remember things in -our art.”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said about <i>Virgin Soil</i> that he did not share the general -indifference towards that novel and considered it very successful. -Among other things, he thought the new type of Sipyagin successful and -observed at the right time.</p> - -<p>On this occasion Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“But for the most part I object to the trick of guessing at modern -types and phenomena. The other day the painter K. was here. I told him -a great deal about his work which must be unpleasant to him. He is -always occupied with these modern themes. I said to him that one ought -never to paint what is talked about in the newspapers. Besides, he -simply can’t make a picture intelligible, clear. In his works you can’t -make out what he wants to represent. How inferior he is to Orlov<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" >[6]</a> in -this respect!” </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span></p> - -<p>I. V. Denisenko read aloud the chapters about Nicolas from -<i>Hadji-Murat</i>.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi sat in his room, but he wanted to come where we were all -sitting.</p> - -<p>He came in several times and said:</p> - -<p>“It is not interesting; let it be!”</p> - -<p>At last he even said with irritation:</p> - -<p>“It is rubbish!”</p> - -<p>Then M. S. Sukhotin asked him:</p> - -<p>“Why did you write it, then, Leo Nickolaevich?”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi replied:</p> - -<p>“But it is not finished yet. You came into my kitchen, and no wonder it -stinks with the smell of cooking.”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi explained why he had made up his mind never to write to the -papers to deny what was said about him.</p> - -<p>“When I stayed with Turgenev in Petersburg, Mefodii Katkov<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" >[7]</a> arrived -from Moscow, and, on behalf of his brother, asked Turgenev and myself -to let him have something for his <i>Russkii Vestnik</i>. I promised -nothing, but Turgenev with his characteristic kindness said, rather -vaguely, that he might perhaps let him have something.</p> - -<p>“Soon after this a group of writers in Petersburg, Nekrasov, Turgenev, -myself, Panaev,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> Druzhinin, Grigorovich, formed ourselves into a group -and decided to publish only in the <i>Sovremennik</i>. When Katkov heard -this, he accused Turgenev in print of breaking his promise. Then I -wrote a letter to Katkov, and asked him to publish it, in which I, as -a witness, refuted Katkov’s statement and proved that Turgenev had not -promised Katkov anything.</p> - -<p>“At first Katkov did not publish the letter; afterwards he published -it, but in such a mutilated form that it quite changed its character. -After that I made a vow to myself that I would never make any reply to -attacks in the Press.”</p> - -<p>The talk turned on our Government.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“Do you know, Peter Alexeevich, I want to found a society whose members -would bind themselves not to abuse the Government.”</p> - -<p>Sergeenko and others replied that, although it was true that people -made too much of that subject, still, when the Government prevented -people from living freely or breathing freely, it was difficult not to -criticize it.</p> - -<p>To this Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“It is only necessary to remember that the Government, however strong -and cruel it may be, can never prevent the real, spiritual life of man, -which alone is of importance. And why<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> wonder that the Government is -cruel and wicked? So it must be. Mosquitoes bite, worms devour leaves, -pigs grout in manure—all this suits them and it is not worth while -to be indignant about it. I remember many years ago—my sons are now -tall, bearded men, but they were then children—I once came into the -dining-room downstairs in the Khamovniki house and saw that a ray -of the sun fell across the whole room through the windows and made -a bright spot on the sideboard which stood by the wall opposite the -window. The ventilator was not tight shut and was moved by the wind, -and as it moved the bright spot slid over the sideboard. I went in, -showed the children the bright spot, and cried out: ‘Catch it!’ They -all threw themselves on to the bright spot to catch it, but it raced, -and it was difficult to catch it. But if one of the children succeeded -in putting his hand on it, the bright spot showed on the top of his -hand. That is like the spiritual nature of man: however you hide it, -however much you try to suppress it or extinguish it, it will always -remain the same and unchanged.”</p> - -<p>About writing Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“If you ask some one: ‘Can you play the violin?’ and he says: ‘I don’t -know, I have not tried, perhaps I can,’ you laugh at him.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> Whereas -about writing, people always say: ‘I don’t know, I have not tried,’ as -though one had only to try and one would become a writer.”</p> - -<p class="space-above">Tolstoi said about Jews:</p> - -<p>“There are three kinds of Jews. Some are believers, religious, -respecting their religion and strictly following its teaching. Others -are cosmopolitan, standing on the highest step of consciousness; and -finally a third kind, the middle kind, almost the biggest class, at -any rate of educated Jews, are even ashamed of being Jews or hide the -fact, and at the same time they are hostile to other races; but it is -as if they hid their hostility behind the skirts of their overcoats. -As my sympathies are with the first two classes, so the third is -unsympathetic to me.”</p> - -<p class="space-above">The conversation was about religion. Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“Rousseau expressed a perfectly true idea that the Jewish religion -admitted one revelation—the past; the Christian religion two—the -past and present; and the Muhammadan three—the past, the present, and -the future. Historically it is undoubtedly a progressive movement. -Christianity is higher than Judaism, which is no longer alive. It is -all in the past; and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> Muhammadanism is higher than Christianity: it has -not the superstitions, the idolatry. To me personally Christianity, to -be sure, is above all religions, but I speak about Christianity, not as -the highest religious moral teaching, but as a historical fact. And as -there is ever much in common between the opposite poles, so there is -here; both Judaism and Muhammadanism keep strictly to monotheism, and -there is no intoxication in either; but in the historical Christianity -of the churches there is polytheism, as well as all kinds of ignorance -and cruelty. Everything is justified and even encouraged.”</p> - -<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> - -<p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2">[2]</a> A comic poem by Count Alexey K. Tolstoi.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3">[3]</a> Mme. Kolokoltsev was the wife of the landowner N. A. -Kolokoltsev. She suffered from nervous disorder and made several -attempts at suicide. In spite of constant observation, she managed one -night to make the blanket on the bed into a figure, and thus deceived -her husband. She went into his study, opened the drawer of his table -with a skeleton key, took out his revolver and shot herself. She was an -elderly woman, the mother of two grown-up daughters.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4">[4]</a> G. S. Petrov, a publicist and politician who started his -career as a preacher of the Church and then resigned his priesthood.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5">[5]</a> Called in its final version, <i>After the Ball</i>.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6">[6]</a> N. V. Orlov, a painter from the people, of whose pictures -Tolstoi was very fond. Reproductions of most of his paintings hang in -Tolstoi’s room.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7">[7]</a> The brother of the well-known editor M. N. Katkov.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span></p> - -<h2>1904</h2> - -<p>At Christmas Alexandra Lvovna made a Christmas tree in the lodge to -entertain the village children. I do not know who made the choice, -but, as there was not enough room, all the children were not admitted. -Tolstoi, myself, and some one else, I don’t remember who, came in -rather later when the entertainment was at its height. At the door of -the lodge stood the children who could not be admitted. When they saw -us, the mothers of the children began asking Tolstoi to take their -children with him. Tolstoi took two or three inside with him. It was -bright and hot. Inside the burning candles flamed. It smelt of burnt -branches. We soon came out.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said with a sigh:</p> - -<p>“How wrong it is! Some are inside and the others are not allowed in. -When our children were small, Sophie Andreevna always had a Christmas -tree, and the village children came to it. Once they gave us the -scarlet fever, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> after that they were no longer admitted, except a -few who were carefully chosen. I remember once there was a Christmas -tree upstairs. I was lying downstairs on the sofa (where the library -now is), and I was terribly ashamed to think of the children crowding -outside and not being let in. I remember I could not endure it, came -out, and gave them three roubles, and of course made things still -worse—they began to dispute and quarrel over the division of it, and -it was revolting, shameful, and painful!”</p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>June 5th.</i> Yasnaya Polyana.</p> - -<p>On the day of our arrival, May 27th, Tolstoi talked at dinner about -the Decembrists whom he knew after their return from banishment (he is -again studying that period).</p> - -<p>He spoke of Prince Volkonsky:<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" >[8]</a></p> - -<p>“His appearance with his long grey hair was altogether like that of an -Old Testament prophet. What a pity I spoke so little to him then, when -I need him so much now! He was a wonderful old man, the flower of the -Petersburg aristocracy both by birth and by his position at Court. And -then in Siberia, after he had already served hard labour, and his wife -had something like a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> salon, he worked with the peasants; all sorts of -tools for peasants’ work were in his room.”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi does not believe the story about the affair between Poggio and -Princess Volkonsky.</p> - -<p>He said:</p> - -<p>“I do not want to believe it: such scandals are so often invented and -people’s memory spoilt. Moreover, Poggio loved Volkonsky so much that -when later (Volkonsky’s wife being already dead) he felt the approach -of death himself, he came to Volkonsky to die there.”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi went on to say:</p> - -<p>“I made Volkonsky’s acquaintance in Florence at Dolgorukov’s, Koko -Dolgorukov, the doctor. At that time it was rare for an aristocrat -to become a doctor. It was when Nicolas I. limited the number of -university students to three hundred, and Dolgorukov could not be -admitted to any other faculty. He was a wonderfully capable man: he -wrote poems, was a superb musician, painted pictures. He was married -to (?). When I visited them for the first time in Florence, this was -the scene I found: his wife and the well-known Marquis de Rogan were -playing an extraordinary game: they made a mark on the wall and tried, -by lifting their feet, to touch the mark; each tried to lift his or her -leg higher and higher. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span></p> - -<p>“There was also present the very gifted painter Nikitin. He drew -wonderfully in pencil. I remember he had an album and drew Volkonsky’s -portrait in it. He also drew mine. I wonder where the album is. If some -collector were to get hold of it now!”</p> - -<p>Then at dinner Tolstoi told us two anecdotes from his life. The first -was how he ate some earth-worms (Tolstoi told it because Alexandra -Lvovna and Ilya Lvovich’s children were going fishing). Tolstoi said he -was carrying the worms in one hand, and a loaf of black bread in the -other. He had finished eating the bread, and, thinking of something -else, put the worms in his mouth and began chewing them, and for some -time could not think what mess he had put in his mouth.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“I remember the taste of them as if I were eating them now.”</p> - -<p>My wife asked him if it was very unpleasant.</p> - -<p>“The taste of earth; but I don’t advise you to taste it.”</p> - -<p>Some one sneezed and Tolstoi told another story.</p> - -<p>“I used to sneeze very loudly; once at night I woke and felt I was -going to sneeze immediately, and as Sophie Andreevna was going to have -a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> baby, I was afraid to frighten her by sneezing. Half asleep I cried -out: ‘Sonia, I am going to sneeze!’ Sophie Andreevna of course woke up -and was frightened, and I instantly fell asleep without having sneezed.”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi also talked about Belogolovy’s <i>Reminiscences</i>.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" >[9]</a> He seemed to -Tolstoi a narrow-minded man. Speaking of the terrible impression made -by his description of the diseases and deaths of Nekrasov, Turgenev, -and Saltikov, Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“How they dreaded death! And then there were those horrible disgusting -details of their illnesses, particularly Nekrasov’s.”</p> - -<p>Last winter my wife and I stayed at Yasnaya Polyana, and, when we had -to leave, Tolstoi was sitting in his room with P. A. Boulanger. We -came into the room to say good-bye, and probably they were talking of -Boulanger’s family affairs.</p> - -<p>We entered just as Tolstoi was saying:</p> - -<p>“ ... if people only said more often: ‘Do you remember?’ People should -make it a rule that if one person says or does something wrong in the -heat of a quarrel, or when one is angry, the other should say: ‘Do you -remember?’” </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span></p> - -<p>Tolstoi noticed my wife and me and said:</p> - -<p>“Now, you young people, you ought to make that your rule! No one can be -such a friend as one’s wife, a real friend. In marriage it is either -paradise, or simple hell; there is no ‘purgatory.’”</p> - -<p>Boulanger said that generally it was a case of purgatory.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi thought for a time and then said with a sigh:</p> - -<p>“Yes, perhaps, unfortunately.” ...</p> - -<p>That same evening, looking at Andrey Lvovich’s little girl, Sonechka, -playing on the floor, Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“Faust speaks of the rare moment of which one can say: ‘Verweile doch, -du bist so schön!’ Now there it is, that moment!” (Tolstoi pointed -to the little girl.) “There is a perfectly happy, pure, and innocent -moment.”</p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>June 20th.</i> Some time ago, in May, Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“Religions are usually based on one of these three principles: on -sentiment, reason, or illusion. Stoicism is an example of the religion -of reason; Mormonism of illusion; Muhammadanism of sentiment. I have -lately received many letters from Muhammadans. I had a letter from -Cairo<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> from a representative of the Baptist sect, it is an example of -the religion of sentiment. I also had a letter from India, written by -a wonderful and very religious man. He writes that true Muhammadanism -is a perfectly different thing from what people usually think it to be. -Indeed, I know some very religious Moslems. And how movingly simple and -lofty is their worship!”</p> - -<p class="space-above">To-day at sunset we walked in the garden. We talked of Gorky and his -feeble “Man.” Tolstoi was saying that to-day on his walk he met on -the road (he likes to go out on to the road, and sit down on a little -stone, a milestone, and to observe or to speak to the passers-by) a man -who turned out to be a rather well-educated working-man.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“His outlook on the world agrees perfectly with Gorky’s so-called -Nietzscheism and the cult of the personality. It is evidently the -spirit of the time. Nietzsche did not say anything new—his is now a -very popular world-conception.”</p> - -<p>Then Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“When I was a Justice of the Peace, there lived in Krapivna a merchant -called Gurev, who used to say about young people of education: ‘Well, -I look at your students—they are all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> scholars, they know everything, -only they have no invention.’ Turgenev, I remember, liked this -expression very much.”</p> - -<p class="space-above">Recently a party of gypsies camped on the road near Yasnaya Polyana. -Gypsies often roam about Yasnaya Polyana. The party usually stay for -two or three days, and in the evenings the Yasnaya Polyana household -comes out to hear the gypsy songs and enjoy their dances.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi, looking at the gypsies, became a changed man, and -involuntarily began to dance to their tunes, and to cry out again and -again approvingly.</p> - -<p>“What a wonderful people!”</p> - -<p>The old gypsies all know Tolstoi and always enter into conversation -with him. Tolstoi from his youngest days loved and knew the gypsies and -their peculiar life.</p> - -<p>When we left the house, it was drizzling. Soon the rain got worse, and -we returned.</p> - -<p>Andrey Lvovich said:</p> - -<p>“Now we have come to the house, the rain will stop.”</p> - -<p>And, indeed, on our way home the rain stopped, and we went back to the -gypsies.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“Yes, it is always like that: as soon as you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> turn to go home the rain -stops. Something like this happens in Moscow too. When you have to -find some one in a large building and ring for the porter, he is never -there. But no sooner do you go into the yard to make water than the -porter is sure to catch you. So I advise you that if you have to find -some one, don’t ring for the porter, but do the second thing first.”</p> - -<p class="space-above">When Andrey Lvovich was made an aide-de-camp, Tolstoi said to him:</p> - -<p>“My only comfort is that you are sure not to kill a single Japanese. -An aide-de-camp is always exposed to great danger, but seldom takes -part in the fighting. I spent a great deal of time on the fourth -bastion at Sevastopol when I was in the army on the Danube. I was -aide-de-camp, and I believe I had not to fire even once. I remember -once on the Danube, near Silistria, we were on our side of the river, -but there was also a battery on the other side, and I was sent across -with some order. The commander of the battery, Schube, on seeing me, -thought: ‘Well, there’s that little Count, I’ll give him a lesson!’ -And he took me across the whole line under fire, and with deadly -slowness on purpose. I passed that test well outwardly, but my -feelings were not pleasant. I also remember<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> how one of the highest -officers—Kotsebu—visited the bastion in Sevastopol, and some one, -I think it was Novosilzev, wanted to put him to the test, and began -saying perpetually: ‘Look, Your Excellency, just there at their line,’ -forcing him to put his head out from behind the fortifications. He put -his head out once or twice, and then, realizing what was up, he, as the -superior officer, began in his turn to order the other man to look at -the firing, and, after teasing him for some time, he said: ‘Next time I -advise you not to doubt the courage of your superiors.’”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi recalled Lichtenberg’s<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" >[10]</a> aphorism to the effect that mankind -will finally perish when not a single savage is left.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi added:</p> - -<p>“I first turned to the Japanese, but they have already successfully -adopted all the bad sides of our culture. The Kaffirs are the only hope -remaining.”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“I do not remember during any previous war such depression and -anxiety as are now in Russia. I think it is a good sign, a proof that -a realization of the evil and uselessness and absurdity of war is -permeating deeper and deeper<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> the social consciousness; so that perhaps -the time is coming when wars will be impossible—nobody will want to go -to war. Now Lisanka, who always sees the good in things, was telling me -about a peasant—a porter, I think—who was called up and, before going -to the front, took off his cross. That is a truly Christian spirit! -Although he is not able to resist the general will and has to yield to -it, yet he clearly realizes that it is not God’s doing.”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi described with horror how a priest marched with his cross in -his hand in front of the soldiers.</p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>June 26th.</i> Last week I reached Yasnaya in the evening. The Sukhotins -were there. During tea Misha Sukhotin began to tell Tolstoi that on -completing his studies at the School of Jurisprudence he would like -to go to Paris to continue his studies; and he began to argue with -Tolstoi. I did not hear the beginning of the argument. I came in when -Tolstoi was saying:</p> - -<p>“ ... Every man is a perfectly individual being, who has never existed -before and will never happen again. It is just the individuality, the -singularity of him, which is valuable; but school tries to efface all -this and to make man after its own pattern. The pupils of the Tula<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> -secondary school came to me lately and asked what they should do. I -said to them: above all, try to forget everything you have been taught.”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi thinks the Russian University in Paris perfectly useless and -good-for-nothing. He said:</p> - -<p>“The best educational institution that I know is the Kensington Museum -in London. There is a large public library where many people work, and -they have professors of various special subjects. Every one who works, -if he has a question to ask, gives notice of it, and, when several such -questions have accumulated, the professor issues a notice to say that -he will lecture on such and such subjects, and those who wish may come -and hear him. Such an arrangement is most in keeping with the true -object of teaching—to answer the questions which arise in the minds -of the students. But in every other institution, lectures which are of -no use to the student are read by professors who are for the most part -entirely without gift. None of these lecturers would dare to publish -their lectures. Goethe said:</p> - -<p>“‘When I speak it turns out better than when I think; I write better -than I speak; and what I publish is better than what I write.’ He -meant<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> by this that what a man publishes is usually the cream of his -thought, the thing he most believes in. Instead of going to Paris to -attend lectures, go to the public library, and you won’t come out for -twenty years, if you really wish to learn. One ought not to talk about -oneself, but I must say this: when I was at the University in Kazan -I did practically nothing the first year. The second year I began to -work. There was a Professor Mayer who took an interest in me and gave -me, as a subject, to compare the code of Catherine the Great with -Montesquieu’s <i>Esprit des lois</i>. And, I remember, I became infatuated -with the work. I went into the country and began to read Montesquieu; -this reading opened up endless horizons; I began reading Rousseau, and -left the University for the simple reason that I wanted to work; for at -the University I should have to occupy myself with subjects that did -not interest me and were of no use to me.”</p> - -<p>Sergey Lvovich asked Tolstoi why he did not go in for his examinations -at Petersburg University.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“I began to work hard, passed two examinations, was awarded two marks -of distinction, but then it was spring; it drew me to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> country; -well, I gave it up and went away.” ... Speaking of the good effects -upon men of having received no education, Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“I know two musicians who never went to school, and yet they are very -well-educated men, who, whatever subject you talk about, know it -thoroughly,—G. and Sergey Ivanovich Taneev.”</p> - -<p class="space-above">I played. Then Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“Anton Rubinstein told me that, if he is moved himself by what he is -playing, he ceases to move his audience. This shows that the creation -of a work of art is only possible when the emotion has settled in the -artist’s mind.”</p> - -<p>I do not remember how the conversation now got upon writing, but -Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“Usually when I begin a new book I am very pleased with it myself and -work with great interest. But as the book work goes on, I become more -and more bored, and often in rewriting it I omit things, substitute -others, not because the new idea is better, but because I get tired of -the old. Often I strike out what is vivid and replace it by something -dull.”</p> - -<p>The conversation turned upon Hertzen. Tolstoi read aloud extracts from -his book (a collection of articles published in the <i>Kolokol</i>). Tolstoi -is extremely fond of Hertzen and values him very<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> highly. He spoke of -Hertzen’s unhappy private life and of the suffering he went through -when the representatives (particularly the younger representatives) of -the party with whom he had worked throughout his life deserted him and -ceased to understand him.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi saw Hertzen in London, when Hertzen lived with Mme. -Tuchkov-Ogarev.</p> - -<p>Biryukov asked Tolstoi (for the biography of Tolstoi which he is -writing) about his conversation with Hertzen which Mme. Ogarev refers -to in her <i>Reminiscences</i>.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said that he remembered a great many of their talks, but not -that particular one. And he added:</p> - -<p>“Perhaps she merely invented the conversation, as the authors of -memoirs and reminiscences so often do.”</p> - -<p>On the whole, Tolstoi has not a high opinion of Mme. Ogarev, although -he says he knows her but little.</p> - -<p>He said:</p> - -<p>“I received a letter from her in which she, as though to justify -herself, gives an account of the affair with the peasants which had -lately taken place on her estate. There were some fields there which -the peasants had had the use of from time immemorial. The fields -belonged<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> legally to the landowner. A bailiff was engaged, a Pole -called Stanislavski, and he drove the peasants’ cattle from the fields -on to the estate. The peasants collected with thick sticks in their -hands to free their cattle, determined not to give up the use of the -fields. They arrived at the Manor and began by demanding their cattle. -Finally, Stanislavski fired, and killed or wounded, I do not remember -which, some one in the crowd. The crowd became furious and threw -themselves on Stanislavski, who tried to save himself by flight, but -he was overtaken on a moor and was murdered in a most brutal way. As -a result of the affair, a military court was held and two or three -peasants were hanged.”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi had known of this before he got her letter, and was horrified -at the incredible verdict.</p> - -<p>Afterwards Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“Lately I got a letter from a lady asking me why, strictly speaking, -it is a crime to kill. Anyhow man must die sooner or later—is it -not all the same? I replied that since every man represents a unique -type, which never occurs again, we have and can have no absolute -knowledge of why he is needed for the life of all. In life everything -is very carefully arranged, and we do not know the reason why just -this individual should be alive, and it is for this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> reason that the -destruction of this unique creature appears so terrible.”</p> - -<p>Of being afraid in battle, Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“It is impossible not to be afraid. Everyone is afraid, but tries to -conceal it. When wounded have to be carried off the battlefield, so -many men volunteer for the work that the officers have to use great -force to keep the soldiers back, since every one wants, even for a -time, to get out of fire.”</p> - -<p>Of himself Tolstoi said that he was never so much afraid as upon the -night before the attack on Silistria, which after all did not take -place.</p> - -<p>Then Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“The Japanese are less afraid, for they evidently value life much less -than Europeans do. The absence of the fear of death goes to extreme -lengths with some people. For instance, if a Chukcha wants to spite his -enemy, he comes to his hut and kills himself near it, knowing that his -enemy will then have much trouble with legal proceedings.”</p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>July 8th.</i> Tolstoi said with regard to his article about war, “Bethink -Yourselves”:</p> - -<p>“It is painful to feel that my words go unheeded. If one is dealing -with the so-called men of science who regard war, apart from its<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> moral -significance, as one of the stages in the evolution of human relations, -then, at any rate, one knows where one is. But what is one to do and -how is one to speak to people who evidently cannot understand my point -of view? Whatever I say glides off them. They are, as it were, greased -with a sort of oil, so that everything runs off them, like water, -without wetting them.”</p> - -<p>After this Tolstoi said that, when he wrote to Nicolas II. (from the -Crimea, in the winter of 1901-1902), he was told that Nicolas II. “read -his letter with pleasure.” He also recollected Hertzen’s letters to -Alexander II.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi wrote to Nicolas II. about the land question.</p> - -<p>With reference to the attitude in Government circles to that question -Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“I can’t possibly put myself at their point of view. I remember when -I was young and an officer I was never bothered by these questions; -somehow they did not arise in me. But I cannot imagine that I should -pass by such a problem, if I happened to come across it. I remember two -such cases in my life. One, when Vasili Ivanovich Alexeev,<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" >[11]</a> when I -was at the height of my career as a landlord, expressed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> to me for the -first time the idea that the ownership of land is evil. I remember how -much I was struck by the idea, and how at once perfectly new horizons -opened before me. So it also happened when some one, I don’t remember -who it was, I think a Frenchman, told me that prostitution was an -abnormal thing, and not only useless, but really harmful to mankind. -Schopenhauer, for instance, says that it is only owing to prostitution -that family relations are still preserved in the community. I had not -previously thought about it, but, on hearing the Frenchman speak, I at -once felt the truth of what he said and could no longer go back. I can -imagine that one’s thoughts may not tend in a certain direction; one -may be ignorant of some point of view. But I cannot understand that -incapacity and unwillingness to learn.”</p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>July 9th.</i> Speaking of Lichtenberg’s aphorisms Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“Aphorisms are perhaps the best way of expounding philosophical -judgments. For instance, Schopenhauer’s aphorisms (<i>Parerga and -Paralipomena</i>) express his conception of the world much more clearly -than <i>The World as Will and Imagination</i>. A philosopher, in explaining -a whole complicated system, sometimes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> involuntarily ceases to be -honest. He becomes the slave of his system, for the symmetry of which -he is often prepared to sacrifice the truth.”</p> - -<p>Speaking of Lichtenberg’s beautiful German style, Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“Every literary language reaches its highest point and then begins -to decline. In the German language that time was at the end of the -eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth century; it was the -same with the French language. Now both in Germany and France the -language has become utterly spoilt. In Russia we are now finding -ourselves on the border-line. The Russian language has quite lately -reached its apex and now it begins to decay.”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi praised Chekhov’s language very highly for its simplicity, -compactness, and expressiveness. Gorky’s language he disapproves of, -thinking it artificial and rhetorical.</p> - -<p class="space-above">When Nicolas II. appeared in many places to bless the troops going to -the Japanese war with icons, Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“If A, the ruler of a huge country, takes a board, B, in his hand and -kisses it in the presence of crowds of many thousands of kneeling -troops and then waves the board over the heads of those who stand in -front of him, and does this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> all over the country, what except trash -can come from such a country? This has never happened before. In your -own room you may do whatever you like. One man likes to wash himself -with wine or eau-de-Cologne, another kisses icons if he likes, but such -idolatry on a large scale in the face of all and such deception of the -crowd are simply incredible!” ...</p> - -<p>During the war Tolstoi always said that in spite of his attitude to -war and to patriotism generally, he felt in the depth of his soul an -instinctive sorrow at Russian defeats.</p> - -<p>I heard him say this in the presence of G., B., and some others. All of -them energetically denied in themselves any such instinctive “patriotic -bias.” It seems to me that they were simply afraid of admitting it even -to themselves.</p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>October 22nd.</i> Mechnikov sent Tolstoi his book (<i>Studies on the Nature -of Man</i>) in French. Tolstoi read it through.</p> - -<p>To-day he said to me:</p> - -<p>“I got much interesting information out of the book, for Mechnikov -is undoubtedly a great scientist. But the self-satisfied narrowness -with which he is convinced that he has solved almost all problems that -agitate man is surprising in him. He is so sure that man’s happiness -consists<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> in a state of animal contentment that he calls old age an -evil (because of its limited capacity of physical enjoyment), and does -not even understand that there are men who think and feel precisely -the opposite. But I value my old age and would not exchange it for any -earthly blessings.”</p> - -<p>The conversation turned on the tendency of women to crowd to -universities.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said smilingly:</p> - -<p>“If I were a Minister of Education, I should issue a Ukase by which all -women were obliged to enter universities and would be deprived of the -right to marry and have children. For the infringement of this law the -guilty would be liable to a heavy fine. Then all of them would be sure -to marry!”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi spoke on August 28th with exasperation about writing as a -profession. I have rarely seen him so agitated:</p> - -<p>He said:</p> - -<p>“One ought only to write when one leaves a piece of one’s flesh in the -ink-pot each time one dips one’s pen.”</p> - -<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> - -<p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8">[8]</a> Prince S. G. Volkonsky (1788-1865), one of the most -famous Decembrists, and his wife, <i>née</i> Raevsky (1805-1863). Both left -remarkable memoirs.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9">[9]</a> N. A. Belogolovy (1834-1895), doctor, author of the -well-known <i>Reminiscences</i>, in which there is a chapter devoted to -Tolstoi called “A Meeting with L. N. Tolstoi.”</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10">[10]</a> G. C. Lichtenberg (1742-1799), German physicist, critic, -and publicist.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11">[11]</a> V. I. Alexeev, at that time tutor of Tolstoi’s son Ilya.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span></p> - -<h2>1905</h2> - -<p><i>January 5th.</i> During the Christmas holidays Misha Sukhotin read -Professor Korkunov’s book on Russian State Law. Tolstoi took it and -began to read it. He sat nearly the whole evening in his room, and -came out in a state of agitation and disturbance saying: “It gave me -palpitation of the heart to read that! In this, as in almost all legal -books which deal with ‘rights’ of different kinds, it talks of anything -and everything except the truth of the matter. It deals with the -‘subject’ and ‘object’ of right—I never could make out what precisely -those words and others of the same sort mean, nor could I ever get any -one to explain them to me. But whenever the argument approaches the -real question, the author immediately swerves aside and hides himself -behind his objects and subjects.”</p> - -<p>Further Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“This is what surprises me; all my life I have striven for knowledge. -I sought and still<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> seek for it, and the so-called men of science -say that I denounce science. All my life I have been occupied with -religious questions, and outside of them I see no sense in human life; -yet the so-called religious men consider me an atheist.” ...</p> - -<p>About that time, in January, Tolstoi said that he should like to write -a whole series of stories for his “Reading Circle” which he is now -planning, and that he had already many subjects in mind.</p> - -<p>“Only one minute of life remains, and there’s work for a hundred -years,” he said.</p> - -<p>When later in the evening I played Chopin’s prelude, Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“Those are the kind of short stories one ought to write!”</p> - -<p>There was then an interesting talk about Chekhov’s story, <i>The -Darling</i>, with reference to Gorbunov’s letter dissuading him from -publishing the story in the “Reading Circle.” Tolstoi on the contrary -decided to include the story without fail, and expressed his very high -opinion of it; and in a few days he wrote a preface to <i>The Darling</i> in -which he expressed his feeling for it.</p> - -<p>Of Gorbunov’s letter Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“I feel a woman’s influence on him in this. The confused modern idea is -that a woman’s capacity to give herself up with all her being to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> love -is obsolete and done with; and yet this is the most precious and the -best thing in her and her true vocation; and not political meetings, -scientific courses, revolutions, etc.”</p> - -<p>Of Beethoven’s music Tolstoi said that at times he felt a little bored -by it, as he thought often happens with what has once struck one -greatly. He felt the same, for instance, about Ge’s paintings.</p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>June 16th.</i> In February I made a note of Tolstoi’s words:</p> - -<p>“Immortality, incomplete, of course, is certainly realized in our -children. How strongly man desires immortality, is most clearly shown -by his endeavour to leave some trace after his death. It might seem of -no importance to a man what is said of him and whether he is remembered -after he has gone; and yet what efforts he makes for it!”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said of the Molokans that he had no sympathy with their -religious formalism. In this respect he draws a parallel between the -Molokans and the English.</p> - -<p>The son of Vicomte de Vogüé visited Tolstoi in the spring; Tolstoi said -of him:</p> - -<p>“He is a typical Frenchman in everything—from his trousers to his way -of thought. His<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> father translated <i>Three Deaths</i> and wrote to me about -it long ago. It was on my conscience that I did not answer him, and was -glad to have the opportunity of apologizing to his son.”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi was surprised by young de Vogüé’s saying that his father worked -at night and smoked a great deal during his work.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“I imagine that a Frenchman must in the morning rub himself red with -eau-de-Cologne, drink his coffee, and sit down quietly to work.</p> - -<p>“I always write in the morning. I was pleased to hear lately that -Rousseau too, after he got up in the morning, went for a short walk -and sat down to work. In the morning one’s head is particularly fresh. -The best thoughts most often come in the morning after waking, while -still in bed or during the walk. Many writers work at night. Dostoevsky -always wrote at night. In a writer there must always be two people—the -writer and the critic. And, if one works at night, with a cigarette in -one’s mouth, although the work of creation goes on briskly, the critic -is for the most part in abeyance, and this is very dangerous.”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi often says that he cannot find a suitable definition of music.</p> - -<p>Once in the spring he said: </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Music is the shorthand of emotion. Emotions which let themselves be -described in words with such difficulty, are directly conveyed to man -in music, and in that is its power and significance.”</p> - -<p>Once, a long time ago, Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“Life is the present. All that a man has felt remains with him as a -memory. We always live by memories. I often feel more strongly not what -I have actually felt, but what I have written and felt in describing -my characters. They too have become my memories, as if they had been -actual experiences.”</p> - -<p>The other day the talk was on the same lines.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“A so-called misfortune happens; one does not usually feel it, just as -one does not feel a wound at the moment it is inflicted; and it is only -by degrees that the sorrow grows in strength, having become a memory, -placed, that is, not outside me, but already within. Yet, after a long -life, I notice that the bad and painful things have not become me; they -have somehow passed by; but on the contrary, all the pleasant feelings, -all the loving relations towards people—my childhood, all that has -been good—rise with particular clearness in my memory.”</p> - -<p>Tatyana Lvovna said:</p> - -<p>“But how do you explain Pushkin’s poem;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> ‘Memory unfolding its long -scroll,’ and further: ‘And reading my life with disgust, I tremble and -curse’?”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi replied:</p> - -<p>“That is quite different. To be able to experience and feel all that is -bad in one with such power—that is a precious and necessary quality. -Happy and of great importance is the man who can go through it with the -vigour of Pushkin.”</p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>July 6th.</i> We went for a walk to the sandpits. During the walk -Gorbunov asked Tolstoi about Alexander Dobrolyubov’s<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" >[12]</a> religious and -philosophic book. Tolstoi said of the book:</p> - -<p>“It is vague, false, and artificial.”</p> - -<p>On that occasion the talk was about the literary profession.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“It is surprising how in even a little piece of work one must think it -over from all points of view before starting it. It does not matter -whether you are making a shirt or a move in chess. And if you do not -think it out, you at once spoil it all—you won’t make the shirt, -you’ll lose the game. It is only in writing that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> one can do what one -likes, and people never notice—indeed one can become a famous writer.”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi went on to say:</p> - -<p>“The whole business of the writer is to perfect himself. I have always -tried and try now to make a question which interests me clear to the -highest degree that I am capable of making it. The writer’s work -consists in that. The most dangerous thing is to be a teacher. I do not -think I have tried to be that. Yes, I have.... But always badly.”</p> - -<p>I. Gorbunov was saying that the “Posrednik” had the Censor’s permission -to publish an excellent little book, in which a visit to Sarov is -described impartially.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“I have no sympathy when such things are described in a joking or -jeering way. There is a great deal of sincere, simple belief there -which should be treated carefully. In some old credulous woman you -feel, in spite of the absurd superstition, that the foundation of her -faith is a real striving for the highest and for the truth. Her outlook -on the world is much higher than that of a professor who has solved all -questions long ago.”</p> - -<p>V. G. Kristi who walked with us asked Tolstoi:</p> - -<p>“If such an old woman talked about religion,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> must one destroy her -illusions and tell her honestly what one thinks?”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi replied to him:</p> - -<p>“The question does not exist to me. If I talk about religious -questions, I always express my thoughts, if I believe the truth of what -I say; and if my words are not understood, it is none of my business, -but I can say only what I think.”</p> - -<p class="space-above">Last year two young men came to Tolstoi, and now they have been again. -They are very nice and in search of a better life. They turned out -to be ballet dancers from the Moscow Grand Theatre. The necessity of -maintaining their family prevents them from changing their profession. -Tolstoi praised them highly. Then with a smile he said:</p> - -<p>“If I had children now, I should send them to the ballet. At any rate -it is better than the university. Their feet alone might be spoilt in -the ballet, but at the university it is their heads.”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi compared marriage to a little boat in which two people sail -over a stormy ocean.</p> - -<p>“Each must sit tight and not make sharp movements or the boat will -upset.”</p> - -<p class="space-above">Speaking of the present schemes for a constitution in Russia Tolstoi -said: </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span></p> - -<p>“The misfortune is in that the Radicals and their set will only try -to say something very clever, to play the part of Russian Bebels, -and the party game will constitute the whole of the activity of the -representatives of the people.”</p> - -<p class="space-above">Of the war Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“The comforting side of the Russian failure in the war consists in -this, that, however much people distort the genuine Christian teaching, -yet its meaning has already permeated the consciousness of the people -so deeply that war cannot become to them, as to the Japanese, a sacred -cause by sacrificing his life to which a man becomes a hero and does a -great deed. The view of war, as an evil, permeates the consciousness of -the people, deeper and deeper.”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said about the Japanese:</p> - -<p>“The Japanese are perfectly incomprehensible and unknown to me. I see -their wonderful capacity for adapting and even for carrying further the -superficial side of European culture, chiefly in its worse aspects, -but the soul of the Japanese is absolutely dark to me. Japan, by -the way, proved that the whole of the boasted European civilization -of a thousand years could be taken over and even surpassed in a few -decades.” </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span></p> - -<p>The conversation was about crowd psychology.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“It is an interesting and still little explored problem. It is a -hypnotism which has a terrible power over men. There is one moment -when it is still possible to resist it. I am now no longer infected by -others’ yawning, because I always remember it. When you see a crowd -running, you have to remember that you do not know why they run, and -to look back; and immediately you have dissociated yourself from the -crowd, you are at once saved from the danger of succumbing to the -hypnotism.”</p> - -<p>We played chess on the terrace, and in the hall Sophie Nicolaevna sang -Schubert’s “Wanderer.”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“Ah that Schubert! he did a lot of harm!”</p> - -<p>I asked how?</p> - -<p>“Because he had in a high degree the power of making music correspond -to the poetry of the text. This rare power of his has brought to birth -a great deal of music which pretends to correspond to poetry, and that -is a revolting kind of art.”</p> - -<p>They sang Glinka. Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“Now, sinful man....” The interesting state of the game prevented him -from finishing his sentence.</p> - -<p>Later he said: </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span></p> - -<p>“I feel that Glinka was coarse, a sensual man. One always feels the man -himself in his music. The young Mozart—bright and direct; the simple -Haydn; the stern, conceited Beethoven—are all heard in their music.”</p> - -<p class="space-above">Tolstoi is writing an article which is called “The Beginning of the -End.”</p> - -<p>There was a newspaper correspondent to whom Tolstoi expressed a few of -the ideas which made the basis of his article.</p> - -<p>“The present movement in Russia is a world movement, the importance -of which is still little understood. This movement, like the French -Revolution formerly, will perhaps give, by means of its ideas, an -impetus for hundreds of years to come. The Russian people has in the -highest degree the capacity for organization and self-government. They -gave up their power to the Government and waited, as they formerly did -for the liberation of the serfs, for the liberation of the land. They -have not been given the land, and they themselves will carry out that -great reform. Our revolutionaries are perfectly ignorant of the people -and do not understand this movement. They might help it, but they only -hamper it. In the Russian people, it seems to me, and I think I am not -biased, there is more<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> of the Christian spirit than in other peoples. -Probably the reason is that the Russian people got to know the New -Testament about five centuries before the people of Europe, who until -the Reformation hardly knew it.”</p> - -<p class="space-above">Tolstoi criticized the complexity and artificiality of modern art in -general, and of music in particular. He said:</p> - -<p>“Certainly, if I love art, I can’t love <i>no</i> art, but I must love that -which exists. Still I have always before me the ideal of the highest -art: to be clear, simple, and accessible to all.”</p> - -<p>I was saying how long and systematically one must teach piano-playing -in order to be able to play well. Tolstoi found that “system” dangerous.</p> - -<p>He said:</p> - -<p>“In doing this one may lose the direct fresh feeling with which you -regard a new work of art. I know it from my own experience—when one -begins to write something, one works with excitement and interest, and -the work goes well; but then the same old thing begins to tire one and -it becomes boring. Of course, there is the love of one’s work, and the -love is stronger than the boredom, and by love the boredom is overcome, -but still boredom there is.” </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span></p> - -<p>I spoke about the complexity of certain of Chopin’s works, whom Tolstoi -loves very much.</p> - -<p>“Well, he too makes mistakes,” Tolstoi replied smilingly. “Once I -stayed with the Olsufevs in the country, and, referring to the weather -and the gathering in of the harvest, I said to the old butler there—he -was a sceptic and pessimist—that God knows what He does, to which he -replied: ‘He too makes mistakes!’”</p> - -<p>Of creative activity Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“The worst thing of all is to begin a work with the details; then one -gets muddled and loses the power of seeing the whole. One has to behave -like Pokhitonov who has spectacles with double glasses divided in two -(looking at the distance and at his work), to look now through these -and now through those and to put on now the bright and now the dark -glasses.”</p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>July 28th.</i> Biryukov showed Marie Nikolaevna (Tolstoi’s sister) some -old letters written by her brother Nikolay in French. Tolstoi recalled -then that from childhood he was so much used to writing French that he -kept the habit until he was quite grown up. When he lived in Paris with -Turgenev, he once sat down to write a letter to his brother. Turgenev -came up and, seeing that he was writing in French, was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> surprised and -asked Tolstoi why he did it. Tolstoi said that until that moment it -seemed to him that it was impossible to do otherwise, so used was he to -writing letters in French.</p> - -<p>On account of Biryukov’s visit (he is writing Tolstoi’s biography) and -the arrival of his sister Marie Nikolaevna, Tolstoi again turned to -memories of the past. He said:</p> - -<p>“It is surprising how all the past becomes <i>me</i>. It is in me, like -something folded. But it is difficult to be perfectly sincere. -Sometimes I remember the bad only, another time the opposite. Lately I -have remembered only the bad acts and events. It is difficult in this -to keep the balance, so as not to exaggerate one way or another.”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“It is impossible to know anything about God; He is a necessary -hypothesis or, more truly speaking, the only possible condition of a -right moral life. As an astronomer must base his observations upon -the earth as a motionless centre, so also man cannot live rightly and -morally without the idea of God. Christ always speaks of God as of a -father, that is, as if He were the condition of our existence.”</p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>August 2nd.</i> Tolstoi and Marie Nikolaevna<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> were recalling a certain -Voeikov. He was once a hussar, and then became a monk. When Tolstoi was -young, Voeikov was continually at Yasnaya, permanently drunk, ragged, -in monk’s clothing, and telling lies unmercifully.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi remembered a story that Voeikov told:</p> - -<p>“‘We were once in a box: Mikhail Illarionovich (Kutuzov), Alexander -Pavlovich (Alexander I.), myself, and some one else. Sontag sang. She -came out to the front of the stage. Her bosom—oh! (he makes a gesture -with his hand showing the size of her bust). Alexander Pavlovich said -to me: “Voeikov, what is it?” And I said to him: “An organism, Your -Majesty!”’</p> - -<p>“And once, after all his mad ways and lies, he suddenly came up to me -in the garden and said: ‘I am tired of life, Levochka!’”</p> - -<p>Marie Nikolaevna asked Tolstoi why he had never described Voeikov. -Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“There are some events and people in life, as there are scenes in -nature, which cannot be described: they are too exceptional and seem to -be impossible. Voeikov was like that. Dickens described such types.”</p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>August 3rd.</i> The conversation turned on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> Lobachevsky<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" >[13]</a> and on his -theory that space is of many dimensions. Tolstoi remembers Lobachevsky, -who was Professor and Principal of the Kazan University when Tolstoi -was an undergraduate there. Then the company began to recall various -mathematicians, amongst whom there are often queer fellows to be met. -Tolstoi mentioned Prince S. U. Urusov, the Sevastopol hero, who was a -mathematician and a splendid chess player.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said of him:</p> - -<p>“He used to get up at three o’clock in the morning, light his samovar, -which was prepared for him the night before by his orderly, and begin -his calculations. Urusov was trying to find a way of solving the -different forms of equations. Later he went quite mad. Nothing came of -his calculations. When, in the belief that he had arrived at a positive -result, he decided to read a paper to the Mathematical Society, there -was so awkward a silence after his paper was read that all felt -ashamed.” ...</p> - -<p>Tolstoi went on to say:</p> - -<p>“I was always surprised that mathematicians who are so exact in their -own science are so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> vague and inexact when they try to philosophize.”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi also mentioned Professors Nekrasov and B., whom he knew -personally. Tolstoi recollected how one evening he visited B.:</p> - -<p>“His wife was an unpleasant woman. That evening she was decolletée, -and, as is always the case on such occasions, one feels something -superfluous, unnecessary—one doesn’t know where to look. Looking at -her I remembered Turgenev’s story,—how in Paris he always bought -himself a loaf in the morning, and the baker’s girl would hand it over -to him with her bare arm, which was more like a leg than an arm.”</p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>August 20th.</i> A certain gentleman from Petersburg (I don’t remember -his name) now and then sends books to Tolstoi. Recently he sent -him the <i>Sovremennik</i> for 1852 in which Tolstoi’s <i>Childhood</i> was -published. Tolstoi read the books with great interest and said that -the <i>Sovremennik</i> was at that time a very interesting review. Marie -Nikolaevna, who was on a visit to Yasnaya, described how she read -<i>Childhood</i> for the first time. She lived then with her husband in -the country, in the Chernsky district of the Tula province, and -Turgenev used to come to visit them fairly often. Her brother<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> Sergey -Nikolaevich also lived there. During one visit Turgenev read them the -MS. of his <i>Rudin</i>. Next time he brought a number of the <i>Sovremennik</i> -and said to them:</p> - -<p>“There is a wonderful new writer; a remarkable work by him is published -here, <i>Childhood</i>”; and he began to read it aloud.</p> - -<p>From the very first words Marie Nikolaevna and Sergey Nikolaevna were -amazed:</p> - -<p>“But he is describing us! Who is he?”</p> - -<p>“At first we did not think of Levochka,” Marie Nikolaevna went on. “He -was in debt and had been sent to the Caucasus. We were rather inclined -to think that our brother Nikolay had written <i>Childhood</i>.”</p> - -<p>It is said that Turgenev in his <i>Faust</i> described Marie Nikolaevna.</p> - -<p>The conversation turned on Dostoevsky’s hatred of Turgenev. Tolstoi -greatly blamed the libel on Turgenev in <i>The Possessed</i>. This hatred -always surprised Tolstoi, and so did that between Goncharov and -Turgenev.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi went on to say:</p> - -<p>“Now books are written by people who have nothing to say. You read, but -you do not see the writer. They always try to give ‘the last word.’ -They reject the real writers and say that they have become obsolete. -It is an absurd<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> notion—to become obsolete. Modern books are read -just because one can get to know ‘the last word’ from them; and this -is easier than to read and know the real writers. These purveyors of -‘the last word’ do enormous harm, they make people unused to thinking -independently.”</p> - -<p>Some one mentioned Kant, and Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“What is particularly valuable in Kant is that he always thought for -himself. In reading him you deal all the time with <i>his</i> thoughts, and -this is extraordinarily valuable.”</p> - -<p>About reading modern literature Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“I am much more ready to read the memoirs of some old General in the -<i>Russkaia Starina</i>; he romances a little, like Zavalishin, about his -merits and successes, but this can be excused, and there is always -something of interest in it.”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said further:</p> - -<p>“Brain work often tires the head, and when tired, you can’t work as -fruitfully as with a fresh head. Generally speaking, in brain work the -moment is very important. There are moments when your thoughts come out -as if moulded in bronze; at other moments nothing happens.”</p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>December 31st.</i> Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“I am always interested to see what can become obsolete in -literature. I am curious to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> know what in modern literature will seem -old-fashioned, as, for instance, Karamzin’s ‘Oh soever!’ etc., seems -to us now. Within my memory it has become impossible to write a long -poem in verse. It seems to me that in time works of art will cease to -be invented. It will be a shame to invent a story about a fictitious -Ivan Ivanovich or Marie Petrovna. Writers, if such there be, will not -invent, but will only describe the significant or interesting things -which they have happened to observe in life.”</p> - -<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> - -<p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12">[12]</a> A. M. Dobrolyubov (1876), religious seeker. His adherents -formed a “Dobrolyubovian sect” on the basis of Christian anarchy. D. -began his literary activity as a poet of the decadent school.</p> - -<p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13">[13]</a> Nikolay Ivanovich Lobachevsky (1793-1856), the great -Russian mathematician and geometrist (founder of the non-Euclidean -geometry).</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span></p> - -<h2>1906</h2> - -<p><i>August 21st.</i> Speaking about art Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“Great works of art are for all time. They exist. They must only be -revealed, as Michael Angelo said.”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi was reminded by this saying of Michael Angelo’s of a peasant -who without any training cut wonderful figures in wood and said, when -Tolstoi expressed surprise at the art with which he did it:</p> - -<p>“It is inside there. I am only taking off what is not needed.”</p> - -<p class="space-above">Tolstoi said that Turgenev, in his ecstasy over Pushkin’s description -of Lensky’s death in Onegin, said that the wonderful rhyme—<i>ranen, -stranen</i>—seemed to be inevitable.</p> - -<p>Then Tolstoi recollected certain of Tyutchev’s poems, whom he rates -very highly.</p> - -<p>I asked him if he knew Tyutchev. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span></p> - -<p>Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“When after the Sevastopol campaign I lived in Petersburg, Tyutchev, -then a famous author, did me, a young writer, the honour to call on -me. And then, I remember, how surprised I was that he, who had all his -life mixed in court circles—he was a friend, in the purest sense, of -the Empress Marie Alexandrovna—who spoke and wrote French more easily -than Russian, picked out for special praise, when he expressed his -admiration for my Sevastopol stories, a certain soldiers’ expression; -and this sensitiveness to the Russian language surprised me in him -extraordinarily.”</p> - -<p class="space-above">The conversation arose about writers’ fees.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi turned to P. Biryukov and said:</p> - -<p>“I understand fees in the case of a work like your biography (of -Tolstoi), but fees to writers for their artistic work always seemed -strange and wrong to me. The man wrote and enjoyed writing, and -suddenly for that enjoyment he asks five hundred roubles per printed -sheet!” ...</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“I became more and more convinced that a sensible man is to be known by -his humility. Conceit is incompatible with understanding.” </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span></p> - -<p>Of conceit Tolstoi said a long time ago in my presence:</p> - -<p>“Every man can be seen as a fraction, whose numerator is his actual -qualities, and its denominator his opinion of himself. The greater the -denominator the less is the absolute quantity of the fraction.”</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span></p> - -<h2>1907</h2> - -<p><i>September 7th.</i> Tolstoi went to-day to Mme. Zveginzev to ask the -police inspector, who lives on her estate, to release from prison the -house-painter, Ivan Grigorevich; and also to thank her for the peaches -she had sent him.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“There was her daughter, Princess Volkonsky, there. They all wanted to -direct me on the path of truth. I tried to speak with all seriousness; -but hardly anything could penetrate through their diamonds and luxury. -They now employ the stove-maker who used to come to me to borrow -books. And he has been telling them that I said that one should not -believe in God, and various other bits of nonsense. I told them that -there was nothing strange in my words being distorted. If even from -Christ’s teaching people can deduce the rites of the Church, the -blessing of war, etc., then it is no wonder that our words are always -misrepresented and distorted. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Then they asked me how I explained the fact that in my family no one -followed my teaching. I told them that it probably happened because I -lived like a Pharisee, and did not fulfil my own teaching. To this they -made no reply.”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said that he saw to-day a review of a new book on Turgenev. -The book is partly of a polemical kind. The author gives an account of -Turgenev’s quarrels with all writers (Dostoevsky, Tolstoi, Hertzen, -Fet, etc.), as if it were his object to vindicate Turgenev and to prove -that on all occasions he was right.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“Really, it is strange that he quarrelled with every one. He was a -very nice, good man. Only he was very weak, and was conscious of his -weakness. Once, I remember, Count Urusov was here, my good friend. -There were two brothers, and for some reason people considered them -stupid. Now knowing this, Turgenev began arguing with them arrogantly -as though feeling his superiority, but Urusov quietly, easily, and -confidently refuted his argument. And no wonder: Urusov had his own -definite religious convictions, whatever they might be, and Turgenev -had none.”</p> - -<p>“I was fond of him,” Tolstoi said of Turgenev. </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span></p> - -<p>Sophie Andreevna said that Turgenev had loved Tolstoi very much.</p> - -<p>“No, on the contrary,” Tolstoi replied. “He rather liked me as a -writer, but, as man, I did not find in him real warmth and cordiality. -Well, he liked no one in that way, except women with whom he happened -to be in love. He had no friends.”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi asked me about my work, whether I was composing music, and said -how bad it was when people force work out of themselves, and how great -artists lose by immediately starting a new work when they have finished -the old one.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi mentioned Pushkin and said:</p> - -<p>“The best writers are always strict with themselves. I re-write until -I feel that I am beginning to spoil. And then, of course, I leave it -alone. And one begins to spoil because at first, when you enjoy your -work, whilst it is <i>yours</i>, you apply all your spiritual force to it. -Later when the fundamental original idea ceases more and more to be -new, and becomes, as it were, someone else’s, it bores you. You begin -to try to say something new and you spoil and distort the first idea.”</p> - -<p>A telegram arrived from Leonid Andreev asking to be allowed to come.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said: </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span></p> - -<p>“How terribly undeserved fame, like that of Andreev, spoils a man!”</p> - -<p>Then Tolstoi could not compose a telegram in reply.</p> - -<p>“How shall I answer? ‘Come.’ ... But that is too short. ‘Shall be very -glad to see you’—that is not altogether true. Well, Dushan Petrovich, -write simply: ‘You are welcome.’”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“I had a letter to-day from a man who congratulates me on my -fifty-fifth anniversary, and writes that he so much loves my works that -he is always reading and re-reading <i>War and Peace</i>, for instance, but -he says: ‘However much I tried, I could not read a single one of your -philosophical writings to the end.’ He tries to persuade me to give up -that kind of writing.”</p> - -<p>“Why should he have written all that?” Tolstoi said, laughing. “There -was a man living and nobody knew he was a fool, and suddenly he got up -and told me so!” ...</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span></p> - -<h2>1908</h2> - -<p><i>January 6th.</i> Yesterday, when many letters came, Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“In old age one becomes indifferent to the fact that one will never see -the results of one’s activity. But the results will be there. It is not -modesty on my part, but I know there will be results.”</p> - -<p>To-day, speaking of the revolutionaries, Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“Their chief mistake is the superstition that one can arrange human -life.”</p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>April 12th.</i> Tatyana Lvovna was saying that A. N. Volkov is writing a -book on art. Tolstoi became interested. Volkov says in his book that -art must follow Nature blindly in everything.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“It is absolutely untrue. It is always like that. When people are -discussing art, they either say, like the modern decadents, that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> -everything is allowed, everything is possible, that there is complete -freedom in art. Or they talk about the slavish imitation of Nature. -Both views are false. Just as every man is perfectly individual and -never occurs twice over, so also his thoughts, his feelings are always -new; they are <i>his</i> thoughts and feelings alone. At the basis of a true -work of art there must lie some perfectly original idea or feeling, but -it must be expressed with slavish adherence to the smallest details of -life.”</p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>July 27th.</i> A fortnight ago Mme. E—v, the wife of a privy councillor, -came here on a visit. Tolstoi played chess with me on the balcony and -the lady talked at first to Sophie Andreevna, and then, I think, to -Marie Nikolaevna, about the great service which landowners performed, -and how the peasants are beasts, and how, but for the landed -aristocracy and their culture, they would become absolute brutes.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi kept silent, but at last could stand it no longer. He got up -from his chair and said to her:</p> - -<p>“You must forgive me, but what you are saying is terrible, one can’t -listen to it with indifference. If one is speaking of beasts, then -certainly it is not the peasants who are beasts,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> but all of us who rob -them and live on them. And all the ‘work’ of the landowners is nothing -but playing about for want of anything else to do!”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi was in a state of agitation and could not get calm for a long -time afterwards.</p> - -<p>The same evening at tea, when Mme. E—v had gone, the talk was about -executions. Sophie Andreevna tried to prove that any murder is as bad -as an execution, and yet people don’t talk about them. Elisabetha -Valerianovna replied that an execution is a murder which is considered -to be just, and the horror of it lies in that.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“If one were to ask who is worse, the wretched executioner, hired, -intoxicated, spiritually destroyed, or those who hire him and those who -pass sentence of death, the prosecutors, the judges, then it seems to -me there can be no doubt.”</p> - -<p>At tea Elisabetha Valerianovna asked her mother, Marie Nikolaevna, to -have some milk, and she began to drink it.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“How is it, Mashenka, that you drink it? For myself, if I am told to -drink milk, I want sherry, and, when I’m told to drink sherry, I want -milk.” ... </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span></p> - -<p>Marie Nikolaevna began recalling the past. When they lived in Moscow, -soon after the death of their father in 1837-38, Tolstoi, who was then -about eight or nine, jumped out of the first-floor window and was badly -hurt.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“I remember that quite well. I wanted to see what would happen, and I -even remember that, as I jumped, I tried to jump upwards.”</p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>July 28th.</i> Yesterday my wife and I were at Yasnaya. Tolstoi’s leg is -still painful. He lies in a chair with it stretched out. He suffers -from inflammation and from embolism of the vein. They say he must lie -like that for six weeks.</p> - -<p>We arrived at Yasnaya about eight o’clock. Tolstoi sat in a chair in -the dining-room. He played chess with S. Then he began to play chess -with me. S. looked on at our game for a time, and then sitting near the -round table he began to talk to Sophie Andreevna about the children’s -anthology to be chosen from Tolstoi’s works, which he wishes to -publish for his Jubilee (Tolstoi’s eighty years). The conversation was -terrible. Sophie Andreevna said in the sharpest way that she was not -going to be cheated out of her rights, that she would go to a lawyer -and would write to the papers about it.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> S. behaved rather well, and -asked her to point out what she would allow to be published; but she -would not listen to reason. At last she said that it was the same as if -he stole her silver spoons. It was intolerably humiliating and painful.</p> - -<p>Sophie Andreevna made attempts to draw Tolstoi into the dispute. Poor -Tolstoi! He suffered, frowned, shook his head in horror, but kept -silent. The greatest deed in his life is his humility and patience with -Sophie Andreevna. His behaviour is all the more difficult, because -people criticize him for being humble and long-suffering in this way. -How much easier it would be for him to leave this kind of life, which -he not only does not want, but which is intolerable to him.</p> - -<p>Then it became even worse. S. left the room for a time, and when he -returned and sat down near us watching the chess, Sophie Andreevna -did not see him and began talking about something and, as usual, -complaining of the worries of managing the household, and said:</p> - -<p>“When I get rid of the steward, of the thieving, of S., and ...” of -something else, I don’t remember what.</p> - -<p>Every one was overcome with shame. Tolstoi even uttered a groan. S. -turned deadly white.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> Some one managed to whisper to Sophie Andreevna -that he, S., was in the room. She was not in the least put out, and -only began saying how much she regretted that she had not died under -her operation.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi glanced at S.; S. said:</p> - -<p>“Did you want to say something, Leo Nikolaevich?”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi was silent for a time and then said:</p> - -<p>“You understood me.”</p> - -<p>Then he added:</p> - -<p>“Whom God loves, him He tries.”</p> - -<p>It was intolerable. S. left the room quickly and went away without -saying good-bye to any one.</p> - -<p>There the matter rested. Mme. Zveginzev then arrived. Tolstoi talked -about Chertkov’s father:<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" >[14]</a></p> - -<p>“When he was about forty-five, gangrene attacked his toe. Then it -went further, and his leg had to be amputated at the knee. He went -to England. There they made him an artificial leg on which he walked -fairly easily. Then the gangrene attacked the other leg. This, too, had -to be amputated, but this time much above the knee. He sat in a chair -and was carried about. He was very patient and did not groan, although -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>he shuddered with pain all day long. In the evenings he would be given -an injection of morphia; he would then revive, read the papers, and -talk. He was a brilliant man, a wit, and a great success in society. -He used to be taken in his chair to parties. There was even a cult for -him; he used to visit the Empress. In society invitations were issued: -‘Venez; M. Chertkoff sera ce soir chez nous.’ He died early. He never -drank and never could drink, for the wine went to his head. But once -at dinner some one drank, and he took a little glass of vodka, and -suddenly died then and there at the dinner party.”</p> - -<p>Some one began to talk about bugs.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“When he has bugs, Perna does not scratch, but lies quietly—he -allows them to have their fill, like Buddha, who gave himself to be -devoured by the tigress; and when the bugs have eaten enough, he sleeps -peacefully. In olden days, under the serfdom, when the landed gentry -lived very dirtily and bugs were everywhere, if a guest remained for -the night, the butler used to be put into the bed first, so as to feed -the bugs, and only after that was the bed made for the guest.”</p> - -<p>Then I came up to Tolstoi and he talked to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> me. At first, with a smile, -he winked at Mme. Zveginzev’s colossal hat.</p> - -<p>I asked him if he was still working on the new “Circle of Reading.” -Tolstoi said that he is already working at the twenty-first day. He -makes the same number of days in all the twelve months. I told him that -I had read the first day and that it seemed to me very good.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“Yes, but it must all be gone over again. At the beginning of each day -I put the ideas which can be understood by children and simple people. -This is very difficult. I am doing it now, when I am an old man, but I -ought to have begun my career as a writer by doing it. I ought to have -written so that it could be understood by every one. This is true, too, -of your art. And, generally speaking, of all the arts.”</p> - -<p>I said to him that in music the most musical language happens to be -beyond one’s reach, whether or not one belongs to intellectual circles, -either because one is not trained or because one is unmusical by nature.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi agreed with me partly, but said that this was the case in other -arts as well:</p> - -<p>“There are some ideas which can be understood by all and are necessary -to all, but are expressed in the language of a small group of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> people. -For instance, the poem ‘I remember the wonderful moment,’ or ‘When to -the mortal the noisy day passes into silence’—do you remember them? A -peasant couldn’t understand them.”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“I was thinking a great deal about art to-day and I re-read my article, -and I must confess I agreed with my ideas.”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi is reading the English biography of Chopin (by Huneker). He -does not like it. He said to me:</p> - -<p>“I have not read books of that kind for a long time. The author does -not reveal Chopin’s inner life, but displays his own erudition, his -ability to write well and wittily. He is controversial and proves the -faults of other biographers. But there is no Chopin here.... Yet there -are many interesting facts in it. It is the life of a small circle of -poets, writers, and musicians—what a perverted and terrible life! And -George Sand, that disgusting woman!... I can’t understand her success.”</p> - -<p>Marie Nikolaevna, who was listening, said:</p> - -<p>“No! she has done good things. Take, for instance, her <i>Consuelo</i>.”</p> - -<p>“No, that is not good. It is all false and bad and tedious; I could -never read it.” </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span></p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>July 30th.</i> There were staying at Yasnaya Marie Alexandrovna, I. -Gorbunov, and E. I. Popov. Tolstoi was not well. His leg was still -painful. We played chess. Then there was tea. Before the game of -chess, when I had come into the drawing-room by myself, Tolstoi was -telling Obolensky and the others, whom I mentioned, the plot of Anatole -France’s novel, a very complicated novel. I believe it is called -<i>Jocaste</i>. Tolstoi was telling the plot in detail and was surprised at -its absurdity, but said it was written with A. France’s usual mastery.</p> - -<p>As I came in, I had met two men downstairs who wished to see Tolstoi. -As Tolstoi is ill, Gusev (the secretary) went downstairs. One of the -men turned out to be a sectarian, “an immortalist,” and the other -sent up by Gusev a strange note in which, referring to Boulanger’s -promise to try to find a job for him, he said something foolish about -his desire to be useful to Tolstoi. Altogether there was no sense, no -purpose in it.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“It is amazing, why can’t they understand? It seems to him that only he -and myself exist, and yet there are hundreds of him, and only one of -me. And what can I do for him?” </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span></p> - -<p>At tea Tolstoi talked about the ‘immortalist.’ Marie Nikolaevna asked -what sect it was.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said to her:</p> - -<p>“The ‘immortalists’ believe that if they go on believing they will -never die. And when one of them dies they say: he did not really -believe.... I quite understand it. With them immortality is identified -with the body. At a low level of religious development that is -understandable. The Church doctrine also thinks of resurrection as a -resurrection in the flesh.”</p> - -<p>Marie Nikolaevna began to say that she believed that there <i>would</i> be -something after death.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“In the first place, as to our state after death, it is impossible to -say that it <i>will</i> be. Immortality neither will be, nor was, but <i>is</i>. -It is outside the forms of time and space. People who keep on asking -what is going to happen after death should be told: the very same thing -that <i>was</i> before birth. We do not know, neither can we or must we know -what existence outside of the body, fusion with God, is like, and, when -people begin telling me about it—even if some one from the other world -were to come to tell me about it—I would not believe and I should say -that I do not need it. That which we need,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> we always are aware of and -know without doubting. One ought to live so that one’s life should help -on the happiness of other people.”</p> - -<p>Marie Nikolaevna said that although she neither believes in nor admits -the existence of paradise and hell with real suffering, nevertheless -there is hell for the soul in the constant suffering which comes from -realization of evil done or of good undone.</p> - -<p>“I can’t admit,” she added, “that one who lives badly and has done no -good will achieve the same fusion with God as the man who has lived -justly.”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi was about to say something, but Marie Nikolaevna interrupted -him.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said quietly and gently:</p> - -<p>“I listened to you, Mashenka; now do you listen to me. Compared with -the perfection of God, the difference which exists in life between the -most righteous man and the most wicked is so insignificant that it is -simply equal to nothing. And how am I to admit that God, the God whom I -realize through love, can be revengeful and punish?”</p> - -<p>“But suppose one lived wickedly all one’s life and died without -repenting?” Marie Nikolaevna said.</p> - -<p>“Ah, Mashenka,” Tolstoi said, “but what<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> man wishes to be bad? The man -whom we think bad we must love and pity for his sufferings. Nobody -wants to live a bad life and to suffer. He must not be punished, he -must be pitied, because he does not know the truth.”</p> - -<p>Marie Nikolaevna still could not give up her point of view.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said to her:</p> - -<p>“Very well, if what you believe in satisfies you; and this must -never be condemned, only you must not prevent people from believing -what their conscience prompts them to, and you must not try to make -them believe differently, as all the Churches do, the Catholic, the -Protestant, the Orthodox, the Buddhist, the Muhammadan.”...</p> - -<p class="space-above">Towards the end of July, Klechkovsky came to Yasnaya and played.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi lay on the sofa, and, after Klechkovsky had finished playing, -we sat by Tolstoi. Klechkovsky began talking about himself, how -dissatisfied he was with his life, how he would like to live on the -land, to give up his music teaching and the Institute. But he can’t do -it because his father would be much upset by such a sudden change in -his life. He also said that he would like to go and live in a community.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi replied to him: </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Why in a community? One ought not to separate oneself from other -people. If there is anything good in a man, let that light be spread -about him wherever he lives. What numbers of people settled in -communities, yet nothing came of it! All their energies went at first -into external arrangement of life, and when at length they settled -down, there began to be quarrels and gossip, and it all fell to -pieces.... You are grumbling at the Institute, yet there is the porter -there whom you could treat kindly, like a human being, and then you -would have done a good act. And the girls, your pupils? Can’t you make -a great deal that is good out of those relations? One can always shut -oneself off from people, but nothing good will come of it. I say this -not because I want to justify my own life. I live in the wrong way and -know it is the wrong way, but I have always wanted and tried to live -better, only I could not.... I shall go to God in the consciousness -that I did what I could to make my life better.</p> - -<p>“One should never attempt to arrange life beforehand. At times I ask -myself what I should do if I remained here alone? For instance, I -should say to Ilya Vasilevich: ‘It would be nice if you did the rooms -and tidied them to-day, and I will do them to-morrow.’<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> Then we should -eat together. And so on with one thing after another, as things would -arrange themselves. Only it has to be remembered that the ideal of the -material life cannot be fully realized, any more than the ideal of the -spiritual life. The whole point is in the constant effort to approach -the ideal. If I gave up everything now and went away, Sophie Andreevna -would hate me, and the evil of that would perhaps be worse. You have -your father ... and so it is with every one.”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said before this:</p> - -<p>“I said to Sophie Andreevna to-day, and I believe she was hurt by it: -the first concern in life must be for the things of the soul, and, if -household duties interfere with that, then damn household duties.”</p> - -<p class="space-above">Last night we sat on the balcony.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said that he had had a nice letter from a simple man who had -read several of his books, and who asked, at the end of his letter, -where there were people who live a Christian life, for he would leave -everything and go and live with them. Tolstoi said that he replied to -him much in the same way as he had done to Klechkovsky.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi added:</p> - -<p>“I think that even if one was a woman in a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> brothel, or a gaoler, -one ought not suddenly to give up one’s work. Certainly any one who -realizes the evil of such a life will not go on with it, but the -important thing is not the external change.”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said he had received three letters: one from Mr. Grekov, who -sent him three copies of his book, <i>The Message of Peace</i>, and wrote -that his book was so remarkable that, if it were widely read, it would -revolutionize human life; the second letter was from an intellectual -who asked for a loan of 800 roubles; and the third from a simple -illiterate peasant, a good serious letter. Tolstoi said that, besides -letters asking for money, he also receives letters from authors sending -him their books, and begging that Tolstoi will use his authority to -make their books known.</p> - -<p>“An odd idea,” Tolstoi said, “that I should try to spread opinions -which I neither sympathize with nor share.”</p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>August 5th.</i> Marie Nikolaevna told how the steward Fokanich had -once stolen 400 roubles from Tolstoi, and Tolstoi took it rather -indifferently. Soon afterwards Sergey Nikolaevich, Tolstoi’s brother, -was very much worried about his affairs, and when he was told that it -was not worth while to be so worried, he said: </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span></p> - -<p>“It doesn’t matter to Levochka that Fokanich stole 400 roubles from -him; he will write a story and get the money back; and he will describe -Fokanich into the bargain; but where shall I get my money?”</p> - -<p>Tolstoi replied to this:</p> - -<p>“Mashenka, how can you remember all this? But I heard an expression -to-day that keeps on coming back into my mind.”</p> - -<p>And Tolstoi told how during lunch to-day an unusually importunate -beggar arrived. He stood by the balcony and began saying how happy he -was to see and salute Tolstoi, etc.... He was given something, but -he was not satisfied, went to the kitchen, and began begging with -extraordinary importunity. After lunch when Tolstoi was coming down -from the balcony, Ilya Vasilevich, pointing to the beggar, said to -Tolstoi:</p> - -<p>“Yes, that fellow could beg the parson’s mare off him.”</p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>August 19th.</i> At tea the conversation turned upon modern literature. -Tolstoi asked Buturlin to send him anything new he could find by -Anatole France, whom Tolstoi values very highly. He spoke again.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said: </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span></p> - -<p>“I cannot remember getting a strong impression from a book for a long -time. I do not think it is because I am old; it seems to me that modern -literature, like the Roman literature in the past, is coming to an end. -There is no one, neither in the West nor here.”</p> - -<p>Buturlin asked Tolstoi if he remembered Oscar Wilde’s <i>De Profundis</i>.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi had not read it, but said:</p> - -<p>“I forget everything now, but I remember having tried to read Wilde, -and it has left me with an impression that he was not worth reading.”</p> - -<p>Speaking of modern Russian writers Tolstoi mentioned Kuprin.</p> - -<p>“His scope is small; he knows the life of the soldiers, but still he -has real artistic power. The others simply have nothing to say, and are -on the look-out for new forms. But why look for new forms? If you have -something to say, you should only ask for time in which to say what you -want, but you won’t need to seek new forms.”</p> - -<p>Apropos of Eltzbacher’s book on anarchy, which Tolstoi was re-reading, -he said:</p> - -<p>“Christian anarchy is a narrow definition of the Christian conception -of the world, but anarchy follows certainly from Christianity in its -application to social life.” </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span></p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>September 3rd.</i> Tolstoi again spoke about the old German mystic, -Angelus Silesius. Tolstoi asked some one to fetch his book (a large old -volume) and read aloud several aphorisms, translating them as he read. -When he came to the passage: “If God did not love Himself in us, we -could neither love ourselves, nor God,” Tolstoi exclaimed:</p> - -<p>“Ah, how well that’s said!”</p> - -<p>Referring to some account in the papers of a conversation with him, -Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“If I were to live for another eighty years, and were never to cease -talking, I could not manage to say all the sayings that are attributed -to me.”</p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>September 6th.</i> Tolstoi said, with reference to the addresses and -congratulations on his eightieth birthday (August 28th, 1908) which -keep on coming:</p> - -<p>“I believe I am right in saying that I have no vanity, but I can’t help -being touched involuntarily. And yet, at my age, I live so far away -from all this, it is all so unnecessary and so humiliating. Only one -thing is necessary, the inner life of the spirit.”</p> - -<p>On August 29th, when more than two thousand telegrams of congratulation -arrived, Tolstoi said: </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span></p> - -<p>“I feel with joy that I have utterly lost the power of being interested -in all this. In the past, I remember, I experienced a feeling of -pride; I was glad at my success. But now—and I think it is not false -modesty—it is a matter of absolute indifference to me. Perhaps it is -because I have had too much success. It is like sweets: if you have too -many, you feel surfeited. But one thing is pleasant: in nearly all the -letters, congratulations, addresses, the same thing is repeated—it has -simply become a truism—that I have destroyed religious delusions and -opened the way for the search after truth. If it is true, it is just -what I have wanted and tried to do all my life, and this is very dear -to me.”</p> - -<h3>FOOTNOTE:</h3> - -<p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14">[14]</a> Gregory Ivanovich Chertkov (1828-1884), Adjutant-General.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span></p> - -<h2>1909</h2> - -<p><i>February 10th.</i> Once in the winter Sophie Andreevna in Tolstoi’s -presence criticized V. G. Chertkov bitterly, which, as usual, -pained him very much. This was in the morning. In the middle of the -conversation Tolstoi got up and went into his room.</p> - -<p>Some time later he came into the dining-room, stood at the door, and -said in an agitated voice:</p> - -<p>“There is an old nurse in our house. I scarcely know her, but I love -her because she loves Sasha, and when there is nothing like that in a -house, there is no real love.” ...</p> - -<p>After saying this, Tolstoi turned and quietly went to his room.</p> - -<p>To-night Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“When one listens to music, it agitates, excites, elates, but one does -not think. But when I play patience in my room, the finest thoughts -come to me.” </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span></p> - -<p>During work, especially if he found some difficulty, Tolstoi used to -play patience. This was his habit throughout his life. When he was -writing Part III. of <i>Resurrection</i>, Tolstoi was undecided for a long -time about the fate of Katyusha Maslov. Now he decided that Nekhlyudov -should marry her, now that he should not. At last he decided to play -a game of patience: if the patience came out, Nekhlyudov should marry -her; if not, then he should not marry her. The patience did not come -out. Once Tolstoi told me that he had found a passage in a book, which -he was writing, very difficult. He hesitated for a long time what to -do, but made up his mind and wrote it. Then he decided to test it by -means of a game of patience; if the patience came out, that meant that -what he had written was good; if it did not come out, then it was bad. -The patience did not come out, and Tolstoi said to himself: “Never -mind, it is good as it is!” and he left it as he had written it.</p> - -<p class="space-above"><i>May 24th.</i> Tolstoi was speaking about Dietrich’s German book on -Goethe. The author sent him the book and asked him his opinion.</p> - -<p>Tolstoi said:</p> - -<p>“It is amazing! So far back as 1824 Goethe<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> wrote that sincerity -was become almost impossible in art, because of the multitude of -newspapers, journals, and reviews. The artist reads them, involuntarily -pays attention to them, and cannot be perfectly sincere. What would he -say if he lived now!”</p> - -<p class="center space-above">THE END</p> - -<p class="center space-above"><i>Printed in Great Britain by</i> <span class="smcap">R. & R. Clark, Limited</span>, -<i>Edinburgh</i>.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> - -<div class="center"><img src="images/ad1.jpg" alt="THe Hogarth Press" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span></p> - -<div class="center"><img src="images/ad2.jpg" alt="RECENT PUBLICATIONS" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p> - -<div class="center"><img src="images/ad3.jpg" alt="RECENT PUBLICATIONS continued" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span></p> - -<div class="center"><img src="images/ad4.jpg" alt="RECENT PUBLICATIONS continued" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p> - -<div class="center"><img src="images/ad5.jpg" alt="PREVIOUS PUBLICATIONS" /></div> - -<hr /> - -<p> </p> -<p> </p> -<hr class="pgx" /> -<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TALKS WITH TOLSTOI***</p> -<p>******* This file should be named 65159-h.htm or 65159-h.zip *******</p> -<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> -<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/6/5/1/5/65159">http://www.gutenberg.org/6/5/1/5/65159</a></p> -<p> -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed.</p> - -<p>Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, -and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you receive -specific permission. If you do not charge anything for copies of this -eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You may use this eBook -for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports, -performances and research. They may be modified and printed and given -away--you may do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks -not protected by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the -trademark license, especially commercial redistribution. -</p> - -<h2 class="pgx" title="">START: FULL LICENSE<br /> -<br /> -THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE<br /> -PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK</h2> - -<p>To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free -distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work -(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full -Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at -www.gutenberg.org/license.</p> - -<h3 class="pgx" title="">Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works</h3> - -<p>1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to -and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property -(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all -the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or -destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your -possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a -Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound -by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the -person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph -1.E.8.</p> - -<p>1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be -used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who -agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few -things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See -paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this -agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below.</p> - -<p>1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the -Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection -of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual -works in the collection are in the public domain in the United -States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the -United States and you are located in the United States, we do not -claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, -displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as -all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope -that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting -free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm -works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the -Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily -comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the -same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when -you share it without charge with others.</p> - -<p>1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern -what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are -in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, -check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this -agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, -distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any -other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no -representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any -country outside the United States.</p> - -<p>1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:</p> - -<p>1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other -immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear -prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work -on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the -phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, -performed, viewed, copied or distributed:</p> - -<blockquote><p>This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United - States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost - no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use - it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with - this eBook or online - at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you - are not located in the United States, you'll have to check the laws - of the country where you are located before using this - ebook.</p></blockquote> - -<p>1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is -derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not -contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the -copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in -the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are -redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply -either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or -obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm -trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.</p> - -<p>1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted -with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution -must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any -additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms -will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works -posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the -beginning of this work.</p> - -<p>1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this -work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.</p> - -<p>1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this -electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without -prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with -active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project -Gutenberg-tm License.</p> - -<p>1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, -compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including -any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access -to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format -other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official -version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site -(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense -to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means -of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain -Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the -full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.</p> - -<p>1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, -performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works -unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.</p> - -<p>1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing -access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -provided that</p> - -<ul> -<li>You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from - the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method - you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed - to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has - agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid - within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are - legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty - payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in - Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg - Literary Archive Foundation."</li> - -<li>You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies - you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he - does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm - License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all - copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue - all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm - works.</li> - -<li>You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of - any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the - electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of - receipt of the work.</li> - -<li>You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free - distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.</li> -</ul> - -<p>1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than -are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing -from both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and The -Project Gutenberg Trademark LLC, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm -trademark. Contact the Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.</p> - -<p>1.F.</p> - -<p>1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable -effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread -works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project -Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may -contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate -or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other -intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or -other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or -cannot be read by your equipment.</p> - -<p>1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right -of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project -Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all -liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal -fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT -LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE -PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE -TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE -LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR -INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH -DAMAGE.</p> - -<p>1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a -defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can -receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a -written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you -received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium -with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you -with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in -lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person -or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second -opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If -the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing -without further opportunities to fix the problem.</p> - -<p>1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth -in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO -OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT -LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.</p> - -<p>1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied -warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of -damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement -violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the -agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or -limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or -unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the -remaining provisions.</p> - -<p>1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the -trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone -providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in -accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the -production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, -including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of -the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this -or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or -additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any -Defect you cause.</p> - -<h3 class="pgx" title="">Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm</h3> - -<p>Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of -electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of -computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It -exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations -from people in all walks of life.</p> - -<p>Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the -assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's -goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will -remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure -and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future -generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see -Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at -www.gutenberg.org.</p> - -<h3 class="pgx" title="">Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation</h3> - -<p>The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit -501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the -state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal -Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification -number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by -U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.</p> - -<p>The Foundation's principal office is in Fairbanks, Alaska, with the -mailing address: PO Box 750175, Fairbanks, AK 99775, but its -volunteers and employees are scattered throughout numerous -locations. Its business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, Salt -Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up to -date contact information can be found at the Foundation's web site and -official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact</p> - -<p>For additional contact information:</p> - -<p> Dr. Gregory B. Newby<br /> - Chief Executive and Director<br /> - gbnewby@pglaf.org</p> - -<h3 class="pgx" title="">Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation</h3> - -<p>Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide -spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of -increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be -freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest -array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations -($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt -status with the IRS.</p> - -<p>The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating -charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United -States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a -considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up -with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations -where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND -DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular -state visit <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/donate">www.gutenberg.org/donate</a>.</p> - -<p>While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we -have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition -against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who -approach us with offers to donate.</p> - -<p>International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make -any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from -outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.</p> - -<p>Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation -methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other -ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To -donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate</p> - -<h3 class="pgx" title="">Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works.</h3> - -<p>Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project -Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be -freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and -distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of -volunteer support.</p> - -<p>Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed -editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in -the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not -necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper -edition.</p> - -<p>Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search -facility: www.gutenberg.org</p> - -<p>This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.</p> - -</body> -</html> - diff --git a/old/65159-h/images/ad1.jpg b/old/65159-h/images/ad1.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 4288516..0000000 --- a/old/65159-h/images/ad1.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/65159-h/images/ad2.jpg b/old/65159-h/images/ad2.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 751c175..0000000 --- a/old/65159-h/images/ad2.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/65159-h/images/ad3.jpg b/old/65159-h/images/ad3.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 503cb8a..0000000 --- a/old/65159-h/images/ad3.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/65159-h/images/ad4.jpg b/old/65159-h/images/ad4.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 1add597..0000000 --- a/old/65159-h/images/ad4.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/65159-h/images/ad5.jpg b/old/65159-h/images/ad5.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index eb5b61e..0000000 --- a/old/65159-h/images/ad5.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/65159-h/images/cover.jpg b/old/65159-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 4785d6c..0000000 --- a/old/65159-h/images/cover.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/65159-h/images/front.jpg b/old/65159-h/images/front.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index a29b02d..0000000 --- a/old/65159-h/images/front.jpg +++ /dev/null |
