“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: