“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: