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: