“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.