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 The confused modern idea is that a woman’s capacity to give herself up with all her being to love is obsolete and done with; and yet this is the most precious and the best thing in her and her true vocation; and not political meetings, scientific courses, revolutions,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: