The conversation was about crowd psychology.
Tolstoi said:
“It is an interesting and still little explored problem. It is a hypnotism which has a terrible power over men. There is one moment when it is still possible to resist it. I am now no longer infected by others’ yawning, because I always remember it. When you see a crowd running, you have to remember that you do not know why they run, and to look back; and immediately you have dissociated yourself from the crowd, you are at once saved from the danger of succumbing to the hypnotism.”
We played chess on the terrace, and in the hall Sophie Nicolaevna sang Schubert’s “Wanderer.”
Tolstoi said:
“Ah that Schubert! he did a lot of harm!”
I asked how?
“Because he had in a high degree the power of making music correspond to the poetry of the text. This rare power of his has brought to birth a great deal of music which pretends to correspond to poetry, and that is a revolting kind of art.”
They sang Glinka. Tolstoi said: