"The conception of the Christian ideal, which is the union of all living creatures in brotherly love, is irreconcilable with the conduct of life, which demands a continual effort towards an ideal which is inaccessible, but does not expect that it will ever be attained."
[18] At the end of A Russian Proprietor.
[19] War and Peace.—I do not mention Albert (1857), the story of a musician of genius; the book is weak in the extreme.
[20] The period spoken of is 1876-77.
[21] S. A. Bers, Memories of Tolstoy.
[22] But he never ceased to love it. One of the friends of his later years was a musician, Goldenreiser, who spent the summer of 1910 near Yasnaya. Almost every day he came to play to Tolstoy during the latter's last illness. (Journal des Débats, November 18, 1910.)
[23] Letter of April 21, 1861.
[24] Tolstoï et la musique (Le Gaulois, January 4, 1911).
[25] Not only to the later works of Beethoven. Even in the case of those earlier works which he consented to regard as "artistic," Tolstoy complained of "their artificial form."—In a letter to Tchaikowsky he contrasts with Mozart and Haydn "the artificial manner of Beethoven, Schubert, and Berlioz, which produces calculated effects."
[26] Instance the scene described by M. Paul Boyer: "Tolstoy sat down to play Chopin. At the end of the fourth Ballade, his eyes filled with tears. 'Ah, the animal!' he cried. And suddenly he rose and went out." (Le Temps, November 2, 1902.)