[17] Bienstock, p. 235. Letter to Baron Alexander Wrangel, Petersburg, March 31, 1865. [18] Bienstock, p. 239. Letter to Baron Alexander Wrangel, Petersburg, April 9, 1865. [19] “To defend the theories he fancies are his,” says M. de Vogüé. [20] Bienstock, p. 159. Letter to his brother Michael, Semipalatinsk, July 19, 1858. [21] Mayne, p. 51. [22] Bienstock, p. 135. Letter to Baron Alexander Wrangel, Semipalatinsk, May 23, 1856. [23] Bienstock, p. 438. [24] See Bienstock, pp. 592-598: Preface to _The Epoch_, 1865. [25] Mayne, p. 62. [26] Bienstock, pp. 447-448. Letter to Mlle. Guérassimov, Petersburg, March 7, 1877. [27] Bienstock, p. 442. Letter to Mme. C. D. Altschevsky, Petersburg, April 9, 1876. [28] Bienstock, p. 540. [29] Bienstock, p. 437. Letter to S. D. Janovsky, Petersburg, February 4, 1872. [30] Bienstock, p. 479. Letter to I. S. Aksakov, Petersburg, November 4, 1880. ADDRESSES (1922) I Some time before the war I was preparing for Charles Péguy’s _Cahiers de la Quinzaine_, a _Life of Dostoevsky_ after the manner of Romain Rolland’s fine monographs on Beethoven and Michelangelo. War came, and I was forced to lay aside the notes I had taken. For long other cares and duties absorbed me and my project was to all intents and purposes abandoned, when recently at the celebration of Dostoevsky’s Centenary, Jacques Copeau asked me to address a meeting in his theatre, the _Vieux Colombier_. I brought my packet of notes out into the light of day again, and re-reading them after the lapse of time, I found the ideas I had jotted down seemed worth our attention, but that chronological order, though necessary for biographical purposes, was perhaps not the most advisable on this occasion. It is often a difficult task to separate the ideas Dostoevsky weaves, as it were, into a fine web in each of his novels, but we never lose track of them. In my eyes these ideas are all that is most precious in Dostoevsky and I have made them my own. If I took up each of his works in turn, I could not possibly avoid repeating myself. There is, however, another--and better--way: pursuing his ideas from one novel to another, I shall try to lay hold of them and set them forth as plainly as is possible despite their apparent confusion. Psychologist, sociologist, moralist--Dostoevsky is all three, and novelist as well. Whereas in his works ideas are never presented in their crude state, but always through the medium of the character expressing them (which accounts for their confusion and relativity), I, for my part, will try to avoid abstractions and outline the ideas as sharply as possible. I should like first of all to introduce you to Dostoevsky in person, and speak of some incidents in his life that reveal his character and help us to draw a clear likeness of him.