With Dostoevsky the reaction is far different. He felt at once that he was face to face with something superior, not only to himself, but to entire mankind, something divine.... The humility of which I spoke earlier in the day, and to which I shall time and again return, predisposed him to making submission before what was avowedly better and higher than himself. He bowed his head humbly before Jesus Christ, and the first, the greatest consequence of his submission and self-surrender was the safeguarding intact his nature’s rich complexity. No artist ever more truly practised the teaching of the Gospel: “_For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever will lose his life for My sake, the same shall save it._” By reason of this sacrifice and renunciation the most discordant elements are able to live side by side in Dostoevsky’s soul, and the extraordinary wealth of antagonisms is preserved. At our next meeting we shall inquire whether several of Dostoevsky’s characteristics, which to us Westerners seem perchance more than strange, are not common to all Russians, and by so inquiring we may be enabled to discern such features as are more purely individual and personal. II The few psychological and moral truths Dostoevsky’s works will permit us to touch upon are in my estimation so important that I am all eagerness to reach them. By their very boldness and originality they would seem paradoxical to you if I approached them directly. I needs must proceed warily. In our last talk I spoke to you of the figure of the man himself. The moment is favourable, I think, for presenting it in its own atmosphere the better to bring its particular features into relief. I have been on intimate terms with some Russians, but I have never been in Russia; hence, without help, my task would be extremely difficult. I shall first of all submit a few observations on the Russian people that I found in a German monograph on Dostoevsky. Mme. Hoffmann, in her excellent biography, insists first and foremost on the solidarity, the common brotherhood between all classes of Russian society, which end in sweeping away social barriers and facilitate naturally the freedom of intercourse we find in all Dostoevsky’s novels. An introduction, a sudden feeling of sympathetic understanding; and we have at once what one of his heroes so expressively describes as “chance relationships.” Homes are transformed into hostelries, the stranger of yesterday becomes the honoured guest of to-day: a friend’s friend visits you, and immediately everything between you is on a footing of intimacy.