“Everything is taken away from the peasants; they are overtaxed, oppressed in all ways. The only good thing left is the _obschina_. And then every one criticizes it and makes it responsible for all the miseries of the peasants, in their wish to take away from the peasants their last good thing. They make out that the mutual responsibility of the members is one of the evils of the _obschina_. But mutual responsibility is only one of the principles of the _obschina_ with regard to fiscal purposes. If I use a good thing for an evil end, that does not prove that the thing is in itself bad.” Then the conversation turned upon Tyutchev. The other day Tolstoi saw in the _Novoe Vremya_ his poem “Twilight.” He therefore took down all Tyutchev’s poems and read them during his illness. Tolstoi said to me: “I am always saying that a work of art is either so good that there is no standard by which to define its qualities--that is real art,--or it is quite bad. Now, I am happy to have found a real work of art. I cannot read it without tears. I know it by heart. Listen, I’ll read it to you.” Tolstoi began in a voice broken with tears: “The dove-coloured shadows melted together....” When I am on my death-bed I shall not forget the impression then produced on me by Tolstoi. He lay on his back, convulsively twisting the edge of his blanket with his fingers and trying in vain to restrain the tears that choked him. He broke down several times and began again. But at last, when he read the end of the stanza, “Everything is in me, and I in everything,” his voice gave way. The entrance of A. N. Dunaev stopped him. He grew calmer. “What a pity that I spoilt the poem for you!” he said to me later. Then I played the piano. Tolstoi asked me not to play Chopin, saying: “I am afraid I might burst into tears.” Tolstoi asked for something by Mozart or Haydn. He asked: “Why do pianists never play Haydn? You ought to. How good it is--beside a modern complicated, artificial work--to play something of Mozart or Haydn!” 1900 _Moscow, January 29th._ Tolstoi had a conversation with V. E. Den when Chalyapin was here. Tolstoi is working now on the article on the labour question, “New Slavery,” and the conversation turned upon labour. Tolstoi said: “We are going through a new stage in the evolution of slavery: the slavery of the working men suffering under the yoke of the well-to-do classes. “Slavery will never cease at the bottom first, exclusively from the movement of the slaves themselves. We saw it in America, and here during the serfdom of the peasants. So must it happen now again. It is only when we realize that it is a shame to have slaves, that we shall cease to be slave-drivers, and shall voluntarily give up exploiting the working classes.