Tolstoi praised Elzbacher’s book on anarchy, in which the doctrines of seven anarchists are expounded: of Godwin, Proudhon, Max Stirner, Bakunin, Kropotkin, B. P. Tucker, and Tolstoi himself. Tolstoi said: “I myself can remember at the beginning of the socialist movement in Russia that the word ‘socialist’ was only spoken in a whisper; but when Professor Ivanyukov in the first years of the eighties openly wrote his book on socialism, it was already a widely spread doctrine in Western Europe. It is in the same way that the public now regard anarchism, often crudely identifying this doctrine with the throwing of bombs.” Of Elzbacher’s book Tolstoi said: “At the end of the book is an alphabetical index of the words used by the seven anarchists. It appears that the word _Zwang_, compulsion, violence, is absent only in the exposition of my views.” Sergeenko was telling Tolstoi about Volinsky’s book on Leonardo da Vinci, and said it was a fine book. Tolstoi remarked: “Yes, it seems to be one of those books which are good in that it is not necessary to read them.” Tolstoi said yesterday about doctors and science generally: “How trivial and unnecessary are all our sciences! It is true that exact sciences--mathematics and chemistry, although quite unimportant for the improvement of moral life, are at any rate exact and positive. But, although medical science has a great deal of knowledge, that amount is nothing in proportion to what is needed in order actually to know anything. And what is the good of it?” I replied to Tolstoi that, although in theory it may be so, yet in practice, when some one is ill, one always wants to help them. To this Tolstoi replied: “It often happens that if some one is seriously ill, those around him, at the bottom of their hearts, want him to die, in order to be rid of him--he is in their way.” Tolstoi said to Sophie Andreevna: “It’s time for us to die,” and he quoted Pushkin’s lines: “And then our heir in a lucky moment will crush us down with a heavy monument.” _July 5th._ Tolstoi went for a walk to-day with myself and P. A. Sergeenko. We passed through the splendid young fir-tree forest on the left of the road to Kozlovka. Tolstoi said: “I am trying to like and appreciate the modern writers, but it is so difficult. Dostoevsky often wrote so badly, so weakly and incompetently, from the point of view of technique; but what a lot he always has to say! Taine said that for one page of Dostoevsky’s he would give all French novels. “And technique has now reached a wonderful perfection. A Mme. Lukhmanov or Mme. D. writes quite wonderfully. What are Turgenev or myself compared with her! She could give us forty points’ start of her!” Tolstoi has recently re-read all Chekhov’s short stories. To-day he said of Chekhov: