“I love Chekhov very much and value his writings, but I could not make myself read his play, _The Three Sisters_. What is it all for? Generally speaking, modern writers have lost the conception of drama. Drama, instead of telling us the whole of a man’s life, must place him in such a situation, tie such a knot, that, when it is untied, the whole man is made visible. Now, I allowed myself to criticize Shakespeare. But with him every character is alive; and it is always clear why he acts as he does. In Shakespeare’s theatre there were boards with inscriptions ‘moonlight,’ ‘a house,’ because (Heaven be praised!) the whole attention was concentrated on the substance of the drama. Now it is just the opposite.” Tolstoi spoke with disgust of Andreev’s _Abyss_, and said: “With regard to Leonid Andreev, I always remember a story by Ginzburg about a boy who cannot pronounce the letter ‘r’ and says to his friend: ‘I went for a walk and suddenly I see a wolf.... Are you fwightened? Are you fwightened?’ “So Andreev also keeps on asking me: ‘Are you fwightened?’ and I am not in the least frightened.” Yesterday the conversation was about the Hertzen, Bakunin, and Belinsky circle. Tolstoi said: “The most characteristic thing about that circle was a kind of epicureanism, or at least the denial of, the complete failure to understand, a religious conception of the world. Doctor Nikitin, for instance, was surprised that I did not think Gogol mad. They thought him mad, because he believed in God. And they could not even understand what was going on in his soul.” Tolstoi spoke very disapprovingly of Belinsky’s famous letter to Gogol. Doctor Butkevich asked Tolstoi if he had read Maeterlinck’s new play, _Monna Vanna_. Tolstoi replied: “Why should I? Have I committed a crime?” Some one observed that common people are very seldom interested by _Power of Darkness_. Tolstoi said: “To interest the people one must write more simply and much more shortly, as Sophie Andreevna paints; everything in profile and everything on the plane, and yet no other pictures are enjoyed so much by children. In the same way, form must be simple and primitive if it is to be enjoyed by the people.” Tolstoi went on to say: “I have been thinking a great deal about it lately. There are two kinds of art, and both are equally needed--one simply gives pleasure and comfort to people, the other teaches them.” Yesterday Tolstoi criticized the scientists (he mentioned Mechnikov) for their denial and misunderstanding of a religious conception of the world. Some one mentioned the new Russian University in Paris. Tolstoi is sceptical about it and said: “Some seventy young women come and listen to the professors who teach them.” Mme. Stakhovich said something about the harm that is done to the girl students, but Tolstoi said: “Well, they are bad enough already without that.”