When we reached the spot Tolstoi told the children to gather the pears. They climbed the trees, some knocking down the pears, others shaking them down, others again picking them up. There was a hubbub, a happy noise of children; and the figure of the good old Tolstoi lovingly protecting the children from the attack of the watchman moved one to tears. Then two or three peasants came to ask his advice on some legal point. Tolstoi, Nikitin, and I talked of Dostoevsky. Tolstoi said: “Certain characters of his are, if you like, decadent, but how significant it all is!” Tolstoi mentioned Kirilov in _The Possessed_, and said: “Dostoevsky was seeking for a belief, and, when he described profoundly sceptical characters, he described his own unbelief.” Of Dostoevsky’s attitude to “Liberalism” Tolstoi observed: “Dostoevsky, who suffered in person from the Government, was revolted by the banality of Liberalism.” Tolstoi said: “During the sixty years of my conscious life a great change has come over us in Russia--I am speaking of the so-called educated society--with regard to religious questions: religious convictions were differentiated; it is a bad word, but I don’t know how to express it differently. In my youth there were three, or rather four, categories into which society in this respect could be divided. The first was a very small group of very religious people, who had been freemasons previously, or sometimes monks. The second, about 70 per cent of the whole, consisted of people who from habit observed church rituals, but in their souls were perfectly indifferent to religious problems. The third group consisted of unbelievers who observed the conventions in cases of necessity; and, finally, there were the Voltairians, unbelievers who openly and courageously expressed their unbelief. The latter were few in number--about 2 or 3 per cent. Now one has no idea whom one is going to meet. One finds the most contrary convictions existing side by side. Recently there have appeared the latest decadents of orthodoxy, the orthodox churchmen like Merezhkovsky and Rosanov. “Many people were attracted to orthodoxy through Khomyakov’s definition of the Orthodox Church, as a congregation of people united by love. What could be better than that? But the point is that it is merely the arbitrary substitution of one conception for another. Why is the Orthodox Church such a congregation of love-united people? It is the contrary rather.” 1903 _March 21st._ Last week I went for a day to Yasnaya Polyana. I found Tolstoi well and cheerful. Tolstoi is always much interested in the question of man’s spiritual state during sleep. He told me this time: