“Lately I got a letter from a lady asking me why, strictly speaking, it is a crime to kill. Anyhow man must die sooner or later--is it not all the same? I replied that since every man represents a unique type, which never occurs again, we have and can have no absolute knowledge of why he is needed for the life of all. In life everything is very carefully arranged, and we do not know the reason why just this individual should be alive, and it is for this reason that the destruction of this unique creature appears so terrible.” Of being afraid in battle, Tolstoi said: “It is impossible not to be afraid. Everyone is afraid, but tries to conceal it. When wounded have to be carried off the battlefield, so many men volunteer for the work that the officers have to use great force to keep the soldiers back, since every one wants, even for a time, to get out of fire.” Of himself Tolstoi said that he was never so much afraid as upon the night before the attack on Silistria, which after all did not take place. Then Tolstoi said: “The Japanese are less afraid, for they evidently value life much less than Europeans do. The absence of the fear of death goes to extreme lengths with some people. For instance, if a Chukcha wants to spite his enemy, he comes to his hut and kills himself near it, knowing that his enemy will then have much trouble with legal proceedings.” _July 8th._ Tolstoi said with regard to his article about war, “Bethink Yourselves”: “It is painful to feel that my words go unheeded. If one is dealing with the so-called men of science who regard war, apart from its moral significance, as one of the stages in the evolution of human relations, then, at any rate, one knows where one is. But what is one to do and how is one to speak to people who evidently cannot understand my point of view? Whatever I say glides off them. They are, as it were, greased with a sort of oil, so that everything runs off them, like water, without wetting them.” After this Tolstoi said that, when he wrote to Nicolas II. (from the Crimea, in the winter of 1901-1902), he was told that Nicolas II. “read his letter with pleasure.” He also recollected Hertzen’s letters to Alexander II. Tolstoi wrote to Nicolas II. about the land question. With reference to the attitude in Government circles to that question Tolstoi said: