“That is quite different. To be able to experience and feel all that is bad in one with such power--that is a precious and necessary quality. Happy and of great importance is the man who can go through it with the vigour of Pushkin.” _July 6th._ We went for a walk to the sandpits. During the walk Gorbunov asked Tolstoi about Alexander Dobrolyubov’s[12] religious and philosophic book. Tolstoi said of the book: “It is vague, false, and artificial.” On that occasion the talk was about the literary profession. Tolstoi said: “It is surprising how in even a little piece of work one must think it over from all points of view before starting it. It does not matter whether you are making a shirt or a move in chess. And if you do not think it out, you at once spoil it all--you won’t make the shirt, you’ll lose the game. It is only in writing that one can do what one likes, and people never notice--indeed one can become a famous writer.” Tolstoi went on to say: “The whole business of the writer is to perfect himself. I have always tried and try now to make a question which interests me clear to the highest degree that I am capable of making it. The writer’s work consists in that. The most dangerous thing is to be a teacher. I do not think I have tried to be that. Yes, I have.... But always badly.” I. Gorbunov was saying that the “Posrednik” had the Censor’s permission to publish an excellent little book, in which a visit to Sarov is described impartially. Tolstoi said: “I have no sympathy when such things are described in a joking or jeering way. There is a great deal of sincere, simple belief there which should be treated carefully. In some old credulous woman you feel, in spite of the absurd superstition, that the foundation of her faith is a real striving for the highest and for the truth. Her outlook on the world is much higher than that of a professor who has solved all questions long ago.” V. G. Kristi who walked with us asked Tolstoi: “If such an old woman talked about religion, must one destroy her illusions and tell her honestly what one thinks?” Tolstoi replied to him: “The question does not exist to me. If I talk about religious questions, I always express my thoughts, if I believe the truth of what I say; and if my words are not understood, it is none of my business, but I can say only what I think.” Last year two young men came to Tolstoi, and now they have been again. They are very nice and in search of a better life. They turned out to be ballet dancers from the Moscow Grand Theatre. The necessity of maintaining their family prevents them from changing their profession. Tolstoi praised them highly. Then with a smile he said: “If I had children now, I should send them to the ballet. At any rate it is better than the university. Their feet alone might be spoilt in the ballet, but at the university it is their heads.” Tolstoi compared marriage to a little boat in which two people sail over a stormy ocean.