DEAR TOLSTOY,--Yesterday my good genius led me past the post-office, and it occurred to me to ask if there were any letters for me at the _poste-restante_ (though I think that all my friends ought long ago to have learnt my Paris address) and I found your letter, in which you speak of my _Faust_. You can well imagine how glad I was to read it. Your sympathy gladdened me truly and deeply. Yes, and from the whole letter there breathes a mild, clear and friendly peacefulness. It remains for me to hold out my hand across the 'ravine' which has long since become a hardly perceptible crack, about which we will speak no more--it is not worth it. I fear to speak of one thing you mention: it is a delicate matter,--words may blight such things before they are ripe, but when they are ripe a hammer will not break them. God grant that all may turn out favourably and well. It may bring you that spiritual repose which you lacked when I knew you. You have, I see, now become very intimate with Drouzhínin--and are under his influence. That is right, only take care not to swallow too much of him. When I was your age, only men of enthusiastic natures influenced me; but you are built differently, and perhaps also the times are changed.... Let me know in which numbers of the _Contemporary_ your _Youth_ will appear; and by the way, let me know the final impression made on you by _Lear_, which you probably have read, if only for Drouzhínin's sake. About the same time Tourgénef wrote to Drouzhínin: I hear that you have become very intimate with Tolstoy--and he has become very pleasant and serene. I am very glad. When that new wine has finished fermenting, it will yield a drink fit for the Gods. What about his _Youth_, which was sent for your verdict? The allusion to Drouzhínin's translation of _King Lear_ is worth noticing because fully fifty years later it was this play that Tolstoy selected for hostile analysis in his famous attack on Shakespear. One gathers from a letter written by V. P. Bótkin, that Drouzhínin's rendering impressed Tolstoy favourably at the time.