"It may be that my beliefs are embarrassing or displeasing. It is not within my power to change them, just as it is not in my power to change my body. I cannot believe anything but what I believe, at this hour when I am preparing to return to that God from whom I came." Or this passage from the _Réponse à Christophe de Beaumont,_ which seems pure Tolstoy: "I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. My Master has told me that he who loves his brother accomplishes the law." Or again: "The whole of the Lord's Prayer is expressed in these words: 'Thy Will be done!'" (_Troisième lettre de la Montague._) Compare with: "I am replacing all my prayers with the _Pater Nosier._ All the requests I can make of God are expressed with greater moral elevation by these words: 'Thy Will be done!'" (Tolstoy's _Journal,_ in the Caucasus, 1852-3.) The similarity of thought is no less striking in the province of art: "The first rule of the art of writing," said Rousseau, "is to speak plainly and to express one's thought exactly." And Tolstoy: "Think what you will, but in such a manner that every word may be understood by all. One cannot write anything bad in perfectly plain language." I have demonstrated elsewhere that the satirical descriptions of the Paris Opera in the _Nouvelle Héloise_ have much in common with Tolstoy's criticisms in _What is Art?_ [8] _Journal_, January 6, 1903. [9] _Quatrième Promenade._ [10] Letter to Birukov. [11] _Sebastopol in May, 1853._ [12] "The truth.... the only thing that has been left me of my moral conceptions, the sole thing that I shall still fulfil." (October 17, 1860.) [13] _Ibid._ [14] "The love of men is the natural state of the soul, and we do not observe it." (_Journal,_ while he was a student at Kazan.) [15] "The truth will make way for love." (_Confessions._) [16] "'You are always talking of energy? But the basis of energy is love,' said Anna, 'and love does not come at will.'" (_Anna Karenin._) [17] "Beauty and love, those two sole reasons for human existence." (_War and Peace._) [18] "I believe in God, who for me is Love." (_To the Holy Synod,_ 1901.) "'Yes, love!... Not selfish love, but love as I knew it, for the first time in my life, when I saw my enemy dying at my side, and loved him.... It is the very essence of the soul. To love his neighbour, to love his enemies, to love all and each, is to love God in all His manifestations!... To love a creature who is dear to us is human love: to love an enemy is almost divine love!'" (Prince Andrei in _War and Peace_.) [19] "The passionate love of the artist for his subject is the soul of art. Without love no work of art is possible." (Letter of September, 1889.) [20] "I write books, which is why I know all the evil they do." ... (Letter to P. V. Veriguin, leader of the Doukhobors, 1898. _Further Letters_.)