"Craftsman, maker of masterpieces, this is not your tool!... Our tool is the pen; our field, the human soul, which we must shelter and nourish. Let us remind you of the words of a Russian peasant, of the the first printer of Moscow, when he was sent back to the plough: 'It is not my business to sow grains of corn, but to sow the seed of the spirit broadcast in the world.'" As though Tolstoy had ever renounced his vocation as a sower of the seed of the mind! In the Introduction to _What I Believe_ he wrote: "I believe that my life, my reason, my light, is given me exclusively for the purpose of enlightening my fellows. I believe that my knowledge of the truth is a talent which is lent me for this object; that this talent is a fire which is a fire only when it is being consumed. I believe that the only meaning of my life is that I should live it only by the light within me, and should hold that light on high before men that they may see it."[12] But this light, this fire "which was a fire only when it was being consumed," was a cause of anxiety to the majority of Tolstoy's fellow-artists. The more intelligent could not but suspect that there was a great risk that their art would be the first prey of the conflagration. They professed to believe that the whole art of literature was menaced; that the Russian, like Prospero, was burying for ever his magic ring with its power of creative illusion. Nothing was further from the truth; and I hope to show that so far from ruining his art Tolstoy was awakening forces which had lain fallow, and that his religious faith, instead of killing his artistic genius, regenerated it completely. [1] The summer of 1878. [2] October 8, 1881. _Vie et Oeuvre._ [3] October 14. _Vie et Oeuvre._ [4] 1882. [5] October 23, 1884. _Vie et Oeuvre._ [6] "The so-called right of women is merely the desire to participate in the imaginary labours of the wealthy classes, with a view to enjoying the fruit of the labour of others and to live a life that satisfies the sensual appetites. No genuine labourer's wife demands the right to share her husband's work in the mines or in the fields." [7] These are the last lines of _What shall we do?_ They are dated the 14th of February, 1886. [8] A letter to a friend, published under the title _Profession of Faith_, in the volume entitled _Cruel Pleasures,_ 1895. [9] The reconciliation took place in the spring of 1878. Tolstoy wrote to Tourgenev asking his pardon. Tourgenev went to Yasnaya Polyana in August, 1878. Tolstoy returned his visit in July, 1881. Every one was struck with the change in his manner, his gentleness and his modesty. He was "as though regenerated." [10] Letter to Polonski (quoted by Birukov). [11] Letter to Bougival June 28, 1883.