“Of course, I did not advise him to do it. Usually nothing comes from
such attempts. For instance, some very nice people, the N. N.’s, bought
a small plot of land and settled like that in the country. A peasant
cut down one of their trees; they did not want to take action in the
court against him, and soon, when the peasants learnt about it, they
cut down the whole woods. The peasant boys stole their peas; they were
not beaten nor driven away, and then nearly the whole village came and
stole all the peas, etc., etc.
“One should not, _above all_, look for new ways of life, for usually,
in doing so, one’s whole energy is spent on the external arrangement of
life. And when all the external arrangement is over, one begins to feel
bored and does nothing. Let every one first do his own work, if only it
does not clash sharply with his convictions, and let him try to become
better and better in his own situation, and then he will find new ways
of life into the bargain. For the most part, all the external side of
life must be neglected; one should not bother about it. Do your own
work.”
To-day L. N. said of some one:
“He is a Tolstoian--that is, a man with convictions utterly opposed to
mine.”
Yesterday L. N. spoke of the process of creative work:
“I can’t understand how any one can write without rewriting everything
over and over again. I scarcely ever re-read my published writings, but
if by chance I come across a page, it always strikes me: All this must
be rewritten; this is how I should have written it....
“I am always interested to trace the moment, which comes quite early,
when the public is satisfied; and the artist thinks: They say it is
good; but it is just at this point that the real work begins!”
To-day L. N. was not well. I went to him; he was lying on the little
sofa in the drawing-room. He told me of S. G. Verus’s book on the
Gospels.
“His final conclusion is the denial of Christ as a historical person.
In the earliest written parts of the New Testament--in Paul’s
messages--there is not a single biographical fact about Christ. All the
Gospels that have come down to us were composed between the second and
fourth century A.D. Of the writers who were Christ’s contemporaries
(Tacitus, Suetonius, Philo, J. Flavius) not a single one of them
mentions Christ; so that his personality is not historical, but
legendary.
“All this is very interesting and even valuable, for it makes it
unnecessary to quarrel any more over refuting the authenticity of
the Gospel stories about the miracles; and it proves the teaching of
the Gospels to be not the words of one superman, but the sum of the
wisdom of all the best moral teaching expressed by many people and at
different times.”