YALTA,
July 12, 1903.
... I have been thinking over your letter for a long time, and alluring as
your suggestion or offer is, yet in the end I must answer it as neither you
nor I would wish.
I cannot be the editor of _The World of Art_, as I cannot live in
Petersburg, ... that’s the first point. And the second is that just as a
picture must be painted by one artist and a speech delivered by one orator,
so a magazine must be edited by one man. Of course I am not a critic, and I
dare say I shouldn’t make a very good job of the reviews; but on the other
hand, how could I get on in the same boat with Merezhkovsky, who definitely
believes, didactically believes, while I lost my faith years ago and can
only look with perplexity at any “intellectual” who does believe? I respect
Merezhkovsky, and think highly of him both as a man and as a writer, but we
should be pulling in opposite directions....
Don’t be cross with me, dear Sergey Pavlovitch: it seems to me that if you
go on editing the magazine for another five years you will come to agree
with me. A magazine, like a picture or a poem, must bear the stamp of one
personality and one will must be felt in it. This has been hitherto the
case in the _World of Art_, and it was a good thing. And it must be
kept up....