Page:The Relations Tolstoy.pdf/28

 From the Letters, Diaries, &c. Concerning sexual intercourse I have expressed my views as well as I could in the Afterword to the Kreutzer Sonata. The whole question can be expressed in one word: Man must always, under all circumstances, whether he be marries or single, be as chaste as possible, as Christ and after him Paul expressed. If he can be so abstinent as not to know women at all, then this is the best he can do. If, however, he cannot restrain himself he should as seldom as possible give way to his weakness, and in no way look upon sexual intercourse as a pleasure. I think that no sincere and serious man can regard the question otherwise, and that all such men agree in this.

Another letter from the Editor of the Adult about free love. If I had time I should like to write about this. Probably I will. The chief thing is to point out that the whole matter lies in insuring to themselves the possibility of the greatest pleasure without thinking of the consequences. Besides this they preach of something which already exists and is very bad. And why should the absence of any restraint mend matters? I am of course against all legal regulations, and for complete liberty: only the ideal is chastity and not pleasure.

All calamities engendered by sex relations, by being in love, arise only from the fact that we confuse carnal lust with spiritual life, and -it is dreadful to say -with love; that we use our reason, not to condemn and restrain this passion but to ornament it with the peacock's feathers of spirituality.