Page:Tolstoy - Essays and Letters.djvu/185

 LETTER TO PETER VERIGIN— I 1G9

not tlie case with vocal communication, for people can refuse to listen to nonsense. Secondly, tliat books are multiplyinfr enormously, so that the jrood ones g'et lost in the sea of empty and harmful ones. But then again the advantages of the press are very great ; and consist chiefly in the fact that the circle of hearers is extended a hundredfold, or a thousandfold, as com- pared to the hearers of the spoken word. And this in- crease of the circle of readers is important not because there are many readers, but because among the millions of people of different nations and stations to whom a book becomes accessible, those who share similar thoughts discover one anotlier, and while living thousands of miles apart, not knowintr one another, are yet united and live by one spirit, having the spiritual joy and encouragement of feeling that they are not alone. Such communication I now have with you and with many, many men of otlier nations — men who have never seen me but who yet are nearer to me tlian sons or brothers of my own blood. 1 he chief consideration in favour of books is, that since men reached a certain stage in development of the external conditions of life — books, and printing in general, have become a means of communication among men, and must, there- fore, not be neglected. So many harmful books have been written and circulated, that the evil can only be met by other books. One wedge drives out another. Christ said : ' What I tell you in tlie ear, proclaim upon the housetops.' Printing is just that proclamation from the housetops. The printed word is a tongue — a tongue that reaches very far ; and for this reason all that is said of the tongue relates also to the printed word : ' Tlierewith bless we God, and therewith curse we men, made after the likeness of God.' Therefore one cannot be too careful what one says and listens to, nor what one prints and reads. I write all this not that I think you understand the matter differently (from your letter I conclude that you understand the matter as I do) but because these thouglits have come into my head, and 1 wish to share them with you. in