Page:Tolstoy - Essays and Letters.djvu/192

 176 ESSAYS AND LEITERS

and tlien sowed seed without reploughin^ — that is to say, did things out of turn and at the wrong time.

I was very glad to see what you write ahout your own life ; and that even in the difficult circumstances in which you are placed you practise what you preach — earning your hread by your own work. In nothing else can a man's sincerity be so well seen. I have now become very faulty in that respect : surrounded as I am by all kinds of luxury, which I hate, but from which 1 have not the strength to escape. Your example encourages me, and I do not cease to make efforts.

Thanks for sending the extract from your diary. <'oncerning thoughts there expressed by you, I should like to share with you certain observations that tend in the same direction. I will do so another time.

Farewell meanwhile ; please do not let yourself feel any ill will towards me for my reply to the opinions expressed not only in your letter to me, but also in the letter to E. I. You are very dear to me, and I try to deal as straightforwardly as possible, like a brother, in relation to you.

Yours lovingly,

Leo Tolstoy.

(October 14, o.s., 1896]