ПСС. Том 67. Письма, 1894 г. - [79]
Прощайте или до свидания, как бог приведет. Нынче очень занят; а ответить и поблагодарить за письмо хотел.
Л. Толстой.
6 июля.
Предисловие к Мопассану было переведено по-франц[узски],>3 но туда не попало одно местечко, кот[орое] желательно бы поместить в немецкий перевод.>4
На конверте: Петербург Владимиру Васильевичу Стасову.
Впервые опубликовано в книге «Лев Толстой и В. В. Стасов. Переписка 1878—1906». Труды Пушкинского дома Академии наук СССР. Л. 1929, стр. 133—134.
>1 Письмо В. В. Стасова от 28 июня 1894 г., в котором он выражает свой восторг по поводу только что прочтенного им предисловия Толстого к сочинениям Мопассана и свое полное согласие с взглядами Толстого на задачи искусства. Опубликовано в книге «Лев Толстой и В. В. Стасов», стр. 129—133.
>2 История писания Ге его картины «Распятие» подробно рассказана В. В. Стасовым в его книге «Николай Николаевич Ге», изд. «Посредник», М. 1904, стр. 368—392.
>3 Французский перевод предисловия к Мопассану был напечатан в газете «Journal des Débats».
>4 Вильгельма Генкеля (см. письмо № 188), которому В. В. Стасов, по своей инициативе, послал для перевода предисловие Толстого к сочинениям Мопассана.
169. В. Г. Черткову от 6 июля.
* 170. Ф. А. Желтову.
1894 г. Июля 7—8. Я. П.
Спасибо, что ответили мне так кротко на мое некроткое письмо. Прошу вас простить меня, если в нем было что-либо неприятное вам. Отвечая вам, я отвечал многим людям, неправильно уклоняющимся от требований хр[истианского] учения. До вас это не относится.
Любящий вас Л. Т.
На открытке: Нижегородской губ. Село Богородицкое. Федору Алексеевичу Желтову.
Датируется по почтовому штемпелю отправления: «Почтовый вагон, 8 июля 1894 г.».
Ответ на письмо Ф. А. Желтова от 23 июня 1894 г.
* 171. Джону Кенворти (John Kenworthy).
1894 г. Июля 8. Я. П.
Dear friend, I have received both your letters & the papers, which you sent, and thank you for the one & the other.
In regard to your letter, the one before last, in which you write that soon you will have formed a community, I wished to answer you the following:
Of course one can not but desire the largest spreading of that which one regards as the truth, and not only as an abstract truth, but as a practical one, such a truth, the acceptation of which would deliver men from their miseries and give them the greatest welfare; but, strange though it seems to say so nothing has so much hindered the spreading of the truth, as the too hasty desire to make others accept it.
I have always been deeply affected by the seldom noticed words of Christ to his 70 disciples, when they returned from preaching and boasted of their success, saying that everywhere the devils were subject unto them: «In this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather, because your names are written in heaven». In other words: seek not exterior success visible to all men, do not count your proselytes, as do the churchmen & the salvation army,>1 but seek to be in the truth, never to deviate from it & success, thoough perhaps invisible to you, will follow, will certainly follow, because when a man is in the truth he will act and his action will inevitably have the most fruitful results, if even they will not be visible to him. The same is expressed in the words «Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness & all these things shall be added unto you»; & in the words: «Be ye wise as serpents, & harmless as doves».
Truth in order to influence men should be complete, not clipped, not adapted to the life of men of the world. And this is always being forgotten by mankind. And owing to this the most powerful efforts have been and are yet lost in vain. Precious is not that community which we may organize at Toula or Croydon>3 with the help of those near to us in time and space, although such a community may also have its object & signification, but precious is that community of men of all times and nations, who unite in the one truth, in which I have been brought into communion with men, so distant from me in space & time, & amongst others with you.
The community, which is now necessary for mankind, will be composed not of men, who will unite in order to realize certain economical aims advantageous for themselves, like that «Brotherhood of Trust»,>4 of which you sent me the description but of those men, who are dispersed everywhere & have once for all renounced all wordly aims & have consecrated their lives solely to the service of God.
All the grandest undertakings have not only come to nought, but have turned against the very cause, which they were intended to serve; and that only owing to haste, to the desire of men to convert the greatest possible quantity of other men in the shortest possible time; or if they can not convert them, make them appear to be converted. Thus in the first instance Paul began to clip the demands of Christ & to adapt them to the existing order of things; this, but in enormous dimensions, Constantine>5 in order to make them accessible to himself & his nation. Thus dealt all those introducers of Christianity into England, France, Russia, who almost compulsorily christened their people. And thus do pervert christianity all founders & organisators of sects from the Mormons
