96 .IN THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE -XII 



circumstances. 7 I rejoined that such an explanation had 

 the merit, at least, of being short and easy. 



He then went on to say that battles are won by force 

 of circumstances, by chance, by luck ; and he quoted Suva- 

 roff to this effect. He liked Lanfrey s &quot;History of Napo 

 leon &quot; and Taine s book on the Empire, evidently be 

 cause both are denunciatory of men and things he 

 dislikes, but said that he did not believe in Thiers. 



We came finally under the shade of the great tower and 

 into the gateway through which Napoleon entered the 

 Kremlin ; and there we parted with a hearty good-bye. 



The question has been asked me, at various times since, 

 whether, in my opinion, Tolstoi is really sincere; and al 

 lusion has been made to a book published by a lady who 

 claims to have been in close relations with his family, 

 which would seem to reveal a theatrical element in his 

 whole life. To this my answer has always been, and still 

 is, that I believe him to be one of the most sincere and de 

 voted men alive, a man of great genius and, at the same 

 time, of very deep sympathy with his fellow-creatures. 



Out of this character of his come his theories of art 

 and literature; and, despite their faults, they seem to me 

 more profound and far-reaching than any put forth by 

 any other man in our time. 



There is in them, for the current cant regarding art and 

 literature, a sound, sturdy, hearty contempt which braces 

 and strengthens one who reads or listens to him. It does 

 one good to hear his quiet sarcasms against the whole fin- 

 de-siecle business the &quot; impressionism, the &quot; sensation 

 alism, &quot; the vague futilities of every sort, the &quot;great 

 poets &quot; wallowing in the mud of Paris, the &quot;great musi 

 cians&quot; making night hideous in German concert-halls, the 

 1 1 great painters of various countries mixing their colors 

 with as much filth as the police will allow. His keen 

 thrusts at these incarnations of folly and obscenity in the 

 last quarter of the nineteenth century, and especially at 

 those who seek to hide the poverty of their ideas in the 

 obscurity of their phrases, encourage one to think that in 



