LIFE OF ELIE METCHNIKOFF 203 



turned in that direction, and that we had no right to 

 busy ourselves with abstract questions unrelated to 

 life. " What good can it do man to have a notion 

 of the weight and dimensions of the planet Mars ? " 

 he said. 



Metchnikoff answered that theory is much nearer 

 to life than it seems, and that many benefits have been 

 acquired for humanity by scientific observations of 

 an abstract order. Thus, the discovery of the great 

 unchanging laws of Nature give to Man the conscious- 

 ness of being submitted to logical laws instead of 

 an arbitrary force, and that is a benefit. When 

 microbes were discovered, their part in human life 

 was not suspected, and yet this discovery was after- 

 wards of the greatest service to human welfare since 

 it enabled man to fight against disease. 



On the way back, Tolstoi gave his place to his son 

 and himself returned on horseback, an exercise in 

 which he indulged almost daily, in spite of the 

 approach of his eighty years. He still rode 

 splendidly, sitting quite upright, and seemed even 

 younger than before. 



After that he went to take a little rest, whilst 

 Countess Tolstoi gave us immense pleasure by reading 

 to us two yet unpublished works by her husband, 

 the charming story After the Ball and the tragic 

 Sergius the Monk. 



In the late afternoon a friend of our host, an 

 accomplished musician, sat at the piano and played 

 some Chopin. In the spring twilight the charm of 

 that music filled us with emotion. Leon Tolstoi, 

 seated in an armchair, listened ; the lyrical beauty of 

 the sound sank deeper and deeper into his soul, his 

 eyes became veiled with tears, he leant his forehead 



