the struggle there is developed the embryo which is the strongest and most capable of adapting itself to the various impressional reactions which form the final spiritual character of a man, and thus is established a more or less complete psychical individuality.
Strangely and to his own torment Leonid split into two: in one and the same week he could sing Hosannah to the world, and pronounce Anathema against it.
This was not an external contradiction between the bases of his character and the habits or demands of his profession; no, in both cases he felt equally sincerely. And, the more loudly he proclaimed Hosannah, the more powerfully resounded the echo: Anathema!
He said:
"I hate individuals who refuse to walk on the sunny side of the street for fear that their faces may be burnt or their jackets faded; I hate all those who for dogmatic motives hamper the free, capricious play of their inner ego."
Once he wrote a rather caustic article on the people of the shady side, and immediately after this—on the occasion of Emile Zola's death from gas fumes—engaged in a vigorous attack on the barbarous asceticism, at that time fairly popular, of the intelligentsia. But talking to me about that attack, he declared suddenly:
"And yet, you know, my opponent is more consistent than I am: a writer ought to live like a homeless tramp. Maupassant's yacht is an absurdity!"
He was not joking. We had an argument. I maintained that the more varied the needs of man, and the more eager he is for the joys of life, however paltry, the quicker develops the culture of the body and of the spirit. He retorted: "No, Tolstoy is right, culture is rubbish, it only maims the free growth of the soul."
To be continued
