in the precepts of Jesus. The two other methods—cruel repression and liberal reforms—had been tried and had failed. No answer was made to this letter, and the regicides were executed. These events made a deep impression on his soul.
At that time a great change took place in his home life. He went with his family to live in Moscow. Town life was a great trial for Tolstoy: the crying contrast between the city beggars and the insolent opulence of the rich; at every street corner hungry beggars with hands stretched out for alms, and gluttons gorging themselves in brilliantly lighted restaurants; coachmen shivering on their boxes whilst their masters enjoyed the music of the theatres or churches—all this made his heart ache, imbued as he was with the Christian spirit and seeking for its manifestation around him.
In the winter of 1882 a census was taken in Moscow. Tolstoy conceived the idea of seizing the occasion to penetrate into the worst and most wretched slums of the poor, in order to study them and devise some means of alleviation. He made an appeal to Moscow society, inviting it to make use of the coming census in order to get into touch with the poor and to extend to them unfailing brotherly and Christian help. The resources needed for this purpose he supposed might be collected by
