Пресспапье находится на письменном столе в яснополянском кабинете Толстого. Первый экземпляр (бракованный) хранится в Государственном музее Л. Н. Толстого в Москве.
1901 г. Августа 2/15. Я. П.
Dear Friend,
You were right in guessing that I must be interested in the Tolstoy Society. So I was. But I am sorry that I have enough vanity left to be interested in it. I have always held the opinion and it cannot change — that to be a member of the old Society that was started by God at the beginning of conscious humanity, is more profitable for oneself and for mankind than to be a member of limited societies which we organise for the sake of attaining the end which we are able to conceive. I think the preference we give to our own Societies is due to the fact that the part we play in our own Societies seems to us to be of much greater importance than the one we play in God’s great Society.
But this is only an illusion; all the three modes of activity which you mention in your letter will be more surely attained by a man who regards himself a member of God’s great Society, than by a member of Tolstoy’s Society. Such a man who is earnest, as I know you are, will, firstly spread as much as he can the ideas that give him peace of conscience and energy in life without minding whether they are Tolstoy’s or anybody else’s.
He will secondly try with all his might to induce people to speak their mind on the most important questions of life. He will, thirdly, try to give every person he comes in contact with, as much joy and happiness as it in his power to do and will also help those who get into difficulties through strictly following the teaching of Christ.
A man belonging to God’s great Society, will beside that perform many other useful Christian acts which have neither been foreseen nor formulated by Tolstoy’s or any other Society.
I own there are some advantages in the union of persons of the same mind who form Societies; but, I think, the drawbacks of such organisations are much greater that their advantages, And so I think, for myself, that it would be a great loss to me
