... I should like to meet a philosopher like Nietzsche somewhere in a train
or a steamer, and to spend the whole night talking to him. I consider his
philosophy won't last long, however. It's more showy than convincing....




MELIHOVO,
March 16, 1895.


Instead of you, heaven has sent me N., who has come to see me with E. and
Z., two young duffers who never miss a single word but induce in the whole
household a desperate boredom. N. looks flabby and physically slack; he has
gone off, but has become warmer and more good-natured; he must be going to
die. When my mother was ordering meat from the butcher, she said he must
let us have better meat, as N. was staying with us from Petersburg.

"What N.?" asked the butcher in surprise--"the one who writes books?" and
he sent us excellent meat. So the butcher does not know that I write books,
for he never sends anything but gristle for my benefit....

Your little letter about physical games for students will do good if only
you will go on insisting on the subject. Games are absolutely essential.
Playing games is good for health and beauty and liberalism, since nothing
is so conducive to the blending of classes, et cetera, as public games.
Games would give our solitary young people acquaintances; young people
would more frequently fall in love; but games should not be instituted