Tolstoy's letter to Davidson

by Leo Tolstoy

Mr. Morrison Davidson, having forwarded to Count Tolstoi his recent little volume "Let There Be Light!" has received the following characteristic acknowledgment:

Dear sir:
I have received your book, and have read it with great interest and pleasure. The whole book is penetrated by a true Christian spirit, which invites to action and not to submission to, or adaptation of, the present state of things.

I was happy to read the good tidings in your letter, the more so that we see the same events in Russia and Germany, and especially in Austria. I think that indeed the Kingdom of God is at hand.

Are you acquainted with a German periodical edited in Buda-Pesth under the title of "Religion des Geistes" by Eugene Schmitz? I think it would be good if you were in communication with him.

Although your book is dedicated to your grandsons I suppose you are yet a young man, and, therefore, I heartily wish you may still work for a long time in the same direction where you are now progressing, and may you experience more and more joy in fulfilling the will of Him who sent you here:

Yours truly,
Sept. 10

Leo Tolstoi