in America
with Mark Tapley he saw a slave being sold. Mark Tapley observed that
'the Americans were so fond of Liberty that they took liberties with
her.' That is, in brief, what ails the Mormons. The only argument in
favor of them which can possibly be made is that their practice, not
their preaching, offers the only solution of your own theory that all
women should be married. But that theory has never been advanced in
extenuation of their behavior. I offer it to you brand new, as a slight
illustration of a very unpleasant subject."

One day, during a chat in his study, he had praised Dickens.

"There are three requisites which go to make a perfect writer," he
remarked. "First, he must have something worth saying. Second, he must
have a proper way of saying it. Third, he must have sincerity. Dickens
had all three of these qualities. Thackeray had not much to say; he had
a great deal of art in saying it; but he had not enough sincerity.
Dostoevsky possessed all three requisites. Nekrasoff knew well how to
express himself, but he did not possess the first quality; he forced
himself to say something, whatever would catch the public at the moment,
of which he was a very keen judge. As he wrote to suit the popular
taste, believing not at all in what he said, he had none of the third
requisite." He declared that America had not as yet produced any
first-class woman writer, like George Eliot and George Sand.

Count Tolstoy's latest book at that time was "What to Do?" It was much
discussed, though not very new. It will be remembered that in the final
chapter of that work he argues that woman's whole duty consists in
marrying and having as large a family as possible. But, in speaking of
Mr. Howells's "The Undiscovered Country," which he had just discovered,
--it was odd to think he had never heard of Mr. Howells before,--he
remarked, in connection with the Shakers, that "it was a good thing that
they did not marry."

He said this more than once and at some length. I did not like to enter
on the subject lest he should go too far, in his earnestness, before the
assembled company. Therefore I seized an opportunity to ask his wife how
he reconciled that remark with his creed that all women should marry.

She answered that it certainly was not consistent, but that her husband
changed his opinion every two years; and, to my consternation, she
instantly appealed to him. He did not go into details, however. He
pulled out a lette