TOLSTOI Léon (1828-1910). L.A.S. "Leo Tolstoy," Feb. 5, 1900; to a "dear friend"; 3 pages in-8 (ink faded, small repairs to fold); in French. Advice for a marriage. ... "The good thing is that you are dissatisfied with yourself. This is the only way to advance morally in the project of your marriage, I can only repeat to you what I have said several times and what I am fully convinced of - that he who cannot attain complete chastity does well "the next best" as the English say, by marrying with the firm resolution not to abandon his wife until death. Just be careful not to get caught up in the carnal side of marriage, i.e. to marry a woman whose convictions are different from yours and who does not have enough humility and affection for you to accept yours. In any case it is a difficult and dangerous step and one should look twice before taking it. He received a letter from his friend Fontaine, "which pleased me very much. I tried to dissuade him from his trip to Russia. I always have a painful feeling of a great obligation that I cannot fulfill when people come from so far away just to see me. He writes me that he will come anyway. If he comes, I will do everything I can to be useful to him"...