and possessions; she did not want to see her children impoverished. Tolstoy thought a mother's love was selfish, and often writes about it in this sense.
Countess Tolstoy had been upset when her husband gave up writing novels, for they brought in a lot of money; and now, with their largely increased family, their income, instead of becoming more, became less. Tolstoy, in a letter to his wife on this subject, says:
. . . but I cannot help repeating that our happiness or
unhappiness cannot in the least depend on whether we
lose or acquire something, but only what we ourselves are.
Now if we left Kostenka (one of their children) a million,
would he be happier?. . . What our life together is, with
our joys and sorrows, will appear to our children real
life, but neither languages, nor diplomas, nor society, and
still less money, make our happiness or unhappiness, and
therefore the question how much our income shrinks cannot
occupy me.
Tolstoy finally satisfied himself by giving up his
estates to his family. The house itself he left to the
youngest, Ivan. This was a tradition in the family,
Tolstoy, as his mother's youngest son, having inherited
Yasnaya Polyana.
This little boy, who was born when Tolstoy was quite old, promised to be very remarkable, and his father took more interest in him than any of his other children. The child Ivan understood things just as his father did. When one day his mother said to him, "Ivan, Yasnaya is yours," he was very angry and
