"On March 15, 1889, Leo Tolstoy noted in his diary:
Got up early again, worked a lot. Read Quental. Good. He says he has found
out that regardless of any irrefutable proofs (determinism) of the dependence of
life upon external causes, freedom does exist-but it exists only for the saint.
For the saint the world ceases to be a prison. On the contrary, he (the saint)
becomes the master of the world, because he is its supreme interpreter. 'Only
through him does the world know why it exists. Only he fulfills the purpose of
the world.' Good.
The editors of the ninety-volume Jubilee Edition of Tolstoy's works,
diaries, and letters provide no commentary on this passage except to
identify the name Quental as "Anthero de Kental (1842-1891), Portuguese poet," misspelling the name in Latin letters immediately after
quoting the correct form written by Tolstoy. This is the only mention
of Quental in all of Tolstoy's published writings, and nobody has ever
explained how Tolstoy happened to read him-or what he actually
read-on March 15, 1889."
Edgerton, William B., “Tolstoy and Magalhães Lima” in Comparative Literature, vol. 28, n.º 1, 1976, pp. 51-64. Daqui
Retrato de Antero de Quental
Columbano Bordalo Pinheiro
1889
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