Charles GOUNOD. L.A.S., March 19, 1891, to Ely Halpérine-Kaminsky; 3 pages in-8, envelope. Answer to a survey on Tolstoi, concerning his article Le Vin et le Tabac in the Revue Scientifique of March 14, 1891: "I have just read this noble study with the respectful attention that the respectable name of the author deserves and commands, and [...] I share his opinion in all matters of intellectual faculties. I believe that the use of tobacco produces a numbing effect on the faculties in question; that this numbing effect is due to use, and may even be atrophied by abuse. I am not so convinced that it can go as far as the obliteration of Consciousness, whose testimony is too vivid to undergo so easily such a fatal eclipse. I say the Consciousness, notice it; I do not say the Will. Consciousness is divine jurisdiction; Will is human energy. It can be debilitated by the abuses that attack its organs; this, on the contrary, seems to me to be above all attacks, because it creates Responsibility, outside of which man ceases to be justiciable. I have smoked a lot; I do not remember that it has ever modified the judgment of my Conscience on the morality of my acts "...