generously made available by the internet archive/american libraries.) [ transcriber's notes: every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as possible, including any non-standard spelling. italic text has been marked with _underscores_. ] where love is there god is also by lyof n. tolstoi translated from the russian by nathan haskell dole new york thomas y. crowell company publishers copyright, 1887, by thomas y. crowell & co. where love is there god is also in the city lived the shoemaker, martuin avdyeitch. he lived in a basement, in a little room with one window. the window looked out on the street. through the window he used to watch the people passing by; although only their feet could be seen, yet by the boots, martuin avdyeitch recognized the people. martuin avdyeitch had lived long in one place, and had many acquaintances. few pairs of boots in his district had not been in his hands once and again. some he would half-sole, some he would patch, some he would stitch around, and occasionally he would also put on new uppers. and through the window he often recognized his work. avdyeitch had plenty to do, because he was a faithful workman, used good material, did not make exorbitant charges, and kept his word. if it was possible for him to finish an order by a certain time, he would accept it; otherwise, he would not deceive you,--he would tell you so beforehand. and all knew avdyeitch, and he was never out of work. avdyeitch had always been a good man; but as he grew old, he began to think more about his soul, and get nearer to god. martuin's wife had died when he was still living with his master. his wife left him a boy three years old. none of their other children had lived. all the eldest had died in childhood. martuin at first intended to send his little son to his sister in the village, but afterward he felt sorry for him; he thought to himself:-"it will be hard for my kapitoshka to live in a strange family. i shall keep him with me." and avdyeitch left his master, and went into lodgings with his little son. but god gave avdyeitch no luck with his children. as kapitoshka grew older, he began to help his father, and would have been a delight to him, but a sickness fell on him, he went to bed, suffered a week, and died. martuin buried his son, and fell into despair. so deep was this despair that he began to complain of god. martuin fell into such a melancholy state, that more than once he prayed to god for death, and reproached god because he had not taken him who was an old man, instead of his beloved only son. avdyeitch also ceased to go to church. and once a little old man from the same district came from troïtsa(1) to see avdyeitch; for seven years he had been wandering about. avdyeitch talked with him, and began to complain about his sorrows. (1) trinity, a famous monastery, pilgrimage to which is reckoned a virtue. avdyeitch calls this _zemlyak-starichok_, _bozhi chelovyek_, god's man.--ed. "i have no desire to live any longer," he said, "i only wish i was dead. that is all i pray god for. i am a man without anything to hope for now." and the little old man said to him:-"you don't talk right, martuin, we must not judge god's doings. the world moves, not by our skill, but by god's will. god decreed for your son to die,--for you--to live. so it is for the best. and you are in despair, because you wish to live for your own happiness." "but what shall one live for?" asked martuin. and the little old man said:-"we must live for god, martuin. he gives you life, and for his sake you must live. when you begin to live for him, you will not grieve over anything, and all will seem easy to you." martuin kept silent for a moment, and then said, "but how can one live for god?" and the little old man said:-"christ has taught us how to live for god. you know how to read? buy a testament, and read it; there you will learn how to live for god. everything is explained there." and these words kindled a fire in avdyeitch's heart. and he went that very same day, bought a new testament in large print, and began to read. at first avdyeitch intended to read only on holidays; but as he began to read, it so cheered his soul that he used to read every day. at times he would become so absorbed in reading, that all the kerosene in the lamp would burn out, and still he could not tear himself away. and so avdyeitch used to read every evening. and the more he read, the clearer he understood what god wanted of him, and how one should live for god; and his heart kept growing easier and easier. formerly, when he lay down to sleep, he used to sigh and groan, and always thought of his kapitoshka; and now his only exclamation was:-"glory to thee! glory to thee, lord! thy will be done." and from that time avdyeitch's whole life was changed. in other days he, too, used to drop into a public-house(2) as a holiday amusement, to drink a cup of tea; and he was not averse to a little brandy, either. he would take a drink with some acquaintance, and leave the saloon, not intoxicated, exactly, yet in a happy frame of mind, and inclined to talk nonsense, and shout, and use abusive language at a person. now he left off that sort of thing. his life became quiet and joyful. in the morning he would sit down to work, finish his allotted task, then take the little lamp from the hook, put it on the table, get his book from the shelf, open it, and sit down to read. and the more he read, the more he understood, and the brighter and happier it grew in his heart. (2) _traktir._ once it happened that martuin read till late into the night. he was reading the gospel of luke. he was reading over the sixth chapter; and he was reading the verses:-"_and unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloak forbid not to take thy coat also. give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again. and as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise._" he read farther also those verses, where god speaks: "_and why call ye me, lord, lord, and do not the things which i say? whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, i will shew you to whom he is like: he is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it; for it was founded upon a rock. but he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great._" avdyeitch read these words, and joy filled his soul. he took off his spectacles, put them down on the book, leaned his elbows on the table, and became lost in thought. and he began to measure his life by these words. and he thought to himself:-"is my house built on the rock, or on the sand? 'tis well if on the rock. it is so easy when you are alone by yourself; it seems as if you had done everything as god commands; but when you forget yourself, you sin again. yet i shall still struggle on. it is very good. help me, lord!" thus ran his thoughts; he wanted to go to bed, but he felt loath to tear himself away from the book. and he began to read farther in the seventh chapter. he read about the centurion, he read about the widow's son, he read about the answer given to john's disciples, and finally he came to that place where the rich pharisee desired the lord to sit at meat with him; and he read how the woman that was a sinner anointed his feet, and washed them with her tears, and how he forgave her. he reached the forty-fourth verse, and began to read:-"_and he turned to the woman, and said unto simon, seest thou this woman? i entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time i came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet. my head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment._" he finished reading these verses, and thought to himself:-"_thou gavest me no water for my feet, thou gavest me no kiss. my head with oil thou didst not anoint._" and again avdyeitch took off his spectacles, put them down on the book, and again he became lost in thought. "it seems that pharisee must have been such a man as i am. i, too, apparently have thought only of myself,--how i might have my tea, be warm and comfortable, but never to think about my guest. he thought about himself, but there was not the least care taken of the guest. and who was his guest? the lord himself. if he had come to me, should i have done the same way?" avdyeitch rested his head upon both his arms, and did not notice that he fell asleep. "martuin!" suddenly seemed to sound in his ears. martuin started from his sleep:-"who is here?" he turned around, glanced toward the door--no one. again he fell into a doze. suddenly, he plainly heard:-"martuin! ah, martuin! look to-morrow on the street. i am coming." martuin awoke, rose from the chair, began to rub his eyes. he himself could not tell whether he heard those words in his dream, or in reality. he turned down his lamp, and went to bed. at daybreak next morning, avdyeitch rose, made his prayer to god, lighted the stove, put on the shchi(3) and the kasha,(4) put the water in the samovar, put on his apron, and sat down by the window to work. (3) cabbage-soup. (4) gruel. and while he was working, he kept thinking about all that had happened the day before. it seemed to him at one moment that it was a dream, and now he had really heard a voice. "well," he said to himself, "such things have been." martuin was sitting by the window, and looking out more than he was working. when anyone passed by in boots which he did not know, he would bend down, look out of the window, in order to see, not only the feet, but also the face. the dvornik(5) passed by in new felt boots,(6) the water-carrier passed by; then there came up to the window an old soldier of nicholas's time, in an old pair of laced felt boots, with a shovel in his hands. avdyeitch recognized him by his felt boots. the old man's name was stepanuitch; and a neighboring merchant, out of charity, gave him a home with him. he was required to assist the dvornik. stepanuitch began to shovel away the snow from in front of avdyeitch's window. avdyeitch glanced at him, and took up his work again. (5) house-porter. (6) _valenki._ "pshaw! i must be getting crazy in my old age," said avdyeitch, and laughed at himself. "stepanuitch is clearing away the snow, and i imagine that christ is coming to see me. i was entirely out of my mind, old dotard that i am!" avdyeitch sewed about a dozen stitches, and then felt impelled to look through the window again. he looked out again through the window, and saw that stepanuitch had leaned his shovel against the wall, and was warming himself, and resting. he was an old, broken-down man; evidently he had not strength enough even to shovel the snow. avdyeitch said to himself:-"i will give him some tea; by the way, the samovar has only just gone out." avdyeitch laid down his awl, rose from his seat, put the samovar on the table, poured out the tea, and tapped with his finger at the glass. stepanuitch turned around, and came to the window. avdyeitch beckoned to him, and went to open the door. "come in, warm yourself a little," he said. "you must be cold." "may christ reward you for this! my bones ache," said stepanuitch. stepanuitch came in, and shook off the snow, tried to wipe his feet, so as not to soil the floor, but staggered. "don't trouble to wipe your feet. i will clean it up myself; we are used to such things. come in and sit down," said avdyeitch. "here, drink a cup of tea." and avdyeitch lifted two glasses, and handed one to his guest; while he himself poured his tea into a saucer, and began to blow it. stepanuitch finished drinking his glass of tea, turned the glass upside down,(7) put the half-eaten lump of sugar on it, and began to express his thanks. but it was evident he wanted some more. (7) to signify he was satisfied; a custom among the russians.--ed. "have some more," said avdyeitch, filling both his own glass and his guest's. avdyeitch drank his tea, but from time to time glanced out into the street. "are you expecting anyone?" asked his guest. "am i expecting anyone? i am ashamed even to tell whom i expect. i am, and i am not, expecting someone; but one word has kindled a fire in my heart. whether it is a dream, or something else, i do not know. don't you see, brother, i was reading yesterday the gospel about christ the batyushka; how he suffered, how he walked on the earth. i suppose you have heard about it?" "indeed i have," replied stepanuitch; "but we are people in darkness, we can't read." "well, now, i was reading about that very thing,--how he walked on the earth; i read, you know, how he came to the pharisee, and the pharisee did not treat him hospitably. well, and so, my brother, i was reading yesterday, about this very thing, and was thinking to myself how he did not receive christ, the batyushka, with honor. suppose, for example, he should come to me, or anyone else, i said to myself, i should not even know how to receive him. and he gave him no reception at all. well! while i was thus thinking, i fell asleep, brother, and i heard someone call me by name. i got up; the voice, just as if someone whispered, said, 'be on the watch; i shall come to-morrow.' and this happened twice. well! would you believe it, it got into my head? i scolded myself--and yet i am expecting him, the batyushka." stepanuitch shook his head, and said nothing; he finished drinking his glass of tea, and put it on the side; but avdyeitch picked up the glass again, and filled it once more. "drink some more for your good health. you see, i have an idea that, when the batyushka went about on this earth, he disdained no one, and had more to do with the simple people. he always went to see the simple people. he picked out his disciples more from among folk like such sinners as we are, from the working class. said he, whoever exalts himself, shall be humbled, and he who is humbled shall become exalted. said he, you call me lord, and, said he, i wash your feet. whoever wishes, said he, to be the first, the same shall be a servant to all. because, said he, blessed are the poor, the humble, the kind, the generous." and stepanuitch forgot about his tea; he was an old man, and easily moved to tears. he was listening, and the tears rolled down his face. "come, now, have some more tea," said avdyeitch; but stepanuitch made the sign of the cross, thanked him, turned down his glass, and arose. "thanks to you," he says, "martuin avdyeitch, for treating me kindly, and satisfying me, soul and body." "you are welcome; come in again; always glad to see a friend," said avdyeitch. stepanuitch departed; and martuin poured out the rest of the tea, drank it up, put away the dishes, and sat down again by the window to work, to stitch on a patch. he kept stitching away, and at the same time looking through the window. he was expecting christ, and was all the while thinking of him and his deeds, and his head was filled with the different speeches of christ. two soldiers passed by: one wore boots furnished by the crown, and the other one, boots that he had made; then the master(8) of the next house passed by in shining galoshes; then a baker with a basket passed by. all passed by; and now there came also by the window a woman in woolen stockings and rustic bashmaks on her feet. she passed by the window, and stood still near the window-case. (8) _khozyaïn._ avdyeitch looked up at her from the window, and saw it was a stranger, a woman poorly clad, and with a child; she was standing by the wall with her back to the wind, trying to wrap up the child, and she had nothing to wrap it up in. the woman was dressed in shabby summer clothes; and from behind the frame, avdyeitch could hear the child crying, and the woman trying to pacify it; but she was not able to pacify it. avdyeitch got up, went to the door, ascended the steps, and cried:-"my good woman. hey! my good woman!"(9) (9) _umnitsa aumnitsa!_ literally, clever one. the woman heard him and turned around. "why are you standing in the cold with the child? come into my room, where it is warm; you can manage it better. here, this way!" the woman was astonished. she saw an old, old man in an apron, with spectacles on his nose, calling her to him. she followed him. they descended the steps and entered the room; the old man led the woman to his bed. "there," says he, "sit down, my good woman, nearer to the stove; you can get warm, and nurse the little one." "i have no milk for him. i myself have not eaten anything since morning," said the woman; but, nevertheless, she took the baby to her breast. avdyeitch shook his head, went to the table, brought out the bread and a dish, opened the oven door, poured into the dish some cabbage soup, took out the pot with the gruel, but it was not cooked as yet; so he filled the dish with shchi only, and put it on the table. he got the bread, took the towel down from the hook, and spread it upon the table. "sit down," he says, "and eat, my good woman; and i will mind the little one. you see, i once had children of my own; i know how to handle them." the woman crossed herself, sat down at the table, and began to eat; while avdyeitch took a seat on the bed near the infant. avdyeitch kept smacking and smacking to it with his lips; but it was a poor kind of smacking, for he had no teeth. the little one kept on crying. and it occured to avdyeitch to threaten the little one with his finger; he waved, waved his finger right before the child's mouth, and hastily withdrew it. he did not put it to its mouth, because his finger was black, and soiled with wax. and the little one looked at his finger, and became quiet; then it began to smile, and avdyeitch also was glad. while the woman was eating, she told who she was, and whither she was going. said she:-"i am a soldier's wife. it is now seven months since they sent my husband away off, and no tidings. i lived out as cook; the baby was born; no one cared to keep me with a child. this is the third month that i have been struggling along without a place. i ate up all i had. i wanted to engage as a wet-nurse--no one would take me--i am too thin, they say. i have just been to the merchant's wife, where lives a young woman i know, and so they promised to take us in. i thought that was the end of it. but she told me to come next week. and she lives a long way off. i got tired out; and it tired him, too, my heart's darling. fortunately, our landlady takes pity on us for the sake of christ, and gives us a room, else i don't know how i should manage to get along." avdyeitch sighed, and said: "haven't you any warm clothes?" "now is the time, friend, to wear warm clothes; but yesterday i pawned my last shawl for a twenty-kopek piece."(10) (10) _dvagrivennui_, silver, worth sixteen cents. the woman came to the bed, and took the child; and avdyeitch rose, went to the partition, rummaged round, and succeeded in finding an old coat. "na!" says he; "it is a poor thing, yet you may turn it to some use." the woman looked at the coat and looked at the old man; she took the coat, and burst into tears; and avdyeitch turned away his head; crawling under the bed, he pushed out a little trunk, rummaged in it, and sat down again opposite the woman. and the woman said:-"may christ bless you, little grandfather!(11) he must have sent me to your window. my little baby would have frozen to death. when i started out it was warm, but now it has grown cold. and he, the batyushka, led you to look through the window and take pity on me, an unfortunate." (11) _diedushka._ avdyeitch smiled, and said:-"indeed, he did that! i have been looking through the window, my good woman, for some wise reason." and martuin told the soldier's wife his dream, and how he heard the voice,--how the lord promised to come and see him that day. "all things are possible," said the woman. she rose, put on the coat, wrapped up her little child in it; and, as she started to take leave, she thanked avdyeitch again. "take this, for christ's sake," said avdyeitch, giving her a twenty-kopek piece; "redeem your shawl." she made the sign of the cross, and avdyeitch made the sign of the cross and went with her to the door. the woman went away. avdyeitch ate some shchi, washed the dishes, and sat down again to work. while he was working he still remembered the window; when the window grew darker he immediately looked out to see who was passing by. acquaintances passed by and strangers passed by, and there was nothing out of the ordinary. but here avdyeitch saw that an old apple woman had stopped in front of his window. she carried a basket with apples. only a few were left, as she had evidently sold them nearly all out; and over her shoulder she had a bag full of chips. she must have gathered them up in some new building, and was on her way home. one could see that the bag was heavy on her shoulder; she tried to shift it to the other shoulder. so she lowered the bag on the sidewalk, stood the basket with the apples on a little post, and began to shake down the splinters in the bag. and while she was shaking her bag, a little boy in a torn cap came along, picked up an apple from the basket, and was about to make his escape; but the old woman noticed it, turned around, and caught the youngster by his sleeve. the little boy began to struggle, tried to tear himself away; but the old woman grasped him with both hands, knocked off his cap, and caught him by the hair. the little boy was screaming, the old woman was scolding. avdyeitch lost no time in putting away his awl; he threw it upon the floor, sprang to the door,--he even stumbled on the stairs, and dropped his spectacles,--and rushed out into the street. the old woman was pulling the youngster by his hair, and was scolding and threatening to take him to the policeman; the youngster was defending himself, and denying the charge. "i did not take it," he said; "what are you licking me for? let me go!" avdyeitch tried to separate them. he took the boy by his arm, and said:-"let him go, babushka; forgive him, for christ's sake." "i will forgive him so that he won't forget it till the new broom grows. i am going to take the little villain to the police." avdyeitch began to entreat the old woman:-"let him go, babushka," he said, "he will never do it again. let him go, for christ's sake." the old woman let him loose; the boy started to run, but avdyeitch kept him back. "ask the babushka's forgiveness," he said, "and don't you ever do it again; i saw you take the apple." the boy burst into tears, and began to ask forgiveness. "there now! that's right; and here's an apple for you." and avdyeitch took an apple from the basket, and gave it to the boy. "i will pay you for it, babushka," he said to the old woman. "you ruin them that way, the good-for-nothings," said the old woman. "he ought to be treated so that he would remember it for a whole week." "eh, babushka, babushka," said avdyeitch, "that is right according to our judgment, but not according to god's. if he is to be whipped for an apple, then what ought to be done to us for our sins?" the old woman was silent. and avdyeitch told her the parable of the master who forgave a debtor all that he owed him, and how the debtor went and began to choke one who owed him. the old woman listened, and the boy stood listening. "god has commanded us to forgive," said avdyeitch, "else we, too, may not be forgiven. all should be forgiven, and the thoughtless especially." the old woman shook her head, and sighed. "that's so," said she; "but the trouble is that they are very much spoiled." "then we who are older must teach them," said avdyeitch. "that's just what i say," remarked the old woman. "i myself have had seven of them,--only one daughter is left." and the old woman began to relate where and how she lived with her daughter, and how many grandchildren she had. "here," she says, "my strength is only so-so, and yet i have to work. i pity the youngsters--my grandchildren--but what nice children they are! no one gives me such a welcome as they do. aksintka won't go to anyone but me. 'babushka, dear babushka, lovliest.'" and the old woman grew quite sentimental. "of course, it is a childish trick. god be with him," said she, pointing to the boy. the woman was just about to lift the bag up on her shoulder, when the boy ran up, and said:-"let me carry it, babushka; it is on my way." the old woman nodded her head, and put the bag on the boy's back. and side by side they passed along the street. and the old woman even forgot to ask avdyeitch to pay for the apple. avdyeitch stood motionless, and kept gazing after them; and he heard them talking all the time as they walked away. after avdyeitch saw them disappear, he returned to his room; he found his eye-glasses on the stairs,--they were not broken; he picked up his awl, and sat down to work again. after working a little while, it grew darker, so that he could not see to sew; he saw the lamplighter passing by to light the street-lamps. "it must be time to make a light," he said to himself; so he got his little lamp ready, hung it up, and he took himself again to his work. he had one boot already finished; he turned it around, looked at it: "well done." he put away his tools, swept off the cuttings, cleared off the bristles and ends, took the lamp, set it on the table, and took down the gospels from the shelf. he intended to open the book at the very place where he had yesterday put a piece of leather as a mark, but it happened to open at another place; and the moment avdyeitch opened the testament, he recollected his last night's dream. and as soon as he remembered it, it seemed as if he heard someone stepping about behind him. avdyeitch looked around, and saw--there, in the dark corner, it seemed as if people were standing; he was at a loss to know who they were. and a voice whispered in his ear:-"martuin--ah, martuin! did you not recognize me?" "who?" exclaimed avdyeitch. "me," repeated the voice. "it was i;" and stepanuitch stepped forth from the dark corner; he smiled, and like a little cloud faded away, and soon vanished. "and it was i," said the voice. from the dark corner stepped forth the woman with her child; the woman smiled, the child laughed, and they also vanished, "and it was i," continued the voice; both the old woman and the boy with the apple stepped forward; both smiled and vanished. avdyeitch's soul rejoiced; he crossed himself, put on his spectacles, and began to read the evangelists where it happened to open. on the upper part of the page he read:-"_for i was an hungered, and ye gave me meat; i was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; i was a stranger, and ye took me in._" and on the lower part of the page he read this:-"_inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me._"--st. matthew, chap. xxv. and avdyeitch understood that his dream had not deceived him; that the saviour really called on him that day, and that he really received him. transcriber's notes: italic text is denoted by _underscores_ and bold text by =equal signs=. small uppercase have been replaced with regular uppercase. blank pages have been eliminated. variations in spelling and hyphenation have been left as in the original. "my visit to tolstoy" five discourses by rabbi joseph krauskopf, d. d. [illustration] philadelphia 1911 my visit to tolstoy. a discourse, at temple keneseth israel, by rabbi joseph krauskopf, d. d. philadelphia, december 11th, 1910. my visit to russia and its purpose. in the summer of 1894 i visited russia for the purpose of proposing to the czar a plan that might end or lessen the terrible persecution of the jews in his realm. the plan intended was a removal of the persecuted jews to unoccupied lands in the interior, there to be colonized on farms, and to be maintained, until self-supporting, by their correligionists of other parts of the world. refused admission by russian government. learning that, because a jew, i would not be admitted into russia, i conferred with president cleveland and secretary gresham, both of whom heartily endorsed my plan and resolved to intervene. the russian minister at washington declaring his powerlessness to _visé_ my passport, our secretary of state cabled to the american minister at st. petersburg to obtain the desired permission from the foreign office, only to receive as reply the words "_russian government deeply regrets its inability to accede to request in behalf of reverend jewish divine_." determined to test my citizenship right. the injustice of the reply determined me more than ever to enter russia, if only to make a test case of my citizenship rights. the treaty between the united states and russia guarantees to every american citizen the right of entry on russian soil, and as an american citizen that right was mine; my religion being my private affair and no concern of russia's. the determination to test the supremacy of international law over national prejudice aroused a large part of the american press to a vigorous endorsement of my position. a bill was introduced in congress to the effect that the treaty between the two countries be declared abrogated if an american citizen be turned back from the gates of russia by reason of his religion. was admitted. in the height of the agitation i departed for russia, knocked at the gates of st. petersburg--and was admitted. russia had evidently come to the conclusion that it was better policy to admit me and to keep her eyes on me than to allow the agitation and the indignation to continue in our country. met distinguished russians. while within the russian borders, i was privileged to come in contact with many prominent russians, one of them m. witte, who at that time was minister of finance and practically at the head of the empire, the czar, alexander iii, being critically ill in the crimea, where he shortly after died. tolstoy most distinguished of all. but of all the men i met none made the impression that was left upon me by my visit to count leo tolstoy. it was made possible by mr. andrew d. white, the distinguished scholar and statesman, who at that time represented our country at st. petersburg. he had written and asked the count to meet me and to learn of the mission that brought me to russia. the count's daughter, tatiana, replied that her father would be pleased to have me visit him, adding that he was just then engaged in hay-making, and, therefore, had not much leisure. to take as little of his time as possible i arranged to arrive in the court-yard of his manor-house at yasnaya polyana, late in the afternoon. approaching a group of peasants that stood at a well drinking water and mopping their brows, my travelling-companion, a young russian lawyer, asked them where we might find the count. one of them stepped out of the group, and, lifting his cap, said most courteously that he was tolstoy, and, learning my name, he bade me a hearty welcome. held me captive from first meeting. from the moment i first gazed upon him he held me captive, and, by a strange psychic power, he has held me enthralled ever since. no wish of mine has been more fondly cherished in the sixteen years that have since passed by than that of some day visiting russia again, and only for the purpose of seeing once more that strangely fascinating personality, of listening again to his marvelous flow of wisdom. his personality. i had often wondered how a moses, an isaiah, a jeremiah, a socrates, looked and talked, denounced and dreamed, the moment i saw and heard tolstoy i knew. one hour's talk with him seemed equal to a whole university course in political and social science; one walk with him on his estate stored up in the listener more knowledge of moral philosophy than could be crowded into a year's seminary instruction. great as was the power of his pen, immeasurably greater was the power of his living word. in some mysterious way the flow of his speech seemed to exercise an hypnotic spell upon the speaker as much as upon the listener. the speaker seemed at times translated into a super-human being, seemed inspired, seemed to speak words not his own, as one of the ancient prophets of israel must have spoken when he said the words: "thus saith the lord," while the listener seemed scarcely capable of thought or speech, felt his being almost lose its identity and become merged with that of the speaker. at times his voice would sound as elijah's voice must have sounded when he said to ahab, the king, "thou art he who troubleth israel," and at times it would seem as sweet as the voice of one of russia's nightingales. at times his strong, rugged, bearded face would resemble that of the pictured jupiter in wrath, and then it would rival in serenity one of raphael's saints. at times he would seem to carry on his shoulders all the woe of the world, resembling one of the mediaeval pictures of the martyr of nazareth, and then again he would seem as care-free and happy as a little babe. he had never learned the art of concealing his thoughts and emotions. his face and voice were as a mirror that revealed with microscopic exactness his innermost self. what he felt moved to speak he spoke; what he felt urged to do he did; he never stopped to consider whether it will please or displease, whether it will bring praise or censure upon him. like a piece of living, weather-beaten new england granite he looked in his home-spun crash blouse, his jean trousers girded at the waist with a rope, his coarse woolen shirt open at the neck, his well-worn bast shoes. he seemed, indeed, a composite of the looks and traits and thoughts that characterized the puritans in the early history of the new england states. he lived his life according to his own light. excepting god, he bowed to no master. his conscience was his sole rule of right. his law was his own. his creed was his own. his style of dress, his mode of living were of his own choosing. his was above all else himself, not an echo of another. he was the freest man in the most enslaved of lands. his was the brightest mind in darkest russia, the most democratic spirit in the most autocratic of realms. his peasant garb could not hide the noble man, ennobled by exalted thought and achievement and not by the will of potentate. his peasant labor could not hide the man born to command, not by means of knout or sword or prison but by the law of love and right and truth. as severe with the world so gentle with his own. as fearless as he was in his denunciations of the wrong-doings of government and church and society, and as bold as he was in his reform propositions, so gentle and simple-minded was he at his family table. i had read that two kinds of meals were served at his table, a frugal one for himself and a sumptuous one for the rest of his family. the meal of which i partook was a frugal one for all. i was, however, little conscious of what i ate. i was held spell-bound by the count's conversation which dominated the table, and which was carried on in english, occasionally passing into german or french or russian. a table incident. he was in an especially happy mood that evening. in the mail that had been brought to the table there were a number of papers. opening one of these, the london _standard_, i believe, he observed that an article of his had been severely censored by the russian government. large parts of it had been smeared over with black ink. what amused him was that the parts that were left uncensored were worse than those that had been blackened out, revealing the stupidity of the censor. turning to me, who sat at his right, he said that had the article been a panegyric on the czar, it would probably have received the same treatment, for no matter what he writes, it is daubed over, here and there, on the general principle that, having been written by tolstoy, it must of necessity be revolutionary. continuing, he told me that that particular article was one of a series on the subject of "_christianity and patriotism_," which, not being permitted to be published in russia, appeared in translation in england. in it he endeavored to show that christianity and patriotism were incompatible, that the latter was an artificial creation, skilfully nourished by rulers for selfish purposes. on account of it wars are waged, evils are wrought, sufferings are inflicted by christians upon christians, who are _religiously_ taught to love one another, to forgive one another, to do good to each other, and who are _patriotically_ trained to hate and overreach each other. humanity, he said, must be put in the place of patriotism. the latter is both stupid and unmoral, _stupid_ because it leads each nation to regard itself the superior of all others, and _unmoral_ because it lures nations to possess themselves of advantages at the cost of others, thus violating the fundamental law of morality, that of not doing to others what they would not have others do to them. humanity makes the whole world every man's country, and every man each man's brother. his home over-run by visitors. when first introduced to the family i felt that their welcome was not quite as hearty as was that of the count. i could easily understand the reason. the presence of guests was almost a daily occurrence, and quite a burden on the household. the count denied himself to none who had a genuine purpose for seeking him. but he was out of patience with mere curiosity seekers or newspaper writers, who sought to rob him of his valuable time in order to fill a column or two with sensational matter. one such writer, a lady journalist, came one day for the sole purpose of having him give her the menu of his vegetarian diet, to tell her whether his undergarments were of as coarse a fabric as were his outer clothes, and whether an equally picturesque peasant-garb might not be designed for women. special incident wins for me family's special welcome. my first impression that i was classed with the other afflictions of the count's universal popularity soon wore off, however, by reason of a letter to the family which i brought with me from a distinguished professor. this gentleman had, a short time before, been dismissed from the university of st. petersburg because he had published an essay on _the ethics of the talmud_, in which he had endeavored to show the lofty moral teachings of the jews. i had made his acquaintance while in st. petersburg, and before leaving that city he called on me, and asked me whether i would not take a letter from him, of an entirely uncompromising nature, to tolstoy, inasmuch, as at that particular time, a letter mailed to the count did not, for easily accountable reasons, always reach him. i readily consented, and that little service, the professor having been a great favorite of the count, made me a welcome guest also to the family. approves of stand taken to gain admission. supper over, the count invited my companion and myself to join him on a walk and to tell him of what service he could be to me. i told him of the mission that brought me to russia and of the difficulties that were placed in the way of my admission. he approved of the stand i had taken, but asked me to blame the governments for it, mine as well as his, and not the russians, who are a kindly people. if united states would take bolder stand russia would yield. he entered at length upon an exposition showing that if the united states would refuse to countenance discriminations between her citizens on account of religious belief, russia would be obliged to yield. i told him of the audience which mr. white and myself had had with m. witte, and that the latter had said that, the czar being sick, nothing could be done without his consent, that i should state my request in the form of a petition, written in english and russian, and that he would present it to the czar with his approval upon the latter's return, and that i had complied with the advice given. the count had little faith that my petition would ever reach the eyes of the czar--and it never did, for the czar never returned alive. and he had little faith in all official promises. the men in power at that time he believed to be either fanatics or cowards. the former sought to secure for themselves a soft berth in heaven, the latter sought it on earth. these were afraid to speak out their honest thought and to deal an honest blow for right and justice. they were afraid of losing caste or position or of being condemned to penal servitude, as if better persons than they had not suffered martyrdom before, or were not now paying in siberia the price for exercising their right to liberty of thought and speech. approves of my mission but has little hope. he warmly approved of my mission but saw no present possibility of its realization. even if the czar were to feel kindly disposed toward my plan, pobiedonostzeff, the procurator of the holy synod, would interpose his objections to permitting jews rooting themselves on russian soil. the policy of the procurator, he said, was to root out the jews, to drive them either into the greek catholic church or into exile or starvation, stupidly attributing the evils of russia to her tolerance of non-orthodox-christian faiths and seeing relief only in their extinction within the empire. and that miscreant considered himself the official head of the russian church, and the administrator of its creed in the name of jesus, of him who bade man to love even his enemy, to do good even to those who do evil, to forgive even those who offend, to bless even those who curse. asks my attitude toward jesus, and defines his. stopping suddenly, and turning his face full upon me, he asked "what is your belief respecting jesus?" i answered that i regard the rabbi of nazareth as one of the greatest of israel's teachers and leaders and reformers, not as a divine being who lived and taught humanly but as a human being who lived and taught divinely. "such is my belief," said he, and he continued "your belief, however, is not that of the jews in russia. many of them have little knowledge of jesus, and more of them, i fear, have little love for him. and who can blame them?" he continued, "they have been made to suffer so much in his name that it would be little short of a miracle if they loved him. mohamed was more honest, he gave to people the choice between the koran and the sword. christians profess love, and practice hatred." i told the count that through the mediation of mr. white, the procurator had consented to grant me an audience, but not till after the lapse of seven weeks, after his return from some monastery to which he had retired for prayer, penance and meditation. "well may he meditate," said the count, "on the wrongs he has committed, and even were he to do penance seven times seven weeks or seven times seven months or seven years, he could not blot out the guilt that stains his soul, and that has darkened and cursed the lives of tens of thousands of innocent human beings." tells why he escaped siberia. amazed at the freedom with which he exposed his condemnation of the most powerful officials of the realm, and convinced that as he spoke to me he must have spoken often to others, and that the government could not possibly be ignorant of it, i asked how it was that he had escaped seizure, exile or imprisonment, to which he replied: "i am not yet sure that i shall not end my days in siberia. that i have escaped thus far is due to the government's sensitiveness of the world's opinion. it knows of the hold my publications have gained for me on civilized people. it fears the cry of outrage that would be raised at the banishment or imprisonment of a man as old as i." he was at that time sixty-six years old. i have since read, that when the czar was one day approached by one of the grand dukes with a request for the banishment of tolstoy on the ground that he incited rebellion against the government and the church, the czar is said to have replied, "_je ne veux pas ajouter a sa gloire une couronne d' un martyr_"--_i do not wish to add to his glory the martyr's crown_--words used by louis xiv of france, when a similar request was made of him. under the poverty tree. after that statement, he walked silently, lost in deep thought, perhaps picturing to himself his declining days among fellow martyrs in far-away siberia, perhaps thinking of the agonies and tortures and untimely deaths that had been inflicted by a cruel or misguided government on thousands of russia's noblest sons and daughters. silently he led the way toward a tree that stood near the house, upon a slight eminence. it was the _poverty tree_ that was destined to afford him beneath its wide spreading branches his last resting place. it derived its name from the custom of poor peasants laying there their troubles before the count. seating himself on a bench beneath the tree he beckoned to us to seat ourselves along side of him. he continued silent for some time, while the setting sun bathed his lionine face and hair in crimson and golden light, and gave him an appearance not unlike one of the old norse gods or vikings which the artist's brush has made familiar to us. at last he resumed his speech. my visit to tolstoy. (_continued._) a discourse, at temple keneseth israel, by rabbi joseph krauskopf, d. d. philadelphia, december 18th, 1910. [resumé--discourse i: reason for my visit to russia and for my calling on tolstoy. description of his appearance and personality. some of his views on russia, its statesmen, its religion, its misgovernment. a pause under _poverty tree_ beneath which he now lies buried.] tolstoy recalled aid sent from philadelphia to famine-stricken in russia. the first question count tolstoy put to me, after his long silence, was from what part of the united states i hailed. upon my telling him that philadelphia was my home, he expressed himself as much pleased. he recalled the two shiploads of food we sent from our port, two years earlier, for the relief of the famine-stricken of russia, and of the distribution of which he had had personal charge, and he spoke with pleasure and appreciation of mr. francis b. reeves, our fellow-townsman, who had accompanied the food-relief. said first aid came from sacramento synagogue. with even keener delight he recalled that the first aid received from the united states was from the jewish congregation of sacramento, california, which to him was all the more remarkable from the fact that the district stricken was, through governmental restriction, uninhabited by jews. the expression of pleasure turned to one of sorrow when he remarked that russia had little deserved such generous treatment at the hands of jews,--and he lived to see the manner in which it was repaid in kishineff and other places. was fond of quakers. reverting to our city, he said that the name of philadelphia had always had a pleasant sound for him, partly because of its meaning "_brotherly love_," and partly because it was founded by william penn. he expressed a high admiration for quakers, and asked how strong they were numerically and whether they are still as opposed to war and resistance as their founders were. upon answering his question to the best of my ability, he asked: "why is it that war, which is the greatest curse of mankind, has so many advocates, and peace, the greatest of all blessings, so few?" after some discussion we both agreed that it was due to that strange perversity of human nature that sees the right and approves of it, and yet often willfully chooses the wrong. blamed school for many of present-day wrongs. he blamed the schools for many of the errors that obtain in society, and claimed that there was too much education of the wrong kind, and too little of the right. in discussing this statement of his, i chanced to mention that education in the lower grades was compulsory with us. to this he strongly objected. all compulsion, he said, was wrong. man must be gotten to do right by the law of love and not by the rule of force. upon my telling him that but for compulsory education some parents would never send their children to school, he said: "what of it? the children would probably be no less moral and no less happy than those of highest education. i have associated with the learned and the ignorant, and i have found more honor and honesty, more fear of the lord and more true happiness, among the unlettered than among the lettered. the more of education we cram into the heads of the people the more of the fear of god is crowded out of them. the world lives by the love of god and not by the primer or the multiplication table." "what, if you had had no education?" i ventured to ask. quickly and feelingly came the answer "the world would have been none the worse, and i would have been the happier." "what if jesus and the other prophets had had no schooling?" i asked. to which he replied "it was not what they got out of their schools that made them the spiritual and moral powers they became, but what they got out of their hearts. god puts more education into the human heart than man has ever been able to put into the head. some of the wisest and best people hereabouts are peasants who have never seen the inside of a school, and who do not know one letter from another." "what of paul," i asked, "who certainly enjoyed the benefits of the greek schools of his day?" to which he replied "the schools made of paul a theologian, and christianity would have been the better without the theology of paul." warped by unfavorable surroundings. other objections to some of his paradoxical views on education suggested themselves to me, but i left them unsaid. i perceived that while tolerant of objections, his opinions were fixed. he apparently judged of world-conditions from the view-point of his limited and unfavorable horizon. under different conditions, some of his opinions on education, and on a number of other subjects which we discussed, would probably have been quite different. well informed of political and social conditions in united states. the conversation turned to social conditions in the united states, and on these matters he displayed an amount of knowledge that was amazing. the more i listened the more i wondered, till finally i could not but ask him how he who wrote and worked so much could find time to keep himself so well informed of a country so far away as the united states. to which he replied "your country has interested me even more than mine. i have lost hope in mine; all my hope was, at one time, centered in yours. but yours is a disappointment as much as mine. you call yourselves a republic; you are worse than an autocracy. i say worse because you are ruled by gold, and gold is more conscienceless, and therefore, more tyrannical than any human tyrant. your intentions are good; your execution is lamentable. were yours the free and representative government you pretend to have, you would not allow it to be controlled by the money powers and their hirelings, the bosses and machines, as you do. i have read _progress and poverty_ by henry george, and i know what mr. bryce says about you in his _the american commonwealth_, and i have read and heard even worse things about your misgovernment than what they say." deplored rule of gold and growth of cities. we were all right, he continued, as long as we were an agricultural people. our modes of life, then, were simple, and our ideals were high. politics then was a religion with us and not a matter of barter and sale. we became prosperous; prosperity brought luxury, and luxury, as always, brings corruption. the thirst of gold is upon us, and, in our eagerness to quench it and to gratify our lust of luxury, our one-time lofty principles and aspirations are dragged down and trampled in the mire. we build city upon city, and pride ourselves in making one greater than the other, and, in the mean time, we wipe out village after village, whence have come our strength and moral fibre. the price of real estate in the cities is soaring to the skies, while farms are deserted and farm-houses decay. we tempt the farmer's son and daughter from field to factory, and when we have exhausted them of their health and morals we think ourselves charitable when we prolong their miserable existence in hospitals or reformatories. we forget that our greatness lay in the pursuit of husbandry, and we seek our salvation in commerce and in the industries. prophesied war of classes. with all our stupendous wealth, our slums are as bad, if not worse, as those of european cities, and we are building up a proletariat class which will some day prove our undoing. our rich become degenerates, and our poor become desperates, and in the struggle to come the desperate will rise up and slay the degenerate. we keep things quiet by throwing crumbs of charity to those who are in need of justice more yet than they are in need of bread. some day they will tire of crumbs, and will ask their full share of what the rich eat and have, and, if denied, they will make short work of it. our origin and our destiny should have warned us against repeating the fatal errors of the past. but for our colossal resources, we would long since have been dashed against the rocks. we may yet save ourselves by going back to the farm, and taking up anew the life and labors of our fathers. disagreed, yet kept silent. in this strain he continued for quite awhile, and the longer he spoke the sadder grew his speech and the more prophetic became his look. at length he ceased speaking, and an oppressive quiet ensued. i recognized that he was deeply moved, and i therefore did not care to contradict some of his statements which were obviously based on error. in other of his statements i fully agreed with him, yet, loyalty to my country forbade my seconding the gloomy prospect he held out for us. description of his relationship with wife and family. a fortunate interruption relieved the situation. his wife approached with a letter or manuscript in hand. he arose, proceeded toward her, and, for a while, the two conferred together. in all probability it was a manuscript of his which she was translating or revising. i was told that she was always doing something of that sort. she was his consultant, his reviser, his translator, while his daughter, tatiana, was his correspondent in a number of different languages. it is said that his wife copied twenty-one times the four large volumes of his novel _war and peace_, and that there has been no novel nor little else of his writing, since their marriage in 1862, that did not pass through her hands. he found in her, in the fullest sense of the word, his help-mate, a woman of great culture as well of great practical sense, who looked after his literary interests no less than after those of the household, and who often found it no easy task to be, as has been well said, "the patient wife of an impatient genius." she bore him thirteen children, six of whom passed away in their early youth. she fairly idolized him and skilfully managed to slip, unknown to him, those little comforts into his life which he required for his well-being and which he had renounced. neither she nor the children shared his view respecting the distribution among the peasantry of his estate and other property, and keeping for himself no more than an equal share with all the others. the family believed in availing themselves of the benefits of civilization, and for that they required the income of the farm and the royalty of his books. there was quite a wrangle, for a time, between the family and its head, but it was amicably disposed of in the end, the count agreeing to their living as they chose, on the condition that they permitted him to live as he pleased. and so in his moscow home as well as in that at yasnaya polyana, while the family rooms are said to be comfortably furnished, his own were poorly fitted out, and while they have servants and butlers and footmen, he attended to his own wants, fetched his own water, cobbled his own shoes, and, in summer time, labored in the field, from morn to night, alongside the commonest peasant. description of his working room. stopping suddenly in his conversation with his wife, and begging us to excuse him for leaving us, i asked him whether he knew where my bag was put, as i wanted to get to my writing material for the purpose of dropping a line to the american minister. mr. white had feared that, not being wanted in russia, i might get into trouble soon after leaving the protection of our embassy in st. petersburg, and he had enjoined upon me that i keep in constant touch with him, as well as with the american consuls, while in the interior. the count informing me that my bag had been placed into his working-room, on the ground floor of the house, i had a glimpse of the room in which some of the greatest writings of our time, of all times, first saw the light of day. it was a small room with an ordinary, bare floor somewhat the worse for wear, with a vaulted ceiling, and with very thick walls that gave it the aspect of a mediaeval cloister cell. i have since read that at one time it was a storeroom, and that from the hooks in the ceiling were formerly suspended the ham supply for the family. besides a crude writing-desk and a few chairs, there seemed to be no other furniture in the room, and its only ornaments, as far as i can recall, were some farm implements, tools, and seed bags. the desk was littered over with books and papers, and showed the kind of disorder one would expect of a genius like tolstoy. favored suppression of lawyers. upon my return to the tree, i found the count in conversation with my companion, who told me later that upon tolstoy's asking him what his occupation was, and upon his replying that he had graduated from the law-school of the university of moscow, and that, owing to restrictive laws against jews, he was not permitted to practice, the count had remarked that the government had done at least one good thing, it had diminished the number of lawyers. amazed at the amount of poverty in new york. resuming my seat alongside of him, he asked me whether it was true that new york expended as much as one hundred thousand dollars daily in public charity. i told him that it probably was true. he then returned to his discussion on the appalling contrast between the very rich and the very poor of the large cities in europe and america. the rich, he said, would never be as rich as they are nor the poor as poor if the latter were scattered as farmers over the land. it is their congregating in large numbers in the cities, he said, that makes possible the extensive industries and commercial enterprises which enslave them, and which build up the great fortunes of the rich. belittled his own novels. "have you read my book _what to do_?" he suddenly asked me. i was obliged to answer "no." i have read it since, and several times, and profitably, too, but, though i had read quite a number of his books before i met him, it was exceedingly embarrassing to be questioned concerning the particular book which i had not read. not to appear altogether ignorant of his writings, i proceeded to tell him that i had read his "war and peace," "anna karénina," etc., etc., and started telling him how much i admired them, when, with an impatient look and gesture, he interrupted me, saying "these works are all chaff, chaff, play-toys, amusing gilded youth and idle women. it is my serious writings which i want the world to read. i have ceased publishing novels because readers do not know the meaning of them. they look for entertainment and not instruction, and even though i write only for the uplift of man, for the purification of society, they, like the hawk, seek out only the carrion. they neither recognize themselves under the fictitious name i adopt, nor do they see their share in the wrongs and vices and injustices depicted, neither do they perceive that it is for their co-operation that the novelist appeals when he pleads for the kingdom of heaven on earth." spoke of his book _what to do_. returning to his book _what to do_, he said, "even if you have not read it, you have read the prophets, and having read them, you know my teachings. the book is an appeal for pity for the submerged, for justice for the wronged, for liberation of the oppressed and persecuted, and for the application of the only remedy--a return to the simple life and labor on the soil. as our subsistence comes from the soil so can justice and right and happiness come from it alone. help can never come from wealth, for wealth is the creator of poverty and inequality and injustice. it can not come from the government for that exists largely for the purpose of keeping up inequality and injustice. it cannot come from the church, for she fears the czar more than she fears god. it cannot even come from the schools which tend to train a class of people who think themselves too good for manual labor." saw solution of jewish problem only in agriculture. "your plan to lead your people back to the soil," he continued, "back to the occupation which your fathers followed with honor in palestinian lands, is of some encouragement to me. it shows that the light is dawning. it is the only solution of the jewish problem. persecution, refusal of the right to own or to till the soil, exclusion from the artisan guilds, made traders of the jew. and the world hates the trader. make bread-producers of your people, and the world will honor those who give it bread to it." made a request of me. "there is little chance at present," he continued, "for a jewish colonization scheme in russia. the government does not want to see the jews rooting themselves on russian soil, and spreads the report that they are unfit for agricultural labor, though i have been reliably informed that in the few jewish agricultural colonies that have been tolerated on the steppes from the time of alexander i they are as successful farmers as are the best." and he asked me as a favor that i make a special trip to those colonies and report to him, preferably in person, the result of my observations. i was only too anxious to consent to his request. and yet another promise he asked of me, and which i gave no less cheerfully. but of this i shall speak in my next discourse. my visit to tolstoy. (_continued._) a discourse, at temple keneseth israel, by rabbi joseph krauskopf, d. d. philadelphia, december 25th, 1910. resumé--_discourse i_: reasons for my visit to russia and for my calling on tolstoy. his appearance and personality. some of his views on russia, its statesmen, religion, misgovernment. a pause under the poverty tree--his burial place. _discourse ii_: recalled food-relief for famine-stricken in russia from philadelphia and from jewish congregation in california. admired quakers for their opposition to war. blamed schools for many social wrongs. severely criticised political and economical evils of our country. ascribed them to growth of cities and to farm-desertions. his relationship with wife and family. his working-room. against lawyers. belittled his novels. spoke of his book _what to do?_ saw solution of jewish problem in agriculture only. tolstoy suggests school for training american lads in agriculture. at the conclusion of my last discourse i made mention of yet another request count tolstoy made of me. it was in connection with his prediction that the russian government would not look favorably upon my proposition to colonize russian jews upon unoccupied farm-lands in the interior. "if the plan cannot be entered upon in russia," he asked, "why can it not be made successful in the united states? what are you, americans, doing to prevent a jewish problem in your own country? how long before the evils that are harrowing your people in the old world may be harrowing them in the new? your people are crowding into your large cities by the thousands and tens of thousands. you have built up ghettoes worse than those of europe. there is excuse for it in russia; there is no excuse for it in the united states. yours is the right to own land and the best of it, and to till as much of it as you please. granted that ages of enforced abstention from agricultural labor have weaned the elder generation from a love of country life and farm-labor, why may not a love for it be instilled in the young? lead your young people to the country and to the farm. start agricultural schools for them. teach them to exchange the yard-stick for the hoe, the peddler's pack for the seed-bag, and you will solve the problem while it may yet be solved. you will see the lands tilled by them overflow, as of old, with milk and honey. you will see them give of their plenty to the people of the land, and receive in return goodly profit and esteem. and once again there will arise from among jewish husbandmen prophets, lawgivers, inspired bards and teachers to whom the civilized world will do homage." at yet greater length he spoke on this subject, and the more he spoke the more he quickened within me the resolve to do as he wished it to be done. founding of farm school promised. and there, under _the poverty tree_, it was where i gave tolstoy the solemn promise that upon my return home the earliest task i would enter upon would be the establishment of an agricultural school for jewish lads, and other lads. and the existence of the _national farm school_, near doylestown in this state, is testimony that i kept my promise. i had gone to russia to see the czar, and i saw a greater man instead. i had gone with a plan for colonizing russian jews in russia, and i returned with a plan for teaching agriculture chiefly to russian jewish lads in the united states. verily, "man proposes and god disposes." and the hundreds of young men who have received their agricultural training at the national farm school, and the hundreds of others, young and old, who, directly and indirectly, have been encouraged by that school to forsake the congested cities and to take up the farmer's life, owe their escape from the miseries of the ghetto, and their enjoyment of health and happiness, to the promise asked of me by that noblest of all farmers, count tolstoy. promise kept under difficulties. the establishment of the school was not an easy task, nor is its maintenance easy even now, notwithstanding the excellent record it has made. the bulk of our people have not yet acquired that profound grasp of the seriousness of our problem, and of its only possible solution, that tolstoy had, sixteen years ago. therefore is the support of that school still so meagre. therefore has it still less than a hundred students in attendance when it easily could have a thousand, and more, if it had the means. and, therefore, are our ghettoes more crowded than ever, and a greater drain than ever on our charities. that despite indifference and even hostility the school has persevered is due, to a very large extent, to the determination to keep sacred a promise solemnly given to one of the best of men. parting from tolstoy. it was late that night when i took leave of the count and of some of the members of his family. before departing, it was agreed that i enter at once upon my journey to the jewish agricultural colonies in the interior, that i might see them at work during the height of their harvesting, and a peasant and his wagon were engaged to take me on that trip. the count bade me a hearty god-speed, and repeatedly urged me to make my report personally to him, and i promised that i would avail myself a second time of his proffered hospitality, if my way should lead me back again to moscow or st. petersburg. never heard from him again. unfortunately, after my inspection of the jewish agricultural colonies, which fully confirmed the favorable reports the count had received of them, my investigations led me to the southern and polish provinces, and consumed so much of my limited time that a return north was impossible. and so i never got to see the count again. and i never heard from him. neither my report, which i sent to him in writing, nor my other communications to him, written in russia and outside of it, have brought from him a reply. never a line from him even in answer to the information sent him that the national farm school, which he had so strongly urged, had been founded. never an acknowledgment from him of the early annual reports of the school that were sent him to show the headway it was making. probable reason of silence. the heartiness of his reception of me, his almost affectionate farewell, his deep interest in my mission and his earnest invitation that i repeat my visit to him, preclude the thought that i was forgotten by him or became indifferent to him after my departure. there is but one explanation--an explanation strengthened by similar experiences of others in connection with him--none of my communications ever reached him. i was not wanted in russia. i was a _persona non grata_ to the government; my name was blacklisted, and my mail fell under the ban of the censor. with him in spirit under poverty tree. but, if my mail has never reached him, my thoughts have been with him often. many a time have i sat with him, in spirit, under that _poverty tree_. and yet more often will i sit with him there in the future, now that that site has become _holy ground_. has become his grave. gladly do i forgive the church of russia many an outrage or blunder she has perpetrated or permitted to be perpetrated, for the one good act she has performed--that of refusing tolstoy sepulture in what she is pleased to call "consecrated ground." she thus obliged him to designate as his last resting-place a spot that was one of the dearest on earth to him, a spot that was intimately associated with his life's philosophy, a spot located within a confine wherein he ruled more mightily and more exaltedly than any czar that ever wielded scepter in vast russia, where he wrote those epochal books of his which are destined some day to become of the basal elements of the religion of the future. no czarian funeral more solemn than tolstoy's. and even though no priest was nigh when the last rites over his remains were performed, there were present, besides his family, those who were more sacred in his eyes than priests or metropolitan, more honorable than even the procurator of the holy synod--his dearly beloved peasants. it was these who followed him to his last resting place. it was these who sang the mortuary hymn _everlasting memory_, at his open grave. it was these, the "orphaned peasantry," as they called themselves because of his death, who gave his burial a distinction such as no czarian funeral procession had ever enjoyed, notwithstanding ecclesiastical pomp or military display. it was these whose labors and outlook he had sought to soften and to brighten, who delivered the briefest and most eloquent eulogy that has, perhaps, ever been spoken: "_his heart has burst because of his unbounded love for humanity. the light of the world is extinguished._" in spite of herself church has made a saint of him. in refusing religious sepulture to the holiest man in russia, the greek orthodox church performed the crowning feat in her long series of stupidities. and yet, by that act she did, in despite of herself, the very thing she did not wish to see done. like mephistopheles in goethe's _faust_ who, in response to the question who he is, says: "_ich bin ein theil von jener kraft, die stets das böse will, und stets das gute schafft_," so did she prove herself the power that sought the evil and yet performed the good. by her act of intolerance she gave a new saint to russia, and perhaps the only one she has. by it she furnished a sanctuary to that country, one that may be destined to make a mecca of yasnaya polyana, one that may be more piously sought in the future, and by larger numbers, than any shrine or sanctuary of her own creation. by that act she shed a halo of immortal glory around the head of him whom she sought to cover with infamy. has two ways of making saints. the church has two ways of conferring saintships, a lesser and a higher one. the lesser distinction she confers upon lesser luminaries, generally upon those made famous by myth or legend for great endurance in fasting or penance, or for conquering imaginary devils, for working fancied miracles, or for displaying fiendish cruelty in persecuting and exterminating heretics. the higher distinction she confers generally at the stake or on the gallows, within prison walls or in the torture chamber, upon men of great minds or great hearts, upon lovers of truth and fearless enunciators of it, upon men who because of their love of humanity defy the power that interdicts god's greatest gift to man: the right to think and the right to believe and speak in accordance with the canons of reason and with the dictates of conscience. still makes of intolerance an act of piety. in asking me the difference between reform and orthodox judaism in america, and between american reform jews and russian karaitic jews, and in replying that the difference exists mainly in the synagogue, that outside of it there is little or no difference in life and in social relationship, tolstoy replied: "our church has not yet arrived at the stage of tolerance of different religious beliefs. that is the reason why such people as the jews and doukhobors and stundists are persecuted, and such men as i are in ill repute. our church still makes of religious hatred an act of piety. it still measures god by the passions of man. had the church the power in our days which it at one time had, and were the age of martyrdom not past, she would long since have silenced me for rebelling against her irrational teaching and for denouncing her craven supineness in the midst of outrageous wrongs and injustices, as now they silence men in our country for rebelling against unjust enactments of the government." tolstoy hoped for the reign of universal good-will. upon my saying that it was fortunate for us of the present day that all churches have been deprived of their one-time all-controlling power, since no church has yet been known to have possessed power and not to have abused it, he replied: "that is true of all power, temporal as well as of ecclesiastic, and it would be more fortunate still if governments were as restricted in their power as is the church, if all power, all authority, were to cease, if the good that is inherent in every human being were to be given a chance to germinate and to flourish, and every man learn to live in complete harmony with the highest of all laws, the law of peace and good-will, which god has written into the human heart. there would then be no need of armies and armaments, of courts and police, of prisons and jails, no need of impoverishing the masses through heavy taxation for the support of millions of soldiers and officers in idleness, who ought to raise their own bread by their own handiwork." believed that the messiah is still to come. "on that day," said i, "the messianic age, for which the jews have hoped and prayed, will surely have dawned." to which he answered: "you, jews, are right, the messiah is still to come, or, if he has come, his message has not yet entered the hearts of men." recalling this remark of tolstoy, on this christmas morn, suggests the question: how many christmas days will yet have to come and go before its gospel of peace and good-will will govern the hearts of all who call themselves christians as it governed that of the russian peasant-saint. lessening of church power shown by failure of tolstoy's excommunication. and vividly i recalled his remarks on the shorn power of the church, when, six years later, the papers brought the news that tolstoy had been excommunicated by the russian church. i could picture to myself the expression of sorrow or disgust on his face when that church decree was conveyed to him. its ecclesiastical wrath, could have meant only hollow sounds to him. none knew better than he that the metropolitans who issued this excommunication merely grasped at a shadow, that the substance was gone, that that age was happily passed when the pronouncement of the ecclesiastical _anathema_ deprived its victim of all association with friend or foe, deprived him of intercourse even with the closest members of his family, prevented them, under the penalty of like punishment, from providing him even with food, shelter and raiment. when during his flight from home, shortly before his death, he knocked at the doors of a monastery, and said "i am the excommunicated and anathematized leo tolstoy," the reply was "it is a duty and a pleasure to offer you shelter." the life of tolstoy passed on as serenely, in the midst of his family and friends, after his excommunication as before. and the world's esteem of him grew even greater than it had been, by reason of the charges upon which the excommunication was based, namely: "in his writings on religious questions he clearly shows himself an enemy of the russian orthodox church. he does not recognize god in three persons (or three persons in one god), and he calls the son of god, the second person of the trinity, a mortal human being. he scoffs at the idea of incarnation. he perverts the text of the gospel. he censures the holy church and calls it a human institution. he denies the church hierarchy and ridicules the holy sacraments and the rites of the holy orthodox church. therefore, the holy synod has decreed that no priest is to absolve count tolstoy, or give him communion. nor is he to be given burial ground, unless, before departing this life he shall repent, acknowledge the orthodox church, believe in it, and return to it." died unreconciled with church. he never recanted. he never changed his attitude towards the errors and wrongs of the russian orthodox church. and no one who ever stood and talked with him, face to face, could ever have believed that that modern prometheus, that stern and fearless personality, that re-incarnation of mattathias of old, and of his valiant sons, the maccabees, could ever swerve from a position once taken by him. when upon his death-bed, he was frequently importuned to return as a penitent to the mother-church; he spurned every mention of it. he was still in the possession of his senses, he said, he still knew and believed that twice two equals four, and as long as he knew and believed this so long would he continue to know and to believe that what he had said and written concerning the errors and wrongs of the church was the truth. never a truer follower of jesus than he. it is noteworthy, and quite in keeping with the general tenor of the russian orthodox church, that no cognizance was taken by the church of the many noble things tolstoy had said and written and done; no cognizance of the self-sacrificing efforts he had made to live the life which jesus had lived and had enjoined upon his followers; no cognizance of his having conscientiously endeavored to square his life with the teachings of the _sermon on the mount_; no cognizance of his having brought light to those in darkness and comfort to those in sorrow, of his having consorted and labored with the poor and lightened their burden, of his having thirsted and hungered after righteousness, of his having sought peace and protested against war, and preached the gospel of the wrongfulness of all physical resistance, of his having, though of the oldest nobility, spurned luxury and ease and even money, having regarded these the source of corruption and the root of many of the evils in society. yet refused christian burial. such a person, and one even but half as good as this, should have been entitled to sepulture in the most sacred of christian cemeteries, and the most eminent of priests should have deemed it a privilege to have been permitted to perform the last rites over his mortal remains. so would it have happened among rational people, but so could it not have happened in russia. there, because he could not subscribe to doctrines and rites and ceremonies for which he found neither scriptural nor rational warrant, priests felt themselves disgraced, and in danger of eternal damnation, even when their names were associated with that of tolstoy. priest objected to his name being associated with tolstoy's. a striking illustration of this was given, seven years ago, at the university of dorpat, at the occasion of the celebration of its hundredth anniversary. in commemoration of that event the institution elected as honorary members of the corporation a number of russians distinguished in literature, science and art, one of these was tolstoy, another was ivan, the miracle-working priest of cronstadt, elected to allay the church's indignation at the choice of tolstoy. ivan, the priest, refused the honor, and in the following letter to the rector of the university: "your excellency--i have read your estimable and respectful letter to me, which is so full of subtle delicacy--i decline absolutely the honor of the membership to which i have been elected. i do not wish to become connected, in any way, with a corporation--however respectable and learned--which, by some lamentable misunderstanding, has put me side by side with that atheist leo tolstoy--the most malignant heretic of our unfortunate age--who, in presumption and arrogance, surpasses all previous heretics of any age. i do not wish to stand beside antichrist. i am surprised furthermore, to see with what indifference the university council regards that satanic author, and with what slavishness it burns incense to him." ivan sergeief, _prior and archpriest of the cronstadt cathedral_. this letter tells of the attitude of the church towards tolstoy better than any words of mine can tell. and this same ivan, it is said, approved of the massacre of the petitioners of st. petersburg on that memorable white sunday, and when petitioned to protect the jews against threatening massacres, treated the appeal with silent contempt. government hatred back of that of the church. it is to be remembered, however, that over and back of the church of russia stands the government. the czar is the head of the church. whom the government favors the church favors; whom the government hates, the church hates. the church hated tolstoy because the government hated him, and why it hated him we shall be told in the next discourse of this series. my visit to tolstoy. (_continued._) a discourse, at temple keneseth israel, by rabbi joseph krauskopf, d. d. philadelphia, january 1st, 1911. government used church for discrediting tolstoy. speaking in our last discourse of the church's excommunication of tolstoy, and of its refusing a resting place to his remains in what she calls "consecrated ground," we said that the czar is the spiritual as well as the temporal head of the church of russia, and that the hated of the church is yet more the hated of the government. this statement explains what otherwise is difficult to understand, namely, how so good a man as tolstoy, who, for more than two score years, strove to square his life with the teachings of the _sermon on the mount_, could have incurred the hatred of the russian orthodox church. the government had far more reason to hate tolstoy than had the church. finding it impolitic to proceed directly against him, it availed itself of the church for discrediting tolstoy in the eyes of the credulous populace. before giving reason why. before entering upon a discussion as to why the government feared tolstoy, we must first have a glimpse of his earlier years, and briefly follow his heroic self-extrication from the corruption of the aristocratic society into which he was born, and his gradual rise to the exalted station of greatest reformer in the history of russia. must hear story of his life. he was born eighty-two years ago of an ancient noble family. his childhood years were spent in the midst of the gay military life of moscow. yet more gay and more corrupt was the society that surrounded him during his university life. experiencing a revulsion of feeling against the kind of life he was leading, he fled from the university before graduation, returned to his family estate at yasnaya polyana and took up the life of a farmer. this impetuous flight, and a later one of which we shall hear presently, may throw some light upon his last flight, a few weeks ago, which came to a pathetic end, and of which we shall speak in our next discourse. his early glory and shame. five years long he lived the life of a peasant, when a call to arms landed him on the battlefields of the crimea, where he soon won distinction for heroic service. but the dissoluteness of campaign-life soon disclosed that the tartar in him was not yet dead. he returned to the debaucheries of his former years, and, according to his own confession, with all the greater zest, because of the double glory that had come to him, that of a distinguished soldier and of a brilliant author. he had taken to story-writing, and displayed in it a talent that made success instantaneous. he became the lion of his day, and was courted by high and low. and the greater his glory the more unrestrained grew his libertinism.[1] [1] see his book "_my confession_." his reform. but there were lucid intervals, now and then, during which he held up to himself the lofty ideals of his former peasant life, and bitterly he denounced himself, and even portrayed himself unsparingly in the character-sketches of some of his novels. his better self acquired mastery at last; he threw off the yoke that had held him fast to the corrupt society of his day, and for the second time he fled to his estate. he himself told of the circumstance that led to that flight. he had attended a ball at the home of a prominent nobleman, and passed the night in dancing and feasting, leaving his peasant-coachman waiting for him outside, in an open sleigh, in a bitter cold night. when at four in the morning he wished to return home, he found the coachman seemingly frozen dead, and it required several hours of strenuous effort to restore him to consciousness and to save his life. "why," he asked himself, "should i, a rich, young aristocrat, who has done nothing for society, spend the night amid warmth and luxuries and feastings, while this peasant who represents the class that has built our cities, given us our food and clothing and other necessities, be kept outside to freeze?" he resolved, then and there, to dedicate the remainder of his life to the righting of this and other wrongs. and he kept his promise. how strong an impression this incident made upon him may be gathered from an indirect allusion to it, in his novel "_master and man_," published some two score years later. consecrates life to peasant. it was discouraging work at first. the people whom he desired to benefit had no faith in him. they could not conceive of an aristocrat, to whom the serfs had been no more than worms to be trod upon, becoming suddenly interested in their welfare. there were long spells of utter disheartenment. a number of times he found himself at the brink of suicide. he sought relief and diversion in travel, but returned more convinced than ever of the corruptions and evils of society, of the tyranny of the classes and of the sufferings of the masses. marriage opened at last a new vista of life to him. aided and stimulated by his cultured and companionable wife he entered upon his reform work by directing a powerful search-light on the goings-on among the high and the low, in a series of novels that secured for him at once rank among the greatest novelists of his age. aided by his writings. in the second discourse of this series, i spoke of his having deprecated his novels, and of his having expressed his preference for his ethical and religious and sociological and economical and political writings. i ventured to say to him that but for his novels he would have gotten but comparatively few people to look into his other writings, that his fiction had secured a world-wide audience, that they contained many of the teachings of his other books, and that the public swallows a moral pill easiest when offered in the form of a novel. to which he replied "most readers swallow the sugar-coating and leave the pill untouched, or, if they swallow it, it remains unassimilated." his novels criticized. and he was right. i have heard much criticism of tolstoy's novels. some find him too realistic, too plain spoken, even coarse. a certain magazine that had begun publishing his "_resurrection_" was obliged to discontinue the story, because of complaints by many of its readers. it was a sad commentary, not on the morals of the writer but on the lack of morals, or on the false modesty, of the readers, for that novel has been declared by eminent critics to be "the greatest and most moral novel ever written." others again value his realism for whatever spice they might find therein, little heeding the serious purpose for which the story was written. few know meaning of novel in russia. at best, few people understand the meaning of a novel in such a country as russia, where free press, free pulpit, free platform and free speech are unknown, where the novelist attempts to do the work of all of these, under the guise of fiction, the only form of literature that has a chance to pass the eye of the censor. whole systems of political and social and moral reform are crowded between the covers of a novel, which, if published in any other form of literature, would condemn the author to life-long imprisonment in the siberian mines. the novelist in russia does not look upon himself as an entertainer nor as a money-maker, neither is he looked upon as such. he is the prophet, the leader, the teacher, the tribune of the people, the liberator--the emancipation of the russian serfs, for instance, was entirely due to the novel. he has serious work to do, and he does it seriously. his eye is not upon rhetoric nor upon aesthetics, but upon the evil he has to uproot, on the corruption he has to expose, on the reform he has to institute, on the philosophy of life he has to unfold, and to do that means the production of a novel like "_anna karénina_" or of a play like "_the power of darkness_." he speaks not to english or american puritans, but to russians, whose receptivity of strong, plain speech is healthier than ours. spoke as a prophet and reformer. such a novelist was tolstoy. his fiction is as powerful as is the art of the pre-raphaelites. it is all sincerity. nothing escapes him. what the x-ray does in the physical world that his penetrating eye does in the field of morals. he sees the sin through a thousand layers of pretense and hypocrisy, and he describes it as he sees it. disagreeable as are some of the subjects of which he treats, there is not a line that may not be read without a blush by the pure-minded. like a surgeon, who cuts into the sore for the purpose of letting out the poison, he lays bare the wrongs and rottenness of church and government for the purpose of affecting the needed cure. as a prophet he speaks the language of prophets. as a reformer he tells the truth as reformers tell it, unvarnished and ungarnished. he spares others as little as he spared himself in his book "_my confession_." he wants others to do as he has done, to subject the lusts and appetites and greeds to the rule of conscience, if the kingdom of god is ever to be established on earth. opposed by government. radical in his reform propositions from the first, he attracted attention at once. the world was amazed at the daring of his thought and at the plainness of his speech, and hailed him as a new prophet. the government, however, looked upon him as a revolutionist, and gave him clearly to understand that he would be silenced if he did not change his views and style of writing. instead of complying with its wish, he became all the more daring in thought and all the plainer in speech. the humblest peasant could understand as clearly as the shrewdest diplomat what he was after. and it was not long before the government was after him. the publication and sale of certain of his books were prohibited. they were read all the more outside of russia, and by the thousands of copies within russia. and the more they were read the larger loomed his world-fame, till he became too large for banishment or prison, for fortress or siberian mine. challenged government to do its worst. with all the fiery zeal of an ancient jewish prophet, he challenged the government to do its worst, "to tighten the well-soaped noose about his throat" as it tightened it about the throats of thousands of better men than any that are in the service of the autocrat or of his hirelings, the bureaucrats. theirs was a government, he said, by might not by right, by gallows and knout, not by law. his political demands. he demanded the abolition of the throne and of capital punishment, the disbanding of the army, and the discontinuance of trial by court-martial. he demanded liberty of speech and freedom of conscience. he demanded the surrender to the people of lands and rights that justly belonged to them, and scathingly he denounced those who wasted in riotousness what had been painfully gotten together with the heart's blood of the laboring-people. he denounced the government for its cruelty toward the jews, and charged it with having instigated the massacres of them. he held the government responsible for every misfortune that befell the country--war, famine, pestilence, intense poverty, hopeless misery, appalling ignorance. in burning words he charged the slaughter of tens of thousands of husbands and fathers and sons, in the japanese war, to the greed of the mighty. he depicted the duma as the laughing stock of the world, as composed of people so stupid as not even to recognize what fools they were making of themselves. in his "_resurrection_" he held up to the view of the world russia's courts of law, and her iniquitous prison-system, the blocking of justice, the shocking judicial indifference and laxities in cases involving life-long sentences to penal servitude, the "lives that are shed like water upon the ground" during the transport to siberia, and the crimes and rebellions that are systematically bred by such crying injustice. little wonder that the government had no love for tolstoy, and that it suppressed publication after publication of his, and maintained a special corps of censors and spies to watch him. little wonder that it prohibited demonstrations of sorrow at the announcement of his death, and made use of the church as a cat's paw for holding him up as the anti-christ, and arch-fiend, as the enemy of the czar, church and people.[2] [2] see his essay "_church and state_." his demands of the people. plain and fearless as was his speech to the government it was yet more so to the people. not a wrong in society, public or private, which he did not know, and which he did not castigate as only he knew how to castigate. louder and louder, as he grew older, he preached the law of god against the law of degenerate society. art and science, commerce and industry were to him as nothing in comparison with the moral law, without which he saw no future for mankind. his views respecting marriage and society. the sanctity of the marriage tie, the sobriety and industry of the husband, the domesticity of the wife, were among the most constant of his themes. he loathed the self-exhibiting society woman; in his eyes she was no better than the street-woman. great to him was the womanly woman, greater the domestic wife, greatest of all the mother, and so many more times greater the more times she was mother.[3] [3] see his essays "_man and woman, their respective functions_;" and "_the mother_," and his book "_what to do?_" his views respecting labor and capital. the sad lot of the poor and the riotous extravagances of the rich were constantly recurrent subjects of discussion with him. "we speak of the abolition of slavery," said he, "but we have abolished only the word, the poor are enslaved as much as ever. we need a new emancipation, the emancipation of the rich from the tyranny of their money, from the thraldom of the false view of themselves and of society. with what right do men speak of the abolition of slavery, when every time they look into the mirror they see a slave-driver, when they live in idleness, and fatten on the heart's blood of the down-trodden, when they indulge their stomachs with the choicest of dainties, and wrap their bodies in silks and broad cloths and furs, while those, whose slavish toil provides these luxuries and comforts, have not enough food to keep body and soul together, nor enough of raiment and shelter to keep from freezing?" in an article, published a few years ago in the _north american review_, tolstoy spoke of a group of peasants standing aside to let a picknicking party of rich folks drive by. one of the ladies' hats "has cost more than the horse with which the peasant plows the field," and for the gentleman's riding stick has been paid a week's wages of an underground workman. "everywhere, two or three men in a thousand live so that, doing nothing for themselves, they eat and drink in one week what would have fed hundreds for a year; they wear garments costing thousands of dollars; they live in palaces, where thousands of workmen could have been housed; and they spend upon their caprices the fruits of thousands and tens of thousands of working days. the others, sleepless and unfed, labor beyond their strength, ruining their moral and physical health for the benefit of these few chosen ones." it is natural that the rich should not object to this arrangement, said he, the surprising thing is that the poor take it so complacently. "why do all these men, strong in physical vigor, and in the habit of labor--the enormous majority of humanity--why do they submit to and obey a handful of feeble men, generally incapable of anything?" tolstoy finds the answer very simple. it is because the minority have money, and the workingmen need the money to feed their families. millions of workingmen submit "because one man has usurped the factory, another the land, and a third the taxes collected from the workmen." were the millions, who now slave for the rich, to get their food from the soil, the rich, to keep alive, would be obliged to raise their own food, and the double redemption would have begun. it is because the number of workers who produce the prime necessities of life is diminishing that the number of those who use luxuries is increasing. under such conditions, the health of society, wrote he, is as little possible as is the health of that person, whose body is continually growing heavier in weight, and his legs are continually growing thinner and weaker. when the support vanishes the body must fall.[4] [4] see also his book "_what to do?_" and his essay "_the russian revolution_." his remedy. as a bitter opponent of violent measures, he saw but one way for righting the wrongs of society, and that is in the well-to-do descending to the lowly and starting life anew with them on a common level, and rising with them step by step to the higher planes. and to prevent a relapse to the old iniquitous state, he advocated the eradication of capital, which he held responsible for many of the inequalities and tyrannies and miseries of society. let the rich, said he, convert their money into land and parcel it out among the poor, and claim for themselves no more than an equal share with the others. merely wishing the poor well, and yet continuing the old state of affairs, is like sitting on a man's neck and crushing him down, yet all the time assuring him and others that we are sorry for him, and wish to ease his condition by every means in our power except by getting off his back. or it is like entering an orchard, and barring the door behind, and gathering its fruit for ourselves, and wishing others might have as much yet continuing to keep the door barred and gathering for ourselves alone.[5] [5] see his book "_what to do?_" and his essay "_money_." if we really wish to see the lot of the poor improved, said he, we must not look for a miracle to effect it nor trust to some future age to bring it about. we must do it ourselves, and we must do it now. and we must do it at the cost of self-sacrifice. if people really wish to improve the condition of their brother men, and not merely their own, they must be ready not only to alter the way of life to which they are accustomed, but they must be ready for an intense struggle with themselves and their families.[6] [6] "_the slavery of our times._" society will never be at peace, said he, until man will have learned the service of sacrifice. and man will never be happy until he will have learned to find his happiness in making others happy.[7] [7] "_cossacks._" "_christ's christianity._" my visit to tolstoy (_concluded._) a discourse, at temple keneseth israel, by rabbi joseph krauskopf, d. d. philadelphia, january 8th, 1911. tolstoy's fatal flight. the world was amazed, a few weeks ago, at the news that tolstoy had fled from his family and home, with the resolve to retire to some wilderness, there to await his end. guesses as to the cause were many, and the opinion was quite general that extreme old age had affected his reason. explained in light of last article of his. i could not subscribe to this conclusion, neither could i see anything strange in his sudden departure. i knew of a number of similar flights in his life, and the reasons for them, and, therefore, i was little surprised. and as to suspecting him of failing mentality, i had but a short time before read the latest of his writings, entitled "_three days in a village_," in which i had seen no sign of a lessening of his power of mind and heart and soul. and it is obvious that the russian government, likewise, saw no lessening of his mentality, for it promptly suppressed the publication of it. an enterprising newspaper man, however, succeeded in forwarding a copy to our country, which enterprise not only rescued for us the last of tolstoy's writings but also furnished us an explanation of his sudden and fatal flight. divided into three parts. the article, a comparatively short one, was divided into three parts, each a heart-rending recital of miseries in villages neighboring the count's estate. first part described peasant poverty. the first part deals with wayfaring men. from six to twelve of them visit these villages daily in search of bread and clothes, of work and shelter. some are blind or lame, some sick or feeble, some are very old or very young, some are maimed or crippled, dragging with them hideous memories of the recent japanese war. many of them are ignorant and filthy, but some of them are intelligent and revolutionary, who look upon the prosperous as thieves, and ask for their share of the coined blood pressed from the hearts of the poor and down-trodden. to keep these unceasing streams of wayfaring paupers from becoming a government charge, they are parcelled out by the authorities among the poor and helpless peasantry, good care being taken that they are not loaded upon the landlords, merchants or priests. the wickedness of this course is fully intelligible only to those who have some conception of the indescribable poverty and misery of russian peasants. stripped of almost all by taxation and by landlord oppression and by priest and constable extortion, many of them have scarcely food and room enough for themselves and cattle, scarcely clothes enough to cover their nakedness, no money with which to buy the absolutely necessary farming-implements, or to keep their wretched hovels from toppling over their heads. and yet, notwithstanding their appalling misery, tolstoy saw their hearts go out in pity to these wandering paupers, and religiously dividing their crust with those yet more unfortunate than they, not knowing how soon they themselves might be in a similarly wretched plight. second part described peasant misery. the second part of the article bears the sub-title "_living and dying_." upon entering the village accompanied by his physician, the count was entreated for aid by a woman. upon inquiry he learned that her husband had been drafted into the army, and that the family was starving. upon asking the village authority why the law had been violated in taking from a family its sole supporter, he was told that the husband's brother was quite capable of supporting the family. next he met a little orphan girl twelve years old, who was the head of a family of five children. her father had been killed in a mine; her mother had dropped dead from exhaustion, a few weeks after; poor but kind-hearted neighbors kept their eyes on the children, whilst the oldest went about begging the means for their support. in another hovel he found a man in his death-throes with pneumonia. the room was damp and cold; there was no fuel for the stove; no food, no medicine, no mattress, no pillow, for the dying man. contrasted with extravagance in his own family. saddened by what he had seen and heard the count drove home. in front of his house he saw a carpeted sleigh, drawn by magnificent horses, driven by a coachman attired in heavy fur-coat and cap. it was the conveyance of the count's son, who had come on a visit to his father. there were ten at the table, who partook of a dinner of four courses, spiced by two kinds of wine. two butlers were in attendance, and costly flowers were on the table. "whence came these orchids?" asked the son, to which the mother replied that they had come all the way from st. petersburg. "they cost a ruble and a half a piece," said the son, adding that at a recent concert the whole stage was smothered with orchids. another at the table talked of a little recreation trip to italy, but thought it troublesome to be obliged to spend thirty-nine hours in an express train, and regretted that aviation had not proceeded far enough to make possible a trip to italy in shorter time. the count contrasted these table sights and sounds with those he had seen and heard in the village in the course of the day, and he left the table even sadder than he was when he came to it. third part described peasant oppression. the third part of the article deals with the taxation of the villagers. from one old peasant the tax collectors took his samovar--the brass kettle for making tea--as indispensable to a russian as a stove is to us. from another, a widow, they took a sheep; from another they took a cow, and so on. one poor woman offered him some linen at the price of two rubles, the amount she needed for taxes, saying that, if she failed to make the sale, they will seize not only the linen but also her chickens, her only means of support. that women play so large a part in these taxations is due to so many of the men having been killed in the japanese war, or serving in the army. upon remonstrating with the village authorities, he was told that they were sorry for the poor people, but helpless, that they had received instructions from headquarters to be unsparing in the discharge of their duty. upon visiting the district chief he was made clearly to recognize that back of his severity lay his ambition for promotion as a reliable, immovable government official. felt that all his labors had been in vain. little wonder, that the government suppressed the publication of this last of tolstoy's writings. little wonder, that the three days spent amid the miseries of the villagers saddened his heart beyond endurance. and still less wonder, that the government's responsibility for it, and the world's indifference to it, even his own family's, drove him to despair, ripened in him the resolve to retire to some wilderness, where the soul would no longer be harrowed by the sight of human outrages and sufferings. in the midst of such miseries as he saw, he must have felt that the more than half a century of unceasing labors in behalf of the poor and down-trodden, all his renunciations and sacrifices had all been in vain. he must have felt that the lot of the peasant was as bad as ever, that the government was as cruel as before, that all his writings and all his pleadings for a more equitable division of god's gifts had failed to make the slightest impression upon the people, judging by the extravagances within his own family, seeing four courses of delicacies on his own table, at a single meal, two kinds of wine, costly orchids, when, at but a short distance away, men and women, even children, working infinitely harder than any of his own family, deserving infinitely more than any who lord it over them, were literally starving for the want of the necessities of life, were dying in agony for the want of medical care and ordinary comforts, had their last possession taken from them by pitiless tax-collectors for the support of a vast army of soldiers and officials, for the maintenance of a costly and an oppressive autocracy. noted his discontent when in conversation with him. even as far back as 1894, when he was sixteen years younger than he was at the time of his flight, even then i noted in my conversations with him an undercurrent of deep sorrow when dwelling on the sufferings of the people, an occasional outburst of impatience at the slowness of progress, and now and then a cry of despair, an utter hopelessness of ever seeing a state of society different from what it was. those responsible for wrongs charged him with irreligion. what seemed to vex him most was seeing the very people who were responsible for these wrongs and outrages considering themselves religious, and branding as infamous such a man as he whose sole cry was for justice and right. "because they mumble so many prayers a day," said he to me, when speaking of pobdiedonostzief, "and cross themselves so many times, and fast so many days in the year, they consider themselves christian, as for the rest of their conduct, one finds it difficult to believe that they had ever heard of the _sermon on the mount_, of the _golden rule_ or of the _mosaic command" "thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself."_ asking me for an explanation of reform judaism, and telling him that is was founded upon an emphasis on the spirit of religion rather than on its forms, he replied that it would not be tolerated in russia, that the mere words reform and spirit were quite sufficient to condemn it. the government knows that they who seek the spirit also seek the truth, and it is afraid that truth will overthrow autocracy and hierarchy, blind obedience and stupid ceremony, and will set men free. few men had studied religion as much as he. there are many things in connection with tolstoy which russia of the future will wish to see expunged from the pages of its history, and chief of these will be its having branded him as infamously irreligious. few men have been as genuinely religious as he. few men have given religion as much thought as he. few men have written on religious subjects as much as he. rebelled against adulteration of religion. he studied the scriptures in the original languages, and carefully he read church doctrine and dogmatic theology, and the more he read the firmer became his conviction that _christ's christianity_ was quite a different thing from _church christianity_. he rejected the latter, and fervently he espoused the former. three-fourth of what passes for christianity, he said, has no historical nor logical nor spiritual warrant. he saw how its fundamental principle, the equality of all men as sons of god, had been perverted to give the classes the right to enslave the masses. he saw how a divine being had been made of jesus, and how this enabled the church to say that living the life he lived, and practicing the precepts he preached was impossible for human beings. he had read in the scriptures not to resist evil, and yet had been taught the soldier's trade, the art of killing. the army to which he had belonged was called "the christophile army," and it was sent forth with a christian benediction. one day, he said, he was reading in hebrew, with a rabbi, the fifth chapter of matthew. after nearly every verse the rabbi said "this is in the old testament or in the talmud," and showed me the corresponding passages. when we reached the words "resist no evil," the rabbi did not say "this is in the talmud," but he asked "do the christians obey this command? do they turn the other cheek?" "i had nothing to say in reply," said tolstoy, "for at that particular time, christians, far from turning the other cheek, were smiting the jews upon both cheeks. i saw the support the church gave to persecutions and to the death penalty, and my soul cried out against it." and his mind rebelled, he said and wrote, against the mythology which was paraded as theology, such teachings as the immaculate conception, the heaven opening and the angels singing, christ's flying through the air and into the sky, and seating himself at the right hand of god. he denounced as blasphemous such teachings as that by partaking of the sacrament god's body becomes assimilated with that of man, or that of god being three gods in one, being still angry at man for the sin of adam, and sending his only son on earth to be crucified so that by the son's blood the father's wrath may be appeased. he regarded as unworthy even of heathens such teachings as that salvation for sin depended on being baptized, and that god will visit eternal punishment on those who do not believe in his divinely begotten son. he professed a sincere belief in god as the author of all existence, and as the source of all love. he believed that death meant a new and higher birth. he believed that god's will was most clearly expressed in the teachings of the man jesus, whom to consider and pray to as god he regarded as blasphemous. compressed religion into five commandments. he compressed the teachings of jesus into the following commandments: i. "do not be angry. ii. do not lust. iii. do not give away the control of your future actions by taking oaths. iv. do not resist evil. v. do not withhold love from any one." these five commandments he developed into a comprehensive moral philosophy, and by it he conscientiously endeavored to guide his life and thought.[8] [8] see his books "_my confession_," "_my religion_," and aylmer maude's _the life of tolstoy_. was indebted for his faith to peasants. and for that strong and simple faith of his, which is destined, in the not distant future, to inaugurate an era in the religious world similar to that which luther inaugurated four centuries earlier in germany, he was indebted to the peasants. during the libertine life of his early years, he had lost the little faith that had been taught him in his childhood. he had returned to his estate an avowed atheist, and as such had he continued for some time, until, one day, he inquired into what it was that made the wretchedly poor and ignorant and hard-working peasants contented with their lot, resigned to their fate, bearing hardships and sufferings unmurmuringly, and looking happily forward to the end. he found it in their faith. "surely," said he, "a state of mind that can do so much for the poor is worth having by all." and he devoted himself to a diligent study of their religion. he found it burdened with foreign accretions, contaminated with a putrid mass that had been gathered during centuries of darkness and superstition, adulterated with all kinds of conscious and unconscious inventions. stripping away the foreign and putrid and false, he alighted upon a rational, satisfying faith, the faith which he believed to have been that of the rabbi of nazareth, and, henceforth, consecrated his life to the propagation of it. gave them his life and labor in return. and more yet than what the peasants gave to him he gave to them in return. he gave them himself, and, in the end, he sacrificed even his life for them. he found them down-trodden serfs, he endeavored to make free men of them. he found them cowed and bowed, he taught them to walk and stand erect. he found them unbefriended, he became a brother to them. he found them wretchedly poor, he renounced pleasure and treasure, luxury and ease, to lessen as much as he could the distance between them and himself. he dressed as they dressed, and labored as they labored, and, as far as permitted, ate the kind of food they ate. he found them stalking in darkness, he brightened their way for them. he found them ignorant and at the mercy of priest and government official, he became their advocate, dared to brave an all-powerful autocracy in the defense of their rights. he started schools for them. he gave up writing for the thousands of select readers that he might write for the millions of illiterate peasants and other laborers. he wrote special booklets for them, and sold them at a loss, at one-half cent a copy, stories, legends, symbolical tales, moral plays and religious tracts, all fitted for their minds and stations, and intended to deepen in them the law of love and right. died believing he had failed. to have sacrificed and renounced and dared as much and as long as he had, and, in the end, to find what he found, in his three days observation of village miseries and outrages, was more than his great heart could stand. it broke. he was eighty-two years old. he could no longer continue the fight. he could no longer look upon the suffering of the unfortunates, nor upon the wrongs of the world, nor upon the extravagances even within his own family. he regarded his whole life-work a dismal failure. he knew of no other balm for his bleeding heart than flight from the world to some secluded spot, there, as a hermit, to await the end, which he knew was not far distant. truly pathetic were his farewell lines to his wife: "i cannot continue longer to live a life of ease and luxury while others starve and suffer. like many other old men, i retire from the world to await my end in solitude. i ask that you do not seek my place of sojourn, and that you do not come to it if it be discovered. i beg forgiveness for the grief that i may cause you." characteristic of great reformers. he was not the first of the world's great reformers and lovers of humanity to lose heart and to experience spells of despair. moses and elijah and jesus and others had their hours of agony, and prayed that the end might come, and deliver them from their hopeless labors. and many who, like tolstoy, closed their eyes in the belief that they had utterly failed loomed large in subsequent ages among the greatest of the world's benefactors. succeeded better than he knew. tolstoy has not failed. he succeeded better than he knew. his pathetic death revealed the vast number of followers he had in his own country and in all parts of the world. and had he cared to inquire, he might have known it before his death. he could have seen it from the fact that more books of his were sold than of all other russian authors combined. he could have seen it in the vast crowds that gathered all along the line, to catch a glimpse of him, when on his journey, a few years ago, to the crimea, in search of health. he could have seen it in the deputations of sympathizers that waited upon him, and in the streams of congratulatory letters and telegrams that rushed in upon him--till suppressed--after his excommunication. he could have seen it in the tolstoyan societies among the students of almost all the russian universities and among other bodies. he could have seen it among the considerable number of landlords, who made conscientious efforts at following his life, and at adopting his mode of dealing with peasants and laborers. were the yoke of autocracy removed, there would arise in russia an army of tolstoyans as vast and mighty as the host which ezekiel in his vision saw in the valley of dry bones. religion of future will be largely tolstoyan. the religion of russia of the future will be largely that which tolstoy lived and taught, and it will be the religion of a large part of the rest of the world. time's sifting process will eliminate whatever is untenable in his system of moral and social and economic philosophy, which sprang more from a flaming heart than from a cool, calculating mind. he had neither the time nor the inclination to work out a synthetic philosophy. he wrote as the spirit moved him, and whenever it moved him, the keynote of all his writing having been, as he said to me, "the hastening of the day when men will dwell together in the bonds of love, and sin and suffering will be no more." there are in the tolstoyan system of religion the elements of the long-dreamed of universal creed. it will take time for the rooting of it. mormonism and dowieism spring up, like jonah's gourd, and pass away as speedily as they came. a system as rational and radical as that of tolstoy requires an age for germination. but, once it takes root, it takes root forever; once it blossoms, it blossoms for eternity. publications of rabbi joseph krauskopf, d. d. postage. =_a rabbi's impressions of the oberammergau passion play_=.--250 pages, $1.25 $0.10 =_some isms of to-day._=--9 discourses, finely bound, 1.00 .08 =_the seven ages of man._=--a practical philosophy of life. twelve discourses on heavy paper. bound in cloth, 1.00 .10 =_old truths in new books._=--eight discourses in pamphlet form, .50 .05 =_society and its morals._=--seven discourses, handsomely bound, 1.00 .08 =_prejudice, its genesis and exodus._=--eight discourses. .50 .05 =_my visit to tolstoy._=--five discourses .35 .05 =_the service manual._=--a book of _prayers_, _meditations_, _responses_, and _hymns_ differing each sabbath and each holiday. complete for the entire year, in one volume. 400 pages. bound in cloth, 1.50 .12 morocco, 2.50 .12 =_the service hymnal._=--containing the service for friday evening, sunday morning and the sabbath school also the music for all the hymns of the service manual. bound in cloth, .50 .08 bound in morocco, 1.50 .08 =_the mourner's service._=--a book of prayers at the house of mourning, or at the anniversary of the departed, .25 .05 =_sunday discourses._=--bound in cloth, from 1887 to 1910. per volume, 1.50 .12 for sale by oscar klonower, keneseth israel temple. in an extended version,also linking to free sources for education worldwide ... mooc's, educational materials,...) images generously made available by the internet archive.) reminiscences of leo nicolayevitch tolstoi _by_ _maxim gorky_ authorized translation from the russian by s. s. koteliansky and leonard woolf _second edition_ published by leonard & virginia woolf at the hogarth press, paradise road, richmond 1920 _translators' note to second edition_ _reminiscences of leo nicolayevitch tolstoi_, by maxim gorky, was originally published in russian in petrograd in 1919. the first half of the book, consisting of notes, had been written between 1900 and 1901, when tolstoi, gorky, and tchekhov were living in the crimea. the second half consists of a letter written by gorky in 1910. a second edition of the book will shortly be published in russia, and will contain a few additional notes not included in the first edition. we have included this additional matter in the present edition, enclosing it in square brackets. _preface_ this little book is composed of fragmentary notes written by me during the period when i lived in oleise and leo nicolayevitch at gaspra in the crimea. they cover the period of tolstoi's serious illness and of his subsequent recovery. the notes were carelessly jotted down on scraps of paper, and i thought i had lost them, but recently i have found some of them. then i have also included here an unfinished letter written by me under the influence of the "going away" of leo nicolayevitch from yassnaya polyana, and of his death. i publish the letter just as it was written at the time, and without correcting a single word. and i do not finish it, for somehow or other this is not possible. m. gorky. _notes_ i the thought which beyond others most often and conspicuously gnaws at him is the thought of god. at moments it seems, indeed, not to be a thought, but a violent resistance to something which he feels above him. he speaks of it less than he would like, but thinks of it always. it can scarcely be said to be a sign of old age, a presentiment of death--no, i think that it comes from his exquisite human pride, and--a bit--from a sense of humiliation: for, being leo tolstoi, it is humiliating to have to submit one's will to a streptococcus. if he were a scientist, he would certainly evolve the most ingenious hypotheses, make great discoveries. ii he has wonderful hands--not beautiful, but knotted with swollen veins, and yet full of a singular expressiveness and the power of creativeness. probably leonardo da vinci had hands like that. with such hands one can do anything. sometimes, when talking, he will move his fingers, gradually close them into a fist, and then, suddenly opening them, utter a good, full-weight word. he is like a god, not a sabaoth or olympian, but the kind of russian god who "sits on a maple throne under a golden lime tree," not very majestic, but perhaps more cunning than all the other gods. iii he treats sulerzhizky with the tenderness of a woman. for tchekhov his love is paternal--in this love is the feeling of the pride of a creator--suler rouses in him just tenderness, a perpetual interest and rapture which never seems to weary the sorcerer. perhaps there is something a little ridiculous in this feeling, like the love of an old maid for a parrot, a pug dog, or a tom-cat. suler is a fascinatingly wild bird from some strange unknown land. a hundred men like him could change the face, as well as the soul, of a provincial town. its face they would smash and its soul they would fill with a passion for riotous, brilliant, headstrong wildness. one loves suler easily and gaily, and when i see how carelessly women accept him, they surprise and anger me. yet under this carelessness is hidden, perhaps, caution. suler is not reliable. what will he do to-morrow? he may throw a bomb or he may join a troupe of public-house minstrels. he has energy enough for three life-times, and fire of life--so much that he seems to sweat sparks like over-heated iron. iiia [but once he got thoroughly cross with suler. suler inclined to anarchism, and often argued with bitterness about the freedom of the individual. in such cases leo nicolayevitch always chaffed him. i remember that suler once got hold of a thin little pamphlet by prince kropotkin; he flamed up, and all day long explained to everyone the wisdom of anarchism, overwhelming them with his philosophizing. "oh, stop it, liovushka," said leo nicolayevitch irritably, "you are annoying. you hammer away like a parrot at one word, freedom, freedom; but what is the sense of it? if you attained your freedom, what do you imagine would happen? in the philosophic sense, a bottomless void, and in actual life you would become an idler, a parasite. if you were free in your sense, what would bind you to life or to people? now, birds are free, but still they build nests; you, however, wouldn't even build a nest, but would gratify your sexual feeling anywhere, like a dog. you think seriously, and you will come to see, you will come to feel, that this freedom is ultimately emptiness, boundlessness." he frowned angrily, was silent for a while, and then added quietly, "christ was free and so was buddha, and both took on themselves the sins of the world and voluntarily entered the prison of earthly life. further than that nobody has gone, nobody. and you--we--well, what's the good of talking--we are all looking for freedom from obligations towards our fellow men, whereas it is just that feeling of our obligations which has made us men, and, if those obligations were not there, we should live like the beasts." he smiled. "and now here we are arguing how we ought to live. the result isn't very great, but it is something. for instance, you are arguing with me, and are getting so cross that you are going blue in the nose, yet you don't hit me, you don't even swear at me. but if you really felt free, you'd kill me on the spot, and there'd be an end of it." after a silence, he added: "freedom consists in all and everything agreeing with me, but in that case i don't exist, because we are only conscious of ourselves in conflicts and contradictions,"] iv goldenweiser played chopin, which called forth these remarks from leo nicolayevitch: "a certain german princeling said: 'where you want to have slaves, there you should have as much music as possible.' that's a true thought, a true observation--music dulls the mind. especially do the catholics realize that; our priests, of course, won't reconcile themselves to mendelssohn in church. a tula priest assured me that christ was not a jew, though the son of the jewish god and his mother a jewess--he did admit that, but says he: 'it's impossible.' i asked him: 'but how then? 'he shrugged his shoulders and said: 'that's just the mystery.'" v "an intellectual is like the old galician prince vladimirko, who, as far back as the twelfth century, 'boldly' declared: 'there are no miracles in our time.' six hundred years have passed and all the intellectuals hammer away at each other: 'there are no miracles, there are no miracles.' and all the people believe in miracles, just as they did in the twelfth century." vi "the minority feel the need of god because they have got everything else, the majority because they have nothing." i would put it differently: the majority believe in god from cowardice, only the few believe in him from fullness of soul. via "you like andersen's tales?" he asked thoughtfully. "i couldn't make them out when they first appeared in the translation of marko vovtchok, but about ten years later i took up the book and read it, and suddenly realized with great clearness that andersen was very lonely--very. i don't know about his life, but he seems to have lived loosely and to have travelled a great deal, but that only confirms my feeling that he was lonely. and because of that he addressed himself to the young, although it's a mistake to imagine that children pity a man more than grown-ups do. children pity nothing; they do not know what pity is." vii he advised me to read buddhistic scriptures. of buddhism and christ he always speaks sentimentally. when he speaks about christ, it is always peculiarly poor, no enthusiasm, no feeling in his words, and no spark of real fire. i think he regards christ as simple and deserving of pity, and, although at times he admires him, he hardly loves him. it is as though he were uneasy: if christ came to a russian village, the girls might laugh at him. viii to-day the grand duke nicolay mikhailovitch was at tolstoi's, evidently a very clever man. his behaviour is very modest; he talks little. he has sympathetic eyes and a fine figure, quiet gestures. leo nicolayevitch smiled caressingly at him, and spoke now french, now english. in russian he said:-"karamzin wrote for the tsar, soloviov long and tediously, and klutchevsky for his own amusement. cunning fellow klutchevsky: at first you get the impression that he is praising, but as you read on, you see that he is blaming." someone mentioned zabielin. "he's nice. an amateur collector, he collects everything, whether it is useful or not. he describes food as if he had never had a square meal; but he is very, very amusing." ix he reminds me of those pilgrims who all their life long, stick in hand, walk the earth, travelling thousands of miles from one monastery to another, from one saint's relics to another, terribly homeless and alien to all men and things. the world is not for them, nor god either. they pray to him from habit, and in their secret soul they hate him--why does he drive them over the earth from one end to the other? what for? people are stumps, roots, stones on the path; one stumbles over them, and sometimes is hurt by them. one can do without them, but it is pleasant sometimes to surprise a man with one's own unlikeness to him, to show one's difference from him. x "friedrich of prussia said very truly: 'everyone must save himself in his own way.' he also said: 'argue as much as you like, but obey.' but when dying he confessed: 'i have grown weary of ruling slaves.' so-called great men are always terribly contradictory: that is forgiven them with all their other follies. though contradictoriness is not folly: a fool is stubborn, but does not know how to contradict himself. yes, friedrich was a strange man: among the germans he won the reputation of being the best king, yet he could not bear them; he disliked even goethe and wieland." xi "romanticism comes from the fear of looking straight into the eyes of truth," he said yesterday with regard to balmont's poems. suler disagreed with him and, lisping with excitement, read very feelingly some more poems. "these, liovushka, are not poems; they are charlatanism, rubbish, as people said in the middle ages, a nonsensical stringing together of words. poetry is art-less; when fet wrote: 'i know not myself what i will sing, but only my song is ripening,' he expressed a genuine, real, people's sense of poetry. the peasant, too, doesn't know that he's a poet--oh, oi, ah, and aye--and there comes off a real song, straight from the soul, like a bird's. these new poets of yours are inventing. there are certain silly french things called _articles de paris_--well, that's what your stringers of verses produce. nekrassov's miserable verses, too, are invented from beginning to end." "and béranger?" suler asked. "béranger--that's quite different. what's there in common between the french and us? they are sensualists; the life of the spirit is not as important to them as the flesh. to a frenchman woman is everything. they are a worn-out, emasculated people. doctors say that all consumptives are sensualists." suler began to argue with his peculiar directness, pouring out a random flood of words. leo nicolayevitch looked at him and said with a broad smile: "you are peevish to-day, like a girl who has reached the age when she should marry but has no lover." xii the illness dried him up still more, burnt something out of him. inwardly he seemed to become lighter, more transparent, more resigned. his eyes are still keener, his glance piercing. he listens attentively as though recalling something which he has forgotten or as though waiting for something new and unknown. in yassnaya polyana he seemed to me a man who knew everything and had nothing more to learn--a man who had settled every question. xiii if he were a fish, he would certainly swim only in the ocean, never coming to the narrow seas, and particularly not to the flat waters of earthly rivers. around him here there rest or dart hither and thither the little fishes: what he says does not interest them, is not necessary to them, and his silence does not frighten or move them. yet his silence is impressive like that of a real hermit driven out from this world. though he speaks a great deal and as a duty upon certain subjects, his silence is felt to be still greater. certain things one cannot tell to anyone. surely he has some thoughts of which he is afraid. xiv someone sent him an excellent version of the story of christ's godson. he read it aloud with pleasure to suler, tchekhov--he read amazingly well. he was especially amused by the devils torturing the landowners. there was something which i did not like in that. he cannot be insincere, but, if this be sincere, then it makes it worse. then he said: "how well the peasants compose stories. everything is simple, the words few, and a great deal of feeling. real wisdom uses few words; for instance, 'god have mercy on us.'" yet the story is a cruel one. xv his interest in me is ethnological. in his eyes i belong to a species not familiar to him--only that. xvi i read my story "the bull" to him. he laughed much, and praised my knowledge of "the tricks of the language." "but your treatment of words is not skilful; all your peasants speak cleverly. in actual life what they say is silly and incoherent, and at first you cannot make out what a peasant wants to say. that is done deliberately; under the silliness of their words is always concealed a desire to allow the other person to show what is in his mind. a good peasant will never show at once what is in his own mind: it is not profitable. he knows that people approach a stupid man frankly and directly, and that's the very thing he wants. you stand revealed before him and he at once sees all your weak points. he is suspicious; he is afraid to tell his inmost thoughts even to his wife. but with your peasants in every story everything is revealed: it's a universal council of wisdom. and they all speak in aphorisms; that's not true to life, either; aphorisms are not natural to the russian language." "what about sayings and proverbs?" "that's a different thing. they are not of to-day's manufacture." "but you yourself often speak in aphorisms." "never. there again you touch everything up; people as well as nature--especially people. so did lieskov, an affected, finicking writer whom nobody reads now. don't let anyone influence you, fear no one, and then you'll be all right." xvii in his diary which he gave me to read, i was struck by a strange aphorism: "god is my desire." to-day, on returning him the book, i asked him what it meant. "an unfinished thought," he said, glancing at the page and screwing up his eyes. "i must have wanted to say: 'god is my desire to know him.' ... no, not that ..." he began to laugh, and, rolling up the book into a tube, he put it into the big pocket of his blouse. with god he has very suspicious relations; they sometimes remind me of the relation of "two bears in one den." xviii on science: "science is a bar of gold made by a charlatan alchemist. you want to simplify it, to make it accessible to all: you find that you have coined a lot of false coins.. when the people realize the real value of those coins, they won't thank you." xix we walked in the yussopov park. he spoke superbly about the customs of the moscow aristocracy. a big russian peasant woman was working on the flower-bed, bent at right angles, showing her ivory legs, shaking her ten-pound breasts. he looked at her attentively. "it is those caryatids who have kept all that magnificence and extravagance going. not only by the labour of peasant men and women, not only by the taxes they pay, but in the literal sense by their blood. if the aristocracy had not from time to time mated with such horse-women as she, they would have died out long ago. it is impossible with impunity to waste one's strength, as the young men of my time did. but after sowing their wild oats, many married serf-girls and produced a good breed. in that way, too, the peasant's strength saved them. that strength is everywhere in place. half the aristocracy always has to spend its strength on itself, and the other half to dilute itself with peasant blood and thus diffuse the peasant blood a little. it's useful." xx of women he talks readily and much, like a french novelist, but always with the coarseness of a russian peasant. formerly it used to affect me unpleasantly. to-day in the almond park he asked anton tchekhov: "you whored a great deal when you were young?" anton pavlovitch, with a confused smile, and pulling at his little beard, muttered something inaudible, and leo nicolayevitch, looking at the sea, confessed: "i was an indefatigable...." he said this penitently, using at the end of the sentence a salty peasant word. and i noticed for the first time how simply he used the word, as though he knew no more fitting one to use. all those kinds of words, coming from his shaggy lips, sound simple and natural and lose their soldierly coarseness and filth. i remember my first meeting with him and his talk about "varienka oliessova" and "twenty-six and one." from the ordinary point of view what he said was a string of indecent words. i was perplexed by it and even offended. i thought that he considered me incapable of understanding any other kind of language. i understand now: it was silly to have felt offended. xxi he sat on the stone bench in the shade of the cypresses, looking very lean, small and grey, and yet resembling sabaoth, who is a little tired and is amusing himself by trying to whistle in tune with a chaffinch. the bird sang in the darkness of the thick foliage: he peered up at it, screwing up his sharp little eyes, and, pursing his lips like a child, he whistled incompetently. "what a furious little creature. it's in a rage. what bird is it?" i told him about the chaffinch and its characteristic jealousy. "all life long one song," he said, "and yet jealous. man has a thousand songs in his heart and is yet blamed for jealousy; is it fair?" he spoke musingly, as though asking himself questions. "there are moments when a man says to a woman more than she ought to know about him. he speaks and forgets, but she remembers. perhaps jealousy comes from the fear of degrading one's soul, of being humiliated and ridiculous? not that a woman is dangerous who holds a man by his ... but she who holds him by his soul...." when i pointed out the contradiction in this with his "kreutzer sonata," the radiance of a sudden smile beamed through his beard, and he said: "i am not a chaffinch." in the evening, while walking, he suddenly said: "man survives earthquakes, epidemics, the horrors of disease, and all the agonies of the soul, but for all time his most tormenting tragedy has been, is, and will be--the tragedy of the bedroom." saying this, he smiled triumphantly: at times he has the broad, calm smile of a man who has overcome something extremely difficult or from whom some sharp, long-gnawing pain has lifted suddenly. every thought burrows into his soul like a tick; he either tears it out at once or allows it to have its fill of his blood, and then, when full, it just drops off of itself. * * * * * he read to suler and me a variant of the scene of the fall of "father sergius"--a merciless scene. suler pouted and fidgeted uneasily. "what's the matter? don't you like it?" leo nicolayevitch asked. "it's too brutal, as though from dostoevsky. she is a filthy girl, and her breasts like pancakes, and all that. why didn't he sin with a beautiful, healthy woman?" "that would be sin without justification; as it is, there is justification in pity for the girl. who could desire her as she is?" "i cannot make it out...." "there's a great deal, liovushka, which you can't make out: you're not shrewd...." there came in andrey lvovitch's wife, and the conversation was interrupted. as she and suler went out, leo nicolayevitch said to me: "leopold is the purest man i know. he is like that: if he did something bad, it would be out of pity for someone." xxii he talks most of god, of peasants, and of woman; of literature rarely and little, as 'though literature were something alien to him. woman, in my opinion, he regards with implacable hostility and loves to punish her, unless she be a kittie or natasha rostov, _i.e.,_ a creature not too narrow. it is the hostility of the male who has not succeeded in getting all the pleasure he could, or it is the hostility of spirit against "the degrading impulses of the flesh." but it is hostility, and cold, as in _anna karenin._ of "the degrading impulses of the flesh" lie spoke well on sunday in a conversation with tchekhov and yelpatievsky about rousseau's _confession._ suler wrote down what he said, and later, while preparing coffee, burnt it in the spirit-lamp. once before he burnt leo nicolayevitch's opinions on ibsen, and he also lost the notes of the conversation in which leo nicolayevitch said very pagan things on the symbolism of the marriage ritual, agreeing to a certain extent with v. v. rosanov. xxiii in the morning some "stundists" came to tolstoi from feodosia, and to-day all day long he spoke about peasants with rapture. at lunch: "they came both so strong and fleshy; says one: 'well, we've come uninvited,' and the other says: 'with god's help we shall leave unbeaten,'" and he broke out into child-like laughter, shaking all over. after lunch, on the terrace: "we shall soon cease completely to understand the language of the people. now we say: 'the theory of progress,' 'the role of the individual in history,' 'the evolution of science and a peasant says: 'you can't hide an awl in a sack,' and all theories, histories, evolutions become pitiable and ridiculous, because they are incomprehensible and unnecessary to the people.' but the peasant is stronger than we; he is more tenacious of life, and there may happen to us what happened to the tribe of atzurs, of whom it was reported to a scholar: 'all the atzurs have died out, but there is a parrot here who knows a few words of their language.'" xxiv "with her body woman is more sincere than man, but with her mind she lies. and when she lies, she does not believe herself; but rousseau lied and believed his lies." xxv "dostoevsky described one of his mad characters as living and taking vengeance on himself and others because he had served a cause in which he did not believe. he wrote that about himself; that is, he could have said the same of himself." xxvi "some of the words used in church are amazingly obscure: what meaning is there, for instance, in the words: 'the earth is god's and the fulness thereof'? that is not holy scripture, but a kind of popular scientific materialism." "but you explained the words somewhere," said suler. "many things are explained.... 'an explanation does not go up to the hilt.'" and he gave a cunning little smile. xxvii he likes putting difficult and malicious questions: what do you think of yourself? do you love your wife? do you think my son, leo, has talent? how do you like sophie andreyevna?[1] once he asked: "are you fond of me, alexey maximovitch?" this is the maliciousness of a "bogatyr"[2]: vaska buslayev played such pranks in his youth, mischievous fellow. he is experimenting, all the time testing something, as if he were going to fight. it is interesting, but not much to my liking. he is the devil, and i am still a babe, and he should leave me alone. [footnote 1: tolstoi's wife.] [footnote 1: a hero in russian legend, brave, but wild and self-willed like a child.] xxviii perhaps peasant to him means merely--bad smell. he always feels it, and involuntarily has to talk of it. last night i told him of my battle with general kornet's wife; he laughed until he cried, and he got a pain in his side and groaned and kept on crying out in a thin scream: "with the shovel! on the bottom with the shovel, eh? right on the bottom! was it a broad shovel?" then, after a pause, he said seriously: "it was generous in you to strike her like that; any other man would have struck her on the head for that. very generous! you understood that she wanted you?" "i don't remember. i hardly think that i can have understood." "well now! but it's obvious. of course she wanted you." "i did not live for that then." "whatever you may live for, it's all the same. you are evidently not much of a lady's man. anyone else in your place would have made his fortune out of the situation, would have become a landed proprietor and have ended by making one of a pair of drunkards." after a silence: "you are funny--don't be offended--very funny. and it's very strange that you should still be good-natured when you might well be spiteful ... yes, you might well be spiteful ... you're strong ... that's good...." and after another silence, he added thoughtfully: "your mind i don't understand--it's a very tangled mind--but your heart is sensible ... yes, a sensible heart." note.--when i lived in kazan, i entered the service of general kornet's wife as doorkeeper and gardener. she was a frenchwoman, a general's widow, a young woman, fat, and with the tiny feet of a little girl. her eyes were amazingly beautiful, restless and always greedily alert. before her marriage she was, i think, a huckstress or a cook or, possibly, even a woman of the town. she would get drunk early in the morning and come out in the yard or garden dressed only in a chemise with an orange-coloured gown over it, in tartar slippers made of red morocco, and on her head a mane of thick hair. her hair, carelessly done, hung about her red cheeks and shoulders. a young witch! she used to walk about the garden, humming french songs and watching me work, and every now and then she would go to the kitchen window and call: "pauline, give me something." "something" always meant the same thing--a glass of wine with ice in it. in the basement of her house there lived three young ladies, the princesses d. g., whose mother was dead and whose father, a commissariat-general, had gone off elsewhere. general kornet's widow took a dislike to the girls and tried to get rid of them by doing every kind of offensive thing to them. she spoke russian badly, but swore superbly, like an expert drayman. i very much disliked her attitude towards these harmless girls--they looked so sad, frightened, and defenceless. one afternoon, two of them were walking in the garden when suddenly the general's widow appeared, drunk as usual, and began to shout at them to drive them out of the garden. they began walking silently away, but the general's widow stood in the gateway, completely blocking it with her body like a cork, and started swearing at them and using russian words like a regular drayman. i asked her to stop swearing and let the girls go out, but she shouted: "you, i know you! you get through their window at night." i was angry, and, taking her by the shoulders, pushed her away from the gate; but she broke away and, facing me, quickly undid her dress, lifted up her chemise, and shouted:-"i'm nicer than those rats." then i lost my temper. i took her by the neck, turned her round, and struck her with my shovel below the back, so that she skipped out of the gate and ran across the yard, crying out three times in great surprise: "o! o! o!" after that, i got my passport from her confidant, pauline--also a drunken but very wily woman--took my bundle under my arm, and left the place; and the general's widow, standing at the window with a red shawl in her hand, shouted:-"i won't call the police--it's all right--listen--come back--don't be afraid." xxix i asked him: "do you agree with poznyshiev[1] when he says that doctors have destroyed and are destroying thousands and hundreds of thousands of people?" "are you very interested to know?" "very." "then i shan't tell you." and he smiled, playing with his thumbs. i remember in one of his stories he makes a comparison between a quack village vet. and a doctor of medicine:-"the words 'giltchak,' 'potchetchny,' bloodletting,'[2] are they not precisely the same as nerves, rheumatism, organisms, etc.?" and this was written after jenner, behring, pasteur. it is perversity! [footnote 1: in _kreutzer sonata._] [footnote 2: words used by quack vets, for the diseases of horses.] xxx how strange that he is so fond of playing cards. he plays seriously, passionately. his hands become nervous when he takes the cards up, exactly as if he were holding live birds instead of inanimate pieces of cardboard. xxxi "dickens said a very clever thing: 'life is given to us on the definite understanding that we boldly defend it to the last.' on the whole, he was a sentimental, loquacious, and not very clever writer, but he knew how to construct a novel as no one else could, certainly better than balzac. someone has said: 'many are possessed by the passion for writing books, but few are ashamed of them afterwards.' balzac was not ashamed, nor was dickens, and both of them wrote quite a number of bad books. still, balzac is a genius. or at any rate the thing which you can only call genius...." xxxia [someone brought leo tikhomirov's book, _why i ceased to be a revolutionary_: leo nicolayevitch took the book from the table, waved it in the air, and said: "what he says here about political murder is good, that there is no clear idea in that method. the idea, says a frenzied murderer, can only be anarchical sovereignty of the individual and contempt for society and for mankind. that is true, but 'anarchical sovereignty 'is a slip of the pen, it should have been 'monarchical.' that is a good and true idea; all the terrorists will trip up over it--i mean the honest ones. the man who naturally loves killing won't trip up. there is nothing for him to trip up over. he's just a plain murderer, and has only accidentally become a terrorist."] xxxii sometimes he seems to be conceited and intolerant, like a volga preacher, and this is terrible in a man who is the sounding bell of this world. yesterday he said to me: "i am more of a mouzhik than you and i feel better in a mouzhik way." god, he ought not to boast of it, he must not! xxxiii i read him some scenes from my play, _the lower depths;_ he listened attentively and then asked: "why do you write that?" i explained as best i could. "one always notices that you jump like a cock on to everything. and more--you always want to paint all the grooves and cracks over with your own paint. you remember that andersen says: 'the gilt will come off and the pig-skin will remain'; just as our peasants say: 'everything will pass away, the truth alone will remain.' you'd much better not put the plaster on, for you yourself will suffer for it later. again, your language is very skilful, with all kinds of tricks--that's no good. you ought to write more simply; people speak simply, even incoherently, and that's good. a peasant doesn't ask: 'why is a third more than a fourth, if four is always more than three,' as one learned young lady asked. no tricks, please." he spoke irritably; clearly he disliked very much what i had read to him. and after a silence, looking over my head, he said gloomily: "your old man is not sympathetic, one does not believe in his goodness. the actor is all right, he's good. you know _fruits of enlightenment_? my cook there is rather like your actor. writing plays is difficult. but your prostitute also came off well, they must be like that. have you known many of them?" "i used to." "yes, one can see that. truth always shows itself. most of what you say comes out of yourself, and therefore you have no characters, and all your people have the same face. i should think you don't understand women; they don't come off with you. one does not remember them...." at this moment a. l.'s wife came in and called us to come to tea, and he got up and went out very quickly, as if he were glad to end the conversation. xxxiv "what is the most terrible dream you have ever had?" tolstoi asked me. i rarely have dreams and remember them badly, but two have remained in my memory and probably will for the rest of my life. i dreamt once that i saw the sky scrofulous, putrescent, greenish-yellow, and the stars in it were round, flat, without rays, without lustre, like scabs on the skin of a diseased person. and there glided across this putrescent sky slowly reddish forked lightning, rather like a snake, and when it touched a star the star swelled up into a ball and burst noiselessly, leaving behind it a darkish spot, like a little smoke; and then the spot vanished quickly in the bleared and liquid sky. thus all the stars one after another burst and perished, and the sky, growing darker and more horrible, at last whirled upwards, bubbled and bursting into fragments began to fall on my head in a kind of cold jelly, and in the spaces between the fragments there appeared a shiny blackness as though of iron. leo nicolayevitch said: "now that comes from a learned book; you must have read something on astronomy; hence the nightmare. and the other dream?" the other dream: a snowy plain, smooth like a sheet of paper; no hillock, no tree, no bush anywhere, only--barely visible--a few rods poked out from under the snow. and across the snow of this dead desert from horizon to horizon there stretched a yellow strip of a hardly distinguishable road, and over the road there marched slowly a pair of grey felt top boots--empty. he raised his shaggy, were-wolf eyebrows, looked at me intently and thought for a while. "that's terrible. did you really dream that, you didn't invent it? but there's something bookish in it also." and suddenly he got angry, and said, irritably, sternly, rapping his knee with his finger: "but you're not a drinking man? it's unlikely that you ever drank much. and yet there's something drunken in these dreams. there was a german writer, hoffmann, who dreamt that card tables ran about the street, and all that sort of thing, but then he was a drunkard--a 'calaholic,' as our literate coachmen say. empty boots marching--that's really terrible. even if you did invent it, it's good. terrible." suddenly he gave a broad smile, so that even his cheek bones beamed. "and imagine this: suddenly, in the tverskaya street, there runs a card table with its curved legs, its boards clap, clap, raising a chalky dust, and you can even still see the numbers on the green cloth--excise clerks playing whist on it for three days and nights on end--the table could not bear it any longer and ran away." he laughed, and then, probably noticing that i was a little hurt by his distrust of me: "are you hurt because i thought your dreams bookish? don't be annoyed; sometimes, i know, one invents something without being aware of it, something which one cannot believe, which can't possibly be believed, and then one imagines that one dreamt it and did not invent it at all. there was a story which an old landowner told. he dreamt that he was walking in a wood and came out of it on to a steppe. on the steppe he saw two hills, which suddenly turned into a woman's breasts, and between them rose up a black face which, instead of eyes, had two moons like white spots. the old man dreamt that he was standing between the woman's legs, in front of him a deep, dark ravine, which sucked him in. after the dream his hair began to grow grey and his hands to tremble, and he went abroad to doctor kneip to take a water cure. but, really, he must have seen something of the kind--he was a dissolute fellow." he patted me on the shoulder. "but you are neither a drunkard nor dissolute--how do you come to have such dreams?" "i don't know." "we know nothing about ourselves." he sighed, screwed up his eyes, thought for a bit, and then added in a low voice: "we know nothing." this evening, during our walk, he took my arm and said: "the boots are marching--terrible, eh? quite empty--tiop, tiop--and the snow scrunching. yes, it's good; but you are very bookish, very. don't be cross, but it's bad and will stand in your way." i am scarcely more bookish than he, and at the time i thought him a cruel rationalist despite all his pleasant little phrases. xxxv at times he gives one the impression of having just arrived from some distant country, where people think and feel differently and their relations and language are different. he sits in a corner tired and grey, as though the dust of another earth were on him, and he looks attentively at everything with the look of a foreigner or of a dumb man. yesterday, before dinner, he came into the drawing-room, just like that, his thoughts far away. he sat down on the sofa, and, after a moment's silence, suddenly said, swaying his body a little, rubbing the palm of his hand on his knee, and wrinkling up his face: "still that is not all--not all." someone, always stolidly stupid as a flat-iron, asked: "what do you say?" he looked at him fixedly, and then, bending forward and looking on the terrace where i was sitting with doctor nikitin and yelpatievsky, he said: "what are you talking about?" "plehve." "plehve ... plehve ...," he repeated musingly after a pause, as though he heard the name for the first time. then he shook himself like a bird, and said, with a faint smile: "to-day from early morning i have had a silly thing running in my head; someone once told me that he saw the following epitaph in a cemetery: 'beneath this stone there rests ivan yegoriev; a tanner by trade, he always wetted hides. his work was honest, his heart good, but, behold, he passed away, leaving his business to his wife. he was not yet old and might still have done a lot of work. but god took him away to the life of paradise on the night friday to saturday in passion week ...' and something like that...." he was silent, and then, nodding his head and smiling faintly, added: "in human stupidity when it is not malicious, there is something very touching, even beautiful.... there always is." they called us to come to dinner. xxxvi "i do not like people when they are drunk, but i know some who become interesting when they are tipsy, who acquire what is not natural to them in their sober state--wit, beauty of thought, alertness, and richness of language. in such cases i am ready to bless wine." suler tells how he was once walking with leo nicolayevitch in tverskaya street when tolstoi noticed in the distance two soldiers of the guards. the metal of their accoutrements shone in the sun; their spurs jingled; they kept step like one man; their faces, too, shone with the self-assurance of strength and youth. tolstoi began to grumble at them: "what pompous stupidity! like animals trained by the whip...." but when the guardsmen came abreast with him, he stopped, followed them caressingly with his eyes, and said enthusiastically: "how handsome! old romans, eh, liovushka? their strength and beauty! o lord! how charming it is when man is handsome, how very charming!" _a letter_ i have just posted a letter to you--telegrams have arrived telling of "tolstoi's flight," and now once more one with you in thought i write again. probably all i want to say about the news will seem to you confused, perhaps even harsh and ill-tempered, but you will forgive me--i am feeling as though i had been gripped by the throat and was being strangled. i had many long conversations with him; when he was living at gaspra in the crimea, i often went to him and he liked coming to me; i have studied his books lovingly; it seems to me that i have the right to say what i think of him, even if it be bold and differ widely from the general opinion. i know as well as others that no man is more worthy than he of the name of genius; more complicated, contradictory, and great in everything--yes, yes, in everything. great--in some curious sense wide, indefinable by words--there is something in him which made me desire to cry aloud to everyone: "look what a wonderful man is living on the earth." for he is, so to say, universally and above all a man, a man of mankind. but what always repelled me in him was that stubborn despotic inclination to turn the life of count leo nicolayevitch tolstoi into "the saintly life of our blessed father, boyard leo." as you know, he has for long intended to suffer; he expressed his regret to e. soloviov, to suler, that he had not succeeded, but he wanted to suffer simply, not out of a natural desire to test the resistance of his will, but with the obvious and, i repeat, the despotic intention of increasing the influence of his religious ideas, the weight of his teaching, in order to make his preaching irresistible, to make it holy in the eyes of man through his suffering, to force them to accept it; you understand, to force them. for he realizes that that preaching is not sufficiently convincing; in his diary you will, some day, read good instances of scepticism applied by him to his own preaching and personality. he knows that "martyrs and sufferers, with rare exceptions, are despots and tyrants"--he knows everything! and yet he says to himself, "were i to suffer for my ideas they would have a greater influence." this in him always repelled me, for i cannot help feeling that it is an attempt to use violence to me--a desire to get hold of my conscience, to dazzle it with the glory of righteous blood, to put on my neck the yoke of a dogma. he always greatly exalted immortality on the other side of life, but he preferred it on this side. a writer, national in the truest and most complete sense, he embodied in his great soul all the defects of his nation, all the mutilations caused us by the ordeals of our history; his misty preaching of "non-activity," of "non-resistance to evil"--the doctrine of passivism--this is all the unhealthy ferment of the old russian blood, envenomed by mongolian fatalism and almost chemically hostile to the west with its untiring creative labour, with its active and indomitable resistance to the evil of life. what is called tolstoi's "anarchism," essentially and fundamentally, expresses our slav anti-stateism, which, again, is really a national characteristic and desire, ingrained in our flesh from old times, to scatter nomadically. up to now we have indulged that desire passionately, as you and everyone else know. we russians know it, too, but we break away, always along the line of least resistance; we see that this is pernicious, but still we crawl further and further away from one another--and these mournful cockroach journeyings are called "the history of russia," of a state which has been established almost incidentally, mechanically, to the surprise of the majority of its honest-minded citizens, by the forces of the variags, tartars, baltic germans, and petty constables. to their surprise, because all the time "scattering," and only when we reached places beyond which we could find nothing worse--for we could go no further--well, then we stopped and settled down. this is the lot, the destiny to which we are doomed--to settle in the snows and marshes by the side of the wild erza, tchood, merey, vess, and muroma. yet men arose who realized that light must come to us not from the east but from the west; and now he, the crown of our ancient history, wishes, consciously or unconsciously, to stretch himself like a vast mountain across our nation's path to europe, to the active life which sternly demands of man the supreme effort of his spiritual forces. his attitude towards science is, too, certainly national: one sees magnificently reflected in him the old russian village scepticism which comes from ignorance. everything is national in him, and all his preaching is a reaction from the past, an atavism which we had already begun to shake off and overcome. think of his letter "the intelligenzia, the state, the people," written in 1905--what a pernicious, malignant thing it is! you can hear in it the sectarian's "i told you so." at the time i wrote an answer to him, based on his own words to me that he had long since forfeited the right to speak of and on behalf of the russian people, for i am a witness of his lack of desire to listen to and understand the people who came to talk to him soul to soul. my letter was bitter, and in the end i did not send it to him. well, now he is probably making his last assault in order to give to his ideas the highest possible significance. like vassily buslayev, he usually loved these assaults, but always so that he might assert his holiness and obtain a halo. that is dictatorial, although his teaching is justified by the ancient history of russia and by his own sufferings of genius. holiness is attained by flirting with sin, by subduing the will to live. people do desire to live, but he tries to persuade them: "that's all nonsense, our earthly life." it is very easy to persuade a russian of this; he is a lazy creature who loves beyond anything else to find an excuse for his own inactivity. on the whole, of course, a russian is not a platon karatayev, nor an akim, nor a bezonkhy, nor a neklyudov; all these men were created by history and nature, not exactly on tolstoi's pattern, he only improved on them in order more thoroughly to support his teaching. but, undeniably, russia as a whole is--tiulin above and oblomov below. for the tiulin above look at the year 1905, and for the oblomov below look at count a. n. tolstoi, i. bunin, look at everything round about you. beasts and swindlers--we can leave them out of consideration, though our beast is exceedingly national--what a filthy coward he is for all his cruelty. swindlers, of course, are international. in leo nicolayevitch there is much which at times roused in me a feeling very like hatred, and this hatred fell upon my soul with crushing weight. his disproportionately overgrown individuality is a monstrous phenomenon, almost ugly, and there is in him something of sviatogor, the bogatir, whom the earth can't hold. yes, he _is_ great. i am deeply convinced that, beyond all that he speaks of, there is much which he is silent about, even in his diary--he is silent, and, probably, will never tell it to anyone. that "something" only occasionally and in hints slipped through into his conversation, and hints of it are also to be found in the two note-books of his diary which he gave me and l. a. sulerzhizky to read; it seems to me a kind of "negation of all affirmations," the deepest and most evil nihilism which has sprung from the soil of an infinite and unrelieved despair, from a loneliness which, probably, no one but he has experienced with such terrifying clearness. i often thought him to be a man who in the depths of his soul is stubbornly indifferent to people: he is so much above and beyond them that they seem to him like midges and their activities ridiculous and miserable. he has gone too far away from them into some desert, and there solitary, with the highest effort of all the force of his spirit, he closely examines into "the most essential," into death. all his life he feared and hated death, all his life there throbbed in his soul the "arsamaxian terror" --must he die? the whole world, all the earth looks toward him; from china, india, america, from everywhere living, throbbing threads stretch out to him; his soul is for all and for ever. why should not nature make an exception to her law, give to one man physical immortality--why not? he is certainly too rational and sensible to believe in miracles, but, on the other hand, he is a bogatir, an explorer, and, like a young recruit, wild and headstrong from fear and despair in face of the unknown barrack. i remember in gaspra he read leo shestov's book _good and evil in the teaching of nietzsche and tolstoi_, and, when anton tchekhov remarked that he did not like the book, tolstoi said: "i thought it amusing. it's written swaggeringly, but it's all right and interesting. i'm sure i like cynics when they are sincere. now he says: 'truth is not wanted'; quite true, what should he want truth for? for he will die all the same." and, evidently seeing that his words had not been understood, he added with a quick smile:-"if a man has learned to think, no matter what he may think about;, he is always thinking of his own death. all philosophers were like that. and what truths can there be, if there is death?" he went on to say that truth is the same for all --love of god; but on this subject he spoke coldly and wearily. after lunch on the terrace, he took up the book again, and, finding the passage, "tolstoi, dostoevsky, nietzsche could not live without an answer to their questions, and for them any answer was better than none," he laughed and said: "what a daring coiffeur; he says straight that i deceived myself, and that means that i deceived others too. that is the obvious conclusion...." "why coiffeur?" asked suler. "well," he answered thoughtfully, "it just came into my mind--he is fashionable, chic, and i remembered the coiffeur from moscow at a wedding of his peasant uncle in the village. he has the finest manners and he dances fashionably, and so he despises everyone." i repeat this conversation, i think, almost literally; it is most memorable for me, and i even wrote it down, as i did many other things which struck me. sulerzhizky and i wrote down many things which tolstoi said, but suler lost his notes when he came to me at arsamas: he was habitually careless, and although he loved leo nicolayevitch like a woman, he behaved towards him rather strangely, almost like a superior. i have also mislaid my notes somewhere, and cannot find them; someone in russia must have got them. i watched tolstoi very attentively, because i was looking for--i am still looking for, and will until my death--a man with an active and a living faith. and also because once anton tchekhov, speaking of our lack of culture, complained: "goethe's words were all recorded, but tolstoi's thoughts are being lost in the air. that, my dear fellow, is intolerably russian. after his death they will bestir themselves, will begin to write reminiscences, and will lie." but to return to shestov. "'it is impossible,' he says, 'to live looking at horrible ghosts,' but how does _he_ know whether it's horrible or not? if he knew, if he saw ghosts, he would not write this nonsense, but would do something serious, what buddha did all his life." someone remarked that shestov was a jew. "hardly," said leo nicolayevitch doubtfully. "no, he is not like a jew; there are no disbelieving jews, you can't name one.... no." it seemed sometimes as though this old sorcerer were playing with death, coquetting with her, trying somehow to deceive her, saying: "i am not afraid of thee, i love thee, i long for thee." and at the same time peering at death with his keen little eyes: "what art thou like? what follows thee hereafter? wilt thou destroy me altogether, or will something in me go on living?" a strange impression used to be produced by his words: "i am happy, i am awfully happy, i am too happy." and then immediately afterwards: "to suffer." to suffer--that, too, was true in him; i don't doubt for a second that he, only half convalescent, would have been really glad to be put into prison, to be banished--in a word, to embrace a martyr's crown. would not martyrdom probably in some measure justify death, make her more understandable, acceptable from the external, from the formal point of view? but he was never happy, never and nowhere; i am certain of that: neither "in the books of wisdom," nor "on the back of a horse," nor "in the arms of a woman" did he experience the full delights of "earthly paradise." he is too rational for that and knows life and people too well. here are some more of his words: "the kaliph abdurahman had during his life fourteen happy days, but i am sure i have not had so many. and this is because i have never lived--i cannot live--for myself, for my own self; i live for show, for people." when we left, anton tchekhov said to me: "i don't believe that he was not happy." but i believe it. he was not. though it is not true that he lived for show. yes, what he himself did not need, he gave to people as though they were beggars; he liked to compel them, to compel them to read, walk, be vegetarians, love the peasants, and believe in the infallibility of the rational-religious reflections of leo tolstoi. people must be given something which will either satisfy or amuse them, and then let them be off. let them leave a man in peace, to his habitual, tormenting, and sometimes cosy loneliness in face of the bottomless pit of the problem of "the essential." all russian preachers, with the exception of avvakum and, perhaps, tikhon zadonsky, are cold men, for they did not possess an active and living faith. when i was writing luka in _the lower depths_, i wanted to describe an old man like that: he is interested in "every solution," but not in people; coming inevitably in contact with them, he consoles them, but only in order that they may leave him in peace. and all the philosophy, all the preaching of such men, is alms bestowed by them with a veiled aversion, and there sounds behind their preaching words which are beggarly and melancholy: "get out! love god or your neighbour, but get out! curse god, love the stranger, but leave me alone! leave me alone, for i am a man and i am doomed to death." alas, so it is and so it will be. it could not and cannot be otherwise, for men have become worn out, exhausted, terribly separated, and they are all chained to a loneliness which dries up the soul. if leo nicolayevitch had had a reconciliation with the church, it would not have at all surprised me. the thing would have had a logic of its own; all men are equally insignificant, even archbishops. in fact, it would not have been a reconciliation, strictly speaking; for him personally the act would have been only logical: "i forgive those who hate me." it would have been a christian act, and behind it there would have hidden a quick, ironical, little smile, which would be understood as the way in which a wise man retaliates on the fools. what i write is not what i want to say; i cannot express it properly. there is a dog howling in my soul and i have a foreboding of some misfortune. yes, newspapers have just arrived and it is already clear: you at home are beginning to "create a legend": idlers and good-for-nothings have gone on living and have now produced a saint. only think how pernicious it is for the country just at this moment, when the heads of disillusioned men are bowed down, the souls of the majority empty, and the souls of the best full of sorrow. lacerated and starving, they long for a legend. they long so much for alleviation of pain, for the soothing of torment. and they will create just what he desires, but what is not wanted--the life of a holy man and saint; but surely he is great and holy because he is a man, a madly and tormentingly beautiful man; a man of the whole of mankind. i am somehow contradicting myself in this, but it does not matter. he is a man seeking god, not for himself, but for men, so that god may leave him, the man, alone in the peace of the desert chosen by him. he gave us the gospels in order that we might forget the contradictions in christ; he simplified christ's image, smoothing away the militant elements and bringing into the foreground the humble "will of him that sent him." no doubt tolstoi's gospel is the more easily accepted because it is "soothing to the malady" of the russian people. he had to give them something, for they complain and trouble the earth with their groaning and distract him from "the essential." but _war and peace_ and all the other things of the same kind will not soothe the sorrow and despair of the grey russian land. of _war and peace_ he himself said: "without false modesty, it is like the iliad." m. y. tchaikovsky heard from his lips exactly the same appreciation of _childhood_, _youth._ journalists have just arrived from naples; one even hurried from rome. they ask me to say what i think of tolstoi's "flight"--"flight" is the word they use. i would not talk to them. you, of course, understand that inwardly i am terribly disturbed; i do not want to see tolstoi a saint; let him remain a sinner close to the heart of the all-sinful world, even close to the heart of each one of us. poushkin and he--there is nothing more sublime or dearer to us. leo tolstoi is dead. a telegram came containing the commonest of words--is dead. it struck me to the heart; i cried with pain and anger, and now, half crazy, i imagine him as i know and saw him--i am tormented by a desire to speak with him. i imagine him in his coffin--he lies like a smooth stone at the bottom of a stream, and in his grey beard, i am sure, is quietly hidden that aloof, mysterious, little smile. and at last his hands are folded peacefully--they have finished their hard task. i remember his keen eyes--they saw everything through and through--and the movements of his fingers, as though they were perpetually modelling something out of the air, his talk, his jokes, his favourite peasant words, his elusive voice. and i see what a vast amount of life was embodied in the man, how inhumanly clever he was, how terrifying. i once saw him as, perhaps, no one has ever seen him. i was walking over to him at gaspra along the coast, and behind yussupov's estate, on the shore among the stones i saw his smallish, angular figure in a grey, crumpled, ragged suit and crumpled hat. he was sitting with his head on his hands, the wind blowing the silvery hairs of his beard through his fingers: he was looking into the distance out to sea, and the little greenish waves rolled up obediently to his feet and fondled them as though they were telling something about themselves to the old magician. it was a day of sun and cloud, and the shadows of the clouds glided over the stones, and with the stones the old man grew now bright and now dark. the boulders were large, riven by cracks, and covered with smelling sea-weed: there had been a high tide. he, too, seemed to me like an old stone come to life, who knows all the beginnings and the ends of things, who considers when and what will be the end of the stones, the grasses of the earth, of the waters of the sea, and of the whole universe from the pebble to the sun. and the sea is part of his soul, and everything around him comes from him, out of him. in the musing motionlessness of the old man i felt something fateful, magical, something which went down into the darkness beneath him and stretched up, like a searchlight, into the blue emptiness above the earth -as though it were he, his concentrated will, which was drawing the waves to him and repelling them, which was ruling the movements of cloud and shadow, which was stirring the stones to life. suddenly, in a moment of madness, i felt it is possible, he will get up, wave his hand, and the sea will become solid and glassy, the stones will begin to move and cry out, everything around him will come to life, acquire a voice, and speak in their different voices of themselves, of him, against him. i cannot express in words what i felt rather than thought at that moment; in my soul there was joy and fear, and then everything blended in one happy thought: "i am not an orphan on the earth so long as this man lives on it." then i walked on tip-toe away in order that the pebbles might not scrunch under my feet, not wishing to distract his thoughts. and now i feel i am an orphan, i cry as i write--never before have i cried so unconsolably and in such bitter despair. i do not know whether i loved him; but does it matter, love of him or hatred? he always roused in me sensations and agitations which were enormous, fantastic; even the unpleasant and hostile feelings which he aroused were of a kind not to oppress, but rather to explode the soul: they made it more sensitive and capacious. he was grand when, with his boots scraping over the ground, as though he were imperiously smoothing its unevenness, he suddenly appeared from somewhere, from behind a door or out of some corner, and came towards you with the short, light, quick step of a man accustomed to walk a great deal on the earth. with his thumbs in his belt he would stop for a second, looking round quickly with a comprehensive glance, a glance which at once took in anything new and instantly absorbed the meaning of everything. "how do you do?" i always translated these words into: "how do you do? there's pleasure for me, and for you there's not much sense in it--but still, how do you do?" he would come out looking rather small, and immediately everyone round him would become smaller than he. a peasant's beard, rough but extraordinary hands, simple clothes, all this external, comfortable democratism deceived many people, and i often saw how russians who judge people by their clothes--an old slavish habit--began to pour out a stream of their odious "frankness," which is more properly called "the familiarity of the pig-sty." "ah, you are one of us! that's what you are. at last, by god's grace, i am face to face with the greatest son of our native land. hail for ever. i bow low to you." that is a sample of muscovite russian, simple and hearty, and here is another, but "free-thinkerish": "leo nicolayevitch, though i disagree with your religious-philosophical views, i deeply respect in your person the greatest of artists." and suddenly, under his peasant's beard, under his democratic crumpled blouse, there would rise the old russian _bariny_ the grand aristocrat: then the noses of the simple-hearted visitor, educated and all the rest, instantly became blue with intolerable cold. it was pleasant to see this creature of the purest blood, to watch the noble grace of his gestures, the proud reserve of his speech, to hear the exquisite pointedness of his murderous words. he showed just as much of the _barin_ as was needed for these serfs, and when they called out the _barin_ in tolstoi it appeared naturally and easily and crushed them so that they shrivelled up and whined. one day i was returning from yasnaya polyana to moscow with one of these "simple-hearted" russians, a moscow man, and for a long time he could not recover his breath, but kept on smiling woefully and repeating in astonishment: "well, well, that was a cold bath. he's severe ... pooh!" and in the middle of it all he exclaimed, apparently with regret: "and i thought he was really an anarchist. everyone keeps on saying: anarchist, anarchist,' and i believe it...." the man was a large, rich manufacturer, with a great belly, and a face the colour of raw meat--why did he want tolstoi to be an anarchist? one of the "profound mysteries" of the russian soul! when leo nicolayevitch wished to please, he could do so more easily than a clever and beautiful woman. imagine a company of people of all kinds sitting in his room: the grand duke nicolay mikhailovitch, the house-painter ilya, a social-democrat from yalta, the stundist patzuk, a musician, a german, the manager of the estates of countess kleinmichel, the poet bulgakov, and all look at him with the same enamoured eyes. he explains to them the teaching of lao-tse, and he seems to me an extraordinary man-orchestra, possessing the faculty of playing several instruments at the same time, a brass trumpet, a drum, harmonium, and flute. i used to look at him just as the others did. and now i long to see him once more--and i shall never see him again. journalists have come asserting that a telegram has been received in rome "denying the rumour of tolstoi's death." they bustled and chattered, redundantly expressing their sympathy with russia. the russian newspapers leave no room for doubt. to lie to him, even out of pity, was impossible; even when he was seriously ill, one could not pity him. it would be banal to pity a man like him. they ought to be taken care of, cherished, not loaded with the wordy dust of worn-out, soulless words. he used to ask: "you don't like me?" and one had to answer: "no, i don't." "you don't love me?"--"no, to-day i don't love you." in his questions he was merciless, in his answers reserved, as becomes a wise man. he used to speak with amazing beauty of the past, and particularly of turgeniev; of fet always with a good-natured smile and always something amusing, of nekrassov coldly and sceptically; but of all writers exactly as if they were his children and he, the father, knew all their faults, and--there you are! he would point out their faults before their merits, and every time he blamed someone it seemed to me that he was giving alms to his listeners because of their poverty; to listen to him then made one feel awkward, one's eyes fell before his sharp little smile and--nothing remained in one's memory. once he argued fiercely that g. y. uspensky wrote in the tula language, and had no talent at all. and later i heard him say to anton pavlovitch tchekhov: "he (uspensky) is a writer! in the power of his sincerity he recalls dostoevsky, only dostoevsky went in for politics and coquetted, while uspensky is more simple and sincere. if he had believed in god, he would have been a sectarian." "but you said he was a tula writer and had no talent." he drew his shaggy brows down over his eyes and said: "he wrote badly. what kind of language does he use? there are more punctuation marks than words. talent is love. one who loves is talented. look at lovers, they are all talented." of dostoevsky he spoke reluctantly, constrainedly, evading or repressing something: "he ought to have made himself acquainted with the teaching of confucius or the buddhists; that would have calmed him down. that is the chief thing which everyone should know. he was a man of rebellious flesh; when angry, bumps would suddenly rise on his bald head; and his ears would move. he felt a great deal, but he thought poorly; it is from the fourierists, from butashevitch and the others, that he learnt to think. and afterwards all his life long he hated them. there was something jewish in his blood. he was suspicious without reason, ambitious, heavy and unfortunate. it is curious that he is so much read. i can't understand why. it is all painful and useless, because all those idiots, adolescents, raskolnikovs, and the rest of them, they are not real; it is all much simpler, more understandable. it's a pity people don't read lieskov, he's a real writer--have you read him?" "yes, i like him very much, especially his language." "he knew the language marvellously, even the tricks. strange that you should like him; somehow you are not russian, your thoughts are not russian -is it all right, you're not hurt at my saying that r i am an old man, and, perhaps, i can no longer understand modern literature, but it seems to me that it is all not russian. they begin to write a curious kind of verse; i don't know what these poems are or what they mean. one has to learn to write poetry from poushkin, tiutchev, fet. now you"--he turned to tchekhov--"you are russian. yes, very, very russian." and smiling affectionately, he put his hand on tchekhov's shoulder; and the latter became uncomfortable and began in a low voice to mutter something about his bungalow and the tartars. he loved tchekhov, and, when he looked at him, his eyes were tender and seemed almost to stroke anton pavlovitch's face. once, when anton pavlovitch was walking on the lawn with alexandra lvovna, tolstoi, who at the time was still ill and was sitting in a chair on the terrace, seemed to stretch towards them, saying in a whisper: "ah, what a beautiful, magnificent man: modest and quiet like a girl! and he walks like a girl. he's simply wonderful." one evening, in the twilight, half closing his eyes and moving his brows, he read a variant of the scene in _father sergius_, where the woman goes to seduce the hermit: he read it through to the end, and then, raising his head and shutting his eyes, he said distinctly: "the old man wrote it well, well." it came out with such amazing simplicity, his pleasure in its beauty was so sincere, that i shall never forget the delight which it gave me at the time, a delight which i could not--did not know how to express, but which i could only suppress by a tremendous effort. my heart stopped beating for a moment, and then everything around me seemed to become fresh and revivified. one must have heard him speak in order to understand the extraordinary, indefinable beauty of his speech; it was, in a sense, incorrect, abounding in repetitions of the same word, saturated with village simplicity. the effect of his words did not come only from the intonation and the expression of his face, but from the play and light in his eyes, the most eloquent eyes i have ever seen. in his two eyes leo nicolayevitch possessed a thousand eyes. once suler, sergey lvovitch, tchekhov, and someone else, were sitting in the park and talking about women; he listened in silence for a long time, and then suddenly said: "and i will tell the truth about women, when i have one foot in the grave--i shall tell it, jump into my coffin, pull the lid over me, and say, 'do what you like now.'" the look he gave us was so wild, so terrifying that we all fell silent for a while. he had in him, i think, the inquisitive, mischievous wildness of a vaska buslayev, and also something of the stubbornness of soul of the protopop avvakum, while above or at his side lay hidden the scepticism of a tchaadayev. the avvakumian element harried and tormented with its preachings the artist in him; the novgorod wildness upset shakespeare and dante, while the tchaadayevian element scoffed at his soul's amusements and, by the way, at its agonies. and the old russian man in him dealt a blow at science and the state, the russian driven to the passivity of anarchism by the barrenness of all his efforts to build up a more human life. strange! this buslayev characteristic in tolstoi was perceived through some mysterious intuition by olaf gulbranson, the caricaturist of simplicissimus: look closely at his drawing and you will see how startlingly he has got the likeness of the real tolstoi, what intellectual daring there is in that face with its veiled and hidden eyes, for which nothing is sacred and which believe "neither in a sneeze, nor a dream, nor the cawing of a bird." the old magician stands before me, alien to all, a solitary traveller through all the deserts of thought in search of an all-embracing truth which he has not found--i look at him and, although i feel sorrow for the loss, i feel pride at having seen the man, and that pride alleviates my pain and grief. it was curious to see leo nicolayevitch among "tolstoyans"; there stands a noble belfry and its bell sounds untiringly over the whole world, while round about run tiny, timorous dogs whining at the bell and distrustfully looking askance at one another as though to say, "who howled best?" i always thought that these people infected the yassnaya polyana house, as well as the great house of countess panin, with a spirit of hypocrisy, cowardice, mercenary and self-seeking pettiness and legacy-hunting. the "tolstoyans" have something in common with those friars who wander in all the dark corners of russia, carrying with them dogs' bones and passing them off as relics, selling "egyptian darkness" and the "little tears of our lady." one of these apostles, i remember, at yassnaya polyana refused to eat eggs so as not to wrong the hens, but at tula railway-station he greedily devoured meat, saying: "the old fellow does exaggerate." nearly all of them like to moan and kiss one another; they all have boneless perspiring hands and lying eyes. at the same time they are practical fellows and manage their earthly affairs cleverly. leo nicolayevitch, of course, well understood the value of the "tolstoyans," and so did sulerzhizky, whom tolstoi loved tenderly and whom he always spoke of with a kind of youthful ardour and fervour. once one of those "tolstoyans" at yassnaya polyana explained eloquently how happy his life had become and how pure his soul after he accepted tolstoy's teaching. leo nicolayevitch leant over and said to me in a low voice: "he's lying all the time, the rogue, but he does it to please me...." many tried to please him, but i did not observe that they did it well or with any skill. he rarely spoke to me on his usual subjects of universal forgiveness, loving one's neighbour, the gospels, and buddhism, evidently because he realized at once that all that would not "go down" with me. i greatly appreciated this. when he liked he could be extraordinarily charming, sensitive, and tactful; his talk was fascinatingly simple and elegant, but sometimes it was painfully unpleasant to listen to him. i always disliked what he said about women--it was unspeakably "vulgar," and there was in his words something artificial, insincere, and at the same time very personal. it seemed as if he had once been hurt, and could neither forget nor forgive. the evening when i first got to know him, he took me into his study--it was at khamovniki in moscow--and, making me sit opposite to him, began to talk about _varienka oliessova_ and of _twenty-six and one_. i was overwhelmed by his tone and lost my head, he spoke so plainly and brutally, arguing that in a healthy girl chastity is not natural. "if a girl who has turned fifteen is healthy, she desires to be touched and embraced. her mind is still afraid of the unknown and of what she does not understand -that is what they call chastity and purity. but her flesh is already aware that the incomprehensible is right, lawful, and, in spite of the mind, it demands fulfilment of the law. now you describe varienka oliessova as healthy, but her feelings are anaemic--that is not true to life." then he began to speak about the girl in _twenty-six and one_, using a stream of indecent words with a simplicity which seemed to me cynical and even offended me. later i came to see that he used unmentionable words only because he found them more precise and pointed, but at the time it was unpleasant to me to listen to him. i made no reply, and suddenly he became attentive and kindly and began asking me about my life, what i was studying, and what i read. "i am told that you are very well read; is that true? is korolenko a musician?" "i believe not; but i'm not sure." "you don't know? do you like his stories?" "i do very much." "it is the contrast. he is lyrical and you haven't got that. have you read weltmann?" "yes." "isn't he a good writer, clever, exact, and with no exaggeration? he is sometimes better than gogol. he knew balzac. and gogol imitated marlinsky." when i said that gogol was probably influenced by hoffmann, stern, and perhaps dickens, he glanced at me and asked: "have you read that somewhere? no? it isn't true. gogol hardly knew dickens. but you must clearly have read a great deal: now look here, it's dangerous. kolzov ruined himself by it." when he accompanied me to the door, he embraced and kissed me and said: "you are a real mouzhik. you will find it difficult to live among writers, but never mind, don't be afraid, always say what you feel even if it be rude--it doesn't matter. sensible people will understand." i had two impressions from this first meeting: i was glad and proud to have seen tolstoi, but his conversation reminded me a little of an examination, and in a sense i did not see in him the author of _cossacks, kholstomier, war and peace_, but a _barin_ who, making allowances for me, considered it necessary to speak to me in the common language, the language of the street and market-place. that upset my idea of him, an idea which was deeply rooted and had become dear to me. it was at yassnaya polyana that i saw him again. it was an overcast, autumn day with a drizzle of rain, and he put on a heavy overcoat and high leather boots and took me for a walk in the birch wood. he jumped the ditches and pools like a boy, shook the rain-drops off the branches, and gave me a superb account of how fet had explained schopenhauer to him in this wood. he stroked the damp, satin trunks of the birches lovingly with his hand and said: "lately i read a poem- the mushrooms are gone, but in the hollows is the heavy smell of mushroom dampness.... very good, very true." suddenly a hare got up under our feet. leo nicolayevitch started up excited, his face lit up, and he whooped like a real old sportsman. then, looking at me with a curious little smile, he broke into a sensible, human laugh. he was wonderfully charming at that moment. another time he was looking at a hawk in the park: it was hovering over the cattle-shed, making wide circles suspended in the air, moving its wings very slightly as if undecided whether or not the moment to strike had come. leo nicolayevitch stood up shading his eyes with his hand and murmured with excitement: "the rogue is going for our chickens. now, now ... it's coming ... o, he's afraid. the groom is there, isn't he? i'll call the groom...." and he shouted to the groom. when he shouted, the hawk was scared, swept upwards, swung away, and disappeared. leo nicolayevitch sighed, apparently reproaching himself, and said: "i should not have shouted; he would have struck all the same...." once in telling him about tiflis, i mentioned the name of v. v. flerovsky-bervi. "did you know him?" leo nicolayevitch asked with interest: "tell me, what is he like?" i told him about flerovsky: tall, long-bearded, thin, with very large eyes; how he used to wear a long, sail-cloth blouse, and how, armed with a bundle of rice, cooked in red wine, tied in his belt, and an enormous linen umbrella, he wandered with me on the mountain paths of trans-caucasia; how once on a narrow path we met a buffalo and prudently retreated, threatening the brute with the open umbrella, and, every time we stepped back, in danger of falling over the precipice. suddenly i noticed that there were tears in tolstoi's eyes, and this confused me and i stopped. "never mind," he said, "go on, go on. it's pleasure at hearing about a good man. i imagined him just like that, unique. of all the radicals he is the most mature and clever; in his _alphabet_ he proves conclusively that all our civilization is barbarian, that culture is the work of the peaceful and weak, not the strong, nations, and that the struggle for existence is a lying invention by which it is sought to justify evil. you, of course, don't agree with this? but daudet agrees, you know, you remember his paul astier?" "but how would you reconcile flerovsky's theory, say, with the part played by the normans in the history of europe?" "the normans? that's another thing." if he did not want to answer, he would always say "that's another thing." it always seemed to me--and i do not think i was mistaken--that leo nicolayevitch was not very fond of talking about literature, but was vitally interested in the personality of an author. the questions: "do you know him? what is he like? where was he born?" i often heard in his mouth. and nearly all his opinions would throw some curious light upon a man. of v.k. he said thoughtfully: "he is not a great russian, and so he must see our life better and more truly than we do." of anton tchekhov, whom he loved dearly: "his medicine gets in his way; if he were not a doctor, he would be a still better writer." of one of the younger writers: "he pretends to be an englishman, and in that character a moscow man has the least success." to me he once said: "you are an inventor: all these kuvaldas of yours are inventions." when i answered that kuvalda had been drawn from life, he said: "tell me, where did you see him?" he laughed heartily at the scene in the court of the kazan magistrate, konovalov, where i had first seen the man whom i described under the name of kuvalda. "blue blood," he said, wiping the tears from his eyes, "that's it--blue blood. but how splendid, how amusing. you tell it better than you write it. yes, you are an inventor, a romantic, you must confess." i said that probably all writers are to some extent inventors, describing people as they would like to see them in life; i also said that i liked active people who desire to resist the evil of life by every means, even violence. "and violence is the chief evil," he exclaimed, taking me by the arm. "how will you get out of that contradiction, inventor? now your _my travelling companion_ isn't invented--it's good just because it isn't invented. but when you think, you beget knights, all amadises and siegfrieds." i remarked that as long as we live in the narrow sphere of our anthropomorphous and unavoidable "travelling companions," we build everything on quicksands and in a hostile medium. he smiled and nudged me slightly with his elbow: "from that very, very dangerous conclusions can be drawn. you are a questionable socialist. you are a romantic, and romantics must be monarchists--they always have been." "and hugo?" "hugo? that's another thing. i don't like him, a noisy man." he often asked me what i was reading, and always reproached me if i had chosen, in his opinion, a bad book. "gibbon is worse than kostomarov; one ought to read mommsen, he's very tedious, but it's all so solid." when he heard that the first book i ever read was _the brothers semganno_, he even got angry: "now, you see--a stupid novel. that's what has spoilt you. the french have three writers, stendhal, balzac, flaubert; and, well, perhaps maupassant, though tchekhov is better than he. the goncourts are mere clowns, they only pretended to be serious. they had studied life from books written by inventors like themselves, and they thought it a serious business; but it was of no use to a soul." i disagreed with this opinion, and it irritated leo nicolayevitch a little; he could barely stand contradiction, and sometimes his opinions were strange and capricious. "there is no such thing as degeneration," he said once. "the italian lombroso invented it, and after him comes the jew nordau, screaming like a parrot. italy is the land of charlatans and adventurers: only arentinos, casanovas, cagliostros, and the like are born there." "and garibaldi?" "that's politics; that's another thing." to a whole series of facts, taken from the life of the merchant-class families in russia, he answered: "but it's untrue; it's only written in clever books." i told him the actual history of three generations of a merchant family which i had known, a history in which the law of degeneration had acted with particular mercilessness. then he began excitedly tugging at my arm and encouraging me to write about it: "now that's true. i know it; there are two families like that in tula. it ought to be written. a long novel, written concisely, do you see? you must do it." his eyes flashed. "but then there will be knights, leo nicolayevitch." "don't. this is really serious. the one who is going to be a monk and pray for the whole family --it's wonderful. that's real: you sin and i will go and expiate your sin by prayer. and the other, the weary one, the money-loving founder of the family--that's true too. and he's a drunken, profligate beast, and loves everyone, and suddenly commits murder--ah, it's good. it should be written, among thieves and beggars you must not look for heroes, you really mustn't. heroes--that's a lie and invention; there are simply people, people, and nothing else." he often pointed out exaggerations in my stories, but once, speaking of _dead souls_, he said, smiling good-naturedly: "we are all of us terrible inventors. i myself, when i write, suddenly feel pity for some character, and then i give him some good quality or take a good quality away from someone else, so that in comparison with the others he may not appear too black." and then in the stern tones of an inexorable judge: "that's why i say that art is a lie, an arbitrary sham, harmful for people. one writes not what real life is, but simply what one thinks of life oneself. what good is that to anyone, how i see that tower or sea or tartar--what interest or use is there in it?" [at times his thoughts and feelings seemed to me capriciously, even deliberately, perverse, but what particularly struck and upset men was just the stern directness of his thought, like job, the fearless questioner of the cruel god. he said: "i was walking one day on the road to kiev, about the end of may; the earth was a paradise; everything rejoiced; the birds sang; the bees hummed; the sunshine and everything seemed so happy, humane, splendid. i was moved to tears; i felt myself a bee to whom are given the best flowers, and i felt god close to my soul. and suddenly i saw by the roadside a man and woman, pilgrims; they were lying together, both grey, dirty, and old --they writhed like worms, made noises, murmured, and the sun pitilessly lighted up their naked blue legs and wizened bodies. it struck such a blow to my soul. lord, thou creator of beauty, how art thou not ashamed? i felt utterly wretched---"yes, you see what things happen. nature--the devout considered her the work of the devil--cruelly and mockingly torments man; she takes away the power and leaves the desire. all men with a living soul experience that. only man is made to experience the whole shame and horror of that torment, given to him in his flesh. we carry it in ourselves as an inevitable punishment--a punishment for what sin?" while he said this the look in his eyes changed strangely, now childishly plaintive, now hard and stern and bright. his lips trembled, his moustache bristled. when he had finished, he took a handkerchief from the pocket of his blouse and wiped his face hard, though it was dry. then he smoothed his beard with the knotted fingers of his strong peasant's hand, and repeated gently: "yes, for what sin?"] once i was walking with him on the lower road from dyulbev to ai-todor on; he was walking with the light step of a young man, when he said to me more nervously than was usual with him: "the flesh should be the obedient dog of the spirit, running to do its bidding; but we--how do we live? the flesh rages and riots, and the spirit follows it helpless and miserable." he rubbed his chest hard over the heart, raised his eyebrows, and then, remembering something, went on: "one autumn in moscow in an alley near the sukhariov gate i once saw a drunken woman lying in the gutter. a stream of filthy water flowed from the yard of a house right under her neck and back. she lay in that cold liquid, muttering, shivering, wriggling her body in the wet, but she could not get up." he shuddered, half closed his eyes, shook his head, and went on gently: "let's sit down here.... it's the most horrible and disgusting thing, a drunken woman. i wanted to help her get up, but i couldn't; i felt such a loathing; she was so slippery and slimy--i felt that if i'd touched her, i could not have washed my hand clean for a month --horrible. and on the curb sat a bright, grey-eyed boy, the tears running down his cheeks: he was sobbing and repeating wearily and helplessly: 'mu-um ... mu-um-my ... do get up.' she would move her arms, grunt, lift her head, and again--bang went her neck into the filth." he was silent, and then looking round, he repeated almost in a whisper: "yes, yes, horrible. you've seen many drunken women? many--my god! you, you must not write about that, you mustn't." "why?" he looked straight into my eyes and smiling repeated: "why?" then thoughtfully and slowly he said: "i don't know. it just slipped out ... it's a shame to write about filth. but yet why not write about it? yes, it's necessary to write all about everything, everything." tears came into his eyes. he wiped them away, and, smiling, he looked at his handkerchief, while the tears again ran down his wrinkles. "i am crying," he said. "i am an old man. it cuts me to the heart when i remember something horrible." and very gently touching me with his elbow, he said: "you, too--you will have lived your life, and everything will remain exactly as it was, and then you, too, will cry worse than i, more streamingly,' as the peasant women say. and everything must be written about, everything; otherwise that bright little boy might be hurt, he might reproach us--'it's untrue, it's not the whole truth,' he will say. he's strict for the truth." suddenly he gave himself a shake and said in a kind voice: "now, tell me a story; you tell them well. something about a child, about your childhood. it's not easy to believe that you were once a child. you are a strange creature, exactly as if you were born grown-up. in your ideas there is a good deal of the child-like and the immature, but you know more than enough of life--and one cannot ask for more. well, tell me a story....' he lay down comfortably upon the bare roots of a pine tree and watched the ants moving busily among the grey spines. in the south, which, with its self-asserting luxuriance and flaunting, unbridled vegetation, seems so strangely incongruous to a man from the north, he, leo tolstoi--even his name speaks of his inner power--seemed a small man, but knitted and knotted out of very strong roots deep in the earth --in the flaunting scenery of the crimea, i say, he was at once both out of place and in his place. he seemed a very ancient man, master of all his surroundings--a master-builder who, after centuries of absence, has arrived in the mansion built by him. he has forgotten a great deal which it contains; much is new to him; everything is as it should be, and yet not entirely so, and he has at once to find out what is amiss and why it is amiss. he walked the roads and paths with a businesslike, quick step of the skilled explorer of the earth, and with sharp eyes, from which neither a single pebble nor a single thought could hide itself, he looked, measured, tested, compared. and he scattered about him the living seeds of indomitable thoughts. he said to suler once: "you, liovushka, read nothing which is not good out of self-conceit, while gorky reads a lot which is not good, because he distrusts himself. i write much which is not good, because of an old man's ambition, a desire that all should think as i do. of course, i think it is good, and gorky thinks it is not good, and you think nothing at all; you simply blink and watch what you may clutch. one day you will clutch something which does not belong to you--it has happened to you before. you will put your claws into it, hold on for a bit, and when it begins to get loose, you won't try to stop it. tchekhov has a superb story, _the darling_--you are rather like her." "in what?" asked suler, laughing. "you can love well, but to choose--no, you can't, and you will waste yourself on trifles." "is everyone like that?" "everyone?" leo nicolayevitch repeated. "no, not everyone." and suddenly he asked me, exactly as if he were dealing me a blow: "why don't you believe in god?" "i have no faith, leo nicolayevitch." "it is not true. by nature you are a believer, and you cannot get on without god. you will realize it one day. your disbelief comes from obstinacy, because you have been hurt: the world is not what you would like it to be. there are also some people who do not believe out of shyness; it happens with young people; they adore some woman, but don't want to show it from fear that she won't understand, and also from lack of courage. faith, like love, requires courage and daring. one has to say to oneself 'i believe,' and everything will come right, everything will appear as you want it, it will explain itself to you and attract you. now, you love much, and faith is only a greater love: you must love still more, and then your love will turn to faith. when one loves a woman, she is, unfailingly, the best woman on earth, and each loves the best woman, and that is faith. a nonbeliever cannot love: to-day he falls in love with one woman, and next year with another. the souls of such men are tramps living barren lives--that is not good. but you were born a believer, and it is no use thwarting yourself. well, you may say beauty? and what is beauty? the highest and most perfect is god." he hardly ever spoke to me on this subject, and its seriousness and the suddenness of it rather overwhelmed me. i was silent. he was sitting on the couch with his legs drawn up under him, and breaking into a triumphant little smile and shaking his finger at me, he said: "you won't get out of this by silence, no." and i, who do not believe in god, looked at him for some reason very cautiously and a little timidly, i looked and thought: "the man is godlike." art*** transcribed from the 1887 tomas y. crowell "what to do?" edition by david price, email ccx074@pglaf.org on the significance of science and art--from "what to do?" on the significance of science and art. chapter i. . . . {169} the justification of all persons who have freed themselves from toil is now founded on experimental, positive science. the scientific theory is as follows:-"for the study of the laws of life of human societies, there exists but one indubitable method,--the positive, experimental, critical method "only sociology, founded on biology, founded on all the positive sciences, can give us the laws of humanity. humanity, or human communities, are the organisms already prepared, or still in process of formation, and which are subservient to all the laws of the evolution of organisms. "one of the chief of these laws is the variation of destination among the portions of the organs. some people command, others obey. if some have in superabundance, and others in want, this arises not from the will of god, not because the empire is a form of manifestation of personality, but because in societies, as in organisms, division of labor becomes indispensable for life as a whole. some people perform the muscular labor in societies; others, the mental labor." upon this doctrine is founded the prevailing justification of our time. not long ago, their reigned in the learned, cultivated world, a moral philosophy, according to which it appeared that every thing which exists is reasonable; that there is no such thing as evil or good; and that it is unnecessary for man to war against evil, but that it is only necessary for him to display intelligence,--one man in the military service, another in the judicial, another on the violin. there have been many and varied expressions of human wisdom, and these phenomena were known to the men of the nineteenth century. the wisdom of rousseau and of lessing, and spinoza and bruno, and all the wisdom of antiquity; but no one man's wisdom overrode the crowd. it was impossible to say even this,--that hegel's success was the result of the symmetry of this theory. there were other equally symmetrical theories,--those of descartes, leibnitz, fichte, schopenhauer. there was but one reason why this doctrine won for itself, for a season, the belief of the whole world; and this reason was, that the deductions of that philosophy winked at people's weaknesses. these deductions were summed up in this,--that every thing was reasonable, every thing good; and that no one was to blame. when i began my career, hegelianism was the foundation of every thing. it was floating in the air; it was expressed in newspaper and periodical articles, in historical and judicial lectures, in novels, in treatises, in art, in sermons, in conversation. the man who was not acquainted with hegal had no right to speak. any one who desired to understand the truth studied hegel. every thing rested on him. and all at once the forties passed, and there was nothing left of him. there was not even a hint of him, any more than if he had never existed. and the most amazing thing of all was, that hegelianism did not fall because some one overthrew it or destroyed it. no! it was the same then as now, but all at once it appeared that it was of no use whatever to the learned and cultivated world. there was a time when the hegelian wise men triumphantly instructed the masses; and the crowd, understanding nothing, blindly believed in every thing, finding confirmation in the fact that it was on hand; and they believed that what seemed to them muddy and contradictory there on the heights of philosophy was all as clear as the day. but that time has gone by. that theory is worn out: a new theory has presented itself in its stead. the old one has become useless; and the crowd has looked into the secret sanctuaries of the high priests, and has seen that there is nothing there, and that there has been nothing there, save very obscure and senseless words. this has taken place within my memory. "but this arises," people of the present science will say, "from the fact that all that was the raving of the theological and metaphysical period; but now there exists positive, critical science, which does not deceive, since it is all founded on induction and experiment. now our erections are not shaky, as they formerly were, and only in our path lies the solution of all the problems of humanity." but the old teachers said precisely the same, and they were no fools; and we know that there were people of great intelligence among them. and precisely thus, within my memory, and with no less confidence, with no less recognition on the part of the crowd of so-called cultivated people, spoke the hegelians. and neither were our herzens, our stankevitches, or our byelinskys fools. but whence arose that marvellous manifestation, that sensible people should preach with the greatest assurance, and that the crowd should accept with devotion, such unfounded and unsupportable teachings? there is but one reason,--that the teachings thus inculcated justified people in their evil life. a very poor english writer, whose works are all forgotten, and recognized as the most insignificant of the insignificant, writes a treatise on population, in which he devises a fictitious law concerning the increase of population disproportionate to the means of subsistence. this fictitious law, this writer encompasses with mathematical formulae founded on nothing whatever; and then he launches it on the world. from the frivolity and the stupidity of this hypothesis, one would suppose that it would not attract the attention of any one, and that it would sink into oblivion, like all the works of the same author which followed it; but it turned out quite otherwise. the hack-writer who penned this treatise instantly becomes a scientific authority, and maintains himself upon that height for nearly half a century. malthus! the malthusian theory,--the law of the increase of the population in geometrical, and of the means of subsistence in arithmetical proportion, and the wise and natural means of restricting the population,--all these have become scientific, indubitable truths, which have not been confirmed, but which have been employed as axioms, for the erection of false theories. in this manner have learned and cultivated people proceeded; and among the herd of idle persons, there sprung up a pious trust in the great laws expounded by malthus. how did this come to pass? it would seem as though they were scientific deductions, which had nothing in common with the instincts of the masses. but this can only appear so for the man who believes that science, like the church, is something self-contained, liable to no errors, and not simply the imaginings of weak and erring folk, who merely substitute the imposing word "science," in place of the thoughts and words of the people, for the sake of impressiveness. all that was necessary was to make practical deductions from the theory of malthus, in order to perceive that this theory was of the most human sort, with the best defined of objects. the deductions directly arising from this theory were the following: the wretched condition of the laboring classes was such in accordance with an unalterable law, which does not depend upon men; and, if any one is to blame in this matter, it is the hungry laboring classes themselves. why are they such fools as to give birth to children, when they know that there will be nothing for the children to eat? and so this deduction, which is valuable for the herd of idle people, has had this result: that all learned men overlooked the incorrectness, the utter arbitrariness of these deductions, and their insusceptibility to proof; and the throng of cultivated, i.e., of idle people, knowing instinctively to what these deductions lead, saluted this theory with enthusiasm, conferred upon it the stamp of truth, i.e., of science, and dragged it about with them for half a century. is not this same thing the cause of the confidence of men in positive critical-experimental science, and of the devout attitude of the crowd towards that which it preaches? at first it seems strange, that the theory of evolution can in any manner justify people in their evil ways; and it seems as though the scientific theory of evolution has to deal only with facts, and that it does nothing else but observe facts. but this only appears to be the case. exactly the same thing appeared to be the case with the hegelian doctrine, in a greater degree, and also in the special instance of the malthusian doctrine. hegelianism was, apparently, occupied only with its logical constructions, and bore no relation to the life of mankind. precisely this seemed to be the case with the malthusian theory. it appeared to be busy itself only with statistical data. but this was only in appearance. contemporary science is also occupied with facts alone: it investigates facts. but what facts? why precisely these facts, and no others? the men of contemporary science are very fond of saying, triumphantly and confidently, "we investigate only facts," imagining that these words contain some meaning. it is impossible to investigate facts alone, because the facts which are subject to our investigation are _innumerable_ (in the definite sense of that word),--innumerable. before we proceed to investigate facts, we must have a theory on the foundation of which these or those facts can be inquired into, i.e., selected from the incalculable quantity. and this theory exists, and is even very definitely expressed, although many of the workers in contemporary science do not know it, or often pretend that they do not know it. exactly thus has it always been with all prevailing and guiding doctrines. the foundations of every doctrine are always stated in a theory, and the so-called learned men merely invent further deductions from the foundations once stated. thus contemporary science is selecting its facts on the foundation of a very definite theory, which it sometimes knows, sometimes refuses to know, and sometimes really does not know; but the theory exists. the theory is as follows: all mankind is an undying organism; men are the particles of that organism, and each one of them has his own special task for the service of others. in the same manner, the cells united in an organism share among them the labor of fight for existence of the whole organism; they magnify the power of one capacity, and weaken another, and unite in one organ, in order the better to supply the requirements of the whole organism. and exactly in the same manner as with gregarious animals,--ants or bees,--the separate individuals divide the labor among them. the queen lays the egg, the drone fructifies it; the bee works his whole life long. and precisely this thing takes place in mankind and in human societies. and therefore, in order to find the law of life for man, it is necessary to study the laws of the life and the development of organisms. in the life and development of organisms, we find the following laws: the law of differentiation and integration, the law that every phenomenon is accompanied not by direct consequences alone, another law regarding the instability of type, and so on. all this seems very innocent; but it is only necessary to draw the deductions from all these laws, in order to immediately perceive that these laws incline in the same direction as the law of malthus. these laws all point to one thing; namely, to the recognition of that division of labor which exists in human communities, as organic, that is to say, as indispensable. and therefore, the unjust position in which we, the people who have freed ourselves from labor, find ourselves, must be regarded not from the point of view of commonsense and justice, but merely as an undoubted fact, confirming the universal law. moral philosophy also justified every sort of cruelty and harshness; but this resulted in a philosophical manner, and therefore wrongly. but with science, all this results scientifically, and therefore in a manner not to be doubted. how can we fail to accept so very beautiful a theory? it is merely necessary to look upon human society as an object of contemplation; and i can console myself with the thought that my activity, whatever may be its nature, is a functional activity of the organism of humanity, and that therefore there cannot arise any question as to whether it is just that i, in employing the labor of others, am doing only that which is agreeable to me, as there can arise no question as to the division of labor between the brain cells and the muscular cells. how is it possible not to admit so very beautiful a theory, in order that one may be able, ever after, to pocket one's conscience, and have a perfectly unbridled animal existence, feeling beneath one's self that support of science which is not to be shaken nowadays! and it is on this new doctrine that the justification for men's idleness and cruelty is now founded. chapter ii. this doctrine had its rise not so very long--fifty years--ago. its principal founder was the french _savant_ comte. there occurred to comte,--a systematist, and a religious man to boot,--under the influence of the then novel physiological investigations of biche, the old idea already set forth by menenius agrippa,--the idea that human society, all humanity even, might be regarded as one whole, as an organism; and men as living parts of the separate organs, having each his own definite appointment to serve the entire organism. this idea so pleased comte, that upon it he began to erect a philosophical theory; and this theory so carried him away, that he utterly forgot that the point of departure for his theory was nothing more than a very pretty comparison, which was suitable for a fable, but which could by no means serve as the foundation for science. he, as frequently happens, mistook his pet hypothesis for an axiom, and imagined that his whole theory was erected on the very firmest of foundations. according to his theory, it seemed that since humanity is an organism, the knowledge of what man is, and of what should be his relations to the world, was possible only through a knowledge of the features of this organism. for the knowledge of these qualities, man is enabled to take observations on other and lower organisms, and to draw conclusions from their life. therefore, in the fist place, the true and only method, according to comte, is the inductive, and all science is only such when it has experiment as its basis; in the second place, the goal and crown of sciences is formed by that new science dealing with the imaginary organism of humanity, or the super-organic being,--humanity,--and this newly devised science is sociology. and from this view of science it appears, that all previous knowledge was deceitful, and that the whole story of humanity, in the sense of selfknowledge, has been divided into three, actually into two, periods: the theological and metaphysical period, extending from the beginning of the world to comte, and the present period,--that of the only true science, positive science,--beginning with comte. all this was very well. there was but one error, and that was this,--that the whole edifice was erected on the sand, on the arbitrary and false assertion that humanity is an organism. this assertion was arbitrary, because we have just as much right to admit the existence of a human organism, not subject to observation, as we have to admit the existence of any other invisible, fantastic being. this assertion was erroneous, because for the understanding of humanity, i.e., of men, the definition of an organism was incorrectly constructed, while in humanity itself all actual signs of organism,--the centre of feeling or consciousness, are lacking. {178} but, in spite of the arbitrariness and incorrectness of the fundamental assumption of positive philosophy, it was accepted by the so-called cultivated world with the greatest sympathy. in this connection, one thing is worthy of note: that out of the works of comte, consisting of two parts, of positive philosophy and of positive politics, only the first was adopted by the learned world,--that part which justifieth, on new promises, the existent evil of human societies; but the second part, treating of the moral obligations of altruism, arising from the recognition of mankind as an organism, was regarded as not only of no importance, but as trivial and unscientific. it was a repetition of the same thing that had happened in the case of kant's works. the "critique of pure reason" was adopted by the scientific crowd; but the "critique of applied reason," that part which contains the gist of moral doctrine, was repudiated. in kant's doctrine, that was accepted as scientific which subserved the existent evil. but the positive philosophy, which was accepted by the crowd, was founded on an arbitrary and erroneous basis, was in itself too unfounded, and therefore unsteady, and could not support itself alone. and so, amid all the multitude of the idle plays of thought of the men professing the so-called science, there presents itself an assertion equally devoid of novelty, and equally arbitrary and erroneous, to the effect that living beings, i.e., organisms, have had their rise in each other,--not only one organism from another, but one from many; i.e., that in a very long interval of time (in a million of years, for instance), not only could a duck and a fish proceed from one ancestor, but that one animal might result from a whole hive of bees. and this arbitrary and erroneous assumption was accepted by the learned world with still greater and more universal sympathy. this assumption was arbitrary, because no one has ever seen how one organism is made from another, and therefore the hypothesis as to the origin of species will always remain an hypothesis, and not an experimental fact. and this hypothesis was also erroneous, because the decision of the question as to the origin of species--that they have originated, in consequence of the law of heredity and fitness, in the course of an interminably long time--is no solution at all, but merely a re-statement of the problem in a new form. according to moses' solution of the question (in the dispute with whom the entire significance of this theory lies), it appears that the diversity of the species of living creatures proceeded according to the will of god, and according to his almighty power; but according to the theory of evolution, it appears that the difference between living creatures arose by chance, and on account of varying conditions of heredity and surroundings, through an endless period of time. the theory of evolution, to speak in simple language, merely asserts, that by chance, in an incalculably long period of time, out of any thing you like, any thing else that you like may develop. this is no answer to the problem. and the same problem is differently expressed: instead of will, chance is offered, and the co-efficient of the eternal is transposed from the power to the time. but this fresh assertion strengthened comte's assertion. and, moreover, according to the ingenuous confession of the founder of darwin's theory himself, his idea was aroused in him by the law of malthus; and he therefore propounded the theory of the struggle of living creatures and people for existence, as the fundamental law of every living thing. and lo! only this was needed by the throng of idle people for their justification. two insecure theories, incapable of sustaining themselves on their feet, upheld each other, and acquired the semblance of stability. both theories bore with them that idea which is precious to the crowd, that in the existent evil of human societies, men are not to blame, and that the existing order of things is that which should prevail; and the new theory was adopted by the throng with entire faith and unheard-of enthusiasm. and behold, on the strength of these two arbitrary and erroneous hypotheses, accepted as dogmas of belief, the new scientific doctrine was ratified. spencer, for example, in one of his first works, expresses this doctrine thus:-"societies and organisms," he says, "are alike in the following points:-"1. in that, beginning as tiny aggregates, they imperceptibly grow in mass, so that some of them attain to the size of ten thousand times their original bulk. "2. in that while they were, in the beginning, of such simple structure, that they can be regarded as destitute of all structure, they acquire during the period of their growth a constantly increasing complication of structure. "3. in that although in their early, undeveloped period, there exists between them hardly any interdependence of parts, their parts gradually acquire an interdependence, which eventually becomes so strong, that the life and activity of each part becomes possible only on condition of the life and activity of the remaining parts. "4. in that life and the development of society are independent, and more protracted than the life and development of any one of the units constituting it, which are born, grow, act, reproduce themselves, and die separately; while the political body formed from them, continues to live generation after generation, developing in mass in perfection and functional activity." the points of difference between organisms and society go farther; and it is proved that these differences are merely apparent, but that organisms and societies are absolutely similar. for the uninitiated man the question immediately presents itself: "what are you talking about? why is mankind an organism, or similar to an organism?" you say that societies resemble organisms in these four features; but it is nothing of the sort. you only take a few features of the organism, and beneath them you range human communities. you bring forward four features of resemblance, then you take four features of dissimilarity, which are, however, only apparent (according to you); and you thence conclude that human societies can be regarded as organisms. but surely, this is an empty game of dialectics, and nothing more. on the same foundation, under the features of an organism, you may range whatever you please. i will take the fist thing that comes into my head. let us suppose it to be a forest,--the manner in which it sows itself in the plain, and spreads abroad. 1. beginning with a small aggregate, it increases imperceptibly in mass, and so forth. exactly the same thing takes place in the fields, when they gradually seed themselves down, and bring forth a forest. 2. in the beginning the structure is simple: afterwards it increases in complication, and so forth. exactly the same thing happens with the forest,--in the first place, there were only bitchtrees, then came brush-wood and hazel-bushes; at first all grow erect, then they interlace their branches. 3. the interdependence of the parts is so augmented, that the life of each part depends on the life and activity of the remaining parts. it is precisely so with the forest,--the hazel-bush warms the tree-boles (cut it down, and the other trees will freeze), the hazel-bush protects from the wind, the seed-bearing trees carry on reproduction, the tall and leafy trees afford shade, and the life of one tree depends on the life of another. 4. the separate parts may die, but the whole lives. exactly the case with the forest. the forest does not mourn one tree. having proved that, in accordance with this theory, you may regard the forest as an organism, you fancy that you have proved to the disciples of the organic doctrine the error of their definition. nothing of the sort. the definition which they give to the organism is so inaccurate and so elastic that under this definition they may include what they will. "yes," they say; "and the forest may also be regarded as an organism. the forest is mutual re-action of individuals, which do not annihilate each other,--an aggregate; its parts may also enter into a more intimate union, as the hive of bees constitutes itself an organism." then you will say, "if that is so, then the birds and the insects and the grass of this forest, which re-act upon each other, and do not destroy each other, may also be regarded as one organism, in company with the trees." and to this also they will agree. every collection of living individuals, which re-act upon each other, and do not destroy each other, may be regarded as organisms, according to their theory. you may affirm a connection and interaction between whatever you choose, and, according to evolution, you may affirm, that, out of whatever you please, any other thing that you please may proceed, in a very long period of time. and the most remarkable thing of all is, that this same identical positive science recognizes the scientific method as the sign of true knowledge, and has itself defined what it designates as the scientific method. by the scientific method it means common-sense. and common-sense convicts it at every step. as soon as the popes felt that nothing holy remained in them, they called themselves most holy. as soon as science felt that no common-sense was left in her she called herself sensible, that is to say, scientific science. chapter iii. division of labor is the law of all existing things, and, therefore, it should be present in human societies. it is very possible that this is so; but still the question remains, of what nature is that division of labor which i behold in my human society? is it that division of labor which should exist? and if people regard a certain division of labor as unreasonable and unjust, then no science whatever can convince men that that should exist which they regard as unreasonable and unjust. division of labor is the condition of existence of organisms, and of human societies; but what, in these human societies, is to be regarded as an organic division of labor? and, to whatever extent science may have investigated the division of labor in the cells of worms, all these observations do not compel a man to acknowledge that division of labor to be correct which his own sense and conscience do not recognize as correct. no matter how convincing may be the proofs of the division of labor of the cells in the organisms studied, man, if he has not parted with his judgment, will say, nevertheless, that a man should not weave calico all his life, and that this is not division of labor, but persecution of the people. spencer and others say that there is a whole community of weavers, and that the profession of weaving is an organic division of labor. there are weavers; so, of course, there is such a division of labor. it would be well enough to speak thus if the colony of weavers had arisen by the free will of its member's; but we know that it is not thus formed of their initiative, but that we make it. hence it is necessary to find out whether we have made these weavers in accordance with an organic law, or with some other. men live. they support themselves by agriculture, as is natural to all men. one man has set up a blacksmith's forge, and repaired his plough; his neighbor comes to him, and asks him to mend his also, and promises him in return either work or money. a third comes, and a fourth; and in the community formed by these men, there arises the following division of labor,--a blacksmith is created. another man has instructed his children well; his neighbor brings his children to him, and requests him to teach them also, and a teacher is created. but both blacksmith and teacher have been created, and continue to be such, merely because they have been asked; and they remain such as long as they are requested to be blacksmith and teacher. if it should come to pass that many blacksmiths and teachers should set themselves up, or that their work is not requited, they will immediately, as common-sense demands and as always happens when there is no occasion for disturbing the regular course of division of labor,--they will immediately abandon their trade, and betake themselves once more to agriculture. men who behave thus are guided by their sense, their conscience; and hence we, the men endowed with sense and conscience, all assert that such a division of labor is right. but if it should chance that the blacksmiths were able to compel other people to work for them, and should continue to make horse-shoes when they were not wanted, and if the teachers should go on teaching when there was no one to teach, then it is obvious to every sane man, as a man, i.e., as a being endowed with reason and conscience, that this would not be division, but appropriation, of labor. and yet precisely that sort of activity is what is called division of labor by scientific science. people do that which others do not think of requiring, and demand that they shall be supported for so doing, and say that this is just because it is division of labor. that which constitutes the cause of the economical poverty of our age is what the english call over-production (which means that a mass of things are made which are of no use to anybody, and with which nothing can be done). it would be odd to see a shoemaker, who should consider that people were bound to feed him because he incessantly made boots which had been of no use to any one for a long time; but what shall we say of those men who make nothing,--who not only produce nothing that is visible, but nothing that is of use for people at large,--for whose wares there are no customers, and who yet demand, with the same boldness, on the ground of division of labor, that they shall be supplied with fine food and drink, and that they shall be dressed well? there may be, and there are, sorcerers for whose services a demand makes itself felt, and for this purpose there are brought to them pancakes and flasks; but it is difficult to imagine the existence of sorcerers whose spells are useless to every one, and who boldly demand that they shall be luxuriously supported because they exercise sorcery. and it is the same in our world. and all this comes about on the basis of that false conception of the division of labor, which is defined not by reason and conscience, but by observation, which men of science avow with such unanimity. division of labor has, in reality, always existed, and still exists; but it is right only when man decides with his reason and his conscience that it should be so, and not when he merely investigates it. and reason and conscience decide the question for all men very simply, unanimously, and in a manner not to be doubted. they always decide it thus: that division of labor is right only when a special branch of man's activity is so needful to men, that they, entreating him to serve them, voluntarily propose to support him in requital for that which he shall do for them. but, when a man can live from infancy to the age of thirty years on the necks of others, promising to do, when he shall have been taught, something extremely useful, for which no one asks him; and when, from the age of thirty until his death, he can live in the same manner, still merely on the promise to do something, for which there has been no request, this will not be division of labor (and, as a matter of fact, there is no such thing in our society), but it will be what it already is,--merely the appropriation, by force, of the toil of others; that same appropriation by force of the toil of others which the philosophers formerly designated by various names,--for instance, as indispensable forms of life,--but which scientific science now calls the organic division of labor. the whole significance of scientific science lies in this alone. it has now become a distributer of diplomas for idleness; for it alone, in its sanctuaries, selects and determines what is parasitical, and what is organic activity, in the social organism. just as though every man could not find this out for himself much more accurately and more speedily, by taking counsel of his reason and his conscience. it seems to men of scientific science, that there can be no doubt of this, and that their activity is also indubitably organic; they, the scientific and artistic workers, are the brain cells, and the most precious cells in the whole organism. ever since men--reasoning beings--have existed, they have distinguished good from evil, and have profited by the fact that men have made this distinction before them; they have warred against evil, and have sought the good, and have slowly but uninterruptedly advanced in that path. and divers delusions have always stood before men, hemming in this path, and having for their object to demonstrate to them, that it was not necessary to do this, and that it was not necessary to live as they were living. with fearful conflict and difficulty, men have freed themselves from many delusions. and behold, a new and a still more evil delusion has sprung up in the path of mankind,--the scientific delusion. this new delusion is precisely the same in nature as the old ones; its gist lies in secretly leading astray the activity of our reason and conscience, and of those who have lived before us, by something external. in scientific science, this external thing is--investigation. the cunning of this science consists in this,--that, after pointing out to men the coarsest false interpretations of the activity of the reason and conscience of man, it destroys in them faith in their own reason and conscience, and assures them that every thing which their reason and conscience say to them, that all that these have said to the loftiest representatives of man heretofore, ever since the world has existed,--that all this is conventional and subjective. "all this must be abandoned," they say; "it is impossible to understand the truth by the reason, for we may be mistaken. but there exists another unerring and almost mechanical path: it is necessary to investigate facts." but facts must be investigated on the foundation of scientific science, i.e., of the two hypotheses of positivism and evolution, which are not borne out by any thing, and which give themselves out as undoubted truths. and the reigning science announces, with delusive solemnity, that the solution of all problems of life is possible only through the study of facts, of nature, and, in particular, of organisms. the credulous mass of young people, overwhelmed by the novelty of this authority, which has not yet been overthrown or even touched by criticism, flings itself into the study of natural sciences, into that sole path, which, according to the assertion of the reigning science, can lead to the elucidation of the problems of life. but the farther the disciples proceed in this study, the farther and farther does not only the possibility, but even the very idea, of the solution of the problems of life withdraw from them, and the more and more do they become accustomed, not so much to investigate, as to believe in the assertions of other investigators (to believe in cells, in protoplasm, in the fourth condition of bodies, and so forth); the more and more does the form veil the contents from them; the more and more do they lose the consciousness of good and evil, and the capacity of understanding those expressions and definitions of good and evil which have been elaborated through the whole foregoing life of mankind; and the more and more do they appropriate to themselves the special scientific jargon of conventional expressions, which possesses no universally human significance; and the deeper and deeper do they plunge into the _debris_ of utterly unilluminated investigations; the more and more do they lose the power, not only of independent thought, but even of understanding the fresh human thought of others, which lies beyond the bounds of their talmud. but the principal thing is, that they pass their best years in getting disused to life; they grow accustomed to consider their position as justifiable; and they convert themselves physically into utterly useless parasites, and mentally they dislocate their brains and become mental eunuchs. and in precisely the same manner, according to the measure of their folly, do they acquire self-conceit, which deprives them forever of all possibility of return to a simple life of toil, to a simple, clear, and universally human train of reasoning. division of labor always has existed in human communities, and will probably always exist; but the question for us lies not in the fact that it has existed, and that it will exist, but in this,--how are we to govern ourselves so that this division shall be right? but if we take investigation as our rule of action, we by this very act repudiate all rule; then in that case we shall regard as right every division of labor which we shall descry among men, and which appears to us to be right--to which conclusion the prevailing scientific science also leads. division of labor! some are busied in mental or moral, others in muscular or physical, labor. with what confidence people enunciate this! they wish to think so, and it seems to them that, in point of fact, a perfectly regular exchange of services does take place. but we, in our blindness, have so completely lost sight of the responsibility which we have assumed, that we have even forgotten in whose name our labor is prosecuted; and the very people whom we have undertaken to serve have become the objects of our scientific and artistic activity. we study and depict them for our amusement and diversion. we have totally forgotten that what we need to do is not to study and depict them, but to serve them. to such a degree have we lost sight of this duty which we have taken upon us, that we have not even noticed that what we have undertaken to perform in the realm of science and art has been accomplished not by us, but by others, and that our place has turned out to be occupied. it proves that while we have been disputing, one about the spontaneous origin of organisms, another as to what else there is in protoplasm, and so on, the common people have been in need of spiritual food; and the unsuccessful and rejected of art and science, in obedience to the mandate of adventurers who have in view the sole aim of profit, have begun to furnish the people with this spiritual food, and still so furnish them. for the last forty years in europe, and for the last ten years with us here in russia, millions of books and pictures and song-books have been distributed, and stalls have been opened, and the people gaze and sing and receive spiritual nourishment, but not from us who have undertaken to provide it; while we, justifying our idleness by that spiritual food which we are supposed to furnish, sit by and wink at it. but it is impossible for us to wink at it, for our last justification is slipping from beneath our feet. we have become specialized. we have our particular functional activity. we are the brains of the people. they support us, and we have undertaken to teach them. it is only under this pretence that we have excused ourselves from work. but what have we taught them, and what are we now teaching them? they have waited for years--for tens, for hundreds of years. and we keep on diverting our minds with chatter, and we instruct each other, and we console ourselves, and we have utterly forgotten them. we have so entirely forgotten them, that others have undertaken to instruct them, and we have not even perceived it. we have spoken of the division of labor with such lack of seriousness, that it is obvious that what we have said about the benefits which we have conferred on the people was simply a shameless evasion. chapter iv. science and art have arrogated to themselves the right of idleness, and of the enjoyment of the labor of others, and have betrayed their calling. and their errors have arisen merely because their servants, having set forth a falsely conceived principle of the division of labor, have recognized their own right to make use of the labor of others, and have lost the significance of their vocation; having taken for their aim, not the profit of the people, but the mysterious profit of science and art, and delivered themselves over to idleness and vice--not so much of the senses as of the mind. they say, "science and art have bestowed a great deal on mankind." science and art have bestowed a great deal on mankind, not because the men of art and science, under the pretext of a division of labor, live on other people, but in spite of this. the roman republic was powerful, not because her citizens had the power to live a vicious life, but because among their number there were heroic citizens. it is the same with art and science. art and science have bestowed much on mankind, but not because their followers formerly possessed on rare occasions (and now possess on every occasion) the possibility of getting rid of labor; but because there have been men of genius, who, without making use of these rights, have led mankind forward. the class of learned men and artists, which has advanced, on the fictitious basis of a division of labor, its demands to the right of using the labors of others, cannot co-operate in the success of true science and true art, because a lie cannot bring forth the truth. we have become so accustomed to these, our tenderly reared or weakened representatives of mental labor, that it seems to us horrible that a man of science or an artist should plough or cart manure. it seems to us that every thing would go to destruction, and that all his wisdom would be rattled out of him in the cart, and that all those grand picturesque images which he bears about in his breast would be soiled in the manure; but we have become so inured to this, that it does not strike us as strange that our servitor of science--that is to say, the servant and teacher of the truth--by making other people do for him that which he might do for himself, passes half his time in dainty eating, in smoking, in talking, in free and easy gossip, in reading the newspapers and romances, and in visiting the theatres. it is not strange to us to see our philosopher in the tavern, in the theatre, and at the ball. it is not strange in our eyes to learn that those artists who sweeten and ennoble our souls have passed their lives in drunkenness, cards, and women, if not in something worse. art and science are very beautiful things; but just because they are so beautiful they should not be spoiled by the compulsory combination with them of vice: that is to say, a man should not get rid of his obligation to serve his own life and that of other people by his own labor. art and science have caused mankind to progress. yes; but not because men of art and science, under the guise of division of labor, have rid themselves of the very first and most indisputable of human obligations,--to labor with their hands in the universal struggle of mankind with nature. "but only the division of labor, the freedom of men of science and of art from the necessity of earning them living, has rendered possible that remarkable success of science which we behold in our day," is the answer to this. "if all were forced to till the soil, those _vast_ results would not have been attained which have been attained in our day; there would have been none of those _striking_ successes which have so greatly augmented man's power over nature, were it not for these astronomical discoveries _which are so astounding to the mind of man_, and which have added to the security of navigation; there would be no steamers, no railways, none of those _wonderful_ bridges, tunnels, steam-engines and telegraphs, photography, telephones, sewing-machines, phonographs, electricity, telescopes, spectroscopes, microscopes, chloroform, lister's bandages, and carbolic acid." i will not enumerate every thing on which our age thus prides itself. this enumeration and pride of enthusiasm over ourselves and our exploits can be found in almost any newspaper and popular pamphlet. this enthusiasm over ourselves is often repeated to such a degree that none of us can sufficiently rejoice over ourselves, that we are seriously convinced that art and science have never made such progress as in our own time. and, as we are indebted for all this marvellous progress to the division of labor, why not acknowledge it? let us admit that the progress made in our day is noteworthy, marvellous, unusual; let us admit that we are fortunate mortals to live in such a remarkable epoch: but let us endeavor to appraise this progress, not on the basis of our self-satisfaction, but of that principle which defends itself with this progress,--the division of labor. all this progress is very amazing; but by a peculiarly unlucky chance, admitted even by the men of science, this progress has not so far improved, but it has rather rendered worse, the position of the majority, that is to say, of the workingman. if the workingman can travel on the railway, instead of walking, still that same railway has burned down his forest, has carried off his grain under his very nose, and has brought his condition very near to slavery--to the capitalist. if, thanks to steam-engines and machines, the workingman can purchase inferior calico at a cheap rate, on the other hand these engines and machines have deprived him of work at home, and have brought him into a state of abject slavery to the manufacturer. if there are telephones and telescopes, poems, romances, theatres, ballets, symphonies, operas, picture-galleries, and so forth, on the other hand the life of the workingman has not been bettered by all this; for all of them, by the same unlucky chance, are inaccessible to him. so that, on the whole (and even men of science admit this), up to the present time, all these remarkable discoveries and products of science and art have certainly not ameliorated the condition of the workingman, if, indeed, they have not made it worse. so that, if we set against the question as to the reality of the progress attained by the arts and sciences, not our own rapture, but that standard upon the basis of which the division of labor is defended,--the good of the laboring man,--we shall see that we have no firm foundations for that self-satisfaction in which we are so fond of indulging. the peasant travels on the railway, the woman buys calico, in the _isba_ (cottage) there will be a lamp instead of a pine-knot, and the peasant will light his pipe with a match,--this is convenient; but what right have i to say that the railway and the factory have proved advantageous to the people? if the peasant rides on the railway, and buys calico, a lamp, and matches, it is only because it is impossible to forbid the peasant's buying them; but surely we are all aware that the construction of railways and factories has never been carried out for the benefit of the lower classes: so why should a casual convenience which the workingman enjoys lead to a proof of the utility of all these institutions for the people? there is something useful in every injurious thing. after a conflagration, one can warm one's self, and light one's pipe with a firebrand; but why declare that the conflagration is beneficial? men of art and science might say that their pursuits are beneficial to the people, only when men of art and science have assigned to themselves the object of serving the people, as they now assign themselves the object of serving the authorities and the capitalists. we might say this if men of art and science had taken as their aim the needs of the people; but there are none such. all scientists are busy with their priestly avocations, out of which proceed investigations into protoplasm, the spectral analyses of stars, and so on. but science has never once thought of what axe or what hatchet is the most profitable to chop with, what saw is the most handy, what is the best way to mix bread, from what flour, how to set it, how to build and heat an oven, what food and drink, and what utensils, are the most convenient and advantageous under certain conditions, what mushrooms may be eaten, how to propagate them, and how to prepare them in the most suitable manner. and yet all this is the province of science. i am aware, that, according to its own definition, science ought to be useless, i.e., science for the sake of science; but surely this is an obvious evasion. the province of science is to serve the people. we have invented telegraphs, telephones, phonographs; but what advances have we effected in the life, in the labor, of the people? we have reckoned up two millions of beetles! and we have not tamed a single animal since biblical times, when all our animals were already domesticated; but the reindeer, the stag, the partridge, the heath-cock, all remain wild. our botanists have discovered the cell, and in the cell protoplasm, and in that protoplasm still something more, and in that atom yet another thing. it is evident that these occupations will not end for a long time to come, because it is obvious that there can be no end to them, and therefore the scientist has no time to devote to those things which are necessary to the people. and therefore, again, from the time of egyptian and hebrew antiquity, when wheat and lentils had already been cultivated, down to our own times, not a single plant has been added to the food of the people, with the exception of the potato, and that was not obtained by science. torpedoes have been invented, and apparatus for taxation, and so forth. but the spinning-whined, the woman's weaving-loom, the plough, the hatchet, the chain, the rake, the bucket, the well-sweep, are exactly the same as they were in the days of rurik; and if there has been any change, then that change has not been effected by scientific people. and it is the same with the arts. we have elevated a lot of people to the rank of great writers; we have picked these writers to pieces, and have written mountains of criticism, and criticism on the critics, and criticism on the critics of the critics. and we have collected picturegalleries, and have studied different schools of art in detail; and we have so many symphonies and orchestras and operas, that it is becoming difficult even for us to listen to them. but what have we added to the popular _bylini_ [the epic songs], legends, tales, songs? what music, what pictures, have we given to the people? on the nikolskaya books are manufactured for the people, and harmonicas in tula; and in neither have we taken any part. the falsity of the whole direction of our arts and sciences is more striking and more apparent in precisely those very branches, which, it would seem, should, from their very nature, be of use to the people, and which, in consequence of their false attitude, seem rather injurious than useful. the technologist, the physician, the teacher, the artist, the author, should, in virtue of their very callings, it would seem, serve the people. and, what then? under the present _regime_, they can do nothing but harm to the people. the technologist or the mechanic has to work with capital. without capital he is good for nothing. all his acquirements are such that for their display he requires capital, and the exploitation of the laboringman on the largest scale; and--not to mention that he is trained to live, at the lowest, on from fifteen hundred to two thousand a year, and that, therefore, he cannot go to the country, where no one can give him such wages,--he is, by virtue of his very occupation, unfitted for serving the people. he knows how to calculate the highest mathematical arch of a bridge, how to calculate the force and transfer of the motive power, and so on; but he is confounded by the simplest questions of a peasant: how to improve a plough or a cart, or how to make irrigating canals. all this in the conditions of life in which the laboring man finds himself. of this, he neither knows nor understands any thing,--less, indeed, than the very stupidest peasant. give him workshops, all sorts of workmen at his desire, an order for a machine from abroad, and he will get along. but how to devise means of lightening toil, under the conditions of labor of millions of men,--this is what he does not and can not know; and because of his knowledge, his habits, and his demands on life, he is unfitted for this business. in a still worse predicament is the physician. his fancied science is all so arranged, that he only knows how to heal those persons who do nothing. he requires an incalculable quantity of expensive preparations, instruments, drugs, and hygienic apparatus. he has studied with celebrities in the capitals, who only retain patients who can be cured in the hospital, or who, in the course of their cure, can purchase the appliances requisite for healing, and even go at once from the north to the south, to some baths or other. science is of such a nature, that every rural physic-man laments because there are no means of curing working-men, because he is so poor that he has not the means to place the sick man in the proper hygienic conditions; and at the same time this physician complains that there are no hospitals, and that he cannot get through with his work, that he needs assistants, more doctors and practitioners. what is the inference? this: that the people's principal lack, from which diseases arise, and spread abroad, and refuse to be healed, is the lack of means of subsistence. and here science, under the banner of the division of labor, summons her warriors to the aid of the people. science is entirely arranged for the wealthy classes, and it has adopted for its task the healing of the people who can obtain every thing for themselves; and it attempts to heal those who possess no superfluity, by the same means. but there are no means, and therefore it is necessary to take them from the people who are ailing, and pest-stricken, and who cannot recover for lack of means. and now the defenders of medicine for the people say that this matter has been, as yet, but little developed. evidently it has been but little developed, because if (which god forbid!) it had been developed, and that through oppressing the people,--instead of two doctors, midwives, and practitioners in a district, twenty would have settled down, since they desire this, and half the people would have died through the difficulty of supporting this medical staff, and soon there would be no one to heal. scientific co-operation with the people, of which the defenders of science talk, must be something quite different. and this co-operation which should exist has not yet begun. it will begin when the man of science, technologist or physician, will not consider it legal to take from people--i will not say a hundred thousand, but even a modest ten thousand, or five hundred rubles for assisting them; but when he will live among the toiling people, under the same conditions, and exactly as they do, then he will be able to apply his knowledge to the questions of mechanics, technics, hygiene, and the healing of the laboring people. but now science, supporting itself at the expense of the working-people, has entirely forgotten the conditions of life among these people, ignores (as it puts it) these conditions, and takes very grave offence because its fancied knowledge finds no adherents among the people. the domain of medicine, like the domain of technical science, still lies untouched. all questions as to how the time of labor is best divided, what is the best method of nourishment, with what, in what shape, and when it is best to clothe one's self, to shoe one's self, to counteract dampness and cold, how best to wash one's self, to feed the children, to swaddle them, and so on, in just those conditions in which the workingpeople find themselves,--all these questions have not yet been propounded. the same is the case with the activity of the teachers of science,--pedagogical teachers. exactly in the same manner science has so arranged this matter, that only wealthy people are able to study science, and teachers, like technologists and physicians, cling to money. and this cannot be otherwise, because a school built on a model plan (as a general rule, the more scientifically built the school, the more costly it is), with pivot chains, and globes, and maps, and library, and petty text-books for teachers and scholars and pedagogues, is a sort of thing for which it would be necessary to double the taxes in every village. this science demands. the people need money for their work; and the more there is needed, the poorer they are. defenders of science say: "pedagogy is even now proving of advantage to the people, but give it a chance to develop, and then it will do still better." yes, if it does develop, and instead of twenty schools in a district there are a hundred, and all scientific, and if the people support these schools, they will grow poorer than ever, and they will more than ever need work for their children's sake. "what is to be done?" they say to this. the government will build the schools, and will make education obligatory, as it is in europe; but again, surely, the money is taken from the people just the same, and it will be harder to work, and they will have less leisure for work, and there will be no education even by compulsion. again the sole salvation is this: that the teacher should live under the conditions of the working-men, and should teach for that compensation which they give him freely and voluntarily. such is the false course of science, which deprives it of the power of fulfilling its obligation, which is, to serve the people. but in nothing is this false course of science so obviously apparent, as in the vocation of art, which, from its very significance, ought to be accessible to the people. science may fall back on its stupid excuse, that science acts for science, and that when it turns out learned men it is laboring for the people; but art, if it is art, should be accessible to all the people, and in particular to those in whose name it is executed. and our definition of art, in a striking manner, convicts those who busy themselves with art, of their lack of desire, lack of knowledge, and lack of power, to be useful to the people. the painter, for the production of his great works, must have a studio of at least such dimensions that a whole association of carpenters (forty in number) or shoemakers, now sickening or stifling in lairs, would be able to work in it. but this is not all; he must have a model, costumes, travels. millions are expended on the encouragement of art, and the products of this art are both incomprehensible and useless to the people. musicians, in order to express their grand ideas, must assemble two hundred men in white neckties, or in costumes, and spend hundreds of thousands of rubles for the equipment of an opera. and the products of this art cannot evoke from the people--even if the latter could at any time enjoy it--any thing except amazement and _ennui_. writers--authors--it appears, do not require surroundings, studios, models, orchestras, and actors; but it then appears that the author needs (not to mention comfort in his quarters) all the dainties of life for the preparation of his great works, travels, palaces, cabinets, libraries, the pleasures of art, visits to theatres, concerts, the baths, and so on. if he does not earn a fortune for himself, he is granted a pension, in order that he may compose the better. and again, these compositions, so prized by us, remain useless lumber for the people, and utterly unserviceable to them. and if still more of these dealers in spiritual nourishment are developed further, as men of science desire, and a studio is erected in every village; if an orchestra is set up, and authors are supported in those conditions which artistic people regard as indispensable for themselves,--i imagine that the working-classes will sooner take an oath never to look at any pictures, never to listen to a symphony, never to read poetry or novels, than to feed all these persons. and why, apparently, should art not be of service to the people? in every cottage there are images and pictures; every peasant man and woman sings; many own harmonicas; and all recite stories and verses, and many read. it is as if those two things which are made for each other--the lock and the key--had parted company; they have sprung so far apart, that not even the possibility of uniting them presents itself. tell the artist that he should paint without a studio, model, or costumes, and that he should paint five-kopek pictures, and he will say that that is tantamount to abandoning his art, as he understands it. tell the musician that he should play on the harmonica, and teach the women to sing songs; say to the poet, to the author, that he ought to cast aside his poems and romances, and compose song-books, tales, and stories, comprehensible to the uneducated people,--they will say that you are mad. the service of the people by science and art will only be performed when people, dwelling in the midst of the common folk, and, like the common folk, putting forward no demands, claiming no rights, shall offer to the common folk their scientific and artistic services; the acceptance or rejection of which shall depend wholly on the will of the common folk. it is said that the activity of science and art has aided in the forward march of mankind,--meaning by this activity, that which is now called by that name; which is the same as saying that an unskilled banging of oars on a vessel that is floating with the tide, which merely hinders the progress of the vessel, is assisting the movement of the ship. it only retards it. the so-called division of labor, which has become in our day the condition of activity of men of science and art, was, and has remained, the chief cause of the tardy forward movement of mankind. the proofs of this lie in that confession of all men of science, that the gains of science and art are inaccessible to the laboring masses, in consequence of the faulty distribution of riches. the irregularity of this distribution does not decrease in proportion to the progress of science and art, but only increases. men of art and science assume an air of deep pity for this unfortunate circumstance which does not depend upon them. but this unfortunate circumstance is produced by themselves; for this irregular distribution of wealth flows solely from the theory of the division of labor. science maintains the division of labor as a unalterable law; it sees that the distribution of wealth, founded on the division of labor, is wrong and ruinous; and it affirms that its activity, which recognizes the division of labor, will lead people to bliss. the result is, that some people make use of the labor of others; but that, if they shall make use of the labor of others for a very long period of time, and in still larger measure, then this wrongful distribution of wealth, i.e., the use of the labor of others, will come to an end. men stand beside a constantly swelling spring of water, and are occupied with the problem of diverting it to one side, away from the thirsty people, and they assert that they are producing this water, and that soon enough will be collected for all. but this water which has flowed, and which still flows unceasingly, and nourishes all mankind, not only is not the result of the activity of the men who, standing at its source, turn it aside, but this water flows and gushes out, in spite of the efforts of these men to obstruct its flow. there have always existed a true science, and a true art; but true science and art are not such because they called themselves by that name. it always seems to those who claim at any given period to be the representatives of science and art, that they have performed, and are performing, and--most of all--that they will presently perform, the most amazing marvels, and that beside them there never has been and there is not any science or any art. thus it seemed to the sophists, the scholastics, the alchemists, the cabalists, the talmudists; and thus it seems to our own scientific science, and to our art for the sake of art. chapter v. "but art,--science! you repudiate art and science; that is, you repudiate that by which mankind lives!" people are constantly making this--it is not a reply--to me, and they employ this mode of reception in order to reject my deductions without examining into them. "he repudiates science and art, he wants to send people back again into a savage state; so what is the use of listening to him and of talking to him?" but this is unjust. i not only do not repudiate art and science, but, in the name of that which is true art and true science, i say that which i do say; merely in order that mankind may emerge from that savage state into which it will speedily fall, thanks to the erroneous teaching of our time,--only for this purpose do i say that which i say. art and science are as indispensable as food and drink and clothing,--more indispensable even; but they become so, not because we decide that what we designate as art and science are indispensable, but simply because they really are indispensable to people. surely, if hay is prepared for the bodily nourishment of men, the fact that we are convinced that hay is the proper food for man will not make hay the food of man. surely i cannot say, "why do not you eat hay, when it is the indispensable food?" food is indispensable, but it may happen that that which i offer is not food at all. this same thing has occurred with our art and science. it seems to us, that if we add to a greek word the word "logy," and call that a science, it will be a science; and, if we call any abominable thing--like the dancing of nude females--by a greek word, choreography, that that is art, and that it will be art. but no matter how much we may say this, the business with which we occupy ourselves when we count beetles, and investigate the chemical constituents of the stars in the milky way, when we paint nymphs and compose novels and symphonies,--our business will not become either art or science until such time as it is accepted by those people for whom it is wrought. if it were decided that only certain people should produce food, and if all the rest were forbidden to do this, or if they were rendered incapable of producing food, i suppose that the quality of food would be lowered. if the people who enjoyed the monopoly of producing food were russian peasants, there would be no other food than black bread and cabbage-soup, and so on, and kvas,--nothing except what they like, and what is agreeable to them. the same thing would happen in the case of that loftiest human pursuit, of arts and sciences, if one caste were to arrogate to itself a monopoly of them: but with this sole difference, that, in the matter of bodily food, there can be no great departure from nature, and bread and cabbage-soup, although not very savory viands, are fit for consumption; but in spiritual food, there may exist the very greatest departures from nature, and some people may feed themselves for a long time on poisonous spiritual nourishment, which is directly unsuitable for, or injurious to, them; they may slowly kill themselves with spiritual opium or liquors, and they may offer this same food to the masses. it is this very thing that is going on among us. and it has come about because the position of men of science and art is a privileged one, because art and science (in our day), in our world, are not at all a rational occupation of all mankind without exception, exerting their best powers for the service of art and science, but an occupation of a restricted circle of people holding a monopoly of these industries, and entitling themselves men of art and science, and who have, therefore, perverted the very idea of art and science, and have lost all the meaning of their vocation, and who are only concerned in amusing and rescuing from crushing _ennui_ their tiny circle of idle mouths. ever since men have existed, they have always had science and art in the simplest and broadest sense of the term. science, in the sense of the whole of knowledge acquired by mankind, exists and always has existed, and life without it is not conceivable; and there is no possibility of either attacking or defending science, taken in this sense. but the point lies here,--that the scope of the knowledge of all mankind as a whole is so multifarious, ranging from the knowledge of how to extract iron to the knowledge of the movements of the planets, that man loses himself in this multitude of existing knowledge,--knowledge capable of _endless_ possibilities, if he have no guiding thread, by the aid of which he can classify this knowledge, and arrange the branches according to the degrees of their significance and importance. before a man undertakes to learn any thing whatever, he must make up his mind that that branch of knowledge is of weight to him, and of more weight and importance than the countless other objects of study with which he is surrounded. before undertaking the study of any thing, a man decides for what purpose he is studying this subject, and not the others. but to study every thing, as the men of scientific science in our day preach, without any idea of what is to come out of such study, is downright impossible, because the number of subjects of study is _endless_; and hence, no matter how many branches we may acquire, their acquisition can possess no significance or reason. and, therefore, in ancient times, down to even a very recent date, until the appearance of scientific science, man's highest wisdom consisted in finding that guiding thread, according to which the knowledge of men should be classified as being of primary or of secondary importance. and this knowledge, which forms the guide to all other branches of knowledge, men have always called science in the strictest acceptation of the word. and such science there has always been, even down to our own day, in all human communities which have emerged from their primal state of savagery. ever since mankind has existed, teachers have always arisen among peoples, who have enunciated science in this restricted sense,--the science of what it is most useful for man to know. this science has always had for its object the knowledge of what is the true ground of the well-being of each individual man, and of all men, and why. such was the science of confucius, of buddha, of socrates, of mahomet, and of others; such is this science as they understood it, and as all men--with the exception of our little circle of so-called cultured people--understand it. this science has not only always occupied the highest place, but has been the only and sole science, from which the standing of the rest has been determined. and this was the case, not in the least because, as the so-called scientific people of our day think, cunning priestly teachers of this science attributed to it such significance, but because in reality, as every one knows, both by personal experience and by reflection, there can be no science except the science of that in which the destiny and welfare of man consist. for the objects of science are _incalculable_ in number,--i undermine the word "incalculable" in the exact sense in which i understand it,--and without the knowledge of that in which the destiny and welfare of all men consist, there is no possibility of making a choice amid this interminable multitude of subjects; and therefore, without this knowledge, all other arts and branches of learning will become, as they have become among us, an idle and hurtful diversion. mankind has existed and existed, and never has it existed without the science of that in which the destiny and the welfare of men consist. it is true that the science of the welfare of men appears different on superficial observation, among the buddhists, the brahmins, the hebrews, the confucians, the tauists; but nevertheless, wherever we hear of men who have emerged from a state of savagery, we find this science. and all of a sudden it appears that the men of our day have decided that this same science, which has hitherto served as the guiding thread of all human knowledge, is the very thing which hinders every thing. men erect buildings; and one architect has made one estimate of cost, a second has made another, and a third yet another. the estimates differ somewhat; but they are correct, so that any one can see, that, if the whole is carried out in accordance with the calculations, the building will be erected. along come people, and assert that the chief point lies in having no estimates, and that it should be built thus--by the eye. and this "thus," men call the most accurate of scientific science. men repudiate every science, the very substance of science,--the definition of the destiny and the welfare of men,--and this repudiation they designate as science. ever since men have existed, great minds have been born into their midst, which, in the conflict with reason and conscience, have put to themselves questions as to "what constitutes welfare,--the destiny and welfare, not of myself alone, but of every man?" what does that power which has created and which leads me, demand of me and of every man? and what is it necessary for me to do, in order to comply with the requirements imposed upon me by the demands of individual and universal welfare? they have asked themselves: "i am a whole, and also a part of something infinite, eternal; what, then, are my relations to other parts similar to myself, to men and to the whole--to the world?" and from the voices of conscience and of reason, and from a comparison of what their contemporaries and men who had lived before them, and who had propounded to themselves the same questions, had said, these great teachers have deduced their doctrines, which were simple, clear, intelligible to all men, and always such as were susceptible of fulfilment. such men have existed of the first, second, third, and lowest ranks. the world is full of such men. every living man propounds the question to himself, how to reconcile the demands of welfare, and of his personal existence, with conscience and reason; and from this universal labor, slowly but uninterruptedly, new forms of life, which are more in accord with the requirements of reason and of conscience, are worked out. all at once, a new caste of people makes its appearance, and they say, "all this is nonsense; all this must be abandoned." this is the deductive method of ratiocination (wherein lies the difference between the deductive and the inductive method, no one can understand); these are the dogmas of the technological and metaphysical period. every thing that these men discover by inward experience, and which they communicate to one another, concerning their knowledge of the law of their existence (of their functional activity, according to their own jargon), every thing that the grandest minds of mankind have accomplished in this direction, since the beginning of the world,--all this is nonsense, and has no weight whatever. according to this new doctrine, it appears that you are cells: and that you, as a cell, have a very definite functional activity, which you not only fulfil, but which you infallibly feel within you; and that you are a thinking, talking, understanding cell, and that you, for this reason, can ask another similar talking cell whether it is just the same, and in this way verify your own experience; that you can take advantage of the fact that speaking cells, which have lived before you, have written on the same subject, and that you have millions of cells which confirm your observations by their agreement with the cells which have written down their thoughts,--all this signifies nothing; all this is an evil and an erroneous method. the true scientific method is this: if you wish to know in what the destiny and the welfare of all mankind and of all the world consists, you must, first of all, cease to listen to the voices of your conscience and of your reason, which present themselves in you and in others like you; you must cease to believe all that the great teachers of mankind have said with regard to your conscience and reason, and you must consider all this as nonsense, and begin all over again. and, in order to understand every thing from the beginning, you must look through microscopes at the movements of amoebae, and cells in worms, or, with still greater composure, believe in every thing that men with a diploma of infallibility shall say to you about them. and as you gaze at the movements of these cells, or read about what others have seen, you must attribute to these cells your own human sensations and calculations as to what they desire, whither they are directing themselves, how they compare and discuss, and to what they have become accustomed; and from these observations (in which there is not a word about an error of thought or of expression) you must deduce a conclusion by analogy as to what you are, what is your destiny, wherein lies the welfare of yourself and of other cells like you. in order to understand yourself, you must study not only the worms which you see, but microscopic creatures which you can barely see, and transformations from one set of creatures into others, which no one has ever beheld, and which you, most assuredly, will never behold. and the same with art. where there has been true science, art has always been its exponent. ever since men have been in existence, they have been in the habit of deducing, from all pursuits, the expressions of various branches of learning concerning the destiny and the welfare of man, and the expression of this knowledge has been art in the strict sense of the word. ever since men have existed, there have been those who were peculiarly sensitive and responsive to the doctrine regarding the destiny and welfare of man; who have given expression to their own and the popular conflict, to the delusions which lead them astray from their destinies, their sufferings in this conflict, their hopes in the triumph of good, them despair over the triumph of evil, and their raptures in the consciousness of the approaching bliss of man, on viol and tabret, in images and words. always, down to the most recent times, art has served science and life,--only then was it what has been so highly esteemed of men. but art, in its capacity of an important human activity, disappeared simultaneously with the substitution for the genuine science of destiny and welfare, of the science of any thing you choose to fancy. art has existed among all peoples, and will exist until that which among us is scornfully called religion has come to be considered the only science. in our european world, so long as there existed a church, as the doctrine of destiny and welfare, and so long as the church was regarded as the only true science, art served the church, and remained true art: but as soon as art abandoned the church, and began to serve science, while science served whatever came to hand, art lost its significance. and notwithstanding the rights claimed on the score of ancient memories, and of the clumsy assertion which only proves its loss of its calling, that art serves art, it has become a trade, providing men with something agreeable; and as such, it inevitably comes into the category of choreographic, culinary, hair-dressing, and cosmetic arts, whose practitioners designate themselves as artists, with the same right as the poets, printers, and musicians of our day. glance backward into the past, and you will see that in the course of thousands of years, out of milliards of people, only half a score of confucius', buddhas, solomons, socrates, solons, and homers have been produced. evidently, they are rarely met with among men, in spite of the fact that these men have not been selected from a single caste, but from mankind at large. evidently, these true teachers and artists and learned men, the purveyors of spiritual nourishment, are rare. and it is not without reason that mankind has valued and still values them so highly. but it now appears, that all these great factors in the science and art of the past are no longer of use to us. nowadays, scientific and artistic authorities can, in accordance with the law of division of labor, be turned out by factory methods; and, in one decade, more great men have been manufactured in art and science, than have ever been born of such among all nations, since the foundation of the world. nowadays there is a guild of learned men and artists, and they prepare, by perfected methods, all that spiritual food which man requires. and they have prepared so much of it, that it is no longer necessary to refer to the elder authorities, who have preceded them,--not only to the ancients, but to those much nearer to us. all that was the activity of the theological and metaphysical period,--all that must be wiped out: but the true, the rational activity began, say, fifty years ago, and in the course of those fifty years we have made so many great men, that there are about ten great men to every branch of science. and there have come to be so many sciences, that, fortunately, it is easy to make them. all that is required is to add the greek word "logy" to the name, and force them to conform to a set rubric, and the science is all complete. they have created so many sciences, that not only can no one man know them all, but not a single individual can remember all the titles of all the existing sciences; the titles alone form a thick lexicon, and new sciences are manufactured every day. they have been manufactured on the pattern of that finnish teacher who taught the landed proprietor's children finnish instead of french. every thing has been excellently inculcated; but there is one objection,--that no one except ourselves can understand any thing of it, and all this is reckoned as utterly useless nonsense. however, there is an explanation even for this. people do not appreciate the full value of scientific science, because they are under the influence of the theological period, that profound period when all the people, both among the hebrews, and the chinese, and the indians, and the greeks, understood every thing that their great teachers said to them. but, from whatever cause this has come about, the fact remains, that sciences and arts have always existed among mankind, and, when they really did exist, they were useful and intelligible to all the people. but we practise something which we call science and art, but it appears that what we do is unnecessary and unintelligible to man. and hence, however beautiful may be the things that we accomplish, we have no right to call them arts and sciences. chapter vi. "but you only furnish a different definition of arts and sciences, which is stricter, and is incompatible with science," i shall be told in answer to this; "nevertheless, scientific and artistic activity does still exist. there are the galileos, brunos, homers, michael angelos, beethovens, and all the lesser learned men and artists, who have consecrated their entire lives to the service of science and art, and who were, and will remain, the benefactors of mankind." generally this is what people say, striving to forget that new principle of the division of labor, on the basis of which science and art now occupy their privileged position, and on whose basis we are now enabled to decide without grounds, but by a given standard: is there, or is there not, any foundation for that activity which calls itself science and art, to so magnify itself? when the egyptian or the grecian priests produced their mysteries, which were unintelligible to any one, and stated concerning these mysteries that all science and all art were contained in them, i could not verify the reality of their science on the basis of the benefit procured by them to the people, because science, according to their assertions, was supernatural. but now we all possess a very simple and clear definition of the activity of art and science, which excludes every thing supernatural: science and art promise to carry out the mental activity of mankind, for the welfare of society, or of all the human race. the definition of scientific science and art is entirely correct; but, unfortunately, the activity of the present arts and sciences does not come under this head. some of them are directly injurious, others are useless, others still are worthless,--good only for the wealthy. they do not fulfil that which, by their own definition, they have undertaken to accomplish; and hence they have as little right to regard themselves as men of art and science, as a corrupt priesthood, which does not fulfil the obligations which it has assumed, has the right to regard itself as the bearer of divine truth. and it can be understood why the makers of the present arts and sciences have not fulfilled, and cannot fulfil, their vocation. they do not fulfil it, because out of their obligations they have erected a right. scientific and artistic activity, in its real sense, is only fruitful when it knows no rights, but recognizes only obligations. only because it is its property to be always thus, does mankind so highly prize this activity. if men really were called to the service of others through artistic work, they would see in that work only obligation, and they would fulfil it with toil, with privations, and with self-abnegation. the thinker or the artist will never sit calmly on olympian heights, as we have become accustomed to represent them to ourselves. the thinker or the artist should suffer in company with the people, in order that he may find salvation or consolation. besides this, he will suffer because he is always and eternally in turmoil and agitation: he might decide and say that that which would confer welfare on men, would free them from suffering, would afford them consolation; but he has not said so, and has not presented it as he should have done; he has not decided, and he has not spoken; and to-morrow, possibly, it will be too late,--he will die. and therefore suffering and self-sacrifice will always be the lot of the thinker and the artist. not of this description will be the thinker and artist who is reared in an establishment where, apparently, they manufacture the learned man or the artist (but in point of fact, they manufacture destroyers of science and of art), who receives a diploma and a certificate, who would be glad not to think and not to express that which is imposed on his soul, but who cannot avoid doing that to which two irresistible forces draw him,--an inward prompting, and the demand of men. there will be no sleek, plump, self-satisfied thinkers and artists. spiritual activity, and its expression, which are actually necessary to others, are the most burdensome of all man's avocations; a cross, as the gospels phrase it. and the sole indubitable sign of the presence of a vocation is self-devotion, the sacrifice of self for the manifestation of the power that is imposed upon man for the benefit of others. it is possible to study out how many beetles there are in the world, to view the spots on the sun, to write romances and operas, without suffering; but it is impossible, without self-sacrifice, to instruct people in their true happiness, which consists solely in renunciation of self and the service of others, and to give strong expression to this doctrine, without self-sacrifice. christ did not die on the cross in vain; not in vain does the sacrifice of suffering conquer all things. but our art and science are provided with certificates and diplomas; and the only anxiety of all men is, how to still better guarantee them, i.e., how to render the service of the people impracticable for them. true art and true science possess two unmistakable marks: the first, an inward mark, which is this, that the servitor of art and science will fulfil his vocation, not for profit but with self-sacrifice; and the second, an external sign,--his productions will be intelligible to all the people whose welfare he has in view. no matter what people have fixed upon as their vocation and their welfare, science will be the doctrine of this vocation and welfare, and art will be the expression of that doctrine. that which is called science and art, among us, is the product of idle minds and feelings, which have for their object to tickle similar idle minds and feelings. our arts and sciences are incomprehensible, and say nothing to the people, for they have not the welfare of the common people in view. ever since the life of men has been known to us, we find, always and everywhere, the reigning doctrine falsely designating itself as science, not manifesting itself to the common people, but obscuring for them the meaning of life. thus it was among the greeks the sophists, then among the christians the mystics, gnostics, scholastics, among the hebrews the talmudists and cabalists, and so on everywhere, down to our own times. how fortunate it is for us that we live in so peculiar an age, when that mental activity which calls itself science, not only does not err, but finds itself, as we are assured, in a remarkably flourishing condition! does not this peculiar good fortune arise from the fact that man can not and will not see his own hideousness? why is there nothing left of those sciences, and sophists, and cabalists, and talmudists, but words, while we are so exceptionally happy? surely the signs are identical. there is the same self-satisfaction and blind confidence that we, precisely we, and only we, are on the right path, and that the real thing is only beginning with us. there is the same expectation that we shall discover something remarkable; and that chief sign which leads us astray convicts us of our error: all our wisdom remains with us, and the common people do not understand, and do not accept, and do not need it. our position is a very difficult one, but why not look at it squarely? it is time to recover our senses, and to scrutinize ourselves. surely we are nothing else than the scribes and pharisees, who sit in moses' seat, and who have taken the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and will neither go in ourselves, nor permit others to go in. surely we, the high priests of science and art, are ourselves worthless deceivers, possessing much less right to our position than the most crafty and depraved priests. surely we have no justification for our privileged position. the priests had a right to their position: they declared that they taught the people life and salvation. but we have taken their place, and we do not instruct the people in life,--we even admit that such instruction is unnecessary,--but we educate our children in the same talmudic-greek and latin grammar, in order that they may be able to pursue the same life of parasites which we lead ourselves. we say, "there used to be castes, but there are none among us." but what does it mean, that some people and their children toil, while other people and their children do not toil? bring hither an indian ignorant of our language, and show him european life, and our life, for several generations, and he will recognize the same leading, well-defined castes--of laborers and non-laborers--as there are in his own country. and as in his land, so in ours, the right of refusing to labor is conferred by a peculiar consecration, which we call science and art, or, in general terms, culture. it is this culture, and all the distortions of sense connected with it, which have brought us to that marvellous madness, in consequence of which we do not see that which is so clear and indubitable. chapter vii. then, what is to be done? what are we to do? this question, which includes within itself both an admission that our life is evil and wrong, and in connection with this,--as though it were an exercise for it,--that it is impossible, nevertheless, to change it, this question i have heard, and i continue to hear, on all sides. i have described my own sufferings, my own gropings, and my own solution of this question. i am the same kind of a man as everybody else; and if i am in any wise distinguished from the average man of our circle, it is chiefly in this respect, that i, more than the average man, have served and winked at the false doctrine of our world; i have received more approbation from men professing the prevailing doctrine: and therefore, more than others, have i become depraved, and wandered from the path. and therefore i think that the solution of the problem, which i have found in my own case, will be applicable to all sincere people who are propounding the same question to themselves. first of all, in answer to the question, "what is to be done?" i told myself: "i must lie neither to other people nor to myself. i must not fear the truth, whithersoever it may lead me." we all know what it means to lie to other people, but we are not afraid to lie to ourselves; yet the very worst downright lie, to other people, is not to be compared in its consequences with the lie to ourselves, upon which we base our whole life. this is the lie of which we must not be guilty if we are to be in a position to answer the question: "what is to be done?" and, in fact, how am i to answer the question, "what is to be done?" when every thing that i do, when my whole life, is founded on a lie, and when i carefully parade this lie as the truth before others and before myself? not to lie, in this sense, means not to fear the truth, not to devise subterfuges, and not to accept the subterfuges devised by others for the purpose of hiding from myself the deductions of my reason and my conscience; not to fear to part company with all those who surround me, and to remain alone in company with reason and conscience; not to fear that position to which the truth shall lead me, being firmly convinced that that position to which truth and conscience shall conduct me, however singular it may be, cannot be worse than the one which is founded on a lie. not to lie, in our position of privileged persons of mental labor, means, not to be afraid to reckon one's self up wrongly. it is possible that you are already so deeply indebted that you cannot take stock of yourself; but to whatever extent this may be the case, however long may be the account, however far you have strayed from the path, it is still better than to continue therein. a lie to other people is not alone unprofitable; every matter is settled more directly and more speedily by the truth than by a lie. a lie to others only entangles matters, and delays the settlement; but a lie to one's self, set forth as the truth, ruins a man's whole life. if a man, having entered on the wrong path, assumes that it is the true one, then every step that he takes on that path removes him farther from his goal. if a man who has long been travelling on this false path divines for himself, or is informed by some one, that his course is a mistaken one, but grows alarmed at the idea that he has wandered very far astray and tries to convince himself that he may, possibly, still strike into the right road, then he never will get into it. if a man quails before the truth, and, on perceiving it, does not accept it, but does accept a lie for the truth, then he never will learn what he ought to do. we, the not only wealthy, but privileged and so-called cultivated persons, have advanced so far on the wrong road, that a great deal of determination, or a very great deal of suffering on the wrong road, is required, in order to bring us to our senses and to the acknowledgment of the lie in which we are living. i have perceived the lie of our lives, thanks to the sufferings which the false path entailed upon me, and, having recognized the falseness of this path on which i stood, i have had the boldness to go at first in thought only--whither reason and conscience led me, without reflecting where they would bring me out. and i have been rewarded for this boldness. all the complicated, broken, tangled, and incoherent phenomena of life surrounding me, have suddenly become clear; and my position in the midst of these phenomena, which was formerly strange and burdensome, has become, all at once, natural, and easy to bear. in this new position, my activity was defined with perfect accuracy; not at all as it had previously presented itself to me, but as a new and much more peaceful, loving, and joyous activity. the very thing which had formerly terrified me, now began to attract me. hence i think, that the man who will honestly put to himself the question, "what is to be done?" and, replying to this query, will not lie to himself, but will go whither his reason leads, has already solved the problem. there is only one thing that can hinder him in his search for an issue,--an erroneously lofty idea of himself and of his position. this was the case with me; and then another, arising from the first answer to the question: "what is to be done?" consisted for me in this, that it was necessary for me to repent, in the full sense of that word,--i.e., to entirely alter my conception of my position and my activity; to confess the hurtfulness and emptiness of my activity, instead of its utility and gravity; to confess my own ignorance instead of culture; to confess my immorality and harshness in the place of my kindness and morality; instead of my elevation, to acknowledge my lowliness. i say, that in addition to not lying to myself, i had to repent, because, although the one flows from the other, a false conception of my lofty importance had so grown up with me, that, until i sincerely repented and cut myself free from that false estimate which i had formed of myself, i did not perceive the greater part of the lie of which i had been guilty to myself. only when i had repented, that is to say, when i had ceased to look upon myself as a regular man, and had begun to regard myself as a man exactly like every one else,--only then did my path become clear before me. before that time i had not been able to answer the question: "what is to be done?" because i had stated the question itself wrongly. as long as i did not repent, i put the question thus: "what sphere of activity should i choose, i, the man who has received the education and the talents which have fallen to my shame? how, in this fashion, make recompense with that education and those talents, for what i have taken, and for what i still take, from the people?" this question was wrong, because it contained a false representation, to the effect that i was not a man just like them, but a peculiar man called to serve the people with those talents and with that education which i had won by the efforts of forty years. i propounded the query to myself; but, in reality, i had answered it in advance, in that i had in advance defined the sort of activity which was agreeable to me, and by which i was called upon to serve the people. i had, in fact, asked myself: "in what manner could i, so very fine a writer, who had acquired so much learning and talents, make use of them for the benefit of the people?" but the question should have been put as it would have stood for a learned rabbi who had gone through the course of the talmud, and had learned by heart the number of letters in all the holy books, and all the fine points of his art. the question for me, as for the rabbi, should stand thus: "what am i, who have spent, owing to the misfortune of my surroundings, the year's best fitted for study in the acquisition of grammar, geography, judicial science, poetry, novels and romances, the french language, pianoforte playing, philosophical theories, and military exercises, instead of inuring myself to labor; what am i, who have passed the best years of my life in idle occupations which are corrupting to the soul,--what am i to do in defiance of these unfortunate conditions of the past, in order that i may requite those people who during the whole time have fed and clothed, yes, and who even now continue to feed and clothe me?" had the question then stood as it stands before me now, after i have repented,--"what am i, so corrupt a man, to do?" the answer would have been easy: "to strive, first of all, to support myself honestly; that is, to learn not to live upon others; and while i am learning, and when i have learned this, to render aid on all possible occasions to the people, with my hands, and my feet, and my brain, and my heart, and with every thing to which the people should present a claim." and therefore i say, that for the man of our circle, in addition to not lying to himself or to others, repentance is also necessary, and that he should scrape from himself that pride which has sprung up in us, in our culture, in our refinements, in our talents; and that he should confess that he is not a benefactor of the people and a distinguished man, who does not refuse to share with the people his useful acquirements, but that he should confess himself to be a thoroughly guilty, corrupt, and good-for-nothing man, who desires to reform himself and not to behave benevolently towards the people, but simply to cease wounding and insulting them. i often hear the questions of good young men who sympathize with the renunciatory part of my writings, and who ask, "well, and what then shall i do? what am i to do, now that i have finished my course in the university, or in some other institution, in order that i may be of use?" young men ask this, and in the depths of their soul it is already decided that the education which they have received constitutes their privilege and that they desire to serve the people precisely by means of thus superiority. and hence, one thing which they will in no wise do, is to bear themselves honestly and critically towards that which they call their culture, and ask themselves, are those qualities which they call their culture good or bad? if they will do this, they will infallibly be led to see the necessity of renouncing their culture, and the necessity of beginning to learn all over again; and this is the one indispensable thing. they can in no wise solve the problem, "what to do?" because this question does not stand before them as it should stand. the question must stand thus: "in what manner am i, a helpless, useless man, who, owing to the misfortune of my conditions, have wasted my best years of study in conning the scientific talmud which corrupts soul and body, to correct this mistake, and learn to serve the people?" but it presents itself to them thus: "how am i, a man who has acquired so much very fine learning, to turn this very fine learning to the use of the people?" and such a man will never answer the question, "what is to be done?" until he repents. and repentance is not terrible, just as truth is not terrible, and it is equally joyful and fruitful. it is only necessary to accept the truth wholly, and to repent wholly, in order to understand that no one possesses any rights, privileges, or peculiarities in the matter of this life of ours, but that there are no ends or bounds to obligation, and that a man's first and most indubitable duty is to take part in the struggle with nature for his own life and for the lives of others. and this confession of a man's obligation constitutes the gist of the third answer to the question, "what is to be done?" i tried not to lie to myself: i tried to cast out from myself the remains of my false conceptions of the importance of my education and talents, and to repent; but on the way to a decision of the question, "what to do?" a fresh difficulty arose. there are so many different occupations, that an indication was necessary as to the precise one which was to be adopted. and the answer to this question was furnished me by sincere repentance for the evil in which i had lived. "what to do? precisely what to do?" all ask, and that is what i also asked so long as, under the influence of my exalted idea of any own importance, i did not perceive that my first and unquestionable duty was to feed myself, to clothe myself, to furnish my own fuel, to do my own building, and, by so doing, to serve others, because, ever since the would has existed, the first and indubitable duty of every man has consisted and does consist in this. in fact, no matter what a man may have assumed to be his vocation,--whether it be to govern people, to defend his fellow-countrymen, to divine service, to instruct others, to invent means to heighten the pleasures of life, to discover the laws of the world, to incorporate eternal truths in artistic representations,--the duty of a reasonable man is to take part in the struggle with nature, for the sustenance of his own life and of that of others. this obligation is the first of all, because what people need most of all is their life; and therefore, in order to defend and instruct the people, and render their lives more agreeable, it is requisite to preserve that life itself, while my refusal to share in the struggle, my monopoly of the labors of others, is equivalent to annihilation of the lives of others. and, therefore, it is not rational to serve the lives of men by annihilating the lives of men; and it is impossible to say that i am serving men, when, by my life, i am obviously injuring them. a man's obligation to struggle with nature for the acquisition of the means of livelihood will always be the first and most unquestionable of all obligations, because this obligation is a law of life, departure from which entails the inevitable punishment of either bodily or mental annihilation of the life of man. if a man living alone excuses himself from the obligation of struggling with nature, he is immediately punished, in that his body perishes. but if a man excuses himself from this obligation by making other people fulfil it for him, then also he is immediately punished by the annihilation of his mental life; that is to say, of the life which possesses rational thought. in this one act, man receives--if the two things are to be separated--full satisfaction of the bodily and spiritual demands of his nature. the feeding, clothing, and taking care of himself and his family, constitute the satisfaction of the bodily demands and requirements; and doing the same for other people, constitutes the satisfaction of his spiritual requirements. every other employment of man is only legal when it is directed to the satisfaction of this very first duty of man; for the fulfilment of this duty constitutes the whole life of man. i had been so turned about by my previous life, this first and indubitable law of god or of nature is so concealed in our sphere of society, that the fulfilment of this law seemed to me strange, terrible, even shameful; as though the fulfilment of an eternal, unquestionable law, and not the departure from it, can be terrible, strange, and shameful. at first it seemed to me that the fulfilment of this matter required some preparation, arrangement or community of men, holding similar views,--the consent of one's family, life in the country; it seemed to me disgraceful to make a show of myself before people, to undertake a thing so improper in our conditions of existence, as bodily toil, and i did not know how to set about it. but it was only necessary for me to understand that this is no exclusive occupation which requires to be invented and arranged for, but that this employment was merely a return from the false position in which i found myself, to a natural one; was only a rectification of that lie in which i was living. i had only to recognize this fact, and all these difficulties vanished. it was not in the least necessary to make preparations and arrangements, and to await the consent of others, for, no matter in what position i had found myself, there had always been people who had fed, clothed and warmed me, in addition to themselves; and everywhere, under all conditions, i could do the same for myself and for them, if i had the time and the strength. neither could i experience false shame in an unwonted occupation, no matter how surprising it might be to people, because, through not doing it, i had already experienced not false but real shame. and when i had reached this confession and the practical deduction from it, i was fully rewarded for not having quailed before the deductions of reason, and for following whither they led me. on arriving at this practical deduction, i was amazed at the ease and simplicity with which all the problems which had previously seemed to me so difficult and so complicated, were solved. to the question, "what is it necessary to do?" the most indubitable answer presented itself: first of all, that which it was necessary for me to do was, to attend to my own samovar, my own stove, my own water, my own clothing; to every thing that i could do for myself. to the question, "will it not seem strange to people if you do this?" it appeared that this strangeness lasted only a week, and after the lapse of that week, it would have seemed strange had i returned to my former conditions of life. with regard to the question, "is it necessary to organize this physical labor, to institute an association in the country, on my land?" it appeared that nothing of the sort was necessary; that labor, if it does not aim at the acquisition of all possible leisure, and the enjoyment of the labor of others,--like the labor of people bent on accumulating money,--but if it have for its object the satisfaction of requirements, will itself be drawn from the city to the country, to the land, where this labor is the most fruitful and cheerful. but it is not requisite to institute any association, because the man who labors, naturally and of himself, attaches himself to the existing association of laboring men. to the question, whether this labor would not monopolize all my time, and deprive me of those intellectual pursuits which i love, to which i am accustomed, and which, in my moments of self-conceit, i regard as not useless to others? i received a most unexpected reply. the energy of my intellectual activity increased, and increased in exact proportion with bodily application, while freeing itself from every thing superfluous. it appeared that by dedicating to physical toil eight hours, that half of the day which i had formerly passed in the oppressive state of a struggle with _ennui_, eight hours remained to me, of which only five of intellectual activity, according to my terms, were necessary to me. for it appeared, that if i, a very voluminous writer, who had done nothing for nearly forty years except write, and who had written three hundred printed sheets;--if i had worked during all those forty years at ordinary labor with the working-people, then, not reckoning winter evenings and leisure days, if i had read and studied for five hours every day, and had written a couple of pages only on holidays (and i have been in the habit of writing at the rate of one printed sheet a day), then i should have written those three hundred sheets in fourteen years. the fact seemed startling: yet it is the most simple arithmetical calculation, which can be made by a seven-year-old boy, but which i had not been able to make up to this time. there are twenty-four hours in the day; if we take away eight hours, sixteen remain. if any man engaged in intellectual occupations devote five hours every day to his occupation, he will accomplish a fearful amount. and what is to be done with the remaining eleven hours? it proved that physical labor not only does not exclude the possibility of mental activity, but that it improves its quality, and encourages it. in answer to the question, whether this physical toil does not deprive me of many innocent pleasures peculiar to man, such as the enjoyment of the arts, the acquisition of learning, intercourse with people, and the delights of life in general, it turned out exactly the reverse: the more intense the labor, the more nearly it approached what is considered the coarsest agricultural toil, the more enjoyment and knowledge did i gain, and the more did i come into close and loving communion with men, and the more happiness did i derive from life. in answer to the question (which i have so often heard from persons not thoroughly sincere), as to what result could flow from so insignificant a drop in the sea of sympathy as my individual physical labor in the sea of labor ingulfing me, i received also the most satisfactory and unexpected of answers. it appeared that all i had to do was to make physical labor the habitual condition of my life, and the majority of my false, but precious, habits and my demands, when physically idle, fell away from me at once of their own accord, without the slightest exertion on my part. not to mention the habit of turning day into night and _vice versa_, my habits connected with my bed, with my clothing, with conventional cleanliness,--which are downright impossible and oppressive with physical labor,--and my demands as to the quality of my food, were entirely changed. in place of the dainty, rich, refined, complicated, highly-spiced food, to which i had formerly inclined, the most simple viands became needful and most pleasing of all to me,--cabbage-soup, porridge, black bread, and tea _v prikusku_. {238} so that, not to mention the influence upon me of the example of the simple working-people, who are content with little, with whom i came in contact in the course of my bodily toil, my very requirements underwent a change in consequence of my toilsome life; so that my drop of physical labor in the sea of universal labor became larger and larger, in proportion as i accustomed myself to, and appropriated, the habits of the laboring classes; in proportion, also, to the success of my labor, my demands for labor from others grew less and less, and my life naturally, without exertion or privations, approached that simple existence of which i could not even dream without fulfilling the law of labor. it proved that my dearest demands from life, namely, my demands for vanity, and diversion from _ennui_, arose directly from my idle life. there was no place for vanity, in connection with physical labor; and no diversions were needed, since my time was pleasantly occupied, and, after my fatigue, simple rest at tea over a book, or in conversation with my fellows, was incomparably more agreeable than theatres, cards, conceits, or a large company,--all which things are needed in physical idleness, and which cost a great deal. in answer to the question, would not this unaccustomed toil ruin that health which is indispensable in order to render service to the people possible? it appeared, in spite of the positive assertions of noted physicians, that physical exertion, especially at my age, might have the most injurious consequences (but that swedish gymnastics, the massage treatment, and so on, and other expedients intended to take the place of the natural conditions of man's life, were better), that the more intense the toil, the stronger, more alert, more cheerful, and more kindly did i feel. thus it undoubtedly appeared, that, just as all those cunning devices of the human mind, newspapers, theatres, concerts, visits, balls, cards, journals, romances, are nothing else than expedients for maintaining the spiritual life of man outside his natural conditions of labor for others,--just so all the hygienic and medical devices of the human mind for the preparation of food, drink, lodging, ventilation, heating, clothing, medicine, water, massage, gymnastics, electric, and other means of healing,--all these clever devices are merely an expedient to sustain the bodily life of man removed from its natural conditions of labor. it turned out that all these devices of the human mind for the agreeable arrangement of the physical existence of idle persons are precisely analogous to those artful contrivances which people might invent for the production in vessels hermetically sealed, by means of mechanical arrangements, of evaporation, and plants, of the air best fitted for breathing, when all that is needed is to open the window. all the inventions of medicine and hygiene for persons of our sphere are much the same as though a mechanic should hit upon the idea of heating a steamboiler which was not working, and should shut all the valves so that the boiler should not burst. only one thing is needed, instead of all these extremely complicated devices for pleasure, for comfort, and for medical and hygienic preparations, intended to save people from their spiritual and bodily ailments, which swallow up so much labor,--to fulfil the law of life; to do that which is proper not only to man, but to the animal; to fire off the charge of energy taken win in the shape of food, by muscular exertion; to speak in plain language, to earn one's bread. those who do not work should not eat, or they should earn as much as they have eaten. and when i clearly comprehended all this, it struck me as ridiculous. through a whole series of doubts and searchings, i had arrived, by a long course of thought, at this remarkable truth: if a man has eyes, it is that he may see with them; if he has ears, that he may hear; and feet, that he may walk; and hands and back, that he may labor; and that if a man will not employ those members for that purpose for which they are intended, it will be the worse for him. i came to this conclusion, that, with us privileged people, the same thing has happened which happened with the horses of a friend of mine. his steward, who was not a lover of horses, nor well versed in them, on receiving his master's orders to place the best horses in the stable, selected them from the stud, placed them in stalls, and fed and watered them; but fearing for the valuable steeds, he could not bring himself to trust them to any one, and he neither rode nor drove them, nor did he even take them out. the horses stood there until they were good for nothing. the same thing has happened with us, but with this difference: that it was impossible to deceive the horses in any way, and they were kept in bonds to prevent their getting out; but we are kept in an unnatural position that is equally injurious to us, by deceits which have entangled us, and which hold us like chains. we have arranged for ourselves a life that is repugnant both to the moral and the physical nature of man, and all the powers of our intelligence we concentrate upon assuring man that this is the most natural life possible. every thing which we call culture,--our sciences, art, and the perfection of the pleasant thing's of life,--all these are attempts to deceive the moral requirements of man; every thing that is called hygiene and medicine, is an attempt to deceive the natural physical demands of human nature. but these deceits have their bounds, and we advance to them. "if such be the real human life, then it is better not to live at all," says the reigning and extremely fashionable philosophy of schopenhauer and hartmann. if such is life, 'tis better for the coming generation not to live," say corrupt medical science and its newly devised means to that end. in the bible, it is laid down as the law of man: "in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, and in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children;" but "_nous avons change tout ca_," as moliere's character says, when expressing himself with regard to medicine, and asserting that the liver was on the left side. we have changed all that. men need not work in order to eat, and women need not bear children. a ragged peasant roams the krapivensky district. during the war he was an agent for the purchase of grain, under an official of the commissary department. on being brought in contact with the official, and seeing his luxurious life, the peasant lost his mind, and thought that he might get along without work, like gentlemen, and receive proper support from the emperor. this peasant now calls himself "the most serene warrior, prince blokhin, purveyor of war supplies of all descriptions." he says of himself that he has "passed through all the ranks," and that when he shall have served out his term in the army, he is to receive from the emperor an unlimited bank account, clothes, uniforms, horses, equipages, tea, pease and servants, and all sorts of luxuries. this man is ridiculous in the eyes of many, but to me the significance of his madness is terrible. to the question, whether he does not wish to work, he always replies proudly: "i am much obliged. the peasants will attend to all that." when you tell him that the peasants do not wish to work, either, he answers: "it is not difficult for the peasant." he generally talks in a high-flown style, and is fond of verbal substantives. "now there is an invention of machinery for the alleviation of the peasants," he says; "there is no difficulty for them in that." when he is asked what he lives for, he replies, "to pass the time." i always look on this man as on a mirror. i behold in him myself and all my class. to pass through all the ranks (_tchini_) in order to live for the purpose of passing the time, and to receive an unlimited bank account, while the peasants, for whom this is not difficult, because of the invention of machinery, do the whole business,--this is the complete formula of the idiotic creed of the people of our sphere in society. when we inquire precisely what we are to do, surely, we ask nothing, but merely assert--only not in such good faith as the most serene prince blokhin, who has been promoted through all ranks, and lost his mind--that we do not wish to do any thing. he who will reflect for a moment cannot ask thus, because, on the one hand, every thing that he uses has been made, and is made, by the hands of men; and, on the other side, as soon as a healthy man has awakened and eaten, the necessity of working with feet and hands and brain makes itself felt. in order to find work and to work, he need only not hold back: only a person who thinks work disgraceful--like the lady who requests her guest not to take the trouble to open the door, but to wait until she can call a man for this purpose--can put to himself the question, what he is to do. the point does not lie in inventing work,--you can never get through all the work that is to be done for yourself and for others,--but the point lies in weaning one's self from that criminal view of life in accordance with which i eat and sleep for my own pleasure; and in appropriating to myself that just and simple view with which the laboring man grows up and lives,--that man is, first of all, a machine, which loads itself with food in order to sustain itself, and that it is therefore disgraceful, wrong, and impossible to eat and not to work; that to eat and not to work is the most impious, unnatural, and, therefore, dangerous position, in the nature of the sin of sodom. only let this acknowledgement be made, and there will be work; and work will always be joyous and satisfying to both spiritual and bodily requirements. the matter presented itself to me thus: the day is divided for every man, by food itself, into four parts, or four stints, as the peasants call it: (1) before breakfast; (2) from breakfast until dinner; (3) from dinner until four o'clock; (4) from four o'clock until evening. a man's employment, whatever it may be that he feels a need for in his own person, is also divided into four categories: (1) the muscular employment of power, labor of the hands, feet, shoulders, back,--hard labor, from which you sweat; (2) the employment of the fingers and wrists, the employment of artisan skill; (3) the employment of the mind and imagination; (4) the employment of intercourse with others. the benefits which man enjoys are also divided into four categories. every man enjoys, in the first place, the product of hard labor,--grain, cattle, buildings, wells, ponds, and so forth; in the second place, the results of artisan toil,--clothes, boots, utensils, and so forth; in the third place, the products of mental activity,--science, art; and, in the forth place, established intercourse between people. and it struck me, that the best thing of all would be to arrange the occupations of the day in such a manner as to exercise all four of man's capacities, and myself produce all these four sorts of benefits which men make use of, so that one portion of the day, the first, should be dedicated to hard labor; the second, to intellectual labor; the third, to artisan labor; and the forth, to intercourse with people. it struck me, that only then would that false division of labor, which exists in our society, be abrogated, and that just division of labor established, which does not destroy man's happiness. i, for example, have busied myself all my life with intellectual labor. i said to myself, that i had so divided labor, that writing, that is to say, intellectual labor, is my special employment, and the other matters which were necessary to me i had left free (or relegated, rather) to others. but this, which would appear to have been the most advantageous arrangement for intellectual toil, was precisely the most disadvantageous to mental labor, not to mention its injustice. all my life long, i have regulated my whole life, food, sleep, diversion, in view of these hours of special labor, and i have done nothing except this work. the result of this has been, in the first place, that i have contracted my sphere of observations and knowledge, and have frequently had no means for the study even of problems which often presented themselves in describing the life of the people (for the life of the common people is the every-day problem of intellectual activity). i was conscious of my ignorance, and was obliged to obtain instruction, to ask about things which are known by every man not engaged in special labor. in the second place, the result was, that i had been in the habit of sitting down to write when i had no inward impulse to write, and when no one demanded from me writing, as writing, that is to say, my thoughts, but when my name was merely wanted for journalistic speculation. i tried to squeeze out of myself what i could. sometimes i could extract nothing; sometimes it was very wretched stuff, and i was dissatisfied and grieved. but now that i have learned the indispensability of physical labor, both hard and artisan labor, the result is entirely different. my time has been occupied, however modestly, at least usefully and cheerfully, and in a manner instructive to me. and therefore i have torn myself from that indubitably useful and cheerful occupation for my special duties only when i felt an inward impulse, and when i saw a demand made upon me directly for my literary work. and these demands called into play only good nature, and therefore the usefulness and the joy of my special labor. thus it turned out, that employment in those physical labors which are indispensable to me, as they are to every man, not only did not interfere with my special activity, but was an indispensable condition of the usefulness, worth, and cheerfulness of that activity. the bird is so constructed, that it is indispensable that it should fly, walk, peek, combine; and when it does all this, it is satisfied and happy,--then it is a bird. just so man, when he walks, turns, raises, drags, works with his fingers, with his eyes, with his ears, with his tongue, with his brain,--only then is he satisfied, only then is he a man. a man who acknowledges his appointment to labor will naturally strive towards that rotation of labor which is peculiar to him, for the satisfaction of his inward requirements; and he can alter this labor in no other way than when he feels within himself an irresistible summons to some exclusive form of labor, and when the demands of other men for that labor are expressed. the character of labor is such, that the satisfaction of all a man's requirements demands that same succession of the sorts of work which renders work not a burden but a joy. only a false creed, [greek text which cannot be reproduced], to the effect that labor is a curse, could have led men to rid themselves of certain kinds of work; i.e., to the appropriation of the work of others, demanding the forced occupation with special labor of other people, which they call division of labor. we have only grown used to our false comprehension of the regulation of labor, because it seems to us that the shoemaker, the machinist, the writer, or the musician will be better off if he gets rid of the labor peculiar to man. where there is no force exercised over the labor of others, or any false belief in the joy of idleness, not a single man will get rid of physical labor, necessary for the satisfaction of his requirements, for the sake of special work; because special work is not a privilege, but a sacrifice which man offers to inward pressure and to his brethren. the shoemaker in the country, who abandons his wonted labor in the field, which is so grateful to him, and betakes himself to his trade, in order to repair or make boots for his neighbors, always deprives himself of the pleasant toil of the field, simply because he likes to make boots, because he knows that no one else can do it so well as he, and that people will be grateful to him for it; but the desire cannot occur to him, to deprive himself, for the whole period of his life, of the cheering rotation of labor. it is the same with the _starosta_ [village elder], the machinist, the writer, the learned man. to us, with our corrupt conception of things, it seems, that if a steward has been relegated to the position of a peasant by his master, or if a minister has been sent to the colonies, he has been chastised, he has been ill-treated. but in reality a benefit has been conferred on him; that is to say, his special, hard labor has been changed into a cheerful rotation of labor. in a naturally constituted society, this is quite otherwise. i know of one community where the people supported themselves. one of the members of this society was better educated than the rest; and they called upon him to read, so that he was obliged to prepare himself during the day, in order that he might read in the evening. this he did gladly, feeling that he was useful to others, and that he was performing a good deed. but he grew weary of exclusively intellectual work, and his health suffered from it. the members of the community took pity on him, and requested him to go to work in the fields. for men who regard labor as the substance and the joy of life, the basis, the foundation of life will always be the struggle with nature,--labor both agricultural and mechanical, and intellectual, and the establishment of communion between men. departure from one or from many of these varieties of labor, and the adoption of special labor, will then only occur when the man possessed of a special branch, and loving this work, and knowing that he can perform it better than others, sacrifices his own profit for the satisfaction of the direct demands made upon him. only on condition of such a view of labor, and of the natural division of labor arising from it, is that curse which is laid upon our idea of labor abrogated, and does every sort of work becomes always a joy; because a man will either perform that labor which is undoubtedly useful and joyous, and not dull, or he will possess the consciousness of self-abnegation in the fulfilment of more difficult and restricted toil, which he exercises for the good of others. but the division of labor is more profitable. more profitable for whom? it is more profitable in making the greatest possible quantity of calico, and boots in the shortest possible time. but who will make these boots and this calico? there are people who, for whole generations, make only the heads of pins. then how can this be more profitable for men? if the point lies in manufacturing as much calico and as many pins as possible, then this is so. but the point concerns men and their welfare. and the welfare of men lies in life. and life is work. how, then, can the necessity for burdensome, oppressive toil be more profitable for people? for all men, that one thing is more profitable which i desire for myself,--the utmost well-being, and the gratification of all those requirements, both bodily and spiritual, of the conscience and of the reason, which are imposed upon me. and in my own case i have found, that for my own welfare, and for the satisfaction of these needs of mine, all that i require is to cure myself of that folly in which i had been living, in company with the krapivensky madman, and which consisted in presupposing that some people need not work, and that certain other people should direct all this, and that i should therefore do only that which is natural to man, i.e., labor for the satisfaction of their requirements; and, having discovered this, i convinced myself that labor for the satisfaction of one's own needs falls of itself into various kinds of labor, each one of which possesses its own charm, and which not only do not constitute a burden, but which serve as a respite to one another. i have made a rough division of this labor (not insisting on the justice of this arrangement), in accordance with my own needs in life, into four parts, corresponding to the four stints of labor of which the day is composed; and i seek in this manner to satisfy my requirements. these, then, are the answers which i have found for myself to the question, "what is to be done?" _first_, not to lie to myself, however far removed my path in life may be from the true path which my reason discloses to me. _second_, to renounce my consciousness of my own righteousness, my superiority especially over other people; and to acknowledge my guilt. _third_, to comply with that eternal and indubitable law of humanity,--the labor of my whole being, feeling no shame at any sort of work; to contend with nature for the maintenance of my own life and the lives of others. footnotes: {169} an omission by the censor, which i am unable to supply. trans. {178} we designate as organisms the elephant and the bacterian, only because we assume by analogy in those creatures the same conjunction of feeling and consciousness that we know to exist in ourselves. but in human societies and in humanity, this actual sign is absent; and therefore, however many other signs we may discover in humanity and in organism, without this substantial token the recognition of humanity as an organism is incorrect. {238} _v prikusku_, when a lump of sugar is held in the teeth instead or being put into the tea. reminiscences of tolstoy by his son, count ilya tolstoy translated by george calderon reminiscences of tolstoy (part i.) in one of his letters to his great-aunt, alexandra andreyevna tolstoy, my father gives the following description of his children: the eldest [sergei] is fair-haired and good-looking; there is something weak and patient in his expression, and very gentle. his laugh is not infectious; but when he cries, i can hardly refrain from crying, too. every one says he is like my eldest brother. i am afraid to believe it. it is too good to be true. my brother's chief characteristic was neither egotism nor self-renunciation, but a strict mean between the two. he never sacrificed himself for any one else; but not only always avoided injuring others, but also interfering with them. he kept his happiness and his sufferings entirely to himself. ilya, the third, has never been ill in his life; broad-boned, white and pink, radiant, bad at lessons. is always thinking about what he is told not to think about. invents his own games. hot-tempered and violent, wants to fight at once; but is also tender-hearted and very sensitive. sensuous; fond of eating and lying still doing nothing. tanya [tatyana] is eight years old. every one says that she is like sonya, and i believe them, although i am pleased about that, too; i believe it only because it is obvious. if she had been adam's eldest daughter and he had had no other children afterward, she would have passed a wretched childhood. the greatest pleasure that she has is to look after children. the fourth is lyoff. handsome, dexterous, good memory, graceful. any clothes fit him as if they had been made for him. everything that others do, he does very skilfully and well. does not understand much yet. the fifth, masha [mary] is two years old, the one whose birth nearly cost sonya her life. a weak and sickly child. body white as milk, curly white hair; big, queer blue eyes, queer by reason of their deep, serious expression. very intelligent and ugly. she will be one of the riddles; she will suffer, she will seek and find nothing, will always be seeking what is least attainable. the sixth, peter, is a giant, a huge, delightful baby in a mob-cap, turns out his elbows, strives eagerly after something. my wife falls into an ecstasy of agitation and emotion when she holds him in her arms; but i am completely at a loss to understand. i know that he has a great store of physical energy, but whether there is any purpose for which the store is wanted i do not know. that is why i do not care for children under two or three; i don't understand. this letter was written in 1872, when i was six years old. my recollections date from about that time. i can remember a few things before. family life in the country from my earliest childhood until the family moved into moscow--that was in 1881--all my life was spent, almost without a break, at yasnaya polyana. this is how we live. the chief personage in the house is my mother. she settles everything. she interviews nikolai, the cook, and orders dinner; she sends us out for walks, makes our shirts, is always nursing some baby at the breast; all day long she is bustling about the house with hurried steps. one can be naughty with her, though she is sometimes angry and punishes us. she knows more about everything than anybody else. she knows that one must wash every day, that one must eat soup at dinner, that one must talk french, learn not to crawl about on all fours, not to put one's elbows on the table; and if she says that one is not to go out walking because it is just going to rain, she is sure to be right, and one must do as she says. papa is the cleverest man in the world. he always knows everything. there is no being naughty with him. when he is up in his study "working," one is not allowed to make a noise, and nobody may go into his room. what he does when he is at "work," none of us know. later on, when i had learned to read, i was told that papa was a "writer." this was how i learned. i was very pleased with some lines of poetry one day, and asked my mother who wrote them. she told me they were written by pushkin, and pushkin was a great writer. i was vexed at my father not being one, too. then my mother said that my father was also a well-known writer, and i was very glad indeed. at the dinner-table papa sits opposite mama and has his own round silver spoon. when old natalia petrovna, who lives on the floor below with great-aunt tatyana alexandrovna, pours herself out a glass of kvass, he picks it up and drinks it right off, then says, "oh, i'm so sorry, natalia petrovna; i made a mistake!" we all laugh delightedly, and it seems odd that papa is not in the least afraid of natalia petrovna. when there is jelly for pudding, papa says it is good for gluing paper boxes; we run off to get some paper, and papa makes it into boxes. mama is angry, but he is not afraid of her either. we have the gayest times imaginable with him now and then. he can ride a horse better and run faster than anybody else, and there is no one in the world so strong as he is. he hardly ever punishes us, but when he looks me in the eyes he knows everything that i think, and i am frightened. you can tell stories to mama, but not to papa, because he will see through you at once. so nobody ever tries. besides papa and mama, there was also aunt tatyana alexandrovna yergolsky. in her room she had a big eikon with a silver mount. we were very much afraid of this eikon, because it was very old and black. when i was six, i remember my father teaching the village children. they had their lessons in "the other house," [1] where alexey stepanytch, the bailiff, lived, and sometimes on the ground floor of the house we lived in. there were a great number of village children who used to come. when they came, the front hall smelled of sheepskin jackets; they were taught by papa and seryozha and tanya and uncle kostya all at once. lesson-time was very gay and lively. the children did exactly as they pleased, sat where they liked, ran about from place to place, and answered questions not one by one, but all together, interrupting one another, and helping one another to recall what they had read. if one left out a bit, up jumped another and then another, and the story or sum was reconstructed by the united efforts of the whole class. what pleased my father most about his pupils was the picturesqueness and originality of their language. he never wanted a literal repetition of bookish expressions, and particularly encouraged every one to speak "out of his own head." i remember how once he stopped a boy who was running into the next room. "where are you off to?" he asked. "to uncle, to bite off a piece of chalk." [2] "cut along, cut along! it's not for us to teach them, but for them to teach." the servants in the house when my father married and brought home his young and inexperienced bride, sofya andreyevna, to yasnaya polyana, nikolai mikhailovitch rumyantsef was already established as cook. before my father's marriage he had a salary of five rubles a month; but when my mother arrived, she raised him to six, at which rate he continued the rest of his days; that is, till somewhere about the end of the eighties. he was succeeded in the kitchen by his son, semyon nikolayevitch, my mother's godson, and this worthy and beloved man, companion of my childish games, still lives with us to this day. under my mother's supervision he prepared my father's vegetarian diet with affectionate zeal, and without him my father would very likely never have lived to the ripe old age he did. agafya mikhailovna was an old woman who lived at first in the kitchen of "the other house" and afterward on the home farm. tall and thin, with big, thoroughbred eyes, and long, straight hair, like a witch, turning gray, she was rather terrifying, but more than anything else she was queer. once upon a time long ago she had been housemaid to my great-grandmother, countess pelageya nikolayevna tolstoy, my father's grandmother, nee princess gortchakova. she was fond of telling about her young days. she would say: i was very handsome. when there were gentlefolks visiting at the big house, the countess would call me, 'gachette [agafya], femme de chambre, apportez-moi un mouchoir!' then i would say, 'toute suite, madame la comtesse!' and every one would be staring at me, and couldn't take their eyes off. when i crossed over to the annex, there they were watching to catch me on the way. many a time have i tricked them--ran round the other way and jumped over the ditch. i never liked that sort of thing any time. a maid i was, a maid i am. after my grandmother's death, agafya mikhailovna was sent on to the home farm for some reason or other, and minded the sheep. she got so fond of sheep that all her days after she never would touch mutton. after the sheep, she had an affection for dogs, and that is the only period of her life that i remember her in. there was nothing in the world she cared about but dogs. she lived with them in horrible dirt and smells, and gave up her whole mind and soul to them. we always had setters, harriers, and borzois, and the whole kennel, often very numerous, was under agafya mikhailovna's management, with some boy or other to help her, usually one as clumsy and stupid as could be found. there are many interesting recollections bound up with the memory of this intelligent and original woman. most of them are associated in my mind with my father's stories about her. he could always catch and unravel any interesting psychological trait, and these traits, which he would mention incidentally, stuck firmly in my mind. he used to tell, for instance, how agafya mikhailovna complained to him of sleeplessness. "ever since i can remember her, she has suffered from 'a birch-tree growing inside me from my belly up; it presses against my chest, and prevents my breathing.' "she complains of her sleeplessness and the birch-tree and says: 'there i lay all alone and all quiet, only the clock ticking on the wall: "who are you? what are you? who are you? what are you?" and i began to think: "who am i? what am i?" and so i spent the whole night thinking about it.' "why, imagine this is socrates! 'know thyself,'" said my father, telling the story with great enthusiasm. in the summer-time my mother's brother, styopa (stephen behrs), who was studying at the time in the school of jurisprudence, used to come and stay with us. in the autumn he used to go wolf-hunting with my father and us, with the borzois, and agafya mikhailovna loved him for that. styopa's examination was in the spring. agafya mikhailovna knew about it and anxiously waited for the news of whether he had got through. once she put up a candle before the eikon and prayed that styopa might pass. but at that moment she remembered that her borzois had got out and had not come back to the kennels again. "saints in heaven! they'll get into some place and worry the cattle and do a mischief!" she cried. "'lord, let my candle burn for the dogs to come back quick, and i'll buy another for stepan andreyevitch.' no sooner had i said this to myself than i heard the dogs in the porch rattling their collars. thank god! they were back. that's what prayer can do." another favorite of agafya mikhailovna was a young man, misha stakhovitch, who often stayed with us. "see what you have been and done to me, little countess!" she said reproachfully to my sister tanya: "you've introduced me to mikhail alexandrovitch, and i've fallen in love with him in my old age, like a wicked woman!" on the fifth of february, her name-day, agafya mikhailovna received a telegram of congratulation from stakhovitch. when my father heard of it, he said jokingly to agafya mikhailovna: "aren't you ashamed that a man had to trudge two miles through the frost at night all for the sake of your telegram?" "trudge, trudge? angels bore him on their wings. trudge, indeed! you get three telegrams from an outlandish jew woman," she growled, "and telegrams every day about your golokhvotika. never a trudge then; but i get name-day greetings, and it's trudge!" and one could not but acknowledge that she was right. this telegram, the only one in the whole year that was addressed to the kennels, by the pleasure it gave agafya mikhailovna was far more important of course than this news or the about a ball given in moscow in honor of a jewish banker's daughter, or about olga andreyevna golokvastovy's arrival at yasnaya. agafya mikhailovna died at the beginning of the nineties. there were no more hounds or sporting dogs at yasnaya then, but till the end of her days she gave shelter to a motley collection of mongrels, and tended and fed them. the home of the tolstoys i can remember the house at yasnaya polyana in the condition it was in the first years after my father's marriage. it was one of the two-storied wings of the old mansion-house of the princes volkonsky, which my father had sold for pulling down when he was still a bachelor. from what my father has told me, i know that the house in which he was born and spent his youth was a three-storied building with thirty-six rooms. on the spot where it stood, between the two wings, the remains of the old stone foundation are still visible in the form of trenches filled with rubble, and the site is covered with big sixty-year-old trees that my father himself planted. when any one asked my father where he was born, he used to point to a tall larch which grew on the site of the old foundations. "up there where the top of that larch waves," he used to say; "that's where my mother's room was, where i was born on a leather sofa." my father seldom spoke of his mother, but when he did, it was delightful to hear him, because the mention of her awoke an unusual strain of gentleness and tenderness in him. there was such a ring of respectful affection, so much reverence for her memory, in his words, that we all looked on her as a sort of saint. my father remembered his father well, because he was already nine years old when he died. he loved him, too, and always spoke of him reverently; but one always felt that his mother's memory, although he had never known her, was dearer to him, and his love for her far greater than for his father. even to this day i do not exactly know the story of the sale of the old house. my father never liked talking about it, and for that reason i could never make up my mind to ask him the details of the transaction. i only know that the house was sold for five thousand paper rubles [3] by one of his relatives, who had charge of his affairs by power of attorney when he was in the caucasus. it was said to have been done in order to pay off my father's gambling debts. that was quite true. my father himself told me that at one time he was a great card-player, that he lost large sums of money, and that his financial affairs were considerably embarrassed. the only thing about which i am in doubt is whether it was with my father's knowledge or by his directions that the house was sold, or whether the relative in question did not exceed his instructions and decide on the sale of his own initiative. my father cherished his parents' memory to such an extent, and had such a warm affection for everything relating to his own childhood, that it is hard to believe that he would have raised his hand against the house in which he had been born and brought up and in which his mother had spent her whole life. knowing my father as i do, i think it is highly possible that he wrote to his relative from the caucasus, "sell something," not in the least expecting that he would sell the house, and that he afterward took the blame for it on himself. is that not the reason why he was always so unwilling to talk about it? in 1871, when i was five years old, the zala [4] and study were built on the house. the walls of the zala were hung with old portraits of ancestors. they were rather alarming, and i was afraid of them at first; but we got used to them after a time, and i grew fond of one of them, of my great-grandfather, ilya andreyevitch tolstoy, because i was told that i was like him. beside him hung the portrait of another great-grandfather, prince nikolai sergeyevitch volkonsky, my grandmother's father, with thick, black eyebrows, a gray wig, and a red kaftan. [5] this volkonsky built all the buildings of yasnaya polyana. he was a model squire, intelligent and proud, and enjoyed the great respect of all the neighborhood. on the ground floor, under the drawing-room, next to the entrance-hall, my father built his study. he had a semi-circular niche made in the wall, and stood a marble bust of his favorite dead brother nikolai in it. this bust was made abroad from a death-mask, and my father told us that it was very like, because it was done by a good sculptor, according to his own directions. he had a kind and rather plaintive face. the hair was brushed smooth like a child's, with the parting on one side. he had no beard or mustache, and his head was white and very, very clean. my father's study was divided in two by a partition of big bookshelves, containing a multitude of all sorts of books. in order to support them, the shelves were connected by big wooden beams, and between them was a thin birch-wood door, behind which stood my father's writing-table and his old-fashioned semicircular arm-chair. there are portraits of dickens and schopenhauer and fet [6] as a young man on the walls, too, and the well-known group of writers of the sovremennik [7] circle in 1856, with turgenieff, ostrovsky, gontcharof, grigorovitch, druzhinin, and my father, quite young still, without a beard, and in uniform. my father used to come out of his bedroom of a morning--it was in a corner on the top floor--in his dressing-gown, with his beard uncombed and tumbled together, and go down to dress. soon after he would issue from his study fresh and vigorous, in a gray smock-frock, and would go up into the zala for breakfast. that was our dejeuner. when there was nobody staying in the house, he would not stop long in the drawing-room, but would take his tumbler of tea and carry it off to his study with him. but if there were friends and guests with us, he would get into conversation, become interested, and could not tear himself away. at last he would go off to his work, and we would disperse, in winter to the different school-rooms, in summer to the croquet-lawn or somewhere about the garden. my mother would settle down in the drawing-room to make some garment for the babies, or to copy out something she had not finished overnight; and till three or four in the afternoon silence would reign in the house. then my father would come out of his study and go off for his afternoon's exercise. sometimes he would take a dog and a gun, sometimes ride, and sometimes merely go for a walk to the imperial wood. at five the big bell that hung on the broken bough of an old elm-tree in front of the house would ring and we would all run to wash our hands and collect for dinner. he was very hungry, and ate voraciously of whatever turned up. my mother would try to stop him, would tell him not to waste all his appetite on kasha, because there were chops and vegetables to follow. "you'll have a bad liver again," she would say; but he would pay no attention to her, and would ask for more and more, until his hunger was completely satisfied. then he would tell us all about his walk, where he put up a covey of black game, what new paths he discovered in the imperial wood beyond kudeyarof well, or, if he rode, how the young horse he was breaking in began to understand the reins and the pressure of the leg. all this he would relate in the most vivid and entertaining way, so that the time passed gaily and animatedly. after dinner he would go back to his room to read, and at eight we had tea, and the best hours of the day began--the evening hours, when everybody gathered in the zala. the grown-ups talked or read aloud or played the piano, and we either listened to them or had some jolly game of our own, and in anxious fear awaited the moment when the english grandfather-clock on the landing would give a click and a buzz, and slowly and clearly ring out ten. perhaps mama would not notice? she was in the sitting-room, making a copy. "come, children, bedtime! say good night," she would call. "in a minute, mama; just five minutes." "run along; it's high time; or there will be no getting you up in the morning to do your lessons." we would say a lingering good night, on the lookout for any chance for delay, and at last would go down-stairs through the arches, annoyed at the thought that we were children still and had to go to bed while the grown-ups could stay up as long as ever they liked. a journey to the steppes when i was still a child and had not yet read "war and peace," i was told that natasha rostof was aunt tanya. when my father was asked whether that was true, and whether dmitry rostof was such and such a person and levin such and such another, he never gave a definite answer, and one could not but feel that he disliked such questions and was rather offended by them. in those remote days about which i am talking, my father was very keen about the management of his estate, and devoted a lot of energy to it. i can remember his planting the huge apple orchard at yasnaya and several hundred acres of birch and pine forest, and at the beginning of the seventies, for a number of years, he was interested in buying up land cheap in the province of samara, and breeding droves of steppe horses and flocks of sheep. i still have pretty clear, though rather fragmentary and inconsequent, recollections of our three summer excursions to the steppes of samara. my father had already been there before his marriage in 1862, and afterward by the advice of dr. zakharyin, who attended him. he took the kumiss-cure in 1871 and 1872, and at last, in 1873, the whole family went there. at that time my father had bought several hundred acres of cheap bashkir lands in the district of buzuluk, and we went to stay on our new property at a khutor, or farm. in samara we lived on the farm in a tumble-down wooden house, and beside us, in the steppe, were erected two felt kibitkas, or tatar frame tents, in which our bashkir, muhammed shah romanytch, lived with his wives. morning and evening they used to tie the mares up outside the kibitkas, where they were milked by veiled women, who then hid themselves from the sight of the men behind a brilliant chintz curtain, and made the kumiss. the kumiss was bitter and very nasty, but my father and my uncle stephen behrs were very fond of it, and drank it in large quantities. when we boys began to get big, we had at first a german tutor for two or three years, fyodor fyodorovitch kaufmann. i cannot say that we were particularly fond of him. he was rather rough, and even we children were struck by his german stupidity. his redeeming feature was that he was a devoted sportsman. every morning he used to jerk the blankets off us and shout, "auf, kinder! auf!" and during the daytime plagued us with german calligraphy. outdoor sports the chief passion of my childhood was riding. i well remember the time when my father used to put me in the saddle in front of him and we would ride out to bathe in the voronka. i have several interesting recollections connected with these rides. one day as we were going to bathe, papa turned round and said to me: "do you know, ilyusha, i am very pleased with myself to-day. i have been bothered with her for three whole days, and could not manage to make her go into the house; try as i would, it was impossible. it never would come right. but to-day i remembered that there is a mirror in every hall, and that every lady wears a bonnet. "as soon as i remembered that, she went where i wanted her to, and did everything she had to. you would think a bonnet is a small affair, but everything depended on that bonnet." as i recall this conversation, i feel sure that my father was talking about that scene in "anna karenina" where anna went to see her son. although in the final form of the novel nothing is said in this scene either about a bonnet or a mirror,--nothing is mentioned but a thick black veil,--still, i imagine that in its original form, when he was working on the passage, my father may have brought anna up to the mirror, and made her straighten her bonnet or take it off. i can remember the interest with which he told me this, and it now seems strange that he should have talked about such subtle artistic experiences to a boy of seven who was hardly capable of understanding him at the time. however, that was often the case with him. i once heard from him a very interesting description of what a writer needs for his work: "you cannot imagine how important one's mood is," he said. "sometimes you get up in the morning, fresh and vigorous, with your head clear, and you begin to write. everything is sensible and consistent. you read it over next day, and have to throw the whole thing away, because, good as it is, it misses the main thing. there is no imagination in it, no subtlety, none of the necessary something, none of that only just without which all your cleverness is worth nothing. another day you get up after a bad night, with your nerves all on edge, and you think, 'to-day i shall write well, at any rate.' and as a matter of fact, what you write is beautiful, picturesque, with any amount of imagination. you look it through again; it is no good, because it is written stupidly. there is plenty of color, but not enough intelligence. "one's writing is good only when the intelligence and the imagination are in equilibrium. as soon as one of them overbalances the other, it's all up; you may as well throw it away and begin afresh." as a matter of fact, there was no end to the rewriting in my father's works. his industry in this particular was truly marvelous. we were always devoted to sport from our earliest childhood. i can remember as well as i remember myself my father's favorite dog in those days, an irish setter called dora. they would bring round the cart, with a very quiet horse between the shafts, and we would drive out to the marsh, to degatna or to malakhov. my father and sometimes my mother or a coachman sat on the seat, while i and dora lay on the floor. when we got to the marsh, my father used to get out, stand his gun on the ground, and, holding it with his left hand, load it. dora meanwhile fidgeted about, whining impatiently and wagging her thick tail. while my father splashed through the marsh, we drove round the bank somewhat behind him, and eagerly followed the ranging of the dog, the getting up of the snipe, and the shooting. my father sometimes shot fairly well, though he often lost his head, and missed frantically. but our favorite sport was coursing with greyhounds. what a pleasure it was when the footman sergei petrovitch came in and woke us up before dawn, with a candle in his hand! we jumped up full of energy and happiness, trembling all over in the morning cold; threw on our clothes as quickly as we could, and ran out into the zala, where the samovar was boiling and papa was waiting for us. sometimes mama came in in her dressing-gown, and made us put on all sorts of extra woolen stockings, and sweaters and gloves. "what are you going to wear, lyovotchka?" she would say to papa. "it's very cold to-day, and there is a wind. only the kuzminsky overcoat again today? you must put on something underneath, if only for my sake." papa would make a face, but give in at last, and buckle on his short gray overcoat under the other and sally forth. it would then be growing light. our horses were brought round, we got on, and rode first to "the other house," or to the kennels to get the dogs. agafya mikhailovna would be anxiously waiting us on the steps. despite the coldness of the morning, she would be bareheaded and lightly clad, with her black jacket open, showing her withered, old bosom. she carried the dog-collars in her lean, knotted hands. "have you gone and fed them again?" asks my father, severely, looking at the dogs' bulging stomachs. "fed them? not a bit; only just a crust of bread apiece." "then what are they licking their chops for?" "there was a bit of yesterday's oatmeal left over." "i thought as much! all the hares will get away again. it really is too bad! do you do it to spite me?" "you can't have the dogs running all day on empty stomachs, lyoff nikolaievich," she grunted, going angrily to put on the dogs' collars. at last the dogs were got together, some of them on leashes, others running free; and we would ride out at a brisk trot past bitter wells and the grove into the open country. my father would give the word of command, "line out!" and point out the direction in which we were to go, and we spread out over the stubble fields and meadows, whistling and winding about along the lee side of the steep balks, [8] beating all the bushes with our hunting-crops, and gazing keenly at every spot or mark on the earth. something white would appear ahead. we stared hard at it, gathered up the reins, examined the leash, scarcely believing the good luck of having come on a hare at last. then riding up closer and closer, with our eyes on the white thing, it would turn out to be not a hare at all, but a horse's skull. how annoying! we would look at papa and seryozha, thinking, "i wonder if they saw that i took that skull for a hare." but papa would be sitting keen and alert on his english saddle, with the wooden stirrups, smoking a cigarette, while seryozha would perhaps have got his leash entangled and could not get it straight. "thank heaven!" we would exclaim, "nobody saw me! what a fool i should have felt!" so we would ride on. the horse's even pace would begin to rock us to sleep, feeling rather bored at nothing getting up; when all of a sudden, just at the moment we least expected it, right in front of us, twenty paces away, would jump up a gray hare as if from the bowels of the earth. the dogs had seen it before we had, and had started forward already in full pursuit. we began to bawl, "tally-ho! tally-ho!" like madmen, flogging our horses with all our might, and flying after them. the dogs would come up with the hare, turn it, then turn it again, the young and fiery sultan and darling running over it, catching up again, and running over again; and at last the old and experienced winger, who had been galloping on one side all the time, would seize her opportunity, and spring in. the hare would give a helpless cry like a baby, and the dogs, burying their fangs in it, in a star-shaped group, would begin to tug in different directions. "let go! let go!" we would come galloping up, finish off the hare, and give the dogs the tracks, [9] tearing them off toe by toe, and throwing them to our favorites, who would catch them in the air. then papa would teach us how to strap the hare on the back of the saddle. after the run we would all be in better spirits, and get to better places near yasenki and retinka. gray hares would get up oftener. each of us would have his spoils in the saddle-straps now, and we would begin to hope for a fox. not many foxes would turn up. if they did, it was generally tumashka, who was old and staid, who distinguished himself. he was sick of hares, and made no great effort to run after them; but with a fox he would gallop at full speed, and it was almost always he who killed. it would be late, often dark, when we got back home. "anna karenina" i remember my father writing his alphabet and reading-book in 1871 and 1872, but i cannot at all remember his beginning "anna karenina." i probably knew nothing about it at the time. what did it matter to a boy of seven what his father was writing? it was only later, when one kept hearing the name again and again, and bundles of proofs kept arriving, and were sent off almost every day, that i understood that "anna karenina" was the name of the novel on which my father and mother were both at work. my mother's work seemed much harder than my father's, because we actually saw her at it, and she worked much longer hours than he did. she used to sit in the sitting-room off the zala, at her little writing-table, and spend all her free time writing. leaning over the manuscript and trying to decipher my father's scrawl with her short-sighted eyes, she used to spend whole evenings over it, and often sat up late at night after everybody else had gone to bed. sometimes, when anything was written quite illegibly, she would go to my father's study and ask him what it meant. but this was very rare, because my mother did not like to disturb him. when it happened, my father used to take the manuscript in his hand, and ask with some annoyance, "what on earth is the difficulty?" and would begin to read it out aloud. when he came to the difficult place he would mumble and hesitate, and sometimes had the greatest difficulty in making out, or, rather, in guessing, what he had written. he had a very bad handwriting, and a terrible habit of writing in whole sentences between the lines, or in the corners of the page, or sometimes right across it. my mother often discovered gross grammatical errors, and pointed them out to my father, and corrected them. when "anna karenina" began to come out in the "russky vyestnik," [10] long galley-proofs were posted to my father, and he looked them through and corrected them. at first the margins would be marked with the ordinary typographical signs, letters omitted, marks of punctuation, etc.; then individual words would be changed, and then whole sentences, till in the end the proof-sheet would be reduced to a mass of patches quite black in places, and it was quite impossible to send it back as it stood, because no one but my mother could make head or tail of the tangle of conventional signs, transpositions, and erasures. my mother would sit up all night copying the whole thing out afresh. in the morning there would lie the pages on her table, neatly piled together, covered all over with her fine, clear handwriting, and everything ready so that when "lyovotchka" got up he could send the proof-sheets off by post. my father carried them off to his study to have "just one last look," and by the evening it would be just as bad again, the whole thing having been rewritten and messed up. "sonya my dear, i am very sorry, but i've spoiled all your work again; i promise i won't do it any more," he would say, showing her the passages he had inked over with a guilty air. "we'll send them off to-morrow without fail." but this to-morrow was often put off day by day for weeks or months together. "there's just one bit i want to look through again," my father would say; but he would get carried away and recast the whole thing afresh. there were even occasions when, after posting the proofs, he would remember some particular words next day, and correct them by telegraph. several times, in consequence of these rewritings, the printing of the novel in the "russky vyestnik" was interrupted, and sometimes it did not come out for months together. in the last part of "anna karenina" my father, in describing the end of vronsky's career, showed his disapproval of the volunteer movement and the panslavonic committees, and this led to a quarrel with katkof. i can remember how angry my father was when katkof refused to print those chapters as they stood, and asked him either to leave out part of them or to soften them down, and finally returned the manuscript, and printed a short note in his paper to say that after the death of the heroine the novel was strictly speaking at an end; but that the author had added an epilogue of two printed sheets, in which he related such and such facts, and he would very likely "develop these chapters for the separate edition of his novel." in concluding, i wish to say a few words about my father's own opinion of "anna karenina." in 1875 he wrote to n. n. strakhof: "i must confess that i was delighted by the success of the last piece of 'anna karenina.' i had by no means expected it, and to tell you the truth, i am surprised that people are so pleased with such ordinary and empty stuff." the same year he wrote to fet: "it is two months since i have defiled my hands with ink or my heart with thoughts. but now i am setting to work again on my tedious, vulgar 'anna karenina,' with only one wish, to clear it out of the way as soon as possible and give myself leisure for other occupations, but not schoolmastering, which i am fond of, but wish to give up; it takes up too much time." in 1878, when the novel was nearing its end, he wrote again to strakhof: "i am frightened by the feeling that i am getting into my summer mood again. i loathe what i have written. the proof-sheets for the april number [of "anna karenina" in the "russky vyestnik"] now lie on my table, and i am afraid that i have not the heart to correct them. everything in them is beastly, and the whole thing ought to be rewritten,--all that has been printed, too,--scrapped and melted down, thrown away, renounced. i ought to say, 'i am sorry; i will not do it any more,' and try to write something fresh instead of all this incoherent, neither-fish-nor-flesh-nor-fowlish stuff." that was how my father felt toward his novel while he was writing it. afterward i often heard him say much harsher things about it. "what difficulty is there in writing about how an officer fell in love with a married woman?" he used to say. "there's no difficulty in it, and above all no good in it." i am quite convinced that if my father could have done so, he long ago would have destroyed this novel, which he never liked and always wanted to disown. (to be continued) reminiscences of tolstoy (part ii.) by his son, count ilya tolstoy translated by george calderon in the summer, when both families were together at yasnaya, our own and the kuzminsky's, when both the house and the annex were full of the family and their guests, we used our letter-box. it originated long before, when i was still small and had only just learned to write, and it continued with intervals till the middle of the eighties. it hung on the landing at the top of the stairs beside the grandfather's clock; and every one dropped his compositions into it, the verses, articles, or stories that he had written on topical subjects in the course of the week. on sundays we would all collect at the round table in the zala, the box would be solemnly opened, and one of the grown-ups, often my father himself, would read the contents aloud. all the papers were unsigned, and it was a point of honor not to peep at the handwriting; but, despite this, we almost always guessed the author, either by the style, by his self-consciousness, or else by the strained indifference of his expression. when i was a boy, and for the first time wrote a set of french verses for the letter-box, i was so shy when they were read that i hid under the table, and sat there the whole evening until i was pulled out by force. for a long time after, i wrote no more, and was always fonder of hearing other people's compositions read than my own. all the events of our life at yasnaya polyana found their echo in one way or another in the letter-box, and no one was spared, not even the grown-ups. all our secrets, all our love-affairs, all the incidents of our complicated life were revealed in the letter-box, and both household and visitors were good-humoredly made fun of. unfortunately, much of the correspondence has been lost, but bits of it have been preserved by some of us in copies or in memory. i cannot recall everything interesting that there was in it, but here are a few of the more interesting things from the period of the eighties. the letter-box the old fogy continues his questions. why, when women or old men enter the room, does every well-bred person not only offer them a seat, but give them up his own? why do they make ushakof or some servian officer who comes to pay a visit necessarily stay to tea or dinner? why is it considered wrong to let an older person or a woman help you on with your overcoat? and why are all these charming rules considered obligatory toward others, when every day ordinary people come, and we not only do not ask them to sit down or to stop to dinner or spend the night or render them any service, but would look on it as the height of impropriety? where do those people end to whom we are under these obligations? by what characteristics are the one sort distinguished from the others? and are not all these rules of politeness bad, if they do not extend to all sorts of people? and is not what we call politeness an illusion, and a very ugly illusion? lyoff tolstoy. question: which is the most "beastly plague," a cattle-plague case for a farmer, or the ablative case for a school-boy? lyoff tolstoy. answers are requested to the following questions: why do ustyusha, masha, alyona, peter, etc., have to bake, boil, sweep, empty slops, wait at table, while the gentry have only to eat, gobble, quarrel, make slops, and eat again? lyoff tolstoy. my aunt tanya, when she was in a bad temper because the coffee-pot had been spilt or because she had been beaten at croquet, was in the habit of sending every one to the devil. my father wrote the following story, "susoitchik," about it. the devil, not the chief devil, but one of the rank and file, the one charged with the management of social affairs, susoitchik by name, was greatly perturbed on the 6th of august, 1884. from the early morning onward, people kept arriving who had been sent him by tatyana kuzminsky. the first to arrive was alexander mikhailovitch kuzminsky; the second was misha islavin; the third was vyatcheslaf; the fourth was seryozha tolstoy, and last of all came old lyoff tolstoy, senior, accompanied by prince urusof. the first visitor, alexander mikhailovitch, caused susoitchik no surprise, as he often paid susoitchik visits in obedience to the behests of his wife. "what, has your wife sent you again?" "yes," replied the presiding judge of the district-court, shyly, not knowing what explanation he could give of the cause of his visit. "you come here very often. what do you want?" "oh, nothing in particular; she just sent her compliments," murmured alexander mikhailovitch, departing from the exact truth with some effort. "very good, very good; come whenever you like; she is one of my best workers." before susoitchik had time to show the judge out, in came all the children, laughing and jostling, and hiding one behind the other. "what brought you here, youngsters? did my little tanyitchka send you? that's right; no harm in coming. give my compliments to tanya, and tell her that i am always at her service. come whenever you like. old susoitchik may be of use to you." no sooner had the young folk made their bow than old lyoff tolstoy appeared with prince urusof. "aha! so it's the old boy! many thanks to tanyitchka. it's a long time since i have seen you, old chap. well and hearty? and what can i do for you?" lyoff tolstoy shuffled about, rather abashed. prince urusof, mindful of the etiquette of diplomatic receptions, stepped forward and explained tolstoy's appearance by his wish to make acquaintance with tatyana andreyevna's oldest and most faithful friend. "les amis des nos amis sont nos amis." "ha! ha! ha! quite so!" said susoitchik. "i must reward her for to-day's work. be so kind, prince, as to hand her the marks of my good-will." and he handed over the insignia of an order in a morocco case. the insignia consisted of a necklace of imp's tails to be worn about the throat, and two toads, one to be worn on the bosom and the other on the bustle. lyoff tolstoy, senior. sergei nikolayevitch tolstoy i can remember my uncle seryozha (sergei) from my earliest childhood. he lived at pirogovo, twenty miles from yasnaya, and visited us often. as a young man he was very handsome. he had the same features as my father, but he was slenderer and more aristocratic-looking. he had the same oval face, the same nose, the same intelligent gray eyes, and the same thick, overhanging eyebrows. the only difference between his face and my father's was defined by the fact that in those distant days, when my father cared for his personal appearance, he was always worrying about his ugliness, while uncle seryozha was considered, and really was, a very handsome man. this is what my father says about uncle seryozha in his fragmentary reminiscences: "i and nitenka [11] were chums, nikolenka i revered, but seryozha i admired enthusiastically and imitated; i loved him and wished to be he. "i admired his handsome exterior, his singing,--he was always a singer,--his drawing, his gaiety, and above all, however strange a thing it may seem to say, the directness of his egoism. [12] "i always remembered myself, was aware of myself, always divined rightly or wrongly what others thought about me and felt toward me; and this spoiled the joy of life for me. this was probably the reason why i particularly delighted in the opposite of this in other people; namely, directness of egoism. that is what i especially loved in seryozha, though the word 'loved' is inexact. "i loved nikolenka, but i admired seryozha as something alien and incomprehensible to me. it was a human life very beautiful, but completely incomprehensible to me, mysterious, and therefore especially attractive. "he died only a few days ago, and while he was ill and while he was dying he was just as inscrutable and just as dear to me as he had been in the distant days of our childhood. "in these latter days, in our old age, he was fonder of me, valued my attachment more, was prouder of me, wanted to agree with me, but could not, and remained just the same as he had always been; namely, something quite apart, only himself, handsome, aristocratic, proud, and, above all, truthful and sincere to a degree that i never met in any other man. "he was what he was; he concealed nothing, and did not wish to appear anything different." uncle seryozha never treated children affectionately; on the contrary, he seemed to put up with us rather than to like us. but we always treated him with particular reverence. the result, as i can see now, partly of his aristocratic appearance, but chiefly because of the fact that he called my father "lyovotchka" and treated him just as my father treated us. he was not only not in the least afraid of him, but was always teasing him, and argued with him like an elder person with a younger. we were quite alive to this. of course every one knew that there were no faster dogs in the world than our black-and-white darling and her daughter wizard. not a hare could get away from them. but uncle seryozha said that the gray hares about us were sluggish creatures, not at all the same thing as steppe hares, and neither darling nor wizard would get near a steppe hare. we listened with open mouths, and did not know which to believe, papa or uncle seryozha. uncle seryozha went out coursing with us one day. a number of gray hares were run down, not one, getting away; uncle seryozha expressed no surprise, but still maintained that the only reason was because they were a poor lot of hares. we could not tell whether he was right or wrong. perhaps, after all, he was right, for he was more of a sportsman than papa and had run down ever so many wolves, while we had never known papa run any wolves down. afterward papa kept dogs only because there was agafya mikhailovna to be thought of, and uncle seryozha gave up sport because it was impossible to keep dogs. "since the emancipation of the peasants," he said, "sport is out of the question; there are no huntsmen to be had, and the peasants turn out with sticks and drive the sportsmen off the fields. what is there left to do nowadays? country life has become impossible." with all his good breeding and sincerity, uncle seryozha never concealed any characteristic but one; with the utmost shyness he concealed the tenderness of his affections, and if it ever forced itself into the light, it was only in exceptional circumstances and that against his will. he displayed with peculiar clearness a family characteristic which was partly shared by my father, namely, an extraordinary restraint in the expression of affection, which was often concealed under the mask of indifference and sometimes even of unexpected harshness. in the matter of wit and sarcasm, on the other hand, he was strikingly original. at one period he spent several winters in succession with his family in moscow. one time, after a historic concert given by anton rubinstein, at which uncle seryozha and his daughter had been, he came to take tea with us in weavers' row.[13] my father asked him how he had liked the concert. "do you remember himbut, lyovotchka? lieutenant himbut, who was forester near yasnaya? i once asked him what was the happiest moment of his life. do you know what he answered? "'when i was in the cadet corps,' he said, 'they used to take down my breeches now and again and lay me across a bench and flog me. they flogged and they flogged; when they stopped, that was the happiest moment of my life.' well, it was only during the entr'actes, when rubinstein stopped playing, that i really enjoyed myself." he did not always spare my father. once when i was out shooting with a setter near pirogovo, i drove in to uncle seryozha's to stop the night. i do not remember apropos of what, but uncle seryozha averred that lyovotchka was proud. he said: "he is always preaching humility and non-resistance, but he is proud himself. "nashenka's [14] sister had a footman called forna. when he got drunk, he used to get under the staircase, tuck in his legs, and lie down. one day they came and told him that the countess was calling him. 'she can come and find me if she wants me,' he answered. "lyovotchka is just the same. when dolgoruky sent his chief secretary istomin to ask him to come and have a talk with him about syntayef, the sectarian, do you know what he answered? "'let him come here, if he wants me.' isn't that just the same as forna? "no, lyovotchka is very proud. nothing would induce him to go, and he was quite right; but it's no good talking of humility." during the last years of sergei nikolayevitch's life my father was particularly friendly and affectionate with him, and delighted in sharing his thoughts with him. a. a. fet in his reminiscences describes the character of all the three tolstoy brothers with extraordinary perspicacity: i am convinced that the fundamental type of all the three tolstoy brothers was identical, just as the type of all maple-leaves is identical, despite the variety of their configurations. and if i set myself to develop the idea, i could show to what a degree all three brothers shared in that passionate enthusiasm without which it would have been impossible for one of them to turn into the poet lyoff tolstoy. the difference of their attitude to life was determined by the difference of the ways in which they turned their backs on their unfulfilled dreams. nikolai quenched his ardor in skeptical derision, lyoff renounced his unrealized dreams with silent reproach, and sergei with morbid misanthropy. the greater the original store of love in such characters, the stronger, if only for a time, is their resemblance to timon of athens. in the winter of 1901-02 my father was ill in the crimea, and for a long time lay between life and death. uncle seryozha, who felt himself getting weaker, could not bring himself to leave pirogovo, and in his own home followed anxiously the course of my father's illness by the letters which several members of our family wrote him, and by the bulletins in the newspapers. when my father began to improve, i went back home, and on the way from the crimea went to pirogovo, in order to tell uncle seryozha personally about the course of the illness and about the present condition of my father's health. i remember how joyfully and gratefully he welcomed me. "how glad i am that you came! now tell me all about it. who is with him? all of them? and who nurses him most? do you go on duty in turn? and at night, too? he can't get out of bed. ah, that's the worst thing of all! "it will be my turn to die soon; a year sooner or later, what does it matter? but to lie helpless, a burden to every one, to have others doing everything for you, lifting you and helping you to sit up, that's what's so awful. "and how does he endure it? got used to it, you say? no; i cannot imagine having vera to change my linen and wash me. of course she would say that it's nothing to her, but for me it would be awful. "and tell me, is he afraid to die? does he say not? very likely; he's a strong man, he may be able to conquer the fear of it. yes, yes, perhaps he's not afraid; but still-"you say he struggles with the feeling? why, of course; what else can one do? "i wanted to go and be with him; but i thought, how can i? i shall crack up myself, and then there will be two invalids instead of one. "yes, you have told me a great deal; every detail is interesting. it is not death that's so terrible, it's illness, helplessness, and, above all, the fear that you are a burden to others. that's awful, awful." uncle seryozha died in 1904 of cancer in the face. this is what my aunt, maria nikolayevna, [15] the nun, told me about his death. almost to the last day he was on his legs, and would not let any one nurse him. he was in full possession of his faculties and consciously prepared for death. besides his own family, the aged maria mikhailovna and her daughters, his sister, maria nikolayevna, who told me the story, was with him, too, and from hour to hour they expected the arrival of my father, for whom they had sent a messenger to yasnaya. they were all troubled with the difficult question whether the dying man would want to receive the holy communion before he died. knowing sergei nikolayevitch's disbelief in the religion of the church, no one dared to mention the subject to him, and the unhappy maria mikhailovna hovered round his room, wringing her hands and praying. they awaited my father's arrival impatiently, but were secretly afraid of his influence on his brother, and hoped against hope that sergei nikolayevitch would send for the priest before his arrival. "imagine our surprise and delight," said maria tolstoy, "when lyovotchka came out of his room and told maria mikhailovna that seryozha wanted a priest sent for. i do not know what they had been talking about, but when seryozha said that he wished to take the communion, lyovotchka answered that he was quite right, and at once came and told us what he wanted." my father stayed about a week at pirogovo, and left two days before my uncle died. when he received a telegram to say he was worse, he drove over again, but arrived too late; he was no longer living. he carried his body out from the house with his own hands, and himself bore it to the churchyard. when he got back to yasnaya he spoke with touching affection of his parting with this "inscrutable and beloved" brother, who was so strange and remote from him, but at the same time so near and so akin. fet, strakhof, gay "what's this saber doing here?" asked a young guardsman, lieutenant afanasyi afanasyevitch fet, of the footman one day as he entered the hall of ivan sergeyevitch turgenieff's flat in st. petersburg in the middle of the fifties. "it is count tolstoy's saber; he is asleep in the drawing-room. and ivan sergeyevitch is in his study having breakfast," replied zalchar. "during the hour i spent with turgenieff," says fet, in his reminiscences, "we talked in low voices, for fear of waking the count, who was asleep on the other side of the door." "he's like that all the time," said turgenieff, smiling; "ever since he got back from his battery at sebastopol, [16] and came to stay here, he has been going the pace. orgies, gipsies, and gambling all night long, and then sleeps like a dead man till two o'clock in the afternoon. i did my best to stop him, but have given it up as a bad job. "it was in this visit to st. petersburg that i and tolstoy became acquainted, but the acquaintance was of a purely formal character, as i had not yet seen a line of his writings, and had never heard of his name in literature, except that turgenieff mentioned his 'stories of childhood.'" soon after this my father came to know fet intimately, and they struck up a firm and lasting friendship, and established a correspondence which lasted almost till fet's death. it was only during the last years of fet's life, when my father was entirely absorbed in his new ideas, which were so at variance with afanasyi afanasyevitch's whole philosophy of life, that they became estranged and met more rarely. it was at fet's, at stepanovka, that my father and turgenieff quarreled. before the railway was made, when people still had to drive, fet, on his way into moscow, always used to turn in at yasnaya polyana to see my father, and these visits became an established custom. afterward, when the railway was made and my father was already married, afanasyi afanasyevitch still never passed our house without coming in, and if he did, my father used to write him a letter of earnest reproaches, and he used to apologize as if he had been guilty of some fault. in those distant times of which i am speaking my father was bound to fet by a common interest in agriculture as well as literature. some of my father's letters of the sixties are curious in this respect. for instance, in 1860, he wrote a long dissertation on turgenieff's novel "on the eve," which had just come out, and at the end added a postscript: "what is the price of a set of the best quality of veterinary instruments? and what is the price of a set of lancets and bleeding-cups for human use?" in another letter there is a postscript: "when you are next in oryol, buy me six-hundred weight of various ropes, reins, and traces," and on the same page: "'tender art thou,' and the whole thing is charming. you have never done anything better; it is all charming." the quotation is from fet's poem: the lingering clouds' last throng flies over us. but it was not only community of interests that brought my father and afanasyi afanasyevitch together. the reason of their intimacy lay in the fact that, as my father expressed it, they "thought alike with their heart's mind." i also remember nikolai nikolayevitch strakhof's visits. he was a remarkably quiet and modest man. he appeared at yasnaya polyana in the beginning of the seventies, and from that time on came and stayed with us almost every summer till he died. he had big, gray eyes, wide open, as if in astonishment; a long beard with a touch of gray in it; and when he spoke, at the end of every sentence he gave a shy laugh. when he addressed my father, he always said "lef nikolayevitch" instead of lyoff nikolaievich, like other people. he always stayed down-stairs in my father's study, and spent his whole day there reading or writing, with a thick cigarette, which he rolled himself, in his mouth. strakhof and my father came together originally on a purely business footing. when the first part of my father's "alphabet and reading-book" was printed, strakhof had charge of the proof-reading. this led to a correspondence between him and my father, of a business character at first, later developing into a philosophical and friendly one. while he was writing "anna karenina," my father set great store by his opinion and valued his critical instinct very highly. "it is enough for me that that is your opinion," he writes in a letter of 1872, probably apropos of the "alphabet." in 1876, apropos of "anna karenina" this time, my father wrote: "you ask me whether you have understood my novel aright, and what i think of your opinion. of course you understood it aright. of course i am overjoyed at your understanding of it; but it does not follow that everybody will understand it as you do." but it was not only his critical work that drew my father to strakhof. he disliked critics on the whole and used to say that the only people who took to criticism were those who had no creative faculty of their own. "the stupid ones judge the clever ones," he said of professional critics. what he valued most in strakhof was the profound and penetrating thinker. he was a "real friend" of my father's,--my father himself so described him,--and i recall his memory with deep affection and respect. at last i have come to the memory of the man who was nearer in spirit to my father than any other human being, namely, nikolai nikolayevitch gay. grandfather gay, as we called him, made my father's acquaintance in 1882. while living on his farm in the province of tchernigoff, he chanced to read my father's pamphlet "on the census," and finding a solution in it of the very questions which were troubling him at the time, without delay he started out and hurried into moscow. i remember his first arrival, and i have always retained the impression that from the first words they exchanged he and my father understood each other, and found themselves speaking the same language. just like my father, gay was at this time passing through a great spiritual crisis; and traveling almost the same road as my father in his search after truth, he had arrived at the study of the gospel and a new understanding of it. my sister tatyana wrote: for the personality of christ he entertained a passionate and tender affection, as if for a near and familiar friend whom he loved with all the strength of his soul. often during heated arguments nikolai nikolayevitch would take the gospel, which he always carried about with him, from his pocket, and read out some passage from it appropriate to the subject in hand. "this book contains everything that a man needs," he used to say on these occasions. while reading the gospel, he often looked up at the person he was talking to and went on reading without looking at the book. his face glowed at such moments with such inward joy that one could see how near and dear the words he was reading were to his heart. he knew the whole gospel almost by heart, but he said that every time he read it he enjoyed a new and genuine spiritual delight. he said that not only was everything intelligible to him in the gospel, but that when he read it he seemed to be reading in his own soul, and felt himself capable of rising higher and higher toward god and merging himself in him. turgenieff i do not mean to recount all the misunderstandings which existed between my father and turgenieff, which ended in a complete breach between them in 1861. the actual external facts of that story are common property, and there is no need to repeat them. [17] according to general opinion, the quarrel between the two greatest writers of the day arose out of their literary rivalry. it is my intention to show cause against this generally received opinion, and before i come to turgenieff's visits to yasnaya polyana, i want to make as clear as i can the real reason of the perpetual discords between these two good-hearted people, who had a cordial affection for each other--discords which led in the end to an out-and-out quarrel and the exchange of mutual defiance. as far as i know, my father never had any serious difference with any other human being during the whole course of his existence. and turgenieff, in a letter to my father in 1865, wrote, "you are the only man with whom i have ever had misunderstandings." whenever my father related his quarrel with ivan sergeyevitch, he took all the blame on himself. turgenieff, immediately after the quarrel, wrote a letter apologizing to my father, and never sought to justify his own part in it. why was it that, as turgenieff himself put it, his "constellation" and my father's "moved in the ether with unquestioned enmity"? this is what my sister tatyana wrote on the subject in her article "turgenieff," published in the supplement to the "novoye vremya," february 2, 1908: all question of literary rivalry, it seems to me, is utterly beside the mark. turgenieff, from the very outset of my father's literary career, acknowledged his enormous talents, and never thought of rivalry with him. from the moment when, as early as 1854, he wrote to kolbasina, "if heaven only grant tolstoy life, i confidently hope that he will surprise us all," he never ceased to follow my father's work with interest, and always expressed his unbounded admiration of it. "when this young wine has done fermenting," he wrote to druzhenin in 1856, "the result will be a liquor worthy of the gods." in 1857 he wrote to polonsky, "this man will go far, and leave deep traces behind him." nevertheless, somehow these two men never could "hit it off" together. when one reads turgenieff's letters to my father, one sees that from the very beginning of their acquaintance misunderstandings were always arising, which they perpetually endeavored to smooth down or to forget, but which arose again after a time, sometimes in another form, necessitating new explanations and reconciliations. in 1856 turgenieff wrote to my father: your letter took some time reaching me, dear lyoff nikolaievich. let me begin by saying that i am very grateful to you for sending it to me. i shall never cease to love you and to value your friendship, although, probably through my fault, each of us will long feel considerable awkwardness in the presence of the other.... i think that you yourself understand the reason of this awkwardness of which i speak. you are the only man with whom i have ever had misunderstandings. this arises from the very fact that i have never been willing to confine myself to merely friendly relations with you. i have always wanted to go further and deeper than that; but i set about it clumsily. i irritated and upset you, and when i saw my mistake, i drew back too hastily, perhaps; and it was this which caused this "gulf" between us. but this awkwardness is a mere physical impression, nothing more; and if when we meet again, you see the old "mischievous look in my eyes," believe me, the reason of it will not be that i am a bad man. i assure you that there is no need to look for any other explanation. perhaps i may add, also, that i am much older than you, and i have traveled a different road.... outside of our special, so-called "literary" interests, i am convinced, we have few points of contact. your whole being stretches out hands toward the future; mine is built up in the past. for me to follow you is impossible. for you to follow me is equally out of the question. you are too far removed from me, and besides, you stand too firmly on your own legs to become any one's disciple. i can assure you that i never attributed any malice to you, never suspected you of any literary envy. i have often thought, if you will excuse the expression, that you were wanting in common sense, but never in goodness. you are too penetrating not to know that if either of us has cause to envy the other, it is certainly not you that has cause to envy me. the following year he wrote a letter to my father which, it seems to me, is a key to the understanding of turgenieff's attitude toward him: you write that you are very glad you did not follow my advice and become a pure man of letters. i don't deny it; perhaps you are right. still, batter my poor brains as i may, i cannot imagine what else you are if you are not a man of letters. a soldier? a squire? a philosopher? the founder of a new religious doctrine? a civil servant? a man of business?... please resolve my difficulties, and tell me which of these suppositions is correct. i am joking, but i really do wish beyond all things to see you under way at last, with all sails set. it seems to me that turgenieff, as an artist, saw nothing in my father beyond his great literary talent, and was unwilling to allow him the right to be anything besides an artist and a writer. any other line of activity on my father's part offended turgenieff, as it were, and he was angry with my father because he did not follow his advice. he was much older than my father, [18] he did not hesitate to rank his own talent lower than my father's, and demanded only one thing of him, that he should devote all the energies of his life to his literary work. and, lo and behold! my father would have nothing to do with his magnanimity and humility, would not listen to his advice, but insisted on going the road which his own tastes and nature pointed out to him. turgenieff's tastes and character were diametrically opposed to my father's. while opposition always inspired my father and lent him strength, it had just the opposite effect on turgenieff. being wholly in agreement with my sister's views, i will merely supplement them with the words uttered by his brother, nikolai nikolayevitch, who said that "turgenieff cannot reconcile himself to the idea that lyovotchka is growing up and freeing himself from his tutelage." as a matter of fact, when turgenieff was already a famous writer, no one had ever heard of tolstoy, and, as fet expressed it, there was only "something said about his stories from 'childhood.'" i can imagine with what secret veneration a young writer, just beginning, must have regarded turgenieff at that time, and all the more because ivan sergeyevitch was a great friend of my father's elder and beloved brother nikolai. i do not like to assert it positively, but it seems to me that just as turgenieff was unwilling to confine himself to "merely friendly relations," so my father also felt too warmly toward ivan sergeyevitch, and that was the very reason why they could never meet without disagreeing and quarreling. in confirmation of what i say here is a passage from a letter written by v. botkin, a close friend of my father's and of ivan sergeyevitch's, to a. a. fet, written immediately after their quarrel: i think that tolstoy really has a passionately affectionate nature and he would like to love turgenieff in the warmest way possible; but unfortunately his impulsive feeling encounters nothing but a kindly, good-natured indifference, and he can by no means reconcile himself to that. turgenieff himself said that when they first came to know each other my father dogged his heels "like a woman in love," and at one time he used to avoid him, because he was afraid of his spirit of opposition. my father was perhaps irritated by the slightly patronizing tone which turgenieff adopted from the very outset of their acquaintance; and turgenieff was irritated by my father's "crankiness," which distracted him from "his proper metier, literature." in 1870, before the date of the quarrel, turgenieff wrote to fet: "lyoff tolstoy continues to play the crank. it was evidently written in his stars. when will he turn his last somersault and stand on his feet at last?" turgenieff was just the same about my father's "confession," which he read not long before his death. having promised to read it, "to try to understand it," and "not to lose my temper," he "started to write a long letter in answer to the 'confession,' but never finished it... for fear of becoming disputatious." in a letter to d. v. grigorevitch he called the book, which was based, in his opinion, on false premises, "a denial of all live human life" and "a new sort of nihilism." it is evident that even then turgenieff did not understand what a mastery my father's new philosophy of life had obtained over him, and he was inclined to attribute his enthusiasm along with the rest to the same perpetual "crankinesses" and "somersaults" to which he had formerly attributed his interest in school-teaching, agriculture, the publication of a paper, and so forth. ivan sergeyevitch three times visited yasnaya polyana within my memory, in: august and september, 1878, and the third and last time at the beginning of may, 1880. i can remember all these visits, although it is quite possible that some details have escaped me. i remember that when we expected turgenieff on his first visit, it was a great occasion, and the most anxious and excited of all the household about it was my mother. she told us that my father had quarreled with turgenieff and had once challenged him to a duel, and that he was now coming at my father's invitation to effect a reconciliation. turgenieff spent all the time sitting with my father, who during his visit put aside even his work, and once in the middle of the day my mother collected us all at a quite unusual hour in the drawing-room, where ivan sergeyevitch read us his story of "the dog." i can remember his tall, stalwart figure, his gray, silky, yellowish hair, his soft tread, rather waddling walk, and his piping voice, quite out of keeping with his majestic exterior. he had a chuckling kind of laugh, like a child's, and when he laughed his voice was more piping than ever. in the evening, after dinner, we all gathered in the zala. at that time uncle seryozha, prince leonid dmitryevitch urusof, vice-governor of the province of tula; uncle sasha behrs and his young wife, the handsome georgian patty; and the whole family of the kuzminskys, were staying at yasnaya. aunt tanya was asked to sing. we listened with beating hearts, and waited to hear what turgenieff, the famous connoisseur, would say about her singing. of course he praised it, sincerely, i think. after the singing a quadrille was got up. all of a sudden, in the middle of the quadrille, ivan sergeyevitch, who was sitting at one side looking on, got up and took one of the ladies by the hand, and, putting his thumbs into the armholes of his waistcoat, danced a cancan according to the latest rules of parisian art. everyone roared with laughter, turgenieff more than anybody. after tea the "grown-ups" started some conversation, and a warm dispute arose among them. it was prince urusof who disputed most warmly, and "went for" turgenieff. of turgenieff's third visit i remember the woodcock shooting. this was on the second or third of may, 1880. we all went out together beyond the voronka, my father, my mother and all the children. my father gave turgenieff the best place and posted himself one hundred and fifty paces away at the other end of the same glade. my mother stood by turgenieff, and we children lighted a bonfire not far off. my father fired several shots and brought down two birds; ivan sergeyevitch had no luck, and was envying my father's good fortune all the time. at last, when it was beginning to get dark, a woodcock flew over turgenieff, and he shot it. "killed it?" called out my father. "fell like a stone; send your dog to pick him up," answered ivan sergeyevitch. my father sent us with the dog, turgenieff showed us where to look for the bird; but search as we might, and the dog, too, there was no woodcock to be found. at last turgenieff came to help, and my father came; there was no woodcock there. "perhaps you only winged it; it may have got away along the ground," said my father, puzzled. "it is impossible that the dog shouldn't find it; he couldn't miss a bird that was killed." "i tell you i saw it with my own eyes, lyoff nikolaievich; it fell like a stone. i didn't wound it; i killed it outright. i can tell the difference." "then why can't the dog find it? it's impossible; there's something wrong." "i don't know anything about that," insisted turgenieff. "you may take it from me i'm not lying; it fell like a stone where i tell you." there was no finding the woodcock, and the incident left an unpleasant flavor, as if one or the other of them was in the wrong. either turgenieff was bragging when he said that he shot it dead, or my father, in maintaining that the dog could not fail to find a bird that had been killed. and this must needs happen just when they were both so anxious to avoid every sort of misunderstanding! that was the very reason why they had carefully fought shy of all serious conversation, and spent all their time merely amusing themselves. when my father said good night to us that night, he whispered to us that we were to get up early and go back to the place to have a good hunt for the bird. and what was the result? the woodcock, in falling, had caught in the fork of a branch, right at the top of an aspen-tree, and it was all we could do to knock it out from there. when we brought it home in triumph, it was something of an "occasion," and my father and turgenieff were far more delighted than we were. it turned out that they were both in the right, and everything ended to their mutual satisfaction. ivan sergeyevitch slept down-stairs in my father's study. when the party broke up for the night, i used to see him to his room, and while he was undressing i sat on his bed and talked sport with him. he asked me if i could shoot. i said yes, but that i didn't care to go out shooting because i had nothing but a rotten old one-barreled gun. "i'll give you a gun," he said. "i've got two in paris, and i have no earthly need for both. it's not an expensive gun, but it's a good one. next time i come to russia i'll bring it with me." i was quite taken aback and thanked him heartily. i was tremendously delighted at the idea that i was to have a real central-fire gun. unfortunately, turgenieff never came to russia again. i tried afterward to buy the gun he had spoken of from his legatees not in the quality of a central-fire gun, but as turgenieff's gun; but i did not succeed. that is all that i can remember about this delightful, naively cordial man, with the childlike eyes and the childlike laugh, and in the picture my mind preserves of him the memory of his grandeur melts into the charm of his good nature and simplicity. in 1883 my father received from ivan sergeyevitch his last farewell letter, written in pencil on his death-bed, and i remember with what emotion he read it. and when the news of his death came, my father would talk of nothing else for several days, and inquired everywhere for details of his illness and last days. apropos of this letter of turgenieff's, i should like to say that my father was sincerely annoyed, when he heard applied to himself the epithet "great writer of the land of russia," which was taken from this letter. he always hated cliches, and he regarded this one as quite absurd. "why not 'writer of the land'? i never heard before that a man could be the writer of a land. people get attached to some nonsensical expression, and go on repeating it in season and out of season." i have given extracts above from turgenieff's letters, which show the invariable consistency with which he lauded my father's literary talents. unfortunately, i cannot say the same of my father's attitude toward turgenieff. in this, too, the want of dispassionateness in his nature revealed itself. personal relations prevented him from being objective. in 1867, apropos of turgenieff's "smoke," which had just appeared, he wrote to fet: there is hardly any love of anything in "smoke" and hardly any poetry. the only thing it shows love for is light and playful adultery, and for that reason the poetry of the story is repulsive. ... i am timid in expressing this opinion, because i cannot form a sober judgment about an author whose personality i dislike. in 1865, before the final breach with turgenieff, he wrote, again to fet: "i do not like 'enough'!" a personal subjective treatment is never good unless it is full of life and passion; but the subjectivity in this case is full of lifeless suffering. in the autumn of 1883, after turgenieff's death, when the family had gone into moscow for the winter, my father stayed at yasnaya polyana alone, with agafya mikhailovna, and set earnestly about reading through all turgenieff's works. this is what he wrote to my mother at the time: i am always thinking about turgenieff. i am intensely fond of him, and sorry for him, and do nothing but read him. i live entirely with him. i shall certainly give a lecture on him, or write it to be read; tell yuryef. "enough"--read it; it is perfectly charming. unfortunately, my father's intended lecture on turgenieff never came off. the government forbade him to pay this last tribute to his dead friend, with whom he had quarreled all his life only because he could not be indifferent to him. (to be continued) reminiscences of tolstoy (part iii.) by his son, count ilya tolstoy translated by george calderon at this point i shall turn back and try to trace the influence which my father had on my upbringing, and i shall recall as well as i can the impressions that he left on my mind in my childhood, and later in the melancholy days of my early manhood, which happened to coincide with the radical change in his whole philosophy of life. in 1852, tired of life in the caucasus and remembering his old home at yasnaya polyana, he wrote to his aunt, tatyana alexandrovna: after some years, i shall find myself, neither very young nor very old, back at yasnaya polyana again: my affairs will all be in order; i shall have no anxieties for the future and no troubles in the present. you also will be living at yasnaya. you will be getting a little old, but you will be healthy and vigorous. we shall lead the life we led in the old days; i shall work in the mornings, but we shall meet and see each other almost all day. we shall dine together in the evening. i shall read you something that interests you. then we shall talk: i shall tell you about my life in the caucasus; you will give me reminiscences of my father and mother; you will tell me some of those "terrible stories" to which we used to listen in the old days with frightened eyes and open mouths. we shall talk about the people that we loved and who are no more. you will cry, and i, too; but our tears will be refreshing, tranquilizing tears. we shall talk about my brothers, who will visit us from time to time, and about dear masha, who will also spend several months every year at yasnaya, which she loves, with all her children. we shall have no acquaintances; no one will come in to bore us with gossip. it is a wonderful dream; but that is not all that i let myself dream of. i shall be married. my wife will be gentle, kind, and affectionate; she will love you as i do; we shall have children who will call you granny; you will live in the big house, in the same room on the top floor where my grandmother lived before. the whole house will be run on the same lines as it was in my father's time, and we shall begin the same life over again, but with a change of roles. you will take my grandmother's place, but you will be better still than she was; i shall take my father's place, though i can never hope to be worthy of the honor. my wife will take my mother's place, and the children ours. masha will fill the part of both my aunts, except for their sorrow; and there will even be gasha there to take the place of prashovya ilyinitchna. the only thing lacking will be some one to take the part you played in the life of our family. we shall never find such a noble and loving heart as yours. there is no one to succeed you. there will be three new faces that will appear among us from time to time: my brothers, especially one who will often be with us, nikolenka, who will be an old bachelor, bald, retired, always the same kindly, noble fellow. just ten years after this letter, my father married, and almost all his dreams were realized, just as he had wished. only the big house, with his grandmother's room, was missing, and his brother nikolenka, with the dirty hands, for he died two years before, in 1860. in his family life my father witnessed a repetition of the life of his parents, and in us children he sought to find a repetition of himself and his brothers. we were brought up as regular gentlefolk, proud of our social position and holding aloof from all the outer world. everything that was not us was below us, and therefore unworthy of imitation. i knew that my father felt very earnestly about the chastity of young people; i knew how much strength he laid on purity. an early marriage seemed to me the best solution of the difficult question that must harass every thoughtful boy when he attains to man's estate. two or three years later, when i was eighteen and we were living in moscow, i fell in love with a young lady i knew, my present wife, and went almost every saturday to her father's house. my father knew, but said nothing. one day when he was going out for a walk i asked if i might go with him. as i very seldom went for walks with him in moscow, he guessed that i wanted to have a serious talk with him about something, and after walking some distance in silence, evidently feeling that i was shy about it and did not like to break the ice, he suddenly began: "you seem to go pretty often to the f----s'." i said that i was very fond of the eldest daughter. "oh, do you want to marry her?" "yes." "is she a good girl? well, mind you don't make a mistake, and don't be false to her," he said with a curious gentleness and thoughtfulness. i left him at once and ran back home, delighted, along the arbat. i was glad that i had told him the truth, and his affectionate and cautious way of taking it strengthened my affection both for him, to whom i was boundlessly grateful for his cordiality, and for her, whom i loved still more warmly from that moment, and to whom i resolved still more fervently never to be untrue. my father's tactfulness toward us amounted almost to timidity. there were certain questions which he could never bring himself to touch on for fear of causing us pain. i shall never forget how once in moscow i found him sitting writing at the table in my room when i dashed in suddenly to change my clothes. my bed stood behind a screen, which hid him from me. when he heard my footsteps he said, without looking round: "is that you, ilya?" "yes, it's i." "are you alone? shut the door. there's no one to hear us, and we can't see each other, so we shall not feel ashamed. tell me, did you ever have anything to do with women?" when i said no, i suddenly heard him break out sobbing, like a little child. i sobbed and cried, too, and for a long time we stayed weeping tears of joy, with the screen between us, and we were neither of us ashamed, but both so joyful that i look on that moment as one of the happiest in my whole life. no arguments or homilies could ever have effected what the emotion i experienced at that moment did. such tears as those shed by a father of sixty can never be forgotten even in moments of the strongest temptation. my father observed my inward life most attentively between the ages of sixteen and twenty, noted all my doubts and hesitations, encouraged me in my good impulses, and often found fault with me for inconsistency. i still have some of his letters written at that time. here are two: i had just written you, my dear friend ilya, a letter that was true to my own feelings, but, i am afraid, unjust, and i am not sending it. i said unpleasant things in it, but i have no right to do so. i do not know you as i should like to and as i ought to know you. that is my fault. and i wish to remedy it. i know much in you that i do not like, but i do not know everything. as for your proposed journey home, i think that in your position of student, not only student of a gymnase, but at the age of study, it is better to gad about as little as possible; moreover, all useless expenditure of money that you can easily refrain from is immoral, in my opinion, and in yours, too, if you only consider it. if you come, i shall be glad for my own sake, so long as you are not inseparable from g----. do as you think best. but you must work, both with your head, thinking and reading, and with your heart; that is, find out for yourself what is really good and what is bad, although it seems to be good. i kiss you. l. t. dear friend ilya: there is always somebody or something that prevents me from answering your two letters, which are important and dear to me, especially the last. first it was baturlin, then bad health, insomnia, then the arrival of d----, the friend of h---that i wrote you about. he is sitting at tea talking to the ladies, neither understanding the other; so i left them, and want to write what little i can of all that i think about you. even supposing that s---a---demands too much of you, [19] there is no harm in waiting; especially from the point of view of fortifying your opinions, your faith. that is the one important thing. if you don't, it is a fearful disaster to put off from one shore and not reach the other. the one shore is an honest and good life, for your own delight and the profit of others. but there is a bad life, too--a life so sugared, so common to all, that if you follow it, you do not notice that it is a bad life, and suffer only in your conscience, if you have one; but if you leave it, and do not reach the real shore, you will be made miserable by solitude and by the reproach of having deserted your fellows, and you will be ashamed. in short, i want to say that it is out of the question to want to be rather good; it is out of the question to jump into the water unless you know how to swim. one must be truthful and wish to be good with all one's might, too. do you feel this in you? the drift of what i say is that we all know what princess marya alexevna [20] verdict about your marriage would be: that if young people marry without a sufficient fortune, it means children, poverty, getting tired of each other in a year or two; in ten years, quarrels, want--hell. and in all this princess marya alexevna is perfectly right and plays the true prophet, unless these young people who are getting married have another purpose, their one and only one, unknown to princess marya alexevna, and that not a brainish purpose, not one recognized by the intellect, but one that gives life its color and the attainment of which is more moving than any other. if you have this, good; marry at once, and give the lie to princess marya alexevna. if not, it is a hundred to one that your marriage will lead to nothing but misery. i am speaking to you from the bottom of my heart. receive my words into the bottom of yours, and weigh them well. besides love for you as a son, i have love for you also as a man standing at the cross-ways. i kiss you and lyolya and noletchka and seryozha, if he is back. we are all alive and well. the following letter belongs to the same period: your letter to tanya has arrived, my dear friend ilya, and i see that you are still advancing toward that purpose which you set up for yourself; and i want to write to you and to her--for no doubt you tell her everything--what i think about it. well, i think about it a great deal, with joy and with fear mixed. this is what i think. if one marries in order to enjoy oneself more, no good will ever come of it. to set up as one's main object, ousting everything else, marriage, union with the being you love, is a great mistake. and an obvious one, if you think about it. object, marriage. well, you marry; and what then? if you had no other object in life before your marriage, it will be twice as hard to find one. as a rule, people who are getting married completely forget this. so many joyful events await them in the future, in wedlock and the arrival of children, that those events seem to constitute life itself. but this is indeed a dangerous illusion. if parents merely live from day to day, begetting children, and have no purpose in life, they are only putting off the question of the purpose of life and that punishment which is allotted to people who live without knowing why; they are only putting it off and not escaping it, because they will have to bring up their children and guide their steps, but they will have nothing to guide them by. and then the parents lose their human qualities and the happiness which depends on the possession of them, and turn into mere breeding cattle. that is why i say that people who are proposing to marry because their life seems to them to be full must more than ever set themselves to think and make clear to their own minds for the sake of what each of them lives. and in order to make this clear, you must consider the circumstances in which you live, your past. reckon up what you consider important and what unimportant in life. find out what you believe in; that is, what you look on as eternal and immutable truth, and what you will take for your guide in life. and not only find out, but make clear to your own mind, and try to practise or to learn to practise in your daily life; because until you practise what you believe you cannot tell whether you believe it or not. i know your faith, and that faith, or those sides of it which can be expressed in deeds, you must now more than ever make clear to your own mind, by putting them into practice. your faith is that your welfare consists in loving people and being loved by them. for the attainment of this end i know of three lines of action in which i perpetually exercise myself, in which one can never exercise oneself enough and which are specially necessary to you now. first, in order to be able to love people and to be loved by them, one must accustom oneself to expect as little as possible from them, and that is very hard work; for if i expect much, and am often disappointed, i am inclined rather to reproach them than to love them. second, in order to love people not in words, but in deed, one must train oneself to do what benefits them. that needs still harder work, especially at your age, when it is one's natural business to be studying. third, in order to love people and to b. l. b. t., [21] one must train oneself to gentleness, humility, the art of bearing with disagreeable people and things, the art of behaving to them so as not to offend any one, of being able to choose the least offense. and this is the hardest work of all--work that never ceases from the time you wake till the time you go to sleep, and the most joyful work of all, because day after day you rejoice in your growing success in it, and receive a further reward, unperceived at first, but very joyful after, in being loved by others. so i advise you, friend ilya, and both of you, to live and to think as sincerely as you can, because it is the only way you can discover if you are really going along the same road, and whether it is wise to join hands or not; and at the same time, if you are sincere, you must be making your future ready. your purpose in life must not be the joy of wedlock, but, by your life to bring more love and truth into the world. the object of marriage is to help one another in the attainment of that purpose. the vilest and most selfish life is the life of the people who have joined together only in order to enjoy life; and the highest vocation in the world is that of those who live in order to serve god by bringing good into the world, and who have joined together for that very purpose. don't mistake half-measures for the real thing. why should a man not choose the highest? only when you have chosen the highest, you must set your whole heart on it, and not just a little. just a little leads to nothing. there, i am tired of writing, and still have much left that i wanted to say. i kiss you. help for the famine-stricken after my father had come to the conclusion that it was not only useless to help people with money, but immoral, the part he took in distributing food among the peasants during the famines of 1890, 1891, and 1898 may seem to have shown inconsistency and contradiction of thought. "if a horseman sees that his horse is tired out, he must not remain seated on its back and hold up its head, but simply get off," he used to say, condemning all the charities of the well-fed people who sit on the back of the working classes, continue to enjoy all the benefits of their privileged position, and merely give from their superfluity. he did not believe in the good of such charity and considered it a form of self-hallucination, all the more harmful because people thereby acquire a sort of moral right to continue that idle, aristocratic life and get to go on increasing the poverty of the people. in the autumn of 1890 my father thought of writing an article on the famine, which had then spread over nearly all russia. although from the newspapers and from the accounts brought by those who came from the famine-stricken parts he already knew about the extent of the peasantry's disaster, nevertheless, when his old friend ivanovitch rayovsky called on him at yasnaya polyana and proposed that he should drive through to the dankovski district with him in order to see the state of things in the villages for himself, he readily agreed, and went with him to his property at begitchovka. he went there with the intention of staying only for a day or two; but when he saw what a call there was for immediate measures, he at once set to work to help rayovsky, who had already instituted several kitchens in the villages, in relieving the distress of the peasantry, at first on a small scale, and then, when big subscriptions began to pour in from every side, on a continually increasing one. the upshot of it was that he devoted two whole years of his life to the work. it is wrong to think that my father showed any inconsistency in this matter. he did not delude himself for a moment into thinking he was engaged on a virtuous and momentous task, but when he saw the sufferings of the people, he simply could not bear to go on living comfortably at yasnaya or in moscow any longer, but had to go out and help in order to relieve his own feelings. once he wrote: there is much about it that is not what it ought to be; there is s. a.'s money [22] and the subscriptions; there is the relation of those who feed and those who are fed. there is sin without end, but i cannot stay at home and write. i feel the necessity of taking part in it, of doing something. six years later i worked again at the same job with my father in tchornski and mtsenski districts. after the bad crops of the two preceding years it became clear by the beginning of the winter of 1898 that a new famine was approaching in our neighborhood, and that charitable assistance to the peasantry would be needed. i turned to my father for help. by the spring he had managed to collect some money, and at the beginning of april he came himself to see me. i must say that my father, who was very economical by nature, was extraordinarily cautious and, i may say, even parsimonious in charitable matters. it is of course easy to understand, if one considers the unlimited confidence which he enjoyed among the subscribers and the great moral responsibility which he could not but feel toward them. so that before undertaking anything he had himself to be fully convinced of the necessity of giving aid. the day after his arrival, we saddled a couple of horses and rode out. we rode as we had ridden together twenty years before, when we went out coursing with our greyhounds; that is, across country, over the fields. it was all the same to me which way we rode, as i believed that all the neighboring villages were equally distressed, and my father, for the sake of old memories, wanted to revisit spasskoye lyutovinovo, which was only six miles from me, and where he had not been since turgenieff's death. on the way there i remember he told me all about turgenieff's mother, who was famous through all the neighborhood for her remarkable intelligence, energy, and craziness. i do not know that he ever saw her himself, or whether he was telling me only the reports that he had heard. as we rode across the turgenieff's park, he recalled in passing how of old he and ivan sergeyevitch had disputed which park was best, spasskoye or yasnaya polyana. i asked him: "and now which do you think?" "yasnaya polyana is the best, though this is very fine, very fine indeed." in the village we visited the head-man's and two or three other cottages, and came away disappointed. there was no famine. the peasants, who had been endowed at the emancipation with a full share of good land, and had enriched themselves since by wage-earnings, were hardly in want at all. it is true that some of the yards were badly stocked; but there was none of that acute degree of want which amounts to famine and which strikes the eye at once. i even remember my father reproaching me a little for having sounded the alarm when there was no sufficient cause for it, and for a little while i felt rather ashamed and awkward before him. of course when he talked to the peasants he asked each of them if he remembered turgenieff and eagerly picked up anything they had to say about him. some of the old men remembered him and spoke of him with great affection. my father's illness in the crimea in the autumn of 1901 my father was attacked by persistent feverishness, and the doctors advised him to spend the winter in the crimea. countess panina kindly lent him her villa gaspra, near koreiz, and he spent the winter there. soon after his arrival, he caught cold and had two illnesses one after the other, enteric fever and inflammation of the lungs. at one time his condition was so bad that the doctors had hardly any hope that he would ever rise from his bed again. despite the fact that his temperature went up very high, he was conscious all the time; he dictated some reflections every day, and deliberately prepared for death. the whole family was with him, and we all took turns in helping to nurse him. i look back with pleasure on the nights when it fell to me to be on duty by him, and i sat in the balcony by the open window, listening to his breathing and every sound in his room. my chief duty, as the strongest of the family, was to lift him up while the sheets were being changed. when they were making the bed, i had to hold him in my arms like a child. i remember how my muscles quivered one day with the exertion. he looked at me with astonishment and said: "you surely don't find me heavy? what nonsense!" i thought of the day when he had given me a bad time at riding in the woods as a boy, and kept asking, "you're not tired?" another time during the same illness he wanted me to carry him down-stairs in my arms by the winding stone staircase. "pick me up as they do a baby and carry me." he had not a grain of fear that i might stumble and kill him. it was all i could do to insist on his being carried down in an arm-chair by three of us. was my father afraid of death? it is impossible to answer the question in one word. with his tough constitution and physical strength, he always instinctively fought not only against death, but against old age. till the last year of his life he never gave in, but always did everything for himself and even rode on horseback. to suppose, therefore, that he had no instinctive fear of death is out of the question. he had that fear, and in a very high degree, but he was constantly fighting to overcome it. did he succeed? i can answer definitely yes. during his illness he talked a great deal of death and prepared himself for it firmly and deliberately. when he felt that he was getting weaker, he wished to say good-by to everybody, and he called us all separately to his bedside, one after the other, and gave his last words of advice to each. he was so weak that he spoke in a half-whisper, and when he had said good-by to one, he had to rest for a while and collect his strength for the rest. when my turn came, he said as nearly as i can remember: "you are still young and strong and tossed by storms of passion. you have not therefore yet been able to think over the chief questions of life. but this stage will pass. i am sure of it. when the time comes, believe me, you will find the truth in the teachings of the gospel. i am dying peacefully simply because i have come to know that teaching and believe in it. may god grant you this knowledge soon! good-by." i kissed his hand and left the room quietly. when i got to the front door, i rushed to a lonely stone tower, and there sobbed my heart out in the darkness like a child. looking round at last, i saw that some one else was sitting on the staircase near me, also crying. so i said farewell to my father years before his death, and the memory of it is dear to me, for i know that if i had seen him before his death at astapova he would have said just the same to me. to return to the question of death, i will say that so far from being afraid of it, in his last days he often desired it; he was more interested in it than afraid of it. this "greatest of mysteries" interested him to such a degree that his interest came near to love. how eagerly he listened to accounts of the death of his friends, turgenieff, gay, leskof, [23] zhemtchuzhnikof [24]; and others! he inquired after the smallest matters; no detail, however trifling in appearance, was without its interest and importance to him. his "circle of reading," november 7, the day he died, is devoted entirely to thoughts on death. "life is a dream, death is an awakening," he wrote, while in expectation of that awakening. apropos of the "circle of reading," i cannot refrain from relating a characteristic incident which i was told by one of my sisters. when my father had made up his mind to compile that collection of the sayings of the wise, to which he gave the name of "circle of reading," he told one of his friends about it. a few days afterward this friend came to see him again, and at once told him that he and his wife had been thinking over his scheme for the new book and had come to the conclusion that he ought to call it "for every day," instead of "circle of reading." to this my father replied that he preferred the title "circle of reading" because the word "circle" suggested the idea of continuous reading, which was what he meant to express by the title. half an hour later the friend came across the room to him and repeated exactly the same remark again. this time my father made no reply. in the evening, when the friend was preparing to go home, as he was saying good-by to my father, he held his hand in his and began once more: "still, i must tell you, lyoff nikolaievich, that i and my wife have been thinking it over, and we have come to the conclusion," and so on, word for word the same. "no, no, i want to die--to die as soon as possible," groaned my father when he had seen the friend off. "isn't it all the same whether it's 'circle of reading' or 'for every day'? no, it's time for me to die: i cannot live like this any longer." and, after all, in the end, one of the editions of the sayings of the wise was called "for every day" instead of "circle of reading." "ah, my dear, ever since this mr. ---turned up, i really don't know which of lyoff nikolaievich's writings are by lyoff nikolaievich and which are by mr. ----!" murmured our old friend, the pure-hearted and far from malicious marya alexandrovna schmidt. this sort of intrusion into my father's work as an author bore, in the "friend's" language, the modest title of "corrections beforehand," and there is no doubt that marya alexandrovna was right, for no one will ever know where what my father wrote ends and where his concessions to mr. ----'s persistent "corrections beforehand" begin, all the more as this careful adviser had the forethought to arrange that when my father answered his letters he was always to return him the letters they were answers to.[25] besides the desire for death that my father displayed, in the last years of his life he cherished another dream, which he made no secret of his hope of realizing, and that was the desire to suffer for his convictions. the first impulse in this direction was given him by the persecution on the part of the authorities to which, during his lifetime, many of his friends and fellow-thinkers were subjected. when he heard of any one being put in jail or deported for disseminating his writings, he was so disturbed about it that one was really sorry for him. i remember my arrival at yasnaya some days after gusef's arrest.[26] i stayed two days with my father, and heard of nothing but gusef. as if there were nobody in the world but gusef! i must confess that, sorry as i was for gusef, who was shut up at the time in the local prison at krapivna, i harbored a most wicked feeling of resentment at my father's paying so little attention to me and the rest of those about him and being so absorbed in the thought of gusef. i willingly acknowledge that i was wrong in entertaining this narrow-minded feeling. if i had entered fully into what my father was feeling, i should have seen this at the time. as far back as 1896, in consequence of the arrest of a doctor, miss n----, in tula, my father wrote a long letter to muravyof, the minister of justice, in which he spoke of the "unreasonableness, uselessness, and cruelty of the measures taken by the government against those who disseminate these forbidden writings," and begged him to "direct the measures taken to punish or intimidate the perpetrators of the evil, or to put an end to it, against the man whom you regard as the real instigator of it... all the more, as i assure you beforehand, that i shall continue without ceasing till my death to do what the government considers evil and what i consider my sacred duty before god." as every one knows, neither this challenge nor the others that followed it led to any result, and the arrests and deportations of those associated with him still went on. my father felt himself morally responsible toward all those who suffered on his account, and every year new burdens were laid on his conscience. masha's death as i reach the description of the last days of my father's life, i must once more make it clear that what i write is based only on the personal impressions i received in my periodical visits to yasnaya polyana. unfortunately, i have no rich shorthand material to rely on, such as gusef and bulgakof had for their memoirs, and more especially dushan petrovitch makowicki, who is preparing, i am told, a big and conscientious work, full of truth and interest. in november, 1906, my sister masha died of inflammation of the lungs. it is a curious thing that she vanished out of life with just as little commotion as she had passed through it. evidently this is the lot of all the pure in heart. no one was particularly astonished by her death. i remember that when i received the telegram, i felt no surprise. it seemed perfectly natural to me. masha had married a kinsman of ours, prince obolenski; she lived on her own estate at pirogovo, twenty-one miles from us, and spent half the year with her husband at yasnaya. she was very delicate and had constant illnesses. when i arrived at yasnaya the day after her death, i was aware of an atmosphere of exaltation and prayerful emotion about the whole family, and it was then i think for the first time that i realized the full grandeur and beauty of death. i definitely felt that by her death masha, so far from having gone away from us, had come nearer to us, and had been, as it were, welded to us forever in a way that she never could have been during her lifetime. i observed the same frame of mind in my father. he went about silent and woebegone, summoning all his strength to battle with his own sorrow; but i never heard him utter a murmur of a complaint, only words of tender emotion. when the coffin was carried to the church he changed his clothes and went with the cortege. when he reached the stone pillars he stopped us, said farewell to the departed, and walked home along the avenue. i looked after him and watched him walk away across the wet, thawing snow with his short, quick old man's steps, turning his toes out at a sharp angle, as he always did, and never once looking round. my sister masha had held a position of great importance in my father's life and in the life of the whole family. many a time in the last few years have we had occasion to think of her and to murmur sadly: "if only masha had been with us! if only masha had not died!" in order to explain the relations between masha and my father i must turn back a considerable way. there was one distinguishing and, at first sight, peculiar trait in my father's character, due perhaps to the fact that he grew up without a mother, and that was that all exhibitions of tenderness were entirely foreign to him. i say "tenderness" in contradistinction to heartiness. heartiness he had and in a very high degree. his description of the death of my uncle nikolai is characteristic in this connection. in a letter to his other brother, sergei nikolayevitch, in which he described the last day of his brother's life, my father tells how he helped him to undress. "he submitted, and became a different man.... he had a word of praise for everybody, and said to me, 'thanks, my friend.' you understand the significance of the words as between us two." it is evident that in the language of the tolstoy brothers the phrase "my friend" was an expression of tenderness beyond which imagination could not go. the words astonished my father even on the lips of his dying brother. during all his lifetime i never received any mark of tenderness from him whatever. he was not fond of kissing children, and when he did so in saying good morning or good night, he did it merely as a duty. it is therefore easy to understand that he did not provoke any display of tenderness toward himself, and that nearness and dearness with him were never accompanied by any outward manifestations. it would never have come into my head, for instance, to walk up to my father and kiss him or to stroke his hand. i was partly prevented also from that by the fact that i always looked up to him with awe, and his spiritual power, his greatness, prevented me from seeing in him the mere man--the man who was so plaintive and weary at times, the feeble old man who so much needed warmth and rest. the only person who could give him that warmth was masha. she would go up to him, stroke his hand, caress him, and say something affectionate, and you could see that he liked it, was happy, and even responded in kind. it was as if he became a different man with her. why was it that masha was able to do this, while no one else even dared to try? if any other of us had done it, it would have seemed unnatural, but masha could do it with perfect simplicity and sincerity. i do not mean to say that others about my father loved him less than masha; not at all; but the display of love for him was never so warm and at the same time so natural with any one else as with her. so that with masha's death my father was deprived of this natural source of warmth, which, with advancing years, had become more and more of a necessity for him. another and still greater power that she possessed was her remarkably delicate and sensitive conscience. this trait in her was still dearer to my father than her caresses. how good she was at smoothing away all misunderstandings! how she always stood up for those who were found any fault with, justly or unjustly! it was all the same to her. masha could reconcile everybody and everything. during the last years of his life my father's health perceptibly grew worse. several times he had the most sudden and inexplicable sort of fainting fits, from which he used to recover the next day, but completely lost his memory for a time. seeing my brother andrei's children, who were staying at yasnaya, in the zala one day, he asked with some surprise, "whose children are these?" meeting my wife, he said, "don't be offended, my dear; i know that i am very fond of you, but i have quite forgotten who you are"; and when he went up to the zala after one of these fainting fits, he looked round with an astonished air and said, "where's my brother nitenka." nitenka had died fifty years before. the day following all traces of the attack would disappear. during one of these fainting fits my brother sergei, in undressing my father, found a little note-book on him. he put it in his own pocket, and next day, when he came to see my father, he handed it back to him, telling him that he had not read it. "there would have been no harm in your seeing it," said my father, as he took it back. this little diary in which he wrote down his most secret thoughts and prayers was kept "for himself alone," and he never showed it to any one. i saw it after my father's death. it is impossible to read it without tears. it is curious that the sudden decay of my father's memory displayed itself only in the matter of real facts and people. he was entirely unaffected in his literary work, and everything that he wrote down to the last days of his life is marked by his characteristic logicalness and force. it may be that the reason he forgot the details of real life was because he was too deeply absorbed in his abstract work. my wife was at yasnaya polyana in october, and when she came home she told me that there was something wrong there. "your mother is nervous and hysterical; your father is in a silent and gloomy frame of mind." i was very busy with my office work, but made up my mind to devote my first free day to going and seeing my father and mother. when i got to yasnaya, my father had already left it. i paid aunt masha a visit some little time after my father's funeral. we sat together in her comfortable little cell, and she repeated to me once more in detail the oft-repeated story of my father's last visit to her. "he sat in that very arm-chair where you are sitting now, and how he cried!" she said. "when sasha arrived with her girl friend, they set to work studying this map of russia and planning out a route to the caucasus. lyovotchka sat there thoughtful and melancholy. "'never mind, papa; it'll be all right,' said sasha, trying to encourage him. "'ah, you women, you women!' answered her father, bitterly. 'how can it ever be all right?' "i so much hoped that he would settle down here; it would just have suited him. and it was his own idea, too; he had even taken a cottage in the village," aunt masha sadly recalled. "when he left me to go back to the hotel where he was staying, it seemed to me that he was rather calmer. "when he said good-by, he even made some joke about his having come to the wrong door. "i certainly would never have imagined that he would go away again that same night." it was a grievous trial for aunt masha when the old confessor iosif, who was her spiritual director, forbade her to pray for her dead brother because he had been excommunicated. she was too broad-minded to be able to reconcile herself to the harsh intolerance of the church, and for a time she was honestly indignant. another priest to whom she applied also refused her request. marya nikolayevna could not bring herself to disobey her spiritual fathers, but at the same time she felt that she was not really obeying their injunction, for she prayed for him all the same, in thought, if not in words. there is no knowing how her internal discord would have ended if her father confessor, evidently understanding the moral torment she was suffering, had not given her permission to pray for her brother, but only in her cell and in solitude, so as not to lead others astray. my father's will. conclusion although my father had long since renounced the copyright in all his works written after 1883, and although, after having made all his real estate over to his children, he had, as a matter of fact, no property left, still he could not but be aware that his life was far from corresponding to his principles, and this consciousness perpetually preyed upon his mind. one has only to read some of his posthumous works attentively to see that the idea of leaving home and radically altering his whole way of life had presented itself to him long since and was a continual temptation to him. this was the cherished dream that always allured him, but which he did not think himself justified in putting into practice. the life of the christian must be a "reasonable and happy life in all possible circumstances," he used to say as he struggled with the temptation to go away, and gave up his own soul for others. i remember reading in gusef's memoirs how my father once, in conversation with gusoryof, the peasant, who had made up his mind to leave his home for religious reasons, said, "my life is a hundred thousand times more loathsome than yours, but yet i cannot leave it." i shall not enumerate all the letters of abuse and amazement which my father received from all sides, upbraiding him with luxury, with inconsistency, and even with torturing his peasants. it is easy to imagine what an impression they made on him. he said there was good reason to revile him; he called their abuse "a bath for the soul," but internally he suffered from the "bath," and saw no way out of his difficulties. he bore his cross, and it was in this self-renunciation that his power consisted, though many either could not or would not understand it. he alone, despite all those about him, knew that this cross was laid on him not of man, but of god; and while he was strong, he loved his burden and shared it with none. just as thirty years before he had been haunted by the temptation to suicide, so now he struggled with a new and more powerful temptation, that of flight. a few days before he left yasnaya he called on marya alexandrovna schmidt at ovsyanniki and confessed to her that he wanted to go away. the old lady held up her hands in horror and said: "gracious heavens, lyoff nikolaievich, have you come to such a pitch of weakness?" when i learned, on october 28, 1910, that my father had left yasnaya, the same idea occurred to me, and i even put it into words in a letter i sent to him at shamerdino by my sister sasha. i did not know at the time about certain circumstances which have since made a great deal clear to me that was obscure before. from the moment of my father's death till now i have been racking my brains to discover what could have given him the impulse to take that last step. what power could compel him to yield in the struggle in which he had held firmly and tenaciously for many years? what was the last drop, the last grain of sand that turned the scales, and sent him forth to search for a new life on the very edge of the grave? could he really have fled from home because the wife that he had lived with for forty-eight years had developed neurasthenia and at one time showed certain abnormalities characteristic of that malady? was that like the man who so loved his fellows and so well knew the human heart? or did he suddenly desire, when he was eighty-three, and weak and helpless, to realize the idea of a pilgrim's life? if so, why did he take my sister sasha and dr. makowicki with him? he could not but know that in their company he would be just as well provided with all the necessaries of life as he would have been at yasnaya polyana. it would have been the most palpable self-deception. knowing my father as i did, i felt that the question of his flight was not so simple as it seemed to others, and the problem lay long unsolved before me until it was suddenly made clear by the will that he left behind him. i remember how, after n. s. leskof's death, my father read me his posthumous instructions with regard to a pauper funeral, with no speeches at the grave, and so on, and how the idea of writing his own will then came into his head for the first time. his first will was written in his diary, on march 27, 1895. [27] the fourth paragraph, to which i wish to call particular attention, contains a request to his next of kin to transfer the right of publishing his writings to society at large, or, in other words, to renounce the copyright of them. "but i only request it, and do not direct it. it is a good thing to do. and it will be good for you to do it; but if you do not do it, that is your affair. it means that you are not yet ready to do it. the fact that my writings have been bought and sold during these last ten years has been the most painful thing in my whole life to me." three copies were made of this will, and they were kept by my sister masha, my brother sergei, and tchertkof. i knew of its existence, but i never saw it till after my father's death, and i never inquired of anybody about the details. i knew my father's views about copyright, and no will of his could have added anything to what i knew. i knew, moreover, that this will was not properly executed according to the forms of law, and personally i was glad of that, for i saw in it another proof of my father's confidence in his family. i need hardly add that i never doubted that my father's wishes would be carried out. my sister masha, with whom i once had a conversation on the subject, was of the same opinion. in 1909 my father stayed with mr. tchertkof at krekshin, and there for the first time he wrote a formal will, attested by the signature of witnesses. how this will came to be written i do not know, and i do not intend to discuss it. it afterward appeared that it also was imperfect from a legal point of view, and in october, 1909, it had all to be done again. as to the writing of the third we are fully informed by mr. f. strakhof in an article which he published in the st. petersburg "gazette" on november 6, 1911. mr. strakhof left moscow at night. he had calculated on sofya andreyevna, [28] whose presence at yasnaya polyana was highly inexpedient for the business on which he was bound, being still in moscow. the business in question, as was made clear in the preliminary consultation which v. g. tchertkof held with n. k. muravyof, the solicitor, consisted in getting fresh signatures from lyoff nikolaievich, whose great age made it desirable to make sure, without delay, of his wishes being carried out by means of a more unassailable legal document. strakhof brought the draft of the will with him, and laid it before lyoff nikolaievich. after reading the paper through, he at once wrote under it that he agreed with its purport, and then added, after a pause: "all this business is very disagreeable to me, and it is unnecessary. to insure the propagation of my ideas by taking all sorts of measures--why, no word can perish without leaving its trace, if it expresses a truth, and if the man who utters it believes profoundly in its truth. but all these outward means for insuring it only come of our disbelief in what we utter." and with these words lyoff nikolaievich left the study. thereupon mr. strakhof began to consider what he must do next, whether he should go back with empty hands, or whether he should argue it out. he decided to argue it out, and endeavored to explain to my father how painful it would be for his friends after his death to hear people blaming him for not having taken any steps, despite his strong opinion on the subject, to see that his wishes were carried out, and for having thereby helped to transfer his copyrights to the members of his family. tolstoy promised to think it over, and left the room again. at dinner sofya andreyevna "was evidently far from having any suspicions." when tolstoy was not by, however, she asked mr. strakhof what he had come down about. inasmuch as mr. strakhof had other affairs in hand besides the will, he told her about one thing and another with an easy conscience. mr. strakhof described a second visit to yasnaya, when he came to attest the same will as a witness. when he arrived, he said: "the countess had not yet come down. i breathed again." of his departure, he said: as i said good-by to sofya andreyevna, i examined her countenance attentively. such complete tranquillity and cordiality toward her departing guests were written on it that i had not the smallest doubt of her complete ignorance of what was going on.... i left the house with the pleasing consciousness of a work well done--a work that was destined to have a considerable historic consequence. i only felt some little twinge within, certain qualms of conscience about the conspiratorial character of the transaction. but even this text of the will did not quite satisfy my father's "friends and advisers"; it was redrafted for the fourth and last time in july, 1910. this last draft was written by my father himself in the limonovski forest, two miles from the house, not far from mr. tchertkof's estate. such is the melancholy history of this document, which was destined to have historic consequences. "all this business is very disagreeable to me, and it is unnecessary," my father said when he signed the paper that was thrust before him. that was his real opinion about his will, and it never altered to the end of his days. is there any need of proof for that? i think one need know very little of his convictions to have no doubt about it. was lyoff nikolaievich tolstoy likely of his own accord to have recourse to the protection of the law? and, if he did, was he likely to conceal it from his wife and children? he had been put into a position from which there was absolutely no way out. to tell his wife was out of the question; it would have grievously offended his friends. to have destroyed the will would have been worse still; for his friends had suffered for his principles morally, and some of them materially, and had been exiled from russia. he felt himself bound to them. and on the top of all this were his fainting fits, his increasing loss of memory, the clear consciousness of the approach of death, and the continually growing nervousness of his wife, who felt in her heart of hearts the unnatural estrangement of her husband, and could not understand it. if she asked him what it was that he was concealing from her, he would either have to say nothing or to tell her the truth. but that was impossible. so it came about that the long-cherished dream of leaving yasnaya polyana presented itself as the only means of escape. it was certainly not in order to enjoy the full realization of his dream that he left his home; he went away only as a choice of evils. "i am too feeble and too old to begin a new life," he had said to my brother sergei only a few days before his departure. harassed, ill in body and in mind, he started forth without any object in view, without any thought-out plan, merely in order to hide himself somewhere, wherever it might be, and get some rest from the moral tortures which had become insupportable to him. "to fly, to fly!" he said in his deathbed delirium as he lay at astapova. "has papa considered that mama may not survive the separation from him?" i asked my sister sasha on october 29, when she was on the point of going to join him at shamerdino. "yes, he has considered all that, and still made up his mind to go, because he thinks that nothing could be worse than the state that things have come to here," she answered. i confess that my explanation of my father's flight by no means exhausts the question. life is complex and every explanation of a man's conduct is bound to suffer from one-sidedness. besides, there are circumstances of which i do not care to speak at the present moment, in order not to cause unnecessary pain to people still living. it may be that if those who were about my father during the last years of his life had known what they were doing, things would have turned out differently. the years will pass. the accumulated incrustations which hide the truth will pass away. much will be wiped out and forgotten. among other things my father's will will be forgotten--that will which he himself looked upon as an "unnecessary outward means." and men will see more clearly that legacy of love and truth in which he believed deeply, and which, according to his own words, "cannot perish without a trace." in conclusion i cannot refrain from quoting the opinion of one of my kinsmen, who, after my father's death, read the diaries kept both by my father and my mother during the autumn before lyoff nikolaievich left yasnaya polyana. "what a terrible misunderstanding!" he said. "each loved the other with such poignant affection, each was suffering all the time on the other's behalf, and then this terrible ending!... i see the hand of fate in this." footnotes: [footnote 1: the name we gave to the stone annex.] [footnote 2: the instinct for lime, necessary to feed their bones, drives russian children to nibble pieces of chalk or the whitewash off the wall. in this case the boy was running to one of the grown-ups in the house, and whom he called uncle, as russian children call everybody uncle or aunt, to get a piece of the chalk that he had for writing on the blackboard. "us," he said to some one when the boy was gone. which of us would have expressed himself like that? you see, he did not say to "get" or to "break off," but to "bite off," which was right, because they did literally "bite" off the chalk from the lump with their teeth, and not break it off.] [footnote 3: about $3000.] [footnote 4: the zala is the chief room of a house, corresponding to the english drawing-room, but on a grand scale. the gostinaya--literally guest-room, usually translated as drawing-room--is a place for more intimate receptions. at yasnaya polyana meals were taken in the zala, but this is not the general russian custom, houses being provided also with a stolovaya, or dining-room.] [footnote 5: kaftan, a long coat of various cuts, including military and naval frock-coat, and the long gown worn by coachmen.] [footnote 6: afanasyi shenshin, the poet, who adopted his mother's name, fet, for a time, owing to official difficulties about his birth-certificate. an intimate friend of tolstoy's.] [footnote 7: "sovremennik," or "contemporary review," edited by the poet mekrasof, was the rallying-place for the "men of the forties," the new school of realists. ostrovsky is the dramatist; gontcharof the novelist, author of "oblomof"; grigorovitch wrote tales about peasant life, and was the discoverer of tchekhof's talent as a serious writer.] [footnote 8: the balks are the banks dividing the fields of different owners or crops. hedges are not used for this purpose in russia.] [footnote 9: pazanki, tracks of a hare, name given to the last joint of the hind legs.] [footnote 10: a moscow monthly, founded by katkof, who somehow managed to edit both this and the daily "moskovskiya vyedomosti," on which "uncle kostya" worked at the same time.] [footnote 11: dmitry. my father's brother dmitry died in 1856; nikolai died september 20, 1860.] [footnote 12: that is to say, his eyes went always on the straightest road to attain satisfaction for himself.] [footnote 13: khamsvniki, a street in moscow.] [footnote 14: maria mikhailovna, his wife.] [footnote 15: tolstoy's sister. she became a nun after her husband's death and the marriage of her three daughters.] [footnote 16: tolstoy was in the artillery, and commanded a battery in the crimea.] [footnote 17: fet, at whose house the quarrel took place, tells all about it in his memoirs. tolstoy dogmatized about lady-like charity, apropos of turgenieff's daughter. turgenieff, in a fit of nerves, threatened to box his ears. tolstoy challenged him to a duel, and turgenieff apologized.] [footnote 18: turgenieff was ten years older than tolstoy.] [footnote 19: i had written to my father that my fiancee's mother would not let me marry for two years.] [footnote 20: my father took griboyehof's princess marya alexevna as a type. the allusion here is to the last words of griboyehof's famous comedy, "the misfortune of cleverness," "what will princess marya alexevna say?"] [footnote 21: be loved by them.] [footnote 22: his wife's.] [footnote 23: a novelist, died 1895.] [footnote 24: one of the authors of "junker schmidt."] [footnote 25: the curious may be disposed to trace to some such "corrections beforehand" the remarkable discrepancy of style and matter which distinguishes some of tolstoy's later works, published after his death by mr. tchertkof and his literary executors.] [footnote 26: tolstoy's private secretary, arrested and banished in 1908.] [footnote 27: five weeks after leskof's death.] [footnote 28: the countess tolstoy.] produced from scanned images of public domain material from the google print project.) autobiography of countess tolstoy autobiography of countess tolstoy [sophie andreevna tolstoy] translated by s. s. koteliansky and leonard woolf [illustration: colophon] new york b. w. huebsch, inc. mcmxxii copyright, 1922, by b. w. huebsch, inc. printed in u. s. a. contents translators' note, 7 preface by vassili spiridonov, 9 autobiography, 27 notes, 109 appendix i. semen afanasevich vengerov, 143 appendix ii. nikolai nikolaevich strakhov, 146 appendix iii. tolstoy's first will, 149 appendix iv. tolstoy's will of 22 july, 1910, 153 appendix v. tolstoy's going away, 155 translators' note the circumstances under which this autobiography of tolstoy's wife has just been discovered and published in russia are explained in the preface of vassili spiridonov which follows. spiridonov edited and published it in the first number of a new russian review, _nachala_. we have translated his preface in full and also the greater number of his notes, which contain much material with regard to tolstoy which has not previously been available for english readers. such readers may perhaps consider that some of these notes and the documentation generally are over-elaborate. but they must remember that the question of tolstoy's "going away" and of his relations with his wife, countess sophie tolstoy, and other members of his family, has roused the most passionate interest and controversy in russia. this is partly due, no doubt, to the dramatic and psychological interest of the whole story, but is also due very largely to the fact that tolstoy's actions were bound up with his teachings, and his numerous disciples and opponents were watching the struggle of the preacher to put his principles in practice in his own life. the whole question of the will and the going away of tolstoy, of the difference with his wife, and of the subsequent dealings with his property, has given rise to an immense literature in russia. as spiridonov's preface shows, it is treated as a kind of _cause célèbre_ in which the whole of humanity is to judge between tolstoy and his wife. the importance of this book lies in the fact that in it for the first time countess sophie andreevna tolstoy herself states her own case in full. the reader should, however, remember that it is only one side of the case. we have added ourselves a few short appendices giving some additional information with regard to some of the more important points and persons. s. s. k. l. s. w. preface by vassili spiridonov the manuscript of the autobiography of sophie andreevna tolstoy exists among the documents of the late director of the russian library, professor semen afanasevich vengerov, which, in accordance with the will of the deceased, have been handed over to the library. the library is now in the petrograd institute of learning, and the documents form a special section in the institute under the title: "the archives of s. a. vengerov." the history of the manuscript is as follows. at the end of july, 1913, s. a. vengerov sent a letter to s. a. tolstoy asking her to write and send him her autobiography which he proposed to publish. we do not know the details of s. a. vengerov's letter, but from the replies of s. a. tolstoy which are printed below we may conclude that professor vengerov enclosed in his letter to s. a. tolstoy a questionnaire, and that, besides the usual questions which he was accustomed to send out broadcast to authors and men of letters, he put a number of additional questions, especially for s. a. t., asking for light upon certain moments in the history of the life and creative activity of leo nikolaevich tolstoy, and upon the time and causes of the differences between the husband and wife, the beginning of that formidable drama which took place in the tolstoy family. s. a. t. answered immediately; she wrote to vengerov as follows:[a] yasnaya polyana, 30 july, 1913. much-respected semen afanasevich: i received your letter to-day, and hasten to tell you that i will try to answer all your questions soon; but in order to do it fully, i need a little time. i shall hardly be able to write an autobiography, even a brief one. at any rate, _whatever_ i may communicate to you, you have my permission to cut out anything that you think superfluous. as to your questions about my family, my sister, tatyana andreevna kuzminskii, could answer you better than i; she and my first cousin, alexander alexandrovich bers, have devoted a good deal of time to this matter and have, in particular, tried to trace the origin of my father's family, which came from saxony. we have the seal with its coat-of-arms: a bear (hence _bers_, i. e. _bär_ in german) warding off a swarm of bees.[b] i will write to my sister to send me this information, and i will let you have it.[c] please also let me know roughly when you expect me to send you the information you desire. the most difficult thing for me will be to fix the moment and the cause of our _differences_[d]. it was not a _difference_, but a gradual _going-away_ of leo nikolaevich from everything in his former life, and thus the harmony of all our happy previous life was broken. of all this i will try to write briefly, after having thought it over as well and as accurately as i can. accept the assurance of my respect and devotion for you, sophie tolstoy. yasnaya polyana, station zassyeka, 21 august, 1913. much-respected semen afanasevich: this is a difficult task which you have set me, writing my autobiography, and, although i have already begun it, i am continually wondering whether i am doing it properly. the chief thing which i have decided to ask you is to tell me what length my article should be. if, for instance, you take a page of the magazine _vyestnik europa_ as a measure, how many full pages, approximately, ought i to write? to-morrow i shall be sixty-nine years old, a long life; well, _what_ out of that life would be of interest to people? i have been trying to find some woman's autobiography for a model, but have not found one anywhere. pardon me for troubling you; i want to do the work you have charged me with as well as possible, but i have so little capacity and no experience at all. i shall hope for an answer. with sincere respect and devotion, s. tolstoy. it may be supposed that vengerov again came to the assistance of s. a. t. and solved her doubts, after which she went on with her work and finished it at the end of october, 1913. being in petersburg, she personally handed it over to vengerov.[e] the work did not satisfy vengerov, as he did not find in it what, evidently, particularly interested him, namely, information as to the life in yasnaya polyana during the time when _war and peace_ and _anna karenina_ were written. vengerov wrote to s. a. t. about this, urging her to fill up the gap, to write a new additional chapter. s. a. t. did this. she sent the new material to vengerov accompanied by the following letter: yasnaya polyana, station zassyeka, 24 march, 1914. much-respected semen afanasevich: you are perfectly right in your observation that i left a great gap in my autobiography, and i thank you very much for advising me to write one more chapter; i have now done so. but the question is, have i done it well, and is the new material suitable? hard as i tried, and carefully as i searched for materials for that chapter, i found very little, but i have made the best use of it which i could. in the former manuscript which i gave you in petersburg, chapter 3 should be cut out and the new one which i enclose in this letter substituted. the chapter had to be corrected considerably, things altered, struck out, and added.[f] the chapter about the children in the new material has been slightly altered at the beginning, and all the rest remains without alteration, as in the former manuscript. be so good as to note the roman figures marking chapters, but divide it up into chapters anew at your discretion. as i have not the whole manuscript in its final form before me, i cannot do it myself and am obliged to trouble you. please also write me a word to say you have received the new chapter and give me your opinion, which i value greatly.[g] accept the assurance of my sincere respect and devotion. sophie tolstoy. the additional matter did not satisfy s. a. vengerov. he had long ago formed an idea of yasnaya polyana, during the period in which _war and peace_ and _anna karenina_ were created, as of a "home" in which the interests of the family were such that literary interests were removed to the second floor. he hoped that s. a. t. in her additional matter would turn her attention to that particular side in the life and activity of l. n. tolstoy, making use for that purpose of the very rich material possessed by her. but s. a. t. did not fulfil his hopes, as he told her in a letter to her and as may be seen from her reply. s. a. t. held a different view, and she wrote to vengerov: yasnaya polyana, station zassyeka, 5 may, 1914. much-respected semen afanasevich: i have received your letter; you are not quite satisfied with the new chapter, to which i reply: you want more facts, but where am i to get them? our life was quiet, placid, a retired family life. you write about the 'home' interests which must have been subordinated to leo nikolaevich's writing of _war and peace_ and _anna karenina_. but what was that _home_? it consisted only of leo nikolaevich and myself. the two old women had become childish and took no interest at all in leo n.'s writings, but used to lose their tempers over patience; a nd their only interests were the children and the dinner.[h] in so far as i could tear myself from domestic matters, i lived in my husband's creative activity and loved it. but one can not put into the background a baby who has to be fed day and night, and i nursed ten children myself, which leo n. desired and approved. you mention among _professional_ writers gogol, turgenev, goncharov, and i would add lermontov and others; all of them were _bachelors without families_, and that is a very different matter. this was reflected in their work, just as leo n.'s _family_ life was completely reflected in his works. it is perfectly true that leo n. was generally a _man_, and not merely a writer. but it is _not_ true, if you will pardon me, that he wrote _easily_. indeed, he experienced the 'tortures of creative activity' in a high degree; he wrote with difficulty and slowly, made endless corrections; he doubted his powers, denied his talent, and he often said: 'writing is just like childbirth; until the fruit is ripe, it does not come out, and, when it does, it comes with pain and labour.' those are his own words. and now, semen afanasevich, with regard to your last remark, that yasnaya polyana of the years 1862 to 1870 gives the impression of a 'home' in which literary interests had been removed to the second floor--i repeat once more that there was no such 'home'; it is true that i was quite a young girl, in my eighteenth year, when i married, and i only vaguely realized the great importance of the husband whom i adored. now i have come to the end of the page. with respect and devotion, s. tolstoy. nearly three years separate the going away and death of leo n. tolstoy from the writing of her autobiography by s. a. t. it might have been expected that that interval of time would have stilled the pain in her heart and that her soul would have found peace from her sufferings. but s. a. t. is far from peace and reconciliation. pain, a void in her heart, a protest against some one or something are felt in every word of her autobiography. in her work she has given new and interesting information about her family; she has dwelt upon her children, the guests who visited yasnaya polyana, the literary works of her husband, without giving us anything new; and then she concentrated all her attention upon the domestic drama. the domestic drama is the centre round which all the thoughts and all the feelings of s. a. t. turn. in her story about this domestic drama she has not sinned against the truth; she has gone back again into the past deeply and with sincerity--every one who reads her work without prejudice will admit this. and yet one feels that it is not for nothing that she tells of family difficulties and pours out before us the pain of her soul. continual references to the difficulties of her position as a mother, insistent emphasis upon the mutual love of herself and her husband, and the allusions to "friends" who entered the house, got possession of the mind, heart, and will of leo n., and disturbed the harmony of their married life--all this creates an impression in the reader's mind that s. a. t., in writing her autobiography, was guided by a definite purpose, that of contradicting the unfavourable rumours about her which circulated everywhere and were getting into newspapers and magazines. this desire, which is masked in the autobiography, is definitely expressed by s. a. t. in another place, in her preface to leo n. tolstoy's _letters to his wife_, published in 1913. there she says frankly: "this, too, has induced me to publish these letters, that after my death, which in all likelihood is near, people will, as usual, wrongly judge and describe my relations to my husband and his to me. then let them study and form their judgment upon living and genuine data, and not upon guesses, gossip and inventions." we shall understand s. a. t.'s desire, if we consider her position. it is true that the great honour of being the wife of a genius fell to the lot of s. a. t., but there also fell to her lot the difficult task of creating favourable conditions for the life and development of that genius. she knew the joy of living with a genius, but she also knew the horror of living in public, so that her every movement, smile, frown, incautious word was in everyone's eyes and ears and was caught up by the newspapers and spread over the whole world, recorded in diaries and reminiscences as material for future judgments upon her. forty-eight years is a long period. many unnecessary words were spoken in that time, many incautious movements were made; and for every one she will be made to answer before the court of mankind. s. a. t. knew this, and with an anxious heart she prepared herself for the judgment. the _autobiography_ and l. n. tolstoy's _letters to his wife_ are the last words of the accused. we should listen to them carefully and with attention, weighing every word. if s. a. t. bears a responsibility before all mankind, each of us before our conscience has a responsibility for whatever verdict he may pass upon her. we must judge sternly, but justly. s. a. t.'s wish has been carried out. in the autobiography printed below two new chapters are substituted for the first half of chapter iii in the original draft, and an independent chapter v has been made out of the last half of the original third chapter. passages cut out of this third chapter are given in full in notes 20, 38, and 43. our notes are given at the end of the autobiography. vassili spiridonov. a short autobiography of countess sophie andreevna tolstoy i i was born on 22 august, 1844, in the country, at the village of pokrovskoye in the manor of glyebov-stryeshnev, and up to the time of my marriage i spent every summer there. in the winter our family lived in moscow, in the kremlin at the house near the troizki gate, which belonged to the crown, for my father was court physician{1} and also principal physician to the senate and ordnance office.{2} my father was a lutheran, but my mother belonged to the orthodox church. the investigations of my sister, t. a. kuzminskii, and of my brother, a. a. bers,{3} show, with regard to my father's origin, that it was his grandfather who emigrated from germany to russia. during the reign of the empress elisabeth petrovna, regiments were raised in russia for which new instructors were required. at the request of the empress, the king of prussia sent four officers of the horse guards to petersburg; among them was captain ivan bers, who, after serving for several years in russia, was killed at the battle of zorndorf. he left a widow and one son, evstafii. all that is known about her is that she was called marie, that she was a baroness, and that she died young, leaving a moderate fortune to her son, evstafii. evstafii ivanovich lived in moscow and married elisabeth ivanovna wulfert, belonging to an old, aristocratic, westphalian family.{4} she had two sons, alexander and andrey, my father. both were medical men and studied at the moscow university. in 1812 all the property of evstafii ivanovich was destroyed by fire, including all his houses, documents, and his seal with his coat-of-arms, a bee-hive with a swarm of bees attacking a bear, from which we derive our family name, bers (bär in german means bear). the right to the coat-of-arms was not restored to my father, though applications were made by his descendants; permission was given only to use a bee-hive and bees on the coat-of-arms.{5} after the war of 1812 the government made a small grant of money to evstafii ivanovich, and my grandmother, elizabeth ivanovna, when she became a widow, managed with difficulty to educate her sons. after finishing their studies at the medical schools of the university, the brothers bers began to earn their own living. the elder, alexander settled in petersburg,{6} the younger lived with his mother in moscow. at the age of thirty-four andrey married lyubov alexandrovna islavin, who was sixteen years old and the daughter of alexander mikhailovich islenev and of princess sophie petrovna kozlovskii, née countess zavadovskii. my mother's descent was as follows: count peter vasilevich zavadovskii, my mother's grandfather, was the well-known statesman and favourite of the empress catherine ii. under alexander i he became the first minister of education in russia. he was married to countess vera nikolaevna apraxin, who was a maid-of-honour, a peeress in her own right, and a remarkable beauty. the elder daughter, countess sophie petrovna zavadovskii, at the age of sixteen was married against her will to prince kozlovskii; she had one son by him, but, after a short and unhappy married life, left him and had a liaison with alexander mikhailovich islenev, with whom she lived for the remainder of her life. she died in childbirth, but had previously borne him three sons and three daughters, of whom the youngest, lyubov alexandrovna, was my mother. sophie petrovna lived permanently on my grandfather's estate in the village krasnoye,{7} and there she was buried near the church. it was said that she induced a priest to marry her to my grandfather. she used to say: "i want to be the wife of alexander mikhailovich at any rate in the sight of god, if not in the view of man." my grandfather, alexander mikhailovich islenev,{8} of an old aristocratic family, took part in the battle of borodino, after which he was given a commission in the preobrazhenskii guards. subsequently he was aide-de-camp to count chernishov. the family name "islenev" was not given to his children by sophie petrovna; the marriage was not considered legal, and the descendants now bear the name "islavin." many of them rose to high rank.{9} ii my father and mother had a large family, and i was their second daughter.{10} my father had, besides his government posts, a very large medical practice and often overworked. he tried to give us the best education and surrounded us with all the comforts of life. my mother did the same, but she also instilled into us the idea that, as we had no fortune at all, and the family was large, we must prepare ourselves in order to earn our own livings. besides learning our own lessons we had to teach our younger brothers, do sewing, embroidering, and housekeeping, and later on prepare for the examination of a private teacher. our first governesses were german; we were taught french first by mother, then by governesses, and later by the french lecturer of the university. we were taught the russian language and science by university students. one of them tried in his own way to develop my mind and to make me a believer in extreme materialism; he used to lend me blüchner and feuerbach, suggested that there was no god and that religion was an obsolete superstition. at first i was fascinated by the simplicity of the atomic explanation and the reduction of everything in the world to the correlations of atoms, but i soon felt the want of the ordinary orthodox faith and church, and i gave up materialism for ever. up to the time of the examinations we daughters were educated at home. at the age of sixteen i went in for the private teacher's examination at the moscow university, taking russian and french as my principal subjects. the examiners were the well-known professors, tikhonravov, ilovaiskii, davidov,{11} father sergievskii,{12} and m. paquaut. it was an interesting time. i was working with a friend, the daughter of the inspector of the university, and therefore moved in university circles, among intelligent professors and students. it was the beginning of the 'sixties, a time of intellectual ferment. the abolition of serfdom had just been announced; every one was discussing it, and we young people were enthusiastic for the great event. we used to meet, discuss, and enjoy ourselves. at that time a new type had just appeared in life and in literature; there was the new breath of nihilism among the young. i remember how at a large party, when professors and students were present, turgenev's _fathers and sons_ was read aloud, and bazarov seemed to us to represent a strange type, something new, something which contained a promise for the future. i was not a good student, always concentrating exclusively upon the subject which i liked. for instance, i liked literature very much. i was carried away by russian literature and read a great many books, getting the oldest books and manuscripts from the university library, beginning with the chronicles and ending with the latest russian writers. i was fascinated and surprised that the russian tongue should have developed out of the feeble beginnings in monastic writings into the language of pushkin. it was like the growth of a living creature. in my youth tolstoy's _childhood_ and dickens's _david copperfield_ made the greatest impression on me. i copied out and learnt by heart passages in _childhood_ which i particularly liked, for instance: "will one ever get back the freshness, the freedom from care, the desire for love, and the power of belief which one possessed in childhood?--" when i finished _david copperfield_, i cried as though i were being separated from a close friend. i did not like studying history from the text-books; in mathematics i only liked algebra, and that, owing to a complete lack of mathematical gifts, i soon forgot. i was successful in the university examinations; in both russian and french i received the mark "excellent," and i was given a diploma of which i was very proud. later, i remember, i was pleased at hearing professor tikhonravov praise my essay on "music" to my husband; he added: "that is just the wife you need. she has a great _flair_ for literature; in the examination her essay was the best of the year." soon after the examination i began writing a story, taking as the heroines myself and my sister tanya, and calling her natasha. leo tolstoy also called the heroine in his _war and peace_ natasha.{13} he read my story{14} some time before our marriage and wrote of it in his diary: "what force of truth and simplicity." before my marriage i burnt the story and also my diaries, written since my eleventh year, and other youthful writings, which i much regret. of music and drawing i learnt little; i did not have enough time, though throughout my life i have loved all the arts and have more than once returned to them, using the little leisure left to me from a life which, in my girlhood and particularly during my marriage, was always busy and hardworking. iii count leo nikolaevich tolstoy had known my mother from his childhood and was a friend of hers, though he was two and a half years younger. now and then on his way to moscow he used to pay a visit to our family. his father, count nikolai ilitch tolstoy was very friendly with my grandfather, alexander mikhailovich islenev, and they used to visit each other at the village krasnoye and the hamlet yasnaya polyana. in august, 1862, my mother took us girls to see our grandfather at the village of ivitsi in odoevski, and on our way we stopped at yasnaya polyana which my mother had not seen since she was a child; at the time my mother's greatest friend, marie nikolaevna tolstoy, was staying there, having just returned from algiers.{15} on our way back leo nikolaevich accompanied us as far as moscow, and he used to come and see us almost daily at our country-house in pokrovskoye, and afterwards in moscow. on the evening of 16 september he handed me a written proposal of marriage.{16} up to that time no one knew the object of his visits.{17} there was a painful struggle going on in his soul. in his diary at the time he wrote, for instance: 12 sept. 1862. i am in love, as i did not think it was possible to be in love. i am a madman; i'll shoot myself, if it goes on like this. they had an evening party; she is charming in everything.... 13 sept. 1862. to-morrow as soon as i get up, i shall go and tell everything or shoot myself.... i accepted leo nikolaevich and our engagement lasted only one week. on 23 september we were married in the royal church of the nativity of our lady, and immediately afterwards left for yasnaya polyana in a new carriage with a team of six horses and a postillion. we were accompanied by alexei stepanovich,{18} leo nikolaevich's devoted servant, and the old maid-servant, varvara. after coming to yasnaya polyana, we decided to settle down there with aunt tatyana alexandrovna ergolskii.{19} from the very first i assisted my husband in the management of the house and estate, and in copying out his writings.{20} after the first days of our married life had passed, leo nikolaevich realized that besides his happiness he needed activity and work. in his diary of december, 1862, he wrote: "i feel the force of the need to write." that force was a great one, creating a great work which made the first years of our married life bright with joy and happiness. soon after our marriage leo nikolaevich finished _polikushka_, finally completed _the cossacks_ and gave it to katkov's _russkii vyestnik_. he then began to work on the decembrists whose fate and activity interested him a great deal. when he began to write about that period, he considered it necessary to relate who they were, to describe their origin and previous history, and so to go back from 1825 to 1805. he became dissatisfied with the decembrists, but _the year 1805_ served as a beginning for _war and peace_ and was published in _russkii vyestnik_.{21} this work, which leo nikolaevich did not like to be called a novel, he wrote with pleasure, assiduously, and it filled our life with a living interest. in 1864 a good deal of it was already written, and leo nikolaevich often read aloud to me and to our two cousins, varya and lise, the daughters of marie nikolaevna tolstoy, the charming passages as soon as he had written them. in the same year he read a few chapters to friends and to two literary men, zhemchuzhnikov and aksakov, in moscow, and they were in raptures over it.{22} generally leo nikolaevich read extraordinarily well, unless he was very excited, and i remember how pleasant it was in yasnaya polyana to listen to him reading molière's comedies, when he had not anything new from _war and peace_. during the first years at yasnaya polyana we lived a very retired life. i could not recall anything of importance during that time in the life of the people, society, or state, because everything passed us by; we lived the whole time in the country, we followed nothing, saw nothing, knew nothing--it did not interest us. i desired nothing else but to live with the characters of _war and peace_; i loved them and watched the life of each of them develop as though they were living beings. it was a full life and an unusually happy one, with our mutual love, our children, and, above all, that great work, beloved by me and later by the whole world, the work of my husband. i had no other desires. only at times in the evenings, when we had put the children to bed and sent off the mss. or corrected proofs to moscow, as a recreation we would sit down at the piano and till late at night play duets. leo nikolaevich was particularly fond of haydn's and mozart's symphonies.{23} at that time i played rather badly, but i tried very hard to improve. leo nikolaevich too, it was clear, was satisfied with his fate. in 1864 he wrote in a letter to my brother: "it is as though our honeymoon had only just begun." and again: "i think that only one in a million is as lucky as i am." when his relation, countess alexandra andreevna tolstoy, complained that he wrote little and rarely to her, he replied: "_les peuples heureux n'out pas d'histoire_; that is the case with us."{24} every new idea or the successful carrying out of some creation of his genius made him happy. thus, for instance, he writes in his diary on 19 march, 1865: "a cloud of joy has just come upon me at the idea of writing the psychological history of alexander and napoleon."{25} it was because he felt the beauty of his own creations that leo nikolaevich wrote: "the poet takes the best out of his life and puts it into his writings. hence his writing is beautiful and his life bad." but his life at that time was not bad; it was as good and as pure as his work. how i loved copying _war and peace_! i wrote in my diary: "the consciousness of serving a genius and a great man has given me strength for anything." i also wrote in a letter to leo nikolaevich: "the copying of _war and peace_ uplifts me very much morally, _i. e._ spiritually. when i sit down to copy it, i am carried away into a world of poetry, and sometimes it even seems to me that it is not your novel that is so good, but i that am so clever." in my diary i also wrote: "levochka all the winter has been writing with irritation, often with tears and pain. in my opinion, his novel, _war and peace_, must be superb. whatever he has read to me moves me to tears." in 1865, when my husband was in moscow looking up historical material, i wrote to him: "today i copied and read on a little ahead, what i had not yet seen nor read, namely, how the miserable, muffled-up old mack himself arrives to admit his defeat, and round him stand the inquisitive aides-de-camp, and he is almost crying, and his meeting with kutuzov. i liked it immensely, and that is what i am writing to tell you." in november, 1866, leo nikolaevich used to go to the rumyantsev museum and read up everything about the freemasons. before leaving yasnaya polyana he always left me work to copy. when i had finished it, i sent it off to moscow, and i wrote to my husband: "how have you decided about the novel? i have got to love your novel very much. when i sent the fair-copy off to moscow, i felt as if i had sent off a child and i am afraid that some harm may come to it." in copying i was often astonished and could not understand why leo nikolaevich corrected or destroyed what seemed so beautiful, and i used to be delighted if he put back what he had struck out. sometimes proofs which had been finally corrected and sent off, were returned again to leo nikolaevich at his request in order to be recorrected and recopied. or a telegram would be sent to substitute _one_ word for another. my whole soul became so immersed in copying that i began myself to feel when it was not altogether right, for instance, when there were frequent repetitions of the same word, long periods, wrong punctuation, obscurity, etc. i used to point all these things out to leo nikolaevich. sometimes he was glad for my remarks; sometimes he would explain why it ought to remain as it was: he would say that details do not matter, only the general scheme matters. the first thing which i copied out in my clumsy, but legible writing was _polikushka_, and for years afterwards that work delighted me. i used to long for the evening when leo nikolaevich would bring me something newly written or recorrected. some passages in _war and peace_, and also in his other works, had to be copied over and over again. others, for instance the description of the uncle's hunting party in _war and peace_, were written once and for all and were not corrected. i remember how leo nikolaevich called me down to his study and read aloud to me that chapter just after he had written it, and we smiled and were happy together. in copying i sometimes allowed myself to make remarks and to ask him to strike out anything which i thought not sufficiently pure to be read by young people, for instance in the scene of the beautiful ellen's cynicism, and leo nikolaevich granted my request. but often in my life, when copying the poetical and charming passages in my husband's works, i have wept, not only because they moved me, but simply from the artist's pleasure which i felt together with the author. it used to grieve me much when leo nikolaevich suddenly became depressed and disappointed with his work, and wrote to me that he did not like the novel and was miserable. this was particularly the case in 1864, when he broke his arm, and i wrote to him in moscow: "why have you lost heart in everything? everything depresses you; nothing goes right. why have you lost heart and courage? haven't you the strength to rouse yourself? remember how pleased you were with the novel, how well you thought it all out, and suddenly you don't like it. no, no, you must not. now, come to us, and instead of the kremlin's walls you will see our _chepyzh_,[j] lighted up by the sun, and the fields ... and with a happy face you will begin telling me the ideas for your work, you will dictate to me, and ideas will again come to you, and the melancholy will pass away." and so it was after he had come home. if leo nikolaevich stopped working, i used to feel dull and wrote to him: "prepare, prepare work for me." in moscow he sold the first part of _war and peace_ to katkov for the _russkii vyestnik_, and he handed the ms. over to the secretary, lyubimov.{26} somehow or other it made me sad, and i wrote to my husband: "i felt so sorry that you had sold it. terrible! your thoughts, feelings, your talent, even your soul--sold!" when leo nikolaevich had finished _war and peace_, i asked him to publish that beautiful epic in book form, and not to publish it in magazines, and he agreed. soon afterwards n. n. strakhov's brilliant review of it came out, and leo nikolaevich said that the place which strakhov gave to _war and peace_ by his appreciation would remain permanent.{27} but apart from this tolstoy's fame grew with great rapidity, and his reputation as a writer rose higher and higher and soon extended to all countries and all classes. princess paskevich was the first to translate _war and peace_ into french for some charitable purpose, and the french, although surprised, appreciated the work of the russian writer. among my papers i have a copy of i. s. turgenev's letter to edmond about, in which turgenev gives the highest praise to _war and peace_. among other things, he says on 20 january, 1880: "_un des livres les plus remarquables de notre temps_." and again: "_ceci est une grande oeuvre d'un grand écrivain et c'est la vraie russie_."{28} in 1869 the printing of the first edition of _war and peace_ was completed; it was quickly sold out and a second printed. the writer shedrin's opinion of _war and peace_ was strange; he said with contempt that it reminded him of the chatter of nursemaids and old ladies. after finishing his great work, leo nikolaevich's need for creative activity did not come to an end. new ideas sprang up in his mind. in working at the period of peter the great, despite all his efforts, he was unable to describe the period, particularly its every-day life. i wrote to my sister about it: "all the characters of the time of peter the great he now has ready; they are dressed, arranged, sitting in their places, but they don't breathe yet. perhaps they will begin to live." but these characters did not come to life. the beginning of this work on the time of peter the great still remains unpublished. at one time leo nikolaevich intended to write the history of mirovich, but he did not accomplish that either.{29} he always shared with me his plans about work, and in 1870 he told me that he wanted to write a novel about the fall of a society woman in the highest petersburg circles, and the task which he set himself was to tell the story of the woman and of her fall without condemning her. the idea was later carried out in his new novel, _anna karenina_. i well remember the circumstances in which he began to write that novel. in order to amuse old aunt tatyana alexandrovna ergolskii, i sent my son serge, who was her godson, to read aloud to her pushkin's _tales of byelkin_. she fell asleep while he was reading, and serge went up to the nursery, leaving the book on a table in the drawing-room. leo nikolaevich took up the book and started to read a passage beginning with the words: "the guests were arriving at the country-house of count l----"{30} "how good, how simple," said leo nikolaevich. "straight to business. that's the way to write. pushkin is my master."{31} that same evening leo nikolaevich began to write _anna karenina_ and read the opening chapter to me; after a short introduction about the families he had written: "everything was in a muddle in the house of the oblonskiis." that was on 19 march, 1872. when he had written the first part of _anna karenina_ and had given me the second part to be copied, leo nikolaevich suddenly stopped working at it and became interested in education. in 1874 he wrote to countess alexandra andreevna tolstoy: "i am again deep in education, as i was fourteen years ago. i am writing a novel, but i cannot tear myself away from the living in order to describe imaginary people."{32} however difficult i might find it to combine the copying with my maternal and other duties, when i had not got it, i missed it and waited impatiently for my husband's artistic work to begin again. the conditions under which _anna karenina_ was written were much more difficult than those under which _war and peace_ was written. then we had undisturbed happiness, now there died in succession three of our children{33} and two aunts.{34} i became ill, grew thin, coughed blood, and suffered from pains in the back. leo nikolaevich became alarmed, and in moscow, on the way to get kumiss, he consulted professor zakharin, who said: "it is not yet consumption, but her nerves may be shattered"; and he added reproachfully: "you have neglected her, though." he forbade me to teach the children or do the copying, and he prescribed a régime of silence. for a long time i got no better, especially as we had to spend the summer on the samara steppes in very inconvenient surroundings and living on kumiss, which i could not drink. miserable and ill, i wrote to my sister: "levochka's novel is published and is said to be a great success. in me it arouses strange feelings; there is so much sorrow in our house, and we are everywhere made so much of." after _anna karenina_, leo nikolaevich, wishing to purify the literature read by simple folk and to introduce more morality and art into it, wrote a series of stories and legends which i admired very much; i sympathized keenly with their idea and object. i remember being present at the university when these legends were read aloud, and i wrote to leo nikolaevich at yasnaya polyana: "the legends were a tremendous success. they were beautifully read by professor storozhenko. the majority of the audience were students. the impression which the stories makes on one is that the _style_ is remarkably severe, concise, not a single unnecessary word, everything true and pointed--a harmonious whole. much meaning, few words; it gives one satisfaction right up to the end." i mention these works, as i have done those which were created during the happiest years of our life. iv during the first years of our married life we had few people to stay with us. i remember that count sollogub, the author of _tarantas_, with his two sons, used to come and visit us. he was a clever and amiable man, and we all liked him very much; he won my heart by saying to leo nikolaevich: "lucky man to have such a wife." to me he once said: "you are, in fact, the nurse of your husband's talent, and go on being that all your life long." i always remembered this wise and friendly advice of count sollogub, and i tried to follow it as well as i could. very often fet used to come to us; leo nikolaevich was fond of him and fet was fond of us both. on his journeys between moscow and his estate he used to stay with us, and his good wife, marie petrovna, often came with him; he used to make the house ring with his loud, brilliant, often witty, and sometimes flattering, talk. in the early summer of 1863, he was at yasnaya polyana when leo nikolaevich was tremendously interested in bees and used to spend whole days among the hives; sometimes i used even to bring the lunch out there. one evening we all decided to have tea in the apiary. everywhere in the grass glow-worms began to shine. leo nikolaevich took two of them and laughingly held them to my ears, saying: "look, i always promised you emerald ear-rings; could anything be better than these?" when fet left, he wrote me a letter in verse, ending as follows: in my hand is yours, what a marvel! and on the earth are two glow-worms, two emeralds.{85} almost always after a visit afanasii afanasevich fet sent me a poem, and many of them were dedicated to me.{86} in one of them i was pleased by the, perhaps, undeserved description of the qualities of my soul in the following stanza: and, behold, enchanted by thee, here, remote, i understand, bright creature, all the _purity_ of thy soul. when we settled down in moscow, fet bought a house near us and often visited us, saying that in moscow all he wanted was a _samovar_. we laughed at this unexpected desire of fet's, and he explained: "i must be certain that in such and such a house, in the evening, the samovar is boiling and that there is sitting there a sweet hostess with whom i can spend a pleasant evening." among the interesting visitors at yasnaya polyana was turgenev, who came twice. the first time was in 1878, and the second when he came to ask leo nikolaevich to be present at the opening of the pushkin memorial. he was amiable and lively and liked our happy family life, and he said to leo nikolaevich: "how well you did for yourself, my dear, in marrying your wife."{37} i thank those dear, dead, _real_ friends of ours for their invariable goodness and kindness to me. many of them were more than twenty years older than i and treated me, as a young woman, with kindliness. nikolai nikolaevich strakhov often came to us on long visits; he was for all of us a loved and respected friend and he was always deeply touched by our life and was fond of the children. he used to say: "i must write about yasnaya polyana and the life here." but his intention remained unfulfilled. many other guests came to us at yasnaya polyana and in moscow. among them were foreigners, riepin, the famous artist, gué, syerov, ginsburg, truberskoi, aronson who painted and sculptured leo nikolaevich and myself. my portraits for some reason were never like me. a great deal could be written about this happy period of my life, when everything was so full of joy, interest, and occupation. i regret that at the time i kept few records of events and the interesting conversation of visitors and of leo nikolaevich himself; now i remember little, for i have passed through different experiences in which i had to pay with sorrow and tears for former happiness, experiences caused by painful circumstances and by wicked people. v when children began to appear upon the scene, i could no longer devote myself entirely to my husband's service and to the constant sympathy with his work. we had many children: i bore thirteen. ten of them i nursed myself, on principle and because i wanted to do so. i did not want to have wet-nurses. owing to difficulties, i had to give up the principle on three occasions. the children were growing up, and at that time we were of one mind with regard to their education. leo nikolaevich always himself engaged or found teachers and governesses for them. we parents taught them a great deal ourselves. their father wanted to give them a most refined education, and to the boys an exclusively classical one. he learnt greek himself with great labour in order to teach our eldest son, serge, whom leo nikolaevich wanted to go to the university. "by that time tanya will be grown up," he would say, "and we shall have to bring her out." i had to teach the children those subjects for which at the time there were no teachers, french, german, music, drawing, russian literature, and even dancing. i knew very little english. leo nikolaevich, who also at that time had a poor knowledge of the language, began teaching it to me, and the first book which we read together in english was wilkie collins's _the woman in white_.{38} later on i easily acquired the language from the english governess whom we had for the children. what we were chiefly concerned for in the education of the elder children, we obtained in 1881 when we moved to moscow for the winter. our eldest son, serge, entered the university; our two other sons, ilya and leo, were sent by leo nikolaevich to l. i. polivanov's classical school. he sent our daughter, tanya, to the school of painting and sculpture, and he took her out to her first fancy-dress ball at the olsufevs, as i was expecting my eighth child, alesha, born on 31 october, and did not go out anywhere. the move to moscow and our life in the town turned out for both of us to be much more difficult than we could have anticipated. it is true that leo nikolaevich wrote to me from the samara steppes, where he had gone for a kumiss cure: "if god will, i shall come and help you in your moscow affairs willingly--you have only to give me the order"; but he was unable to carry out his word and he suddenly fell into despondency. now that he was away from the country and nature, the impressions of town life, which he had forgotten, but which now came fresh to him, with its poverty on the one side and its luxury on the other, threw him into despondency, so that it often made me cry to see his moods which became much worse after he took part in the moscow census. city life was for the first time presented, as it were, to his impressionable mind. but a return to our previous life was impossible, as the children's education had just been begun and had become the principal problem in our life. with sadness i had to look back and recognize that the nineteen years which we had spent continuously at yasnaya polyana were the happiest time of our lives. besides the family and the copying for leo nikolaevich, what a number of good occupations i had in the country! sick peasants used to come to me and, as far as i could, i used to treat them, and i was fond of the work. we planted apple trees and other trees and took pleasure in watching them grow. once we had a school in the house and the village children were taught with ours as they grew up. but this did not last long, because we had to have our own children educated and we wanted to make their life as varied as possible. in the winter the whole family, including us parents, the tutors, and governesses, skated on the ice or tobogganed on the hills, and we cleared the snow from the pond ourselves. every summer, for twenty years, the family of my sister, t. a. kuzminskii, came to yasnaya polyana, and our life was so merry that the summer with us was a continuous holiday. there were various games like croquet and tennis, amateur theatricals, and other amusements like bathing, gathering mushrooms, boating, and driving, and besides these, the summer was devoted to music, and concerts arranged by the children and grown-ups, with piano, violin, and singing. one summer all the young people worked on the land, and with leo nikolaevich gathered in the crops for the poor peasant women. already at the same time, _i. e._ at the end of the 'seventies and beginning of the 'eighties, he felt in him that inner crisis, that desire for a different, more simple and spiritual, life which never left him until the end of his life. but there also came an end to the undisturbed happiness with which we had lived so many years. at the beginning of his spiritual crisis leo nikolaevich, as is well known, gave himself ardently to the orthodox faith and church. he saw himself united in it with the people. but gradually he left it, as his later writings show. it is difficult to trace the steps of this crisis in leo nikolaevich, and when it was exactly that i, with my intensely hardworking life and maternity, could no longer live so completely in my husband's intellectual interests, and he began to go further and further away from family life. we had already nine children, and the older they grew, the more complicated became the problem of their education and our relations to them. but their father was withdrawing himself more and more from them, and at last he refused altogether to have anything to do with the education of his children, on the plea that they were being taught according to principles and a religion which he considered harmful for them. i was too weak to be able to solve the dilemma, and i was often driven to despair; i became ill, but saw no way out. what could be done? go back to the country and give up everything? but leo nikolaevich did not seem to want that either. against my will he bought a house in moscow, and thus seemed to fix our life in the town.{39} the difference between my husband and myself came about, not because _i_ in my heart went away from him. i and my life remained the same as before. it was _he_ who went away, not in his everyday life, but in his writings and his teachings as to how people should live. i felt myself unable to follow his teachings myself. but our personal relations were unaltered: we loved each other just as much, we found it just as difficult to be parted even temporarily, and, as an old and respected friend of our family expressed it in a letter to me: "not a jot could be added to or taken from either of you without disturbing the wonderful harmony of your private spiritual life in the midst of the multitude of people surrounding you...." only rarely was our happiness clouded and the harmony broken by flashes of mutual jealousy, which had no ground at all. we were both hot-tempered and passionate; we could not bear the thought that anyone should alienate us. it was just this jealousy which woke up in me with terrible force when, towards the end of our life, i realized that my husband's soul, which had been open to me for so many years, had suddenly been closed to me irrevocably and without cause, while it was opened to an outsider, a stranger.{40} vi in four years we had suffered five losses in the family. the two aunts died, in 1874 tatyana alexandrovna ergolskii, and in 1875 pelageya ilinishna yushkov. also three of our young children died; i caught whooping-cough from them, and at the same time became ill with peritonitis which brought on child-birth prematurely and i was on the point of death. whether these events influenced leo nikolaevich or whether there were other causes, his discontent with life and his seeking for truth became acute. everyone knows from his _confession_ and other works that he even contemplated hanging himself, when he did not find satisfaction in his seeking. i could not feel as happy as before, when my husband, though without saying it frankly, threatened to take his life, as later he threatened to go away from his family. it was difficult for me to discover the causes of his despair or to induce myself to believe in them.{41} our family lived its normal, good life, but it no longer satisfied him; he was looking for the meaning of life in something different; he was seeking for belief in god, he always shuddered at the thought of death, and he could not find that which might comfort him and reconcile him with it. at one time he would speak to count bobrinsky{42} of the teaching of radstock,{43} at another to prince s. s. urusov{44} of the orthodox faith and church, at another with pilgrims and sectaries, and later with bishops, monks, and priests. but nobody and nothing satisfied leo nikolaevich or put his mind at rest. a spirit which rejected the existing religions, the progress, science, art, family, everything which mankind had evolved in centuries, had been growing stronger and stronger in leo nikolaevich, and he was becoming gloomier and gloomier. it was as though his inner eye was turned only to evil and suffering, as though all that was joyful, beautiful, and good had disappeared. i did not know how to live with such views; i was alarmed, frightened, grieved. but with nine children i could not, like a weather-cock, turn in the ever changing direction of my husband's spiritual going away. with him it was a passionate, sincere seeking; with me it would have been a silly imitation, positively harmful to the family. besides, in my innermost heart and beliefs i did not wish to leave the church to which from my childhood i had always turned in prayer. leo nikolaevich was himself for nearly two years at the beginning of his seeking extremely orthodox and observed all rituals and feasts. at the time the family also followed his example. _when_ exactly we parted from him and over what, i do not know, i cannot remember. leo nikolaevich's denial of the church and orthodoxy had a sharp contrast in his recognition of the efficacy and wisdom of christ's teaching, which he considered incompatible with the doctrine of the church. personally i could have no difference with him regarding the gospel, since i considered the gospel to be the foundation of the orthodox faith.{45} when he accepted christ's teaching and tried to live in accordance with the gospel, leo nikolaevich began to suffer through our apparently luxurious mode of life, which i could not alter. i simply did not understand why i should alter it, nor could i alter conditions which had not been created by ourselves. if i had given away all my fortune at my husband's desire (i don't know to whom), if i had been left in poverty with nine children, i should have had to work for the family--to feed, do the sewing for, wash, bring up my children without education. leo nikolaevich, by vocation and inclination, could have done nothing else but write.{46} he was always rushing off from moscow to yasnaya polyana; he lived alone there, read, wrote, and thought out his work. i bore these partings from him with difficulty, but i considered them necessary for my husband's intellectual work and peace of mind. in my turn, as i grew older, the external and internal complexity of life made me look seriously into its demands, and again, as in my early youth, i turned to philosophy, to the wisdom of the thinkers who had preceded us. at that time, about 1881 or 1882, prince leonid dmitrievich urusov,{47} an intimate friend who often visited us and who was deputy governor of the tula province, translated into russian _the meditations of marcus aurelius_ and brought us the book to read. the thoughts of that royal sage produced a great impression on me. later prince urusov gave me the works of seneca in a french translation. the brilliant style and richness of thought in that philosopher so attracted me that i read his works through twice. i then read in succession various philosophers, buying their books and copying out the ideas and sayings which struck me. i remember how impressed i was by epictetus's thoughts on death. i found spinoza very difficult to understand, but i became interested in his ethics and especially in his explanation of the conception of god. socrates, plato, and other philosophers, but particularly the greeks, enchanted me, and i can say that these sages helped me greatly to live and to think. later on i also tried to read modern philosophers; i read schopenhauer and others, but i much preferred the ancients. of leo nikolaevich's philosophical works i liked and understood best his book _on life_, and i translated it into french with the assistance of m. tastevin. i worked hard at that translation, being particularly ill at the time and expecting the birth of our last child, vanichka. while working conscientiously at the translation, i often went for advice to my husband and to the philosophers, n. y. grot and v. s. solovev. i always very much liked writing of whatever kind. when leo nikolaevich was writing his _a. b. c._ and _four reading-books_, he used to intrust to me the work of making up sentences and of re-telling and translating them so as to adapt them to the russian language and customs. i also wrote the small story _sparrows_ and others. on the appearance of _kreutzer sonata_, which i never liked, i wrote a story from the woman's point of view, but i did not publish it. later on i wrote a tale, _a song without words_. i got the idea for it by seeing girls at a concert behave strangely to a famous pianist. they kissed his goloshes, tore his handkerchief to pieces and altogether acted as if they were mad. what has music to do with all that? i wanted to convey the idea that our attitude towards art, as towards nature, must be chaste, _i. e._ pure, without any mixture of base human passions. when i taught the children, i wrote a russian grammar from which they quickly learnt to write correctly. unfortunately the russian teacher, who much approved of my work, lost it. i used to invent stories to tell to my children, and i wrote some of them down and later published them with illustrations. in the first story, _skeleton aurelias_, i used an idea of leo nikolaevich's. he began to write the story, but the beginning was lost. whether it was lost with his suit-case,{48} or whether it was carried off with the other mss., i do not know.{49} i always regarded my literary work with a certain contempt and irony, considering it in the nature of a joke. for instance, after reading various writings of the decadents, i tried to imitate them, and, for a joke, wrote prose poems under the title _groans_. they were published, without my name, and without the author being known, in the _journal dlva vsvekh_ for march, 1904. i remember two others of my writings, translations which leo nikolaevich commissioned me to do. one was from the german, _the teaching of the twelve apostles_,{50} which he afterwards corrected himself, and the other from english, _on the sect of the bahaists_.{51} i also published various articles in newspapers. the most important were: my appeal for funds for the famine-stricken on 3 november, 1891; my letter to the _metropolitans_ and _synod_ on leo nikolaevich's excommunication, which had deeply revolted and pained me.{52} i also published an article, _a recollection of turgenev_, in the _orlovskii vyestnik_, a critical article on andreyev, and others.{53} if i ever wrote anything of value, it was the seven thick note-books, under the title _my life_.{54} in them i described all my long life up to 1897. when after the death of leo nikolaevich i was, quite illegally, forbidden access to the historical museum, where i had placed for safe keeping all my husband's papers, diaries, letters, note-books, as well as my own, i could not continue my work without materials, and three years of my life, which was drawing to a close, were lost to the work. and who knows better than i the life of leo nikolaevich? it was i myself who in 1894 placed those documents first in the rumyantsev museum, and later during its repair transferred them to the historical museum, where they now lie awaiting the verdict as to their fate from the courts of law.{55} vii in the summer of 1884 leo nikolaevich worked a great deal on the land; for whole days he mowed with the peasants, and when tired out he came home in the evenings, he used to sit gloomy and discontented with the life lived by the family. that life was in discordance with his teaching, and this tormented and pained him. at one time he thought of taking a russian peasant woman, a worker on the land, and of secretly going away with the peasants to start a new life; he confessed this to me himself. at last, on 17 june, after a little quarrel with me about the horses, he took a sack with a few things on his shoulder and left the house, saying that he was going away for ever, perhaps to america, and that he would never come back. at the time i was beginning to feel the pains of childbirth. my husband's behaviour drove me to despair, and the two pains, of the body and of the heart, were unendurable. i prayed to god for death. at four o'clock in the morning leo nikolaevich came back, and, without coming to me, lay down on the couch downstairs in his study. in spite of my cruel pains i ran down to him; he was gloomy and said nothing to me. at seven o'clock that morning our daughter alexandra was born. i could never forget that terrible, bright june night. once more in 1897 leo nikolaevich had the desire to go away; but no one knew of it. he wrote me a letter which, at his desire, was handed over to me only after his death.{56} but that time also he did not go away. in the autumn of that year leo nikolaevich gave me a power-of-attorney to manage all his affairs, including the publication of his works. inexperienced and without a farthing, i energetically began to learn the business of publishing books, and then of selling and subscribing l. n. tolstoy's works. i had to manage the estates and in general all his affairs. how difficult it was, with a large family and with no experience! i had more than once to appeal to the censor, and for that purpose i had to go to petersburg. once leo nikolaevich called me into his study and asked me to take over in full ownership all his property, including his copyrights. i asked him what need there was for that, since we were so intimate and had children in common. he replied that he considered property an evil and that he did not wish to own it. "so you wish to hand over that evil to me, the creature nearest to you," i said, in tears; "i do not want it and i shall take nothing." so i did not take my husband's property, but i managed his affairs under the power-of-attorney, and it was only some years afterwards that i agreed to a general division of the property, and the father himself apportioned the shares to each of the children and to myself. he renounced altogether the copyright of his books written after 1881.{57} but he retained until the end of his life the copyright of the previous books. the division was completed in 1891, and yasnaya polyana was given to our youngest son, vanichka, and to myself. in the same year 1891 an important event happened to me. i went to petersburg to petition the authorities to remove the ban on the thirteenth volume of l. n. tolstoy's works, which contained _kreutzer sonata_. i made an application to the emperor alexander iii. he graciously received me, and, after i had left, he ordered the ban on the forbidden book to be removed, although he expressed a desire that _kreutzer sonata_ should not be sold as a separate volume. but some one secretly published the story, and envious persons calumniated me by telling the tsar that i had disobeyed his will. the sovereign was, naturally, highly displeased, and, as countess a. a. tolstoy told me he said: "if i was mistaken in that woman, then there are no truthful people in the world." i got to know about this too late to clear up the matter, and i was deeply grieved, the more so because the tsar died that autumn without ever knowing the truth. viii the year 1891 and the two following years were memorable for us because of the assistance given by the family to the famine-stricken russian people. distressed by the news which we received about the calamity, i decided to publish in the newspapers an appeal for subscriptions. what a joy to me was the ardent sympathy of the good people who sent generous donations, often accompanied by moving letters! the four younger children remained with me in moscow. it was extraordinarily difficult for me to part from my husband and the elder children who were exposing themselves to many dangers. my only comfort was that i, too, was taking part in the good work. i bought trucks of corn, beans, onions, cabbage, everything needed for the feeding centres where the famine-stricken poor from the villages were fed. to pay for this i received money which was sent to me in considerable sums. from the material sent to me by textile manufacturers i had under-clothing made by poor women for small wages, and i sent it to the places where it was needed most, chiefly for those suffering from typhoid. it might have been thought that this work would have satisfied leo nikolaevich. and at first it did, but he became disappointed with this too, and he began again to dream of a great act of renunciation, as he expressed it in his diary. he was annoyed with the family, though he did love us. he was often angry with me. we were what stood in the way of his carrying out his dream of a free, new life, of an act of renunciation. at times he would soften, and he wrote, for instance in his diary: "it is good to be with sonya. yesterday i thought, as i saw her with andryusha and misha, what a wonderful wife and mother she is in one sense." remarks like that, when they were made directly to me, comforted me; but, on the other hand, his obstinate rejection of all our method of life pained and tormented me. the famine relief work nearly cost my son leo his life; he was at the time a young undergraduate and worked on his own account on famine relief in the samara province. his health, especially after an attack of typhus, broke down completely, and for a long time afterwards i suffered to see him sinking. but he recovered after being ill for two years. in 1895 our youngest son, vanichka, died; he was seven years old, a general favourite, extraordinarily like his father, a clever, sensitive child, not long for this earth, as people say of such children. this was the greatest sorrow of my life, and for long i could find neither peace nor comfort.{58} at first i spent whole days in churches and cathedrals; i also prayed at home and walked in my garden, where i remembered the dear little slim figure of my boy. "where are you, where are you, vanichka?" i used often to cry, not believing in my loss. at last, after having spent nine hours one day in the archangel cathedral--it was a fast-day--i was walking home and got soaked in a violent storm of rain. i became very ill and my life was despaired of, but on easter night at the ringing of the bells i came to myself and reëntered upon my sorrowful existence. everybody about me, and particularly my husband and two eldest daughters, looked after me with extraordinary goodness and tenderness. this gladdened and comforted me. in the spring my sister, t. a. kuzminskii, arrived and took me off with her to kiev, and that disposed me still more to religion and made a strong impression on me.[k] my depression and loss of interest in everything continued during the summer, and it was only by chance and quite unexpectedly that my state of mind was changed--by music. that summer there was staying with us a well-known composer and superb pianist.{59} in the evenings he used to play chess with leo nikolaevich, and afterwards, at the request of all of us, he often played the piano. listening to the wonderful music of beethoven, mozart, chopin, and others, superbly executed, i forgot for a time my sharp sorrow, and i used morbidly to look forward to the evening, when i should again hear that wonderful music. thus the summer passed, and in the autumn i engaged a music mistress and, at the age of fifty-two, began again to practise and learn to play. as time went on, i made little progress. but i went to concerts, and music saved me from despair. leo nikolaevich wrote somewhere about music: "music is a sensual pleasure of hearing, just as taste is a sensual pleasure. i agree that it is less sensual than taste, but there is no moral sense in it." i could never share this view. he himself often cried, when his favourite pieces were played. does the pleasure of taste make one cry? music always acted upon me like something soothing and elevating. all the petty, everyday troubles lost their meaning. when i heard the chopin sonata with the funeral march or certain beethoven sonatas, i often had the desire to pray, to forgive, to love, and to think of the infinite, spiritual, mysterious, and beautiful, just as the sounds themselves do not say anything definite, but make one think, dream, and rejoice vaguely and beautifully. ix in august, 1896, leo nikolaevich suggested that i should go with him and his sister, marie nikolaevna, to the monastery near shamardin. from there we went to the optina monastery, where i fasted. while i confessed, leo nikolaevich walked round the cell of the venerable monk, father gerasim, but he did not come in. after vanichka's death our family life was no longer happy. gradually the other children married and the house became empty. the parting with our daughter was especially hard. leo nikolaevich's health began to be bad, and in september, 1901, the doctors after a consultation ordered him off to the south, to the crimea. countess panin kindly lent us her magnificent house in gaspra, where our whole family spent nearly ten months. leo nikolaevich's health not only did not improve, it grew worse. he was ill in gaspra from one infectious disease after another, and it is with pain in my heart that i remember how i used to sit at night by my husband's bed during nearly the whole of those ten months. we took it in turns to sit by him, i, my daughters, the doctors, friends, and above all my son, serge. how much i used to go through and think over during those nights!{60} we did not go back again to our life in moscow, and the doctors and i decided that it was best for leo nikolaevich to live in yasnaya polyana, where he was born and bred. after making up our minds on our return from the crimea to remain in the country, during the following years we lived quietly and peacefully, all occupied with our own work. i worked hard at writing my memoirs, under the title _my life_; i often went to moscow on business in connection with leo nikolaevich's publications, and then every day in the morning i used to sit in the historical museum, copying from the diaries, letters, and note-books the material which i wanted for my work. it gave me great pleasure, that work upstairs in the tower of the museum, in complete solitude, surrounded by such interesting papers. i did not arrange the mss., thinking that i might leave that for others, and considering it more useful to write my reminiscences, as i did not anticipate a long life or that my memory would remain fresh. moreover by mere accident i took to painting passionately, for it always attracted me. in petersburg in the tauric palace a very good and interesting exhibition of old and modern portraits was opened, and we were asked to lend all our family portraits from yasnaya polyana. it seemed to me most unpleasant to have the walls of the drawing-room bare, and with my usual boldness i began copying the portraits before they were removed. i had never studied painting, but i loved it, like all the arts, and i was terribly excited and worked for whole days, and often the nights as well. as formerly with music, i was completely carried away by painting. leo nikolaevich laughingly said that i had caught a disease called "portraititis," and that he was afraid for my sanity. the most successful of my attempts was a copy of leo nikolaevich's portrait by kramskoi. later i tried to paint landscapes and flowers from nature, but extreme short-sightedness put me at a great disadvantage, and i was dissatisfied with my want of skill. but i do not regret that i took up music and painting, however unskilfully, towards the end of my life. one only thoroughly understands any art when one practises it, however badly. my last attempts were water-colour paintings of all the yasnaya polyana flora and of all the fungi of the yasnaya polyana woods. x in 1904 i had to endure the pain of my son, andrey, leaving to fight in the war against japan. in my heart i was opposed to war as to any other kind of murder, and it was with a peculiar pain in my heart that i saw my son off at tambov and with other mothers looked at the carriages full of soldiers--our sons doomed to death. a happy event for our family in 1905 was the birth of an only child to our daughter, tatyana lvovna sukhotin. this granddaughter, as she grew up, was a favourite of leo nikolaevich and of the whole family. in 1906 i underwent a serious operation, performed by professor v. f. snegirev in yasnaya polyana. how quietly i prepared myself for death, how happy i felt, when the servants, saying good-bye to me, cried bitterly! i felt a strange sensation, when i fell asleep under the anaesthetic which was given to me: it was new and significant. all external life in its complicated setting, especially of towns, flashed before my inner vision like a quickly changing panorama. and how insignificant human vanity appeared to me! i seemed to be asking myself: what, then, is important? one thing: if god has sent us on to the earth and we are to live, then the most important thing is to help one another in whatever way possible. to help one another to live. i think the same now. the operation was quite successful, but it seemed as though the will of fate, having aimed at taking my life, wavered and then removed its hand to our daughter masha. i recovered, and that lovely, unselfish, spiritual creature, masha, died of pneumonia in our house two and a half months after my operation. this sorrow was a heavy weight on our life and aging hearts. the previous rift, the reproaches and unpleasantness ceased for a while and we humbled ourselves before fate. the time passed in our usual occupations, and leo nikolaevich, as a distraction, played cards with his children and friends; he was very fond of whist. in the mornings he wrote, and every afternoon he rode; he lived the most quiet and regular life. he was, however, often worried by visitors who tired him, by applicants, and by letters in which people disagreed with his teaching and reproached him with his way of life, or asked him for money or to get them jobs. these reproaches and the interference of outsiders in our peaceful family life ruined it. even before this the influence of outside people was creeping in and towards the end of leo nikolaevich's life it assumed terrifying dimensions. for instance, these outsiders frightened leo nikolaevich with the prediction that the russian government would send the police and seize all his papers. on that pretext they were removed from yasnaya polyana, and, therefore, leo nikolaevich could no longer work at them, as he had not the _whole_ material. eventually with difficulty i succeeded in getting back seven thick note-books containing my husband's diaries which are now in the possession of our daughter alexandra; but the affair led to strained relations with the man who had them in his keeping and he ceased his daily visits.{61} xi in 1895 leo nikolaevich wrote a letter in which, as a request to his heirs, he expressed the desire that the copyright in his works should be made public property, and in which he entrusted the examination of his mss. after his death to nikolai nikolaevich strakhov, to chertkov, and to me.{62} the letter was in the keeping of my daughter masha and was destroyed,{63} and in its place in september, 1909, a will was made at chertkov's house in krekshino not far from moscow, where leo nikolaevich and several other persons were staying at the time. the will turned out to have been drawn incorrectly and to be invalid, a fact which the "friends" soon found out.{64} our journey home from krekshino through moscow was terrible. one of the intimates had informed the press that on such and such a day at a certain hour tolstoy would be at the kursk station. several thousands of people came there to see us off. at moments it seemed to me, as i walked arm in arm with my husband and limped on my bad leg, that i should be choked, fall down, and die. in spite of the fresh, autumnal air, we were enveloped in a hot, thick atmosphere. this had a very serious effect upon leo nikolaevich's health. just after the train had passed schekino station, he began to talk deliriously and lost all consciousness of his surroundings. a few minutes after our arrival at home he had a prolonged fainting fit and this was followed by a second. luckily there was a doctor in the house. after this i suffered more and more from a painful, nervous excitement: day and night i watched my husband to see when he would go for a ride or a walk by himself, and i awaited his return anxiously, for i was afraid that he might have another fainting fit or simply fall down somewhere where it would be difficult to find him. owing to these agitations and to the difficult and responsible work connected with l. n. tolstoy's publications, i continually grew more nervous and worried, and my health broke down completely.{65} i lost my mental balance, and, owing to this, i had a bad effect upon my husband. at the same time leo nikolaevich began continually to threaten to leave the house and his "intimate" friend[m] carefully prepared, together, with the lawyer m., a new and correct will[n] which was copied by leo nikolaevich himself on the stump of a tree in the forest on 23 july, 1910.{66} * * * * * this was the will which was proved after his death. in his diary he wrote at the time, among other things: "i very clearly see my mistake; i ought to have called together all my heirs and told them my intention; i ought not to have kept it secret. i wrote this to----, but he was very annoyed--" on 5 august he writes of me: "it is painful the constant secrecy and fear for her...." on 10 august he writes: "it is good to feel oneself guilty, as i do...." and again: "my relations with all of them are difficult; i cannot help desiring death...." clearly the pressure brought to bear upon him tormented him. one of his friends, p. i. b..v,{67} was of opinion that no secret should be made of the will, and he told leo nikolaevich so. at first he agreed with the opinion of this true friend, but he went away and leo nikolaevich submitted to another influence though at times he was obviously oppressed by it. i was powerless to save him from that influence, and for leo nikolaevich and myself there began a terrible period of painful struggle which made me still more ill. the sufferings of my hot and harassed heart clouded my reasoning powers, while leo nikolaevich's friends worked continually, deliberately, subtly upon the mind of an old man whose memory and powers were growing feeble.{68} they created around him who was dear to me an atmosphere of conspiracy, of letters received secretly, letters and articles sent back after they had been read, mysterious meetings in forests for the performance of acts essentially disgusting to leo nikolaevich; after their performance he could no longer look me or my sons straight in the face, for he had never before concealed anything from us; it was the first secret in our life and it was intolerable to him. when i guessed it and asked whether a will was not being made, and why it was concealed from me, i was answered by a "no" or by silence. i believed that it was not a will. it meant, therefore, that there was some other secret of which i knew nothing, and i was in despair with the perpetual feeling that my husband was being carefully set against me and that a terrible and fatal ending was in front of us.{69} leo nikolaevich's threats to leave the house became more and more frequent, and this threat added to my torment and increased my nervousness and ill-health. i shall not describe in detail leo nikolaevich's going away. so much has been and will be written about it, but no one will know the real cause. let _his_ biographers try to find out. when i read in the letter which leo nikolaevich sent me through our daughter alexandra that he had gone away finally and for ever, i felt and clearly understood that without him--and especially after all that had happened--life would be utterly impossible, and instantly i made up my mind to put an end to all my sufferings by throwing myself into the pond in which some time before a girl and her little brother had been drowned. but i was rescued, and, when leo nikolaevich was told of it, he wept bitterly, as his sister, marie nikolaevna, wrote to me, but he could not get himself to return.{70} after leo nikolaevich's going away an article appeared in the newspapers expressing the joy of one of his most "intimate" friends at the event.{71} xii all my children came to yasnaya polyana and called in a specialist on nervous diseases and had a nurse to be with me. for five days i ate nothing and did not take a drop of water. i felt no hunger, but my thirst was acute. in the evening of the fifth day my daughter tanya persuaded me to drink a cup of coffee, by saying that, if father summoned me, i would be so weak that i should be unable to go. next morning we received a telegram from the newspaper _russkoye slovo_ that leo nikolaevich had fallen ill at astapovo and that his temperature was 104. the "intimate" friend had received a telegram before this and had already left, carefully concealing from his family the place where the patient was lying. we took a special train at tula and went to astapovo. our son serge on his way to his estate had been overtaken by a telegram from his wife who had sent it at our daughter alexandra's request, and he was already with his father. this was the beginning of new and cruel sufferings for me. round my husband was a crowd of strangers and outsiders, and i, his wife who had lived with him for forty-eight years, was not admitted to see him. the door of the room was locked, and, when i wanted to get a glimpse of my husband through the window, a curtain was drawn across it. two nurses who were told off to look after me held me firmly by the arms and did not allow me to move. meanwhile leo nikolaevich called our daughter tanya to him and began asking all about me, believing me to be in yasnaya polyana. at every question he cried, and our daughter said to him: "don't let us talk about mama, it agitates you too much." "ah, no," he said, "that is more important to me than anything." he also said to her, but already indistinctly: "a great deal of trouble is falling upon sonya; we have managed it badly." no one ever told him that i had come, though i implored every one to do so. it is difficult to say who was responsible for this cruelty. every one was afraid of accelerating his death by agitating him; that was also the doctors' opinion.{72} who can tell? perhaps our meeting and my ways of looking after him to which he was accustomed, might have revived him. in one of his letters to me, which i have recently published, leo nikolaevich writes that he dreads falling ill without me. the doctors allowed me to see my husband when he was now hardly breathing, lying motionless on his back, with his eyes already closed. i whispered softly some tender words in his ear, hoping that he might still hear how i had been all the time there in astapovo and how i loved him to the end. i don't remember what more i said to him, but two deep sighs, as though the result of a terrible effort, came as an answer to my words, and then all was still.... all the days and nights that followed, until his body was removed, i spent by the dead, and in me too life became cold. the body was taken to yasnaya polyana; a multitude of people came there, but i saw and recognized no one, and the day after the funeral i collapsed with the same illness, pneumonia, though in a less dangerous form, and i was in bed for eighteen days. a great comfort to me at the time was the presence of my sister tatyana andreevna kuzminskii, and of leo nikolaevich's cousin, varvara valeryanovna nagornaya. my children, tired out, returned to their families. xiii and then there began my lonely life in yasnaya polyana, and the energy which i used to spend on life was and is directed only to this, that i may endure my sorrowful existence worthily and with submission to the will of god. i try to occupy myself only with what in some way or another concerns the memory of leo nikolaevich. i live in yasnaya polyana keeping the house and its surroundings as they were when leo nikolaevich was alive, and looking after his grave. i have kept for myself two hundred desyatins of land with the apple orchard and the plantations, the making of which had given us such pleasure. the greater part of the land (475 desyatins), with the fine, carefully preserved woods, i sold to my daughter alexandra to be transferred to the peasants.{73} i also sold my moscow house to the municipality,{74} and i sold the last edition of the works of leo tolstoy, and gave all the proceeds to my children. but they, and particularly the grandchildren, are so numerous! including the daughters-in-law and myself, we are now a family of thirty-eight, and my help was, therefore, far from satisfactory. i always feel in my heart profound gratitude to the sovereign emperor for granting me a pension, which allows me to live in security and to keep the manor of yasnaya polyana. three years have now passed. i look sadly on the havoc in yasnaya polyana, how the trees which we planted are being cut down, how the beauty of the place is gradually being spoiled, now that everything has been handed over to the timber-merchants and peasants who frequently have painful quarrels, now about the land and now about the woods. and what is going to happen to the manor and the house after my death? almost daily i visit the grave; i thank god for the happiness granted to me in early life, and as to the last troubles between us, i look upon them as a trial and a redemption of sin before death. thy will be done.{75} countess sophie tolstoy. october 28, 1913. yasnava polyana. notes {1}. in _the book of genealogies of the nobility of the moscow government_, vol. i, page 122, it is said of s. a. t.'s father: "andrey evstafevich, son of a chemist, born 9 april, 1808, a physician on the staff of the moscow palace control, collegiate assessor 1842, state councillor 1864." {2}. this was the former name of the commandant's board. {3}. alexander alexandrovich bers, first cousin of s. a. t. {4}. born 3 december, 1789, died 25 march, {1855}. buried in petersburg in the volkov lutheran cemetery. _peterburgskii necropol, petersburg_, 1912, vol. i, page 204. {5}. in _the book of genealogies of the nobility of the moscow government_, vol. i, page 122, the bers are included under section iii, _i. e._ among those families which were promoted to the title of nobility through the civil service. the year of their promotion was 1843. the right to the coat-of-arms was granted by supreme order to the father of s. a. t. in 1847. see v. lukomskii and s. troinizkii, _list of persons to whom has been granted by h. i. m. the right to coats-of-arms and the title of nobility of the all-russian empire and of the kingdom of poland_, petersburg, 1911, page 14. {6}. alexander evstafevich bers, born 18 february, 1807, died 6 september, 1871. see _peterburgskii necropol_, vol. i, page 204; also v. lukomskii and s. troinizkii, page 14. {7}. in the tula province, twenty-five versts from yasnaya polyana. {8}. a. m. islenev, born 16 july, 1794, died 23 april, 1882. leo tolstoy, who knew him well, described him as the father in _childhood boyhood and youth_. see p. sergeenko, _from the life of l. n. tolstoy_ and _how count l. n. tolstoy lives and works_, moscow, 1898, page 40. {9}. the well-known vladimir alexandrovich islavin, state councillor, born 29 november, 1818, died 27 may, 1895, author of the _the samoyeds, their domestic and social life_, petersburg, 1847, which at the time was much discussed in newspapers and magazines. see v. i. maezkov's _systematic catalogue of russian books_, a. f. basunov, petersburg, 1869, page 404. {10}. there were five sons and three daughters, _the book of genealogies_, vol. i, pages 122 and {123}. the best known of these, besides sophie andreevna, were: tatyana andreevna (by marriage kuzminskii) born 24 october 1846, the author of _my reminiscences of countess marie nikolaevna tolstoy_, petersburg, 1914; stepan andreevich bers, born 21 july 1855, author of _reminiscences of l. n. tolstoy_, smolensk, 1894; peter andreevich bers, born 26 august 1849, died 19 may 1910, the editor of _detskyii otdikh_ (1881-1882), and co-editor with l. d. obolenskii of the collection of _stories for children by i. s. turgenev and l. n. tolstoy_, 1883 and 1886; vacheslav andreevich bers, born 3 may 1861, died 19 may, 1907, an engineer who was killed for no obvious reason by workmen during the revolutionary days in petersburg. leo n. tolstoy was very fond of him. see p. biryukov, _how l. n. t. composed the popular calendar_, {1911}. {11}. a. y. davidov, 1823-1885, professor of mathematics in the university of moscow, author of popular text-books on algebra and geometry. {12}. n. a. sergievskii, 1827-1892, a writer on theology, author of many scholarly theological books, founder and editor of _the orthodox review_, professor of theology in the university of moscow. {13}. in the natasha of _war and peace_ there are many characteristics of s. a. t. and of her sister, tatyana andreevna kuzminskii. according to s. a. t., leo nikolaevich made the following remark about his heroine: "i took tanya, ground her up with sonya, and there came out natasha." see p. biryukov, _biography of l._ n. t., vol. ii, page 32. {14}. in s. a. t.'s story _natasha_ l. n. t. recognized himself in the hero, dublitskii, and he wrote to her in september, 1862: "i am dublitskii, but to marry merely because i needed a wife--that i could not do. i demand something tremendous, impossible from marriage; i demand that i should be loved as much as i am able to love." l. n. t. doubted whether a woman could fall in love with him deeply and completely, as he was not good-looking. on 28 august, 1862, he put down in his diary: "i got up in the usual despondency. i thought out a society for apprentices. a sweet, placid night. ugly face, don't think of marriage, your vocation is different and much has been given you instead." _l. n. t.'s letters to his wife_, edited by a. e. gruzinskii, 1913. p. biryukov, _biography of l. n. t._, vol. i, page 471. {15}. m. n. tolstoi, 7 march, 1830--6 april, 1912, sister of l. n. t. in the 'sixties she went abroad with her brother nikolai and lived with him at hyères in the south of france. after her brother's death, m. n. t., overcome with grief, did not wish to return to russia and settled for a short time in algiers. she returned from there in 1862 and visited yasnaya polyana for a short time and met s. a. t. and her mother there. see t. a. kuzminskii, _my reminiscences of marie n. tolstoy_, petersburg, 1914. p. biryukov, _countess marie n. tolstoy_, in "_russkaya vedomostii_," 1912, moscow. a. khiryakov, _l. n. tolstoy's sister_, in "_solitse rossii_," 1912. s. tolstoy, _to the portrait of countess marie n. tolstoy_ in _tolstovskii ezhegodnik_, 1912. l. n. tolstoy's letters to marie n. tolstoy in _new collection of letters of l. n. tolstoy_, collected by p. a. sergeenko, edited by a. e. gruzinskii, moscow, 1912, and complete works of l. n. tolstoy, vols. xxi-xxiv, edited by p. i. biryukov, moscow, 1913. {16}. s. a. t. here leaves out some curious details. according to her own account, leo nikolaevich followed the bers family, first to ivitsa, tula province, fifty versts from yasnaya polyana, and then to moscow. leo nikolaevich's proposal to s. a. t., which was like levin's to kitty in _anna karenina_, took place at ivitsa. see "the marriage of l. n. tolstoy," from the reminiscences of s. a. t. under the title "my life," in _russkoye slovo_, 1912. also p. biryukov, _biography of l. n. tolstoy_, vol. i, pages 464-473, and l. n. tolstoy's _letters to his wife_, pages 1-3. {17}. the bers family were convinced that l. n. t. was in love with liza, the elder sister of s. a. t., and expected him to propose to her. this misunderstanding worried l. n. t. as he said in his letter to s. a. t. see l. n. tolstoy's letters to his wife, pages 1-3. {18}. orekov, a serf of yasnaya polyana, l. n. t.'s inseparable companion during the war in sevastopol, and later steward at yasnaya polyana. see i. tolstoy, _my reminiscences_, moscow, 1914, pages 18, 22-23. {19}. t. a. ergolskii, born 1795, died 20 june 1874, a remote relation brought up in the tolstoy family, taught marie, leo and his brothers, who lost their mother at an early age. in tolstoy's house she was called aunt. see _reminiscences of childhood_ and l. n. t.'s _letters to t. a. ergolskii_; also l. n. tolstoy's _letters_, 1848-1910, collected and edited by p. a. sergeenko, l. n. tolstoy's _diary_, vol. i, 1847-1852, edited by v. g. chertkov, moscow, 1917. {20}. the beginning of chapter ii, ending with the words "and in copying out his writings," is incorporated literally by s. a. t. from the first ms. there is also written in pencil by her "this is new." the statement is not quite accurate. in the remainder of chapter iii, which is new, a small part of the original chapter iii, slightly altered, is incorporated. we shall quote this part in full: "the first thing which i copied in my clumsy, but legible handwriting was _polikushka_. for many, many years afterwards that work delighted me. i used to long for the evening when leo n. would give me something newly written or corrected for me to copy. "i was carried away by the newly created scenes and descriptions, and i tried to understand and watch the artistic development and growth of ideas and creative activity in my husband's works...." {21}. the beginning was published in two numbers of _russkii vyestnik_, 1865 and 1866, and under the title of _the year 1805_ was later published in book form, moscow, 1866. tolstoy returned to the decembrists when he had finished _anna karenina_, but was again disappointed. "my decembrists are again god knows where; i don't even think of them," he wrote to fet in april, 1879, (fet, _my reminiscences_, vol. ii, page 364). the first three chapters of the decembrists were published in a miscellaneous volume called _twenty-five years_, 1859-1884, petersburg, 1884. but towards the end of his life tolstoy again became interested in the decembrists and began to study the period, see a. b. goldenweiser, diary, _russkie propilei_. vol. ii, pages 271-272, moscow, 1916. {22}. a. m. zhemchuznikov and i. s. aksakov visited leo nikolaevich in the middle of december, 1864, in moscow at his father-in-law's house where he came to have his arm medically treated. it was then that he read to them some chapters from _war and peace_. see l. n. tolstoy's _letters to his wife_, page 41. {23}. there were a number of musical works which always made a deep impression upon tolstoy. see list of musical works loved by l. n. tolstoy, given by a. b. goldenweiser, _tolstovskii ezhegodnik_, pages 158-160; also musical works loved by l. n. tolstoy, in s. l. tolstoy's _reminiscences_. 24. countess a. a. tolstoy reproached leo nikolaevich for his long silence in a letter of 1 may 1863. leo nikolaevich wrote a four page letter in reply, but did not send it; later in the autumn of 1863 he wrote another letter, which he sent. the quotation referred to is, evidently, from the letter which was not sent, and which, as far as we know, has not appeared in print. {25}. this quotation from l. n. t.'s diary is also given in biryukov's biography, but in somewhat different form. he also gives a detailed sketch of the work, which tolstoy wrote in his diary; see biryukov, vol. ii, pages 27-28. {26}. n. a. lyubimov, 1830-1897, well-known professor of physics at the university of moscow, a collaborator with katkov and k. leontev in editing the _russkii vyestnik_ and _moskovskaya vedomesti_. {27}. strakhov's articles on _war and peace_ were published in _zarya_, 1869 and 1870, and in book form in 1871. his articles on tolstoy and turgenev appeared in book form under the title, _critical articles on i. s. turgenev and l. n. tolstoy_, second edition, 1887. {28}. edmond about, 1828-1885, the french writer to whom turgenev sent a copy of _war and peace_, translated by princess paskevich, and a letter from which the above quotation is taken. m. about published the letter in _le xix e siècle_, 23 january, 1880, under the title "_une lettre de tourguéneff_." {29}. vasilii yakoblevich mirovich, 1740-1764, a lieutenant in the smolenskii infantry regiment, executed for his attempt to rescue ivan antonovich from prison. his story formed the plot of g. p. danilevskii's novel _mirovich_ (petersburg, 1886). {30}. from the sketch of the year 1831-2: "the guests were arriving at the country-house." see pushkin, edited by s. a. vengerov, petersburg, 1910, vol. iv, pages 255-258. {31}. in p. biryukov's biography, vol. ii, page 205, the words are given thus: "that is how one should begin. the reader is at once made to feel the interest of the plot. another writer would begin to describe the guests, the rooms, but pushkin goes straight to the point." {32}. this quotation is a combination of two passages from l. n. t.'s letter to countess a. a. tolstoy of december, 1874. in the beginning of this letter he says that he has written a letter to her, but has torn it up and is writing another. it is possible that s. a. t. is quoting from the original letter. {33}. peter, eighteen months old, 18 november, 1873; nikolai, two months old, february, 1875; and the daughter born prematurely, november, {1875}. {34}. t. a. ergolskii (see note 19), and pelageya ilinishna yushkov, the sister of l. n. t.'s father, died 22, december, 1875. this death particularly affected tolstoy. he wrote to countess a. a. tolstoy: "it is strange, but the death of this old woman of eighty affected me more than any other death.... not an hour passes without my thinking of her." _tolstovskii musei_, vol. i, pages 262-3. {35}. from fet's poem: "i repeated: 'when i will....'" later fet evidently re-wrote the poem; his last four lines are: in my hand--what a marvel- is your hand. and on the grass--two emeralds. two glow-worms. see a. a. fet, complete works, vol. i, page 427, petersburg, 1912. {36}. five poems are known to have been dedicated by fet to s. a. tolstoy, see complete works, vol. i, pages 413, 414, and 449. {37}. a few months after his visit to yasnaya polyana turgenev wrote to fet: "i was very glad to make it up again with tolstoy, and i spent three pleasant days with him; his whole family is very sympathetic and his wife is a darling." see fet, _my reminiscences_, vol. ii, page 355, moscow, {1890}. {38}. wilkie collins, 1824-1889; his novel _the woman in white_, was translated into russian under the same title, petersburg, 1884. {39}. the house was bought in 1882 in the khamovnicheskii pereulok. {40}. an allusion to v. g. chertkov who became acquainted with tolstoy in 1883. see p. a. boulanger, _tolstoy and chertkov_, moscow, 1911; a. m. khiryakov, "who is chertkov?" in _kievskava starina_, 1910; p. biryukov, biography, vol. ii, pages 471-3, 479-480; v. mikulich, _shadows of the past_, petersburg, 1914; ilya tolstoy, _my reminiscences_, pages 234-5, 247, 265, 269-275; countess a. a. tolstoy, "reminiscences" in _tolstovskii musei_, vol. i, pages 36-38. {41}. s. a. t. for a long time did not believe in the seriousness of leo nikolaevich's searchings, considering them a weakness, a disease due to over-work and the playing of a part. see biryukov, biography, pages 474-478; l. n. tolstoy's _letters to his wife_, pages 196-8. {42}. a. p. bobrinskii, minister of transport 1871-1874, and a disciple of radstock; tolstoy was struck by "the sincerity and warmth of his belief." see _tolstovskii musei_, vol. i, pages 245, 265, 268, and 275. {43}. an english preacher who in the middle of the 'seventies lived in petersburg and preached with success in aristocratic houses. a short, but good, description of radstock is given by countess a. a. tolstoy, who knew him personally, in her letter to l. n. t. of 28 march, 1876, _tolstovskii musei_, vol. i, pages 267-8. {44}. s. s. urusov, 1827-1897, an intimate friend of tolstoy ever since the crimean war, a land-owner and a deeply religious man. tolstoy corresponded with him and often stayed with him in his country-house at spassko. urusov translated into french tolstoy's _in what do i believe?_ {45}. but tolstoy did not recognize the gospel which serves as the foundation of the orthodox faith, and he interpreted the gospel in his own way. it is strange that s. a. t. did not realize this. in this respect countess a. a. tolstoy, who also differed from leo nikolaevich on religious questions and was deeply pained by the difference, was more understanding and consistent. she wrote of tolstoy's _gospel_: "your crude denial and bold perversions of the divine book caused me extreme indignation. sometimes i had to stop reading and throw the book on the floor." see _tolstovskii musei_, vol. i, page 44. {46}. it is interesting to compare the autobiography of s. a. t. with tolstoy's play _and light shines in darkness_. in this marie ivanovna, a character taken from s. a. t., uses the family, children, house, and so on, as the chief arguments against the attempts of nikolai ivanovich to arrange their life in accordance with his views. she says: "i have to bring them up, feed them, bear them.... i don't sleep at nights, i nurse, i keep the whole house...." and the husband "wishes to give everything away.... he wants me at my time of life to become a cook, washerwoman." see act i, scenes xix and xx; act ii, scene ii. {47}. l. d. urusov, died 6, october, 1885, a devoted friend and enthusiastic follower of tolstoy. when he died in the crimea, where he had gone with tolstoy, urusov, according to countess a. a. tolstoy, left to his son who was with him tolstoy's letters, as the greatest treasures which he was leaving him. see _tolstovskii musei_, vol. ii; l. n. tolstoy's _correspondence with n. n. strakhov_; l. n. tolstoy's _letters to his wife_, pages 255-266. {48}. tolstoy lost his suit-case, containing mss., books, and proofs, in 1883 on his way to yasnaya polyana. among the lost mss. were several chapters of _in what do i believe?_ which tolstoy had to rewrite. biryukov, biography, vol. ii, pages 457-8. {49}. another allusion to chertkov, who in the middle of the 'eighties began taking tolstoy's mss. to england. {50}. tolstoy himself translated this work from the greek, and twice wrote a preface to it, in 1885 and 1905. see l. n. tolstoy's diary, 1895-1899, edited by v. g. ghertkov, second edition, moscow, 1916, page 46. {51}. as far as we know, this translation has not been published. {52}. her letter to the metropolitan antonius of 26 february, 1901, copies of which were sent to the other metropolitans and to the attorney to the synod. the letter and the answer of the metropolitan antonius were published in many newspapers. {53}. a short article in the form of a letter to the editor, on leonid andreyev on the appearance of burenin's critical sketches in _novoe vremya_, {1903}. at the time it attracted great attention in the press owing to the exceptional bitterness with which s. a. t. attacked andreyev and in general all modern novelists. she wrote: "one would like to continue m. burenin's splendid article, adding ever more ideas of the same kind, raising higher and higher the standard for artistic purity and moral power in contemporary literature. works of messieurs andreyevs ought not to be read, nor glorified, nor sold out, but the whole russian public ought to rise in indignation against the dirt which in thousands of copies is being spread over russia by a cheap journal and by repeated editions of publishers who encourage them. if maxim gorky, undoubtedly a clever and gifted writer from the people, introduces a good deal of cynicism and nudeness into the scenes in which he paints the life of a certain class, one always, nevertheless, feels in them a sincere sorrow for all the evil and suffering which is endured by the poor, ignorant, and drunken of fallen humanity. in the works of maxim gorky one can always dwell on some character or pathetic moment in which, one feels, the author, grieving for the fallen, has a clear knowledge of what is evil and what good, and he loves the good. but in andreyev's stories one feels that he loves and takes delight in the baseness in the phenomena of vicious human life, and with that love of vice he infects the undeveloped, the reading public which, as m. burenin says, is untidy morally, and the young who cannot yet know life.... the wretched new writers of contemporary fiction, like andreyev, are only able to concentrate upon the dirty spots in the human fall and proclaim to the uneducated, the half-intelligent reading public, and invite them to examine deep into the decayed corpse of fallen humanity and to shut its eyes to the whole of god's spacious and beautiful world with its beauty of nature, with the greatness of art, with the high aspirations of human souls, with the religious and moral struggle and the great ideals of good...." _novoe vremya_, 1903. {54}. three fragments of this have been published: "l. n. tolstoy's marriage" in _russkoye slovo_, 1912; "on the drama, _the power of darkness_" in _tolstovskii ezhegodnik_, 1912, pages 17-23; and "l. n. tolstoy's visits to the optina monastery" in _tolstovskii ezhegodnik_, 1913, part iii, pages 3-7. {55}. the history of these mss. has been discussed at great length in newspapers and magazines. the gist of the matter is as follows. by tolstoy's will everything written by him up to the date of his death, "wherever it may be found and in whose possession," was to pass to his daughter alexandra lvovna tolstoy. she laid claim to the mss. deposited in the historical museum. but s. a. t. opposed this, declaring that the mss. had been given to her as a gift by tolstoy, were her own property, and therefore could not be included in his will. the authorities of the historical museum refused both parties access to the mss. until the question had been settled by a court. the history of the case is given in _tolstovskii ezhegodnik_ for 1913. part v, pages 3-10, and in the journal _dela i dni_, 1921, pages 271-293, in which a. s. nikolaev gave an account of the case, re count l. n. tolstoy's mss. {56}. the letter of 8 july, 1897. on the envelope tolstoy wrote: "unless i direct otherwise, this letter shall after my death be handed over to sophie andreevna." the letter was entrusted to n. l. obolenskii, tolstoy's son-in-law. see l. n. tolstoy's _letters to his wife_, pages 524-526. {57}. tolstoy announced this in a letter to the editor of _russkaya vedomostii_ which was published in the paper on 19 september, 1891. the letter is reprinted in the supplement to l. n. tolstoy's diary, 1895-1899, second edition, pages 241-242. {58}. the death of vanichka was a terrible blow to tolstoy who "loved him, as the youngest child, with all the force of an elderly parent's attachment." with him the last tie binding tolstoy to his family was broken. ilya tolstoy was inclined to think that there was "a certain inner connection" between the child's death and tolstoy's attempt to leave yasnaya polyana in 1897. see ilya tolstoy, _my reminiscences_, pages 214-219. {59}. sergei ivanovich taneev, 1856-1915, who for three years consecutively, 1894-6, came to stay in the summer with the tolstoy's at yasnaya polyana. {60}. the story of tolstoy's illness and his life at gaspra is told in the fine reminiscences of dr. s. y. elpatevskii, the well-known writer and doctor who treated tolstoy, entitled "leo n. tolstoy, reminiscences and character," _rosskoe bogatstov_, number xi, 1912, pages 199-232; also s. elpatevskii, _literary reminiscences_, moscow, 1916, pages 26-49. {61}. there was a stern struggle between sophie andreevna tolstoy and chertkov over tolstoy's diaries almost from the first moment of his acquaintance with tolstoy. originally the diaries were in chertkov's hands. but in october, 1895, s. a. t. insisted upon their return to tolstoy. on 5 november, 1895, tolstoy wrote in his diary: "i have gone through a great deal of unpleasantness with regard to fulfilling my promise to sophie andreevna; i have read through my diaries for seven years." after he had read them, the diaries were handed over to s. a. t. who sent them for safe-keeping to the rumyantsev museum and later to the historical museum. the later diaries, ending with 19 may, 1900, were also handed over to s. a. t. the diaries of the last ten years, of which s. a. t. is speaking here, turned out to be in chertkov's possession. it cost s. a. t. not only much effort, but tears and even her health, in order to get them back. personally and in writing, and also through v. f. bulgakov, she entreated and implored chertkov to return them, but everything proved of no avail. an atmosphere, painful for the whole family, was thus created, and tolstoy was literally stifled, finding himself between the stubbornness of a morbid woman and the fear of offending a no less stubborn man, chertkov. it ended by tolstoy, in the middle of july, 1910, taking the diaries from chertkov and placing them for safe-keeping in the tula bank, in order not to hurt either party. after tolstoy's death, according to his will, the diaries passed to alexandra l. tolstoy. see l. n. tolstoy's diary, vol. i, 1895-1899, pages 11, 12, and 6; l. n. tolstoy's _letters to his wife_, page 493; v. f. bulgakov, _leo tolstoy during the last years of his life_, moscow, 1918, pages 255, 261-263, and 265. {62}. this will in the form of a letter was an extract from tolstoy's diary of 27, march, 1895.... his request that his works should become public property was later made in his diary for 1907, also on 4 and 8 march, 1909. {63}. three copies of this extract from the diary were kept by marie nikolaevna obolenskii, v. g. chertkov, and serge tolstoy. evidently s, a. t. did not know this. see _tolstovskii ezhegodnik_, page 9. {64}. according to a. b. goldenweiser, tolstoy, perhaps having reason to think that his will with regard to his works would not be carried out, decided to make a will which would be binding legally as well as morally. on 17 september, 1909, the will was drawn at krekshino, and on the 18 it was signed by tolstoy. by this will all his works, written after 1 january, 1881, both published and unpublished, became public property. consequently the will meant that all works written and published before that date remained the property of the family. on 18 september on their return from moscow, alexandra l. tolstoy went to see the lawyer n. k. muravev and showed him the will. muravev said that from a legal point of view the will was quite invalid, since according to law you could not leave property to "nobody," and he promised to draw up and send to yasnaya polyana the rough draft of a will. two or three consultations took place at muravev's house, at which there were present v. g. chertkov, a. b. goldenweiser, and f. a. strakhov. several drafts of the will were made which it was decided to take to tolstoy in order that "he might read them and choose one of them, or reject them all, if he found that they did not meet his wishes." on 26 october strakhov left for yasnaya polyana with the drafts. when he returned, he said that "tolstoy expressed the firm resolution to leave as public property, not only the works written after 1881, as was originally proposed, but generally everything written by him," a resolution completely new, and unexpected by those who had taken part in the consultations. in accordance with tolstoy's new decision, muravev drew up another will by which everything written by tolstoy, "wherever found and in whosesoever possession," was transferred to the full ownership of alexandra l. tolstoy. this will was taken to yasnaya polyana, copied in tolstoy's own hand, and signed by him on 1 november, 1909. this is goldenweiser's account of the two wills in his diary. we see from this story that tolstoy himself decided to make a formal will, and he himself, to his friends' surprise, radically changed the first will regarding his works written and published before 1881. but the reader is confronted with a series of puzzling questions: how did tolstoy make up his mind to have recourse to the protection of the law, which he denied with his whole soul? what caused him to alter so quickly and resolutely his intention with regard to the disposal of works written by him before 1881? why were "two or three" consultations with an experienced lawyer necessary, if the friends had the simple task of drawing up in correct and legal form tolstoy's clearly expressed intention with regard to his works? goldenweiser provides no answer to these questions. let us turn to chertkov, the principal actor in these consultations. in the _tolstovskii ezhegodnik_ for 1913, part i, pages 21-30, he published photographs of the will of 1 november, 1909, and of the two subsequent wills, with a short prefatory note in which he says: "the photographs published here of the three successive wills, written by tolstoy's own hand in the space of ten months, are sufficient proof of the repeated and serious attention which he gave to the fate of his writings, mss., and papers after his death." but there is no answer here to the puzzling questions.... approximately three years later chertkov, indeed, gave us the full history of tolstoy's wills in the supplement to l. n. tolstoy's diary, pages 241-252. there he quoted tolstoy's letter with regard to the transfer to public property of his works written before 1881; the will in the form of a letter from tolstoy's diary of 27 march 1895; the will written in krekshino; the final will and "explanatory memorandum." above all chertkov at great length tried to prove from tolstoy's letters and from extracts from his diaries that tolstoy always had complete confidence in him as a true friend, and for that reason, in preference to all the members of his family, made him sole executor for his writings, by giving him the right to "omit" or "leave in" what he thought necessary. but chertkov does not say a single word either of the moscow consultations of the friends or of the will of 1 november, 1909, and thus not only gives no answer to our questions, but excludes the possibility of our putting them, by skilfully passing direct from the krekshino will to the last two wills made in the summer of 1910. let us now hear what the third participant in the consultations has to say, namely strakhov, who, in his own words, felt a "little doubt begin to stir within him," when the friends on 1 november, 1909, "carefully performed the transactions which are bound to have certain historical consequences." his article on how the will of 1 november, 1909, was drawn up fills in the gap which chertkov passed over in silence. strakhov says nothing about the krekshino will, in the making of which he took no part.... after the failure of the will at krekshino, the new draft of a will was worked out at the moscow consultations, and strakhov left with the draft for yasnaya polyana on 26 october, when, as the friends supposed, sophie andreevna would be in moscow. their calculation was mistaken: s. a. t. was returning to yasnaya polyana in the same train as strakhov. but her presence did not prevent strakhov from executing his mission brilliantly. when alone with tolstoy, he explained that it was necessary to draw up a formal will transferring the rights in his literary property to a definite person or persons, and "he put before him the draft document and asked him to read it and sign it, if he approved of its contents." tolstoy read the paper and "at once wrote at the bottom that he agreed with its contents; and then, after thinking for a little, he said: "the whole affair is very painful to me. and it is all unnecessary--in order to secure that my ideas are spread by such measures. now christ--although it is strange that i should compare myself with him--did not trouble that some one might appropriate his ideas as his personal property, nor did he record his ideas in writing, but expressed them courageously and went on the cross for them. his ideas have not been lost. indeed no word can be completely lost, if it express the truth and if the person uttering it profoundly believe in its truth. but all these external measures for security come only from our non-belief in what we are uttering." saying this tolstoy left the room. strakhov was undecided what to do, whether to oppose tolstoy or to leave yasnaya polyana without having achieved anything. he made up his mind to oppose tolstoy and attacked him in his most vulnerable spot. he said to him: "you mentioned christ. he, indeed, took no thought about the dissemination of his words. but why? because he did not write and, owing to the conditions of the time, received no payment for his ideas. but you write and have received payment for your writings, and now your family receives it.... if you will not do something to secure the public use of your writings, you will be indirectly furthering the establishment of the rights of private property in them by your family.... i shall not conceal from you that it has been painful for us who are your friends to hear you reproached because, in spite of your denial of private property in land, you transferred your estate to the ownership of your wife. it will also be painful to hear people saying that tolstoy, in spite of his knowledge that his declaration in 1891 had no legal validity, took no steps to ensure his wish being carried out and thus consciously assisted the transference of his literary property to his family. i cannot say how painful it will be for your friends to hear that, leo nikolaevich, after your death, and the complete triumph of your survivors' monopoly over your writings during the long fifty years of copyright, and all this with the definite knowledge of your views on the subject." tolstoy acknowledged strakhov's considerations to be a "weighty argument" and, promising to think it over, left the room. he had to wait a long time for the answer. tolstoy went for a ride, had a sleep, dined, and only after his dinner called strakhov and alexandra lvovna into his study and said to them: "i shall surprise you by my ultimate decision.... i want, sasha, to leave to you alone everything, do you see? everything, not excepting what i reserved in the declaration in the newspapers.... the details you may think over with vladimir grigorevich." strakhov informed chertkov by telegram of the "successful" result of his conversations with tolstoy. on 1 november, 1909, he returned to yasnaya polyana with goldenweiser, this time to witness the signature of the new will by which "everything" passed to alexandra lvovna. this time strakhov entered yasnaya polyana with a "certain pricking of conscience," because he had hid his purpose from sophie andreevna. the signing of the will took place in the setting of a conspiracy. strakhov says that, when tolstoy took the pen, "he locked the two doors of his study one after the other." and it was so strange and unnatural to see tolstoy in the part of a man taking steps against unwanted visitors.... {65}. indeed, some time before tolstoy's going away, s. a. t.'s mind was unhinged. this became very clear in the middle of 1910. by the common consent of the family, dr. n. v. nikitin and the well-known alienist rossolino were summoned from moscow to yasnaya polyana and they found her to be suffering from hysteria and paranoia in the early stage (see _dela i dni_, 1921, number i, page 288). as regards paranoia, the data existing seem to show that the doctors were mistaken, since paranoia belongs to the class of incurable diseases and comparatively soon passes from the first to the second stage, characterized by frenzy and acute madness, from which, so far as is known, s. a. t. did not suffer. on the contrary her mental and bodily health improved considerably after tolstoy's death. but no doubt the doctors' diagnosis of hysteria was correct. there is evidence that she had a predisposition to that disease from her birth. her parents also suffered from lack of mental balance, as may be seen from tolstoy's letters to his wife. we read in them: "l. a. and a. e. (her mother and father) love each other, and yet both seem to make it the purpose of their lives to irritate each other over trifles, they spoil their own lives and those of all who surround them, and especially their daughters'. this atmosphere of irritation is very painful, even to outsiders." "a. e.... is difficult because of his unceasing and overpowering care of his health, which would indeed be much better, if he thought less about it and himself." "lyubov alexandrovna is wonderfully like you.... even the faults are the same in you and in her. i listen sometimes to her beginning to talk confidently about something which she does not know, and to make positive assertions and exaggerate--and i recognize you." signs of this disease, though in a mild form, were observed in s. a. t. from the first years of her married life. but the strength of her constitution and the healthy elements of her mind for a long time had the upper hand, and the symptoms were not obviously visible. but then the bearing and nursing of children, the complicated business of the estate, the strain on the mind for many years resulting from the differences with her husband and her struggle with chertkov--all this sapped her mental and physical powers and made it possible for the morbid characteristics to assume an acute form. even in 1910, before tolstoy's going away, she was definitely a sick person. {66}. the will of 1 november, 1909, was drawn in correct legal form, but tolstoy made the following addition to it: "in case, however, of my daughter, alexandra lvovna tolstoy dying before me, all the above-mentioned property i bequeath absolutely to my daughter tatyana lvovna sukhotin." consequently a new will was drawn up on 17 july, 1910, but a formal mistake was made in it though goldenweiser's fault, who left out the words: "being of sound mind and memory." owing to this it became necessary to draw up a will, the fourth in number, which was copied and signed by tolstoy on 22 july, 1910, and not, as s. a. t. says, on 23 july. such is the bare history of the two last wills, as related by chertkov. but he does not tell us how and under what circumstances these wills were signed. this task sergeenko junior, chertkov's secretary, has taken upon himself: he tells us how the fourth will was made. according to him, on 22 july, tolstoy fetched the witnesses who were with chertkov at telyatenki and went on horse-back with them to the old forest of zaseka, and there in the depths of the forest, sitting on the stump of a great tree, he copied his will, first from a draft and then at goldenweiser's dictation. from the expression on tolstoy's face sergeenko saw clearly that "although the whole business was painful to him, he did it with a firm conviction of its moral necessity. no hesitation was visible." {67}. p. i. biryukov, an old friend of tolstoy, author of the _biography of l. n. tolstoy_, two volumes, moscow, 1906-8. on 1 august, 1910, according to v. f. bulgakov, biryukov, during a visit to yasnaya polyana, pointed out to tolstoy "the undesirable atmosphere of conspiracy which the business of the will was assuming. to call the whole family together and explain his will to them would, perhaps, correspond better with tolstoy's general spirit and convictions." after his conversation with biryukov tolstoy was extremely disturbed. when v. f. bulgakov, who was going to chertkov's estate, asked him whether there was anything which he wanted him to say to chertkov, tolstoy replied: "no. i want to write to him, but i will do it to-morrow. tell him, i am in such a state that i want nothing and...." tolstoy stopped for a little. "and am waiting. i am waiting for what is going to happen and am prepared for anything." alexandra lvovna tolstoy and the chertkovs were very annoyed at biryukov's behaviour, thinking that his interference was ill-timed and only disconcerted tolstoy. see v. f. bulgakov, _leo tolstoy during the last years of his life_, pages 277-8. {68}. the typewritten ms. has "whose powers were growing feeble." the words "and memory" were inserted in s. a. t.'s handwriting. this is clearly no exaggeration. ilya tolstoy also says that tolstoy during his last year of life had several fainting fits and that after them he used for a short time to lose his memory to such an extent that he did not recognize his near relations, and once even asked about his brother who had been dead fifty years: "and how is mitenka?" bulgakov, who lived at yasnaya polyana in 1910, gives not a few similar instances. tolstoy confirms it himself. in june 1910, when asked whether he had seen the tula asylum, he replied: "i don't remember. i have forgotten. a phenomenon, like the weakening of memory, must interest you mental specialists. my memory has become very bad." see ilya tolstoy, _my reminiscences_, pages 246-7 and 272; bulgakov, _leo tolstoy_, pages 34-5, 267, 289, and 323. {69}. was it not the desire to discover this secret which made s. a. t. steal into tolstoy's study at nights and search there, as is stated by tolstoy in his diary? see _dela i dni_, 1921, number i, pages 290-1. {70}. this letter is quoted in _my reminiscences_, by ilya tolstoy, pages 261-3. {71}. this of course refers to chertkov's letter on the occasion of tolstoy's going away, published in _russkaya vedomostii_, 1910, number 252. an extract is quoted in chertkov's pamphlet, _on the last days of l. n. tolstoy_, moscow, 1911, page {15}. {72}. this was also the opinion of all the members of the family who were at astapovo. see ilya tolstoy's, _my reminiscences_, pages 253-5. {73}. the sale of yasnaya polyana has its history. s. a. t. and her sons originally approached the government and asked whether it would acquire yasnaya polyana for the state. the council of ministers discussed the question at the two sittings of 26 may and 14 october, 1911. at the first sitting it was decided to acquire yasnaya polyana at the price of 500,000 roubles suggested by the heirs; but at the second sitting the council adopted the view of the attorney to the synod, v. k. sabler, and the minister of education, l. a. kasso, who held it inadmissible that the government should honour its enemies and enrich their children at the state's expense; and the question of purchasing yasnaya polyana went no further. later a bill for its purchase was introduced in the duma, but nothing came of it.... on 26 february, 1913, alexandra lvovna tolstoy bought yasnaya polyana for 400,000 roubles, which she had received from sitin, the publisher, for the right of publishing a complete edition of tolstoy's works. on 26 march, 1913, tolstoy's long-cherished desire was fulfilled and the land of yasnaya polyana was transferred to the peasants. see _tolstovskii ezhegodnik_, 1911, number ii, page 31, numbers iii, iv, and v, pages 190-4 and 198; 1913, part v, pages 10-12. {74}. on 15 november, 1912, the moscow municipality acquired tolstoy's house in moscow with all its furniture for 125,000 roubles and decided to use it for a tolstoy museum and library, and to build in the court-yard a new building for a tolstoy school of sixteen classes. see _tolstovskii ezhegodnik_, 1911, number ii, pages 31-2, and numbers iii, iv, and v, pages 194-6. {75}. the newspapers announced that s. a. t. died in october, 1919. we have not succeeded in verifying the date and, therefore, cannot vouch for its accuracy. appendix appendix i semen afanasevich vengerov s. a. vengerov was born 5 april, 1855 and died 14 september, 1920. on leaving his public school in 1872, he entered the academy of medicine and surgery in petersburg and took the general course in natural science. he then changed to the faculty of law in the petersburg university and graduated in 1879. a year later he graduated in the historical and philological faculty in the derpl university, after which he remained at the petersburg university in order to prepare for the professorship of russian literature. in 1897 he began a course of lectures on the history of russian literature at the petersburg university, but was soon dismissed by the minister of education because of his liberal views. it was only in 1906 that vengerov was again allowed to lecture in the university, and in 1910 he was made professor of the university for women and of the institute of psychoneurology. at last in 1919 he was appointed professor of russian literature in the petrograd university. in addition to his lectures, after 1908 he conducted in the university a special pushkin school, and the work of this school was published in three volumes, _the pushkinist_, 1914, 1916, and 1918. after the revolution, when the library was established, vengerov was appointed director and managed the institution, under very unfavourable conditions, until his death. "i can only remember three days in my whole life when i felt at leisure," vengerov used to say. the intense industriousness of his life may be seen from the following incomplete list of his works: "russian literature in her contemporary representatives: i. s. turgenev, 1875; i. i. lazhechnikov, 1883; a. f. pisemskii, 1884. "critico-biographical dictionary of russian authors and men of letters," six volumes, 1889-1904. these six volumes only complete the first letter of the alphabet, most of the articles being written by vengerov. russian poetry. seven volumes, 1893-1901. thirty volumes of russian authors edited with notes about the writers. "the sources of the dictionary of russian authors," four volumes, 1900-1917. "library of great writers," edited by vengerov and containing the complete works of shakespeare, byron, molière, and pushkin. "outlines of the history of russian literature," 1907. "russian literature of the twentieth century," 1890-1910. "the heroic character of russian literature." it will be seen from the above list that vengerov devoted the whole of his life to russian literature. as a writer and man of letters, he achieved considerable popularity. appendix ii nikolai nikolaevich strakhov. n. n. strakhov was born 16 october, 1828, and died 24 january, 1896. he studied at the ecclesiastical seminary of kostroma and completed his course in 1845. he then passed to the faculty of mathematics in the petersburg university and took his degree in 1848. he then entered the faculty of natural science and mathematics in the teachers' training institute and completed his course in 1851, after which he became a teacher of physics and mathematics. in 1857 he received the degree of master of zoology. in 1861 he gave up teaching and became the principal collaborator with the brothers dostoevskii on the monthly magazine, _vremya_. his chief writings were polemical. under the nom-de-plume of "n. kossize," he wrote a series or articles which had a great success and were chiefly directed against the "westerners," radicals, and socialists, e. g. chernishersikii, pisarev. _vremya_, which had a large circulation, was suppressed by the authorities because of an article by strakhov, called "the fatal problem," which dealt with russian-polish relations in a spirit of opposition to the government. being without work, strakhov began translating books into russian, chiefly on philosophical, scientific, and literary subjects. tolstoy's friendship with strakhov began in 1871. when someone asked him about the friendship, strakhov sent him the following autobiographical note: "the origin of my acquaintance with l. n. tolstoy in 1871 was as follows. after my articles on _war and peace_, i decided to write him a letter asking him to let the _sarya_ have some of his work. he replied that he had nothing at present, but added a pressing invitation to come and see him at yasnaya polyana whenever an opportunity should present itself. in 1871 i received four hundred roubles from the _sarya_, and in june i went to stay with my people in poltava. on my way back to petersburg i stopped at tula for the night, and in the morning took a cab and drove out to yasnaya polyana. after that we used to see each other every year, that is, i used to stay a month or six weeks with him every summer. at times we quarrelled and grew cool to each other, but good feeling always won the day; his family got to like me, and now they see in me an old, faithful friend, which indeed i am." with strakhov tolstoy was on very friendly terms, which allowed complete frankness between them. tolstoy himself wrote of his correspondence with strakhov (in a letter of 6 february, 1906, to p. a. sergeenko): "in addition to alexandra andreevna tolstoy, i had two persons to whom i have written many letters which, as far as i can remember, might interest people interested in my personality. they are strakhov and prince serge s. urusov." (_letters_, vol. ii, page 227.) the friendship of tolstoy and strakhov lasted for twenty-five years, and on strakhov's part there was thirty years adoration of tolstoy's genius and of his great spiritual and intellectual qualities. v. v. rosanov wrote the following after strakhov's death: "strakhov's attachment to tolstoy was most deep and mystical: he loved him as the incarnation of the best and most profound aspirations of the human soul, as a special nerve in the huge body of mankind in which we others form parts less understanding and significant; he loved him for what was indefinite and incomplete in him. he loved in him the dark abyss, the bottom of which no one could see, from the depths of which still rise numbers of treasures; and there is no doubt that tolstoy never lost a better friend." strakhov's works included: _from the history of russian nihilism_, 1890; _essays on pushkin and other poets_, 1888; _biography of dostoevskii; the struggle of the west with our literature_, three volumes, 1882-1886; and some scientific works. appendix iii tolstoy's first will tolstoy's first will was contained in the form of a letter in his diary of 27 march, 1895 and repeated in his diary of 1907, see notes 62 and 63 above. the following is the text of the entry in the diary:- my will is approximately as follows. (until i have written another this holds good.) (1). to bury me where i die, in the cheapest cemetery, if i die in a town, and in the cheapest coffin, as paupers are buried. flowers and wreaths are not to be sent, speeches are not to be made. if possible, bury me without priests or burial service. but if those who bury me dislike this, let them bury me in the ordinary way with a funeral service, but as cheaply and simply as possible. (2.) my death is not to be announced in the newspapers, nor are obituary notices to be written. (3.) all my papers are to be given to my wife, v. g. chertkov, strakhov, and to my daughters tanya and masha,[p] for them, or for such of them as survive, to sort and examine. (i have myself struck out my daughter's names. they ought not to be bothered with this.) i exclude my sons from this bequest not because i did not love them (i have come of late to love them better and better, thank god) and i know that they love me; but they do not altogether understand my ideas; they did not follow their development; and they may have views of their own which may lead them to keep what ought not to be kept and to reject what ought to be kept. i have taken out of the diaries of my bachelor life what is worth keeping. i wish them to be destroyed. also in the diaries of my married life i wish to be destroyed everything which might hurt anyone if published. chertkov has promised me to do this even during my lifetime, and knowing the great and undeserved love that he has for me and his moral sensibility i am sure that he will do it splendidly. i wish the diaries of my bachelor life to be destroyed not because i wish to conceal the wickedness of my life--my life was the usual unclean life of an unprincipled young man--but because the diaries in which i recorded only the torments which arise from the consciousness of sin produce a false and one-sided impression and represent.... well, let my diaries remain as they are. in them at least is seen how in spite of all the frivolity and immorality of my youth i yet was not deserted by god and though it was only in old age, i began, though only a little, to understand and love him. i write this not that i attribute great or even any importance to my papers, but because i know beforehand that after my death my books will be published, and will be talked about, and will be thought to be important. if that is so, it is better that my writings should not harm people. as for the remainder of my papers i ask those who will have the arrangement of them not to publish everything, but only that which may be of use to people. (4). with regard to the publishing rights of my former works--the ten volumes and the _a. b. c._--i ask my heirs to give these to the public, _i. e._ to renounce the copyrights. but i only ask this, in no sense order it. it would be a good thing to do it. it would be good for you also. but if you do not wish to do it, that is your business. it means that you are not ready to do it. that my books for the last ten years have been sold was to me the most painful thing in my life. (5). there is one more request, and it is the most important. i ask all, relations and strangers alike, not to praise me (i know that this must happen, because it has happened during my life time and in the worst way possible). also if people are going to occupy themselves with my writings, let them dwell upon those passages in which i knew that the divine power spoke through me; and let them make use of them in their lives. there were times when i felt that i had become the agent of the divine will. often i was so impure, so filled with personal passions, that the light of this truth was obscured by my darkness; but at times the truth passed through me, and these were the happiest moments of my life. god grant that their passage through me did not profane those truths, and that people, notwithstanding the petty and impure character which they received from me, may feed on them. the value of my writings lies in this alone. and therefore i am to be blamed for them, but not praised. that is all. l. n. t. appendix iv tolstoy's will of 22 july, 1910 the following is the text of tolstoy's will, written by him on 22 july, 1910, and proved for execution by the tula high court on 16 november, 1910:- 22 july, 1910, i, the undersigned, being of sound mind and memory, make the following disposition in the event of my death: all my literary works, both those already written and those which may be written between now and my death, both those which have already been published and those which are unpublished, my works of fiction as well as any other works finished or unfinished, dramatic works or those in any other form, translations, revisions, diaries, private letters, rough drafts, jottings, and notes,--in a word everything without any exception, written by me up to the day of my death, wherever such may be found or in whosever possession, whether in manuscript or in print, and also the rights of literary property in all my works, as well as the mss. themselves and all my papers left after my death--i bequeth in full ownership to my daughter, alexandra lvovna tolstoy. in the event of my daughter, alexandra lvovna tolstoy, dying before me, i bequeath the above-mentioned absolutely to my daughter, tatyana lvovna sukhotin. (signed) leo nikolaevich tolstoy. i hereby bear witness that the above will was actually made, written by his own hand, and signed by count leo nikolaevich tolstoy, who is of sound mind and memory, alexander boresovich goldenweiser, artist. witness to the same: alexei petrovich sergeenko, citizen. witness to the same: anatolii dionsevich radinskii, son of a lieutenant-colonel. appendix v tolstoy's going away the following letter from tolstoy to his daughter alexandra and extracts from his diary give his own account of his going away, and will enable the reader to see something of his side of the question: tolstoy's letter to his daughter alexandra lvovona 29 october, 1910, optina monastery. " ...will tell you all about me, my dear friend sasha. it is hard. i can't help feeling it a great load on me. the chief thing is--not to do wrong. that is the difficulty. certainly, i have sinned and shall sin, but i should wish to sin less. this is the chief thing above all others, that i wish for you, the more so that i know that the task is terrible and beyond your powers at your age. i have not decided anything, and i do not want to decide. i am trying to do only what i can't help doing; and not to do what i need not do. from my letter to chertkov you will see, not how i look at this question, but how i feel about it. i hope very much that good will come from the influence of tanya and serge.[q] the chief thing is that they should realize and try to suggest to her (countess s. a. t.) that this perpetual spying, eavesdropping, incessant complaining, ordering me about, as her fancy takes her, constant managing, pretended hatred of the man who is nearest and most necessary to me, with her open hatred of me and pretence of love,--that a life like this is not only unpleasant, but impossible; and if one of us is to drown himself, let it not be her on any account, but myself; that there is but one thing i want--freedom from her, from that falsehood, pretence, and spite with which her whole being is permeated. of course they cannot suggest this to her, but they can suggest to her that all her acts towards me not only do not express love but are inspired by the obvious wish to kill me, which she will achieve since i hope that the third fit which attacks me will save her as well as myself from the terrible state in which we have lived, to which i do not wish to return. you see, my dear, how wicked i am. i do not conceal myself from you. i do not send for you yet, but i will as soon as i can, very shortly. write and tell me how you are. i kiss you. l. tolstoy. the following extracts from tolstoy's diary which describe his actual flight and the circumstances that led up to it also throw light upon countess tolstoy's attitude to her husband, and completely refute the false accounts which she persisted in publishing everywhere from the day of tolstoy's death until the present time. from tolstoy's diary 25 oct. 1910.... sophie andreevna is as anxious as ever. 27 oct. 1910. i got up very early. all night i had bad dreams. the difficulty of our relation is constantly increasing. 28 oct. 1910. i went to bed at half past eleven. slept till two. i woke, and again as on other nights heard steps and the opening of doors. on previous nights i did not look out of my door; now i looked and saw through a chink a bright light in my study and heard rustling. it is sophie a. searching for something and probably reading my papers. yesterday she asked, indeed demanded, that i should not shut the door. both her doors are open, so that my least movement is audible to her. both during the day and during the night all my movements and words must be known to her and be under her control. again steps, a cautious opening of the door, and she passes by. i do not know why this has roused in me such overpowering repulsion and indignation. i wanted to fall asleep, but could not, tossed about for an hour, lit the candle, and sat down. the door opens and in comes s. a. asking about "my health," and surprised at seeing a light in my room. the repulsion and indignation are growing. i am choking. i count my pulse: 97. i cannot lie down; and i suddenly come to a final decision to go. i write a letter to her, and begin to pack only what things are needed for the journey. i wake dushan[r] then sasha[s] they help me with the packing. it is night, pitch dark, i lose my way to the ledge; get into the wood; i am pricked by the branches; knocked against the trees; fall; lose my hat; cannot find it; get out with difficulty; walk home; take my cap; and with a lantern go to the stable, give an order to harness the horses. sasha, dushan, varya[t] come there. i tremble, expecting that s. a. t. will pursue me. but we leave. in schekino we wait an hour for the train, and every minute i expect her to appear. but now we are in the train; we start. the fear passes. and pity for her rises in me, but no doubt at all but that i have done what i ought to do. perhaps i am wrong to justify myself, but i believe that i am saving myself--not leo n. t., but that which at times exists, though ever so feebly, in me.... 29. oct. 1910. shamardino.... on the journey i have been thinking all the time about a way of escape from her and from my situation, but could think of none. but surely there will be some way, whether one likes it or not; it will come, but not in any way that one can foresee. what has to happen will happen. it is not my business. i got at mashenka's 'the _krug chtenia_' and reading the quotation for the 28th, i was at once struck by the reply which seemed to be given purposely to refer to my situation. i need a trial; it is good for me.... footnotes: [a] in the letters here quoted in full, as well as in s. a. t.'s autobiography, the spelling and punctuation of the original have been preserved, except in the case of obvious mistakes. [b] there is a contradiction here. in the autobiography printed below, s. a. t. says that the seal with the coat-of-arms of the bers family was burnt in the moscow fire of 1812, and that the bers were not again granted the right to that seal in spite of their applications, but were only allowed to have on their coat-of-arms a hive of bees. [c] it is unknown whether s. a. t. fulfilled her promise, since the documents of s. a. vengerov, among which the information should be, if sent, are at present being removed from the late vengerov's house to the institute of learning, and the examination and cataloguing have not yet begun. [d] these and all other italics in the letters and autobiography are in the original. [e] the manuscript of the work, as was said above, is among vengerov's documents. it is catalogued in the first "collection" of autobiographies under n 2740, and in a special catalogue its card has a short abstract of the most important biographical data. (professor s. a. vengerov, _critical biographical dictionary of russian authors and men of letters_, second edition, vol. i; _preliminary list of russian authors and men of letters and preliminary information about them_, petrograd, 1915, pages xix and xxv.) the manuscript is in a cover of ordinary writing-paper on which is written in s. a. t.'s handwriting: _a short autobiography of countess sophie tolstoy_. the manuscript itself is typewritten and occupies twelve half-sheets of ordinary writing-paper written on both sides, or twenty-four pages, of which the last page contains only four lines. at the end of the manuscript is the date: "28 october, 1913"; place: "yasnaya polyana," and signature: "countess sophie tolstoy." all this is in typewriting. [f] this is a mistake of s. a. t. she did not strike out anything in the former manuscript. she only made a few alterations, adding considerably, however, to the first half of chapter 3, making that half a separate chapter. she re-wrote chapter 4. in her new manuscript, after the beginning of chapter 5, about the children, there is a note in pencil. "go on without change as in the former manuscript." in the first manuscript the story about the children formed the second and greater part of chapter 3. thus in the new manuscript, chapter 3 was greatly enlarged and became three separate chapters. therefore s. a. t. would have been more correct if she had said that she would strike out of the first manuscript the first half of chapter 3 and substitute the two new chapters for it, making a separate chapter of the second half. the roman figures iv and v, marking the chapters, are in pencil in the new manuscript and are followed by question-marks. as her letter shows, s. a. t. roughly indicated the division into three new chapters, but left the final decision to vengerov. [g] the manuscript of the additional material is not included in either the first or the second "collection" of autobiographies, nor is it catalogued; it is kept separately among the documents of s. a. vengerov. we must suppose that vengerov intended to include it in the first manuscript, but was prevented from doing so. it is, like the first, typewritten on five half-sheets of ordinary writing-paper. at the beginning and end of the manuscript are pencil notes by s. a. t.--at the beginning: "substitute for former chapter 3," and at the end: "go on as in former manuscript." the manuscript has no date or signature. both manuscripts have been corrected by s. a. t. herself and in her own handwriting. [h] tatyana alexandrovna ergolskii and her friend, natalya petrovna, who was homeless and lived with her. leo n. writes about them in his _reminiscences of childhood_. they are also mentioned in ilya tolstoy's _my reminiscences_. (moscow, 1914.) of tatyana alexandrovna ergolskii, who died on 20 june 1874, leo n. t. wrote to countess a. a. tolstoy: "she died practically of old age, i.e. she slowly faded away, and as far back as three years ago she had ceased to exist for us." see note 19 below. [j] the old oak forest near the house. s. a. t. [k] kiev is famous for its churches and monasteries.] [m] chertkov. [n] the story of the making of the will is related by f. a. strakhov, petersburgkaya gazetta, november, 1911. s. a. t. [p] this extract from l. n. t.'s diary under date of march 27, 1895, is from his first will. the wishes expressed in this diary are again expressed by him in his diary for 1907. it was only in september 1909 in krekshino that he drew up for the first time a legal will, attested by witnesses. three copies of the diary of march 27, 1895 were kept; one by marie lvovna obolensky; one by v. g. chertkov; and one by serge l. tolstoy. [q] tatyana l. sukhotin and count serge l. tolstoy are l. n. t.'s eldest children. [r] doctor d. p. makovitsii, one of the most intimate friends of the tolstoy family, a doctor who lived with the tolstoy's and who remained with l. n. t. until his death. [s] l. n. t.'s daughter, alexandra. [t] varvara feskritov, s. a. t.'s late secretary. [frontispiece: tolstoy] tolstoy by l. winstanley, m.a. lecturer in english in the university college of wales, aberystwyth london: t. c. & e. c. jack 67 long acre, w.c., and edinburgh new york: dodge publishing co. dedicated to my beloved friend anna brodsky contents chap. i. tolstoy's contemporaries ii. life of tolstoy--"a landed proprietor"--"childhood"--"the cossacks"--"tales from sebastopol" iii. life of tolstoy (_continued_)--journey abroad--peasant schools--"tales for children"--married life--religious difficulties--conversion iv. "war and peace" v. "anna karénina" vi. "my confession"--"my religion"--"what is art?" etc. vii. "the power of darkness"--"the kreutzer sonata"--"resurrection" viii. the influence of tolstoy bibliography index {7} tolstoy chapter i tolstoy's contemporaries the most striking literary phenomenon of the nineteenth century is, undoubtedly, the rise into power and prominence of russian authors. some fifty years ago russian literature was practically unknown to western europe; by the majority of people its very existence seems to have been unsuspected; we find even so great an adventurer as carlyle, himself guiding his countrymen to many new tracts of literary discovery, speaking of "the great silent russians who are drilling a whole continent into obedience, but who have produced 'nothing articulate' as yet."[1] in less than thirty years from the time when carlyle penned that sentence russian literature had become recognised as one of the most powerful and vital in europe; its influence, already enormous, increases every day; it is great in france, in germany, in scandinavia, even in conservative england; hardly since the renaissance has europe beheld such a phenomenon--a literary advance at once so rapid and so great. [1] _heroes and hero worship_. the truth is that we have seen in russia a growth very similar to that which occurred in western europe at the time of the renaissance. in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries europe as a whole experienced the vivifying influence of two great literatures--greek and latin--and it had, at the same time, a mode of life {8} to depict and ideas of life to express which differed widely from those of the classical nations: the great models showed them the fascination of poetry and art, and stimulated them to production; the different conditions of life, the varying ideals, prevented their production from becoming a mere imitation, and made it new, significant, and vital. something very similar has occurred hi modern russia. russia has had the stimulus of western europe--especially of england and france--but, at the same time, the conditions of its life are so powerfully individual, so exceedingly unlike those of england and france, that its authors are hardly even tempted to produce work which is a mere imitation; as soon as they observe at all, the result of their observations is bound to be different. their production is thus distinctive and individual, and, in its own turn, reacts upon the literatures which first inspired it. the chief literary form in the later nineteenth century has been the psychological novel, and it is this which the russians have taken up, developed, and almost recreated. in psychology russian writers are greatly helped by their own exceeding truthfulness and candour. france and england are lands of complex civilisations, of many social grades and many conventions, and the mental attitude of their writers is, almost inevitably, conventional, and thus, to a certain extent, insincere. russian life has far fewer social grades and far fewer conventions; russian writers are, beyond comparison, more candid with themselves and with others; they speak the exact truth with a _naïveté_ almost resembling the _naïveté_ of children, but with the far-reaching intelligence of maturity. this invaluable quality of sincerity is found in all the greatest russians; tolstoy and dostoïevsky, in especial, hide nothing, but reproduce all they know with an absence of self-consciousness that amazes even while it fascinates. we all of us know in our hearts that this profound sincerity is essential to really great literature; but, none the less, we, in a variety of ways, discourage and {9} forbid it: in prudish england an author is always afraid of offending "moral" prejudices; in france writers, though in moral respects far freer, are most sensitively afraid of appearing ridiculous or absurd. to a russian neither of these fears would seem to exist. throughout his work tolstoy insists with the most vehement intensity that absolute truthfulness in all respects is the essential foundation of morals, and nothing angers him more than concealment, which he declares to be, always and everywhere, the assistant and protector of vice, while the fear of being absurd he dismisses as one of the most ridiculous vanities of adolescence, unworthy of a sane man. another quality that greatly assists russian writers is their unique gift of sympathy; there may be, probably there is, something in the very fibre of the race essentially feminine and sensitive, but the peculiar conditions of their government account for much. russia is the nation which, above all other great nations in our days, has the most tragic destiny, suffers most deeply and undeservedly; it is probably this which helps to give her great writers so deep a compassion; they penetrate to the very foundation of human experience, they fathom the deepest abysses of human suffering, and they return with an unequalled tenderness, with a noble beauty of compassion, which has, in the modern world, no rival at all. it is worthy of note that the ancient greeks would appear to have gained in a similar way some of the greatest qualities in their national soul. they too had the experience of a deep suffering; they stood between east and west, they bore the brunt of long-lasting racial conflicts, and, when they finally emerged triumphant, they carried with them the beautiful fruit of that bitter experience, in their profound understanding of human suffering, and their knowledge of all the depths of tragedy. they too gain from their own anguish a unique tenderness and compassion; priam kissing the hands of achilles, "terrible man-slaying that had slain so many of his sons," is one of the world's supreme types {10} of pathos; this lovely tenderness illumines all the great greek poetry from homer to euripides. latin literature, in comparison with the greek, is wanting both in compassion and in depth, but the romans had never in the same way suffered, and they knew less of the secrets of the human soul. tolstoy, we are told, read much in homer, and was greatly influenced by him in writing his _war and peace_. it is hardly surprising, for, notwithstanding all differences, there is a considerable similarity--the two are alike in their heroism, in their understanding of war, their vast and crowded canvas, their tragic view of human destiny, and their lovely compassion. it is characteristic of the russian breadth of mind and elemental sincerity that tolstoy really can take homer as his model in writing a modern novel. it is hardly necessary to remark that he has not homer's sense of beauty, but who in this modern world has? the fecundity of russian literature is very great; it is a great mistake to regard tolstoy as if he stood alone; like shakespeare, tolstoy is only the highest peak, or perhaps we should say the greatest magnitude, among a number of writers only less distinguished than himself. among tolstoy's predecessors the russians themselves rank gogol very high; he owes much to the influence of dickens; his books show endless comic verve, are crowded with situations full of laughter, but at the same time he has, in general, a very serious purpose behind. gogol, though humane and good-tempered, is a keen satirist; comparatively little known abroad, he is greatly loved by russians themselves. among tolstoy's leading contemporaries the man whom, above all others, he most whole-heartedly admired was féodor dostoïevsky. dostoïevsky had a tragic history which is reflected in his works; he was involved in the plots of the decembrists, condemned to execution, and only at the last moment reprieved; for the remainder of his life, possibly in consequence of the shock to his nervous system, he became an epileptic; he was exiled for a time to siberia. {11} dostoïevsky's books are largely studies in crime, but quite unlike those familiar to our modern press; the modern detective story with its police-court atmosphere and its vulgar shallowness of interest belongs to a world immeasurably beneath dostoïevsky; even the world of tragic crime, depicted so forcibly by the elizabethans, stands far apart from his; in elizabethan dramas crime is observed for the sake of its passion, it is invested with a terrible though gloomy allurement, and its end is the ruin of the noblest or the tragic destruction of a human soul. dostoïevsky's novels of crime are really studies in redemption: in _crime and punishment_ the hero is a murderer and the heroine a fallen woman, but both ultimately work out their salvation. to dostoïevsky crime is a moral disease, a source of the most exquisite suffering to the soul; he studies the process by which the soul, sick to death and horribly distressed, purifies and cleanses itself. dostoïevsky is not, like the elizabethans, impressed by the tragic beauty of crime; on the contrary, he realises and makes us realise its loathsomeness, its sordid horror; but, notwithstanding its dark and gloomy setting, his work is in essence far from pessimistic; the expiatory power of suffering, the innate nobility of the human soul, the miserable meanness of sin, the beauty of compassion--these are the impressions which he prints most deeply in the mind. the nearest western parallel is to be found, no doubt, in victor hugo's _les miserables_, where the redemption of a human soul is, in somewhat similar method, described; but victor hugo does not penetrate to the foundations of human life in the same manner as dostoïevsky; he--the petted idol of the french public--had not that first-hand acquaintance with the terrible realities of oppression; there is something theatrical and rhetorical, almost insincere, about hugo if we compare him with the great russian. it is worthy of observation that tolstoy greatly admired both _les miserables_ and dostoïevsky; the older he grew and the more powerfully the influence of {12} the latter became manifest, his sympathy with the oppressed, his interest in redemption, increased, until in the last of his great novels, _resurrection_, we find that he writes in the very spirit of dostoïevsky; his heroine goes down to the depths of shame and degradation, and yet is redeemed and restored. the pessimist may perhaps declare that both tolstoy and dostoïevsky are mistaken in thinking that a human being can sink so low and yet be redeemed; to which it can only be replied that the unflinching courage with which they face realities--all realities, however horrible and sordid--earns them their right to be believed when they assert the restorative power of purity and love. amid all tolstoy's contemporaries the one most widely appreciated in europe is, without doubt, turgénief. he was understood earlier and more readily than his fellow-countrymen, this appreciation being no doubt due to the fact that there is more foreign influence in his work, and that he is less purely russian. turgénief owes much to french literature; the influence of its clarity of style, its artistic form, its sense of proportion, are evident throughout his writing; he is the most artistic and literary of russian authors, but, strong as the french influence is in his work, no one could ever mistake him for a frenchman; he has the depth and tenderness of the slavonic temperament, its moral earnestness, its profound sincerity. turgénief and tolstoy were exceedingly unlike in life and work; it is not surprising that, when they met, they were alternately fascinated and repelled. turgénief complained that tolstoy pursued him like a woman in love and yet, when they were together, was always quarrelling with him. at one time they were devoted friends, at another they came near to fighting a duel. russia might well have been horrified by the spectacle of her two greatest men of genius destroying each other; their friends intervened and separated them, but the reconciliation was never quite complete. the same opposition of personality can be plainly perceived in their work. tolstoy is by far the more masculine genius, {13} enormous in his vitality and power, immense in his canvases; he loves, in his early work especially, to study masculine and virile characters, to dwell on war and hunting, and all the vigorous activities of men; his heroines, charming as they often are, are rarely or never heroic; they are nearly always dominated by their own emotions, they yield only too thoroughly to the men who, with a cruel masculine egoism, at once love and destroy them. again it is hardly until he reaches _resurrection_ that he shows a true sense of the value of women as individuals: in his earlier novels he consents to value them only in their maternal aspect, as the mothers of men. his conception of love is nearly always a masculine passion with, it must be acknowledged, a somewhat crude masculinity; it is a disturbance of the senses rather than an emotion of the soul (plato would have classed it unquestioningly as born of the lower aphrodite), and tolstoy's finest heroes nearly always yield to it reluctantly and, as it were, churlishly. like another great masculine genius--milton--tolstoy feels most intimately, but shudders at the power that women possess over men. how often in his works one meets with women who are like milton's dalila, possessed of a charm that is mixed with loathing and disgust. both milton and tolstoy regard with horror, as one of the worst of snares, the idealising power of love. turgénief is very different. he has not tolstoy's enormous vitality nor his immense scope; his novels are, in comparison, quite brief, and some of his best work is done in a very small compass, though it is always so deep in meaning that it never seems slight. he has achieved nothing more perfect than the little story of _faust_, which might, so far as length goes, be only a french _feuilleton_. he is always and essentially poetic; one of the keenest of all human observers, he dislikes sordid realism; he avoids war and all other forms of extreme violence; it is quite characteristic of him that when he does, for once, choose a soldier hero--insarov in {14} _on the eve_--he does not accompany him to war, but makes him die of consumption before the conflict actually begins. love plays a far larger part in his work than in that of tolstoy, and it is an altogether nobler kind of love. as a lover, indeed, he belongs to the great poetic idealists, he is of the same race as dante, as shakespeare, as shelley. he understands, quite as well as tolstoy, the dreadful glamour of an evil passion; he understands how it leads to atrophy of the heart, to desolation and to ruin; but he understands also that nobler passion whose very existence tolstoy explicitly and vehemently denies--the love which belongs both to the senses and to the soul. passion in tolstoy is always a concession to the animal in man; in turgénief it is often his redemption. it follows from this that he understands women far better than tolstoy; indeed turgénief lays his main stress on feminine rather than on masculine character, and the most heroic and beautiful figures in his pages are usually those of women. he draws them, indeed, with a shakespearean strength and delicacy; he does not regret the influence they have over man's life--it is so often for good; even when he draws the destructive siren who lures men to their doom, he draws her without the tolstoyan frenzy of hate; he gives her the same kind of charm that shakespeare gave cleopatra, and permits her poetry to fascinate even while he shows with the clearest irony all her sensuality and her falseness. it is worthy of note that neither tolstoy nor turgénief wholly escape from the influence of their rank. widely democratic as they are in sympathies they yet betray their aristocratic birth--tolstoy in the wrath and anger, the almost satanic fury he turns upon those with whom he happens to disagree, and turgénief in the fastidious delicacy with which he loves the beautiful, the distinguished, and the rare. it is dostoïevsky who is truly the man of the people; he sees through all the cheats of power, but he hates no one; he loves purity and beauty, but he finds them even in the foulest prisons and the lowest slums; of the three he is the truest democrat. {15} chapter ii life of tolstoy--"a landed proprietor"--"childhood"--"the cossacks"--"tales from sebastopol" leo tolstoy was born august 28, 1828, at the village of yasnaya polyana, not far from tula, on the old main road to kieff. his parents were count nicolas tolstoy and princess marie volkonsky, both of them members of well-known families. the tolstoy family had played a famous, though at times a questionable part in russian history; its first count--peter tolstoy--was an accomplice in the assassination of the tsarevitch alexis, son of peter the great; he was appointed chief of the secret service, and, later on, enjoyed the confidence of the empress catherine i. when peter ii, son of the murdered alexis, ascended the throne, count tolstoy lost his great position; being at that time an old man, he retired to the monastery of solovetsky on the white sea, where he died. the tolstoy family were, for a period, deprived of their title, but it was restored in the reign of the empress elizabeth, daughter of peter the great. the princess marie volkonsky also came of an eminent family; they traced their descent from rurik, and several of her near relatives had been great generals. the novelist's father, nicolas tolstoy, served in the great campaigns of 1813 and 1814; he was taken prisoner by the french but liberated in 1815, when the allied armies entered paris. tolstoy has depicted a number of his relatives in the novel of _war and peace_; his father is nicolas rostof and his mother the princess {16} mariya bolkonsky; in real life as in the book, this mother appears to have been the more remarkable of the two parents, a woman possessed of a singularly noble and beautiful character. leo was only eighteen months old at the time of his mother's death, but, from what his aunts and other relatives told him, he created a portrait which, whether accurate or not, is of unforgettable charm. the father died when leo had reached the age of nine, and the children--four brothers and a sister--were left to the guardianship of their father's sister; they were, as a matter of fact, brought up mainly by a lady named tatiana yergolsky, whom they called "aunt," but who was, in reality, only a distant relative. tatiana yergolsky had a romantic history; she loved count nicolas tolstoy, and he returned her affection, but she sacrificed herself in order that he might marry the wealthy heiress, princess marie volkonsky. after the marriage she remained an inmate of her cousin's house and won the deep affection of his wife; when a widower count nicolas once more desired to marry tatiana, but she still refused, fearing to spoil the tenderness of her relation to the dead wife and to the children. it would be difficult to imagine a character more sweet and self-sacrificing; upon the orphaned children she bestowed a devoted love; to leo she took the place of the mother he had never known, and the father he had lost so soon; she was the chief happiness of his childhood, and he declares that, in the building up of his moral character, she, of all human beings, played the most beneficent part. he says: "aunt tatiana had the greatest influence on my life. it was she who taught me while yet in my childhood the moral joy of love. not by words but by her whole being she imbued me with love. i saw, i felt how happy she was in loving, and i understood the joy of love. that was the first lesson. and the second was that she taught me the beauty of a quiet, lonely life." the four tolstoy brothers possessed strong {17} individualities, and tolstoy had a keen feeling of affection for all the members of his family; his favourite brother was, however, nicolas--some six years older than himself. he and nicolas, in their child's play, founded a society which they called "ant-brothers," which was to embrace all mankind and all the earth in a loving union; they buried a green stick as a kind of charm to celebrate the founding of this society. when tolstoy came to die he asked that he might be buried on the hill where, so long ago, he and nicolas had placed the green stick; it will, at any rate, be one of the world's great places of pilgrimage. nicolas possessed great talents; leo always generously and obstinately believed this brother more gifted than himself, and quotes, with warm approval, turgénief's opinion: "turgénief quite correctly observed that he only lacked the imperfections necessary for the making of an author. he did not possess the principal and necessary defect--vanity. but the qualities of an author which he did possess were a refined artistic instinct, an exceedingly delicate sense of proportion, a good-natured gay humour, exceptional and inexhaustible imagination and high moral conceptions, and all this without any conceit. he had such an imagination that for hours he could tell humorous tales and ghost stories." tatiana yergolsky was exceedingly religious, and one of the customs of yasnaya polyana was to extend hospitality to all types of pilgrims--monks and nuns and beggars, who led a life of humility and deliberately courted contumely. tolstoy's early life was spent in a peculiar poetic and religious atmosphere, an atmosphere mediæval in its tone. this should never be forgotten, for, after a whole lifetime of experience and achievement, we find him returning once more to the beliefs of his youth, stripping them of supernaturalism and ecclesiasticism, but holding with all his heart to the virtues of these pilgrim friends--humility and simplicity and love. the tolstoy brothers all went in turn to the {18} university of kazan. leo first chose the faculty of eastern languages, intending to enter the diplomatic service; he then tried law and other courses, but was capricious and unsuccessful; few great writers have ever cared so little for studies or been so scornful of intellectual attainment in others. tolstoy left the university in disgust, and returned for a time to yasnaya polyana, intending to devote himself to his peasants. there is a study of his life at this period in the book entitled _a landed proprietor_, which gives an account, at once graphic and sombre, of the enormous difficulties of the task. we are shown typical days in the life of the hero--nekhlúdof--as he visits the peasants who have asked for his aid. many of them live in wretched hovels--this, for example, is the house of one churis: "the uneven, smoke-begrimed walls of the dwelling were hung with various rags and clothes; in the living-room the walls were literally covered with reddish cockroaches, clustering around the holy images and benches.... in the middle of this dark foetid apartment, not fourteen feet square, was a huge crack in the ceiling; and in spite of the fact that it was braced up in two places, the ceiling hung down so that it threatened to fall from moment to moment. "'it will crush us to death, it will crush the children,' cried the woman." nekhlúdof is annoyed that churis should have allowed his house to sink into such a condition, but he discovers that churis has been ruined through the exactions of a land-agent (employed by nekhlúdof's grandfather), who had cheated the peasant family out of their best land. we see how early and how decidedly tolstoy has traced the miseries of the peasants to their landlords' exactions. yet he does not disguise the faults of the peasants themselves: in another hut which nekhlúdof visits the owner is thoroughly idle, lying on the oven all day and sleeping; his wife has been worked to death, and the old mother bears all the burden of the house and fields. she begs nekhlúdof to find her a new daughter-in-law, but, with disgust and anger, he {19} declines to force a fresh martyr into the wretched hovel. the overseer recommends that this particular peasant should be flogged, but the "barin" decides to take him into his own house and try to teach him how to labour. tolstoy has often been accused of idealising russian peasants, but, as these most graphic pictures attest, he perceived the worst that could be said. indeed turgénief complained of this particular book that it was pessimistic and did not do justice to the peasants. after a brief space tolstoy left the country and returned to st. petersburg, where he plunged into dissipation; it was, morally considered, the most ignominious portion of his life. he confesses in his diary: "i am living like a beast, though not entirely depraved; my studies are nearly all abandoned, and spiritually i am very low." in his religious work, _my confession_, he speaks with bitter anger of this period of his life. "i honestly desired," he says, "to make myself a good and virtuous man; but i was young, i had passions, and i stood alone, altogether alone, in my search after virtue. every time i tried to express the longings of my heart for a truly virtuous life i was met with contempt and derisive laughter; but directly i gave way to the lowest of my passions i was praised and encouraged.... i cannot now recall those years without a painful feeling of horror and loathing. i put men to death in war, i fought duels to slay others, i lost at cards, wasted my substance wrung from the sweat of peasants, punished the latter cruelly, rioted with loose women, and deceived men. lying, robbery, adultery of all kinds, drunkenness, violence, and murder, all committed by me, not one crime omitted, and yet i was not the less considered by my equals a comparatively moral man." we should remember that it is the ascetic tolstoy who is speaking here and judging his former life with all possible sternness, but there can be little doubt that it was this period which gave him his life-long {20} scorn for the corrupt aristocracy whose whole existence was "a mania of selfishness." never again did he sink so low. in the meantime nicolas tolstoy was serving with the russian artillery in the caucasus; in 1851 he returned home on leave, perceived the danger of the immoral life his brother was leading, and persuaded leo to join him. tolstoy spent nearly three years in the caucasus, and the fresh, beautiful and poetic life restored him to mental and physical health, and awoke in him both religious and creative power. his first novel, _childhood_, appeared in 1852, and was at once recognised by leading russian writers as a work of rare promise and charm. it is largely autobiographical, not in the actual incidents, but in the general circumstances, and especially in the mental development. it is most remarkable for the amazing psychological fidelity with which the impressions of childhood are remembered and recorded; the strong affections for parents and brothers, for sister and teacher, the awe-struck reverence for the crazy pilgrim, grisha, the first faint gleam of romantic love, the poetry of forest rides, the love of animals, the shuddering physical horror in the face of death, the strange confusion and sadness of loss. everything is at once realistic and full of romance; tolstoy has brought before us all the clear-cut sharpness of these early impressions of the world before custom has laid upon them a hand "heavy as frost and deep almost as life." tolstoy's life in the caucasus, in its actual details, provided him with the subject-matter for two of his most fascinating works, _the cossacks_, and _the invaders_. these are not among his greatest productions; psychologically and dramatically they cannot equal the later novels, but they stand almost alone in their fresh, pure poetry. in these the remorseless realist shows himself as a romantic adventurer--almost, except for the deeper mentality, a russian stevenson; the breath of the mountain and forest, the clear, cold sweetness of dawn {21} blows through their pages; they charm with the sense of great spaces, of gay, glad daring; they are filled, above all, with the intoxication of freedom. it is one of the secrets of tolstoy's greatness that he experienced, directly and at first hand, so many different kinds of life, and no change could well have been greater than that from the artificial, feverish, corrupt st. petersburg to the primitive life of the hunter and mountaineer. the hero, olyénin, is a reflection of tolstoy himself. we are told how he delights in the first signs of danger, such as the carrying of weapons, &c. before he has seen them he cannot believe in the beauty of snow-clad mountains; he thinks it as much a figment of the imagination as the melody of bach's music or the romantic love of woman, in neither of which he is able to believe. but when he sees the mountains they surpass all he has heard and transcend his wildest dreams; they give him an almost wordsworthian depth of inspiration. "at first the mountains aroused in olyénin's mind only a sentiment of wonder, then of delight; but afterwards, as he gazed at this chain of snowy mountains, not piled one upon another, but growing and rising straight out of the steppe, little by little he began to get into the spirit of their beauty and he felt the mountains.... from that moment all that he had seen, all that he had thought, all that he had felt, assumed for him the new, sternly majestic character of the mountains.... 'now life begins,' seemed to be sounded in his ears by some solemn voice." he shares in the romantic, adventurous life of the cossacks, a little tribe barricaded away in their own corner of the world and surrounded by their enemies--the semi-civilised mohammedans. the most interesting character in the book is the old cossack hunter, yeroshka; whole past ages of the world seem to live again in this primitive and fascinating figure; he takes us back to the very childhood of man. he is so strong that, when he has killed a wild boar weighing three hundred and sixty pounds, he can carry it home on his back. he says to olyénin: "i {22} will find and show you every sort of animal, every kind of bird, and how and where.... i know it all. i have dogs and two fowling-pieces, and nets, and decoys, and a falcon. i can find the track of any wild beast.... i know where he comes to his lair and where he comes to drink or wallow." yeroshka has studied all the wisdom of the animals, he is continually pitting his wits against theirs, and he thinks them, on the whole, much cleverer than men: notwithstanding his hunting he loves all creatures so much that he will save even moths from the flame. life in the forest is marvellously described--the misty mornings, the search for the stag's lair, the interpreting of his tracks, the swaying of innumerable boughs, the fear of the wild tribes; it is all here--the forest loneliness, the forest enchantment, the forest terror. even the tiny gnats which cover olyénin so that they make him grey from head to foot, have their own peculiar attraction; he grows to feel their stings a part of the forest fascination and freedom; they prevent him from growing somnolent, and keep him alive to that immense joy which he finds everywhere in nature and would not miss even for a moment. throughout tolstoy's later work he hates civilisation, and we understand why; he is always longing to escape from it to the life that is inspired by the immense joy of nature and freshened by hard physical toil. characteristically enough, tolstoy will not idealise even what he loves, and he confesses that the mere touch of civilisation spoils his yeroshka; he cannot live like a modern man, and his hut is filthy. "on the table were flung his blood-stained coat, a half of a milk cake, and next to it a plucked and torn jackdaw.... on the dirty floor were thrown a net and a few dead pheasants, and a hen wandered about pecking, with its leg fastened to a table leg." in the forests which he so loves yeroshka is like a wood-god--strong, wise, and happy--but he has only to touch the ordinary life of man and he becomes a silenus, debased and drunken. {23} in 1853 tolstoy left the caucasus for the crimea, the influence of his relatives procuring him a post on the staff of the commander-in-chief, prince gorchakoff. he could not rest until he reached sebastopol itself, and he entered it in november 1854. he was often in great danger, for he volunteered for duty on the most dangerous posts, even on the famous fourth bastion, whose horrors have never been surpassed in war. tolstoy published his _tales from sebastopol_ in 1854; this book aroused the attention of the czar, and gained for the author a considerable literary reputation. but tolstoy achieved something more than reputation, for his whole nature was deepened and widened; it was sebastopol which first showed him the heroism and tragedy of human destiny, and taught him his immense appreciation of the common man. for him mere cynicism was henceforth at an end; no man who had beheld the sublime heroism of sebastopol--twenty-two thousand perishing under fire, as many more suffering hideous tortures on the operating tables (without chloroform) and in the hospitals, all this borne not merely with fortitude, but with cheerfulness, not for the sake of any personal gain, but for the sake of an ideal--the ideal of patriotism--no man who had beheld this could relapse into that cheap cynicism which proclaims the essential worthlessness of the human kind. tolstoy begins his studies (and this is quite characteristic of his grim realism) in the hospital, and dwells on the passive endurance which is shown there. he passes on to the emotions of men under fire, and gives a masterly exposition of the psychology of war; the physical shrinking, the consciousness of everything sordid and wretched, the curious elation that follows upon fear, the reckless hilarity and carelessness that mark the new recruit, the seasoned calm of the veteran who is grateful for every day left him of his life, the curious superstitions, not based on any soldier's folklore, but springing up of themselves in an environment where all things are so insecure, the swift and noble friendships broken by the heartrending tragedy of {24} death and, through it all, the sombre pride that men feel in their own superhuman endurance. tolstoy describes the actual moment of death in battle with such imaginative vividness that it seems almost impossible a man could so realise it without a personal experience. we may trace from sebastopol also tolstoy's characteristic attitude to war, which is peculiar because it unites such a great appreciation of war as a school of heroic virtue with such a whole-hearted condemnation. most men are blind either to one side or to the other, but, from the very beginning, tolstoy keeps both steadily in view. we could not explain the fascination war has possessed for so many of the noblest human minds if it were not for the fact that it is often a school of heroic virtue. homer himself could hardly better the sublime courage of these tolstoyan heroes, but tolstoy's very appreciation teaches him also the vast futility of war; it is such a waste of noble human beings, and the ends for which it is waged are, compared with the tremendous sacrifices it evokes, so childish and futile. {25} chapter iii life of tolstoy (_continued_)--journey abroad--peasant schools--"tales for children"--married life--religious difficulties--conversion soon after the capitulation of sebastopol, tolstoy, disgusted, with the mere idea of military glory, left military service and returned to st. petersburg. he was received into the chief literary society of the day, introduced to turgénief and the poet fet, who became his most intimate friend. tolstoy, however, never cared much for literary society; he spoke of it afterwards very slightingly and even scornfully, and he soon left. in january 1857 he started on a tour in europe; he visited paris, and, while there, witnessed an execution which gave him his life-long horror of capital punishment. he declares that he had previously accepted it as a necessity, but, when he saw the ghastly preparations, when he heard the dull sound made by the head falling into the basket, he realised suddenly that, no matter what laws or customs countenanced this act, it was wrong and would always remain wrong. even the horrors of war did not inspire him with an aversion quite so sickening; what he so disliked was the cold-blooded, premeditated violence wreaked upon a bound and helpless man. tolstoy also visited switzerland--geneva and lucerne. at the latter place he was disagreeably impressed by the arrogance of the english tourists. one of the most charming of his minor tales--a little sketch entitled _albert_--tells the story of a wandering {26} musician treated with haughty severity by the english and, as the candid narrator admits, entertained by tolstoy himself, with a somewhat exaggerated and theatrical kindness. it shows tolstoy's habit of digging down to the very foundations of social life in seeking a remedy for the simplest injustice. in 1860 consumption declared itself in nicolas tolstoy and he was soon seriously ill; he went in search of health to soden and afterwards to hyères. leo went to help in nursing him, and, on september 20th, nicolas died in his brother's arms. this event made a deep and tragic impression upon tolstoy: it was not only the personal loss, though he loved nicolas more than any other human being, but the worst horror lay in his brother's fear of death, and in the unavailing struggle against it. the circumstances are described in the death of nicolas levin in _anna karénina_. tolstoy next studied elementary education in france, germany, and england. in february 1861 the russian serfs were liberated, and a new era in russian history began; tolstoy tried to play his part by starting peasants' schools upon his estate. in his theories of education he was largely influenced by rousseau; it was from rousseau that he obtained his ideas of "freedom," and of permitting unchecked development to the child; he organised his schools in a very original manner, and his theories seem to have had a far-reaching effect on russian education in making it more free and flexible than that of western europe. the tales he wrote for his peasant children, and embodied in various school-readers, form a charming portion of his work; they are exquisitely simple, and full of that fresh observation of the ways of animals and plants and the ways of children themselves which the young so love. among the best are stories of his dogs, milton and bulka; tales of bear-hunting and its perils; there is an unforgettable study of the hare and its timid ways, {27} another which tells how mother-wolves train their young to hunt. nor does tolstoy limit his sympathies to animals--he can make the trees live for us in the same vivid and forcible way; thus he tells how hundreds of young poplars sprang up around an old poplar which was decaying, and how he ordered the young trees to be cut down since he could see that they were taking the sap from the old one. the young trees resisted stoutly: "sometimes four of us would try to pull up the roots of some young poplar that had been cut down, and found it impossible; it would resist with all its might and would not die." however he persists in destroying them; the old tree itself dies and tolstoy comments: "he had been long dying, and was conscious of it, and was giving all his life to his shoots. that was the reason why they had grown so rapidly, and i, who had wished to help him, had only killed all his children." perfectly charming also are the little studies of peasant children, such as the boy "filipok," who is passionately eager to go to school but, when he gets there, cannot say a word through shyness; however they leave him alone, and he comes to himself and makes one of the best scholars. tolstoy's own educational experiments were not permitted to continue for long; the officials became jealous of his schools, and they were accordingly closed. in dividing out the land between the nobles and the peasants many disputes occurred, and tolstoy offered his services as arbitrator; he incurred a good deal of odium among his aristocratic neighbours because he so often took the part of the poor; he saw how the peasants were steadily cheated out of their fair share of land. it is this unfair division which explains the terrible severity of the russian famines; the peasant has never been allowed sufficient land to support himself, and he cannot, with his best efforts, keep any reserve for bad times. tolstoy perceived this and, to the best of his ability, struggled against it; like the heroism of the common soldier at sebastopol, it served its purpose in making him the ardent champion of the poor. {28} in the year 1862 tolstoy married sophia behrs, with whose family he had been for some time acquainted; he was thirty-four and his bride eighteen. there ensued a period of great family happiness and of powerful creative work. it was, in the ordinary sense, the happiest time of tolstoy's life, though he himself, with his ever-progressing moral development and his ever-increasing idealism, later on condemned its happiness as selfish and enervating. tolstoy managed his own estate and, by the testimony of many observers, was exceedingly successful with his stock, his buildings, and his crops; he succeeded also in making his peasants happy and contented. his family was large, and his wife proved herself an admirable mother, devoting herself passionately to her children. it was during this period that tolstoy achieved his european reputation as a novelist by producing his two great works of _war and peace_, 1864-9, and _anna karénina_, 1873-6. tolstoy was a most conscientious and exacting literary artist. before writing _war and peace_, he made careful historical studies; it is his longest and most ambitious work, and might be termed a prose epic rather than a novel. tolstoy also planned a novel on the period of peter the great, but the more he studied this subject the less he liked it; he found the whole epoch unsympathetic, and declared that peter's so-called reforms were not really intended for the good of the people, but mainly for his own personal profit, and that what he really desired was freedom for a life of immorality. tolstoy's next great novel, _anna karénina_, was based on an event which had occurred in real life--the suicide of a young lady who, owing to an unhappy love affair, flung herself before a train. tolstoy chose as a motto for his book the biblical saying: "vengeance is mine, i will repay," the fundamental idea being that people have no right to judge others, and that for human relations there is but one law--the law of mercy. among all tolstoy's critics dostoïevsky appears to have been {29} the only one who understood him in this sense; most readers seem to have interpreted the motto in the narrowest possible way as meaning the punishment of anna for her breach of the marriage vow. during all this period of literary activity tolstoy was greatly aided by his wife; she served as his amanuensis, she alone being able to interpret his crabbed and difficult handwriting with its endless corrections, and one of her relatives records that she seven times re-copied the enormous ms. of _war and peace_. it was, as he himself tells us, about his fiftieth year that a great change came over tolstoy. his life had been one of brilliant success; he had achieved great distinction, he had an excellent property, a congenial wife, a happy family, but he became profoundly dissatisfied. merejkovsky, the most severe of tolstoy's critics, ascribes this condition mainly to the ebb of vitality natural at his age, and considers it to be, in its origin, essentially physical and egoistic; but merejkovsky surely forgets the intense interest in moral and religious problems which tolstoy had always taken even in his youth; in _the cossacks_, and in _war and peace_, tolstoy's heroes are continually searching for "the meaning of life." the truth would appear to be that tolstoy, in his youth greatly perplexed by philosophical and religious doubts, had never solved his problems, but had done what so many men do--evaded them by taking refuge in the joys and duties of practical life; but to most really thoughtful natures there comes a crisis when these duties will no longer serve as anodynes, and the old questionings, ten times stronger for their repression, return once more. this was really the "sturm und drang" period of tolstoy's life; it came unnaturally late, and its severity was proportioned to its delay. in the book entitled _my confession_, tolstoy has given a most sincere, graphic, and terrible account of his sufferings at this period. he traces its inception (surely with accuracy!) to the lack of any true religious faith in his youth. he tells {30} how he had momentary gleams of revelation which showed him what a true religion might be, but his faith soon became merely conventional. moreover, the new scientific materialism was spreading over russia, and reaching the intellectual _élite_ in the schools and colleges; the ceremonial, superstitious religion of the greek church, so essentially mediæval in all its methods of thought, could not stand against this dry, scientific determinism. tolstoy gave way to scepticism and dissipation, and afterwards forgot and buried deep down his longings for a higher life. after, as we shall see later, a desperate and almost overwhelming struggle, tolstoy emerged from his darkness convinced that the true faith lay in a literal obedience to the precepts of the gospel and especially to the sermon on the mount. he thought the precepts of the gospel were realised more completely in the life of the russian peasants than in that of any other human beings, and, taking their life as his model, he built up his creed: that the great essentials of life are labour and love, that man should be simple, laborious, and kind, that he ought to give more than he receives, to contribute to the common stock more than he takes from it, that he should rejoice in service; in this life he will find health and happiness, and he will not fear death because if he banishes egoism, the loss of his own personality--even to its total extinction--will not appear to him an evil. this, stated in its essence, is the "solution" at which tolstoy arrived, and from the year 1879 onwards we find him devoting his life almost entirely to moral and religious teaching. taking peasant life always as his model, he himself lived very frugally and simply; he partook only of the plainest food--vegetarian; he dressed like a peasant, he waited upon himself and did the work of his own room, and he "paid" even for this simple sustenance with the labour of his own hands; he worked at haymaking and reaping in the fields, at woodcutting in the woods, and in the winter he made shoes. he spent a portion {31} of each day in manual labour, giving himself appetite to enjoy his simple diet; his temperance and toil kept him strong and vigorous, and he declared that he had as much time as ever to devote to intellectual work. tolstoy, had, in fact, returned to the passionate and practical faith of the middle ages; his life was the life of a mediæval monk when monasticism was at its best--ascetic, laborious, intellectual--but his nineteenth century scepticism had caused him to omit and reject mediæval dogmas and superstitions. tolstoy, like so many other religious mystics, wished to yield up his property entirely and strip himself of all worldly goods. it was here that, as with others before him, he came into conflict with his own family. another, though a much less reformer of our own time, general booth, was able to interest all the members of his own family, and to find in them his best and most willing helpers, but he had the advantage of a wife who was, from the beginning, on his side. tolstoy was in a different position: the countess proved herself an admirable wife so long as he devoted himself to adding lustre and aggrandisement to his family; she helped him in the management of his estates, she understood his literary work and gloried in his renown, but further she could not go; she could not comprehend his moral and religious crisis, and her great terror was lest her children should be, in any degree, impoverished. it is painful to hear that at one time she contemplated appealing to the authorities to have her husband declared insane and incapable of managing his own property. the truth was that tolstoy's idealism had come in conflict with that maternal egoism which is the dark side of maternal altruism, and one of the strongest forces of the world. this experience helps us to understand the curious bias against maternity which occurs in much of tolstoy's later work. with regard to this situation tolstoy ultimately compromised and, in the year 1888, renounced his estates in favour of his family. he continued to produce religious works: _the four {32} gospels harmonised and translated_, 1881-2; _my religion_, 1884; _the kingdom of god is within you_, 1893, &c. political events in russia more and more grieved and distressed him. the revolutionary executive committee condemned alexander ii to death, and carried out their sentence. this event shook the whole nation. tolstoy was horrified by the crime but he profoundly pitied the criminals; he addressed an open letter to the new emperor, alexander iii, imploring him in the name of christ to forgive the culprits, and declaring that the only way to russia's salvation lay in following the precepts of jesus; the other possible methods--cruel repression and liberal reforms--had both been tried and found wanting. no answer was made, and the regicides were put to death. throughout tolstoy's later work we perceive a horror of violence in all its forms, whether legal or illegal: to him all violent death is murder, and, no matter whether it is inflicted by the sentence of revolutionary committees or by the sentence of the law, it is equally criminal. tolstoy went for a time to reside in moscow, and was, more than ever, startled and dismayed by the great contrasts between the extremes of poverty and of wealth. in 1882 a census was taken; tolstoy volunteered his help, and was thus enabled to plumb to the very depths the miseries of moscow. a full account of this census is given in the book entitled _what to do?_ it is a most clear, graphic, and ruthless study of the miseries of poverty and vice; tolstoy shows with ironic completeness the total insufficiency of charity to compete with the evil, and asks what remedies are possible. he arrives at the same conclusion as mr. bernard shaw: "what is wrong with the rich is idleness; what is wrong with the poor is poverty." he shows how the honest and hard-working toiler is defrauded of his comforts because the results of his labour are appropriated to find luxuries for his masters; {33} he shows how the work of the community is distracted from the production of the necessities required by all to luxuries available only for a few and enervating even to them; moreover the rich themselves, corrupted by their idleness, spread corruption around them which disseminates itself through all classes and creates a race of idlers, parasitic upon the labour of others; the analysis of social conditions given in this little book is acute and keen. tolstoy found the city too artificial, and returned to the country, where he resumed his simple life. he composed much popular literature; it was printed by a special press in the form of very cheap booklets, which were carried round by pedlars and sold to the people. tolstoy henceforth regarded his former literary work as bad and selfish, considering it as being in essence a luxury intended for the entertainment of a limited class. his booklets achieved the purpose he had in view; they were greatly loved by the common people, and have penetrated, in the most remarkable way, to every corner of russia. so great was the demand that each pamphlet was printed in an edition of twenty-four thousand copies, and of most there were five editions in a single year; towards the end of the fourth year the number of copies sold amounted to twelve millions. the first publications were taken from his reading books for children, and included such tales as _the prisoner of the caucasia_, _god sees the truth_, _where love is god is_, &c. it is interesting to note that other distinguished russian authors have since followed tolstoy's example. during an illness he wrote _the power of darkness_, which was, however, prohibited for a number of years. in 1891-2 he was occupied in relieving the dreadful russian famine, procuring assistance by his appeals to western europe and, with the money obtained, organising relief-works in different districts. tolstoy became greatly interested in the doukbobors: they were a russian nonconformist sect, many of whose principles--condemnation of violence, of taking life and of all church-ritual--were closely akin to his {34} own. they were cruelly persecuted, and tolstoy did his utmost to aid them; at length they received permission to emigrate to canada, but were without money for the passage, and, in order to provide it, tolstoy finished and published his last great novel, _resurrection_, in 1899; it had been begun some time previously but abandoned. in march 1901 tolstoy was formally excommunicated by the russian church, as the unorthodox character of his writings and teachings was undeniable, while their great and ever-increasing influence made them too powerful to be ignored. but this excommunication had the opposite effect to the one intended; the russian people seemed to awaken suddenly to the fact that this man was indeed their great prophet, and the noblest moral teacher they had ever possessed; he was treated with an ever-growing reverence and sympathy; incessant deputations were sent to express the national admiration. tolstoy's influence grew, not only in his own country but abroad: he continued to work at his literary labours, and, even at his death, left a considerable amount of ms. which is still in process of publication. his old age was far from peaceful; the unhappy condition of his country tore his heart. silent for long on political matters, the cruel repression of the revolution was too much for him; he published in the leading organs of the european press the mournful and tragic letter beginning, "i can keep silence no longer." he declares that his unhappy country is so given over to crimes of violence, both legal and illegal, that, if men had their way, there would be literally not one human being left uncondemned, but all would perish. he summons all parties, as their only way of salvation, to cease from hatred and revenge, and he tells the government that, if they must have victims, he offers his "own old throat," as an expiation: but little of his life is left, and that little is made unendurable by the sight of sufferings so terrible. tolstoy was also distressed by the luxury of his wife {35} and family; he longed to leave them, but it was against his principles to grieve anyone wilfully. at length, however, he felt that he must have a time of peace for the end. he fled from his home on a snowy autumn night in company with one trusted friend, but the chill and the exposure were too much for him; he was compelled to relinquish his journey at a little wayside station, and he died there in the house of the station-master, a man belonging to the peasant class whom he so loved, and who touchingly and simply received him. the date was november 20, 1910. he was buried on his own estate without, of course, any ceremony from the church which had repudiated him; the service was conducted mainly by the peasants who had loved him like a father. the russian government, which had not dared to touch him, kept over his followers to the last the iron hand of repression; thousands who had wished to attend his funeral were prohibited from doing so; many of his works are still censored, and his disciples still persecuted. {36} chapter iv "war and peace" _war and peace_ is the longest and most important of tolstoy's single works. in this book tolstoy aimed at giving the picture of a whole epoch, and that one of the most stirring in the history of modern europe; the real subject is the conflict between the french and the prussians from 1805 to 1812, the historical events of the novel concluding with the tragedy of the french retreat from moscow. the enormous scope of the book, the power of its psychology, the vast number of characters crowding its pages, its tremendous vitality--all won for tolstoy a recognition deservedly world-wide. after reading it we feel as if we have beheld with our own eyes a terrific and soul-stirring crisis in the history of a great nation, and one of the epoch-making events of the world. and yet the work is truly a novel, and not history in the form of fiction, because we are shown all these events not in the dry, detached light of the historian (whom tolstoy dislikes), but through their effect on the minds and souls of the private individuals participating in them. tolstoy selects a little group of russian families whose circumstances involve them in all the main events; we see with their eyes and hear with their ears; we share in their sufferings, until at the end it is difficult to believe that we ourselves have not witnessed austerlitz and borodino, the conflagration of moscow, and the horrors of the french retreat. yet the total impression is not one of catastrophe; the great nation, having shed of its heart's blood and sacrificed its noblest, yet recuperates and recovers; those who are left continue the race, and life proceeds as before. {37} the whole narrative is grouped around three families: the bolkonskys, the rostofs, and the bezukhois, whose relations and inter-relations are very skilfully planned. the book has three heroes, one in each of the families, and our attention is first attracted to prince andrei bolkonsky. he is a man of high rank, son of a distinguished general, possessed of aristocratic prejudice, handsome, far more intellectual than his companions; the faults of his character are haughtiness and disdain; far superior to the majority of human beings, he is only too keenly conscious of the fact. yet prince andrei is capable of strong and deep affections; he dearly loves his father, his sister, and one friend--pierre bezukhoi. bezukhoi is massive, clumsy, and sensuous, but the keen-sighted prince andrei pierces through all his faults and judges his friend justly when he declares that he has "a heart of gold." among the people whom prince andrei secretly despises is his own wife, the princess lisa: he finds her cowardly and frivolous, and, though outwardly respectful, he has little real affection. prince andrei enters military service; he becomes aide-de-camp to kutuzof, and tolstoy thus has an opportunity of showing us the whole course of the campaign from a really intimate point of view. the great passion of prince andrei's life is ambition--the desire for glory--and he considers war as being essentially a means to honour; he is present throughout the battle of austerlitz, where his calm, cool courage wins him the highest commendations. but the experience changes all his views of life. in the first place he realises how seldom the rewards of courage go to the really deserving. during the engagement at the enns the honours of the day really rest with an obscure artillery officer named tushin, who keeps his battery firing upon the french, and at the critical moment covers the russian retreat; tushin's gunners are almost annihilated, but, with the most heroic courage, the battery stick to their {38} task and the army is saved. tushin himself is a modest and unassuming man, and his superiors are so confused that they not only fail to recognise his achievement, but are about to reprimand him severely for losing some of his guns; prince andrei's indignant protest that this man has saved the army spares tushin the reprimand, but his superiors are too hopelessly bewildered to recognise the truth. the real hero of the day is thus a man who gains nothing--not a single reward or honour--and is only too thankful to escape blame. at austerlitz, when the russian army are broken and in flight, prince andrei attempts to save the day; he stems the tide of the fugitives, seizes the flag as it falls from the hand of a dying officer, and leads the whole battalion against a french battery; he is shot down with the flag still in his hand; he believes himself fatally wounded and, as he sinks into unconsciousness, realises suddenly the emptiness of all he has striven for and the beauty of that sweet and profound peace which lies at the heart of the world, but which, until that moment of marvellous insight---the insight given by the near approach of death--he had never even seen. "he opened his eyes, hoping to see how the struggle between the artilleryman and the frenchman ended, and anxious to know whether or not the red-headed artillerist was killed, and the cannon saved or captured. but he could see nothing of it. over him, he could see nothing except the sky, the lofty sky, no longer clear but still immeasurably lofty and with light grey clouds slowly wandering over it. "'how still, calm, and solemn! how entirely different from when i was running,' said prince andrei to himself. 'it was not so when we were all running and shouting and fighting.... how is it that i never saw before this lofty sky? and how glad i am that i have learned to know it at last. yes! all is empty, all is deception, except these infinite heavens. nothing, nothing at all, beside! and even that is nothing but silence and peace! and thank god!'" {39} prince andrei, sinking once more into unconsciousness, recovers to find napoleon surveying him and calling him "une belle mort." when it is discovered that he is alive napoleon congratulates him on his magnificent courage; but even the praise of this man, hitherto prince andrei's idol, does not move him. he has seen, once and for all, the emptiness of military glory. he recovers from his wound, and, softened and tender, returns to his family, who are mourning him as dead; he finds a son just born to him and his wife dying in childbirth. henceforward prince andrei is changed, gentle, and tender, but melancholy, and regarding himself as a man whose life is done. interest returns again when he meets natasha rostof--one of the most charming heroines in fiction; natasha is the very embodiment of joy in life, all poetry, passion, and romance. she enthrals prince andrei, he is happy as he has never been, and they are betrothed, but the opposition of his family causes the marriage to be postponed. unfortunately natasha has the defects of her qualities; she allows herself to be fascinated (though only momentarily) by a hopelessly inferior man. prince andrei, deeply wounded both in his love and in his pride, refuses to forgive; the old bitterness against life, the old anger return once more. he seeks his rival, kuragin, and, not finding him, re-enters military service. at the battle of borodino prince andrei is wounded again, and this time, as it proves, fatally; he lingers for some weeks, and, before his death, fate grants him one last happiness; the rostofs, in the flight from moscow, sacrifice their own property to save some russian wounded among whom, unknown to them, is prince andrei; he and natasha meet again. in all tolstoy's pages none are more lovely and pathetic than those depicting this union on the edge of the grave; for a time there is hope--the renewal of his heart's joy assisting the wounded man to rally--but it is only for a brief space, and there succeeds the tragic and terrible yet beautiful alienation of death. {40} prince andrei is one of the few tolstoyan heroes who have no physical fear of death, who meet it, not with shuddering nausea, but with noble and grave composure. if he clings to life it is not from any weak fear but because life means natasha, poetry, and joy; when the pang of resignation is once over, all is peace. "prince andrei not only knew that he was going to die, but he also felt that he was dying, that he was already half-way towards death. he experienced a consciousness of alienation from everything earthly, and a strange beatific exaltation of being. without impatience and without anxiety, he waited for what was before him. that ominous eternal presence, unknown and far away, which had never once ceased, throughout all his life, to haunt his senses, was now near at hand and, by reason of that strange exhilaration which he felt, almost comprehensible and palpable." natasha and his sister grieve for themselves, but they cannot really grieve for him. "they both saw how he was sinking, deeper and deeper, slowly and peacefully away from them, and they both knew that this was inevitable, and that it was well. he was shrived and partook of the sacrament. all came to bid him farewell. "when his little son was brought, he kissed him and turned away, not because his heart was sore and filled with pity, but simply because this was all that was required of him." in this lofty and beautiful isolation the hero passes away. prince andrei has something in him of byronism; there is the byronic ideal in his aristocratic disdain, his mental solitude, his melancholy; he is byronic also in his courage, his love of glory and his disillusionment with glory, but no mere byronist could ever have drawn the portrait. the marvellous thing in tolstoy's art is that he so plainly reveals the change and development of human character; we never feel that his people are static and finished; before our very eyes prince andrei changes from byronic pride to sweetness and tenderness, a bitter disillusion brings him back to {41} pride, but, once more, the depths of the man's nature are stirred and his fundamental sweetness is revealed. many times in his epic novel tolstoy makes us feel the bitter cost of war, but never more than in the death of this, the noblest of his heroes, on the threshold of happiness and love. pierre bezukhoi--the second hero--is a wholly different type. he is much more russian and national than prince andrei; the two are so unlike that the friendship between them strikes us with the same surprise as it would in real life. pierre is clumsy and awkward, and not sufficiently strong-willed; he is continually led away to do things he does not desire; his chief fault is sensuality, and this is the rock on which he all but wrecks his life. it leads him into marriage with a woman whom he desires but does not love--the beautiful, profligate elena. the analysis of his motives is wrought with a terrible sombre power, which anticipates _the kreutzer sonata_. pierre, in the toils of his own sensuality, is, on our first acquaintance with him, a most unattractive character, and we wonder why tolstoy has allowed him a position so prominent, just as we wonder why the fastidious prince andrei can have selected him as a friend; but, by degrees, we realise his true nature; he has indeed a heart of gold and, little by little, his goodness and kindness and simplicity shake his character free from its coarsest faults. he has a genius for sympathy, and he appears to understand all those who surround him better than they understand themselves. the real love of his life is natasha rostof, but he does his best, most unselfishly, to reconcile her to prince andrei; in a sense he deserves her the better of the two, for, even when her betrothed turns against her, pierre still loves and appreciates, and his devotion helps her through the darkest hours of her life. it is only fitting that, in the end, natasha should make him happy. like prince andrei, pierre finds his moral regeneration in war, but in a different way; he does not enter active service nor is he wounded, but he views other aspects of the great tragedy; he is present at the {42} burning of moscow, he is captured by the french, and taken as prisoner on their terrible retreat. it is the heroism of the common man, the beauty and nobility of suffering finely borne, which redeem pierre from the depression which has darkened his mind and which teach him the true meaning of life. he is especially influenced by one man--the peasant soldier platon karatayef--one of tolstoy's greatest creations. platon is not clever nor handsome, his whole life has been privation, but he is love itself, kind and sweet to all men. most tragic is his fate! the french shoot those of the russian prisoners who cannot keep up with the march, and pierre, seeing his friend failing, cannot endure the thought of what must happen and keeps away. one morning he sees platon, not attempting to walk, but sitting beneath a tree with a calm and radiantly happy expression; he gives a beseeching glance to pierre, but pierre turns his back and walks off. shortly afterwards there is heard the sound of a gunshot, two french soldiers pass with guilty faces, and there is the melancholy howling of karatayef's dog. platon's fate is one of the means tolstoy uses to drive home his lesson of the immense futility of war; it is to the last degree abominable that this most loving and beautiful nature, wholly guiltless, should be murdered in cold blood; even a dog has the sense to lament such a deed. but the moral of this wonderful nature is not lost upon pierre; he finds in it "the meaning of life," the clue which he has all along been seeking. as pierre's sufferings increase so does his heart grow lighter; he learns the joy of endurance and the pleasure even of anguish, and all things are less grievous than he would have thought. "of all that which he afterwards called sufferings, but which at the time he scarcely felt, the worst was from his bare, bruised, scurvy-scarred feet. the horse-flesh was palatable and nourishing, the saltpetre odour of the gunpowder which they used instead of salt was {43} even pleasant ... the vermin which fed upon him warmed his body. the one thing hard at that time was the state of his feet. on the second day of the retreat, pierre, examining his sores by the fire, felt that it was impossible to take another step on them; but when all got up he went along, treading gingerly, and afterwards, when he was warmed to it, he walked without pain, though when evening came it was more than ever terrible to look at his feet. but he did not look at them and turned his thoughts to other things.... he saw and heard not how the prisoners who straggled were shot down, although more than a hundred had perished in this way.... the more trying his position, the more appalling the future, ... the more joyful and consoling were the thoughts, recollections, and visions which came to him." tolstoy's account of this terrible retreat is homeric in its tragic nobility; homeric, too, is the spirit of the russian army: they are short of food, short of clothes, sleeping in the snow at twenty degrees below zero; they melt away to half their numbers, yet they grow ever happier and happier, more and more cheerful, for all the poor-spirited, the weak, and cowardly succumb, and only the heroes remain. in his previous life pierre has been miserable, disenchanted, and disillusioned, but he emerges from this hell of suffering a man finally happy. and tolstoy makes us see that it could not be otherwise; his hero has learnt for ever the tremendous capacities of the human soul. of tolstoy's two heroines the princess mariya is the nobler type; she is what he imagined his mother to have been, and to this, no doubt, a large part of her fascination may be traced. in her the author has drawn a woman exceedingly plain, not particularly clever, without accomplishments and melancholy by temperament, yet, by sheer spiritual beauty, she compels admiration, affection, even passionate love. her physical appearance, on which tolstoy dwells, gives the clue to her nature; she treads heavily and blushes unbecomingly in patches; this heavy tread {44} shows us her awkwardness and self-distrust, and the blushing her almost painful modesty. but she is one of those who have life's secret--the gift of love; she idolises her brother; she loves and admires her little selfish sister-in-law, the princess lisa; she bears, year in and year out, with the exasperating and even cruel tyrannies of her father, and loves him dearly to the end; she cherishes her nephew. ultimately, though slowly, she wins her reward for all this patient sweetness; her brother has always understood her at her full value, her father dies acknowledging her as his good angel, and we are not surprised when nikolai rostof, cold to more beautiful and more attractive women, turns and gives her his love. and yet the portrait is not sentimentalised or made incredibly virtuous; the princess mariya does not find self-abnegation easy, she longs for a home and happiness, she is jealous of natasha because natasha is young and beautiful, and has achieved the poetry of love; to the end, notwithstanding her deep affections, she finds it a little hard to comprehend others. tolstoy's second heroine, natasha rostof, is, for pure fascination, the most enthralling character in the book. tolstoy seems to have drawn her from an actual person--his sister-in-law; and she has all the reality of a minute portrait. natasha is beautiful or, it would be more correct to say, has the promise of beauty; she has also a lovely voice; but her most remarkable gift is her power of winning love. from her first introduction she is the idolised of all; she and her younger brother, petya, are her mother's favourite children; natasha is the adored of her brothers and her father, and almost every man who visits the house falls in love with her. tolstoy makes us understand why. natasha is herself prepared to see all that is delightful and all that is good in others; she is highly vitalised; she has strong affections, and an intense joy in life; wherever natasha is things move; it is she who is always ready to suggest games and amusements; it is she who perceives poetry {45} and romance where others cannot or only in much less degree. morning in the forest, a moonlight night in spring, sledging over the snow, music--all are to her enrapturing things. that magical period of youth, that period of half-childhood, half-adolescence, when the world is suffused by "the light that never was on sea or land," has nowhere been more beautifully depicted than in her. it is this romantic charm which so powerfully attracts the somewhat cold but poetic nature of prince andrei. in the midst of the gloomy tragedies of bloodshed and battle natasha rostof shines like an incarnation of springtime, the very joy of life in a human form. the most beautiful passage in the whole novel is probably that which describes prince andrei's first meeting with her. he is in a mood of some sadness, and feels, after all his experiences, old beyond his years; he drives to the rostofs and perceives a number of young girls running among the trees. "in front of the others ... ran a very slender, indeed a strangely slender maiden, with dark hair and dark eyes, in a yellow chintz dress, with a white handkerchief round her head, the locks emerging from it in ringlets." it is natasha, and, that same night, prince andrei hears her conversing with her cousin sonya at the window above his own. "the night was cool and calmly beautiful. in front of the window was a row of clipped trees, dark on one side and silver-bright on the other.... farther away, beyond the trees, was a roof glittering with dew; farther to the right a tall tree with wide-spreading branches, showed a brilliant white bole and limbs; and directly above it the moon, almost at her full, shone in the bright, nearly starless spring night. prince andrei leaned his elbows on the window-sill and fixed his eyes on that sky." he hears sonya and natasha sing a duet, he hears sonya try to persuade her cousin to sleep and natasha's protest: "sonya! sonya! how can you go to sleep? just see how lovely it is! how lovely! come wake up, {46} sonya," she said again with, tears in her voice. "come, now, such a lovely, lovely night was never seen!" prince andrei meets her again at a ball in st. petersburg, where her childlike happiness brings a breath of pure air into the artificial atmosphere; natasha is so completely unaffected that, in the very midst of affectations, she keeps her unspoilt romance. prince andrei proposes for her hand, but the rostofs' family affairs are in confusion, and prince andrei's father insists on a year's delay; for that space of time he goes abroad. prince andrei does not find the time of delay unreasonably long, and cannot understand that natasha should do so, but the girl suffers the dangers of her inexperience; prince andrei has roused her to a full consciousness of womanhood, and her sensuous and passionate nature cannot endure the blank of his absence; also, since she is extremely sensitive, she is grieved by the cold attitude his family persistently maintain. she meets anatol kuragin, a man exceedingly handsome but unscrupulous, who at once makes violent love to her; she writes a letter to prince andrei breaking off their engagement, and consents to elope with kuragin, this plan being discovered and frustrated by her family. natasha wakens from her brief madness, realises how badly she has behaved to her betrothed, and, in her remorse and shame, attempts suicide. prince andrei, returning, learns the whole story; he is stung to the quick in his haughty pride; his spiritual nature makes him totally unable to understand the temptation, and he cannot forgive. it is natasha's innate generosity which gives them, however, their last chance of reconciliation; the rostofs are carting their family property away from moscow, which is threatened by the french, but there are not sufficient horses to transport the russian wounded, and natasha, keenly opposing her mother, demands that the family property shall be sacrificed, and the wounded rescued instead; the rostofs discover prince andrei's presence and forbid natasha to see him, but {47} her own daring takes her to his side, and there follows the most simple but touching of reconciliations. natasha becomes his nurse, and proves the depth of her nature by her skill and tenderness. but the brief time of joy is soon over; prince andrei's sufferings are agonising, and he passes away. natasha feels bereavement with the same intensity as everything else; she herself seems to sink out of the world; thin and pale and visibly wasting away, she sits for hours in silence, gazing at the place where prince andrei has lain. her family have lost all hope of saving her life, but tragic news arrives; the younger brother--petya--has been killed in battle, and the mother is mad with grief; she screams for her beloved natasha, who is the only person who can comfort her, and, in straining every nerve to save her mother's reason, the girl herself is restored to life. she lives again by virtue of those profound and passionate affections which had almost destroyed her. she is so greatly changed, however, that, when pierre meets her again, he does not know her; he cannot recognise in her thin, pale, and stern face the natasha of adorable and abounding life; yet the moment he shows that he loves her, the old natasha, with her radiant joy, flashes back into his view, and she is willing, almost at once, to become pierre's affianced. to the princess mariya, with a nature much less emotional but infinitely more constant, natasha is a continual marvel, and, though she is glad of her friend's happiness, the princess grieves at the inconstancy to her brother. the whole portrait is wonderful in its realism, glowing with vitality and with charm, and, just as in the case of the men, natasha deepens and changes before our very eyes. but few readers will be inclined, however, to appreciate tolstoy's final picture of her; he shows us natasha as pierre's wife and the mother of four children; she is loving but exacting, very jealous, almost parsimonious in her care for her children, she has become untidy in her personal appearance, and the old poetic charm only in the rarest moments returns. {48} natasha, in fact, seems to show us the limitations in tolstoy's patriarchal view of woman; he regards her not really as an individual, an end in herself, but as a means towards the race, and the individual loss is nothing to regret; he seems to realise and rejoice in the shock he gives us when he tells us of natasha the generous become parsimonious, of natasha the sylph tearing round in a dirty morning wrapper; but we are inclined to resent the admiration accorded to this second natasha, who limits her sympathies to such a narrow circle, and who has become a maternal egoist of the most colossal type. tolstoy himself found, as we have seen, in his relations with his wife, that the maternal egoist is not quite the finest ideal of humanity. it is impossible to study in any detail the crowded canvas of _war and peace_, but the minor characters are often among the best-drawn and the most attractive. the whole rostof group are delightfully depicted. petya rostof, the dear boy who is killed, has almost the same charm as natasha. he has intense affections, is full of amusing boyish interests, and possesses a lofty ideal of patriotism; he likes to think himself a hero, and really is one. when only sixteen he insists on joining the army: his brother's friends try to protect him and to keep him out of danger, but his gallantry leads him into every peril, and he is killed, quite uselessly and casually, while exposing himself in a dangerous engagement. it is one more example of the immense futility of war. nikolai rostof, tolstoy's third hero, is more commonplace than pierre and prince andrei, but he gives tolstoy a splendid opportunity for depicting the psychology of war; we are shown all his emotions from the day when he first joins, is alternately elated with a feeling of heroism and depressed by the conviction that he is a coward, to the time when, as a seasoned veteran, he can hardly recall his old excitement and his old dread; the only trace his former fear has left in his mind shows itself in his compassion for the younger officers, whose mental sufferings he so fully understands. nikolai rostof has always a certain humility of {49} character; he is very ready to reverence others, and is attracted to the princess mariya by her great spiritual superiority to himself. the artillery officer, tushin, to whom we have already alluded, is evidently tolstoy's type of a true russian hero. he is simplicity and modesty itself; his magnificent courage is not in the least sanguinary, but is accompanied by a heart as tender as a woman's; when he is returning after his terrific day he is still kind enough to help the wounded nikolai rostof on to the blood-bespattered gun-carriage. nor does tushin stand alone; continually in _war and peace_, as in so many other works, tolstoy makes us feel the enormous value of man as man. with the really eminent we cannot but feel that he is less successful. one curious feature of the book is its almost eastern fatalism. tolstoy will allow practically nothing to the will of man as an individual; all the great events of the book are due to the power of an unknown destiny urging men on to deeds which are, even to themselves, unexpected and surprising, while the men who think that they are directing all are really as helplessly incapable of any true control as a fly revolving upon a cart-wheel. tolstoy is especially embittered towards napoleon; he does not blame him, like byron, because his greatness was "antithetically mixed" with so much of meanness; he does not blame him, like shelley, because, possessing in his genius a unique opportunity for good, he chose to divert that genius to his own self-aggrandisement. tolstoy goes much further; he is so excessively angry that he altogether denies napoleon's genius; he will not acknowledge him to have any talent except of the most trifling kind; to him napoleon is a mean-souled, small-minded man, contemptible in everything, colossal in his vanity but great in nothing besides. and when the reader asks in amazement how napoleon won his tremendous victories, how he gained the unparalleled devotion of his army, tolstoy answers contemptuously that the victories were due mainly to destiny, to the {50} unknown ruler of the world who so ordained, and that the devotion of the army was mere hypnotism. nor is it only from napoleon that he endeavours to strip the borrowed plumes; in several amusing studies napoleon's great soldier-marshals are revealed as vain, childish, and even absurd, proud of their uniforms and almost infantile in their love of decorations. but, it must be confessed, tolstoy is impartial in his dislike of the eminent; he is almost as hard on the russian generals as on the french. the one man whom he praises--kutuzof--is the man whom the russians themselves failed to appreciate, and tolstoy admires him for the somewhat curious reason that he also was a fatalist, that he believed no general could do much, and was always, with fabian tactics, waiting upon the event. {51} chapter v "anna karénina" _anna karénina_ is, perhaps, considered as a whole, a more artistic work than _war and peace_; the very fact that its scope is less gigantic permits tolstoy to make it clearer and more concentrated; everything is directed towards the one end--the tragic death of anna--and though the novel has an under-plot, that is very skilfully blent with the main plot, and is everywhere kept subordinate. _anna karénina_ is much less distinctively russian and national than _war and peace_; it shows very plainly the influence of the french novel, and its plot is of the type that french novelists are fond of selecting, though the moral intensity with which tolstoy invests it is unusual with them. notwithstanding the power and beauty of its telling, it seems, however, somewhat restricted when compared with the vast spaces and terrific issues of _war and peace_, where individual tragedies, however great, are forgotten in the crisis of a nation. _anna karénina_ is a very great novel, but no one would dream of saying that it suggested homer. it is a domestic tragedy only, but, like shakespeare in _othello_, tolstoy has known how to make his domestic tragedy a revelation of the heights and depths, of the passionate potentialities of the human soul. tolstoy openly refrains from judging his heroine, and it is a mistake to consider _anna karénina_ as being essentially a protest against the breaking of the marriage bond. tolstoy does believe in the indissolubility of marriage, but the book is just as much a protest against {52} the dangers of marriage without love or the cruel injustice of society. the truth is that it is a picture of life, and expresses, as tolstoy acutely says an artistic work always should, a moral relation to life rather than a moral judgment. anna karénina, is, of all tolstoy's heroines, the most perfect human being; she is a mature woman, possessed of wit, grace, and beauty, and above all, the gift of sympathy; she is one of those people who have strong affections, who love profoundly and appreciate readily all that is best in others, who are also possessed of keen intellectual powers, but who live mainly from impulse and not from principle. such people are, perhaps, the most attractive characters in the world, and their impulses, springing from a warm heart, are usually right: but it is their peril that, in moments of moral stress, their emotions may be too much for them, and may fatally mislead them. there is a certain resemblance, though not too close, between anna and natasha rostof; both possess the poetic and emotional temperament; they add, wherever they are, to the romance of life; it may be noted too that, though natasha's fate is happier, that is due mainly to accident, and not to her own achievement, for she twice escaped the ruin of her life only by the intervention of others, and she also came very near to death by her own hand. there is no surer proof of anna's sweetness than the charm she possesses for members of her own sex. she appreciates the beauty of the young girl who is her unconscious rival, kitty shcherbatsky, and she can enter into the family griefs and troubles of kitty's sister dolly, who, although most virtuous herself, clings to anna through all her ostracism. even the frivolous and immoral betsky tverskáia is grieved to the heart when her own cowardice compels her to desert anna. even before the heroine enters the story the effect of her presence is felt. her brother who, owing to a matrimonial infidelity, has quarrelled with his wife, looks to her as his only hope; he and dolly both love her dearly, and they hope that she may find for them a {53} way out of the intolerable situation; she does, in fact, prevent the break-up of the home, though she cannot (and this is another example of tolstoy's quiet ironic truth) either reform her brother or leave dolly really happy. tender and sympathetic as anna at once shows herself to be, she has yet a void in her own life. when quite a young girl she had been married to a government official, aleksei karénin, who held an important position but who was twenty years her senior, stiff, dry, and cold; the marriage was entirely due to the intrigues of anna's clever and unscrupulous aunt. anna has one child, her son serozha, and in the effort to fill her life completely with her maternal affection, she has almost made it an affectation. though she herself hardly suspects it, the real emotional capacities of her nature have never been developed. it is a stroke of tragic irony that anna, who comes to moscow to avert the destruction of her brother's home, should find there what is to prove the ruin of her own. she meets count aleksei vronsky--young, handsome, attractive. vronsky has been regarded by everyone, including kitty herself, as the suitor of kitty shcherbatsky, but he is not deeply stirred, and, the moment he meets anna, he yields to her far greater charm. had there been the slightest disrespect in vronsky's attentions, anna would have known how to defend herself, but vronsky is perfectly reverent. his family, on discovering the intrigue, consider anna simply as an amusement for vronsky, but he himself has never regarded her in that light; from the first moment he has loved her seriously and profoundly, with all the strength of his nature. against all the ordinary infidelities, the light and cheap loves of the society in which she lives, anna is immune, but she is helplessly ensnared by this love, so immediate that she has no time to be on her guard, so tender and reverent that she cannot feel insulted. the reader is, at first, somewhat inclined to resent anna's overwhelming passion, and to consider vronsky as commonplace, he seems so much the typical military {54} dandy, his whole life's aim (as he avows even to himself) being the desire to be _comme il faut_ in everything--in dress, speech, manners, and sentiments. he attempts to make his passion for madame karénina fit in the conventional framework, but vronsky is finer than he himself suspects; he really is what anna had, at the first glimpse, divined him to be--her nature's destined mate; under the exterior of the st. petersburg dandy, he conceals a nature capable of extraordinary generosities and the most enduring devotion. he realises all the charm of anna's nature; he realises that her heart is as yet unawakened and that he has the power to arouse it; there is nothing in his moral code to hold him back; he and his society consider the pursuit of a married woman as being quite _comme il faut_. our first real surprise with regard to vronsky does not occur in his relations to anna, but comes when we discover that he has, with almost quixotic generosity, sacrificed the greater part of his fortune in favour of his younger brother, for no reason except that his brother wished to marry into a distinguished family, and the fortune would greatly aid. with the same generosity, vronsky, when he discovers the need, makes real sacrifices for anna. he had at first regarded his passion for her as being only an additional joy in life, entailing no responsibility; but tolstoy, with his unerring accuracy, shows that the responsibilities of an illicit love are not only as great as those of a legal one, but far more difficult and galling, because society, having ordained the responsibilities of marriage, assists the individual to execute them, whereas, in the other case, it incessantly hinders and impedes. vronsky is compelled either to leave anna or to sacrifice his ambition, hitherto the dearest thing in his life, and he gives up his ambition. matthew arnold, in his criticisms on _anna karénina_, remarks that it is difficult to imagine an englishwoman yielding herself as readily as anna to an illicit love. but we may doubt if this is not a piece of british pharasaism, for an emotional englishwoman, living in {55} a society as corrupt as anna's (and many periods of english society have been as corrupt), would probably yield in the same way. tolstoy, with his usual insight, has shown us how natural this yielding really is. anna, though quite young, is well accustomed to marital infidelity; her own brother's, though it distresses, does not shock her; moreover, in the character of this brother, stepan, we have a subtle side-light thrown upon anna's; stepan is a far inferior type, but there is undoubtedly a family affinity. stepan is affectionate, kind-hearted, and cheerful; wherever he goes he is thoroughly liked; but he altogether fails to realise his obligations, even to those he loves, and in anna's nature, incomparably more refined, there is, none the less, a touch of the same carelessness. anna's husband is not the person to exercise any restraining influence. tolstoy never agrees with the wife's conception of him as a mere official machine, but he makes us understand how inevitable it is that anna should take such a view. karénin is cold by nature, and, in her sense of the word, he has never really loved her; her relations with vronsky do not so much wound and grieve his affections (anna could readily understand that), but they fill him with an overmastering fear for his dignity, his place in society, and, to an idealist like anna, this very fear appears as contemptible. the course of the long, ever-changing drama between these three is traced with acutest psychological skill. anna yields to her lover only after long solicitation, and with an instant shame and regret; for a time she hides the truth from karénin, but concealment of any sort is hateful to her candour, and soon becomes impossible; she is present at a dangerous steeple-chase when vronsky is thrown, and her emotion is so manifest that her husband rebukes her; she gives way to her own passionate desire for truth, and, notwithstanding her bitter humiliation, acknowledges her infidelity. she hopes that the confession will end an intolerable situation, but her hope is disappointed; her husband simply forbids her to receive vronsky in his house, and {56} anna finds that one insufferable situation has only given place to another still worse; to deceive karénin was a torture, but to live on terms of cold hostility with him, seeing her lover by stealth, is even more wretched. karénin meditates a divorce, but neither anna nor he really desires it; he cannot bear to yield her entirely to vronsky, and anna knows that it would mean a final separation from her son. in the meantime vronsky is sacrificing his whole career in order to remain in st. petersburg. anna longs for death, and nature seems about to send it; her daughter--vronsky's child--is born, and for a week she hangs between life and death. in her extremity her mind is oppressed by remorse for the suffering she has caused her husband; she entreats his forgiveness, and with great compassion he does, really and genuinely, forgive; he even consents to be reconciled to vronsky, and, at anna's bedside, they clasp hands. but destiny reveals its customary irony (tolstoy, we may remark, is as firm a believer in tragic irony as any of the greeks). the touching reconciliation is based really upon one condition--that anna dies--and this does not happen. moreover she, who had, for a moment, exalted her husband above her lover, soon finds the balance redressed. vronsky discovers himself in a position for which his philosophy has no remedy; instead of being the triumphant lover he finds himself a humiliated offender, pardoned by the man whom he had most grievously injured; there was also the terrible anguish of believing anna's death inevitable. vronsky shoots himself, bungles it, and is wounded seriously though not fatally. his attempted suicide is, in part, a supreme sacrifice to his doctrine of _comme il faut_, an attempt to escape humiliation and ridicule, in part a manifestation of the feeling, so strong it amazes even himself, that life without anna is impossible. but anna recovers; vronsky's attempted suicide has turned her sympathies almost wholly to him, and when once she is convalescent (here again is the tragic irony) she finds her husband as tiresome and tedious as before. {57} vronsky and anna end the intolerable situation by taking flight. for a time all seems well with them; after so many brief and stolen interviews, so many harsh separations, they find it unalloyed bliss to be together without let or hindrance; they spend in italy an ideally happy honeymoon. but tolstoy's art is inexorable, as inexorable as life. neither vronsky nor anna can remain content in isolation; they are both rich and generous natures, meant for fruitful intercourse with their fellows, and they cannot, in their position, obtain either suitable society or suitable duties. vronsky has resigned his military profession, which he really loved, and for which he was admirably adapted; he does his best to find occupation in other ways; in italy he attempts art, but soon discovers that he is a mere dilettante, wasting his efforts and his time. they return to russia, and he devotes himself to the duties of a landed proprietor, becoming quite reasonably successful. so far as he himself is concerned vronsky could get along, but he is stabbed through his affection for anna; the really intolerable burden of the situation falls upon her; men will associate with her, but not her own sex; she is ostracised from the society of good women, and even women who are, morally speaking, infinitely her inferiors venture to insult her; moreover she knows that vronsky's mother tries to entice him away from her and get him married; she has had to resign her son, and the thought of his destiny, misunderstood, and perhaps neglected, tortures and grieves her. she attempts to obtain a divorce from karénin, so that her position can be regularised, but her husband, fallen under the sway of a malevolent woman, refuses. thrown, as she is, entirely upon vronsky's honour, she is desperately jealous; every hour that he spends away from her is an anguish, and she is continually tortured by the fear of desertion; conscious that her jealousy exasperates and alienates him, she is still unable to control it. vronsky is really a gentleman, and he has true and {58} deep love; he shows great consideration, but the incessant scenes of jealousy followed by passion and passion followed by jealousy strain his patience to the breaking-point. at length, having tried, as he thinks, everything else, he believes that the only way left is to try indifference; anna, however, is on the edge of the abyss, and his coldness drives her over. vronsky is absent for the day; in terror at her own despair she sends him a note, beseeching him to return; he answers coldly that he will be back at the appointed time, and, yielding to her anguish, she flings herself beneath a train. all anna's feelings at this crisis of her fate are depicted with the deepest truth and tragedy. the unhappy creature herself knows whither she is tending, and struggles frantically, but her views of life grow ever more and more gloomy; hatred of herself, hatred of her lover, well up in her heart, and, at last, her only desire is to punish him. "'there,' she said, looking at the shadow of the carriage thrown upon the black coal-dust which covered the sleepers, 'there, in the centre, he will be punished and i shall be delivered from it all ... and from myself.' "her little red travelling-bag caused her to miss the moment when she could throw herself under the wheels of the first carriage, as she was unable to detach it from her arm. she awaited the second. a feeling like that she had once experienced just before taking a dive in the river came over her, and she made the sign of the cross. this familiar action awakened in her soul a crowd of memories of youth and childhood. life, with its elusive joys, glowed for an instant before her, but she did not remove her eyes from the carriage, and when the centre part, between the wheels, appeared, she threw away her red bag, lowered her head upon her shoulders, and, with outstretched hands, threw herself on her knees beneath the vehicle, as though prepared to rise again. she had time to feel afraid. 'where am i? what am i doing? why?' thought she, trying {59} to draw back; but a great inflexible mass struck her head and threw her on her back. 'lord! forgive me all,' she murmured, feeling the struggle to be in vain. a little muzhik, who was mumbling in his beard, leant from the step of the carriage on to the line. "and the light--which, for the unfortunate one, had lit up the book of life with its troubles, its deceptions, and its pains--rending the darkness, shone with greater brightness, then flickered, grew faint, and went out for ever." on vronsky the terrible punishment takes effect; he rejoins the service a crushed and broken man, having henceforward only one desire--to lose his life in battle. mingled with the main story of anna and vronsky is the companion one or "under-plot" of kitty shcherbatsky and konstantin levin. we may notice that tolstoy's method of construction differs essentially from that of turgénief; turgénief, making his work briefer and more concentrated, omits all that is not essential to his main theme, but tolstoy aims at giving, not so much the drama of life as life itself. he wishes to show us the slow, deliberate motion of reality, and when in anna's life there are no events, he fills up the space with the acts and experiences of his other characters. kitty shcherbatsky's story is very simple: she at first refuses levin, believing herself in love with vronsky; he, however, deserts her for anna; she is cruelly mortified, passes through a period of ill-health and depression, but levin ultimately returns, she marries him, and they are happy. kitty is a charming girl, but her character seems slight and even common-place beside the depth and richness and passion of anna's; the two heroines in this book do not balance so well as in _war and peace_, though tolstoy has most skilfully used them as foils to each other, and helped, by their mutual relations, to reveal their characters; thus there is no stronger proof of anna's wonderful charm than the fact that kitty, who has hated her, both from jealousy and because she thinks her wicked, {60} has only to meet her in order to be overwhelmed by love and compassion. konstantin levin, is, in some ways, more interesting than vronsky; he has a much more complex mental development. it is agreed that levin represents, to some extent, tolstoy himself. the points of resemblance are many and close; levin works among his peasants just as tolstoy did, mowing and reaping in the fields, rejoicing in the health and activity of such a life, and in the lovely pictures of nature that it reveals. levin's proposal to his wife follows, detail by detail, tolstoy's proposal to sophie behrs; the death of levin's brother from consumption is like the death of tolstoy's--even the name is the same--nicolas; levin, like tolstoy, is happy in his family life, but is, nevertheless, so greatly distressed by religious doubts and difficulties that he is driven almost to suicide. the resemblance being so strong, it is noteworthy and significant that tolstoy has painted levin as a great egoist. he is a good fellow at heart, and the reader is thoroughly interested in his mental development, but his egoism is so strong that it continually exasperates and annoys. when kitty refuses him, levin is deeply wounded in his affections, but still more hurt in his pride; he cannot get over the fact that he--levin--has been "refused by a shcherbatsky," and feels as if the whole world must be cognisant of his disgrace--in fact he becomes really comic. again, when he hears from her sister that kitty's affection for vronsky was really very slight, that her only real regret is the alienation from him, he will not even call at the house, and this though he knows that the whole vronsky entanglement was due mainly to his own eccentric behaviour. even when he is married he is incessantly and unnecessarily jealous of his wife, and always, on the slightest pretext, tormenting her with this jealousy. this irritable self-consciousness is shown no less strikingly in his relations with men who, although they esteem his integrity and talents, find it exceedingly difficult to like him. the same self-consciousness {61} makes him clumsy in society, and, when he has to act with other people in public business, he grows caustic and angry because they do not agree with him in everything. the worst egoism of all occurs in his attitude towards his dying brother. when he sees his brother visibly perishing from consumption, he pities him deeply, but, none the less, his chief concern lies in the thought that this horrible and degrading misfortune of illness and death will one day befall himself; he positively disturbs the invalid in the night (how terrible to break that hard-won sleep of the consumptive!) by rising to look in the glass, dreading to find that he has wrinkles and grey hairs and is growing old. when he and kitty attend nikolai's death-bed we see the strongest possible contrast between the unselfish courage of the young wife, thinking only of the sick man, and doing everything possible for him, and the distressing egoism of levin, who is filled with fear, disgust, and almost anger at the sight of death. "levin, though terrified at the thought of lifting this frightful body under the coverlet, submitted to his wife's influence, and put his arms around the invalid, with that resolute air she knew so well": and again, "the sight of the sick man paralysed him; he did not know what to say, how to look or move about.... kitty apparently did not think about herself, and she had not the time. occupied only with the invalid, she seemed to have a clear idea of what to do; and she succeeded in her endeavour." _anna karénina_ shows already that fear of death which is such an obsession in tolstoy's later works. in _war and peace_, he takes the soldier's view of it, as something almost trifling in comparison with greater matters; his noble prince andrei grieves over many things, but neither the utmost extremity of peril, nor the anguish of his gangrened wound, nor the immediate presence of dissolution can shake his courage or dismay his soul. it is different with the pitiful, almost animal terror of death shown by poor nikolai levin, and it plays an increasing part in tolstoy's mind until, as he describes {62} in _my confession_, it becomes an obsession which occupies the whole of his mind, and from which he can only shake himself free by an entire conversion. even then, like a mediæval monk, he allows the thought of death to colour almost the whole of life. the truth is that he thinks too much of it. even his pagan homer might have taught him better; achilles cries: "my friend, thou too must die; why thus lamentest thou? patroklos too is dead, who was better far than thou. seest thou not also what manner of man am i for might and goodliness? and a good man was my father and a goddess-mother bare me. yet over me too hang death and forceful fate." tolstoy had reached, more than once, the height of the heroic age. it is a pity his soul ever condescended to our modern and craven fear of death. the canvas of _anna karénina_ is rich in minor characters, almost as excellently drawn as the main one. stepan, anna's brother, has been already referred to; he is an ironically complete portrait of the man of the world, drawn with a thackerayan lightness and zest. there are not, as a rule, many resemblances between thackeray and tolstoy, for tolstoy is so much the deeper, but the portrait of stepan might have come from the same pen as that of major pendennis. stepan is always kind, but his kindness is as purely constitutional as a good digestion. he is faithless to his wife, not once nor twice, but habitually; he deserts the "adorable" women who confide themselves to his protection; he claims an excellent post, and thinks he has fulfilled all its duties by keeping himself invariably well-dressed; he is, of course, a _connoisseur_ in meats and wines, and, however well-spread the table may be, must always show his fastidiousness by ordering something else. he is very generous, and pays all his debts of honour, but the money for this has to be found by his unfortunate family, who economise even in the necessities of life; one summer they spend their time in a miserable tumble-down house; next year, as the place is positively uninhabitable, they are driven to take refuge with the levins. but it does not grieve stepan {63} that konstantin levin should support stepan's wife and six children; he doubtless thinks that levin enjoys that sort of thing as much as he--stepan--the spending of money. yet stepan is invariably liked, for he will do a good turn for anyone if he can, and is always tactful and sympathetic. if tolstoy has drawn a candid and unflattering picture of his own type of egoism in konstantin levin, he has drawn in stepan a portrait of the other type of egoism--the amiable, epicurean type--which is still more drastically complete. stepan's wife--dolly, sister to kitty shcherbatsky--is a thoroughly natural and lovable creature; terribly disillusioned by her husband's infidelity, she is yet persuaded, for the children's sake, to forgive him and reunite the family; she bears with endless patience the worries his extravagance entails, and copes single-handed with the debts and the six children. it is hardly surprising if, at moments, she murmurs, and is almost inclined to think that the people who lead irregular lives (like anna) have the best of it; it is only after a visit to anna and vronsky that she realises her own blessings, and understands that the tortures of a dissatisfied conscience are worse even than debts and a faithless husband. dolly, however, stands by anna in all her misfortunes; while women full of secret sins insult anna in public, dolly, the irreproachably virtuous, loves her to the end. aleksei karénin--the husband of anna--is brought before us in all his reality. we see the ugliness which so exasperates anna--the ears that stick out straight, the habit of cracking the finger-joints--and we realise his cold vanity. and yet it is impossible not to be sorry for karénin; he suffers a veritable martyrdom; that which he dreads worse than death--ridicule--overwhelms him at all points; he is crushed by the undeserved contempt of his fellows. tolstoy shows us how little anna's persecution was dictated by morality, for the cruelty accorded to the guiltless husband is just as great. for a moment, when karénin pardons anna and {64} vronsky, he rises to real heroism, but it is a height to which he cannot keep; the poor man really is, as anna well knew, a pretentious mediocrity; he is found out as a husband, found out as an official, found out even as a martyr; for a brief space, after the scene of the pardon, the reader is inclined to feel as if karénin had been all along misjudged, but he returns to his usual self. when anna has left him he falls under the influence of the stupidly sentimental lidia ivanovna; he becomes a convert to the most foolish form of spiritualism, submits anna's fate to the decision of a medium, and refuses her a divorce because the medium pronounces against it--a course of procedure so extravagantly silly that it amazes even stepan. there are in the book many amusing and caustic portraits. one group--lidia ivanovna, betsky tverskáia, the princess miagkaïa, and veslovsky--might have come from the pen of some eighteenth-century satirist; they have a sheridan-like keenness and lightness of touch. lidia ivanovna, especially, is excellent: she is a sentimentalist of the rankest type; having disgusted her own husband within a fortnight of marriage, she has ever since been incessantly conceiving romantic affections for one distinguished person after another; most of them are completely unconscious of her adoration, others ignore it, and the remainder are supremely bored; in poor deserted karénin she finds at last a responsive object for her sentimentality and brings about, indirectly, anna's tragedy. {65} chapter vi "my confession"--"my religion"--"what is art?" etc. we have seen that, in his fiftieth year, a great mental and moral change came over tolstoy. the first of his religious works, _my confession_, tells the story of this conversion, and it is a wonderful document--as intimate and candid as the confessions of rousseau, but expressing a nature more profoundly moral, of deepest interest to us, moreover, as rendering a mood of doubt and despair so frequent in the nineteenth century that most of the century's leading minds have experienced something like it at one period or another. it shows all the agony of a great soul, struggling in the deepest abysses of doubt, astray in a universe where all seems chaotic, dark, and meaningless, with no firm footing anywhere. tolstoy traces his own scepticism to the general scepticism of his age; with his usual incisive completeness he depicts for us, in one single paragraph, the whole mentality of such an epoch. "i remember once in my twelfth year, a boy, now long since dead, vladimir m----, a pupil in the gymnasium, spent a sunday with us and brought us the news of the last discovery in the gymnasium--namely, that there was no god, and that all we were taught on the subject was a mere invention (this was in the year 1838). "i remember well how interested my elder brothers were in this news; i was admitted to their deliberations, and we all eagerly accepted the theory as something particularly attractive and possibly quite true. i remember also that when my elder brother, dmitri, {66} then at the university, with the impulsiveness natural to his character, gave himself up to a passionate faith, began to attend the church services regularly, to fast, and to lead a pure and moral life, we all of us, and some older than ourselves, never ceased to hold him up to ridicule, and for some incomprehensible reason, gave him the nickname of noah." tolstoy goes on to analyse the situation as he saw it in his youth--that the men of his class did not obey in the least the precepts of the religion which they professed, but, on the contrary, lived in direct opposition to them; their faith had become purely conventional, having no influence upon their lives. he declares: "the open profession of the orthodox doctrines is mostly found among persons of dull intellects, of stern character, who think much of their own importance. intelligence, honesty, frankness, a good heart, and moral conduct are oftener met with among those who are disbelievers." from the age of fifteen years onwards tolstoy read many philosophical works; being in consequence far more self-conscious than his comrades, he was well aware of the disappearance of his faith; he ceased to pray, to attend the services of the church, or to fast. he still possessed ideals of moral excellence, and honestly desired to make himself a good and virtuous man, but his passions were very strong, and he found himself almost alone in his search for virtue. "every time i tried to express the longings of my heart for a truly virtuous life i was met with contempt and derisive laughter, but directly i gave way to the lowest of my passions i was praised and encouraged." then follow the most bitter self-reproaches, describing how he yielded to all the sins and vices of his class. it is curious and noticeable that tolstoy does not perceive, in his first literary ambitions, any of the promptings of a higher ideal, but analyses his literary pretensions with contemptuous irony. he declares that he began to write out of vanity, love of gain, and pride. here, again, he is surely too severe, for the most cursory reader of tolstoy cannot but perceive that there {67} is always in his work something true and genuine: sympathy with the lives of others, the pure and healthy joy of the artist. tolstoy continues with the same ruthless severity; it is doubtful if there ever has been a literary man more contemptuous in tone to himself and his fellows. "the view of life taken by these, my fellow-writers, was that life is a development, and the principal part in that development is played by ourselves--the thinkers; the chief influence is again due to ourselves--the poets. our vocation is to teach mankind. in order to avoid answering the very natural question, 'what do i know, and what can i teach?' the theory in question is made to contain the formula that such is not required to be known, but that the thinker and the poet teach unconsciously." for a time, he says, he gladly believed this theory, because he earned a great deal of money and praise and everything else he desired. he firmly believed in the theory of progress, and that he himself, though unconsciously, helped it. after some two years, however, he became discontented, and it was his fellow-writers who disenchanted him; they were more dissolute even than his former military associates, and full of vanity. his connection with them, he declares, only added another vice to his character--that of morbid and altogether unreasonable pride. "hundreds of us wrote, printed, and taught, and all the while confuted and abused each other. quite unconscious that we ourselves knew nothing, that to the simplest of all problems in life--what is right and what is wrong--we had no answer, we all went on talking together without one to listen, at times abetting and praising one another on condition that we were abetted and praised in turn, and again turning upon each other in wrath; in short we reproduced the scenes in a madhouse." there is surely something of unfairness here, and we may suspect that it was the proud and defiant spirit of tolstoy which made him resent the contradictions of his literary friends. but, as we have pointed {68} out, it was always tolstoy's fault to underrate the intellectual powers of others, and also, to the end of his life, he underrated the value of intelligence in human affairs. it was this pride which prevented him from nobly loving, as he might have done, men of the stamp of turgénief, and, great artist as he was, it prevented him from that entire, humble absorption in his work which has saved the soul of many a lesser man. tolstoy had to save his soul by a longer and a darker road. on his tour abroad he still sought for satisfying moral ideas, and still found them, as he believed, in the conception of progress; he thought, at the time, that it had a real meaning. "in reality i was only repeating the answer of a man carried away in a boat by the waves and the wind, who to the one important question for him, 'where are we to steer?' should answer, saying 'we are being carried away somewhere.'" tolstoy refers to the execution in paris as shaking his belief in progress, and giving him a real moral shock. the death of his brother marked another crisis in his mentality. the terrible sense of loss, the cruel fear of death in his brother, were things that made the doctrine of "progress" seem idle and tiresome. tolstoy next reviews his educational activity, and judges that too most harshly; he did not, he says, really know what to teach the children, so he evaded the difficulty by trying to make them teach themselves, with results which he describes as whimsical. shortly after this he married, and was so engrossed by his happy family life that he wholly ceased to inquire into the real meaning of life. he continued to write. "in my writing i taught what for me was the only truth--that the object of life should be our own happiness and that of our family." after some ten years, however, he became hopelessly puzzled by the questions "why?" and "what after?" and his torment increased until, by degrees, he could think of nothing else. his life had come, as it were, to {69} a sudden stop. he could carry on the mechanical business of existence, he could breathe, eat, drink, and sleep, but he felt as if there were no real use in life, as if its meaning and its savour were gone. what was still stranger and more terrifying was that he could see nothing left even to desire. "had a fairy appeared and offered me all i desired i should not have known what to say.... the truth lay in this, that life had no meaning for me." his life seemed to him to be a foolish and wicked joke played upon him by he knew not whom, and he refrained from carrying a gun because he was so continually tempted to suicide. his mind dwelt on the inevitable miseries of human life; illness and death would most certainly come both to himself and to those who loved him best, and there would remain nothing of them but stench and worms. he found his favourite reading at this time in schopenhauer and ecclesiastes. solomon, the wisest man who had ever lived, declared that all was vanity, and he exactly agreed with him. there was no escape; the theory of "progress" did not apply at all to the individual life; philosophy was uncertain; science was marvellous in its methods and its intellectual power, but it led to no real result. his conclusion was the conclusion of schopenhauer and solomon--that life was an evil poisoned through and through by the thought of death. he began to study other men and their methods of escape. he saw that the young escaped this evil very largely through ignorance, by simply not perceiving the absurdity of life, but it was impossible for him to take this means, as people cannot unknow what they know. the second method was the epicurean one; this was the favourite method with men of his class, because they really had plenty of means for enjoyment, and sheer selfishness prevented them from seeing or caring that the vast majority of men had no such resource. for this tolstoy was too clear-sighted. the third means of escape was suicide, which was possible only to the strong and resolute. "the number of those in my own class who thus act continually increases, and those who do this are generally in the prime of life, with their physical strength matured and unweakened." he considered this means of escape the worthiest, but had not the courage to make use of it. the one thing that gave him pause was to see that the mass of men did not agree with this view and never had agreed with it; they continued to live as if life were a good thing and one that had meaning. he turned his attention once more to the labouring classes whom he had always loved, and perceived that they held the true solution. he could not class them among those who failed to understand it, for they put it before themselves with quite extraordinary clearness; still less were they among the epicureans, for their lives were rough, hard, and laborious; neither did they seek the solution in self-murder, for they looked upon that as the greatest of evils. where, then, lay their secret? he answered: "in their religion." the peasantry were not like the upper classes; their religion was not for them a convention, but they really lived according to its teachings. "their whole lives were passed in heavy labour and unrepining content ... they accepted illness and sorrow in the quiet and firm conviction that all was for the best ... thousands and millions had so understood the meaning of life that they were able both to live and to die." tolstoy sought, passionately and despairingly, to gain this faith; he conformed to all the ceremonial requirements of the greek church, prayed morning and evening, fasted and prepared for the communion; he took a pleasure in sacrificing his bodily comfort by kneeling, by rising to attend early service; he took a pleasure also in mortifying his intellectual pride by forcing himself to believe doctrines which he had formerly condemned. at the same time his invincible intellectual honesty {71} remained with him and tortured him. thus when he took the communion, he tried hard to persuade himself that it meant only a cleansing from sin and a complete acceptance of christ's teaching. "but when i drew near to the altar, and the priest called upon me to repeat that i believed that what i was about to swallow was the real body and blood, i felt a sharp pain at the heart; it was no unconsidered word, it was the hard demand of one who could never have known what faith was ... knowing what awaited me i could never go again." the same invincible intellectual honesty made tolstoy search into the whole teaching of the church; he saw that its faith was irrational and merely a tradition, not the staff of life. he found the orthodox church more and more opposed to what he believed: it conducted persecutions, sanctioned massacres, and blessed war. he was obliged to break with it. once more and with humility he turned to the gospels themselves; he drew from them what seemed to him the real essence of the christian religion; from them and from the life of the common man--the russian muzhik--he made up his own creed and lived as has been described. tolstoy followed _my confession_ with several other works. _the four gospels harmonised and translated_ appeared in 1881-2. in this work tolstoy extracts what he considers essential in the gospel narratives. _my religion_ appeared in 1884. it explains still further and in more detail tolstoy's religious views. he bases his theories almost entirely on the "sermon on the mount"; he accepts quite literally the command against violence, which is henceforth the basis of his creed. "the passage which for me was the key to the whole was verses 38 and 39 of the fifth chapter of matthew: 'it hath been said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth: but i say unto you, that ye resist not evil.' i suddenly for the first time understood the last verse in its direct and simple meaning. i understood that christ meant precisely what he said. {72} "these words, 'do not resist evil,' understood in their direct sense, were for me indeed the key that opened everything to me, and i marvelled how i could have so perverted the clear, definite words." it is in this spirit that tolstoy objects so profoundly to the whole organisation of modern society, since it is all based upon force. "everything which surrounded me, my family's peace and their safety and my own, my property, everything was based on the law which christ rejected, on the law, 'a tooth for a tooth.'" from this precept of non-resistance tolstoy deduces the wickedness of all war, however waged and for whatever object. from the precept, "judge not, that ye be not judged," he similarly deduces the wickedness and evil of all law-courts. from the precept, "swear not at all," he deduces the evil of all oaths, and has no difficulty in showing that nearly all the things he thinks contrary to the law of christ, "murder in wars, incarcerations, capital punishments, tortures of men," are committed only by the device of the oath, which substitutes a collective responsibility for an individual one, and so takes away from each man the sense he would otherwise have of committing an individual crime. there is in this book a very severe criticism of the greek church, which tolstoy accuses of bolstering up and supporting all the worst evils of the time. _the kingdom of god is within you_, 1893, is another long work which contrasts life on christian principles with life as it is actually lived according to the maxims of the church and state. there is an ironic and bitter analysis of the absurdities of greek orthodoxy, and an equally ironic and bitter analysis of the absurd conditions of modern europe, which keep whole nations armed under the pretence that their ever-increasing military burdens are a way to peace. with this group of works also we should class _what is art?_ 1899. it is the book which carries tolstoy's asceticism to its climax. there are many people who, though they {73} sympathise with tolstoy's ideals, decline to take seriously on the ground that he is a fanatic, and, if the matter be inquired into, it will usually be found that they base the accusation mainly upon his treatment of science and art. tolstoy has never a good word for science; he insists upon considering it as if it were concerned solely with abstract questions, and had no practical bearing upon the lives of men. the modern reader is overwhelmed with surprise by such an unwarranted assumption. even if it were true that science is only valuable on its utilitarian side, we are still driven to confess that that utilitarian value is enormous; it has irrigated deserts, fertilised soils, improved animals, banished many diseases; it has made, even in the one occupation tolstoy really reverences--agriculture--man's labour tenfold or a hundredfold more productive than it ever was before. if science has not yet effected the transformation of human life that it might have done, that is surely because our imperfect organisation of society prevents us from reaping the full value of its great and beneficent achievement. and the case is even more astonishing when we turn to art. tolstoy, himself one of the world's greatest writers, condemns almost all great art, from the greek tragedians to shakespeare, and almost all modern art--including, characteristically enough, himself. we must remember this truth, that tolstoy was born an aristocrat, and that the members of aristocracies are nearly always cold to intellectual attainments; they belong to a privileged class which despises work and repudiates intellect. tolstoy learnt, with all the energy of his strong soul, to exalt and reverence the once-despised labour of the common man, but he never learnt to esteem justly the intellect; he resembles lord byron, who, although a great poet, only condescended to the trade of letters, and regarded it always with a certain scorn. tolstoy is never, with his whole heart, a man of letters, and he is still less a scholar, for though at times he reads {74} voraciously, it is almost wholly without system; there are the strangest gaps in his knowledge, and he is singularly impervious to all ideas except those with which he happens to be at the moment in tune. however, _what is art?_ contains some admirable things. tolstoy defines art as a human activity, the aim of which is to communicate to some other person the feelings which the artist has himself experienced. art is effective in proportion as the artist's feeling is sincere and profound, and the expression of it clear; art is good or bad in accordance with the nature of the feeling transmitted; if the feeling is good it is good art, if the feeling is bad it is bad or debased art. this is a fine definition, and well worth studying. from aristotle downwards great critics have agreed that one aim of art is certainly "infection," and that the greater the art the more powerful the "infection" is likely to be. tolstoy asserts again that art is one of the great unifying forces of mankind, that it binds together different nations and different generations of men, and that that art is the greatest which has the most universal appeal. here again there is little with which to quarrel. tolstoy's definition of great art is almost st. beuve's definition of a classic. the amazement lies in the extraordinary manner in which tolstoy has applied his own most excellent ideas. he loves homer, and declares that his poems are truly national art, but he declines to admire the greek tragedians. why? they are surely as national as homer himself. again, he declares that the truly great artist ought always to express the best religious and ethical ideas of his time. quite probably! yet he denies this greatness to dante, but if there ever was a poet who embodied the noblest religious thought of his epoch it was surely dante! and tolstoy condemns goethe, who embodied the new religious conceptions arising upon the ruins of the materialistic eighteenth century. the fact of the matter is that tolstoy does not really know the content of the world's great classics, and those {75} whom he happens to praise--homer and molière--he appreciates, not because they are finer moralists than the rest (they are not), but because some accident has directed towards them his attention. it is curious to compare this essay with shelley's _defence of poetry_; the underlying ideas in both treatises are identical; shelley also says that the main aim of art is a unifying aim, and that the artist ought always, as a moral duty, to communicate the best impression that he knows. but what a world of difference in the catholic appreciation of shelley! shelley, also a great lover of mankind, never made the mistake of underrating the human intellect. _what is art?_ had a sequel, to the english mind still more extraordinary, in two essays on shakespeare published separately. in them tolstoy condemns all shakespeare, but singles out _king lear_ especially, mainly on the ground that the plot is absurd and the whole division of the kingdom fantastic. it is strange tolstoy cannot see that _king lear_ is in essence, the thing he himself most admires--a moving and beautiful folk-tale; the very absurdity of the plot shakespeare took over directly from the old story, and probably left untouched because it was so deeply embedded in his hearers' hearts. of course, it is not difficult to see why tolstoy so dislikes shakespeare--mainly because he throws such a glamour over aristocracy, and makes his aristocrats so noble in their sorrows, so radiant, generous, and joyful in their prosperity. tolstoy is always insisting that aristocrats are not really like that--that they are selfish, stupid, and bored to death; but shakespeare in glorifying aristocracy is only acting as the people, even in folk-tale and fairy-tale, have always done; they prove by that, it is true, nothing but their own naïve and inexhaustible goodness of heart. the truth is that, in belabouring shakespeare, tolstoy is doing the thing that would of all others, had he known its true import, have shocked him most: he is tolstoy--the aristocrat--cuffing shakespeare--the peasant's son--for being so like a peasant. {76} tolstoy has often been blamed for making his uneducated russian peasants the supreme arbiters of taste, but they would not agree with him about shakespeare. a friend of mine, a russian lady, told me she once saw _king lear_ played in a barn, with the roughest of accessories, before a peasant audience, and, at the conclusion of the drama, there was not a dry eye among the audience. still tolstoy's eccentricities need not blind us to those ideas which really are stimulating and valuable. there is his warning against commercialised art--art is not a commercial product, and can never be "ordered" and "paid for" in the same way; there is the warning that schools of art can teach nothing but technique, and that, by an over-elaborate technique, talent itself is often crushed and spoiled; there is the emphatic statement that all great art should be catholic, and that the art which can appeal only to a limited coterie is, almost of necessity, poor art; there is the statement that all art should be as clear as the artist himself can make it, and that "contortions, obscurities, and difficulties" are mostly due to the vain attempt to hide shallowness; and finally, and most important of all, there is the statement that really great art can only be produced by those to whom life is a lovely, a joyous, and a noble thing. {77} chapter vii "the power of darkness"--"the kreutzer sonata"--"resurrection" tolstoy has written but few dramas; among these stands pre-eminent the tragedy entitled _the power of darkness_. the scene is laid among peasants, and the work is didactic; as is the case with _resurrection_, its aim is to show the possibility of redemption even for the most fallen. the drama opens with an exceedingly effective situation: anisya, the second wife of an invalid husband, is in love with the vigorous and powerful young labourer nikíta, and reproaches him jealously because his father wishes him to marry. matrónya, nikíta's mother, is a wonderful study in the evil side of maternity--its colossal egoism and its willingness to sacrifice everything to the welfare of a beloved child. matrónya condones her son's adultery, because she hopes that it may lead, when the invalid husband is dead, to a good establishment. the old father--akím--represents the good genius of the piece: nikíta has got an innocent girl into trouble and his father wishes him to atone by marrying her; he insists that moral welfare is the only real welfare, and that, in comparison with it, nothing else matters, and the whole terrible course of the play shows how right he is. akím represents in the drama the one element of real moral beauty, the one light in the "inspissated gloom," and it is characteristic of tolstoy that he should ascribe this position to the man upon whom society has thrust its filthiest and most repulsive task; akím, able to find no other honest work, has become a cleaner of {78} cesspools, and has grown so repulsive outwardly that his own wife feels sick when she approaches him. nor is he a man of intelligence; his habit of continuously repeating his words makes him appear almost half-witted, and his wife terms him "an old mumbler." _the power of darkness_ produces a terrible effect on the nerves, for the gloom is as dreadful as in _macbeth_, and it is not relieved by heroic battle or the splendours of a crown; it is to the last degree sordid--the concentrated essence of sin. yet the chain of moral causation is linked as firmly as in _macbeth_, and we are shown, in the same unflinching way, how crime haunts and sears the conscience, and how the worst punishment of sin is that it leads on to ever more and more sin. the conflict between the evil genius and the good genius--matrónya and akím--turns first on the girl whom akím has seduced, and matrónya wins, persuading her son to repudiate the unfortunate orphan whom he has so deeply wronged. also, to hurry matters on, she persuades anisya to give her husband sleeping-powders which are really poisons. the second act shows us the working out of this crime: with tragic irony we are made to see that anisya has no particular objection to poisoning her husband; what she does mind is that he dies so slowly; his horrible sufferings wring her heart, yet she hates him the more for the grief he causes her. anisya could not maintain her cruelty were she not continually urged on by matrónya; she has not even the consolation of nikíta's support, for matrónya will not permit him to be told; again with grim tragic irony she declares that he is so kind-hearted that he could not kill a chicken. in the third act events have moved a stage further. nikíta and anisya are married, but further than ever from happiness! nikíta has learnt of the crime; he regards his wife as a murderess, feels her hateful and repulsive, and, with his usual soft-hearted sensuousness, has turned for consolation to his wife's half-witted stepdaughter--akoulina. anisya has to bear all alone {79} the dreadful consciousness of her guilt; she has the bitterness of seeing nikíta spend on another the money for which she, as she feels, sold her soul; nikíta beats her, and her passion for him enslaves her so that she can make no real protest. she is surprised herself at her own weakness: "i haven't a grain of courage before him. i go about like a drowned hen." anisya's only hope is to get rid of akoulina by marriage, but the neighbours suspect something and hold aloof. even matrónya, always on her son's side, has turned against the unhappy daughter-in-law; the one person who pities her is old akím, who warns his son that he is acting against god and on the road to ruin. again tolstoy reminds us of _macbeth_; his peasant heroine has gained all she desired, but it is hollow and worthless, and she envies her victim in his very grave. in the fourth act we have the punishment of nikíta. akoulina is to be married, for the sake of her dowry only, but her confinement comes just before the wedding should take place, and, if the child's existence is once known, it will ruin all. nikíta, as usual, wants to throw the burden on his wife, but anisya refuses absolutely. matrónya, callous as ever, urges her son to the murder of his infant; with tragic irony in her speech she declares that it is such a little thing, it can hardly be counted as human at all. anisya too urges him on, not with callousness but with a more terrible hate. "let him also be a murderer! then he'll know how it feels.... i'll make him strangle his dirty brat! i've worried myself to death all alone with peter's bones weighing on my soul. let him feel it too." nikíta, always weak, gives way, and commits the murder, but it sickens him to the very soul. in the fifth act we see the long-delayed punishment of matrónya. to the end she remains callous; she cannot understand the moral sufferings of anisya and her son, but she can be reached through her son's worldly ruin, and that is what occurs. nikíta cannot endure the hideous consciousness of his guilt. "when i eat, it's there! when i drink, it's {80} there! when i sleep, it's there! i am so sick of it, so sick! ... even drink takes no hold on me." he ponders suicide, but reflects that this would only be a new crime, and at length he nerves himself, before all the wedding guests, his old father helping and assisting him, to make full confession. there is no splendour in this drama, not even the splendour of crime, but tolstoy has good warrant in depicting evil as he does; he shows the worst feature of evil as being its insufferable meanness and dirtiness, and the same truth is driven home by _the kreutzer sonata_ and _resurrection_. but though this drama is so gloomy it is not despairing; the one point of light glows and kindles till it overpowers the whole; even in the heart of the darkness god has made manifest his power. _the kreutzer sonata_ probably ranks with _anna karénina_ as being the best-known of tolstoy's productions. it had in england and elsewhere what might be termed a _succès de scandale_. the emphasis laid upon it is, in some ways, unfortunate; it serves many people as an introduction to tolstoy; they read it, are repelled, and explore no further. the truth is that it stands almost alone among tolstoy's works; the same elements are present, the same ideas are discussed else where, but they are nowhere else brought to a focus of such intensity and concentrated in such powerful expression. the piece is almost pure strindberg; it represents that woman-hatred, that loathing of marriage, that helpless rage against physical passion, of which the swedish author has made himself the chief european exponent. the situation is exactly the sort of situation strindberg delights in: husband and wife bound together by a purely sensual passion which they both abominate but cannot, either of them, control; the paroxysms of indulgence followed by paroxysms of mutual loathing; the endless quarrels; the reciprocal jealousy; the miserable and shallow infidelity; and, as a climax, the miserable, vanity-inspired murder. but, {81} though the subject is almost pure strindberg, tolstoy is infinitely more just to women than strindberg could contrive to be. for tolstoy's wretched and morbid hero, roused to insight by his own cruel deed, can place the blame where it rightfully belongs; he can see that the real fault does not lie in woman as woman, but in woman as man has corrupted her. with an incisive truth that strindberg cannot rival he gets to the very root of the mischief and reveals it in man's own sensuality. he makes a serious and passionate plea for purity in men; he speaks with horror of the doctors who encourage vice and of the pseudo-science which declares it necessary. the moral corruption which ensues does not begin and end, as people falsely think, with women of loose life; on the contrary, it pervades the whole of society. the man who has "fallen" takes a wrong attitude towards all women; he regards them, even the pure and innocent, as being created for his physical pleasure. tolstoy, like meredith, finds in the demand for "innocence" and "bloom" mainly the desire of the voluptuary to whet his own jaded appetite. the result is the degradation of women; they are all, even to most innocent young girls, turned into sexual lures, made to expose their arms and bosoms in immodest ways, and to provoke the appetites of men. the hero goes on to analyse the miseries of his unhappy marriage; here again they are traced to the root-cause--the excessive sensuality of the husband, who degrades his wife and destroys her health and her nerves, thus exciting in her incessant irritability, which, in its turn, exasperates and annoys him. the only remedy, tolstoy insists, is to treat woman as a human being, to give her full human rights, and not consider her simply as a possession. at present woman is treated as an object of pleasure, and becomes a degraded and demoralised serf. in her turn she enslaves man by demanding endless luxuries which his labour must produce. once the exposition is complete the story advances {82} with tolstoy's usual masterly skill. the psychology of hate has never been drawn with a more fearful accuracy. to the end the hero is self-rigorous; he acknowledges that he killed his wife, not because she violated his love (he had none), but simply because he regarded her as a property in which he had an inalienable right. he feels, and makes us feel, that this is the most horrible feature in the whole repulsive tale. _resurrection_, the last of tolstoy's great novels, was written after he had, as he thought, definitely resigned fiction. wishing to help the doukhobors, he took up and completed the unfinished manuscript of this book, which shows that his hand had in no way lost its cunning. less purely a work of art because far more didactic than _war and peace_ or _anna karénina_, it is in every way worthy of the author of both. it tells a single story of the most wonderful and moving pathos. we are introduced to the hero--prince dmitri nekhlúdof--at the moment when he is summoned to take his place on a jury. the first case is one of murder; three people are accused, among them a prostitute named máslova, and in her nekhlúdof recognises to his horror a certain katusha whom he had first known as a pure and innocent girl, and whom he himself had seduced. he tries to stifle his conscience; he assures himself that "everybody" does these things, and that he is not to blame for máslova's fate; but, notwithstanding his struggles, the conviction is borne in upon him that he is morally responsible both for the woman's hideous degradation and for her presence in the dock. with the most consummate art tolstoy introduces us first to the foetid and wretched atmosphere of the law-court, with the story of the poisoned merchant, and the horrible description of his half-putrefying dead body, and then, by force of nekhlúdof's recollections, shows us the magical contrast of katusha's pure and innocent girlhood. there is no love story in literature rendered with a more poignant charm. katusha is the one woman whom nekhlúdof had really and truly and poetically {83} loved; he loved her when he was himself innocent, and his love had the aroma of paradise, never, in all his later life, to be recalled again. katusha was a poor girl, the daughter of a gipsy tramp, whom his aunts had educated, half as a servant and half as a companion. she is very beautiful, refined in her manners, exquisitely tender; he loves her with a love full of reserves and mysteries, incredibly sweet, transfiguring the whole world. nekhlúdof goes away; he returns, but, in the meantime, he has tasted of vice, and he is no longer the same. when he sees katusha again the old innocent poetic charm revives once more, but it has now to contend with what tolstoy called "the dreadful, animal man." for a moment the better nature conquers. no scene in all tolstoy's pages is more lovely than that of the easter mass, when nekhlúdof rides to the church early in the morning across the snow, sees it brilliantly lighted, the priests in their gorgeous vestments, hears the glorious easter hymns, and feels as if all the joy, the tenderness, and the beauty were for katusha and for her alone. "for her the gold glittered round the icons; for her all these candles in candelabra and candlesticks were alight; for her were sung these joyful hymns.... all ... all that was good in the world was for her." but nekhlúdof has been corrupted by his own evil life; he cannot for long control his passions, and, in spite of the poor girl's piteous fear, he takes advantage of the fascination he possesses over her to ruin her. it is a night of spring, with a white mist above the melting snow, the ice tinkling and breaking in the river. nekhlúdof twice summons katusha, and twice she evades him, but in the end it is done. never has the charm and romance of passion been more wonderfully rendered, but tolstoy makes us feel this seduction terrible as a murder. and the worst detail of all, the one that nekhlúdof remembers with burning cheeks, is that, when he left, he paid katusha by thrusting into the pocket of her apron a hundred-rouble note. {84} the trial proceeds. máslova, though manifestly innocent, is condemned by a technical error and sentenced to siberia. nekhlúdof determines to appeal, and, moved by his remorse, he decides also to make himself known to her and ask her forgiveness. in the meanwhile we are introduced to the household of the korchágins, whose daughter nekhlúdof is expected to marry. we see the contrast between the wretched lives of the prisoners, who suffer and have always suffered from every form of privation, and the debasing luxury of the korchágins, which produces, not happiness but only ennui and fatigue. we see the contrast between the conventionality and tiresomeness of nekhlúdof's relations with the young princess and the pure poetry of those earlier relations with katusha. the _mariage de convenance_ is evident in all its weariness. these scenes are closely linked with the main purpose of the book: what tolstoy wishes is to make his reader feel that the whole penal system is wrong and false, partly because the people who come under it are mainly the victims of a cruel form of society, and partly because those who condemn them are, in their own way of life, no better but probably far worse. the korchágins have to their credit a long series of evil deeds, floggings and judicial murders, gluttony and sexual offences. nekhlúdof sees that, compared with these people, máslova and the rest are almost innocent, and grows more and more disgusted with the life of his set. he makes himself known to máslova. tolstoy has no sentimentality, and he cannot pretend that the horrible life which his heroine has led has not made any essential difference; on the contrary, it is her profound moral corruption which is, as nekhlúdof at once realises, the most hideous consequence of his sin. when she first recognises his interest, she has no special feelings towards him, but only wishes to make use of him in order to extract from him money for drink. but, when he asks her forgiveness, she overwhelms him with foul abuse. she cannot believe in his real penitence, but thinks that, just as he once used her for {85} his physical pleasure, so now he wishes to make use of her to save what she calls his "dirty soul." tolstoy now tells us the story of the seduction as it appeared to her, and adds details of a terrible and haunting pathos. the poor deserted girl realised that she was about to become a mother; she was aware that the train in which her lover travelled would pass through the station at a certain hour, and determined to make an appeal to him, but she lost her way in the darkness and arrived too late. she was not able to speak though she saw him through the lighted carriage window; in the night and storm, and darkness, injuring his child which she bore, she rushed along by the train as far as she could go, and saw it carry him away faster and faster. in that hour something vital--belief in god and in man--snapped in katusha. unable to free herself, she sank lower and lower into vice, until she arrived where nekhlúdof found her. when he implores her forgiveness she is roused to fury because he tortures her by reminding her of her lost innocence, and forces her to realise all the abominable degradation she has endured. nekhlúdof is, however, true to his repentance; he insists that he is willing to marry her if she will consent, but, if not, he will follow her to siberia, and do all in his power to alleviate her lot. as soon as she realises that this is being done genuinely, for her and not for "other-worldliness," she is touched and moved. from this point onwards she begins to return to her true self--not her former self (tolstoy's art is far too subtle for that), but a self deepened and saddened by suffering. this gradual awakening is wonderfully depicted; the daring title which tolstoy gives his book is truly merited; indeed the revival of a dead body seems almost a small thing as compared with this amazing transformation of a human soul. never since the magdalen has the story of a fallen woman been treated with such a noble beauty. we are accustomed to sentimentalising over the courtesan who at last conceives a "pure" love, but {86} tolstoy does not write in the spirit of a dumas or a victor hugo. máslova is sick of passion; she and nekhlúdof redeem each other, but, in the ordinary sense, they do not love. máslova throughout the book is one of the most real women in fiction; we see every detail of her appearance--the white skin, the black curls over her forehead, the eyes black as sloes and slightly squinting, the expression of willingness with which she turns to anyone who addresses her. it is strange how tolstoy insists on that detail of the "slightly squinting" eyes; it haunts us as it must have haunted nekhlúdof. and her mind and heart are as real as her bodily personality. tolstoy, as we have seen, always did possess a marvellous power of maintaining a consistent personality while permitting his characters to change and develop, but nowhere else has he shown it in a manner quite so magical. from the pure romantic young girl to the prostitute, from the prostitute to the woman redeemed and sweetened and saved--his heroine is still herself throughout. it is in the hero that tolstoy's talent for once fails him, since nekhlúdof is too obviously only a mouthpiece for tolstoy's own reflections. we could understand him if the change in him were essentially a spiritual one similar to that in máslova, but what tolstoy has portrayed is rather a profound intellectual dissatisfaction, so deep and so far-reaching that it could only have been experienced by a man of the greatest intellectual and moral power, a man of genius, while there is nothing in nekhlúdof's previous life to suggest that he was in any way out of the ordinary. he is too slight to undergo the tremendous mental experiences of a tolstoy, and we cannot believe that he does; nevertheless, the experiences remain, and tremendous they are. _resurrection_ is an indictment of the whole of society as we know it now, and it is impossible to read it without the gravest searchings of the heart. it is true that some of the most serious counts in the indictment apply mainly to russia. more than with the west, russian society is divided into two great {87} classes--the rich who have everything and are idle, and the poor, who have nothing and labour; in england we have--in the professional classes and the better artisans--numbers who possess a very fair share of the amenities of life and also do valuable work. again, it is impossible to say of any large class in our prisons, what tolstoy says of the russian political prisoners: that they get there because they are the best members of the community, more intelligent, more unselfish, and more courageous than their fellows. still, when all allowances are made, the greater part of tolstoy's indictment lies good against the whole of modern society: in all countries there are classes ruined by idleness, leading lives which, as tolstoy says, are "a mania of selfishness," consuming in senseless luxury the toil of thousands. everywhere there are other classes, degraded by poverty and misery, who spend their whole lives in labour, and reap for themselves hardly any of the benefits of their toil. everywhere men permit many thousands of people to become criminals simply because they are helpless and defective, and then, when they have made them criminals, debase and torture them further by imprisonment. tolstoy is convinced from the bottom of his heart that the whole penal system is cruel, savage, and unjust, and it is almost impossible to read him without feeling the same. he is certain that the majority of men are naturally good, and that the so-called "wicked" are either the victims of our social system, or else of a physical and mental weakness they cannot control. it is easy to object to the "sordid realism" of _resurrection_, and to declaim against its morbidness and misery, but this morbidness and misery are not tolstoy's fault; they are inherent in the social system which we, all of us, uphold and, in wishing to escape from them, we are trying to escape from the consequences of our own acts and principles. to use one of tolstoy's own phrases, he "rubs our noses" into the mess we have made of civilisation; he makes us realise the horrors in which our depths {88} abound--the vice, the dirt, the foul obscenity, the vermin--and people who think that great literature exists merely to amuse and soothe object with furious vehemence. the great heart of the writer is stung with anger and pity and shame that men--our brothers--should be so debased and tortured. he is goaded to madness by this outrage on our common humanity, this insult to god. tolstoy is a realist because he has the courage to face facts as they are, because he believes that the cause of true morality is never served by evasions and concealment, because this concealment is, in itself, one of the chief allies of vice. though a realist tolstoy is not, in essence, a pessimist. there is more real pessimism in one chapter of thackeray than in the whole of _resurrection_, for thackeray thinks men despicable, and despairs of their being otherwise. tolstoy, like rousseau before him, is convinced that human beings are naturally good, and that, if human nature becomes base, it is only because it has slipped from the divine ideal, the spark of god, which exists in each one of us. like his master, tolstoy is assured of the redeeming power of penitence and tenderness. our redemption may come to us from within, through the struggles of our own soul, or by the aid of another, but it is always accompanied by sweetness and compassion; loving-kindness is the true centre of our being; the supreme sin--the sin against the holy spirit--is to transgress, no matter for what motive, the law of love in our dealings with our fellows. our so-called "principles" and "ideals" do not excuse us; any ideal, whether patriotism or justice or honour or religion, becomes reprehensible when it makes man act inhumanly to man; the supreme test, always and invariably, is the test of brotherhood. {89} chapter viii the influence of tolstoy tolstoy's influence is a great and growing one, both in europe as a whole and in england. he is the most powerful and impressive critic of our existing social order. we have seen that, in certain respects, tolstoy stands apart from the humanism of europe; it is impossible to read him without seeing that he is imperfectly acquainted with the achievements of the human mind, and very imperfectly indeed with their value. he emphasizes the fact that he is not a humanist by his intense dislike of the renaissance and his continual references to it as a period of moral decay. but his very limitations are, in some respects, his strength. he has no unreasonable reverence for civilisation which, to use one of his own favourite words, can "hypnotise" him into accepting civilisation's defects. he insists on trying it, fairly and squarely, by its conformity to the needs of man, and in condemning it when it does not conform to man's noblest ideal--brotherhood. and tolstoy is the latest and the greatest of the mystics; the essence of his creed is the christian mysticism of the middle ages, stripped of its ecclesiasticism and supernaturalism, but insisting most strenuously on the old ideal of the catholic church--the brotherhood of all men through religion. according to tolstoy's creed the spirit of god exists in each one of us, the highest good for man is to cherish this divine spirit within himself, and the supreme duty, both for the individual and {90} for the social order, is to further the true christian unity. moreover, tolstoy's rule of life is the old monastic rule of poverty, chastity, and labour, though he substitutes for obedience to an "order," the harder and more rigorous command of immediate obedience to a man's conscience. the vital spirit of mediæval religion, its unquestioning, wonderful, literal acceptance of the commands of christ, lives still among the russian peasants; what tolstoy has done is to take this spirit, shake it free from ceremonies and dogma, rescue the true and glowing fire from its incumbent mountains of ashes, and insist, with all the vehemence of his most vehement soul, that it is the true light of the world. our christianity, he tells us, is sick to death; it has become so entangled with paganism and rationalism that it is hardly worth while calling christianity at all; indeed we find in some modern writers--nietzsche and others--the frankest paganism, calling christianity a "slave-morality," and declaring it unworthy of the free. tolstoy declares that christianity is not founded on rationalism but is divinely inspired; he is original only so far as he insists that this divine inspiration occurs not in any church or tradition, but in a man's own heart; like the seventeenth-century puritans, he accepts the bible as his guide, but he rejects the old testament and relies entirely upon the new. and tolstoy's influence is so profound because he announces the dissatisfaction which, secret and overt, is assailing us on all sides; we are, none of us, really satisfied with our civilisation as it stands, we all desire a better one, and tolstoy's is the most powerful and eloquent amid those voices which are summoning us to emerge from the dwelling which has grown too narrow and to build a new. this is why tolstoy, the preacher of non-resistance and peace, is really one of the most powerful of revolutionaries. and, paradoxical as it may sound, he is also one of the most powerful of individualists. {91} it might be imagined, at the first glance, that tolstoy stands at the opposite pole from such a writer as ibsen--ibsen the uncompromising individualist, who preaches self-realisation at all costs, and breaks furiously through our so-called "duties," and tolstoy who preaches self-abnegation, self-sacrifice, and humility. but, when we look closer, we see that there is a unity underlying all seeming differences; both men are profoundly dissatisfied with the "ideals" of present-day europe; they insist that all values must be revalued, that all the old "duties" must be questioned, and rejected if they will not stand the test of the new morality. and who is to be the supreme arbiter? both tolstoy and ibsen answer: "the man's own soul." no one would trample on the old "duties" more thoroughly than tolstoy; he insists that his countrymen must renounce all they have previously held most sacred, their "duty" to the czar, their "duty" to the state, to their oaths, even in the last resort to their families; for, like ibsen, he finds the "family snare" one of the worst and deadliest. both ibsen and tolstoy are quite agreed that, when a man is sure of himself, he should, if need be, stand alone against the world. tolstoy is, indeed, one of the strongest of individualists, and, as the terrified greek church saw when it excommunicated him, his doctrine of "peaceful anarchy" is the most tremendous solvent for society's hierarchy that has ever been conceived by the mind of man. we may sum up briefly the leading channels in which the influence of tolstoy runs. he is one of the most powerful forces in favour of what may be termed "social justice." the conscience of civilised europe is more and more declaring that some reconstruction of our social system has become imperative, and tolstoy is among those who have done most to arouse this conscience. that he overstates in some ways, that he is too hard on the upper classes--all this is possible, but there is so much in his indictment {92} which is true and accurate that we all feel guilty before him. again, he is one of the most powerful of all apostles of peace. he is aware, as we have seen, of the nobler side of war. he knows that it really can and does rouse an enervated aristocracy to something finer (in _war and peace_ he shows us the actual process); but he also realises that the vast majority of the people--the working class--are moralised and strengthened by their daily toil. for the mass of the people war is as needless as it is futile. tolstoy shows that the ends for which it is waged are nearly always childish and absurd, and his unflinching realism has made him an unrivalled exponent of its horrors. ruskin and carlyle have both preached against the horrors of war, but tolstoy is more effective than they because he knows it at first hand. in the third place, tolstoy is one of the most effective critics of our penal system and capital punishment. here again there are many other writers--such as mr. galsworthy and mr. bernard shaw--who follow in the same track; they also declare that the faults and sins of the rich, who almost escape our penal system, are no less serious than the sins of the poor, who fall victims to it; they also declare that our penal system is mainly torture and revenge, that it does not cure but only brutalises, and that the majority of its victims are not foes of society but only people who are too weak to keep straight, and whom our harsh industrial system flings to the wall. but here again, though tolstoy agrees with other men in his diagnosis of the evil, his exposition of it is far more masterly than theirs. it is not possible to name any other work which shows the tragedy and terror of prison life in the same manner as _resurrection_. in social purity, again, tolstoy's has been one of the most potent voices. many people think that he carries his asceticism unnecessarily far, but, when we think of the corruption which has invaded so large a part of europe, we can see that he heads a much-needed revulsion. and here again he excels by the extraordinary {93} power and fidelity with which he shows the evil results of loose living: its tragic cruelty to the seduced woman, its power of corrupting, by a kind of reflex action, even those who would seem most remote from its sphere. and tolstoy has not limited his condemnation to "irregularities"; he condemns the immoral marriage no less severely, and has given a most drastic analysis of the vices which underlie "respectability." tolstoy will not allow virtue to consist in anything so cheap and easy as mere legality. again, his influence also tells in the direction of simplicity of life. many people are arriving at the conclusion that modern civilised life is too complex, that it achieves not real refinement, but luxury which enervates and ostentation which vulgarises. tolstoy joins the cult of the "simple life" by another road: by pointing out the immensity of the labour which luxury entails upon others. and finally, we may point out that in art also the age is feeling its way towards an attempt to realise, consciously or unconsciously, the tolstoyan ideals. we are beginning to ask for the simplification of art, for its deliverance from over-elaborate technique; we are beginning to see that it cannot be truly deep and profound unless it is also national and of the people; that tolstoy is essentially right when he declares that art, by cutting itself off from popular inspiration, becomes barren and sterile. {94} bibliography biographies of tolstoy _life of tolstoy_. aylmer maude. _life of tolstoy_. holland. _life of tolstoy_. birukoff. _recollections of tolstoy_. behrs. essays and studies _tolstoy and his problems_. aylmer maude. _tolstoy as man and artist_. merejkovski. _how tolstoy lives and works_. sergyenko. _ideals and realities in russian literature_. kropotkin. _leo n. tolstoy_. a. löwenfeld. _essays in criticism_ (2nd series). matthew arnold. (french) _tolstoi et les doukhobors, faits historiques réunis par_ j. bienstock. (german) _graf leo tolstoi_. anna seuron. tolstoy's works (_specially notable works are marked with an asterisk_) 1852. _childhood_.* 1853. _the raid_. 1854. _boyhood_.* 1855. _memoirs of a billiard marker_. _the wood felling_. 1856. _sevastopol_* (complete). _the snow storm_. _two hussars_. _a landed proprietor_. 1857. _youth_.* _lucerne_. 1858. _albert_. 1859. _three deaths_.* _family happiness_.* 1863. _the cossacks_.* _polikoushka_. 1869. _war and peace_* (complete). 1872. _a prisoner in the caucasus_. _god sees the truth_. {95} 1874. _on popular education_. 1877. _anna karénina_* (complete). 1878. _first recollections_. 1879. _my confession_.* 1880. _criticism of dogmatic theology_. 1881. _what men live by_. _church and state_. 1882. _the four gospels harmonised and translated_. _on the census_. 1884. _what i believe_.* _the decembrists_. 1885. _where love is god is_.* _two old men_.* 1886. _what must we do?_ _ivan the fool_. _death of ivan ilyitch_.* _how much land does a man need?_ _eyas_. _the three hermits_. _the candle_.* _the power of darkness_.* 1887. _on life_ (philosophical essay). 1889. _culture's holiday_. _kreutzer sonata_.* 1891. _the fruits of culture_ (a comedy). 1892. _articles on the famine_. 1893. _the kingdom of god is within you_* (against war and government). 1894. _season and religion_. 1895. _master and man._* 1898. _what is art?_ 1899. _resurrection._* 1900. _the slavery of our times_. _thou shalt not kill_. 1905. _the one thing needful_. 1906. _shakespeare and the drama_. 1908. _i cannot be silent_.* posthumous. _father sergius_.* {96} index albert, 25 alexander ii, 32 alexis, 15 arnold, matthew, 55 austerlitz, 36-8 behrs, sophia, 28, 60 borodino, 37-9 byron, 40, 49, 73 catherine i, 15 caucasus, 20-1 _confession, my_, 71 crimea, 23 dostoïevsky, 8, 10-14, 28 doukhobors, 33, 82 enns, 37 filipok, 27 _four gospels_, 32 geneva, 25 _god sees the truth_, 33 gogol, 10 homer, 10, 43, 62 hugo, victor, 11, 86 ibsen, 91 _kingdom of god_, 72 kutuzof, 35, 50 lucerne, 25 merejkovsky, 29 moscow, 32 napoleon, 49 peter the great, 15, 28 _religion, my_, 32 rousseau, 26, 65, 88 schopenhauer, 69 sebastopol, 23-5 shakespeare, 14, 51, 73-5 switzerland, 25 tolstoy, nicolas, 16-17, 26, 60-1 turgénief, 12-14, 68 volkonsky, 15 yergolsky, tatiana, 16-17, 20 printed by ballantyne, hanson & co. at paul's work, edinburgh [illustration: leo tolstoy, 1910] the last days of tolstoy by vladimir tchertkoff translated from the russian by nathalie a. duddington 1922 london: william heinemann printed in great britain contents page introduction ix public opinion demands that facts with regard to tolstoy's going away should be revealed--the conditions of tolstoy's life were a test of his consistency--why is it necessary to publish the circumstances of his going away?--the importance of tolstoy's example--misrepresentation of the causes of his going away--the moral duty of his friends to defend his memory--my task. part i why tolstoy did not leave his home 1 (letter to h. dosev) dosev's mistake, common to many--tolstoy's true motives--his independence of the opinion of men--the limit of his yielding--in order to go away he had to feel the necessity for doing so--it was easier to go than to remain--tolstoy's sufferings at yasnaya polyana (from his intimate diary)--the mistake of passing censure upon his life at yasnaya--he fulfilled that which god required of him--his love for his wife and his confidence in her--his self-sacrifice for her sake--we must believe in his conscientiousness--the heroism of his life in his family. part ii why tolstoy went away chapter i.--the conditions of life at yasnaya polyana 18 wealthy surroundings--false position in the eyes of men--spiritual break with his wife. chapter ii.--change for the worse in his wife's attitude to him 26 change for the worse in the conditions of life at yasnaya with regard to the management of the estate, to the relations with the peasants, and in his wife's attitude to him--tolstoy gives up landed property--his readiness to go away and the causes of his delay in making a final decision. chapter iii.--the history of the will 32 tolstoy's attitude to property in general and to literary property in particular--his differences with his wife on that score--tolstoy's firmness in renouncing the copyright of his works--his wife's opposition--short history of the drawing up of the will. chapter iv.--intervals of rest--in other people's houses 48 mental and physical revival--creative work. chapter v.--the last period 52 summer of 1910--period of suffering that undermined his health. chapter vi.--mental agony 58 tolstoy's disappointment at the impossibility of awakening his wife's spiritual consciousness--recognition that his further stay at yasnaya polyana is unnecessary--the harm that his staying there did to sofya andreyevna. chapter vii.--the night of tolstoy's going away 63 the last touch--preparations and departure--entries in the diary. chapter viii.--tolstoy's relation to his wife 67 letters to her in 1897 and after his departure--reasons why he did not wish to see her. chapter ix.--the motives that decided his going away 78 the last straw--mistaken judgments about tolstoy's going away. chapter x.--the significance of tolstoy's going away and of the whole spiritual achievement of his life 86 the one desire of his life, to do the will of god--the inevitability of the end. part iii tolstoy's attitude to his sufferings 94 the growth of his inner consciousness during the second period of his life. extracts from the diary for 1884--differences with his wife--on the border of despair--feeling of solitude--memory of his mother and his longing for her (1906)--striving after god. extracts from diary and letters from 1889-1910--family trials--the cross of his life, till the end--his words about sofya andreyevna and consciousness of his guilt (from a conversation with, and the letters to tchertkoff)--the mystery of another's soul--tolstoy's thoughts that give a general meaning to his interpretation of suffering ("the reading-cycle," "the way of life"). appendix i 139 the inevitable one-sidedness of quotations made from tolstoy's writings for the purposes of the present narrative--his many-sided personality--his power of controlling his sufferings and his natural joy of life--the attainment of the true good. appendix ii 143 my personal attitude to tolstoy's wife--the experience and observation of thirty years--my task is not to censure anyone but to vindicate truth. introduction so much misunderstanding, misrepresentation, partiality and personal prejudice has accumulated in connection with the last years and days of leo nikolaevitch tolstoy's life, that before starting upon this first detailed account of his "going away" i find myself compelled, at the risk of wearying the reader's patience, to begin with a somewhat lengthy introduction. now that tolstoy's wife[1] is dead, the chief obstacle to revealing the true causes of his going away from yasnaya polyana is removed. like other friends of leo nikolaevitch, i have said nothing for ten years. during this time many people, some of them particularly deserving of confidence and respect, have asked me to publish all that i know about this event. as an instance i will quote a letter from mrs. mayo, a well-known english authoress and admirer of tolstoy.[2] "_old aberdeen, scotland, jan. 17, 1914._ "dear mr. tchertkoff, "some of us in great britain feel that the time has come when it is highly desirable that we should hear the story of the tragedy which beset the last years of leo tolstoy's life, from one who was in its scene. "we can understand and respect your reticence up to this point. but now so many rumours, derogatory to tolstoy, and therefore likely to diminish the weight of his teaching, are spreading over the world, and seem to be the subject of a very active propaganda even in this country. "hitherto, however, we have heard little or nothing save from those who were notoriously out of sympathy with his principles, and who did not scruple to put obstacles in the way of the carrying out of his last will. "further, it has been unfortunate that the _life of tolstoy_ best known in britain is the work of one who, far from being a disciple, is not even a neutral or impartial recorder, but is in flat antagonism to tolstoy's leading principle of non-resistance to evil by violence. "therefore we appeal to you, tolstoy's personal friend and fellow-worker, that you should let us hear the facts of the case as you saw them. "some of us feel that tolstoy's own works explain enough. i remember when i read the last page of the paper 'living and dying,' in his _three days in the village_, written only a few months before his death, i realised that tolstoy's spiritual anguish was being strained almost beyond endurance. "again, i repeat that we all deeply respect the reticence you have hitherto maintained. but there is a time to speak and a time to keep silent. history shows us again and again how impossible it is to unearth the truth when eye-witnesses are gone. thus are engendered the most misleading and mischievous myths. "i trust that you will give this matter your deepest consideration, and i remain, "yours with much regard, (mrs.) "isabella fyvie mayo." i have received many such requests, both spoken and written, from many different people, some of whom were noted for their tact and reserve, and whose opinion therefore carried special weight in this delicate matter. nevertheless i could not make up my mind. i feel that the time has come at last to speak openly of what i know. i approach my task with no light heart, but with a full consciousness of the moral responsibility which it involves. in doing so i have but one wish: to say nothing that is superfluous or out of date, and to keep back nothing which i feel it my duty to leo nikolaevitch and to other people to reveal. in leo nikolaevitch tolstoy's life two circumstances deserve special notice. in the first place, the immediate external conditions in which he was placed--that is, all he had to endure in his family life and home surroundings--seemed to be specially designed as a severe trial for him. if someone wanted to put to a practical test leo nikolaevitch's sincerity, consistency and spiritual strength in carrying out his conception of life, he could not have placed him in conditions more suited for the purpose than those in which leo nikolaevitch lived for the last thirty years of his life. secondly, it is remarkable that leo nikolaevitch bore this trial irreproachably, though it was more severe than anyone unacquainted with his intimate life could suppose. there was a time when all educated russians imagined, in their spiritual blindness, that tolstoy's "easy" life in yasnaya polyana was a fresh example of the inconsistency with which great thinkers fail to apply to themselves the lofty truths they preach. tolstoy's enemies rejoiced, and regarded his supposed inconsistency as a proof of his theory being inapplicable in practice. his friends found extenuating circumstances for his guilt, and thought that we should be grateful to tolstoy for the spiritual food he had given us, and not be too hard upon his human weaknesses. and yet during all this time, with a firmness which nothing could shake, and sometimes at the cost of incredible suffering, leo nikolaevitch was carrying on the most heroic work of self-abnegation, consistency and self-restraint of which man is capable. he realised in his actions and in all his personal life that which he preached, and both in his life and his death he exemplified the complete renunciation of all personal desires and the whole-hearted service of god, in which he believed the purpose and the meaning of human life to consist. i am well aware that this assertion may appear to be an exaggeration. some readers will be inclined to ascribe my words to the natural enthusiasm of a "tolstoyan" for his "teacher." fortunately, however, i have at my disposal a wealth of documentary material which irrefutably confirms the truth of my words. i hope, in due time, to publish this material as well as my own observations and facts known to me with regard to leo nikolaevitch's family life as a whole. written documents which i have in my keeping sufficiently reveal the general character of the conditions in which leo nikolaevitch had to live. but if there were only these data to go upon, one would have to resign oneself to inevitable blanks and omissions. the readers would have to treat these documents like learned investigators treat their historical material--that is, to fill up the blanks with their own surmises, to connect the disconnected, and to reconcile contradictions in accordance with their personal predilections and the degree of their inventiveness. among the extensive material relating to tolstoy's life there already exist, and will no doubt appear in the future, communications which more or less misrepresent the facts and even contain downright falsehoods. to the malicious joy of tolstoy's enemies there has already accumulated a whole literature which depicts his personality, his life, his "going away" and his death in a totally perverted manner, and is full of shameless slander. under such circumstances, the future biographers of tolstoy would have--as is usually the case--to steer a middle course between all the contradictory data in their possession. in doing so they will not be able to avoid the misleading influence of the unreliable documents--and this, indeed, is already noticeable in some of the recent biographies. in view of this, it is particularly important that some contemporary of tolstoy who was particularly intimate with him, enjoyed his full confidence and had a first-hand knowledge of the true conditions of his home life, should leave a consecutive exposition of all the relevant and well-authenticated facts. it is desirable, too, that this person should not be one of tolstoy's relatives, and would therefore be free from all family prejudices and predilections. not in virtue of any personal merits, but only owing to certain external circumstances, i satisfy these conditions, and cannot help feeling that fate itself lays upon me the moral duty of undertaking such a work. a detailed account is necessary not only for the sake of "historical accuracy" in the biography of the great man; it is needed in the interests of humanity in order to preserve in all its intact wholeness the striking example of tolstoy's life; for this life incontestably proves the possibility of carrying out in practice the lofty truths to which he gave verbal expression. it would be a mistake to agree with only such truths as are proclaimed by men who perfectly realise in the practice of their own lives that which they preach. it is part of our nature that a man may be clearly conscious of truths so lofty that it is beyond his power to put them into practice. they may be practised by his contemporaries who have more strength than he has, or by future generations who will have attained a higher degree of moral perfection. but it is also part of our nature that the example of a man who realises in his own conduct, in spite of any privations and suffering, and even at the cost of his life, that which he preaches, always arouses the enthusiastic sympathy of others, and becomes a powerful help and encouragement to many who strive to follow the ideals proclaimed by such a man. even if in his personal life tolstoy were inconsistent and failed to live up to his own convictions, he would still deserve our profound gratitude for the enormous, immeasurable impetus which, by his intellectual work, he has given to the development of human consciousness. but it has pleased destiny to create in the person of tolstoy not only a thinker of genius, but also a man of great moral heroism. it is therefore very important to preserve the most exact information about his personal life, especially about that side of it which called for most self-sacrifice on his part and made him suffer most in carrying out his principles in practice. finally, i was led to undertake the present work by my personal relation to leo nikolaevitch. our intimate friendship of many years' standing, my ardent devotion and love for him in his lifetime, and now my devotion to his memory, infinitely dear to me, my respect and reverence for the divine principle which expressed itself in him with such power and purity--all make me eager to do my utmost to preserve for men in all its striking, untarnished brilliance the truth about the greatness of his moral achievement. since there are people to whom this truth is unpleasant or damaging, and who seek to pervert or conceal it in every way, making wild inventions about leo nikolaevitch, or demanding that truth shall not be revealed, surely it behoves his most intimate friends to champion his memory and preserve his noble image from pollution or distortion. now that leo nikolaevitch's widow, for whose sake we have refrained from publishing the facts, is no longer alive, it is not only permissible for us, his friends, to come forward in his defence but, in view of all that has happened, it is our bounden duty to tell the truth about his life and death, so as to counteract all the slanders that have been set going by his enemies.[3] i have also heard another argument from persons who would have preferred, for the sake of their vanity, that tolstoy's family tragedy should have remained secret. they said that leo nikolaevitch himself never defended himself against those who slandered him. he preferred to bear the censure of public opinion rather than reveal the painful conditions of his life and allow others to be blamed instead of himself. and therefore, they say, after his death his friends ought to follow his example. it is impossible to agree with this. one may well understand that leo nikolaevitch concealed his sufferings. he drew strength and derived satisfaction from the consciousness that he was living not before men, but before god. far from standing in need of human approbation, he thought that unjust condemnation on the part of men was good for him in so far as it forcibly drove him to that road upon which one has nothing but the voice of god in one's own soul for guidance. but does this mean that we too must say nothing about tolstoy's heroic life and conceal his moral rectitude now, when he is not among us? we have not, cannot have, and ought not to have, the same motives which in this respect influenced him. it is good for me, for my soul, to be unjustly condemned owing to the fact that i do not want to justify myself and am sparing the real culprit. but there is nothing good in my being silent when another person is unjustly condemned or slandered in my presence, while i have the means of proving his innocence. leo nikolaevitch had grounds for not justifying himself before men; but we have no grounds whatever for concealing that which does justify him. in the present case we ought to be guided, not by the thought of ourselves in his place if he were alive, but by the immediate voice of our own heart and reason, which demands that we should defend the friend whose memory is being reviled before our eyes. these are the reasons that have led me to undertake the biographical work of which the present narrative of tolstoy's going away forms, so to speak, only one separate chapter. all the events of cosmic life are so inextricably interwoven that, were it possible to change in the past some one of them, even the apparently most insignificant, it would be necessary to change at the same time absolutely all the other concurrent and preceding circumstances. therefore in order to investigate fully the conditions which have occasioned this or that event in a person's life, one would have to consider the whole past history of mankind, both the external and the internal or spiritual. and since it is impossible even in thought to embrace all this infinite number of facts, it must be admitted that it is utterly beyond our power to determine all the causes that have produced this or that event in the life of a particular individual. thus in the story of tolstoy's "going away" which occupies us now, no investigation, however careful, can exhaust all the outer and inner circumstances, receding into an endless past, that have brought about the event in question. besides, even in the domain of tolstoy's personal life which admits of inquiry, the direct and indirect causes of his "going away" are so numerous and many-sided that it is beyond the power of a single individual to make an exhaustive enumeration of them. the colouring given in such cases to the circumstances under investigation and the very drift of the inquiry depend so largely upon the personal point of view and the mood of the writer, that, try as he may to be impartial, his selection and treatment of causes will inevitably be more or less one-sided. therefore in order to bring to light the causes of tolstoy's "going away," it is extremely important that the greatest possible number of his contemporaries should record and preserve for future generations the facts known to them as well as their thoughts and reminiscences; and it is desirable, too, that this should be done particularly by those of them who had occasion to stand nearest to tolstoy's personal and family life. a true history of tolstoy's life must be preserved in the greatest possible fullness for future generations. his contemporaries, and in the first place his relatives, personal friends and co-workers, ought not to neglect this important task laid upon them by fate itself. so far as i am concerned, i quite realise that the small beginning which i venture to make with the present narrative is only a drop in the sea of all the facts, observations and deductions which it would be desirable to gather together before tolstoy's contemporaries leave the scene of this earthly life.[4] in composing the present book i have tried to distinguish as sharply as possible between: (1) facts and circumstances which i knew for certain, and therefore have stated them without any reservations; (2) facts and circumstances of the certainty of which i personally am convinced, though i do not consider myself entitled to affirm them unconditionally, and state them with some reservations; (3) circumstances surmised by me on the ground of certain data which i quote herewith; and (4) my personal opinions, considerations and reflections upon the facts quoted. being compelled in the present narrative to be as brief as possible, i am unable to substantiate all my assertions by documentary and other evidence in my possession. i am therefore addressing myself here only to such readers who can take my word for it that i give out as facts only that which is known to me for certain, and do not permit myself any embellishments or exaggeration. but in the other, still unwritten, book to which i have referred, _tolstoy's moral achievement_, the subject of his family life as a whole will be extensively treated and i shall quote my data in full. if i often permit myself to include in the narrative my personal valuation of the events, this is certainly not because i want to force my own opinions on the reader instead of barely stating the facts and letting him draw his own conclusions. i quite recognise the advantages of a so-called objective narrative, but it was not what in the present case i had in view. as i have mentioned already, my purpose in writing this book was to contradict the slanders against leo nikolaevitch and the misinterpretations of his conduct. i do not doubt that the majority of my readers will consider my selection of facts and my interpretation of them one-sided. let, then, other investigators of the same subject interpret the facts each from his own point of view. the more such narratives are published, the less risk there will be of the reader receiving a one-sided impression, and the more free he will be to draw his own conclusions. as to a detailed objective exposition of all the circumstances connected with tolstoy's "going away," i believe that, desirable as it is, the time for it has not yet come, for the persons who possess most information on the subject have not yet had time to publish the numerous and varied details known to them. let us hope that they will not put off this task for so long that they will be dead before they have fulfilled it. and if my present contribution will induce them also to give out something of what they know, even if it were solely with the object of contradicting me, i should be very glad of it, as indeed of any corrections of my work that anyone might wish to make. it is far better that the matter should be thoroughly thrashed out between the eye-witnesses rather than--as often happens with the lives of distinguished men--it should become, in future ages, the subject of an extensive polemic literature which seldom succeeds in getting at truth. it seems to me that only when there appear the greatest possible number of additional communications on the same subject shall we be able to work out, from all the accumulated material, that really objective and trustworthy account of tolstoy's "going away" which is so necessary in order to give men a true idea of the spiritual achievement of his life. v. tchertkoff. _moscow, lefortovsky pereulok, 7. january 1922._ footnotes [1] sofya andreyevna tolstoy, who died in november, 1919. in appendix ii, at the end of the present volume, i explain what attitude towards sofya andreyevna i adopt in the present narrative. [2] isabella fyvie mayo. [3] in this connection i venture to quote here a small extract from my article entitled "should the truth about tolstoy's going away be told?" (published in the magazine _tolstoy's voice and unity_, n 3 (15)). "the conditions under which leo nikolaevitch tolstoy left yasnaya polyana and died on the journey at a railway station were, as everyone knows, quite exceptional. and yet, though it happened ten years ago, mankind does not to this day know the true causes of this event. both in russia and abroad the actual reasons that drove a man like leo tolstoy to leave his family are unknown, and so everyone invented his own reasons and published all sorts of fictions. some have maintained that tolstoy longed to be received once more into the orthodox church and wanted to save his soul in a monastery. some insisted that as he grew old his intellect grew so weak that he did not know what he was doing, and, instinctively feeling the approach of death, went off without any definite purpose. others observed with satisfaction that at the end of his life, at any rate, tolstoy succeeded in overcoming his attachment to his family and his bondage to wealthy surroundings, and in doing what in accordance with his convictions he ought to have done long ago. others, on the contrary, regretted that he had not the strength to endure the trials of his home life to the end, and that, revolted at the behaviour of his family, he lost his spiritual balance and failed in his duty to his relatives. there is no enumerating all the guesses and suppositions that were spread by people who attempted during the last ten years to solve the riddle of tolstoy's 'going away,' or who intentionally perverted the truth. quite recently in his book on tolstoy (which has already been translated into foreign languages), maxim gorky, with his usual amazing rashness in dealing with subjects which he does not know or fails to understand, thought it fit, by the side of other absurdities about tolstoy, to inform the world that leo nikolaevitch left yasnaya polyana 'with the despotic intention of increasing the oppressive influence of his religious ideas' and 'compelling people to accept them,' and that he, maxim gorky, does not approve of such behaviour. "i owe it to my friend's memory to show how ill-grounded are the accusations and the slanders with which men, misinformed as to the circumstances of his life, or opposed to his theories, tried to besmirch his name. i naturally want to do my utmost to reinstate in all its beauty and purity the spiritual image of him to whom i am indebted so much for his love and moral assistance." [4] in connection with the tolstoy museum in moscow (pretchistenka 11) a circle has been formed with the object, partly, of collecting and preserving such communications. some of them may, with the author's consent, be published in the _viestnik_. part i why tolstoy did not leave his home (_from a letter to h. dosev, october 19, 1910_[5]) dear dosev, i feel that i must protest against what you say in your last letter in connection with leo nikolaevitch. among other things you say of him: "nothing is worse than slavery. and worse still is slavery to a spoilt child who has been spoilt by oneself. but i know nothing worse in the world than being enslaved to an irrational, self-willed woman who is convinced that her slave husband will do whatever she chooses. is not sofya andreyevna such a woman, and is not leo nikolaevitch in slavery to her? his submissiveness to sofya andreyevna i regard not as a virtue but as a weakness. he makes concessions to her through fear of sinning against love; but in doing this is he not sinning against the great love? you know she keeps him away from his friends, from the peasants, from humanity; she makes him live the revolting life of a wealthy landowner. i do not reproach leo nikolaevitch, i do not condemn him--i love and respect him too much. but i am sorry for him. i am sorry for his whole life, and for his great teaching, which has not passed in vain for himself and for those near him, but which will pass in vain for the peasants and for humanity; for his external life blurs all the significance and meaning of his words and thoughts in men's eyes." you conclude with the words: "do not be hurt by my words. i repeat--this is the expression not of censure, but of the pain of a man who loves him. and so if there is something i don't see rightly, you and all the others and leo nikolaevitch must forgive me. the greatest joy of my life is my love for him and for all of you, friends of the spirit." just because i believe in the sincerity of your love for leo nikolaevitch, and know that he too loves you, just because of that i feel irresistibly impelled to answer those words of yours, dear friend. you really do not "see rightly," and are mistaken in assuming slavishness and inconsistency in leo nikolaevitch. on the contrary, he displays in his attitude to sofya andreyevna the greatest freedom--freedom from anxiety about the opinion of men, and the highest consistency--the determination to do, according to the measure of his powers and understanding, not his own will but the will of god. and for the sake of doing this will of god he is ready to endure any personal sufferings of his own and any human censure and disgrace. you are mistaken in supposing that leo nikolaevitch does whatever sofya andreyevna wishes. on the contrary, there is a limit beyond which he does not give way to her. he does not give way to her when she demands from him what is distinctly against his conscience. and it is just because he does not give way entirely, but adheres to this limit in his concessions--it is just through that, that he has so much to put up with from sofya andreyevna. during the last ten years of his life leo nikolaevitch has often thought of leaving his wife, and has more than once been on the verge of taking that step. it is still perfectly possible that he will take it in the end if he becomes convinced that his remaining with his wife is not attaining his object, but merely exciting her, and encouraging her in her exactingness and tyranny. but to do this he must clearly and unmistakably recognise in his conscience that he _ought_ to leave her. that he has not hitherto left her is not at all because it is more agreeable or more convenient to live in her house, it is not at all through weakness of character or dread of disobeying her; but, believe me, solely because he is not yet sufficiently convinced that he _ought_ to go away, and does not feel that it is god's will that he should go. for him personally it would be so much more agreeable, peaceful and in every way convenient to go away, that he is afraid of acting selfishly, of doing what is easier for himself, and of refusing through cowardice to bear the trials laid upon him. if he did leave yasnaya polyana at his advanced age, and with his infirmities, he could not now live by manual labour. nor could he go staff in hand about the world and fall ill and die somewhere by the high-road, or as a passing pilgrim in a peasant's hut. he could not do it simply from affection for those who love him, for his daughters and the friends who are near him in heart and spirit--however attractive such an end might be for him himself, and however theatrically splendid it might seem to the crowd which at present censures him. he could not without being cruel refuse to settle in some modest abode where, without the help of servants, they could do his housework for him, surrounding him with the affection and care necessary at his age, giving him the opportunity of associating without hindrance with the working people whom he loves so much, and from whom he is at present completely cut off. why, such a free, quiet life would be a real paradise for him in comparison with the prison in which he has to live now! it will be asked why he does not accept for himself these happy surroundings so easily within his reach, seeing that his wife has, one would have thought, given him long ago sufficient ground for leaving her house. why does he not now, at least, in the decline of his age, cast off the heavy burden which in the person of sofya andreyevna he has been bearing on his shoulders for thirty years, sometimes almost sinking under its weight? it is obvious that if he does not do this it is not from weakness or cowardice, and it is not from selfishness; but, on the contrary, from a feeling of duty, from a manly determination to remain at his post to the very end, sacrificing his preferences and his personal happiness for the sake of doing what he considers to be the divine will. in july, 1908, leo nikolaevitch passed through one of those agonising spiritual crises, provoked by sofya andreyevna, which with him nearly always ended in serious illness. so it was on this occasion. immediately after it he fell ill, and for some time after it was almost at death's door. i quote a few extracts from his diary in the days just before his illness. "_july 2, 1908._--if i had heard of myself as an outsider--of a man living in luxury, wringing all he can out of the peasants, locking them up in prison, while preaching and professing christianity and giving away coppers, and for all his loathsome actions sheltering himself behind his dear wife, i should not hesitate to call him a blackguard! and that is just what i need that i may be set free from the praises of men and live for my soul.... "_july 2, 1908._--doubts have come into my mind whether i do right to be silent, and even whether it would not be better for me to go away, to disappear. i refrain from doing this principally because it would be for _my own sake_, in order to escape from a life poisoned on every side. i believe that the endurance of this life is needful for me.... "_july 3, 1908._--it is still as agonising, life here in yasnaya polyana is completely poisoned. wherever i turn, it is shame and suffering.... "_july 6, 1908._--help me, o lord! again i long to go away, and i do not make up my mind to; but do not give up the idea. the great point is: whether i would be doing it for my own sake if i went away. that i am not doing it for my own sake in staying i know.... "_july 9, 1908._--one thing grows more and more agonising; the injustice of the senseless luxury in the midst of which i am living with undeserved poverty and want all around. i feel worse and worse, more and more wretched. i cannot forget, i cannot help seeing...." i remember on one of these days leo nikolaevitch returning from a solitary walk in the woods with that expression of joyful inspiration which so often illumined his face of late years, and meeting me with the words: "i have been thinking a great deal and very deeply. and it has become so clear to me that when one stands at the parting of the ways and does not know how to act, one ought always to give the preference to the decision which involves more self-sacrifice." from all this it is evident how deeply leo nikolaevitch feels his position, how passionately he longs at times to throw off his yoke and at the same time with what sincerity and self-sacrifice he is seeking not his own comfort, but only one thing--the clear understanding of how he ought to act before his conscience, before his god, to whose service he had devoted his life not in word alone but in deed also. after this how short-sighted, how unjust and cruel seem utterances--especially on the lips of a loved and loving friend of leo nikolaevitch's, as you are--such as that you look upon his submission to sofya andreyevna not as a virtue but as a weakness. we may suppose that in leo nikolaevitch's place we should act differently, though it would be difficult for us to say whether in so acting we should be doing better or worse than he. we cannot understand all that is passing in his soul, and so we may be perplexed by some of his actions. but i at least cannot help feeling the greatest respect for the pure, self-sacrificing impulses by which he is guided. i cannot help feeling complete confidence in him on this question, for if anyone, sacrificing all his personal needs and pleasures, and regardless of his suffering and privations, whatever they may be, tries unswervingly to follow the dictates of his conscience, he is doing all that can be expected of a human being, and no one has the right to condemn, nor need anyone be anxious about him. you see, for us, looking on leo nikolaevitch's life from outside, it appears in reality as an external phenomenon which we can consider according to our mood. in our moments of leisure we venture to criticise leo nikolaevitch and his manner of life and to decide on its value, as though it were far easier for us to grasp and understand it, than it is for him. "another man's trouble i can handle easily, but my own is beyond my comprehension." we forget that for us it is only a subject of criticism about which we may have one opinion or another--a question concerning which we may on occasion argue and bring forward the _pros_ and _cons_. but for leo nikolaevitch it is a question of _conscience_, it is the very business of his life, it is that into which he is putting all his soul, all his understanding. what grounds have we for imagining that we outsiders, who know ourselves to be greatly inferior to leo nikolaevitch spiritually, are capable of understanding his life better and deciding more conscientiously for him how he ought to act than he can himself, though he is seeking guidance for his conduct day and night before god? let his enemies vent their malice over his seemingly humiliating position; let narrow-minded and short-sighted "tolstoyans," who have neither spiritual penetration nor the delicate intuition of the heart, condemn him or bestow their patronising pity on him; but we, his real friends, who are of one spirit with him, who understand by what he is living, and are struggling towards the same goal as he, we, dear dosev, ought to have more faith and trust in him. as you are aware, none of leo nikolaevitch's friends suffers more from leo nikolaevitch's relations with sofya andreyevna than my wife and i, for they deprive us of one of the greatest joys of our life--of personal intercourse with him, the enjoyment of which was the principal reason for our settling in this district.[6] but when i am in a good frame of mind, all this which is painful and humiliating vanishes before my trust in leo nikolaevitch, and my conviction, which nothing will shake, that he desires nothing for himself, but is striving for one thing only--that is, that at every given moment he may be doing what god requires of him. some members of his household who are devoted to leo nikolaevitch are distressed that he should give in to the farce--to them obvious--which sofya andreyevna so often plays before him in order to attain her objects, at one time agitating him by feigned attacks of despair and frenzy, at other times touching his heart by displays of penitence, meekness and care for his welfare which are even more insincere, or, if at times half sincere, are at least extremely transitory. but it seems to me that if, through the wonderful purity of his own heart, leo nikolaevitch is incapable of seeing sofya andreyevna as she really is, and with touching trustfulness seizes upon every justification for recognising in her the smallest signs of an awakening conscience, then, though he may be mistaken in it, the tender emotion and joy which he feels on such occasions are perfectly legitimate, because they arise from his great love and readiness to forgive everything. it is doubtful whether her success in pretending is good for sofya andreyevna herself. but who knows, perhaps this wonderful faith in her soul on the part of leo nikolaevitch, which nothing can shake, his continual expectation, his premature, eager anticipation of the spiritual awakening in her which he so whole-heartedly desires, will in due time have its effect upon sofya andreyevna. perhaps such an attitude to her on the part of the man whom she has so mercilessly tortured for so many years, and who nevertheless is of all people the only one who has sincerely loved her, and loved her to the end, will one day be reflected in her soul. the memory of this in its due time, for instance, when she will become conscious of the nearness of her own death, when all worldly plans, aims and desires inevitably retreat into the background, is the one thing that may be capable of awakening in that unhappy woman the divine spark, the possibility of which we have no right to deny in any human being. and if this is possible, is it surprising that leo nikolaevitch, entirely given up to the service of the divine love as he is, should untiringly attempt to melt with his love the heart of the partner of his life whom he once drew to himself, with whom he shared his past sinful life, and with whom he would also wish to save his soul? and indeed as a rule, dear dosev, i am deeply convinced that no one of us can decide for another, nor determine in regard to another man's behaviour what is his weakness and what is his virtue. "before his god," as it is written in the gospel, "every one of us shall stand or fall." it is not for us human beings to meddle in the secret region of another man's soul with our short-sighted criticisms, our frivolous verdicts and our mistaken condolences. and however leo nikolaevitch may act in the future--whether he remains to the end beside his wife, or whether at some time he finds it necessary for her benefit to go away from her--i am convinced of one thing: that in that matter he will really act only as his conscience bids him, and therefore he will act rightly. why, if leo nikolaevitch's wife were drowning and, plunging into the water to save her, he perished himself, nobody would reproach him for having sacrificed his friends and humanity for the sake of excessive family attachments. it is even more impossible to reproach him for devoting his life, sacrificing its joys and repose, and perhaps even giving it up altogether, for the sake of saving his wife from the ruin of her soul. it ought not to be forgotten also that at the same time leo nikolaevitch always contrives in the most attentive and sensitive way to respond to every real need, spiritual or material, of the whole people and of all mankind, devoting his whole working time to intense spiritual labour in the interests of the working masses, and of all suffering mankind, whether the suffering be from external or internal evil. as for your idea that for the simple people and for humanity "all his life and great teaching will pass in vain, because his external life blurs all the significance and meaning of his words and thoughts in men's eyes," on this too, i assure you, you are profoundly mistaken. his words cannot pass in vain for humanity if only from the fact that they do not express something of "his own" with which only those who "follow him" can agree, but express the best that there is in the heart of every man. and from that very fact what tolstoy says in his writings finds, apart from any relation to his own personal life, a direct and loving response in the heart and consciousness of all men whose conscience has not been blunted. and as time passes this response will only become clearer and more distinct. when the true conditions of the domestic life of leo nikolaevitch become generally known, the great heroism of his family life, reproducing in deed what he expressed in words, will be added to the direct persuasive force of his words in the eyes of humanity. "going to the people," to prison, torture, the cross, the stake, the scaffold--all these have been already. and however deserving of the deepest respect are the men who face these for conscience' sake, yet if it is a question of a living example, we, people of the present day, needed an example of yet another kind. men go willingly to the scaffold even from a desire to blow their neighbour into the air. men become cripples for life or are killed for the sake of beating a record with a motor-car or an aeroplane. all this is striking and sensational, but already no one is surprised by it. but it is quite a different matter to spend several decades with such a wife as sofya andreyevna without running away from her, and still preserving in his heart pity and love for her, and this to the accompaniment of the unceasing mockery of his enemies and misunderstanding and censure from the majority of his friends--so to live from day to day, from year to year, not seeing and not foreseeing any escape but his own death; to endure, in doing so, all that leo nikolaevitch has to endure, being periodically made ill by it and almost dying, and not only to have not the smallest blame or bitterness in his heart, but, on the contrary, to be always blaming himself for lack of patience and love--this really is the highest consistency on the part of leo nikolaevitch. this is a testimony of the truthfulness of his theory of life than which nothing stronger and more striking could be imagined. this is just the example that humanity is in need of in our day, and this example leo nikolaevitch is giving us in his life. when one looks at the matter from this point of view it becomes so clear as to be obvious why leo nikolaevitch had to have just such a wife as was vouchsafed to him. "for a great ship a great journey." he who delivered the message of love in its absolutely unlimited sense needed to have the possibility in his life of proving in action that a love that nothing in the world could destroy was really attainable for man. and in due time, when the truth about leo nikolaevitch's life becomes common property, men will be infinitely grateful to him for this joyous confirmation of the possibility of following in practice the godly theory of life of which tolstoy is the exponent in his writings. footnotes [5] ten days before leo nikolaevitch went away from yasnaya polyana this letter was written by me to christo dosev, the common friend of tolstoy and myself, who migrated to russia from bulgaria and died in the year 1919. i quote my letter word for word to preserve its direct character. i ought to mention that a few years after tolstoy's death dosev told me that he recognised how mistaken was the censure of tolstoy to which he had given expression in the letter which called forth this answer from me. [6] this letter was written at the time when, though living only a few versts from yasnaya polyana, i was forcibly separated from leo nikolaevitch. this separation, which lasted for about three months, was due to the hostile attitude towards me of his wife, whose excited condition he hoped to soothe by the promise not to see me. part ii why tolstoy went away chapter i life at yasnaya polyana a few days after the foregoing letter was written leo nikolaevitch left yasnaya polyana. at first sight it may seem that if he did well in remaining so long with his wife, he ought not to have abandoned her in the end; or, on the contrary, if he was right in going away, it was a mistake not to have done so sooner. that is how many do reason. some--the majority--commend him for his departure, considering that thereby he "atoned" for his supposed weakness and inconsistency in the past. others--a small minority--commend him, on the contrary, for remaining so many years with his wife, but consider his going away a proof of his inconsistency.[7] it seems to me that in any case leo nikolaevitch's friends who were able to estimate at its true value the self-sacrifice with which he remained a voluntary prisoner in his wife's house for so many years ought, more than anyone, to have that confidence in him of which he was worthy. they might at least be confident that if, after all this, he did decide to go away, he must have had good grounds for doing so; especially since such an explanation is far more natural and credible than the supposition that leo nikolaevitch, who had so successfully endured this prolonged ordeal and had displayed such striking stoicism and self-sacrifice, on the eve of his death suddenly, for some reason, broke down and was false to his conscience. in regard to the question of whether he was to remain with his wife or go away, leo nikolaevitch was guided not by any one impulse, but by many, and often contradictory, impulses. on the side of not leaving his wife he had various considerations which are touched on in my letter to dosev. the chief of them was his consciousness that in remaining he was fulfilling the demands of love in regard to sofya andreyevna, and was trying to do her good, while he was performing an act of self-sacrifice for the benefit of his own soul. he had also, in the course of the last thirty years of his life, many grounds for going away; and though, until the time was ripe, they could not outweigh those that kept him with his family, yet in themselves they were very weighty. on one side he was painfully conscious--and ever more painfully as time went on--of all the injustice, all the sinfulness of the surroundings of his home life, which were those of a rich landowner in the midst of the poverty around him, and he never forgave himself for his participation in those surroundings. some months before his death he wrote, as is well known, in the introduction to his novel, _there are no guilty in the world_: "the complicated conditions of the past, my family and its demands, have not let me out of their clutches"; and, at once, with the fear of self-justification characteristic of him, hastened to add "or rather i had not the ability nor strength to free myself from them." but recognising at that time the hopelessness of his position, leo nikolaevitch found a good side in the fact that it was so painful to him. "being without any desire for self-justification, or any fear of the liberated peasants, and also without the peasants' envy and bitterness against their oppressors, i am in the most favourable position for seeing the truth and being able to tell it. perhaps it was just for this that i have been placed by fate in this strange position. i will try, as far as i know how, to take advantage of it. this at least to some extent, anyway, alleviates my condition." on the other hand, he was at times much distressed by the consciousness of the false position in which he was placed before men, and before the peasants especially, by the external conditions of his life, which were so directly opposed to his convictions. he was well aware that the majority of people condemned him for taking part in that life. but he was resigned even to that, finding a spiritual blessing in his humiliation before men. in his _circle of reading_[8] he said: "what is called religious folly, _i.e._ conduct which provokes censure and attack, is intelligible and desirable as the sole proof of one's love for god and one's neighbour." "the condemnation by man of your actions," he says in a private letter, "if your actions are not due to selfish motives, but to doing the will of god, is far from requiring you to justify them; on the contrary, this condemnation is a benefit, in that it gives you certain conviction that you do what you are doing not for the praise of men, but for the sake of your soul, for god."[9] but above all leo nikolaevitch had to suffer directly from his wife's antagonism and disagreement with regard to what was for him more precious than anything. this hostility on the part of his wife often reached the point of unconcealed hatred of him, making him at times despair of the possibility of softening her heart at all. as years went on the spiritual rift between them became complete. leo nikolaevitch had periods of such doubt and depression of spirit that he felt quite hopeless, and was ready to run away from home. one of these periods i have referred to above, but even at the beginning of the 'eighties leo nikolaevitch had moments when he could scarcely restrain himself from going away. it was so, for instance, in the summer of the year 1884. in his diary of that time we find such entries: "if only i could have confidence in myself.... i cannot go on with this savage life. even for them" (the members of his family) "it would be a benefit. they will reconsider things if they have anything like a heart.... i said nothing, but i felt horribly depressed. i went away, and meant to go away altogether, but her being with child made me turn back half way to tula.... it was horribly painful.... it was a mistake not to go away. i think it will be bound to happen sooner or later."[10] after 1884, as leo nikolaevitch's spiritual forces developed further and gained strength, he did succeed to some extent in bearing patiently the insults and suffering inflicted upon him, and learnt to resign himself to the painfulness of his position, extracting gain for his inner life from all that he endured. but how hard it still was for him may be seen, for instance, from the confession that broke from him in conversation with a friend of his, the peasant m. p. novikov, when the latter visited him on the 21st october, 1910: "i have never concealed from you that in this house i am boiling as in hell, and i have always dreamed of going away, and longed to go somewhere into the forest to a keeper's hut, or to a village to some lonely peasant's hut, where we could help one another. but god has not given me the strength to break away from my family. my weakness is perhaps a sin, but i could not for the sake of my personal satisfaction make others suffer, even although they are members of my family...." during this time everything that was painful in leo nikolaevitch's relations with sofya andreyevna, and which had grown with the decades, began to develop with increased rapidity. in this brief but terribly concentrated period of his life much which his goodwill towards her had prevented him from observing in sofya andreyevna before began to be apparent to him. at first it was very difficult for him to see his way in his complicated position and among all the varied feelings and impulses which rose up in his soul. he had not only to bear his old, long familiar cross, but also to deal with new, quite unforeseen trials before he had time to see clearly what attitude he ought to take up to them. these exceptionally complicated conditions must be kept in view in order to follow leo nikolaevitch's spiritual experiences of that period with any degree of accuracy. it was difficult for him to understand his own state of mind, and he exercised the greatest circumspection in order not to act prematurely nor precipitately. it is all the more necessary for us to be extremely circumspect in examining the various spiritual states which followed each other and were interwoven in him at that time. it is impossible to approach the very complicated workings of his soul with ready-made theories, or to offer a rough-and-ready explanation of leo nikolaevitch's behaviour on the lines of one's personal bias--whether domestic, religious, social, or otherwise; and least of all can one be guided by information or argument coming from his domestic circle, whose vanity was so deeply wounded by his departure. in order really to understand tolstoy and his behaviour in this most important period of his life, it is above all needful to free oneself from the slightest partiality, narrowness and one-sidedness, to be ready to look the truth in the face and as far as possible to weigh attentively all the conditions and circumstances, not taken separately, but in combination and in all their complex interaction. footnotes [7] i have come across references to my letter to dosev as though it proved that, for all my devotion to leo nikolaevitch, i considered that he ought not to have left his wife. but there is nothing of the sort in my letter, the main drift of which is merely that no one has the right to set himself up as a judge of leo nikolaevitch in the matter. i indicated in detail how sound were the reasons impelling him to remain in yasnaya polyana while he did remain there; but at the same time, in the very same letter, though it was written before leo nikolaevitch went away, i made several allusions to the possibility that in the end he would think it necessary to go. [8] _circle of reading_, may 17. [9] 1907. [10] june 17-24, 1884. chapter ii change for the worse in his wife's attitude to him and so in the last few months before leo nikolaevitch left yasnaya polyana he was subjected in an intensified form to all the agonising conditions which had for many years made him long to get away from his family. what went on around him in yasnaya polyana, particularly in the management of the estate, seemed to be purposely calculated to wound, insult and revolt him more and more in his most sacred feelings. in her relations with the peasants sofya andreyevna, far from restraining herself through consideration for her husband, behaved with peculiar injustice and harshness as though to spite him.[11] at one time she would try to impress on the peasants that she was acting with the consent and approval of leo nikolaevitch himself; at another she would boast before him that his championship had no influence on her arrangements. it is easy to imagine how unutterably painful all this was for him. it is sufficient to recall how he sobbed when he chanced to come across a policeman on horseback dragging along a yasnaya polyana peasant caught in the tolstoys' forest, an old man whom leo nikolaevitch knew well and respected. fully realising that he would not in the least improve the position of the peasants by going away, leo nikolaevitch went on regarding such spectacles as a bitter trial laid upon him, and confining himself to protesting warmly on every possible occasion. in the same way, that is as a trial laid upon him, he continued to look upon the false position in which he was placed in the eyes of the public by his apparent acceptance of what was done in yasnaya polyana. on this subject he not only continually received abusive letters which he accepted as a useful exercise in humility, but also from time to time persons wishing him well addressed him with censure and exhortation. a letter written by leo nikolaevitch at the beginning of 1910 in answer to an unknown student who had written to persuade him to leave his privileged surroundings, is characteristic: "your letter touched me," wrote leo nikolaevitch; "what you advise me to do is my cherished dream! that i should be living at home with my wife and daughter in horrible, shameful conditions of luxury in the midst of the poverty around us tortures me unceasingly and ever more and more; and not a day passes on which i do not think of carrying out your advice." at the same time a third and most painful trial, consisting in his wife's immediate attitude to him, was intensely accentuated. the mournful recital of those spiritual agonies which shattered his health, and which she systematically inflicted on him in the last months of his life, will be set forth in its time and place. no one can imagine what he had to endure and to suffer at that time. on one occasion, calling in d. p. makovitsky,[12] leo nikolaevitch said to him: "dushan petrovitch, go to her" (sofya andreyevna) "and tell her that if she desires my death she is going the right way to bring it about."[13] in a touching letter of july 14, 1910, to sofya andreyevna, leo nikolaevitch, after making her every concession he considered possible, adds in conclusion: "if you will not accept these conditions of a good and peaceful life, then i will go away.... i will certainly go away, because it is impossible to go on living like this." it will be readily understood that with such a position of affairs leo nikolaevitch began to foresee more and more definitely the possibility that in the end he would have to leave yasnaya polyana. in a moment of openness he said to his friend, the peasant novikov: "yes, yes, believe me, i tell you frankly i shall not die in this house. i have made up my mind to go to a strange place where i shall not be known. and perhaps i may come straight to die in your hut.... i want to prepare for death in peace, and here they think of me as worth so many roubles. i shall go away, i shall certainly go away." only a final decisive shock was needed. in his same letter to the student he says about going away: "this can and ought only to be done when it is essential, not for the supposed external objects, but for the satisfaction of the inner need of the soul,--when to remain in the old position becomes as morally impossible as it is physically impossible not to cough when one cannot breathe.... and i am near to that position, and every day i get nearer and nearer to it." but leo nikolaevitch still did not go away, and remaining continued to be subjected on an increased scale to the tortures to which he had been subjected since the 'eighties. and he remained still for the same reasons as had restrained him for thirty years. he knew that he would not alleviate the position of the peasants of the district by going. from his painful position in the eyes of men he drew a profitable lesson in humility. his wife's attitude to him assisted in him the development of true love for those who hated his soul. and therefore the more intense these trials became with the passage of time, the more painfully they were reflected in his soul, the more difficult it became for him to deal with them--the more insistent from the spiritual point of view became the moral duty not to forsake his post, but to endure to the end. footnotes [11] at the beginning of the eighties of the last century, leo nikolaevitch's feeling against property in general, and the ownership of land in particular, began to take shape, though it was only somewhat later that it was fully fixed and confirmed. he renounced all property for himself personally in 1894, acting as though in that respect he were dead, that is, leaving the possession of his former property to those whom he regarded as his heirs, that is, his family. after this sofya andreyevna began to manage the estate of yasnaya polyana, while his children divided the land and property between them. later on leo nikolaevitch felt, he said, that he had made a mistake in giving up the land to his "heirs" instead of to the local peasants, and at the desire of his family confirming the transfer by legal act. [12] an intimate friend who shared the views of leo nikolaevitch, a doctor who lived in the tolstoys' house from the year 1904. he was of slovak nationality, and in 1920 left russia and returned to czechoslovakia, where he died in 1921. [13] from one of the diaries and letters of tolstoy's friends and household of the times. chapter iii the history of the will in order to understand why sofya andreyevna's attitude to leo nikolaevitch was so exasperated, and what impelled her to treat him so cruelly, it is essential to have some conception why he found it necessary about this time to make a will, leaving all his writings free to the public. the story of tolstoy's will is so complicated and full of details that a separate circumstantial account of it is required. here i will only briefly state the most essential facts. at the beginning of the 'eighties, at the time when the spiritual regeneration of leo nikolaevitch was taking place, though his new attitude of completely disapproving of property was not yet fully defined, he made over to his wife an authorisation for the publication and sale of his collected works, the income from which was the principal source of the material means by which his family lived. later on, when he came to realise that property of every kind was wrong, he did not, in spite of all his efforts, succeed in persuading sofya andreyevna to renounce this income voluntarily and to give him back the authorisation he had given her. he did not feel morally justified in forcibly depriving her of what she clung to so passionately, and what against the will of leo nikolaevitch she considered had been put at the disposal of the family for ever. this trading in his works by his wife against his wish was, in his own words, one of the most agonising sufferings of his life. all his new works, however, those that had appeared after 1881 and those destined to appear later, he thereupon freed from the monopoly of his family, announcing in a letter to the newspapers, that all who wished could reprint them without any fee. sofya andreyevna had, willy-nilly, to submit to this decision on the part of the author. but every time when, instead of articles of a religious and social character, which did not in the literary market command the immense value enjoyed by his artistic works, leo nikolaevitch undertook any work in artistic form, sofya andreyevna was so much excited and so persistently demanded that the publication of the new work should be handed over to her for the benefit of the family, that it completely destroyed the spiritual tranquillity which he needed for concentrated creative work. many times repeated, these family scenes led him to decide to print no more works of art during his lifetime.[14] and this decision of his is the real reason why, during the latter period of his life, he gave so little to humanity in that sphere. in the end sofya andreyevna began quite openly to declare, even in the presence of leo nikolaevitch, that after his death, according to the advice of lawyers whom she had consulted, his renunciation of all literary property in the works of the second period would lose its validity, and that those works also would, like all the rest, become the property of his family. besides this she began to insist that leo nikolaevitch should give her a fresh authorisation for the sale of his writings of the first period for a long time in the future and also give her the right to prosecute at law anyone who should infringe the copyright. in his diary for 1909 leo nikolaevitch writes: "last night i felt wretched after talking to sofya andreyevna about publishing my works and prosecuting. if she only knew and understood how she alone poisons the last hours, days, months, of my life! i do not know how to say it to her and have no hope that anything one could say would produce the slightest effect upon her."[15] becoming convinced that this greed of sofya andreyevna on behalf of the family would only increase with years, and that she really was capable of taking possession of all his works after his death and of depriving other publishers of the possibility of printing them, leo nikolaevitch felt himself morally bound to guard against such a monopolisation of his writings. and he was so firmly convinced that it was his duty before god and men to do this, that in spite of all that he had to endure on account of it afterwards, he remained unshaken upon this point right up to his death, which was brought about by the spiritual sufferings which were inflicted upon him in consequence of this.[16] after carefully thinking over all the circumstances of the case and taking advice of persons conversant with the subject, leo nikolaevitch came to the conclusion that if he really desired that his writings should be freely accessible to everyone after his death, he could not secure his object without making a formal will. and therefore, with this end in view, he decided to have recourse to that means. the editorship and first publication of all his posthumous works he entrusted to me, with the understanding that everything brought out by me should at once become public property. and in order to make the fulfilment of this task secure in practice, he made a formal will in favour of his younger daughter alexandra lvovna, which would make it possible for her to safeguard my task from any attempts to hinder it. the profit on the first issue of his works after his death he assigned in the first place for the redemption of the yasnaya polyana estate from the tolstoy family in order to hand it over to the peasants, and this was duly carried out after his death. of course the legal form of the will could not but be distasteful to leo nikolaevitch. but this was to some extent counterbalanced in his eyes by the fact that the object of the will was not prosecution of anyone in the future, but, on the contrary, the prevention of the possibility of legal proceedings being taken by persons who might put in claims to inherit proprietary rights in the works of leo nikolaevitch if there had been no such will. there was also another disagreeable side to this business for leo nikolaevitch. to avoid in connection with the will any altercations and dissensions, which would have been undesirable in themselves and would have made the position of alexandra lvovna, as legal heiress of his manuscripts, utterly impossible in the family, leo nikolaevitch resolved not to tell anyone of his will. though to keep the fact of the existence of a will secret is a fairly usual thing to do in such circumstances, it will be readily understood that it was against the grain for leo nikolaevitch, and he resolved to act in this way solely because he saw no other alternative.[17] sofya andreyevna's fears that leo nikolaevitch might make a will depriving his family of the copyright of his works were the underlying cause of her hostile attitude to him. it was on account of this that she made such efforts, on the one hand to wring out of him the complete transfer of all rights in his works to her, and on the other hand by incessant watchfulness over him to eliminate all possibility of his signing any business document without her knowledge. and it was for this same reason that she was filled with such hatred for me personally, assuming, though quite mistakenly, that the initiative in leo nikolaevitch's renunciation of his copyrights and the arrangements for carrying this out came from me. leo nikolaevitch was so firm in his resolution to leave his writings for the free use of all, that with his own hand he wrote a will in accordance with that idea, not once only but several times, owing to the fact that the legal form of the documents he composed were never sufficiently correct to secure the required authority for them. the last time he made his will while sofya andreyevna was watching over him most vigilantly, during a ride on horseback in the thickest part of the forest, having previously invited three persons of the circle of friends living with me at telyatniki near yasnaya polyana to meet him there and witness his signature. by making this will leo nikolaevitch secured that after his death his writings became accessible to all, and not the property of his family. this result in itself is of vast social importance, seeing that it gave the working people--the poorest class of all countries--access to tolstoy's works in the cheapest form, since it was open to any number of publishers to print them, and the competition between them would bring down the price of the books. but apart from this purely practical gain for the vast masses of mankind, the struggle between leo nikolaevitch and his wife for the copyright of his works,--the struggle which cost him his life,--had also a great significance from the ideal side. it displayed before the eyes of mankind, present and future, an extremely important truth in connection with the christian doctrine of the non-resistance to evil by force which tolstoy so vividly set forth and lighted up in his writings. leo nikolaevitch completely sacrificing himself showed in practice that this principle does not lead, as many suppose, to helplessly giving in to evil and allowing it to triumph unchecked. unyieldingly maintaining his rejection of copyright in the interests of the working masses of mankind, he confirmed by his example, plain to the whole world, what the less eminent "non-resistants" are continually exemplifying in their life. he showed that people of such a theory of life do not give in to evil, but are continually struggling against it in the best and truest way, by refusing to take part in it. he showed also that to yield to the demand of others from meekness and love for them is only admissible up to the limit beyond which they try to make one do what is against one's conscience; and that when people's demands pass beyond those limits, one ought not to yield to them in any way in spite of any sufferings oneself or those one loves may have to bear. no insistence on the part of those nearest him, no sufferings of his own on account of it, were able to compel him in this case to depart from what he considered himself bound to do. is it possible to find a more convincing proof that tolstoy recognised it as morally necessary to resist evil in the most resolute way?--and it was just in consequence of this resistance to evil that he had to sacrifice both his peace and his life. in a letter to me of september 10, 1910, leo nikolaevitch writes of his inner experience in a way which is highly significant. he says: "of late, not with my brains but with my sides, as the peasants say, i have come to a clear understanding of the difference between the resistance which is returning evil for evil and the resistance of refusing to yield in the line of conduct which one recognises as one's duty to one's conscience and god. i will try." at the same time by his attitude to the very idea of literary property tolstoy, by the exceptional sincerity and consistency of his manner of action, has helped and still more will help his literary brethren to see clearly in this "delicate" question, to shut their eyes to which has now become impossible. as time passes a greater and greater number of writers will undoubtedly be troubled by doubts as to whether it is not as morally reprehensible to traffic in one's words, in one's soul, as to traffic in one's body, and tolstoy's attitude will serve conscientious writers as a guiding star in illuminating this question. one cannot but recognise tolstoy's conspicuous services in all this. and though he acted as he did without considering what bearing this would have on the consciousness of men, merely striving not to let himself be drawn into an action contrary to his conscience, nevertheless this first renunciation of literary property on the part of one of the greatest writers of the world undoubtedly has a vast significance for humanity. if in my present brief account of tolstoy's leaving home i have had to dwell rather minutely upon the question of his will, it is because all the threads of the complicated conditions and circumstances which caused his departure meet about that central question. it is true that some of those near to leo nikolaevitch have tried to persuade themselves that sofya andreyevna's attitude to him, which made it impossible for him to remain longer with her, was chiefly provoked by property interests not connected with his will. they ascribe her conduct to various causes and principally to her neurotic condition and morbid, abnormal jealousy. although putting the matter in such a light is undoubtedly due to affectionate goodwill to sofya andreyevna, i consider it my duty to protest against such an interpretation most decisively in the interests of truth, which here as everywhere is more important than anything. we ought not to hide from ourselves that there are more than a sufficient quantity of facts going to prove that sofya andreyevna in this case acted first of all, and most of all, under the influence of feelings and considerations immediately concerned with the material prosperity of her numerous family, consisting, as she was continually reminding people, of twenty-eight persons, counting children and grandchildren. it is essential to keep this circumstance in view in order to have a correct understanding of the attitude of leo nikolaevitch to his will. true love for people dead and alive alike is not shown by concealing their mistakes and failures from oneself and others, but in knowing how, in spite of all the undesirable qualities which every one of us has in sufficient quantity, to behave to one another with compassion and tolerance, recognising that everyone is responsible for all. then we shall not try to pass by the weak spots without noticing them, or to smear over the cracks on the outside, but shall, on the contrary, display them in order that they may be corrected by the efforts of all. the above-mentioned circumstances and motives of the testamentary dispositions of leo nikolaevitch in regard to his writings must be kept in mind if one is to have a true conception of his position in the family at the period immediately preceding his "going away." an acquaintance with those circumstances and impulses makes it possible to understand the true character of the relations which have been formed between leo nikolaevitch and her with whom he had been connected for forty-eight long years and out of love and pity for whom he was ready to sacrifice all but his conscience. footnotes [14] this decision, which leo nikolaevitch reached alone with his conscience, he tried to keep a secret from everyone, and when, guessing from certain signs how it was, i told him on one occasion, he was much puzzled to know how i could have discovered his secret. to explain why this decision not to publish his artistic work during his lifetime put a stop to leo nikolaevitch's work upon them, it must be pointed out that it was his habit to make the chief revision of his first rough sketches on the proofs sent him from the printer's. besides, if he had merely worked at them in manuscript he would have been subjected to the same persistent persecution which so distracted his peace and his concentration upon his work. (sofya andreyevna told me that she had actually exacted a promise from him not to give anyone but herself his manuscripts to copy.) [15] d. p. makovitsky in his diary says the same thing: "in 1909 before the stockholm peace congress, sofya andreyevna wanted to prosecute i. i. gorbunov for publishing _the prisoner in the caucasus_, and sent torba (a court official, her helper in publishing tolstoy's works) to see a lawyer. the lawyer asked what authority sofya andreyevna had for instituting proceedings. 'she has a deed of trust for transacting all leo nikolaevitch's affairs.' 'this is not enough, she must have a deed transferring the copyright to her.' sofya andreyevna asked leo nikolaevitch for it, but he refused point blank. then sofya andreyevna had recourse to hysterics and did not let leo nikolaevitch go to stockholm. in the summer of that year she started playing very cleverly the same game (this time against tchertkoff), pretending to be ill in order to force leo nikolaevitch to give her the copyright. it was not sofya andreyevna who said the other thing, but misha and andryusha. they blurted out about the will."--(sept. 14, 1910, kotchety.) [16] a clear light is thrown upon what leo nikolaevitch had to endure in this connection by a letter which a relation of his, the lawyer i. v. denisenko, wrote for my benefit when i was exiled from the province of tula in 1909, and being unable to be at yasnaya polyana, did not know what was taking place there. i append a few abstracts from the letter to complete the picture: "in the july of 1909, when i was at yasnaya polyana, leo nikolaevitch tolstoy was intending to go to the peace congress at stockholm, and sofya andreyevna was opposed to this. this provoked a regular series of misunderstandings and sofya andreyevna fell ill, not wishing leo nikolaevitch to go to the congress. "it happened once that she called me into her bedroom, and showing me a general authorisation for the management of their affairs given her long ago by leo nikolaevitch, asked me whether she could upon this authorisation sell to a third person the right of publishing his work, and, what was still more important, institute proceedings against sergeyenko and some teacher in a military school for making books of extracts and anthologies from the works of leo nikolaevitch on the ground that these books of extracts would cause her, sofya andreyevna, considerable material damage.... "i believe it was on the day after that that i was in the park picking berries with my wife and children. my wife asked me to go for something to the lodge. i went along an avenue, passing between flower-beds, and there quite unexpectedly i came upon leo nikolaevitch. i was struck by his appearance. he was bowed and he looked worried and exhausted. his eyes were dim and he seemed weak as i had never seen him before. he caught hurriedly at my arm on meeting me, and said with tears in his eyes: 'ivan vassilyevitch, darling, what is she doing to me? what is she doing to me? she is insisting on having an authorisation for instituting proceedings. you know i can't do that.... it would be against my principles.' "then walking a few steps with me he said: 'i have a great favour to ask of you, only let it be a secret between us. for the time don't speak of it to anyone, not even to sasha. please make up a deed for me by which i could announce publicly that i give all my works at whatever date they may have been written freely for the benefit of all.'" [17] there was even a moment when these two undesirable conditions associated with the will, _i.e._ its legal form and the secrecy accompanying it, caused leo nikolaevitch to feel doubts as to the rectitude of his action. these doubts were aroused by a conversation with one of his intimate friends, who came in from outside and knew little of the circumstances of this complicated affair. leo nikolaevitch, who was distinguished by an extreme degree of touching sensitiveness to every criticism of his behaviour, agreed with his friend that he had acted, as the latter asserted, "inconsistently," and he told me of it, declaring, however, that he should nevertheless not change the dispositions he had made. on my side i was compelled to reply that in that case of course i should refuse to be his future executor for carrying out his testamentary dispositions, since only a conviction that i was accomplishing his definite and conscious desire could give me the necessary moral support for the performance of this difficult and responsible duty. at the same time, in accordance with his request, i reminded him of the circumstances and considerations which had induced him to have recourse to a will. in answer i received from him the following letter: "i write this on little scraps of paper because i am in the woods out for a walk. ever since yesterday evening i have been thinking about your yesterday's letter. the two chief feelings which it aroused in me were repulsion for the manifestations of coarse greed and heartlessness which i either did not see or have seen and forgotten, and distress and repentance that i should have hurt you by the letter in which i expressed regret for what i had done. the deduction i have made from the letter is that n. n. was wrong, and also that i was wrong in agreeing with him, and that i fully approve your conduct, but all the same am not satisfied with my own: i feel that it was possible to act better, but i don't know how. now i do not regret what i have done, _i.e._ that i have made the will i did make, and i can only be thankful to you for the interest you have taken in the matter. "i shall tell tanya about it to-day, and that will be very pleasant to me. "leo tolstoy. "_aug. 12, 1910._" in his private pocket diary on aug. 11, 1910, leo nikolaevitch wrote as follows: "a long letter from tchertkoff describing all that has gone before. very sad. painful to read and recall. he is perfectly right, and i feel to blame in regard to him. n. n. was wrong. i will write to both of them." certain persons who, for one reason or another, do not sympathise with the testamentary dispositions of leo nikolaevitch, and especially those of them who took a personal share in the upsetting of them, continue to this day to assert that leo nikolaevitch saw in the end that he had made a mistake and regretted that he had made a will. in confirmation of this they quote a few words written by leo nikolaevitch in his pocket diary at the time of his doubts; but they are carefully silent with regard to the later note in the same diary which i have just quoted. in reality, of course, this incident of leo nikolaevitch's hesitation can only serve to prove how consciously from every point of view he weighed and considered all the circumstances of the case. if no doubts had ever assailed him it would have been possible to admit the supposition that it had never occurred to him to look at the question from the other side, and that therefore his attitude to it was one-sided. but now we know that he not only took a critical attitude as to his action, but that at one time he even doubted if it were right. if, even after such hesitation, he yet definitely confirmed his desire that the will should remain in force, what can be a better proof that this his final decision expresses his real and fully conscious will?--cf. _diary_, vol. i. ed. 1916; appendix, p. 260, "the will," july 22, 1910. chapter iv intervals of rest--in other people's houses the only intervals of freedom and rest which leo nikolaevitch could enjoy from the indescribably painful conditions of life at yasnaya polyana at that period were afforded him by the rare occasions when he succeeded in getting away for a week or two to stay with some one of his more intimate friends. thus during the last year of his life he stayed on two occasions with his daughter tatyana lvovna, in the mtsensk district, and with me (i was in exile from the tula province), the first time at kryokshino in the zvenigorodsky district near moscow, and afterwards at meshtcherskoe in the serpuhovsky district. but he very rarely succeeded in arranging these visits, and only did so with great trouble, since sofya andreyevna opposed them in every way; and if, in spite of her opposition, he did make up his mind to go away, it would sometimes happen that at the last minute she would decide to go with him, which, of course, spoilt the chief object of the excursion. i remember on both occasions when he came to us how extremely shattered, worn out and ill leo nikolaevitch looked, and how perceptibly before our eyes he improved physically and revived spiritually. even on the second or third day of a calm life, and in a circle of friends of the same way of thinking, who guarded his spiritual peace and fully respected his independence, he was completely changed. it was as though some crushing, agonising burden had fallen off him; his face was brighter in expression, his movements became vigorous, in the morning he worked with concentration for many hours on end at his writings, amazing us all by the number of written pages which he afterwards gave us to copy out. during his daily walks he went so rapidly and so far that it was difficult for people much younger to keep up with him. with the visitors of the most varied kind, of whom numbers were always flocking to see him, and from whom no one in our house shut him off as at home, he carried on lively conversations in his free time, in that way coming into direct contact with the surrounding world. in conversation with his friends no one interrupted him or contradicted him at every turn, an annoyance to which he was continually subjected at home, and therefore communion with those surrounding him here afforded him joyous spiritual relief. everything showed what vast stores of energy were still preserved in him; it was clear that under favourable conditions he might for many years to come lead an active life to the joy and profit of humanity. his inner spiritual revival was shown very conspicuously in the fact that every day he became more and more drawn to artistic creation. at first he noted down characteristic meetings and conversations which took place during his walks. and each time before he went away he told me with confident eagerness that great, purely artistic works were stirring within him and taking shape in his soul, and that he hoped now to set to work upon them. but these plans were not destined to be realised, since on his return to yasnaya polyana the painful conditions which have been indicated already were renewed, and calm creative work was inconsistent with them. altogether the difference between his condition, both physical and spiritual, when he arrived and when he left us was striking. i remember how i met him in the garden at the end of his last stay with us at meshtcherskoe, where he had arrived almost in a state of collapse. he walked quickly and he looked remarkably vigorous and many years younger. with an air of lively surprise he greeted me with the words: "i don't understand what it is in your diet, but whenever i stay with you my digestion seems to become perfect." it is well known that the best conditions for a man suffering from defective digestion are simple, not elaborately prepared, food adapted to his requirements, and above all an even, untroubled spiritual atmosphere in all his home life. but leo nikolaevitch expected so little by way of attention from others to his needs and tastes, he attached so little significance for himself to the influence of external surroundings, that it seemed as though it did not enter his head to connect the state of his health with the conditions surrounding him. chapter v the last period the last and most painful period of leo nikolaevitch's life at yasnaya polyana began in june 1910, when, on a visit at my summer bungalow at meshtcherskoe, in the province of moscow, he was suddenly summoned back to yasnaya polyana by a telegram from sofya andreyevna, informing him of her sudden illness; as it afterwards turned out, a sham one. on his return to yasnaya polyana, sofya andreyevna surrounded his life with new restrictions, finally depriving him of even the limited share of personal freedom which he had until that time enjoyed. she gave up respecting his hours of literary work, for which she had once shown consideration, and by continually bursting in upon him and making scenes, she made it impossible for him to devote himself to the literary work in which he recognised his service to men. his daily walks had become his sole recreation and solace, and now she began to hinder him from going where he wished to go, and from taking with him those whom he wanted to take. she insisted that he should completely give up seeing those of his most intimate friends whose supposed influence on him she feared.[18] even inside the house she subjected all his actions and conversations to a control which was never relaxed, not disdaining even the most indelicate methods, as, for instance, eavesdropping, with her shoes off at doors, and altogether watching day and night over every action he took. as has already been mentioned, she was demanding from him such an authorisation for the disposal of his works as would give her the power to take legal proceedings in connection with them, and to retain the copyright over a prolonged period in the future. apprehensive of what he might write in his diary, she tried to prevent his giving the manuscript books of his diary to anyone whatever, even to those whom he charged with work of one sort or another in connection with them, or in whose keeping he desired them to be preserved for the sake of greater security. she secretly stole from his pockets those very private diaries which he kept and carried about with him during the most painful periods of his life and scrupulously preserved from every human eye. not only did she fail to conceal from him and others her distrust and--terrible to say--hatred for him, but openly in the hearing of all gave utterance to these feelings and often expressed them to him in so harsh a form that it brought on heart attacks and even fainting fits in him. she was jealous, or pretended to be jealous, of some of his most intimate friends, bound to him by the closest spiritual unity. in this connection also she openly expressed to those about her, and to outsiders and to leo nikolaevitch himself, such incredibly revolting suspicions as the tongue cannot bring itself to repeat, thereby reducing leo nikolaevitch almost to complete collapse and driving him to lock all the doors of his room. and with all this she did everything she could to prevent his going away from yasnaya polyana, even for the briefest visits which might have enabled him to have at least some rest from the atmosphere of his home, and to gain fresh strength to endure further tortures. all these requests and others similar to them sofya andreyevna did not merely put in words before leo nikolaevitch, but if he refused, tried by her whole behaviour to force him against his will to submit to her.[19] for this purpose she resorted to simulated fits of hysteria and madness, threatened to commit suicide, pretended that she would swallow or had swallowed poison, ran half dressed out of doors in the rain or snow or at night, making them search for her all over the park, and running in to him at any time of the day or the night, even when, utterly exhausted, he had dropped asleep, and waking him up with the object of worrying the concessions she wanted out of him. there is no recounting all the unutterably cruel means to which she unhesitatingly resorted for the sake of forcibly compelling him. and when the members of her family told her that she would kill him by such conduct, she answered coldly that his soul had long been dead for her and that she did not care for his body; and if she were asked what she would do and how she would feel if he really did die of her treatment, she would say, "i shall go at last to italy; i have never been there." leo nikolaevitch for his part, so long as he thought it right to remain with his wife, tried with strikingly touching meekness to gratify all her wishes and to comply with all her demands which did not run counter to his conscience. when he considered them unreasonable, at first he refused, but as she obstinately insisted and resorted to her usual methods, in the end he often gave way in those cases also; at one time regarding her as quite insane, and being apprehensive that in a moment of frenzy she really might do herself some mischief. he was only unhesitating in his resistance when his conscience told him that he ought not to give way. thus, in spite of all sofya andreyevna's importunities and strategy, he made his will and did not change it to the end; he did not give her the authority to take legal proceedings; he did not hand over his diaries to her, but put them in a place of safety (in the bank at tula). but since what was most necessary for her object was just that in which he found it impossible to give way to her, it was precisely with these demands that she persecuted him most. and so all his concessions, instead of pacifying her, only encouraged her in more persistent importunities and still more cruel means of oppression. footnotes [18] the members of tolstoy's household who were most intimate with him--alexandra lvovna tolstoy, d. p. makovitsky and varvara mihailovna feokritova--were convinced that sofya andreyevna's hatred of me was a sham. this is proved, for instance, by the following extract from makovitsky's diary: "while i was riding with leo nikolaevitch to-day, i was thinking of sofya andreyevna's behaviour since june 24, and i came to the conclusion that in reality she is not, and never has been, jealous of tchertkoff. she pretended to be jealous simply in order to separate him from leo nikolaevitch, and prevent him from influencing leo nikolaevitch; she thought it was due to tchertkoff's influence that leo nikolaevitch wanted to give away his works to the public.... "and how well she played the part and deceived l. n., tchertkoff, tatyana lvovna, and me (we were all convinced that she was jealous of tchertkoff). i spoke of this to-day, and varvara mihailovna and alexandra lvovna answered that they had noticed the same thing long ago (that is, that there was no jealousy), and had put it down in their diaries" (october 13, 1910). [19] d. p. makovitsky records the following incident: "the day before yesterday she made a scene again: fell at leo nikolaevitch's feet and begged him to give her the keys of the safe in the bank where his diaries or the will were kept. leo nikolaevitch said that he could not do it and went out. as he passed under her windows sofya andreyevna leaned out and cried, 'i have taken opium.' leo nikolaevitch rushed upstairs to her, but she met him with the words, 'that was not true, i did not take any.' this scene upset leo nikolaevitch very much, and he said to sofya andreyevna, 'you are doing all you can to make me leave home.' after this he had palpitations and almost fainted. he had attempted to run up the stairs, and during those moments of terror and agitation was living through his wife's death" (july 19, 1910) chapter vi mental agony it will be readily understood that no health could hold out against such torments lasting over several months at a stretch, no less severe, it may be said, than the tortures of the inquisition, and exceeding them in their uninterrupted persistence and prolongation. and indeed, returning to yasnaya in a vigorous and excellent state of health, leo nikolaevitch began visibly fading away before her eyes in the nightmare period of the last months of his life: in the course of a few weeks he looked so old and drawn, so weak and thin, so pale and in every respect so physically run down as to be unrecognisable. in the course of those months he had several attacks of faintness. by the day of his departure he looked only the shadow of himself: his heart, his nerves, all his forces were utterly undermined, and of course, under such conditions, the slightest ailment was sure to carry him off, as happened indeed with the first cold he chanced to catch immediately after he went away. all sofya andreyevna's conduct during those last months of their life together revealed to leo nikolaevitch much in her that he had never noticed before. he was not only led to doubt of his cherished dream of softening her heart by his all-forgiving love; he began even to feel uncertain whether he were doing her harm or good by being near her, and whether the doctors were not right who in her interests advised them to live apart.[20] and in the end he became convinced that his presence really was a direct incitement to evil for her, calling out and accentuating all the worst sides of her character. speaking of his departure with that same novikov a week before it took place, leo nikolaevitch said: "for my own sake i have not done this and could not do it, but now i see that it would be better for my family, there would be less dispute among them on my account, less sin." another reason that had previously restrained him from going away lay in the fact that he considered that the ordeal to which he was continually exposed in his wife's company was profitable for his own soul, and found in it a spiritual satisfaction. but in the end sofya andreyevna, as she herself expressed it after his death, "overdid it" in her behaviour with him, putting him in such a position that instead of satisfaction he began to experience the sense of awkwardness and shame which one feels in taking part in something unbecoming, unseemly. two days before he went away he wrote to me: "i feel something _unbefitting, something shameful_ in my position." and in the letter to alexandra lvovna the day after he went away he says: "i do not feel _that shame, that awkwardness_, that lack of freedom which i always used to feel at home." in his last letter to sofya andreyevna from shamardino he states even more definitely that to return to her when she is in such a state of mind would be equivalent to committing suicide, and he did not consider that he had a right to do that. so by now he no longer believed that staying with sofya andreyevna was profitable for his own soul, and recognised it as undesirable. in the course of the later years his hesitation had increased with every day, and at times he seemed to be on the very point of flight.[21] he only stayed through not feeling as yet that irresistible impulse which, as he so well recognised, was _essential_ in order that he might take this momentous step, not through rational considerations alone, but with all his soul, confidently and inevitably. and so long as this impulse was lacking and he was more or less weighing the _pros_ and _cons_ of his departure, the consideration that for him personally to go away would be a relief, and that there would be more self-sacrifice in remaining, retained its force. thus i have been told that two days before his departure, when he informed his old friend, the old lady marya alexandrovna schmidt (who, by the way, later on fully understood and approved his departure), that he thought of leaving yasnaya polyana, and she thereupon exclaimed: "leo nikolaevitch darling, it will pass, it is a moment's weakness," he hastened to reply: "yes, yes, i know that it is a weakness and i hope that it will pass." so that in spite of the fact that leo nikolaevitch had now become aware of a new phase in sofya andreyevna's relations to him, which in reality removed any reasonable purpose in his remaining at her side, and justified his departure, since his presence was becoming bad for her and unprofitable for him, nevertheless he still lingered on, dreading to act prematurely, and as it were waiting for the last decisive shock. and this shock was not long in coming with startling abruptness. footnotes [20] at the advice of all his friends and members of his household leo nikolaevitch went in september to stay with his daughter tatyana lvovna suhotin (at kotchety) in order to have a rest from family scenes. but sofya andreyevna would not leave him in peace even there. this is what we read in makovitsky's diary: "this is the third day that sofya andreyevna is perfectly frantic. leo nikolaevitch sent me to her several times during the day; in the morning she was in her room; she complained of headache and said that she had taken no food for two days; in the afternoon she ran off into the garden. "sofya andreyevna spent the whole day by herself in the park. leo nikolaevitch sent me to find her. "'oh, dushan petrovitch!' he said to me, 'it's worse than ever; everything is going to the worst. sofya andreyevna insists that i should go away with her. but i simply cannot do it, for her demands go _crescendo_ and _crescendo_. i don't know what to do!'" (september 11, 1910, kotchety.) [21] thus in d. p. makovitsky's diary we read: "leo nikolaevitch spoke to alexandra lvovna of how heavy their family atmosphere was, and said that if it had not been for her he would have gone away. he is on the alert. yesterday morning he asked me what were the morning trains to the south. he had said to marya alexandrovna, and before that to us, that he has not been able to work for the last four months and that sofya andreyevna keeps running in to him, and always suspecting that some secrets are being concealed from her, written documents and conversations" (october 26, 1910). chapter vii the night of tolstoy's going away it happened very simply. on the night of the 27th october, at a time when it was supposed that leo nikolaevitch was asleep, as he lay in bed he heard and saw through a crack in his door sofya andreyevna steal softly into his study and search among the papers on his writing-table. then as she was going away, noticing the light in his room, she went in and began with an anxious face inquiring how he was. this cold hypocrisy on her part apparently destroyed the last illusion of leo nikolaevitch. only a few days before he had been touched by the solicitude with which sofya andreyevna, coming into his bedroom in the same way at night, had climbed on to a chair and had set right the movable frame which had been insecurely fastened. now he remembered that he had heard a rustle the night before too, and the real value of sofya andreyevna's care of him was suddenly revealed to him. chance had unmasked the awful, systematic comedy which was being played from day to day around him, and in which he had unconsciously to play the central part. in his diary he describes what he endured that night as follows:-"i went to bed at half-past eleven, slept till three o'clock. woke again. as on previous nights, the opening of doors and footsteps. on the previous nights i did not look towards my door; this time i glanced towards it and saw through the crack a bright light in the study and heard rustling. it was sofya andreyevna looking for something, probably reading something. on the evening before she begged and insisted that i should not lock the doors. both her doors were opened so that she could hear my slightest movement. both by day and by night all my movements and my words must be known to her and be under her control. again footsteps, a cautious opening of the door and she goes out. i don't know why that aroused in me an irrepressible repulsion and indignation. i tried to go to sleep. i could not; i turned from side to side for about an hour, lighted a candle and sat up. the door opens and sofya andreyevna walks in, asking after my health and wondering at the light which she has seen in my room. repulsion and indignation grow. i am breathless; i count my pulse seventy-seven. i cannot lie still, and suddenly take a final resolution to go away. i write her a letter; i begin packing what is most necessary, only to get away. i wake dushan, then sasha; they help me to pack." as alexandra lvovna described, she and her companion varvara mihailovna (the amanuensis) were awake that night. she kept fancying that someone was walking about and talking overhead. she was afraid that discussions were taking place between her father and mother. they fell asleep towards morning, but soon heard a knock at the door. alexandra lvovna went to the door and opened it. "who is it?" she asked. "it is i, leo nikolaevitch.... i am going away at once ... for good.... come and help me pack." alexandra lvovna said afterwards that she would never forget his figure in the doorway, in a blouse, with a candle in his hand and a bright face resolute and beautiful. in haste to get away, leo nikolaevitch dreaded one thing only: that sofya andreyevna might come upon him before he succeeded in getting off, and the calm realisation of his unalterable decision might thereby be troubled. "i tremble at the thought that she will hear, will come out--a scene, hysterics, and no getting away in the future without a scene. by six o'clock everything has been packed after a fashion. i go to the stable to order the horses; sasha and varya finish the packing.... it is night, pitch dark. i get off the path to the lodge, fall into the bushes, get scratched, knock against trees, fall down, lose my cap, cannot find it; with difficulty make my way out, go home, take a cap, and with a lantern make my way to the stable and order the horses to be harnessed. sasha, dushan, varya come. i tremble, expecting pursuit. but at last we get off. at shtchekino we wait an hour, and every minute i expect her to appear. but at last we are in the railway carriage and set off. alarm passes, and pity for her rises, but no doubt as to whether i have done what i ought. perhaps i am mistaken in justifying myself but it seems to me that i have saved myself not as leo nikolaevitch, but have saved what at times at least to some small degree there is in me." chapter viii tolstoy's relation to his wife after his departure leo nikolaevitch never for a minute repented what he had done, and never considered the idea of his return to sofya andreyevna. when his daughter alexandra lvovna several days afterwards asked him whether he could regret his action, he answered: "of course not. can a man regret something when he _could not_ act differently?" and why he could not act differently he told her openly in his letter of the 29th october: "for me, with this spying, eavesdropping, everlasting reproaches, disposing of me according to caprice, everlasting control, pretence of hatred for the man who is nearest and most necessary to me, with this obvious hatred for me and affectation of love ... such a life is not merely unpleasant for me, but utterly impossible. if anyone is to drown oneself it is not she but i.... i desire one thing only, freedom from her, from the falsity, hypocrisy and malice with which her whole being is saturated.... all her behaviour to me not only shows a lack of love, but seems to have been unmistakably aimed at killing me...." these words broke from leo nikolaevitch like the irrepressible shriek from the tortured soul of a man who had for long years been accustomed to hide in himself the deepest and most poignant of his sufferings. and therefore after giving vent for once to his need to speak out to his favourite daughter, he at once hastens to comment: "you see, dear, how bad i am. i do not conceal myself from you."[22] this letter is important for us, leo nikolaevitch's friends, because it raises a little corner of the curtain with which for the last ten years of his life he scrupulously covered from the eye of man the inner tortures he experienced. were it not for this "human document" it might have been supposed that, having attained the marvellous height of spiritual illumination which distinguished the latter period of his life, leo nikolaevitch was thereby saved from the possibility of feeling insult and experiencing spiritual pain. now we know that if in his diary, in his correspondence and in conversation with his friends he abstained for the most part from any complaints of the bitterness of his position, preferring to note his own mistakes and weaknesses, he did this not because he was at that time free from the common human characteristic of feeling pain inflicted upon him. we now see that to the very end of his days he had not ceased to be for us ordinary people a comrade capable of feeling the same mortifications and sufferings as we. for that reason we ought to be grateful to fate which for one instant revealed before us in that letter the deep spiritual wound which leo nikolaevitch bore away with him when he left his wife. but at the same time it would be quite a mistake to suppose that though he left sofya andreyevna he retained any evil feeling towards her and was not capable of forgiving her. on the contrary, almost at the same time as the letter to his daughter which we have quoted, he wrote his wife a touching, warm-hearted letter which leaves not the slightest doubt of his real love for her. and on the following day he wrote to his two elder children: "please try and soothe your mother, for whom i have the most sincere feeling of compassion and love." and he not only pitied sofya andreyevna, but had so much real love for her that he could with a pure heart forgive her, and himself beg her forgiveness. altogether the last letters of leo nikolaevitch to his wife, which have, by the way, been published by her,[23] strikingly reveal some characteristic peculiarities in his relations with her during the latest period of their life together. the most conspicuous peculiarity is that in spite of the very painful crises leo nikolaevitch had passed through in his family relations, the habitual and extremely delicate consideration in his behaviour to sofya andreyevna never left him for one minute. consequently when telling her the causes of his departure, he does not without necessity touch upon those of his impulses which were disagreeable to her. avoiding them as far as possible, he accentuates those of his motives which had a general character and did not wound her vanity. he only alludes to the points in which she had been to blame towards him when it is quite unavoidable, and touches on those questions as gently and carefully as possible. i will quote those of his letters which directly concern his departure, beginning with one written thirteen years before he actually went away, at a time when he was intending to leave his family but did not do so. he directed that this letter should be given to his wife after his death, which was done. i "_june 8, 1897._ "dear sonya, "for a long time past i have been worried by the inconsistency of my life with my convictions. to make you change your life, your habits in which i have trained you, i could not; go away from you hitherto i could not either, thinking that i should deprive the children while they were small of at least that little influence i might have on them, and should be grieving you; nor can i any longer continue to live as i have lived these sixteen years, at one time struggling and irritating you, at another myself, succumbing to the temptations to which i am accustomed, and by which i am surrounded; and i have determined now to do what i have long wanted to do--go away: in the first place, because for me with my advancing years this life becomes more and more oppressive, and i long more and more for solitude; and secondly, because my children are grown up, my influence is not now needed in the house, and all of you have interests more vital to you which will make you feel my absence less. "the chief thing is that just as the hindus when close on sixty go away into the forest, as every religious old man longs to devote the last years of his life to god, and not to jests, to puns, to gossip and to tennis, so i, entering on my seventieth year, long with my whole soul for peace, for solitude, and if not for complete harmony, at least not the glaring discord between one's life and one's convictions, one's conscience. "if i were to do this openly there would be entreaties, upbraidings, arguments, complaints; i should lose courage, perhaps, and not carry out my decision although it ought to be carried out. and therefore please forgive if my action hurts you, and in thy soul do thou, sonya, especially, let me go with a good will; do not look for me, don't lament over me, or complain against me; do not blame me. "that i have gone away from you does not show that i was displeased with you. i know that you literally could not see and feel as i do, and therefore could not and cannot change your life and make sacrifices for what you do not recognise. and therefore i do not blame you, but, on the contrary, with love and gratitude remember the thirty-five long years of our life, especially the first half of the time, when with a motherly self-sacrifice, which is part of your nature, you so vigorously and firmly bore that which you considered your vocation. you have given me and the world what you could give--you have given a great deal of motherly love and self-sacrifice, and one cannot but value you for it. but in the later period of our life--the last fifteen years--we have grown apart. i cannot think that i am to blame, because i know that i have changed neither for my own sake nor for other people's, but because i could do nothing else. i cannot blame you either for not following me, but i thank you and think of you, and always shall think of you, with love for what you have given me. "farewell, dear sonya, "your loving "leo tolstoy." (cf. _letters to his wife_, p. 524.) ii "_yasnaya polyana._ "_october 28, 1910._ "my going away will grieve you. i am sorry for it, but do understand and believe that i cannot act differently. my position in the house is becoming, has become, unbearable. apart from everything else, i cannot any longer live in the conditions of luxury in which i have been living, and i am doing what old men of my age commonly do--they retire from worldly life to spend their last days in solitude and quiet. please understand this and do not come after me if you find out where i am. your coming in that way would only make your and my position worse and would not alter my decision. "i thank you for these forty-eight years of faithful life with me, and beg you to forgive me for anything in which i have been to blame towards you, even as i with all my soul forgive you for anything in which you may have been to blame towards me. i advise you to resign yourself to the new position in which my departure places you, and not to have any ill-feeling against me. "if you want to communicate with me, give everything to sasha. she will know where i am and will forward anything that is necessary; she cannot tell you where i am, because i have made her promise not to tell anyone." (_letters to his wife_, p. 590.) iii "_shamordino._ "_october 31, 1910._ "a meeting between us and still more my return is now utterly impossible. for you it would be, as everyone declares, highly injurious, and for me it would be awful, since now, in consequence of your excitement, irritation and morbid condition, my position would, if that is possible, be worse than ever. i advise you to resign yourself to what has happened, to settle down in your new position, and above all to attend to your health. to say nothing of loving, if you don't absolutely hate me you ought to enter a little into my position. and if you do that you not only will not blame me, but will try to help me to find peace and the possibility of some sort of human life, to help me by controlling yourself, and you will not wish me to come back now. your mood as at present, your desire to commit suicide and efforts to do so, show more than anything your loss of self-control, and make my return unthinkable at present. no one but yourself can save all who are near you, me and above all yourself, from sufferings such as we have endured in the past.[24] "try to direct all your energies not to bringing about what you desire--at present my return--but to bringing peace to your soul, and you will get what you desire. "i have spent two days at shamordino and optina pustyn, and am going away. i will post this letter on the way. i do not say where i am going, because i consider separation essential both for you and for me. do not think that i am going away because i do not love you: i love and pity you with all my soul, but i cannot do otherwise than i am doing. "your letter i know was written sincerely, but you are not capable of doing what you would wish to. and what matters is not the fulfilment of any of my desires or demands, but only your balance, your calm, reasonable attitude to life. and while that is lacking my life with you is not thinkable. to return to you while you are in such a state would be equivalent to committing suicide. and i do not consider that i have a right to do that. farewell, dear sonya. god help you. life is no jesting matter, and we have no right to throw it away at our own will, and it is unreasonable, too, to measure it by length of time. perhaps those months which we have left to live are more important than all the years lived before, and we must live them well." * * * * and from the touching interest which leo nikolaevitch displayed after he went away in everything relating to sofya andreyevna, questioning everyone about her with the greatest emotion and solicitude, it was perfectly clear that, though he recognised before his conscience that to live together with her any longer was impossible, yet in his soul he was fully reconciled with her. footnotes [22] i permit myself to quote this letter without asking alexandra lvovna's permission to do so, because it has already, without our previous knowledge, appeared in print in the historical journal, _facts and days_ (petrograd, 1920), and because it makes a less one-sided impression in connection with the other contents of the present book. [23] "letters of count l. n. tolstoy to his wife, 1862-1910" (kushnerev & co., 1915). [24] the words "sufferings such as we have endured in the past" have been left out of tolstoy's letters by sofya andreyevna without any indication of an omission. chapter ix the motives that decided his going away for us, the nearest friends of leo nikolaevitch, who watched step by step what was taking place at yasnaya polyana during the last days of his presence there, the reason why he could do nothing but go away was easy to understand. but the reader who is not so closely acquainted with all the circumstances may ask, why exactly did sofya andreyevna's behaviour on the last night have such an influence on leo nikolaevitch? what did she do then that was new and not to be expected from her previous behaviour? of course sofya andreyevna's behaviour on that night only gave the final impetus to leo nikolaevitch's going away. in reality the question of leaving home had already been decided in his soul, and, as it seems to me, he was, as it were, instinctively only awaiting the inevitable final impulse for carrying out his intention. and the key to the understanding of leo nikolaevitch's spiritual state at the time is hidden in the words with which he concluded the note in his diary concerning his departure: "i feel that i have saved myself, not as leo nikolaevitch, but have saved what at times at least to some small degree there is in me." these words are marvellous in their touching humility on the lips of a man whose soul was filled to overflowing and was the reflection of the highest principle, and at the same time remarkable from the light which they throw on the deeper motives of his departure. in these words one is conscious of the dread--under the conditions beginning to exist about him--of being deprived of the spiritual independence essential for the preservation of the inviolability of his "holy of holies"--the dread of being deprived of the possibility of resisting the ever-persisting attacks from outside--which might very naturally come to pass, considering leo nikolaevitch's extreme age and the gradual weakening of his physical powers. it must not be forgotten also that by this time he had become convinced of the complete uselessness, even undesirability, of his remaining longer with sofya andreyevna, and that therefore the various impulses to go away which he had before so scrupulously repressed in his soul were now set free. the painful consciousness of luxury and privilege in which his life was spent in the midst of the poverty around him, the yearning for peace and solitude before death, and many other causes began without hindrance to impel him in the same direction. thus the cup was already full and only the last drop was lacking. and just at this time suddenly the new element in his wife's behaviour which provided that last impulse to departure was revealed to leo nikolaevitch. what was new to him was the sudden revelation of the atmosphere of lying and hypocrisy in which he saw himself entangled. he unexpectedly became the involuntary witness of how sofya andreyevna, when she thought he was asleep, secretly stole up to his papers, and of how, as soon as she found out that he was not asleep, she began again at once as though nothing were the matter, expressing solicitude for his health. his eyes were at once opened and he saw what had long been well known to his intimate friends, but what the remnant of confidence in and respect for his wife which were still preserved in his soul, forbade him even to admit in his thoughts: that is, that _she was acting a farce with him_. together with this discovery everything was transformed for leo nikolaevitch, and indeed that was inevitable. it was of little moment that the incident which opened his eyes may seem in itself not to be of much importance. for married people who have lived together fifty years the first incident which reveals hypocrisy in one of them is always of importance. this incident at once threw quite a new light for leo nikolaevitch on all that had passed between him and sofya andreyevna. till that time he had supposed that he had to do with sincere egoism and ill-will, with open wilfulness and innate coarseness and with morbid abnormality. and meeting this with unvarying mildness, patience and love, he recognised that he was doing as he ought, and therefore felt an inner satisfaction. now all this was turned upside down. in the past the position had been clear; before him was a definite evil which laid on him as definite a duty to meet the evil with good. now he had to do with a sort of tangle in which there was so much falsity that it was impossible to make out where reality ended and deception began; so that instead of his former satisfaction leo nikolaevitch suddenly felt the ambiguous position in which he found himself. so at least i explain to myself the extreme emotion which leo nikolaevitch felt at his final decision to go away. it is true that even before this he knew of sofya andreyevna's insincere behaviour. a month before he went away he wrote of sofya andreyevna in this diary: "i cannot get accustomed to regarding her words as the ravings of delirium. all my trouble comes from that. it is impossible to talk to her, because she does not recognise the obligation of truth nor of logic, nor of her own words, nor of conscience. it is awful. i am not speaking now of love for me, of which there is no trace. she does not want my love for her either; all she wants is that people should think that i love her, and that is so awful." (_diary, september 10, 1910._) yet apparently leo nikolaevitch still had no idea of the degree of insincerity and deception of which sofya andreyevna was capable in her relations with him personally. but on that night he was involuntarily brought face to face with the manifestation of it, and he was the more revolted because he had hitherto so scrupulously striven in his soul to preserve some sort of trust in his wife. finally, convinced that he was incapable of changing the spiritual condition of sofya andreyevna, he saw now that his presence at her side could only serve as a cause of offence for her, exciting the worst side of her nature. and so the former obstacles to his departure were removed from him, and his soul demanded release from the unbefitting position in which he found himself. it is easy to understand that under such conditions the first serious occasion was sufficient to impel him to carry out his long-cherished intention, and he went away.[25] footnote [25] i have heard--it is true, from very few persons, and those chiefly belonging to leo nikolaevitch's family--regret expressed that he did not die peaceably at yasnaya polyana in the midst of his family. the picture imagined by these people of the death-bed of leo nikolaevitch in the home of his ancestors, surrounded by all his family, and giving his blessing to his grief-stricken wife, may perhaps be very touching. but such a scene would in reality be impossible, since sofya andreyevna was in such a condition of mind that, apart from a simulated exaggeration of feeling and the basest preoccupation with the material heritage, nothing more would have happened than on previous occasions when leo nikolaevitch was taken with the attacks and fainting fits to which he was liable, and it would have been painful for him. we ought, on the contrary, to rejoice that circumstances gave leo nikolaevitch the chance of spending the last days of his life and the last hours of his consciousness in a quiet, genuine atmosphere, among intimate friends who truly loved and understood him, and who strenuously watched over his spiritual peace and did not pester him in those last minutes with any worldly cares or material considerations. in this i cannot but see an immense happiness and blessing for leo nikolaevitch. some people lay stress on the spiritual pain which sofya andreyevna must have experienced when she learned that leo nikolaevitch had left her. there is no doubt that this pain must have been very severe, particularly at first. but one must not blame others for the sufferings which are the work of the sufferer himself. if my own negligence is the cause of a man slipping off the roof and falling on my head i cannot blame him for the bruises he has caused me by his fall. it is as unjust to blame leo nikolaevitch for the suffering caused to sofya andreyevna by his departure, which was provoked by herself. moreover, sufferings which are the result of our own mistakes are often beneficial. so in this instance, if sofya andreyevna, toward the end of the life of leo nikolaevitch, ever displayed the faintest gleams of consciousness of the great wrong she had done him, it was only at the time of her heaviest suffering on account of his leaving her. and therefore one may regret the causes which called forth leo nikolaevitch's departure, but not that the emotional shock given sofya andreyevna by it opened her eyes, if only for a few instants, to the true significance of her behaviour to her husband. if it should seem strange to anyone that leo nikolaevitch, even after he had left home, so dreaded an interview with sofya andreyevna, that is only because the mental condition in which, as leo nikolaevitch well knew, she was at that time is too little known. when he left yasnaya polyana leo nikolaevitch firmly and unhesitatingly decided to cut himself off from his family, and therefore while he was still hoping to live independently, he naturally avoided interviews with sofya andreyevna, who would with all her energies, and without scruple as to the means employed, have hindered his realising his plan. when he was laid up at astapavo and foresaw the possibility of death being at hand, it was just as natural that he should have felt the need of that spiritual tranquillity to which every dying man has a right. and that sofya andreyevna's condition at that time really was such that she could have brought nothing to his death-bed but deception, vanity, material importunities, fuss and noise, that is well known by all who have had the opportunity of watching at close quarters her behaviour not only in all leo nikolaevitch's serious illnesses in later years and during the last months of his life at yasnaya polyana, but also during the first days after he had gone away, and during her stay in his neighbourhood at astapovo, and by his bedside during the last unconscious moments, and during the first hours after his death. anyone who saw sofya andreyevna under all these conditions cannot but acknowledge that leo nikolaevitch showed great foresight in so persistently avoiding interviews with her while she was in that condition. a personal interview between them at that time could not only add nothing to what he had told her in his last letters, which were permeated with forgiveness, pity and love, but, judging from the mental condition in which sofya andreyevna still was, it could only have evoked in her a renewal too painful for him of the same insincerity, hypocrisy and importunities which had provoked his departure. chapter x the significance of tolstoy's going away and of the whole spiritual achievement of his life in an indirect way leo nikolaevitch's going away performed a great service in a social sense by manifesting clearly that his living beforehand for so long with his family was not due to the comforts of a rich man's life, nor to his weakness and lack of will where his wife was concerned. if circumstances had so fallen out that he had not left his family up to the day of his death, the value of the great example of his life would not, of course, have been one jot less in reality. but it would have been hard for many to believe that there was not a considerable share of egoism or weakness of character in his living with his wife in the surroundings in which his family lived. his departure from it revealed openly to contemporary and future generations that his life in yasnaya polyana really was surrounded by the most painful conditions. this event at once threw the true light on all that he must have suffered before that in his home surroundings, which many had been disposed to regard as peaceful and agreeable for him. now it had become evident to all that leo nikolaevitch had remained with his family at yasnaya polyana for nearly thirty years after the whole manner of life had become distasteful and oppressive in the extreme for him,--and that he remained not at all because he wanted to enjoy the comfort of a wealthy landowner's life, nor because he was weak and wanting in will where his wife was concerned. now it is easy to understand that during the whole of that time he was consciously sacrificing his preferences and inclinations for the sake of doing what he regarded as his duty to god and his family. and such an example of self-sacrifice and consistency on the part of such a man as tolstoy doubtless has a conspicuous social value. many of the most various opinions have been expressed as to whether tolstoy was right in leaving his family. to the friends of leo nikolaevitch who respected his soul and recognise the freedom of conscience and independence of human personality in all, the question in regard to leo nikolaevitch's going away is not whether he was right or wrong in taking that step. a man is really answerable not to the conscience of another, but only to his own. it is enough for us that it was not with a light heart that leo nikolaevitch came to his final decision to leave his wife. once more i repeat that since he restrained himself for thirty years from going away, during the whole of that period patiently bearing the most poignant spiritual sufferings which often brought him to the verge of the grave,--and in the end he did die indeed from not having gone away sooner,--then surely we might do homage to the undoubted purity of his motives, and recognise that he had the right to decide the question in the end not in accordance with our views, but in accordance with his own judgment. i at least for my part--carefully calling up before my imagination all that i heard with my own ears from leo nikolaevitch himself, and what i saw with my own eyes, amplifying this with what he wrote in his diary and said in various writings and intimate letters, and finally collating all this with contemporary communications, diaries and notes of most intimate friends who were, just as i was, witnesses of the great drama of the last months of his life--i do not see the possibility even from the most critical standpoint of seeing the slightest inconsistency in the fact that leo nikolaevitch remained so long with his wife and then thought it necessary to leave her. in this as in all else one can follow the inevitable, fully consistent and independent reaction of his inner life to external circumstances as they gradually opened out before him and suddenly took definite shape towards the end. in all leo nikolaevitch's impulses and actions after the religious revolution which took place in him in the 'eighties, the same fundamental and guiding principle is all the time conspicuous; that is, the perpetual effort which persisted to the day of his death, to do not his own will nor the will of those surrounding him, but the will of god as he interpreted it according to his best understanding. what more can we expect of a man? if some or other of leo nikolaevitch's actions during the last months of his life were not to the taste of some of his family, such, for instance, as his depriving them of the inheritance of his literary rights, his making a will without their knowledge and participation, his leaving his manuscripts and diaries to other people, and lastly his departing from amongst them; and if the material loss or their wounded vanity leads them mistakenly to ascribe all this to the supposed mental enfeeblement, the weakness of old age, and the fatal influence on him of the circle of his "followers," at least there is no necessity for people who are in no way personally affected to follow the example of those of leo nikolaevitch's family who consider themselves injured and repeat their unfair charges, which come in reality to this, that leo nikolaevitch at the end of his life was in his dotage and did a whole series of bad and stupid things. some of leo nikolaevitch's family wrongly imagined that since he had remained with his family so long he had lost all freedom of choice, and ought not to have moved from the spot until his death, like a thing laid on a shelf which cannot move of its own initiative. leo nikolaevitch was not only a living man, but a man of exceptionally strong and active inner life, which was continually growing and developing and spurring him on to new external manifestations which were often a surprise to those who watched him. on all the important occasions of his life he always acted without following any programme imposed on him from outside, or being affected by any personal influence; he was independently guided only by the prompting of his inner consciousness and entirely free from pose or any striving after effect. but at the same time he never drew back before the most extreme decisions when it was a question of obeying the dictates of his conscience. and so he had continually to do what was not foreseen or understood by others, and often not approved even by the majority of those about him. at one time people were enthusiastic over tolstoy's creative genius, and thought that he would do nothing all his life but write novels for them. he brooded over the meaning of life, devoted himself to the service of god, and began to point out to men how godlessly they lived. then they, struck by his inspired indictment of social life, expected that he would abandon his family and go about the world preaching like a prophet. but, manifesting love first of all to those nearest to him, and despising the censure of men, he remained almost thirty years with his wife and children under conditions most distressing for himself, hoping to be at least some little help in bringing them to a reasonable life. people became accustomed to the thought that old tolstoy, physically weakened and professing the doctrine of non-resistance, would end his life at yasnaya polyana. but becoming convinced that being by his wife's side had in the end only become a stumbling-block to her and a restriction on his own spiritual life, to the surprise of all he left yasnaya polyana, at eighty-two, with shattered health, in order to live amidst poor surroundings, near to the working people so dear to his heart. with tolstoy everything was original and unexpected. the setting of his end was bound to be the same. under the circumstances in which he was placed, and with the marvellously delicate sensitiveness and responsiveness to impressions which distinguished his exceptional nature, nothing else could or should have happened than just what did happen. there happened just what was in harmony with the external circumstances and the inner spiritual characteristics of leo nikolaevitch tolstoy and no other. any other solution of his domestic relations, any other surroundings of his death, even though in harmony with a certain traditional pattern, would have been false and artificial. leo nikolaevitch went away and died without affected sentimentality and emotional phrases, without loud words and eloquent gestures; he went away and died as he had lived, truthfully, sincerely and simply; and a better, truthful, more befitting end to his life could not be imagined, for just that end was the natural and inevitable one. as time erases all the personal element which has hitherto played so great a part in the criticisms of leo nikolaevitch, all the purity of his impulses and deep wisdom of his decisions in the most complicated and difficult circumstances which could fall to the lot of man will stand out before the eyes of men in all their force. and then his life, especially its second period, from his spiritual awakening to his death, will serve as a bright and an increasing example of how we ought and can, guided by the voice of god in our souls, combine in our actions the greatest warmth of heart and gentleness toward those who injure us with an unalterable firmness where fidelity to that higher principle which one serves is concerned. _telyatniki, may 15th, 1913._ _moscow, 1920._ part iii tolstoy's attitude to his sufferings i think that to complete what has been said here about tolstoy's "going away" it would be desirable to look rather more attentively at the growth of leo nikolaevitch's inner consciousness in the course of the last decades of his life, and at that side of the development of his spiritual life which is connected with his attitude to suffering, in particular to his own sufferings arising from the conditions of his family life which have been examined in the present book. let us listen first of all to leo nikolaevitch's own words in regard to the thoughts and feelings he had to pass through in this connection. for this purpose we make use of his diary and private letters. much precious material on this subject is contained in his diary for 1884, which he personally handed to me to take care of immediately after it was finished, and from which i will make the following extracts. this diary was kept by leo nikolaevitch just at that time when the great drama of his family life, which in the end brought him to the tomb, was taking shape. i venture to give publicity to the lines quoted below, written by leo nikolaevitch in the most difficult moments of his life, solely for the sake of removing those misunderstandings and false deductions which, as i have indicated before, have accumulated in such numbers since his death around the question of his "going away." i hope that the reader will understand my motives and will approach these private notes of leo nikolaevitch with the same feeling of reverence with which i reproduce them here. from the diary of l. n. tolstoy of 1884. _april 16._--it is very painful at home, painful that i cannot sympathise with them. all their joys, examinations, successes in society, music, furniture, shopping, i look upon all of it as a misfortune and evil for them and cannot say that to them. i can and i do say it, but my words do not take hold of anyone. it seems as though they know not the meaning of my words, but that i have a bad habit of saying them. at weak moments--this is one now--i wonder at their heartlessness. how is it they do not see that, not to speak of suffering, i have had no life at all for these three years? i am given the part of a peevish old man and i cannot get out of it in their eyes. if i take part in their life i am false to the truth, and they will be the first to throw that in my face. if i look mournfully now upon their madness, i am a peevish old man like all old men. _april 23._--shameful, disgusting. terrible depression. i am all filled with weakness. i must as in a dream be on my guard so as not to spoil in the dream that which is needed for real life. i am drawn and drawn into the mire, and useless are my shudders. if only i am not drawn in without a protest! there has been no spite, little vanity, or none at all, but of weakness, mortal weakness, these days are full. longing for real death. there is no despair. but i would like to live and not to be on guard on one's life. _april 24._--the same weakness and the same victorious mire sucking one in, drawing one down. _april 26._--must be happy in an unhappy life, must ... make this the object of my life. and i can do it when i am strong in the spirit. _may 15._--i am miserable. i am an insignificant, useless creature, and am absorbed in myself besides. the one good thing is that i want to die. _may 16._--o lord, save me from the hateful life which is crushing and destroying me. the one good thing is, i long to die. better to die than live like this. _may 17._--i dreamed that my wife loved me. how light my heart was, everything grew bright. nothing like it in reality. and that is destroying my life.... at home still the same general death. only the little children are alive. a wearisome conversation at tea again. all one's life in terror. _may 26._--i am as in a dream ... when i know that a tiger is coming, and in a minute.... _june 1._--dullness, deadness of soul--that one could bear, but with it insolence, self-confidence ... one must know how to bear that too, if not with love, with pity. i am irritable, gloomy all day. i am bad.... how to live here, how to break through pouring sand. i will try. _june 2._--conversation at tea with my wife. angry again. tried to write, it wouldn't go.... how be a shining light when i am still full of weakness which i have not the strength to overcome? _june 4._--thought a great deal about my wife. i must love her and not be angry with her, must make her love me; so i will do. _june 6._--after dinner misery ... in the evening revived a little. could not be loving as i would. i am very bad. _june 7._--i am trying to be bright and happy, but it is very, very hard. everything i do is wrong, and i suffer horribly from this wrongness. it is as though i alone were not mad in the house of the mad managed by the mad. _june 9._--agonising struggle, and i do not control myself. i look for the reasons--tobacco, incontinence, absence of imaginative work. it is all nonsense. the only cause is the absence of a loved and loving wife. it began from that time fourteen years ago when the cord snapped and i realised my loneliness.[26] all that is not a reason. i must find a wife in her. i ought, and i can and i will: lord, help me. _june 10._--it is awful that the luxury, the corruption of life in which i live i have myself created, and i am myself corrupted and i cannot reform it. i can say that i shall reform myself, but so slowly. i cannot give up smoking, and i cannot find a way of treating my wife so as not to hurt her feelings and not to give in to her. i am seeking it, i am trying. _june 16._[27]--it was very painful, longed to go away at once. all that is weakness. not for men's sake but for god's. do as one knows best for oneself and not in order to prove something. but it is awfully painful. of course i am to blame if it hurts me. i struggle, i put out the rising fire, but i feel that it has violently bent the scales. and indeed what use am i to them, what use are all my sufferings? and however hard (though they are easy) the conditions of a vagrant's life, there can be nothing in it like this heartache! _june 23._--i am calmer, stronger in spirit. in the evening a cruel conversation about the samara revenues.[28] i am trying to act as though in the presence of god, and i cannot avoid anger. this must end. _july 6._--i was reading over the diary of those days when i was seeking the cause of temptation. all nonsense--it is the absence of hard physical labour.[29] i do not sufficiently prize the happiness of freedom from temptation after work. that happiness is cheaply bought at the price of fatigue and aching muscles. _july 5_ (isn't it the 8th?).--my wife is very serene and contented and does not see the gulf between us. i try to do what i ought, but what i ought i do not know. i must do as i ought every minute, and everything will turn out as it should. _july 19._--she came in to me and began a hysterical scene--the upshot of which is that nothing can be changed and she is unhappy and wants to run away somewhere. i was sorry for her, but at the same time i recognised that it was hopeless--to the day of my death she will be a millstone round my neck and my children's. i suppose it must be so. i must learn not to drown with a millstone round my neck. but the children? it seems it must be, and it only hurts me because i am short-sighted. i soothed her as though she were ill. _august 8._--i thought; we reproach god, we complain that we meet with obstacles in fulfilling the teaching of christ. well, but what if we were all free from families who disagree with us? we should come together and live happily and joyfully. but the others? the others would not know. we want to gather all the light together that it may burn better, but god has scattered the fire among the logs. they are being kindled while we fret that they are not burning. _august 12._--it is all right with my wife, but i am afraid and straining every nerve. _august 14._--peace and friendliness with my wife, but i am afraid every minute. _august 20._--an outburst against me at dinner.... the sense of peace and welfare had got hold of the family. every one depressed ... painful conversation in the house. sonya, feeling that she was to blame tried to justify herself by anger. i was sorry for her. _august 21._--in the morning began a conversation, hotly too but well. i said what ought to be said.... i came home. sonya was reconciled. how glad i was. certainly if she would take to being good she would be very good. _september 3._--something touches them somehow ... but i don't know how. _september 7._--went looking for mushrooms ... my wife did not follow me but went off by herself not knowing where, only not after me--that is all our life. _september 9._--it is pleasant being with my wife. told her unpleasant truths and she was not angry. _september 10._--sonya tidied my room and then shouted disgustingly at vlass. i am training myself to abstain from indignation and to see in it a moral bump which one must recognise as a fact and face its existence in one's action. _september 15._--went to look for mushrooms. miserable. _september 17._--talk in the morning. and sudden fury. then she came to me and nagged until i was beside myself. i said nothing and did nothing, but i was very unhappy. she ran away in hysterics, i ran after her, horribly worried. * * * * after this diary of 1884 no diaries so far as i know were left by leo nikolaevitch for several years. did he cease to keep his diary that he might not increase his spiritual sufferings by recording them on paper, preferring to continue his intense struggle with himself in complete solitude before no one but his god? did he keep a diary and afterwards himself destroy it, not wishing to reveal to anyone the sufferings to which he was subjected? were the missing diaries lost in some other way, if indeed they ever existed? to these questions there is no answer, and it is hardly likely there will be. by leo nikolaevitch's notes in his later diaries kept from the year 1888, one thing is placed beyond doubt, that is, that his spiritual sufferings and inward struggles in connection with his family relations continued the whole of the rest of his life. and in this struggle his higher consciousness became brighter and brighter, his spiritual force grew and gained strength. as the years passed he gained an amazing mastery of his personal desires and weaknesses. at times, as indeed was inevitable, he recognised with peculiar pain his complete loneliness in the midst of the people surrounding him. to what degree he felt himself a stranger in his own family, how completely he was deprived of that warm, genuine sympathy on the part of his wife which is the most precious thing in married life, can to some extent be judged by the notes in which, with irrepressible grief, he recalls his mother. his attitude to her memory, as is well known, was always the most reverent. in his _recollections of childhood_ he writes of her: "it was necessary for her to love not herself, and one love followed another. such is the spiritual figure of my mother in my imagination; she stood before me as such a lofty, pure, spiritual being that often in the middle period of my life, when i was struggling with temptations which almost overwhelmed me, i prayed to her soul, entreating her to help me, and this prayer was always a help to me." leo nikolaevitch sometimes invoked the holy image of his mother in his most difficult moments, even in his old age. in the beginning of 1900 he wrote on a scrap of paper, "dull, miserable state the whole day. towards evening this mood passed into tenderness--a desire for fondness, for love, longed as children do to press up to a loving, pitying creature and to weep with emotion and to be comforted. but what creature is there to whom i could come close like that? i go over all the people i have loved; not one is suitable to whom i can come close. if i could be little and snuggle up to my mother as i imagine her to myself! yes, yes, mother whom i called to when i could not speak, yes, she, my highest imagination of pure love,--not cold, divine love, but earthly, warm, motherly. it is to that that my battered, weary soul is drawn. you, mother, you caress me. all this is senseless, but it is all true." on apparently the next day, calmly analysing the attack of misery he had passed through the day before, he wrote in his diary: "yesterday particularly oppressed condition. everything unpleasant felt with peculiar vividness. so i say to myself, but in reality i seek what is unpleasant; i am receptive, absorbent to what is unpleasant. i could not get rid of this feeling anyhow. i have tried everything--prayer and the sense of my own badness--and nothing succeeds. prayer, that is, vividly picturing my position does not reach to the depths of my consciousness; the recognition of my worthlessness, paltriness does not help. it is not that one wants something, but is miserably dissatisfied one does not know with what. it seems it is with life, one longs to die. towards evening this condition passed into a feeling of forlornness and an overwhelming desire of fondling, of love; i, an old man, longed to be a baby, to snuggle up to a loving creature, to be petted, to complain and to be fondled and comforted. but who is the being to whom i could snuggle up and on whose arms i could weep and complain? there is no one living. then what is this? still the same devil of egoism which in such a new, cunning form is trying to deceive and overpower me. this last feeling has explained to me the state of misery which preceded it. it is only the weakening, the temporary disappearance of spiritual life and the assertion of the claims of egoism which on awakening finds no food for itself and is miserable. the only means to use against it is to serve someone in the simplest way that comes first, to work for someone."--(_diary, march 11, 1906._) the complete absence in leo nikolaevitch of the slightest sentimentality in regard to the spiritual sufferings which he had to endure was apparently connected with his lofty conception of christ and the deep reverence he felt for his heroic life. in 1885 leo nikolaevitch wrote: "christ conquered the world and saved it not by suffering for us, but by suffering with love and joy, _i.e._ by conquering suffering, and he taught us thereby." and indeed to the very last days and hours of his life leo nikolaevitch persistently and with striking success strove to train himself to "conquer suffering." in confirmation of my words i quote a series of further extracts from his diaries and letters. _june 15, 1889_ (from a diary).--"i am burdened by life, i forget that if one has vital forces they can be used for the service of god, and that there is no getting away, there is no emptiness, everywhere there is contact, and in contact there is life." _july 18, 1889_ (from the letters).--"what do i want? to live with god, according to his will, with him. what is wanted for that? one thing only is wanted: to preserve the talent given to me, my soul, given to me not only to preserve but to make it grow. how make it grow? i know for myself what is needed; to keep what is animal in me in purity, what is human in humility, and what is divine in love. what is wanted for preserving purity? privations, privations of every sort. humility? humiliation. love? the hostility of men. where and how am i to keep my purity without privations, my humility without humiliation, and my love without hostility? 'and if you love those that love you, that is not love, but love ye your enemies, love ye those that hate you.' one sorrow approaches humiliation and hostility, and these thoughts have revived me. another sorrow is privation, suffering--the very thing that is needed for the growth of the soul. that is how one must look at it." _july 18, 1889_ (from the letters).--all our sorrows have one root, and, strange as it sounds, they all not only can, but ought, to be a blessing.... god grant that we may believe in the possibility of it--that is one thing; and the other is that we may not return in thought to our sorrow, in our imagination changing the conditions in which our sorrow has occurred and correcting our actions. "if we had done this or that this would not have happened." god preserve us from this mistake, with its painful consequences. what has been is, and what is was bound to have been, and all our vital force ought to be directed to the present, to bearing our cross in the best way possible. _december, 1889_ (from the letters).--the cross is given according to the strength.... i believe that, and cannot but believe it, because i know by experience that the harder my sufferings have been, if only i have succeeded in taking them in a christian spirit ... the fuller, more vivid, more joyful and full of meaning life has become. it is so often insincerely repeated that sufferings are good for us and are sent by god, that we have ceased to believe it, and yet it is the simplest, clearest and most indubitable truth. suffering--what is called suffering--is the condition of spiritual growth. without suffering growth is impossible, the widening of life is impossible. for this reason sufferings also always accompany death. if a man had no suffering he would be in a bad way; that is why they say among the people that those whom god loves he visits by misfortunes. i understand that a man may be sad and apprehensive when misfortunes have not visited him for a long time. there is no movement, no growth of life. suffering is only suffering for the heathen, for the man who has not the light of the truth, and for us in the measure in which we have not the light; but sufferings cease to be such for the christian--they become birth-pangs, even as christ promised to deliver us from evil. and all this is not rhetoric, but is for me as undoubtedly in accordance with reason and experience as that it is now winter. 1892-3 (from the letters).--nothing, i imagine, sets a man free from dependence on others and brings him near, or rather may bring him near, to god so much as your position. one only leans upon him when men compel one to. god help you to bear your cross patiently, submissively, so as to get from it all the good which external suffering gives and can give. or it will be mortifying that there has been suffering, but struggling with it, indignant and despairing, you did not get from it all that it is capable of giving. _may 17, 1893_ (from the letters).--i am forced to live without personal, legitimate joys such as you have: labour, associations with animals, nature; without association (not poisoned by their corruption) with children; without the encouragement of public opinion. what has happened to me is not exactly that the praise of men has destroyed for me the attractiveness of their praise, but their praise has been tainted, has become poisoned. i cannot now desire the praise of men, fame among the crowd, because i have it and know how double-faced it is; if there are some who praise, there are others who revile; that praise of men which you have, the good opinion of estimable men for a good life, at least consistent with your convictions i cannot have. and on the top of all that this praise of men--the way they write abroad and the opinion is current, that i lead a modest, laborious life in poverty--that praise arraigns me every second as a liar, a scoundrel living in luxury, making money out of the sale of his books. if i think of the praise of men it is like a thief who is every minute afraid that he will be caught, so that i have not only to live without the stimulus of lawful joys, and not only without the praise of men, but even with the perpetual consciousness of the shamefulness of life; i have to live by that which i consider men can and ought to live by; that is, by the consciousness of fulfilling the will of him who sent us. and i see that i am still far from being ready for that, and am still only learning, and life is teaching me. and i ought to rejoice, and i do rejoice. _february 28, 1894_ (from the letters).--the longer i live and the nearer i am to death, the more certain to me is the injustice of our wealthy mode of life, and i cannot help suffering by it. _march 27, 1895_ (from a diary).--if there is suffering there has been and is egoism. love does not know suffering, because the loving life is the divine life which can do all. egoism is the limitation of personality. _december 20, 1896_ (from a diary).--everything just as painful. help me, o father. comfort me. be strong in me, subdue me, drive out and destroy the unclean flesh and all that i feel through it. it is better now though. particularly soothing is the problem--the trial of meekness, of humiliation, of quite unexpected humiliation. in fetters, in prison one may be proud of humiliation, but in this case it is merely painful, unless one takes it as a trial sent from god. yes, i will learn to bear it calmly, joyfully and to love. _january 18, 1897_ (from a diary).--depressing, disgusting. everything repels me in the life they are living around me. alternately i get free from misery and suffering and fall into it again. nothing shows so clearly how far i am from what i want to be. if my life really were spent wholly in the service of god nothing could trouble it. _april 4, 1907_ (from a diary).--i have not lost my calm though my soul is agitated, but i am mastering it. o god! if one could but remember that one is his messenger, that the divinity ought to shine through one! but what is hard is that if one only remembers this, one will not live, and yet one must live, live energetically and remember. help me o father. i have prayed a great deal of late that life might be better, for i am ashamed and cast down by the consciousness of the unrighteousness of my life. _july 12, 1897_ (from the letters).--i understand your trouble and sympathise with all my heart. it is your examination, try not to fail in it. remember that it is the one chance of applying your faith to life. i always strengthen myself with that in difficult moments, and sometimes with success. 1897 (from the letters).--the doubts as to whether one makes concessions for the sake of not destroying love or for the sake of indulging in one's own weaknesses persist as ever, and the older i get, the more strongly i feel this sin, and i humble myself, but i do not submit, and i hope to rise up again. _march 10, 1899_ (from the letters).--it is very difficult and dreary and lonely for me and i am afraid of unpleasantness--of people being angry with me, and people are angry with me. _november 29, 1901_ (from a diary).--if you are suffering it is only from your not seeing everything (the time has not yet come). what is accomplished by those sufferings has not been revealed. _january 31, 1903_ (from the letters).--sufferings are profitable just because a man in ordinary worldly life forgets the unbreakable bond which exists between all living creatures; the sufferings which he endures and of which he has been the cause to other people remind him of that bond. this bond is spiritual, seeing that the son of god is one in all men; physical sufferings drive a man involuntarily into the spiritual sphere in which he feels in union with god and with the world, and in which he ... bears the sufferings caused by others as though caused by himself, and even joyfully takes upon himself the burden of suffering, taking it from others. in that is the profit and fruitfulness of suffering. _june 12, 1905_ (from a diary).--more and more i am pained by my abundance and the want surrounding me. _may 29, 1906_ (from a diary).--i am very heavy-hearted with shame at my life, and what to do i don't know: lord, help me. _november 23, 1906_ (from a diary).--in a very good spiritual state of love for all. read the epistle of st. john. marvellous, only now i understand it fully. to-day there was a great temptation which i did not fully conquer. abakumov overtook me with a petition and a complaint at having been sentenced to prison on account of the oak trees. it was very painful. he cannot understand that i, the husband, cannot do as i like, and looks on me as an evil-doer and a pharisee hiding behind my wife. i had not the strength to bear it lovingly, said that i could not go on living here. and that was wrong. altogether i am more and more abused on all hands; that's a good thing, it drives me to god--if i could only remain there. altogether i am conscious of one of the greatest changes which has taken place in me just now. i feel this from my serenity and joyfulness and the good feeling (i dare not say love) for people. _june 7, 1907_ (from a diary).--my former ailment has passed, but a new one seems to be beginning. to-day i was very, very sad. i am ashamed to confess it, but i cannot call up joy. my soul is calm and grave, but not joyful. my sadness is chiefly due to the darkness in which people live so persistently. the exasperation of the peasants, our senseless luxury. experienced the joy of being alone with god ... sorrowful, sorrowful. lord, help me, burn up the old fleshly man in me. yes, the one consolation, the one salvation is to live in eternity and not in time. _april 7, 1908_ (from the letters).--one thing i can say, that the reasons which restrain me from changing my manner of life as you advise me,--though not changing it, is a source of misery to me--the reasons that hinder me have their origin in the same principles of love, in the name of which the change is desirable both for you and me. it is very probable that i do not know and am not capable, or simply there are bad qualities in me which prevent me from doing what you advise me. but what is to be done? with the utmost effort of my mind and heart i cannot find the means, and i should only be thankful to anyone who will point it out to me. i say this quite sincerely, without any irony. _may 20, 1908_ (from a diary).--my life is good in that i bear all the burden of a wealthy life which i detest--the sight of others labouring for me, the begging for help, the censure, the envy, the hatred,--and i do not enjoy its advantages, even that of loving what is done for me and helping those who ask. _july 3, 1908_ (from a diary).--the day before yesterday i received a letter full of upbraidings for my wealth and hypocrisy and persecution of the peasants, and, to my shame, it hurt me. to-day i have been sad and ashamed all day. just now i went for a ride, and it seemed so desirable, so joyful to go away like a beggar, thanking and loving everyone. yes, i am weak, i cannot perpetually live in my spiritual self, and as soon as one does not live in it, everything vexes one. one thing is good, that i am dissatisfied with myself and ashamed, but i must not be proud of it. _july 9, 1908_ (from a diary).--i have passed through very painful feelings; thank god that i have passed through them. an innumerable multitude of people, and all this would be joyful if it were not all poisoned by the consciousness of the senselessness, sinfulness, nastiness, luxury, servants, and poverty and overstrained intensity of labour around. without ceasing i suffer misery from it, and i alone. i cannot help wishing for death, though i hope as far as i can to make use of what is left. _january 12, 1909_ (from a diary).--it grows more and more difficult. i do not know how to thank god that, together with the growing difficulty, the strength to endure it grows also. together with the burden there is also the strength, and there is incomparably more joy from the consciousness of strength than pain from the burden. yes, for his yoke is easy and his burden is light. _may 6, 1907_ (from the letters).--it is hard for you. god help you to bear your trial without reproaches to others and without infringement of love for them. it is always a great help to me, when anything is difficult, to think and to remember that it is the material--and necessary, good material--upon which i am called to work, and not before men but before god. _july 21, 1909_ (from a diary).--last night sonya has been weak and irritable. i could not go to sleep till after two o'clock. i woke up feeling weak, i was awakened. sonya did not sleep all night. i went to her. it was something insane. "dushan poisoned her," etc. i am tired and cannot stand it any more and feel quite ill. i feel i cannot be loving and reasonable, absolutely cannot. at present i want only to keep away and to take no part. there is nothing else i can do, or else i have seriously thought of escaping. now then, show your christianity. _c'est le moment ou jamais._ but i awfully want to go away. i doubt if my presence here is of any use to anyone. help me, my god, teach me. there is only one thing i want--to do not my will, but thine. i write and ask myself: is it true? am i posing to myself? help me, help me, help me! _july 22, 1909_ (from a diary).--yesterday i did not eat anything and did not sleep. as usual i felt very wretched. i am wretched now, but my heart is melted. yes--to love those that do us evil, you say; will try it. i try, but badly. i think more and more of going away and making a settlement about property.... i don't know what i shall do. help, help, help! this "help" means that i am weak, bad. it is a good thing that i am at any rate conscious of this.... _july 26, 1909_ (from a diary).--after dinner i spoke of sweden; she became terribly, hysterically irritated. she wanted to poison herself with morphia. i tore it out of her hands and threw it under the stairs. i struggled. but when i went to bed and thought it over calmly i decided not to go. i went and told her. she is pitiful; i am truly sorry for her. but how instructive it is! i did nothing except inwardly work at myself. and as soon as i started on my own self, everything was solved. i have been ill all day.... _august 28, 1909_ (from a diary).--dreadfully, dreadfully miserable and oppressed; depression partly produced by letter from berlin, in reference to sofya andreyevna's letter and the article in the _petersburg news_, saying that tolstoy is a deceiver and a hypocrite. to my shame i did not rejoice at being reviled, but was hurt, and the whole evening was agonisingly depressed. go away? more and more often the question presents itself. _august 29, 1909_ (from a diary).--painful feeling and desire (a bad one?) to run away, and uncertainty what is my duty to god. in calm moments, as now, i know that what is necessary above all is to do nothing, to bear all, to remain in love. _september 4, 1909_ (from a diary).--the false judgment of men about me, the necessity for remaining in this position--however hard it all is, i begin at times to understand its beneficial effect on my soul. _november 15, 1909_ (from a diary).--the misery, almost despair, at my idle life in senseless luxury, in the midst of men who are overworked and deprived of the essentials, of the possibility of satisfying their first needs, keeps growing more intense. it is agonising to live like this, and i do not know how to help myself and them. in weak moments i long to die. help me, o father, to do thy will up to the last minute. meditation about myself which i am learning, and to which i am giving myself up more and more of late, has advanced me much, very much; but, as always, true progress in goodness ... only reveals one's imperfection more and more. _january 8, 1910_ (from the letters).--i live wrongly in wealth, though myself i have nothing, but with those who live in wealth. _january 8, 1910_ (from the letters).--if man grows weak he is weaker than water. if he grows strong he is stronger than rock. what strengthens me most in difficult moments is the sense that the very thing that is worrying one is the material on which we are called to work, and the material is the more precious the more difficult the moments. _march 19, 1910_ (from the letters).--in bad moments think that what is happening to you is the material on which you are called to work. to me at any rate this thought and the feeling evoked by it is a great help. _april 13, 1910_ (from a diary).--i woke at five and kept thinking how to get out, what to do, and i don't know. i thought of writing--and writing is loathsome while i remain in this life. speak to her? go away? change? by degrees ... it seems as though the last is the only thing i shall and can do, and yet it is painful. perhaps, certainly, indeed that is good. help me, thou who art in me, in everything, and who exists and whom i implore and love. i am weeping now as i love. _april 14, 1910_ (from the letters).--you ask whether i like the life in which i find myself. no, i don't like it. i don't like it because i am living with my own people in luxury while there are poverty and want around me, and i cannot get away from the luxury, and i cannot help the poverty and want. for this i do not like my life. i like it in that it is in my power to act, and that i can act, and that i do act in the measure of my strength in accordance with the teaching of christ, to love god and my neighbour. to love god means to love the perfection of goodness and to approach it as far as one can. to love one's neighbour is to love all people alike as one's brothers and sisters. it is this, and this alone, that i am striving for, and since, little by little, however poorly, i am approaching it i do not grieve, but only rejoice. you ask me too, if i rejoice, at what do i rejoice, and what joy do i expect? i rejoice that i can carry out to the measure of my strength the task set me by my master; to work for the setting up of that kingdom of god to which we are all striving. _june 4, 1910_ (from a diary).--i had a good ride; i came back and found the circassian who was taking prokofy. i was horribly distressed and thought of going away, and now at five in the morning i don't look on that as impossible. _july 2, 1910_ (from the letters).--all will be well if we do not grow weak.... very painful, but the better for that. _july 16, 1910_ (from the letters).--i feel well ... a little weaker than usual, but still well.... why, really when i am calm i actually feel that in all this there is more of good than bad, incomparably more. it is absurd even to compare the little unpleasantnesses, agitations, privations, and the sense of growing nearer to god. _july 20, 1910_ (from the letters).--i am grateful to you for having helped and helping me to bear the trial that i have deserved and that is needful for my soul.... and please do help us both not to grow weak and not to do anything of which we shall repent. _july 29, 1910_ (from the letters).--we will each of us try to act as we ought, and it will be all right. i am trying with all my might, and i feel that that is the only thing that matters. _july 31, 1910_ (from the letters).--if only we do not ourselves spoil things all will be as it ought to be--that is, well. _august 7, 1910_ (from the letters).--i am sorry for her, and she is undoubtedly more to be pitied than i, so that it would be wrong of me to increase her sufferings out of pity for myself. though i am tired i am really all right. ever nearer and nearer comes the revelation of the certainly blessed, fore-divined mystery, and getting near it cannot but rejoice me. _august 9, 1910_ (from the letters).--the nearer one is to death, or anyway the more vividly one thinks of it (and thinking of it is thinking of one's own true life which is independent of death), the more important the one needful work of life becomes, and the clearer it is that for the securing of that non-infringement of love with anyone, i must not undertake anything, but only _do nothing_. _august 14, 1910_, morning (from the letters).--i know that all this present particularly morbid state may seem affected, intentionally worked up (to some extent that is so), but the chief point is that it is anyway illness, perfectly obvious illness, that deprives her of will and self-control. if it is said that she is herself to blame for this relaxation of her will, for giving in to her egoism, which began long ago, the fault is of the past, of long ago. now she is quite irresponsible and one can feel for her nothing but pity, and it is impossible, for me at any rate, utterly impossible, _contrecourir_ (to run counter to) her, and so unmistakably increase her sufferings. i do not believe that the complete vindication of my decision opposed to her wishes would be good for her, and if i did believe it i still could not do that. apart from the fact that i think that i ought to act in this way, the point is that i know from experience that when i insist, i am miserable, and when i give way i am not only light-hearted, i am even joyful.... i have been ill for the last few days, but to-day i am much better. and i am particularly glad of it to-day, because there is anyway fewer chances of one's saying or doing wrong when one is physically well. _august 14, 1910_, evening (from the letters).--i agree that one ought not to make promises to anyone, and especially to a person in the state in which she is now, but i am bound now not by any promise, but simply by pity, by compassion, which i have been feeling particularly strongly to-day as i wrote to you. her position is very painful, no one can see it and not sympathise with it. _august 20, 1910_; kotchety. (from the letters.)--without exaggeration i can say that i recognise that what has happened was inevitable, and therefore profitable for my soul. i think so at any rate in my better moments. _august 25, 1910_; kotchety. (from the letters.)--of myself i may say that i am very well here, even my health, which was affected too by agitation, is far better. i am trying to behave as justly and firmly as possible in regard to sofya andreyevna, and it seems as though i am more or less successful in my object of calming her.... i am often terribly sorry for her. when one thinks what it must be for her lying awake alone at nights, for she gets no sleep for the greater part of the night, with a confused but painful consciousness that she is not loved, but is burdensome to everyone except the children, one cannot but pity her. _august 28, 1910_; kotchety. (from the letters.)--do not think that it is easy for me to advise the manly, serene and even joyful endurance of suffering because i do not myself experience it. do not think that, because all men are liable to sufferings which may be regarded as objectless torments, or as trials, the mild and religious endurance of which may, strange as it sounds, be transmuted to a greater spiritual blessing. we are all liable to these trials, and often to much harder ones than those which you are enduring. may god who lives in you help you to be conscious of yourself. and when there is that consciousness there is no suffering and there is no death. _august 30, 1910_; kotchety. (from the letters.)--sofya andreyevna went away from here yesterday, and took a very touching farewell of me and tanya and her husband, with evident sincerity begging forgiveness of all with tears in her eyes. she is inexpressibly pathetic. what will happen later i cannot imagine. "do what you ought before your conscience and god, and what will be will be," i say to myself and try to act on it. _september 9, 1910_; kotchety. (from the letters.)--she was very much irritated, not irritated (_ce n'est pas le mot_, that is not the right word), but _morbidly_ agitated. i underline that word. she is unhappy and cannot control herself. i have only just been talking to her. she came thinking i should go away with her, but i have refused without fixing the date of my going away, and that greatly distressed her. what i shall do later i don't know. i shall try to bear my cross day by day. _september 16, 1910_ (from the letters).--i am still as before in a middling condition physically, and spiritually i try to look upon my painful or rather difficult relations with sofya andreyevna as a trial which is good for me, and which it depends upon myself to turn into a blessing, but i rarely succeed in this. one thing i can say: not in my brain but with my sides, as the peasants say, i have come to a clear understanding of the difference between resistance which is returning evil for evil, and the resistance of not giving way in those of one's actions which one recognises as one's duty to one's conscience and to god. i will try. _september 18, 1910_ (from the letters).--i understand now from experience that all that we call suffering is for our good. _october 6, 1910_ (from the letters).--she is ill and all the rest of it, but it is impossible not to pity her and not to be indulgent to her. _october 17, 1910_ (from the letters).--yesterday was a very serious day. others will describe the physical details to you, but i want to give you my own account from the inside. i pity and pity her, and rejoice that at times i love her without effort. it was so last night when she came in penitent and began seeing about warming my room, and in spite of her exhaustion and weakness pushed the shutters and screened the windows, taking pains and trouble about my ... bodily comfort. what's to be done if there are people for whom, and i believe only for a time, the reality of spiritual life is unattainable. yesterday evening i was almost on the point of going away to kotchety, but now i am glad i did not go. to-day i feel physically weak, but serene in spirit. _october 26, 1910_ (from a diary).--it is very oppressive for me in this house of lunatics. _october 26, 1910_ (from the letters).--the third thing is not so much a thought as a feeling, and a bad feeling--the desire to change my position. i feel something unbefitting, rather shameful, in my position. sometimes i look upon it as i ought, as a blessing but sometimes i struggle against it and am revolted.... _october 27, 1910_ (from a diary).--it seems _bad_ but is really good; the oppressiveness of our relations keeps increasing. _october 29, 1910_ (from the letters).--i am waiting to see what will come of the family deliberation--i think, good. in any case, however, my return to my former life has become still more difficult--almost impossible, owing to the reproaches which will now be showered upon me, and the still smaller share of kindness which will be shown me. i cannot and will not enter into any sort of negotiations--what will be will be--only to sin as little as possible.... i cannot boast of my physical and spiritual condition, they are both weak and shattered. i feel most of all sorry for her. if only that pity were quite free from an admixture of _rancune_ (resentment), and that i cannot boast of. _october 29, 1910_; optin monastery. (from a diary.)--i have been much depressed all day and physically weak.... as i came here i was thinking all the time on the road, of the way out of my and her position, and could not think of any way out of it, but yet there will be one whether one likes it or not; it will come, and not be what one foresees. yes, think only of how to avoid sin, and let come what will come. that is not my affair. i have taken up ... the _circle of reading_, and, just now, reading number twenty-eight was struck by the direct answer to my position: trial is what i need, it is beneficial for me. i am going to bed at once. help me, o lord. _november 3, 1910_; station astapovo. (from a diary; the last words written by leo nikolaevitch in his diary.)--_fais ce que doit adv...._[30] and it is all for the best both for others and for me. the extracts from the diary and letters of tolstoy that have been quoted, though far from exhausting all the material, show sufficiently clearly what leo nikolaevitch had to endure in connection with his family and domestic conditions in the course of the last thirty years of his life. in it of course all aspects of his spiritual growth are not touched upon, the whole course of his inner development during that period is not explained. but what is revealed to us in these extracts is sufficient to excite the warmest sympathy for leo nikolaevitch in his great and prolonged ordeal, and to inspire the deepest respect for his touching ability to blame himself for everything, and always to strive not towards what he desired but towards his duty. at the same time there is here revealed to us in its general features the path by which he came to the conviction that if we suffer spiritually we are ourselves to blame. as is the case with everyone for whom the true meaning of life is revealed, after leo nikolaevitch's inner awakening at the beginning of the 'eighties, his spiritual consciousness could not, of course, remain at the same point. and indeed from the fragments we have quoted we see that up to the very last days of his life it was growing and becoming more perfect, as he became more and more penetrated with purity and strength. becoming convinced that in spite of all his sufferings he could not draw his wife to take part in his efforts, leo nikolaevitch began to experience the most agonising distress, which, as we see from his diary of 1884, sometimes became so acute that he hardly had the strength to endure it. he even had moments almost of despair and as it were revolt against his fate, especially when he learned from experience that his wife was too far away from him spiritually to be his companion in the reorganisation of their lives. it was at such a moment that there broke from him that agonising cry of a tortured heart, that she would for ever remain a millstone round his neck and his children's. but at the same time he tried to accept these sufferings with meekness and submission as a trial laid upon him, and to behave with love and patience to her who evoked them. so about the same time, on one of those exceptionally rare occasions when in conversation with me he permitted himself to touch on his relations with his wife, he spoke approximately as follows: "it is impossible to blame sofya andreyevna. it is not her fault that she does not follow me. why, what she clings to so obstinately now is the very thing in which i trained her for many years. apart from that, in the early days of my awakening i was too irritable and insisted on trying to convince her that i was right. in those days i put my new conception of life before her in a form so repellent and unacceptable to her that i quite put her off. and now i feel that through my own fault she can never come to the truth by my way. that door is closed for her. but, on the other hand, i notice with joy that by ways peculiar to her alone, and quite incomprehensible to me, she seems at times to be gradually moving in the same direction." about the same time leo nikolaevitch wrote to me: "'he who loves not his brother, he dwelleth in death.' i have learned, but to my cost. i did not love, i had malice against my neighbours, and i was dying and dead. i began to be afraid of death; not afraid exactly, but bewildered before it. but love had but to rise up and i rose up again. i had forgotten christ's first precept, 'be not wrathful.' so simple, so small and so immense! if there is one man whom one does not love one is lost, one is dead. i have learned that by experience."--(letter, december 28, 1885.) at that period of his life leo nikolaevitch wrote in his diary the reflection which has already appeared in print concerning the chloroform of love, which expresses with remarkable vividness his recognition of the way we ought to help men who have gone astray: "at first i thought, can one point out to people their mistakes, their sins, their faults, without hurting them? we have chloroform and cocaine for physical pain, but not for the soul. i thought this, and at once it came into my head, it is untrue--there is such a spiritual chloroform. they perform the operation of amputating a leg or an arm with chloroform, but they perform the operation of reforming a man painfully, stifling the reform with pain, exciting the worse disease--vindictiveness. but there is a spiritual chloroform, and it has long been known,--always the same--love. and that is not all: in physical disease one may do good by an operation without chloroform, but the soul is such a sensitive creature that an operation performed upon it without the chloroform of love is never anything but injurious. patients always know it and ask for chloroform, and know that it ought to be used.... the sick man is in pain and he screams, hides the sore spot and says, 'you won't heal me, you won't heal me, and i don't want to be healed, i would rather get worse if you cannot heal me without pain....' and he is right ... you cannot drag a man straight out when he is tangled in a net--you will hurt him. you must disentangle the netting gently and firmly first. this delay, this disentangling, is the chloroform of love.... this i almost understood before, now i quite understand and begin to feel it...." (tolstoy's diary, january 25, 1889. cf. _biography of l. n. tolstoy_ by p. i. biryukov, vol. iii. chap. iii.) striving to work out in himself a patient and loving attitude to the erring, beginning with those who were nearest to him, leo nikolaevitch from the earliest days of his domestic ordeal applied all his spiritual forces to avoiding giving way to his spiritual sufferings and throwing the blame for them either on people or on external circumstances. and this consciousness was continually strengthened and confirmed in him, helping him to bestow less and less pity on himself and more and more pity on those at whose hands he suffered. at first, as we have seen, such resignation to destiny was attained only with the greatest spiritual effort; but gradually he succeeded in conquering himself more and more by means of this incessant struggle carried on for many years. such, anyway, is, it seems to me, the general deduction which may be drawn from his diary and letters. this deduction is confirmed too by the immediate impression which many of those to whose lot it fell to be in close relations with leo nikolaevitch in his later years carried away from personal intercourse with him. even the expression of his face during this last period often seemed lighted up with a peculiar spiritual radiance. such in its most general features is my conception of the consistent growth of leo nikolaevitch's inner consciousness after his spiritual awakening in so far as that growth is connected with his domestic sufferings and going away from home. this conception has been formed, on the one hand, on the basis of my personal intimacy and my spiritual unity with leo nikolaevitch as well as my long, intimate acquaintance with his family; and, on the other hand, on an attentive study of all that leo nikolaevitch has at various times expressed in his letters. but the secret of another man's soul is too great and too intricate for anyone to be able to assert with confidence that he has fully grasped it even on any one side. and therefore while expressing here my personal opinion so far as it can have significance for anyone, i feel great satisfaction in the fact that i have been able to a considerable extent to incorporate leo nikolaevitch's own words in this book. and thus it will be possible for the reader to draw his own conclusions; at least from those notes of leo nikolaevitch's which i have here brought into connection with my argument, and to correct for himself anything in which it may seem to him that i am mistaken. i should like to conclude with two more thoughts of leo nikolaevitch's which show his comprehension of the spiritual significance of suffering. "for a man living a spiritual life suffering is always an encouragement to becoming more perfect and more enlightened, and getting nearer to god. for such people suffering can always be transformed into the business of life."--(_circle of reading._) "the cross that is laid upon us is that at which we ought to work. our whole life is this work. if the cross is illness, then bear it well, with submission; if it is injury at the hands of men, know how to return good for evil; if it is humiliation, be meek; if it is death, accept it with gratitude."--(_the way of life._) footnotes [26] to what precisely leo nikolaevitch ascribed his realisation that in 1870 the "cord had snapped" in the relations between him and his wife i am not in a position to state with certainty. i can only say for the information of the reader that i heard from leo nikolaevitch that their relations began to change for the worse from the time when sofya andreyevna, contrary to his principles and desire, refused to nurse her second daughter marya lvovna, born 1870, and engaged a wet nurse for her who was taken away from her own baby. [27] it may interest the reader to know that on june 18 sofya andreyevna gave birth to her youngest daughter, alexandra.--_translator's note._ [28] at that period leo nikolaevitch's attitude of disapproval of property was beginning to take definite shape. in consequence he did not wish to make use of the revenues from his estate in samara, considering it unjust to make the peasants work for him and his family. even the income which his family received from the yasnaya polyana estate and from the sale by sofya andreyevna of his works he considered as unjust, though he did not yet see clearly how he ought to act in the matter, considering his duties to his family. [29] compare entry for june 7. [30] an unfinished french proverb; translated in full it means, "do what you ought and let come what may." appendix i in view of the fact that leo nikolaevitch's diaries and letters have not yet been published in their entirety, i think it essential to make a note in connection with the character of the extracts which i have made from them in this book. these passages have been selected with the special object of illustrating leo nikolaevitch's attitude to suffering in general and to his own sufferings in particular. owing to this, their context is inevitably one-sided and cannot give a general idea of his prevailing spiritual mood during the last thirty years of his life. that general mood, in spite of the conditions which oppressed leo nikolaevitch externally, was doubtless one of joy in life, in accordance with the characteristics of his nature, and filled with inner satisfaction, as all those who were in close communication with him for any length of time during that period can testify. and in this fact, _i.e._ in his preserving those characteristics in spite of all the trials to which he was subjected throughout that whole period, i see one of the most remarkable aspects of his heroic endurance. indeed one has but for one moment to enter in spirit into his position at that time to be truly amazed at what he succeeded in attaining in his inner life. love for freedom in general and for personal independence was to an exceptional degree characteristic of his powerful personality. the demands of creative work attracted him to prolonged absences far from home in the midst of the most varied natural scenery, and the most different strata of humanity. the working of his mind after his spiritual awakening required the closest association with working people. for the satisfaction of his spiritual needs he required the possibility of receiving unhindered in his house all and each of those with whom he would have liked to hold intercourse, without any limitation or restriction, and consequently to show hospitality, to seat at his table on occasions, to put up for the night both the peasant of the district who had come to pay him a visit, and the passing pilgrim weary from the road, and the visitor who had come from afar seeking spiritual intercourse and help.... and of all this so needful to tolstoy as artist and thinker, and above all as a man leading a spiritual life,--of all this he was deprived, thanks to the egoism of his family and the class prejudices ruling in his house, in which a woman's self-will was paramount. being completely indifferent to his spiritual needs and callous to his sufferings, sofya andreyevna expected him in his old age, as in the first period of their life, to be continually at her side in spite of the spiritual change that had taken place in her husband, and only rarely agreed to his being absent for short intervals, and then with the greatest difficulty. leo nikolaevitch could not refuse these demands of hers without destroying the very small share of domestic peace without which his life in the home would have lost any sort of meaning. and in spite of all the oppressiveness of these domestic conditions, which defy description in words and, lasting as they did over thirty years, for us ordinary people would have been truly shattering, leo nikolaevitch, far from giving way to despair, did not even complain of his fate. on the contrary, he blamed himself for his sufferings, ascribing them to his own imperfection, and making the utmost effort to perform his family duties as irreproachably as possible. "i am all right, quite all right," he often said and wrote to his friends. at times he even displayed a childlike gaiety, and sometimes jested at the very circumstances which caused him the most suffering. this remarkable circumstance i explain solely by the fact that leo nikolaevitch firmly made it his aim to do nothing but the will of god. this, and only this, he set before him as his fundamental task, and for the sake of carrying it out he consciously denied himself the satisfaction of his personal needs and any self-gratification during the whole of that second long period of his married life. and denying himself all the so-called joys of life, he incidentally attained true spiritual joy and peace, true blessedness. the subject of leo nikolaevitch's inner life is, however, outside the limits of our present investigation and i have referred to it only that the reader might not receive a quite mistaken impression that leo nikolaevitch was lacking in that courageous joy in life affecting all around him, which, on the contrary, he possessed in the highest degree.[31] footnote [31] as i am touching upon the general mood of leo nikolaevitch's spiritual life, i foresee that the extracts i have made from his diaries and letters will in many readers arouse a feeling of regret that they have hitherto not had the opportunity of reading this precious material in its entirety. and therefore i think it needful to state that the principal obstacles to the continuation of the series of issues of tolstoy's diaries, begun several years ago, and to the systematic publication of all his writings, are now happily overcome, and the first complete edition of all tolstoy's works is at the present time being zealously prepared for the press. appendix ii the personality of leo nikolaevitch's wife, sofya andreyevna, is connected in the closest way with the account i have given of his leaving home. i have consequently been compelled to touch upon her relations with her husband. while describing the agonising sufferings to which leo nikolaevitch was subjected in his family circle, i have to my regret been forced to state a great deal which appears as an attack upon the character and behaviour of his wife. and therefore, to prevent any misunderstandings on the part of readers with regard to my personal relations with her, i wish to speak out openly upon the subject. it would perhaps have been natural for me, as a friend of leo nikolaevitch's, to feel bitterness and hostility towards the person who had been for him such a heavy cross during the last thirty years of his life. and it would be natural for the reader to suppose that under the influence of such feelings i could not be free from prejudice in regard to sofya andreyevna, and could not help, even against my will, laying the colour on thick in describing her deficiencies. there will no doubt be ill-wishers who will say that, moved by resentment, i find a satisfaction in laying bare in an exaggerated form the mistakes and failings of a person who caused me much suffering. but in spite of the naturalness of such suppositions, they would in the present case be mistaken. in reality my attitude to leo nikolaevitch's wife is quite different. first of all, as in leo nikolaevitch's lifetime i never forgot, so after the death of both of them i never can forget, that sofya andreyevna was his wife, _i.e._ occupied quite an exceptional position in regard to him, and for the first half of their life together was the person nearest to him in the world. this circumstance alone has inspired, and still inspires, a peculiar strictness toward myself in my behaviour to her and circumspection in my judgments of her. moreover, having been a close witness of the wonderfully loving solicitude with which leo nikolaevitch behaved to his wife, never losing hope of the possibility of her spiritual awakening, i could not on my side help being infected by this attitude, at least so far as not to feel ill-will or prejudice against her. apart from that, i do not on principle acknowledge a man's right to judge another. the character and behaviour of this or the other person depends on so many external and internal circumstances for which the person is not in the least responsible; and the most secret region in our inner consciousness, in which we really are answerable to our own conscience, is so entirely beyond the reach of any outside eye that we have neither the power nor the right to judge any but ourselves. in relation to anyone else we can judge only their actions, laying completely aside, as not within our competence, the question of the degree of their responsibility for committing them. with this point of view every censure, irritation, or vexation with anyone, to say nothing of wrath or revenge, appears merely as the sign of our own imperfection, against which, when looked upon as such, it is easier to struggle than when such feelings are regarded as legitimate. in view of these two circumstances, though i have, willy-nilly, in the present work to exhibit sofya andreyevna in an unfavourable light, i have not done so from personal ill-will to her, nor in a spirit of censure, but simply through the necessity of giving a faithful picture of what leo nikolaevitch had to endure. i know that many will fail to understand my true motives and will severely censure me. i resign myself to this in advance. but i confess it grieves me, grieves me deeply, that by this present book i shall be bound to cause pain to those members of leo nikolaevitch's family who are still alive and who are nearest to him--his children. an old friend of their father's, i have always been conscious of being a friend of the family as well, and i naturally attach particular value to good relations with them. if they feel bitter against me, i beg them to believe that, whether mistakenly or not, i have, in any case, sincerely felt myself morally bound to act in the way i have acted, for reasons set forth in the introduction. i beg them also to consider that the present publication of the truth i knew about their father's family life was, so to speak, forcibly wrung from me by all the untruths on the subject which for many years were persistently circulated all over the world, both in speaking and writing, by their own mother and their two brothers, ilya lvovitch and leo lvovitch. these two made it a kind of profession to give public lectures on the subject. quite recently i came across, in one of the most popular foreign newspapers, the paris _figaro_, a series of articles by leo lvovitch tolstoy in which he strives to cover the memory of his father with shame and ignominy, in contradistinction to that of his mother, whose image he idealises till it becomes utterly distorted. he is so careless with the facts that, under the influence of his notorious envy and enmity for his father, he tells absolute untruths about him and definitely slanders him, though perhaps without meaning to do so. such pernicious attacks upon leo nikolaevitch made in the world's press by some of his nearest relatives give me reason to hope that his other relatives will not be surprised when they find, as their father's champion upon the same arena, one of his most intimate friends, who is able to speak more freely concerning the relations between their parents than those who are naturally constrained by the bonds of blood relationship. it goes without saying that sofya andreyevna, like everyone else, had her virtues and her defects, but at the same time it will be readily understood that if leo nikolaevitch was reduced to the necessity of leaving her, it was not her good qualities which drove him to it. and therefore, in describing the causes of his departure, i have inevitably been forced to dwell upon the negative sides of her character. in this brief narrative exclusively devoted to one definite event in the life of leo nikolaevitch and the internal and external circumstances connected with that event, i have not made it my aim to draw a general and complete picture of the characters of leo nikolaevitch and sofya andreyevna. the limited range of my special task laid upon me the necessity of keeping strictly within the limits of those of their characteristics and peculiarities which in one way or another threw a direct light upon the incident described. there could be no question of an all-round and to any extent exhaustive account of the characters of those persons, apart from the fact that such a task is far beyond my capacity. the most important and perhaps the most difficult aspect of the task which actually lay before me consisted in exhibiting in their full force the circumstances which in the end compelled leo nikolaevitch to take his final step, with perfect truthfulness, exaggerating nothing, of course, but at the same time concealing nothing from false delicacy. this i have tried to do as conscientiously, carefully and truthfully as i can. though i might from the natural perhaps, but in the present case misplaced, sensibility have smoothed over the extremes of sofya andreyevna's behaviour, and have softened the real character of her attitude to leo nikolaevitch, yet in doing that i should have deprived the motives of his departure of reasonable basis and inevitability, and should have set forth leo nikolaevitch's impulses in a more or less distorted form--and that, of course, was inadmissible. even in the lifetime of sofya andreyevna tolstoy i did at one time entertain the idea of publishing the truth about leo nikolaevitch's leaving home in her interests. i cherished the hope that from such a truthful account she might derive some conception of how much leo nikolaevitch suffered at her hands, how he struggled with himself, how self-sacrificingly he returned her good for evil, how persistently, in spite of everything, he believed in the divine spark in her soul, and how he rejoiced and was touched at the slightest gleam of that spark. and who knows, i said to myself, perhaps such a presentation before her eyes of what really happened, in contradistinction to the fantastic inventions with which she screened the truth from herself--perhaps this truthful picture of what leo nikolaevitch really did endure, might help her in time to recognise the truth, to come to herself, and to become one in soul with him who loved her so that he laid down his soul for her? but at the time i did not decide to do this, and now i do not regret it. apart from any external influences, there is no doubt that after leo nikolaevitch's death there appeared at times a certain inner softening in sofya andreyevna, though only of brief duration. so it was, for instance, immediately after his death, when, in the presence of several persons, she repeated in spiritual agonies that she had been the cause of his death. and though a prolonged period followed after it during which she displayed, at least in words, her former indifference or even hostility to leo nikolaevitch, yet before her own death, as those near her relate, she again expressed regret for the wrong she had done him. and if outwardly she repented but little, yet who can say what were her thoughts and reflections in her soul, and especially what passed in her consciousness during those dying hours and minutes when man, cut off from communication with those around him, in complete solitude before his maker, knows that he is departing this life? and though as she left this world sofya andreyevna carried with her the answer to this question, nevertheless we have no grounds for denying the possibility that the cherished hope which leo nikolaevitch never lost, that sooner or later she would be one with him in spirit, was realised at last before her death. let us, too, look with a spirit of love and compassion upon the errors, the defects and the spiritual limitations of the companion of leo nikolaevitch's life. but at the same time let us boldly look the truth in the face, in no way softening the magnitude of the sufferings endured by leo nikolaevitch by concealing the true attitude of his wife to him, or by depicting her behaviour in a softened light. if we keep in mind the great divine love with which he loved her soul, then in face of the naked truth we shall not condemn, but shall sincerely compassionate, her whose destiny it was to serve as the instrument of his severest trials. and we shall understand that those trials which in the end exhausted leo nikolaevitch's physical forces and brought about his death were obviously needful to the manifestations in him of the fullness of spiritual strength received from him by god. printed in great britain by richard clay & sons, limited, bungay, suffolk. * * * * transcriber's note: minor corrections were made to the original publication. [ transcriber's notes: every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as possible, including inconsistencies in spelling and hyphenation. some corrections of spelling have been made. they are listed at the end of the text. italic text has been marked with _underscores_. ] prophets of dissent books by otto heller henrik ibsen: plays and problems studies in modern german literature lessing's "minna von barnhelm" in english prophets of dissent: essays on maeterlinck, strindberg, nietzsche and tolstoy by otto heller professor of modern european literature in washington university (st. louis) is there a thing in this world that can be separated from the inconceivable? maeterlinck, "our eternity" new york mcmxviii alfred a knopf copyright, 1918, by alfred a. knopf printed in united states of america to hellen sears staunchest of friends preface the collocation of authors so widely at variance in their moral and artistic aims as are those assembled in this little book may be defended by the safe and simple argument that all of these authors have exerted, each in his own way, an influence of singular range and potency. by fairly general consent they are the foremost literary expositors of important modern tendencies. it is, therefore, of no consequence whether or not their ways of thinking fit into our particular frame of mind; what really matters is that in this small group of writers more clearly perhaps than in any other similarly restricted group the basic issues of the modern struggle for social transformation appear to be clearly and sharply joined. that in viewing them as indicators of contrarious ideal currents due allowance must be made for peculiarities of temperament, both individual and racial, and, correspondingly, for the purely "personal equation" in their spiritual attitudes, does not detract to any material degree from their generic significance. in any case, there are those of us who in the vortical change of the social order through which we are whirling, feel a desire to orient ourselves through an objective interest in letters among the embattled purposes and policies which are now gripped in a final test of strength. in a crisis that makes the very foundations of civilization quake, and at a moment when the salvation of human liberty seems to depend upon the success of a united stand of all the modern forces of life against the destructive impact of the most primitive and savage of all the instincts, would it not be absurdly pedantic for a critical student of literature to resort to any artificial selection and co-ordination of his material in order to please the prudes and the pedagogues? and is it not natural to seek that material among the largest literary apparitions of the age? it is my opinion, then, that the four great authors discussed in the following pages stand, respectively, for the determining strains in a great upsetting movement, and that in the aggregate they bring to view the composite mental and moral impulsion of the times. through such forceful articulations of current movements the more percipient class of readers have for a long time been enabled to foresense, in a manner, the colossal reconstruction of society which needs must follow this monstrous, but presumably final, clash between the irreconcilable elements in the contrasted principles of right and might, the masses and the monarchs. however, the gathering together of maeterlinck, nietzsche, strindberg, and tolstoy under the hospitality of a common book-cover permits of a supplementary explanation on the ground of a certain fundamental likeness far stronger than their only too obvious diversities. they are, one and all, radicals in thought, and, with differing strength of intention, reformers of society, inasmuch as their speculations and aspirations are relevant to practical problems of living. and yet what gives them such a durable hold on our attention is not their particular apostolate, but the fact that their artistic impulses ascend from the subliminal regions of the inner life, and that their work somehow brings one into touch with the hidden springs of human action and human fate. this means, in effect, that all of them are mystics by original cast of mind and that notwithstanding any difference, however apparently violent, of views and theories, they follow the same introspective path towards the recognition and interpretation of the law of life. from widely separated ethical premises they thus arrive at an essentially uniform appraisal of personal happiness as a function of living. to those readers who are not disposed to grant the validity of the explanations i have offered, perhaps equality of rank in artistic importance may seem a sufficient criterion for the association of authors, and, apart from all sociologic and philosophic considerations, they may be willing to accept my somewhat arbitrary selection on this single count. o. h. april, 1918. contents page i maurice maeterlinck: a study in mysticism 3 ii august strindberg: a study in eccentricity 71 iii friedrich nietzsche: a study in exaltation 109 iv leo tolstoy: a study in revivalism 161 i the mysticism of maurice maeterlinck under the terrific atmospheric pressure that has been torturing the civilization of the entire world since the outbreak of the greatest of wars, contemporary literature of the major cast appears to have gone into decline. even the comparatively few writers recognized as possessing talents of the first magnitude have given way to that pressure and have shrunk to minor size, so that it may be seriously questioned, to say the least, whether during the past forty months or so a single literary work of outstanding and sustained grandeur has been achieved anywhere. that the effect of the universal embattlement upon the art of letters should be, in the main, extremely depressing, is quite natural; but the conspicuous loss of breadth and poise in writers of the first order seems less in accordance with necessity,--at least one might expect a very superior author to rise above that necessity. in any case it is very surprising that it should be a belgian whose literary personality is almost unique in having remained exempt from the general abridgment of spiritual stature. it is true that maurice maeterlinck, the most eminent literary figure in his sadly stricken country and of unsurpassed standing among the contemporary masters of french letters, has, since the great catastrophe, won no new laurels as a dramatist; and that in the other field cultivated by him, that of the essay, his productiveness has been anything but prolific. but in his case one is inclined to interpret reticence as an eloquent proof of a singularly heroic firmness of character at a time when on both sides of the great divide which now separates the peoples, the cosmopolitan trend of human advance has come to a temporary halt, and the nations have relapsed from their laboriously attained degree of world-citizenship into the homelier, but more immediately virtuous, state of traditional patriotism. it is a military necessity as well as a birthright of human nature that at a time like the present the patriot is excused from any pharisaical profession of loving his enemy. before the war, maeterlinck's writings were animated by humanitarian sympathies of the broadest catholicity. he even had a peculiar affection for the germans, because doubtless he perceived the existence of a strong kinship between certain essential traits in his spiritual composition and the fundamental tendencies of german philosophy and art. but when belgium was lawlessly invaded, her ancient towns heinously destroyed, her soil laid waste and drenched with the blood of her people, maeterlinck, as a son of belgium, learned to hate the germans to the utmost of a wise and temperate man's capacity for hatred, and in his war papers collected in _les débris de la guerre_, (1916),(1) which ring with the passionate impulse of the patriot, his outraged sense of justice prevails over the disciplined self-command of the stoic. (1) "the wrack of the storm," 1916. he refuses to acquiesce in the lenient discrimination between the guilty government of germany and her innocent population: "it is not true that in this gigantic crime there are innocent and guilty, or degrees of guilt. they stand on one level, all those who have taken part in it.... it is, very simply, the german, from one end of his country to the other, who stands revealed as a beast of prey which the firm will of our planet finally repudiates. we have here no wretched slaves dragged along by a tyrant king who alone is responsible. nations have the government which they deserve, or rather, the government which they have is truly no more than the magnified and public projection of the private morality and mentality of the nation.... no nation can be deceived that does not wish to be deceived; and it is not intelligence that germany lacks.... no nation permits herself to be coerced to the one crime that man cannot pardon. it is of her own accord that she hastens towards it; her chief has no need to persuade, it is she who urges him on."(2) (2) "the wrack of the storm," pp. 16-18. such a condemnatory tirade against the despoilers of his fair homeland was normally to be expected from a man of maeterlinck's depth of feeling. the unexpected thing that happened not long after was that the impulsive promptings of justice and patriotism put themselves into harmony with the guiding principles of his entire moral evolution. the integrity of his philosophy of life, the sterling honesty of his teachings, were thus loyally sealed with the very blood of his heart.--"before closing this book," he says in the epilogue,(3) "i wish to weigh for the last time in my conscience the words of hatred and malediction which it has made me speak in spite of myself." and then, true prophet that he is, he speaks forth as a voice from the future, admonishing men to prepare for the time when the war is over. what saner advice could at this critical time be given the stay-at-homes than that they should follow the example of the men who return from the trenches? "they detest the enemy," says he, "but they do not hate the man. they recognize in him a brother in misfortune who, like themselves, is submitting to duties and laws which, like themselves, he too believes lofty and necessary." on the other hand, too, not many have sensed as deeply as has maeterlinck the grandeur to which humanity has risen through the immeasurable pathos of the war. "setting aside the unpardonable aggression and the inexpiable violation of the treaties, this war, despite its insanity, has come near to being a bloody but magnificent proof of greatness, heroism, and the spirit of sacrifice." and from his profound anguish over the fate of his beloved belgium this consolation is wrung: "if it be true, as i believe, that humanity is worth just as much as the sum total of latent heroism which it contains, then we may declare that humanity was never stronger nor more exemplary than now and that it is at this moment reaching one of its highest points and capable of braving everything and hoping everything. and it is for this reason that, despite our present sadness, we are entitled to congratulate ourselves and to rejoice." altogether, maeterlinck's thoughts and actions throughout this yet unfinished mighty fate-drama of history challenge the highest respect for the clarity of his intellect and the profoundness of his humanity. (3) in the english translation this is the chapter preceding the last one and is headed "when the war is over," p. 293 ff.; it is separately published in _the forum_ for july, 1916. the appalling disaster that has befallen the belgian people is sure to stamp their national character with indelible marks; so that it is safe to predict that never again will the type of civilization which before the war reigned in the basins of the meuse and the scheldt reëstablish itself in its full peculiarity and distinctiveness which was the result of a unique coagency of germanic and romanic ingredients of culture. yet in the amalgam of the two heterogeneous elements a certain competitive antithesis had survived, and manifested itself, in the individual as in the national life at large, in a number of unreconciled temperamental contrasts, and in the fundamental unlikeness exhibited in the material and the spiritual activities. witness the contrast between the bustling aggressiveness in the province of practical affairs and the metaphysical drift of modern flemish art. to any one familiar with the visible materialism of the population in its external mode of living it may have seemed strange to notice how sedulously a numerous set among the younger artists of the land were facing away from their concrete environment, as though to their over-sensitive nervous system it were irremediably offensive. the vigorous solidity of constantin meunier, the great plastic interpreter of the "black country" of belgium, found but few wholehearted imitators among the sculptors, while among the painters that robust terrestrialism of which the work of a rubens or teniers and their countless disciples was the artistic upshot, was almost totally relinquished, and linear firmness and colorful vitality yielded the day to pallid, discarnately decorative artistry even, in a measure, in the "applied art" products of a henri van de velde. it is in the field of literature, naturally enough, that the contrast is resolved and integrated into a characteristic unity. very recently professor a. j. carnoy has definitely pointed out(4) the striking commixture of the realistic and imaginative elements in the work of the flemish symbolists. "the vision of the flemings"--quoting from his own _précis_ of his paper--"is very concrete, very exact in all details and gives a durable, real, and almost corporeal presence to the creations of the imagination. all these traits are exhibited in the reveries of the flemish mystics, ancient and modern. one finds them also no less plainly in the poetic work of belgian writers of the last generation: maeterlinck, verhaeren, rodenbach, van lerberghe, le roy, elskamp, etc." (4) in a paper read by title before the modern language association of america at yale university, december 29, 1917. if we take into account this composite attitude of the flemish mind we shall be less surprised at the remarkable evolution of a poet-philosopher whose creations seem at first blush to bear no resemblance to the outward complexion of his own age; who seems as far removed temperamentally from his locality and time as were his lineal spiritual ancestors: the dutchman ruysbroeck, the scandinavian swedenborg, the german novalis, and the american emerson--and who in the zenith of his career stands forth as an ardent advocate of practical action while at the same time a firm believer in the transcendental. maeterlinck's romantic antipathy towards the main drift of the age was a phenomenon which at the dawn of our century could be observed in a great number of superior intelligences. those fugitives from the dun and sordid materialism of the day were likely to choose between two avenues of escape, according to their greater or lesser inner ruggedness. the more aggressive type would engage in multiform warfare for the reconstruction of life on sounder principles; whereas the more meditative professed a real or affected indifference to practical things and eschewed any participation in the world's struggle for progress. and of the quiescent rather than the insurgent variety of the romantic temper maurice maeterlinck was the foremost exponent. the "romantic longing" seems to have come into the world in the company of the christian religion with which it shares its partly outspoken, partly implied repugnance for the battle of life. romantic periods occur in the history of civilization whenever a sufficiently influential set of artistically minded persons have persuaded themselves that, in quite a literal sense of the colloquial phrase, they "have no use" for the world; a discovery which would still be true were it stated obversely. the romantic world-view, thus fundamentally oriented by world-contempt, entails, at least in theory, the repudiation of all earthly joys--notably the joy of working--and the renouncement of all worldly ambition; it scorns the cooperative, social disposition, invites the soul to a progressive withdrawal into the inner ego, and ends in complete surrender to one sole aspiration: the search of the higher vision, the vision, that is, of things beyond their tangible reality. to such mystical constructions of the inner eye a certain group of german writers who flourished in the beginning of the nineteenth century and were known as the romantics, darkly groped their way out of the confining realities of their own time. the most modern spell of romanticism, the one through which our own generation was but yesterday passing, measures its difference from any previous romantic era by the difference between earlier states of culture and our own. life with us is conspicuously more assertive and aggressive in its social than in its individual expressions, which was by no means always so, and unless the romantic predisposition adapted itself to this important change it could not relate itself at all intimately to our interests. our study of maeterlinck should help us, therefore, to discover possibly in the new romantic tendency some practical and vital bearings. we find that in the new romanticism esthetic and philosophical impulses are inextricably mixed. hence the new movement is also playing an indispensable rôle in the modern re-foundation of art. for while acting as a wholesome offset to the so-called naturalism, in its firm refusal to limit inner life to the superficial realities, it at the same time combines with naturalism into a complete recoiling, both of the intellect and the emotions, from any commonplace, or pusillanimous, or mechanical practices of artistry. this latter-day romanticism, moreover, notwithstanding its sky-aspiring outstretch, is akin to naturalism in that, after all, it keeps its roots firmly grounded in the earth; that is to say, it seeks for its ulterior sanctions not in realms high beyond the self; rather it looks within for the "blue flower" of contentedness. already to the romantics of old the mystic road to happiness was not unknown. it is, for instance, pointed by novalis: "inward leads the mysterious way. within us or nowhere lies eternity with its worlds; within us or nowhere are the past and the future." viewed separately from other elements of romanticism, this passion for retreating within the central ego is commonly referred to as mysticism; it has a strong hold on many among the moderns, and maurice maeterlinck to be properly understood has to be understood as the poet _par excellence_ of modern mysticism. by virtue of this special office he deals mainly in concepts of the transcendental, which puzzles the ordinary person accustomed to perceive only material and ephemeral realities. maeterlinck holds that nothing matters that is not eternal and that what keeps us from enjoying the treasures of the universe is the hereditary resignation with which we tarry in the gloomy prison of our senses. "in reality, we live only from soul to soul, and we are gods who do not know each other."(5) it follows from this metaphysical foundation of his art that instead of the grosser terminology suitable to plain realities, maeterlinck must depend upon a code of subtle messages in order to establish between himself and his audience a line of spiritual communication. this makes it somewhat difficult for people of cruder endowment to appreciate his meaning, a grievance from which in the beginning many of them sought redress in facile scoffing. obtuse minds are prone to claim a right to fathom the profound meanings of genius with the same ease with which they expect to catch the meaning of a bill of fare or the daily stock market report. (5) maeterlinck, "on emerson." * * * * * it must be confessed, however, that even those to whom maeterlinck's sphere of thought is not so utterly sealed, enter it with a sense of mixed perplexity and apprehension. they feel themselves helplessly conducted through a world situated beyond the confines of their normal consciousness, and in this strange world everything that comes to pass appears at first extremely impracticable and unreal. the action seems "wholly dissevered from common sense and ordinary uses;" the figures behave otherwise than humans; the dialogue is "poised on the edge of a precipice of bathos." it is clear that works so far out of the common have to be approached from the poet's own point of view. "let the reader move his standpoint one inch nearer the popular standpoint," thus we are warned by mr. g. k. chesterton, "and his attitude towards the poet will be harsh, hostile, unconquerable mirth." there are some works that can be appreciated for their good story, even if we fail to realize the author's moral attitude, let alone to grasp the deeper content of his work. "but if we take a play by maeterlinck we shall find that unless we grasp the particular fairy thread of thought the poet rather lazily flings to us, we cannot grasp anything whatever. except from one extreme poetic point of view, the thing is not a play; it is not a bad play, it is a mass of clotted nonsense. one whole act describes the lovers going to look for a ring in a distant cave when they both know they have dropped it down the well. seen from some secret window on some special side of the soul's turret, this might convey a sense of faerie futility in our human life. but it is quite obvious that unless it called forth that one kind of sympathy, it would call forth nothing but laughter. in the same play, the husband chases his wife with a drawn sword, the wife remarking at intervals, 'i am not gay.' now there may really be an idea in this; the idea of human misfortune coming most cruelly upon the opportunism of innocence; that the lonely human heart says, like a child at a party, 'i am not enjoying myself as i thought i should.' but it is plain that unless one thinks of this idea, and of this idea only, the expression is not in the least unsuccessful pathos,--it is very broad and highly successful farce!" and so the atmosphere of maeterlinck's plays is impregnated throughout with oppressive mysteries, and until the key of these mysteries is found there is very little meaning to the plays. moreover, these mysteries, be they never so stern and awe-inspiring, are irresistibly alluring. the reason is, they are our own mysteries that have somehow escaped our grasp, and that we fain would recapture, because there dwells in every human breast a vague assent to the immortal truth of goethe's assertion: "the thrill of awe is man's best heritage."(6) (6) "_das schaudern ist der menschheit bestes teil._" the imaginative equipment of maeterlinck's dramaturgy is rather limited and, on its face value, trite. in particular are his dramatis personae creatures by no means calculated to overawe by some extraordinary weirdness or power. and yet we feel ourselves touched by an elemental dread and by an overwhelming sense of our human impotence in the presence of these figures who, without seeming supernatural, are certainly not of common flesh and blood; they impress us as surpassingly strange mainly because somehow they are instinct with a life fundamentally more real than the superficial reality we know. for they are the mediums and oracles of the fateful powers that stir human beings into action. the poet of mysticism, then, delves into the mystic sources of our deeds, and makes us stand reverent with him before the unknowable forces by which we are controlled. naturally he is obliged to shape his visions in dim outline. his aim is to shadow forth that which no naked eye can see, and it may be said in passing that he attains this aim with a mastery and completeness incomparably beyond the dubious skill displayed more recently by the grotesque gropings of the so-called futurist school. perhaps one true secret of the perturbing strangeness of maeterlinck's figures lies in the fact that the basic principle of their life, the one thoroughly vital element in them, if it does not sound too paradoxical to say so, is the idea of death. maeterlinck's mood and temper are fully in keeping with the religious dogma that life is but a short dream--with goethe he believes that "all things transitory but as symbols are sent," and apparently concurs in the creed voiced by one of arthur schnitzler's characters,--that death is the only subject in life worthy of being pondered by the serious mind. "from our death onwards," so he puts it somewhere, "the adventure of the universe becomes our own adventure." * * * * * it will be useful to have a bit of personal information concerning our author. he started his active career as a barrister; not by any means auspiciously, it seems, for already in his twenty-seventh year he laid the toga aside. experience had convinced him that in the forum there were no laurels for him to pluck. the specific qualities that make for success at the bar were conspicuously lacking in his make-up. far from being eloquent, he has at all times been noted for an unparalleled proficiency in the art of self-defensive silence. he shuns banal conversation and the sterile distractions of promiscuous social intercourse, dreads the hubbub of the city, and has an intense dislike for travel, to which he resorts only as a last means of escape from interviewers, reporters, and admirers. maeterlinck, it is seen, is anything but _multorum vir hominum_. in order to preserve intact his love of humanity, he finds it expedient to live for the most part by himself, away from the throng "whose very plaudits give the heart a pang;" his fame has always been a source of annoyance to him. the only company he covets is that of the contemplative thinkers of bygone days,--the mystics, gnostics, cabalists, neo-platonists. swedenborg and plotinus are perhaps his greatest favorites. that the war has produced a mighty agitation in the habitual calm of the great belgian poet-philosopher goes without saying. his love of justice no less than his love of his country aroused every red corpuscle in his virile personality to violent resentment against the invader. since the war broke out, however, he has published nothing besides a number of ringingly eloquent and singularly pathetic articles and appeals,--so that the character portrait derived from the body of his work has not at this time lost its application to his personality. in cast of mind, maeterlinck is sombrously meditative, and he has been wise in framing his outer existence so that it would accord with his habitual detachment. the greater part of his time used to be divided between his charming retreat at _quatre chemins_, near grasse, and the grand old abbey of st. wandrille in normandy, which he managed to snatch in the very nick of time from the tightening clutch of a manufacturing concern. with the temperament of a hermit, he has been, nevertheless, a keen observer of life, though one preferring to watch the motley spectacle from the aristocratic privacy of his box, sheltered, as it were, from prying curiosity. well on in middle age, he is still an enthusiastic out-of-doors man,--gardener, naturalist, pedestrian, wheelman, and motorist, and commands an extraordinary amount of special knowledge in a variety of sports and sciences. in "the double garden" he discusses the automobile with the authority of an expert watt-man and mechanician. in one of his other books he evinces an extraordinary erudition in all matters pertaining to the higher education of dogs; and his work on "the life of the bee" passes him beyond question with high rank among "thirty-third degree" apiculturists. one of the characteristics that seem to separate his books, especially those of the earlier period, from the literary tendencies of his age, is their surprising inattention to present social struggles. his metaphysical bias makes him dwell almost exclusively, and with great moral and logical consistency, on aspects of life that are slightly considered by the majority of men yet which he regards as ulteriorly of sole importance. when men like maeterlinck are encountered in the world of practical affairs, they are bound to impress us as odd, because of this inversion of the ordinary policies of behavior. but before classing them as "cranks," we might well ask ourselves whether their appraisal of the component values of life does not, after all, correspond better to their true relativity than does our own habitual evaluation. with the average social being, the transcendental bearing of a proposition is synonymous with its practical unimportance. but in his essay on "the invisible goodness" maeterlinck quite properly raises the question: "is visible life alone of consequence, and are we made up only of things that can be grasped and handled like pebbles in the road?" throughout his career maeterlinck reveals himself in the double aspect of poet and philosopher. in the first period his philosophy, as has already been amply hinted, is characterized chiefly by aversion from the externalities of life, and by that tense introversion of the mind which forms the mystic's main avenue to the goal of knowledge. but if, in order to find the key to his tragedies and puppet plays, we go to the thirteen essays representing the earlier trend of his philosophy and issued in 1896 under the collective title, "the treasure of the humble," we discover easily that his cast of mysticism is very different from that of his philosophic predecessors and teachers in the fourteenth and nineteenth centuries, in particular from the devotional mysticism of the "admirable" john ruysbroeck, and friedrich von hardenberg-novalis. maeterlinck does not strive after the so-called "spiritual espousals," expounded by the "doctor ecstaticus," ruysbroeck, in his celebrated treatise where christ is symbolized as the divine groom and human nature as the bride glowing with desire for union with god. maeterlinck feels too modernly to make use of that ancient sensuous imagery. the main thesis of his mystical belief is that there are divine forces dormant in human nature; how to arouse and release them, constitutes the paramount problem of human life. his doctrine is that a life not thus energized by its own latent divineness is, and must remain, humdrum and worthless. it will at once be noticed that such a doctrine harmonizes thoroughly with the romantic aspiration. both mystic and romantic teach that, in the last resort, the battlefield of our fate lies not out in the wide world but that it is enclosed in the inner self, within the unknown quantity which we designate as our soul. the visible life, according to this modern prophet of mysticism, obeys the invisible; happiness and unhappiness flow exclusively from the inner sources. maeterlinck's speculations, despite their medieval provenience, have a practical orientation. he firmly believes that it is within the ability of mankind to raise some of the veils that cover life's central secret. in unison with some other charitable students of society, he holds to the faith that a more highly spiritualized era is dawning, and from the observed indications he prognosticates a wider awakening of the sleepbound soul of man. and certainly some of the social manifestations that appeared with cumulative force during the constructive period before the war were calculated to justify that faith. the revival of interest in the metaphysical powers of man which expressed itself almost epidemically through such widely divergent cults as theosophy and christian science, was indubitable proof of spiritual yearnings in the broader masses of the people. and it had a practical counterpart in civic tendencies and reforms that evidenced a great agitation of the social conscience. and even to-day, when the great majority feel that the universal embroilment has caused civilized man to fall from his laboriously achieved level, this sage in his lofty solitude feels the redeeming spiritual connotation of our great calamity. "humanity was ready to rise above itself, to surpass all that it had hitherto accomplished. it has surpassed it.... never before had nations been seen that were able as a whole to understand that the happiness of each of those who live in this time of trial is of no consequence compared with the honor of those who live no more or the happiness of those who are not yet alive. we stand on heights that had not been attained before." but even for those many who find themselves unable to build very large hopes on the spiritual uplift of mankind through disaster, maeterlinck's philosophy is a wholesome tonic. in the essay on "the life profound" in "the treasure of the humble," we are told: "every man must find for himself in the low and unavoidable reality of common life his special possibility of a higher existence." the injunction, trite though it sound, articulates a moral very far from philistine. for it urges the pursuit of the transcendental self through those feelings which another very great idealist, friedrich schiller, describes in magnificent metaphor as ... "der dunklen gefühle gewalt, die im herzen wunderbar schliefen." in the labyrinth of the subliminal consciousness there lurks, however, a great danger for the seeker after the hidden treasures: the paralyzing effect of fatalism upon the normal energies. maeterlinck was seriously threatened by this danger during his earlier period. how he eventually contrived his liberation from the clutch of fatalism is not made entirely clear by the progress of his thought. at all events, an era of greater intellectual freedom, which ultimately was to create him the undisputed captain of his soul and master of his fate, was soon to arrive for him. it is heralded by another book of essays: "wisdom and destiny." but, as has been stated, we may in his case hardly hope to trace the precise route traveled by the mind between the points of departure and arrival. * * * * * so closely are the vital convictions in this truthful writer linked with the artistic traits of his work that without some grasp of his metaphysics even the technical peculiarities of his plays cannot be fully appreciated. to the mystic temper of mind, all life is secretly pregnant with great meaning, so that none of its phenomena can be deemed inconsequential. thus, while maeterlinck is a poet greatly preoccupied with spiritual matters yet nothing to him is more wonderful and worthy of attention than the bare facts and processes of living. real life, just like the theatre which purports to represent it, manipulates a multiform assortment of stage effects, now coarse and obvious and claptrap, now refined and esoteric, to suit the diversified taste and capacity of the patrons. to the cultured esthetic sense the tragical tendency carries more meaning than the catastrophic finale; our author accordingly scorns, and perhaps inordinately, whatsoever may appear as merely adventitious in the action of plays. "what can be told," he exclaims, "by beings who are possessed of a fixed idea and have no time to live because they have to kill off a rival or a mistress?" the internalized action in his plays is all of one piece with the profound philosophical conviction that the inner life alone matters; that consequently the small and unnoticed events are more worthy of attention than the sensational, cataclysmic moments. "why wait ye," he asks in that wonderful rhapsody on "silence"(7) "for heaven to open at the strike of the thunderbolt? ye should attend upon the blessed hours when it silently opens--and it is incessantly opening." (7) "the treasure of the humble." his purpose, then, is to reveal the working of hidden forces in their intricate and inseparable connection with external events; and in order that the _vie intérieure_ might have the right of way, drama in his practice emancipates itself very far from the traditional realistic methods. "poetry," he maintains, "has no other purpose than to keep open the great roads that lead from the visible to the invisible." to be sure, this definition postulates, rather audaciously, a widespread spiritual susceptibility. but in maeterlinck's optimistic anthropology no human being is spiritually so deadened as to be forever out of all communication with the things that are divine and infinite. he fully realizes, withal, that for the great mass of men there exists no intellectual approach to the truly significant problems of life. it is rather through our emotional capacity that our spiritual experience brings us into touch with the final verities. anyway, the poet of mysticism appeals from the _impasse_ of pure reasoning to the voice of the inner oracles. but how to detect in the deepest recesses of the soul the echoes of universal life and give outward resonance to their faint reverberations? that is the artistic, and largely technical, side of the problem. obvious it is that if the beholder's collaboration in the difficult enterprise is to be secured, his imagination has to be stirred to a super-normal degree. once a dramatist has succeeded in stimulating the imaginative activity, he can dispense with a mass of descriptive detail. but he must comply with two irremissible technical demands. in the first place, the "_vie intérieure_" calls forth a _dialogue intérieur_; an esoteric language, i would say, contrived predominantly for the "expressional" functions of speech, as differenced from its "impressional" purposes. under swedenborg's fanciful theory of "correspondences" the literal meaning of a word is merely a sort of protective husk for its secret spiritual kernel. it is this inner, essential meaning that maeterlinck's dialogue attempts to set free. by a fairly simple and consistent code of intimations the underlying meaning of the colloquy is laid bare and a basis created for a more fundamental understanding of the dramatic transactions. maeterlinck going, at first, to undue lengths in this endeavor, exposed the diction of his dramas to much cheap ridicule. the extravagant use of repetition, in particular, made him a mark for facile burlesque. the words of the queen in _princesse maleine_: "_mais ne répetez pas toujours ce que l'on dit_," were sarcastically turned against the poet himself. as a result of the extreme simplicity of his dialogue, maeterlinck was reproached with having invented the "monosyllabic theatre," the "theatre without words," and with having perpetrated a surrogate sort of drama, a hybrid between libretto and pantomime. the fact, however, is, his characters speak a language which, far from being absurd, as it was at first thought to be by many of his readers, is instinct with life and quite true to life--to life, that is, as made articulate in the intense privacy of dreams, or hallucinations, or moments of excessive emotional perturbation. the other principal requisite for the attainment of the inner dramatic vitalness in drama is a pervasive atmospheric mood, a sustained _stimmung_. this, in the case of maeterlinck, is brought about by the combined employment of familiar and original artistic devices. the grave and melancholy mood that so deeply impregnates the work of maeterlinck is tinged in the earlier stage, as has been pointed out, with the sombre coloring of fatalism. in the first few books, in particular, there hovers a brooding sense of terror and an undefinable feeling of desolation. through _serres chaudes_ ("hot houses"), his first published book, (1889), there runs a tenor of weariness, of ideal yearnings overshadowed by the hopelessness of circumstances. even in this collection of poems, where so much less necessity exists for a unity of mood than in the plays, maeterlinck's predilection for scenic effects suggestive of weirdness and superstitious fear became apparent in the recurrent choice of sombre scenic motifs: oppressive nocturnal silence,--a stagnant sheet of water,--moonlight filtered through green windows, etc. the diction, too, through the incessant use of terms like _morne_, _las_, _pâle_, _désire_, _ennui_, _tiède_, _indolent_, _malade_, exhales as it were a lazy resignation. temporarily, then, the fatalistic strain is uppermost both in the philosophy and the poetry of the rising young author; and to make matters worse, his is the fatalism of pessimistic despair: fate is forsworn against man. the objective point of life is death. we constantly receive warnings from within, but the voices are not unequivocal and emphatic enough to save us from ourselves. probing the abysses of his subliminal self, the mystic may sense, along with the diviner promptings of the heart, the lurking demons that undermine happiness,--"the malignant powers,"--again quoting schiller--"whom no man's craft can make familiar"--that element in human nature which in truth makes man "his own worst enemy." it is a search which at this stage of his development maeterlinck, as a mystic, cannot bring himself to relinquish, even though, pessimistically, he anticipates that which he most dreads to find; in this way, fatalism and pessimism act as insuperable barriers against his artistic self-assertion. his fixed frame of mind confines him to the representation of but one elemental instinct, namely, that of fear. the rustic in the german fairy tale who sallied forth to learn how to shudder,--_gruseln_,--would have mastered the art to his complete satisfaction if favored with a performance or two of such plays as "princess maleine," "the intruder," or "the sightless." perhaps no other dramatist has ever commanded a similarly well-equipped arsenal of thrills and terrible foreshadowings. the commonest objects are fraught with ominous forebodings: a white gown lying on a _prie-dieu_, a curtain suddenly set swaying by a puff of air, the melancholy soughing of a clump of trees,--the simplest articles of daily use are converted into awful symbols that make us shiver by their whisperings of impending doom. nor in the earlier products of maeterlinck are the cruder practices of melodrama scorned or spared,--the crash and flash of thunder and lightning, the clang of bells and clatter of chains, the livid light and ghastly shadows, the howling hurricane, the ominous croaking of ravens amid nocturnal solitude, trees illumined by the fiery eyes of owls, bats whirring portentously through the gloom,--so many harbingers of dread and death. and the prophetic import of these tokens and their sort is reinforced by repeated assertions from the persons in the action that never before has anything like this been known to occur. to such a fearsome state are we wrought up by all this uncanny apparatus that at the critical moment a well calculated knock at the door is sufficient to make our flesh creep and our hair stand on end. thus, the _vie intérieure_ would seem to prerequire for its externalization a completely furnished chamber of horrors. and when it is added that the scene of the action is by preference a lonely churchyard or a haunted old mansion, a crypt, a cavern, a silent forest or a solitary tower, it is easy to understand why plays like "princess maleine" could be classed by superficial and unfriendly critics with the gruesome ebullitions of that fantastic quasi-literary occupation to which we owe a well known variety of "water-front" drama and, in fiction, the "shilling shocker." their immeasurably greater psychological refinement could not save them later on from condemnation at the hands of their own maker. and yet they are not without very great artistic merits. octave mirbeau, in his habitual enthusiasm for the out-of-the-ordinary, hailed maeterlinck, on the strength of "princess maleine," as the belgian shakespeare, evidently because maeterlinck derived some of his motifs from "hamlet": mainly the churchyard scene, and prince hjalmar's defiance of the queen, as well as his general want of decision. as a matter of fact, maeterlinck has profoundly studied, not shakespeare alone, but the minor elizabethans as well. he has made an admirable translation of "macbeth." early in his career he even translated one of john ford's plays, "'tis pity she's a whore," one of the coarsest works ever written for the stage, but to which he was attracted by the intrinsic human interest that far outweighs its offensiveness. as for any real kinship of maeterlinck with shakespeare, the resemblance between the two is slight. they differ philosophically in the fundamental frame of mind, ethically in the outlook upon life, dramaturgically in the value attached to external action, and humanly,--much to the disadvantage of the belgian,--in their sense of humor. for unfortunately it has to be confessed that this supreme gift of the gods has been very sparingly dispensed to maeterlinck. altogether, whether or no he is to be counted among the disciples of shakespeare, his works show no great dependence on the master. with far better reason might he be called a debtor to germanic folklore, especially in its fantastic elements. a german fairy world it is to which we are transported by maeterlinck's first dramatic attempt, "princess maleine," (1889), a play refashioned after grimm's tale of the maid maleen; only that in the play all the principals come to a harrowing end and that in it an esoteric meaning lies concealed underneath the primitive plot. the action, symbolically interpreted, illustrates the fatalist's doctrine that man is nothing but a toy in the hands of dark and dangerous powers. practical wisdom does not help us to discern the working of these powers until it is too late. neither can we divine their presence, for the prophetic apprehension of the future resides not in the expert and proficient, but rather in the helpless or decrepit,--the blind, the feeble-minded, and the stricken in years, or again in young children and in dumb animals. take the scene in "princess maleine" where the murderers, having invaded the chamber, lie there in wait, with bated breath. in the corridor outside, people are unconcernedly passing to and fro, while the only creatures who, intuitively, sense the danger, are the little prince and a dog that keeps anxiously scraping at the door. in _l'intruse_ ("the intruder"), (1890), a one-act play on a theme which is collaterally developed later on in _les aveugles_ ("the sightless"), and in _l'intérieur_ ("home"), the arriving disaster that cannot be shut out by bolts or bars announces itself only to the clairvoyant sense of a blind old man. the household gathered around the table is placidly waiting for the doctor. only the blind grandfather is anxious and heavy-laden because he alone knows that death is entering the house, he alone can feel his daughter's life withering away under the breath of the king of terror: the sightless have a keener sensitiveness than the seeing for what is screened from the physical eye. it would hardly be possible to name within the whole range of dramatic literature another work so thoroughly pervaded with the chilling horror of approaching calamity. the talk at the table is of the most commonplace,--that the door will not shut properly, and they must send for the carpenter to-morrow. but from the mechanism of the environment there comes cumulative and incremental warning that something extraordinary and fatal is about to happen. the wind rises, the trees shiver, the nightingales break off their singing, the fishes in the pond grow restive, the dogs cower in fear,--an unseen presence walks through the garden. then the clanging of a scythe is heard. a cold current of air rushes into the room. nearer and nearer come the steps. the grandfather insists that a stranger has seated himself in the midst of the family. the lamp goes out. the bell strikes midnight. the old man is sure that somebody is rising from the table. then suddenly the baby whose voice has never been heard starts crying. through an inner door steps a deaconess silently crossing herself: the mother of the house is dead. these incidents in themselves are not necessarily miraculous. there are none of them but might be accounted for on perfectly natural grounds. in fact, very plausible explanations do offer themselves for the weirdest things that come to pass. so, especially, it was a real, ordinary mower that chanced to whet his scythe; yet the apparition of the old reaper in person could not cause the chilling consternation produced by this trivial circumstance coming as it does as the climax of a succession of commonplace happenings exaggerated and distorted by a fear-haunted imagination. to produce an effect like that upon an audience whose credulity refuses to be put to any undue strain is a victorious proof of prime artistic ability. _les aveugles_ ("the sightless"), (1891), is pitched in the same psychological key. the atmosphere is surcharged with unearthly apprehension. a dreary twilight--in the midst of a thick forest--on a lonely island; twelve blind people fretting about the absence of their guardian. he is gone to find a way out of the woods--what can have become of him? from moment to moment the deserted, helpless band grows more fearstricken. the slightest sound becomes the carrier of evil forebodings: the rustling of the foliage, the flapping of a bird's wings, the swelling roar of the nearby sea in its dash against the shore. the bell strikes twelve--they wonder is it noon or night? then questions, eager and calamitous, pass in whispers among them: has the leader lost his way? will he never come back? has the dam burst apart and will they all be swallowed by the ocean? the pathos is greatly heightened by an extremely delicate yet sure individuation of the figures, as when at the mention of heaven those not sightless from birth raise their countenance to the sky. and where in the meanwhile is the lost leader? he is seated right in their midst, but smitten by death. they learn it at last through the actions of the dog; besides whom--in striking parallel to "princess maleine"--the only other creature able to see is a little child. the horror-stricken unfortunates realize that they can never get home, and that they must perish in the woods. in _les sept princesses_ ("the seven princesses"), (1891), although it is one of maeterlinck's minor achievements, some of the qualities that are common to all his work become peculiarly manifest. this is particularly true of the skill shown in conveying the feeling of the story by means of suitable scenic devices. most of his plays depend to a considerable degree for their dark and heavy nimbus of unreality upon a studied combination of paraphernalia in themselves neither numerous nor far-sought. in fact, the resulting scenic repertory, too, is markedly limited: a weird forest, a deserted castle with marble staircase and dreamy moonlit terrace, a tower with vaulted dungeons, a dismal corridor flanked by impenetrable chambers, a lighted interior viewed from the garden, a landscape bodefully crêped with twilight--the list nearly exhausts his store of "sets." the works mentioned so far are hardly more than able exercises preparatory for the ampler and more finished products which were to succeed them. yet they represent signal steps in the evolution of a new dramatic style, designed, as has already been intimated, to give palpable form to emotional data descried in moments anterior not only to articulation but even to consciousness itself; and for this reason, the plane of the dramatic action lies deep below the surface of life, down in the inner tabernacle where the mystic looks for the hidden destinies. in his style, maeterlinck had gradually developed an unprecedented capacity for bringing to light the secret agencies of fate. a portion of the instructed public had already learned to listen in his writings for the finer reverberations that swing in the wake of the uttered phrase, to heed the slightest hints and allusions in the text, to overlook no glance or gesture that might betray the mind of the acting characters. it is true that art to be great must be plain, but that does not mean that the sole test of great art is the response of the simple and apathetic. in maeterlinck's first masterpiece, _pélléas et mélisande_, (1892), the motives again are drawn up from the lower regions of consciousness; once more the plot is born of a gloomy fancy, and the darkling mood hovering over scene and action attests the persistence of fatalism in the poet. the theory of old king arkel, the spokesman of the author's personal philosophy, is that one should not seek to be active; one should ever wait on the threshold of fate. even the younger people in the play are infected by the morbid doctrine of an inevitable necessity for all things that happen to them: "we do not go where we would go. we do not do that which we would do." perhaps, however, these beliefs are here enounced for the last time with the author's assent or acquiescence. in artistic merit "pélléas and mélisande" marks a nearer approach to mastery, once the integral peculiarities of the form and method have been granted. despite a noticeable lack of force, directness, and plasticity in the characterization, the _vie intérieure_ is most convincingly expressed. in one of the finest scenes of the play we see the principals at night gazing out upon a measureless expanse of water dotted with scattered lights. the atmosphere is permeated with a reticent yearning of love. the two young creatures, gentle, shy, their souls tinged with melancholy, are drawn towards one another by an ineluctable mutual attraction. yet, though their hearts are filled to overflowing, not a word of affection is uttered. their love reveals itself to us even as to themselves, without a loud and jarring declaration, through its very speechlessness, as it were. the situation well bears out the _roi sage_ in _alladine et palomides_: "there is a moment when souls touch one another and know everything without a need of our opening the lips." there are still other scenes in this play so tense with emotion that words would be intrusive and dissonant. there is that lovely picture of mélisande at the window; pélléas cannot reach up to her hand, but is satisfied to feel her loosened hair about his face. it is a question whether even that immortal love duet in "romeo and juliet" casts a poetic spell more enchanting than this. at another moment in the drama, we behold the lovers in maeterlinck's beloved half-light, softly weeping as they stare with speechless rapture into the flames. and not until the final parting does any word of love pass their lips. in another part of the play goland, mélisande's aging husband, who suspects his young stepbrother, pélléas, of loving mélisande, conducts him to an underground chamber. we are not told why he has brought him there, and why he has led him to the brink of the pitfall from which there mounts a smell of death. if it be a heinous deed he is brooding, why does he pause in its execution? his terrible struggle does not reveal itself through speech, yet it is eloquently expressed in the wildness of his looks, the trembling of his voice, and the sudden anguished outcry: "pélléas! pélléas!" evidently maeterlinck completely achieves the very purpose to which the so-called futurists think they must sacrifice all traditional conceptions of art; and achieves it without any brutal stripping and skinning of the poetic subject, without the hideous exhibition of its _disjecta membra_, and above all, without that implied disqualification for the higher artistic mission which alone could induce a man to limit his service to the dishing-up of chunks and collops, "cubic" or amorphous. in recognition of a certain tendency towards mannerism that lay in his technique, maeterlinck, in a spirit of self-persiflage, labeled the book of one-act plays which he next published, (1894), _trois petits drames pour marionettes_ ("three little puppet plays"). they are entitled, severally: _alladine et palomides_, _intérieur_, and _la mort de tintagiles_. while in motifs and materials as well as in the principal points of style these playlets present a sort of epitome of his artistic progression up to date, they also display some new and significant qualities. of the three the first named is most replete with suggestive symbolism and at the same time most remindful of the older plays, especially of "pélléas and mélisande." king ablamore is in character and demeanor clearly a counterpart of king arkel. to be sure he makes a temporary stand against the might of fate, but his resistance is meek and futile, and his wisdom culminates in the same old fatalistic formula: "_je sais qu'on ne fait pas ce que l'on voudrait faire._" _l'intérieur_ ("home") handles a theme almost identical with that of _l'intruse_: life and death separated only by a thin pane of glass,--the sudden advent of affliction from a cloudless sky. in this little tragedy a family scene, enacted in "dumb show," is watched from the outside. the play is without suspense in the customary use of the term, since after the first whispered conversation between the bringers of the fateful tidings the audience is fully aware of the whole story:--the daughter of the house, for whose return the little group is waiting, has been found dead in the river. the quiescent mood is sustained to the end; no great outburst of lamentation; the curtain drops the instant the news has been conveyed. but the poignancy of the tragic strain is only enhanced by the repression of an exciting climax. "the death of tintagiles" repeats in a still more harrowing form the fearful predicament of a helpless child treated with so much dramatic tension in maeterlinck's first tragedy. again, as in "princess maleine," the action of this dramolet attains its high point in a scene where murderous treachery is about to spring the trap set for an innocent young prince. intuitively he senses the approach of death, and in vain beats his little fists against the door that imprisons him. the situation is rendered more piteous even than in the earlier treatment of the motif, because the door which bars his escape also prevents his faithful sister ygraine from coming to the rescue. we have observed in all the plays so far a marked simplicity of construction. _aglavaine et selysette_, (1896), denotes a still further simplification. here the scenic apparatus is reduced to the very minimum, and the psychological premises are correspondingly plain. the story presents a "triangular" love entanglement strangely free from the sensual ingredient; two women dream of sharing, in all purity, one lover--and the dream ends for one of them in heroic self-sacrifice brought to secure the happiness of the rival. however, more noteworthy than the structure of the plot is the fact that the philosophic current flowing through it has perceptibly altered its habitual direction. the spiritual tendency is felt to be turning in its course, and even though fatalism still holds the rule, with slowly relaxing grip, yet a changed ethical outlook is manifest. also, this play for the first time proclaims, though in no vociferous manner, the duty of the individual toward himself, the duty so emphatically proclaimed by two of maeterlinck's greatest teachers, ralph waldo emerson and henrik ibsen. * * * * * the inner philosophic conflict was but of short duration. in 1898 _la sagesse et la destinée_ ("wisdom and destiny") saw the light. the metaphor might be taken in a meaning higher and more precise than the customary, for, coming to this book from those that preceded is indeed like emerging from some dark and dismal cave into the warm and cheering light of the sun. "wisdom and destiny" is a collection of essays and aphorisms which stands to this second phase of maeterlinck's dramaturgy in a relation closely analogous to that existing between "the treasure of the humble" and the works heretofore surveyed. without amounting to a wholesale recantation of the idea that is central in the earlier set of essays, the message of the newer set is of a very different kind. the author of "wisdom and destiny" has not changed his view touching the superiority of the intuitional function over the intellectual. the significant difference between the old belief and the new consists simply in this: the latent force of life is no longer imagined as an antagonistic agency; rather it is conceived as a benign energy that makes for a serene acceptance of the world that is. of this turn in the outlook, the philosophic affirmation of life and the consent of the will to subserve the business of living are the salutary concomitants. wisdom, in expanding, has burst the prison of fatalism and given freedom to vision. the world, beheld in the light of this emancipation, is not to be shunned by the wise man. let fortune bring what she will, he can strip his afflictions of their terrors by transmuting them into higher knowledge. therefore, pain and suffering need not be feared and shirked; they may even be hailed with satisfaction, for, as is paradoxically suggested in _aglavaine et selysette_, they help man "_être heureux en devenant plus triste_,"--to be happy in becoming sadder. the poet, who till now had clung to the conviction that there can be no happy fate, that all our destinies are guided by unlucky stars, now on the contrary persuades us to consider how even calamity may be refined in the medium of wisdom in such fashion as to become an asset of life, and warns us against recoiling in spirit from any reverse of our fortunes. he holds that blows and sorrows cannot undo the sage. fate has no weapons save those we supply, and "wise is he for whom even the evil must feed the pyre of love." in fine, fate obeys him who dares to command it. after all, then, man has a right to appoint himself the captain of his soul, the master of his fate. yet, for all that, the author of "wisdom and destiny" should not be regarded as the partizan and apologist of sadness for the sake of wisdom. if sorrow be a rich mine of satisfaction, joy is by far the richer mine. this new outlook becomes more and more optimistic because of the increasing faculty of such a philosophy to extract from the mixed offerings of life a more near-at-hand happiness than sufferings can possibly afford; not perchance that perpetual grinning merriment over the comicality of the passing spectacle which with so many passes for a "sense of humor," but rather a calm and serious realization of what is lastingly beautiful, good, and true. a person's attainment of this beatitude imposes on him the clear duty of helping others to rise to a similar exalted level of existence. and this duty maeterlinck seeks to discharge by proclaiming in jubilant accents the concrete reality of happiness. _l'oiseau bleu_ ("the blue bird"), above all other works, illustrates the fact that human lives suffer not so much for the lack of happiness as for the want of being clearly conscious of the happiness they possess. it is seen that the seed of optimism in "the treasure of the humble" has sprouted and spread out, and at last triumphantly shot forth through the overlaying fatalism. the newly converted, hence all the more thoroughgoing, optimist, believing that counsel and consolation can come only from those who trust in the regenerative power of hope, throws himself into a mental attitude akin to that of the christian scientist, and confidently proceeds to cure the ills of human kind by a categorical denial of their existence. or perhaps it would be more just to say of maeterlinck's latter-day outlook, the serenity of which even the frightful experience of the present time has failed to destroy, that instead of peremptorily negating evil, he merely denies its supremacy. all about him he perceives in the midst of the worst wrongs and evils many fertile germs of righteousness; vice itself seems to distil its own antitoxin. together with maeterlinck's optimistic strain, his individualism gains an unexpected emphasis. "before one exists for others, one must exist for one's self. the egoism of a strong and clear-sighted soul is of a more beneficent effect than all the devotion of a blind and feeble soul." here we have a promulgation identical in gist with emerson's unqualified declaration of moral independence when he says: "whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist. he who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore if it be goodness. nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. no law can be sacred to me but that of my nature."(8) (8) "self-reliance." his attitude of countenancing the positive joys of living causes maeterlinck in his later career to reverse his former judgment, and to inveigh, much in the manner of nietzsche, against the "parasitical virtues." "certain notions about resignation and self-sacrifice sap the finest moral forces of mankind more thoroughly than do great vices and even crimes. the alleged triumphs over the flesh are in most cases only complete defeats of life." when to such rebellious sentiments is joined an explicit warning against the seductions and intimidations held out by the official religions--their sugar plums and dog whips, as maeterlinck puts it--one can only wonder how his writings escaped as long as they did the attention of the authorities that swing the power of imprimatur and anathema. maeterlinck may not be classed unreservedly as a radical individualist. for whereas a philosophy like that of nietzsche takes no account of the "much-too-many," who according to that great fantasist do not interest anybody except the statistician and the devil, maeterlinck realizes the supreme importance of the great mass as the ordained transmitters of civilization. the gulf between aristocratic subjectivism, devoted single-mindedly to the ruthless enforcement of self-interest, and, on the other hand, a self-forgetful social enthusiasm, is bridged in maeterlinck by an extremely strong instinct for justice and, moreover, by his firm belief--at least for the time being--that the same strong instinct exists universally as a specific trait of human nature. by such a philosophy justice, then, is discerned not as a supra-natural function, but as a function of human nature as distinguished from nature at large. the restriction is made necessary by our knowledge of the observable operations of nature. in particular would the principle of heredity seem to argue against the reign of justice in the administration of human destinies, inasmuch as we find ourselves quite unable to recognize in the apportionment of pleasure and pain anything like a due ratio of merit. and yet maeterlinck realizes that perhaps nature measures life with a larger standard than the individual's short span of existence, and warns us in his essay on "justice" not to indulge our self-conceit in a specious emulation of ways that are utterly beyond our comprehension. after all, then, our poet-philosopher succeeds _foro conscientiæ_ in reconciling his cult of self with devotion to the common interest. morality, in that essay, is defined as the co-ordination of personal desire to the task assigned by nature to the race. and is it not true that a contrary, that is, ascetic concept of morality reduces itself to absurdity through its antagonism to that primal human instinct that makes for the continuity of life? * * * * * from the compromise effected between two fairly opposite ethical principles, there emerges in the works of this period something akin to a socialistic tendency. it is organically related to the mystical prepossession of the author's manner of thinking. maeterlinck gratefully acknowledges that by the search-light of science the uppermost layers of darkness have been dispelled; but realizes also that the deep-seated central enigma still remains in darkness: as much as ever are the primordial causes sealed against a glimpse of finite knowledge. we have changed the names, not the problems. instead of god, providence, or fate, we say nature, selection, and heredity. but in reality do we know more concerning life than did our ancestors? what, then, questions the persevering pursuer of the final verities, shall we do in order that we may press nearer to truth? may we not perchance steep our souls in light that flows from another source than science? and what purer light is there to illumine us than the halo surrounding a contented worker performing his task, not under coercion, but from a voluntary, or it may be instinctive, submission to the law of life? if such subordination of self constitutes the basis of rational living, we shall do well to study its workings on a lowlier and less complicated plane than the human; for instance, in the behavior of the creature that is proverbial for its unflagging industry. for this industry is not motivated by immediate or selfish wants; it springs from instinctive self-dedication to the common cause. some people expected from _la vie des abeilles_ ("the life of the bee"), (1901), much brand-new information about matters of apiculture. but in spite of his twenty-five years' experience, maeterlinck had no startling discoveries to convey to his fellow-hivers. his book on bees is not primarily the result of a specialist's investigations but a poetical record of the observations made by a mind at once romantic and philosophical and strongly attracted to the study of this particular form of community life, because by its organization on a miniature scale it spreads before the student of society a synoptic view of human affairs. of the great change that had by now taken place in his conception of life, maeterlinck was fully cognizant, and made no concealment of it. in the essay on "justice" he says, with reference to his earlier dramas: "the motive of these little plays was the fear of the unknown by which we are constantly surrounded," and passes on to describe his religious temper as a sort of compound of the christian idea of god with the antique idea of fate, immersed in the profound gloom of hopeless mystery. "the unknown took chiefly the aspect of a power, itself but blindly groping in the dark, yet disposing with inexorable unfeelingness of the fates of men." evidently those same plays are passed once more in self-critical review in _ardiane et barbe-bleue_ ("ardiane and blue-beard"), (1899), notwithstanding the fact that the author disclaims any philosophic purpose and presents his work as a mere libretto. we cannot regard it as purely accidental that of blue-beard's terror-stricken wives, four,--selysette, mélisande, ygraine, alladine,--bear the names of earlier heroines, and, besides, that each of these retains with the name also the character of her namesake. the symbolism is too transparent. the child-wives of the cruel knight, forever in a state of trembling fear, are too passive to extricate themselves from their fate, whereas ardiane succeeds instantly in breaking her captivity, because she has the spirit and strength to shatter the window and let in the light and air. the contrast between her resolute personality and those five inert bundles of misery undoubtedly connotes the difference between the author's paralyzing fatalism in the past and his present dynamic optimism. a like contrast between dejection and resilience would be brought to light by a comparison of the twelve lyric poems, _douze chansons_, (1897), with the _serres chaudes_. the mood is still greatly subdued; the new poetry is by no means free from sadness and a strain of resignation. but the half-stifled despair that cries out from the older book returns no dissonant echo in the new. even his dramatic technique comes under the sway of maeterlinck's altered view of the world. the far freer use of exciting and eventful action testifies to increased elasticity and force. this is a marked feature of _soeur beatrice_ ("sister beatrice"), (1900), a miracle play founded on the old story about the recreant nun who, broken from sin and misery, returns to the cloister and finds that during the many years of her absence her part and person have been carried out by the holy virgin herself. equally, the three other dramas of this epoch--_aglavaine et selysette_, _monna vanna_, and _joyzelle_--are highly available for scenic enactment. of the three, _monna vanna_, (1902), in particular is conspicuous for a wholly unexpected aptitude of characterization, and for the unsurpassed intensity of its situations, which in this isolated case are not cast in a single mood as in the other plays, but are individually distinct and full of dramatic progress, whereas everywhere else the action moves rather sluggishly. "monna vanna" is one of the most brilliantly actable plays of modern times, despite its improbability. a certain incongruity between the realistic and the romantic aspects in the behavior of the principals is saved from offensiveness by a disposition on the part of the spectator to refer it, unhistorically, to the provenience of the story. but as a matter of fact the actors are not fifteenth century renaissance men and women at all, but mystics, modern mystics at that, both in their reasoning and their morality. it is under a cryptical soul-compulsion that giovanna goes forth to the unknown condottiere prepared to lay down her honor for the salvation of her people, and that her husband at last conquers his repugnance to her going. prinzivalle, guido, marco, are mystics even to a higher degree than vanna. the poignant actualism of "monna vanna" lies, however, in the author's frank sympathy with a distinctively modern zest for freedom. the situation between husband and wife is reminiscent of "a doll's house" in the greedily possessive quality of guido's affection, with which quality his tyrannous unbelief in prinzivalle's magnanimity fully accords. but maeterlinck here goes a step beyond ibsen. in her married life with guido, vanna was meekly contented, "at least as happy as one can be when one has renounced the vague and extravagant dreams which seem beyond human life." when the crisis arrives she realizes that "it is never too late for one who has found a love that can fill a life." her final rebellion is sanctioned by the author, who unmistakably endorses the venerable marco's profession of faith that life is always in the right. "joyzelle," (1903), inferior to "monna vanna" dramaturgically, and in form the most distinctly fantastic of all maeterlinck's productions, is still farther removed from the fatalistic atmosphere. this play sounds, as the author himself has stated, "the triumph of will and love over destiny or fatality," as against the converse lesson of _monna vanna_. the idea is symbolically expressed in the temptations of lanceor and in the liberation of joyzelle and her lover from the power of merlin and his familiar, arielle, who impersonates the secret forces of the heart. _aglavaine et selysette_, _monna vanna_, and _joyzelle_ mark by still another sign the advent of a new phase in maeterlinck's evolution; namely, by the characterization of the heroines. previously, the women in his plays were hardly individualized and none of them can be said to possess a physiognomy strictly her own. maeterlinck had returned with great partiality again and again to the same type of woman: languid and listless, without stamina and strength, yet at the same time full of deep feeling, and capable of unending devotion--pathetic incorporeal figures feeling their way along without the light of self-consciousness, like some pre-raphaelite species of somnambulists. in the new plays, on the contrary, women of a courageous and venturesome spirit and with a self-possessive assurance are portrayed by preference and with unmistakable approval. as the technique in the more recent creations of maeterlinck, so the diction, too, accommodates itself to altered tendencies. whereas formerly the colloquy was abrupt and fragmentary, it is now couched in cadenced, flowing language, which, nevertheless, preserves the old-time simplicity. the poet himself has criticized his former dialogue. he said it made those figures seem like deaf people walking in their sleep, whom somebody is endeavoring to arouse from a heavy dream. * * * * * for the limited purpose of this sketch it is not needful to enter into a detailed discussion of maeterlinck's latest productions, since such lines as they add to his philosophical and artistic physiognomy have been traced beforehand. his literary output for the last dozen years or so is embodied in six or seven volumes: about two years to a book seems to be his normal ratio of achievement, the same as was so regularly observed by henrik ibsen, and one that seems rather suitable for an author whose reserve, dictated by a profound artistic and moral conscience, like his actual performance, calls for admiration and gratitude. during the war he has written, or at least published, very little. it is fairly safe to assume that the emotional experience of this harrowing period will control his future philosophy as its most potent factor; equally safe is it to predict, on the strength of his published utterances, that his comprehensive humanity, that has been put to such a severe test, will pass unscathed through the ordeal. of the last group of maeterlinck's works only two are dramas, namely, "the blue bird," (1909), and "mary magdalene," (1910). the baffling symbolism of "the blue bird" has not stood in the way of a tremendous international stage success; the fact is due much less to the simple line of thought that runs through the puzzle than to the exuberant fancy that gave rise to it and its splendid scenical elaboration. probably mr. henry rose is right, in his helpful analysis of "the blue bird," in venturing the assertion that "by those who are familiar with swedenborg's teaching 'the blue bird' must be recognized as to a very large extent written on lines which are in accordance with what is known as the science of correspondences--a very important part of swedenborg's teachings." but the understanding of this symbolism in its fullness offers very great difficulties. that a definite and consistent meaning underlies all its features will be rather felt than comprehended by the great majority who surely cannot be expected to go to the trouble first of familiarizing themselves with maeterlinck's alleged code of symbols and then of applying it meticulously to the interpretation of his plays. "mary magdalene," judged from the dramatic point of view, is a quite impressive tragedy, yet a full and sufficient treatment of the very suggestive scriptural legend it is not. the converted courtezan is characterized too abstractly. instead of presenting herself as a woman consumed with blazing sensuality but in whom the erotic fire is transmuted into religious passion, she affects us like an enacted commentary upon such a most extraordinary experience. finally, there are several volumes of essays, to some of which reference has already been made.(9) _le temple enseveli_ ("the buried temple"), (1902), consists of six disquisitions, all dealing with metaphysical subjects: justice, the evolution of mystery, the reign of matter, the past, chance, the future. _le double jardin_ ("the double garden"), (1904), is much more miscellaneous in its makeup. these are its heterogeneous subjects: the death of a little dog, monte carlo, a ride in a motor car, dueling, the angry temper of the bees, universal suffrage, the modern drama, the sources of spring, death and the crown (a discussion upon the fatal illness of edward vii), a view of rome, field flowers, chrysanthemums, old-fashioned flowers, sincerity, the portrait of woman, and olive branches (a survey of certain now, alas, obsolete ethical movements of that day). _l'intelligence des fleurs_ (in the translation it is named "life and flowers," in an enlarged issue "the measure of the hours," both 1907), takes up, besides the theme of the general caption, the manufacture of perfumes, the various instruments for measuring time, the psychology of accident, social duty, war, prize-fighting, and "king lear." in 1912, three essays on emerson, novalis, and ruysbroeck appeared collectively, in english, under the title "on emerson and other essays." these originally prefaced certain works of those writers translated by maeterlinck in his earlier years. (9) considerable liberty has been taken by maeterlinck in the grouping and naming of his essay upon their republication in the several collections. the confusion caused thereby is greatly increased by the deviation of some of the translated editions from the original volumes as to the sequence of articles, the individual and collective titles, and even the contents themselves. maeterlinck's most recent publications are _la mort_ (published in english in a considerably extended collection under the title "our eternity"), (1913), "the unknown guest," (1914), and _les débris de la guerre_ ("the wrack of the storm"), (1916).(10) the two first named, having for their central subject death and the great concomitant problem of the life beyond, show that the author has become greatly interested in psychical research; he even goes so far as to affirm his belief in precognition. in these essays, theosophy and spiritism and kindred occult theories are carefully analyzed, yet ingenious as are the author's speculations, they leave anything like a solution of the perplexing riddles far afield. on the whole he inclines to a telepathic explanation of the psychical phenomena, yet thinks they may be due to the strivings of the cosmic intelligence after fresh outlets, and believes that a careful and persistent investigation of these phenomena may open up hitherto undreamt of realms of reality. in general, we find him on many points less assertive than he was in the beginning and inclined to a general retrenchment of the dogmatic element in his philosophic attitude. a significant passage in "the buried treasure" teaches us not to deplore the loss of fixed beliefs. "one should never look back with regret to those hours when a great belief abandons us. a faith that becomes extinct, a means that fails, a dominant idea that no longer dominates us because we think it is our turn to dominate it--these things prove that we are living, that we are progressing, that we are using up a great many things because we are not standing still." of the gloomy fatalism of his literary beginnings hardly a trace is to be found in the maeterlinck of to-day. his war-book, "the wrack of the storm," breathes a calm optimism in the face of untold disaster. the will of man is put above the power of fate. "is it possible that fatality--by which i mean what perhaps for a moment was the unacknowledged desire of the planet--shall not regain the upper hand? at the stage which man has reached, i hope and believe so.... everything seems to tell us that man is approaching the day whereon, seizing the most glorious opportunity that has ever presented itself since he acquired a consciousness, he will at last learn that he is able, when he pleases, to control his whole fate in this world."(11) his faith in humanity is built on the heroic virtues displayed in this war. "to-day, not only do we know that these virtues exist: we have taught the world that they are always triumphant, that nothing is lost while faith is left, while honor is intact, while love continues, while the soul does not surrender." ... death itself is now threatened with extinction by our heroic race: "the more it exercises its ravages, the more it increases the intensity of that which it cannot touch; the more it pursues its phantom victories, the better does it prove to us that man will end by conquering death." (10) "the light beyond" (1917) is not a new work at all, but merely a combination of parts from "our eternity" and "the wrack of the storm." (11) "the wrack of the storm," p. 144 f. in the concluding chapter of "our eternity," the romantic modification of maeterlinck's mysticism is made patent in his confession regarding the problem of knowledge: "i have added nothing to what was already known. i have simply tried to separate what may be true from that which is assuredly not true.... perhaps through our quest for that undiscoverable truth we shall have accustomed our eyes to pierce the terror of the last hour by looking it full in the face.... we need have no hope that any one will utter on this earth the word that shall put an end to our uncertainties. it is very probable, on the contrary, that no one in this world, nor perhaps in the next, will discover the great secret of the universe. and ... it is most fortunate that it should be so. we have not only to resign ourselves to living in the incomprehensible, but to rejoice that we cannot get out of it. if there were no more insoluble questions ... infinity would not be infinite; and then we should have forever to curse the fate that placed us in a universe proportionate to our intelligence. the unknown and the unknowable are necessary and will perhaps always be necessary to our happiness. in any case, i would not wish my worst enemy, were his understanding a thousandfold loftier and a thousandfold mightier than mine, to be condemned eternally to inhabit a world of which he had surprised an essential secret...."(12) (12) quoted from the excellent translation by a. t. de mattos. so the final word of maeterlinck's philosophy, after a lifetime of ardent search, clears up none of the tantalizing secrets of our existence. and yet somehow it bears a message that is full of consolation. the value of human life lies in the perpetual movement towards a receding goal. whoever can identify himself with such a philosophy and accept its great practical lesson, that we shall never reach knowledge but acquire wisdom in the pursuit, should be able to envisage the veiled countenance of truth without despair, and even to face with some courage the eternal problem of our being, its reason and its destination. ii the eccentricity of august strindberg one cannot speak of august strindberg with much _gusto_. the most broadminded critic will find himself under necessity to disapprove of him as a man and to condemn so many features of his production that almost one might question his fitness as a subject of literary discussion. nevertheless, his importance is beyond dispute and quite above the consideration of personal like or dislike, whether we view him in his creative capacity,--as an intellectual and ethical spokesman of his time,--or in his human character,--as a typical case of certain mental and moral maladies which somehow during his time were more or less epidemic throughout the lettered world. we have it on excellent authority that at his début in the literary theatre he made the stage quake with the elemental power of his personality. gigantic rebels like ibsen, bjoernson, nietzsche, and tolstoy, we are told, dwindled to normal proportions beside his titanic stature. he aimed to conquer and convert the whole world by his fanatical protest against the rotten civilization of his time. the attempt proved an utter failure. he never could grow into a world-figure, because he lacked the courage as well as the cosmopolitan adaptability needed for intellectual expatriation. hence, in great contrast to ibsen, he remained to europe at large the uncouth scandinavian, while in the eyes of scandinavia he was specifically the swede; and his country-men, even though they acknowledged him their premier poet, treated him, because of his eccentricity, as a national gazing-stock rather than as a genuine national asset. yet for all that, he ranks as the foremost writer of his country and one of the representative men of the age. his poetic genius is admitted by practically all the critics, while the greatest among them, george brandes, pronounces him in addition an unsurpassed master in the command of his mother tongue. but his position as a writer is by no means limited to his own little country. for his works have been translated into all civilized languages, and if the circulation of literary products is a safe indication of their influence, then several of strindberg's books at least must be credited with having done something toward shaping the thought of our time upon some of its leading issues. in any case, the large and durable interest shown his productions marks strindberg as a literary phenomenon of sufficient consequence to deserve some study. readers of strindberg who seek to discover the reason why criticism should have devoted so much attention to an author regarded almost universally with strong disapproval and aversion, will find that reason most probably in the extreme subjectiveness that dominates everything he has written; personal confession, novels, stories, and plays alike share this equality, and even in his historical dramas the figures, despite the minute accuracy of their delineation, are moved by the author's passion, not their own. rarely, if ever, has a writer of eminence demonstrated a similar incapacity to reproduce the thoughts and feelings of other people. it has been rightly declared that all his leading characters are merely the outward projections of his own sentiments and ideas,--that at bottom he, august strindberg, is the sole protagonist in all his dramaturgy and fiction. strindberg was a man with an omnivorous intellectual curiosity, and he commanded a vast store of knowledge in the fields of history, science, and languages. his "history of the swedish people" is recognized by competent judges as a very brilliant and scholarly performance. before he was launched in his literary career, and while still obscurely employed as minor assistant at a library, he earned distinction as a student of the chinese language, and one product of his research work in that field was even deemed worthy of being read before the _académie des inscriptions et belles lettres_. in geology, chemistry, botany, he was equally productive. but the taint of eccentricity in his mental fibre prevented his imposing scientific accomplishments from maintaining him in a state of intellectual equilibrium. he laid as much store by things of which he had a mere smattering as by those on which he was an authority, and his resultant unsteadiness caused him to oscillate between opposite scientific enthusiasms even as his self-contradictory personal character involved him in abrupt changes of position, and made him jump from one extreme of behavior to the other. * * * * * strindberg first attracted public notice by the appearance in 1879 of a novel named "the red room." its effect upon a country characterized by so keen an observer as george brandes as perhaps the most conservative in europe resembled the excitement caused by schiller's "the robbers" almost precisely one hundred years before. it stirred up enough dust to change, though not to cleanse, the musty atmosphere of philistia. for here was instantly recognized the challenge of a radical spirit uprisen in full and ruthless rebellion against each and every time-hallowed usage and tradition. the recollection of that hot-spur agitator bent with every particle of his strength to rouse the world up from its lethargy by his stentorian "j'accuse" and to pass sentence upon it by sheer tremendous vociferation, is almost entirely obliterated to-day by the remembrance of quite another strindberg:--the erstwhile stormy idealist changed into a leering cynic; a repulsive embodiment of negation, a grimacing mephistopheles who denies life and light or anything that he cannot comprehend, and to whom the face of the earth appears forever covered with darkness and filth and death and corruption. indeed this final depictment of august strindberg, whether or no it be accurately true to life, is a terrible example of what life can make of a man, or a man of his life, if he is neither light enough to be borne by the current of his time, nor strong enough to set his face against the tide and breast it. the question is, naturally, was strindberg sincere in the fanatical insurgency of his earlier period, or was his attitude merely a theatrical pose and his social enthusiasm a ranting declamation? in either case, there opens up this other question: have we reason to doubt the sincerity of the mental changes that were yet to follow,--the genuineness of his pessimism, occultism, and, in the final stage, of his religious conversion? his unexampled hardihood in reversing his opinions and going dead against his convictions could be illustrated in nearly every sphere of thought. at one time a glowing admirer of rousseau and loudly professing his gospel of nature, he forsook this allegiance, and chose as his new idol rousseau's very antipode, voltaire. for many years he was a democrat of the purest water, identified himself with the proletarian cause, and acted as the fiery champion of the poor labor-driven masses against their oppressors; but one fine day, no matter whether it came about directly through his contact with nietzsche or otherwise, he repudiated socialism, scornfully denouncing it as a tattered remnant of his cast-off christianity, and arrayed himself on the side of the elect, or self-elect, against the "common herd," the "much-too-many." license for the best to govern the rest, became temporarily his battle-cry; and his political ideal suggested nothing less completely absurd than a republic presided over by an oligarchy of autocrats. his unsurpassed reputation as an anti-feminist would hardly prepare us to find his earlier works fairly aglow with sympathy for the woman cause. he held at one time, as did tolstoy, that art and poetry have a detrimental effect upon the natural character; for which reason the peasant is a more normal being than the lettered man. especially was he set against the drama, on the ground that it throws the public mind into confusion by its failure to differentiate sharply between the author's own opinions and those of the characters. literature, he held, should pattern itself after a serious newspaper: it should seek to influence, not entertain. not only did he drop this pedantic restriction of literature in the end, but in his own practice he had always defied it, because, despite his fierce campaign against art, he could not overcome the force of his artistic impulses. and so in other provinces of thought, too, he reversed his judgment with a temerity and swiftness that greatly offended the feelings and perplexed the intelligence of his followers for the time being and justified the question whether strindberg had any principles at all. in politics he was by quick turns anarchist and socialist, radical and conservative, republican and aristocrat, communist and egoist; in religion, pietist, protestant, deist, atheist, occultist, and roman catholic. and yet unquestionably he was honest. to blame him merely because he changed his views, and be it never so radically, would be blaming a man for exercising his right to develop. in any man of influence, an unalterable permanency of opinion would be even more objectionable than a frequent shift of his point of view. in recent times the presumable length of a person's intellectual usefulness has been a live subject of discussion which has resulted in some legislation of very questionable wisdom, for instance the setting of an arbitrary age limit for the active service of high-grade teachers. in actual experience men are too old to teach, or through any other function to move the minds of younger people in a forward direction, whenever they have lost the ability to change their own mind. yet at all events, an eminent author's right of self-reversal must not be exercised at random; he should refrain from the propagation of new opinions that have not ripened within himself. which is the same as saying that he should stick to his old opinions until he finds himself inwardly compelled to abandon them. but as a matter of fact, a man like strindberg, propelled by an unbridled imagination, alert with romantic tendencies, nervously overstrung, kept constantly under a strain by his morbidly sensitive temperament,--and whose brain is consequently a seething chaos of conflicting ideas, is never put to the necessity of changing his mind; his mind keeps changing itself. it must be as difficult for the literary historian to do strindberg full justice as it was for the great eccentric himself; when in taking stock, as it were, of his mental equipment, during one of his protracted periods of despondency, he summed himself up in the following picturesque simile: "a monstrous conglomeration, changing its forms according to the observer's point of view and possessing no more reality than the rainbow that is visible to the eyes and yet does not exist." his evolution may be tracked, however, in the detailed autobiography in which he undertook, by a rigorous application of hippolyte taine's well-known theory and method, to account for his temperamental peculiarities on the basis of heredity and the milieu and to describe the gradual transformation of his character through education and the external pressure of contemporary intellectual movements. this remarkable work is like a picture book of ideals undermined, hollowed, and shattered; a perverse compound of cynicism and passion, it is unspeakably loathsome to the sense of beauty and yet, in the last artistic reckoning, not without great beauty of its own. it divides the story of strindberg's life into these consecutive parts: the son of the servant; the author; the evolution of a soul; the confession of a fool; inferno; legends; the rupture; alone. the very titles signalize the brutal frankness, or, shall we say, terrible sincerity of a tale that rummages without piety among the most sacred privacies, and drags forth from intimate nooks and corners sorrow and squalor and shame enough to have wrecked a dozen average existences. there is no mistaking or evading the challenge hurled by this story: see me as i am, stripped of conventional lies and pretensions! look upon my naked soul, covered with scars and open sores. behold me in my spasms of love and hate, now in demoniacal transports, now prostrate with anguish! and if you want to know how i came to be what i am, consider my ancestry, my bringing up, my social environment, and be sure also to pocket your own due share of the blame for my destruction!--certainly strindberg's autobiography is not to be recommended as a graduation gift for convent-bred young ladies, or as a soothing diversion for convalescents, but if accepted in a proper sense, it will be found absorbing, informative, and even helpful. strindberg never forgave his father for having married below his station. he felt that the good blood of the strindbergs,--respectable merchants and ministers and country gentlemen,--was worsened by the proletarian strain imported into it through a working girl named eleonore ulrike norling, the mother of august strindberg and his eleven brothers and sisters. during august's childhood the family lived in extremely straitened circumstances. when a dozen people live cooped up in three rooms, some of them are more than likely to have the joy of youth crushed out of them and crowded from the premises. here was the first evil that darkened strindberg's life: he simply was cheated out of his childhood. school was no happier place for him than home. his inordinate pride, only sharpened by the consciousness of his parents' poverty which bordered on pauperism, threw him into a state of perpetual rebellion against comrades and teachers. and all this time his inner life was tossed hither and thither by a general intellectual and emotional restlessness due to an insatiable craving for knowledge. at fifteen years of age he had reached a full conviction on the irredeemable evilness of life; and concluded, in a moment of religious exaltation, to dedicate his own earthly existence to the vicarious expiation of universal sin through the mortification of the flesh. then, of a sudden, he became a voracious reader of rationalistic literature, and turned atheist with almost inconceivable dispatch, but soon was forced back by remorse into the pietistic frame of mind,--only to pass through another reaction immediately after. at this time he claims that earthly life is a punishment or a probation; but that it lies in man's power to make it endurable by freeing himself from the social restraints. he has become a convert to the fantastic doctrine of jean jacques rousseau, that man is good by nature but has been depraved by civilization. now in his earliest twenties, he embraces communism with all its implications,--free love, state parenthood, public ownership of utilities, equal division of the fruits of labor, and so forth,--as the sole and sure means of salvation for humanity. in the "swiss stories," subtitled "utopias in reality,"(13) strindberg demonstrated to his own satisfaction the smooth and practical workings of that doctrine. it was difficult for him to understand why the major part of the world seemed so hesitant about adopting so tempting and equitable a scheme of living. yet, for his own person, too, he soon disavowed socialism, because under a socialistic régime the individual would be liable to have his ideas put into uniform, and the remotest threat of interference with his freedom of thought was something this fanatical apostle of liberty could not brook. (13) the stories deal among other things with the harmonious communal life in godin's _phalanstère_. strindberg wrote two descriptions of it, one before, the other after visiting the colony. in the preface to the "utopias," he had referred to himself as "a convinced socialist, like all sensible people"; whereas now he writes: "idealism and socialism are two maladies born of laziness." having thus scientifically diagnosed the disease and prescribed the one true specific for it, namely--how simple!--the total abolition of the industries, he resumes the preaching of rousseauism in its simon-pure form, orders every man to be his maid-of-all-work and jack-of-all-trades, puts the world on a vegetarian diet, and then wonders why the socialists denounce and revile him as a turncoat and an apostate. * * * * * the biography throws an especially vivid light on strindberg's relation to one of the most important factors of socialism, to wit, the question of woman's rights. his position on this issue is merely a phase of that extreme and practically isolated position in regard to woman in general that has more than any other single element determined the feeling of the public towards him and by consequence fixed his place in contemporary literature. that this should be so is hardly unfair, because no other element has entered so deeply into the structure and fibre of his thought and feeling. strindberg, as has been stated, was not from the outset, or perchance constitutionally, an anti-feminist. in "the red room" he preaches equality of the sexes even in marriage. the thesis of the book is that man and woman are not antagonistic phenomena of life, rather they are modifications of the same phenomenon, made for mutual completion; hence, they can only fulfill their natural destiny through close coöperative comradeship. but there were two facts that prevented strindberg from proceeding farther along this line of thought. one was his incorrigible propensity to contradiction, the other his excessive subjectiveness which kept him busy building up theories on the basis of personal experience. the prodigious feminist movement launched in scandinavia by ibsen and bjoernson was very repugnant to him, because he felt, not without some just reason, that the movement was for a great many people little more than a fad. so long as art and literature are influenced by fashion, so long there will be and should be revolts against the vogue. moreover, strindberg felt that the movement was being carried too far. he was prepared to accompany ibsen some distance on the way of reform, but refused to subscribe to his verdict that the whole blame for our crying social maladjustments rests with the unwillingness of men to allot any rights whatsoever to women. strindberg's play, "sir bengt's wife," printed in 1882, but of much earlier origin, is interpreted by brandes as a symbolical portrayal of feminine life in scandinavia during the author's early manhood. the leading feminine figure, a creature wholly incapable of understanding or appreciating the nobler traits in man, is nevertheless treated with sympathy, on the whole. she is represented,--like selma bratsberg in ibsen's "the league of youth," and nora helmer, in "a doll's house,"--as the typical and normal victim of a partial and unfair training. her faults of judgment and errors of temper are due to the fact so forcefully descanted upon by selma, that women are not permitted to share the interests and anxieties of their husbands. we are expressly informed by strindberg that this drama was intended, in the first place, as an attack upon the romantic proclivities of feminine education; in the second, as an illustration of the power of love to subdue the will; in the third, as a defense of the thesis that woman's love is of a higher quality than man's; and lastly, as a vindication of the right of woman to be her own master. again, in "married" he answers the query, shall women vote? distinctly in the affirmative, although here the fixed idea about the congenital discordance between the sexes, and the identification of love with a struggle for supremacy, has already seized hold of him. to repeat, there was at first nothing absolutely preposterous about strindberg's position in regard to the woman movement. on the contrary, his view might have been endorsed as a not altogether unwholesome corrective for the ruling fashion of dealing with the issue by the advocacy of extremes. but by force of his supervening personal grievance against the sex, strindberg's anti-feminism became in the long run the fixed pole about which gravitated his entire system of social and ethical thought. his campaign against feminism, which otherwise could have served a good purpose by curbing wild militancy, was defeated by its own exaggerations. granting that feminists had gone too far in the denunciation of male brutality and despotism, strindberg went still farther in the opposite direction, when he deliberately set out to lay bare the character of woman by dissecting some of her most diabolical incarnations. as has already been said, he was utterly incapable of objective thinking, and under the sting of his miseries in love and marriage, dislike of woman turned into hatred and hatred into frenzy. henceforth, the entire spectacle of life presented itself to his distorted vision as a perpetual state of war between the sexes: on the one side he saw the male, strong of mind and heart, but in the generosity of strength guileless and over-trustful; on the other side, the female, weak of body and intellect, but shrewd enough to exploit her frailness by linking iniquity to impotence and contriving by her treacherous cunning to enslave her natural superior:--it is the story of samson and delilah made universal in its application. love is shown up as the trap in which man is caught to be shorn of his power. the case against woman is classically drawn up in "the father," one of the strangest and at the same time most powerful tragedies of strindberg. the principals of the plot stand for the typical character difference between the sexes as strindberg sees it; the man being kind-hearted, good-natured, and aspiring, whereas the woman, setting an example for all his succeeding portraits of women, is cunning, though unintelligent and coarse-grained, soulless, yet insanely ambitious and covetous of power. in glaring contrast to the situation made so familiar by ibsen, we here see the man struggling away from the clutches of a woman who declares frankly that she has never looked at a man without feeling conscious of her superiority over him. in this play the man, a person of ideals and real ability, who is none other than strindberg himself in one of his matrimonial predicaments, fails to extricate himself from the snare, and ends--both literally and figuratively--by being put into the straitjacket. without classing strindberg as one of the great world dramatists, it would be narrow-minded, after experiencing the gripping effect of some of his plays, to deny them due recognition, for indeed they would be remarkable for their perspicacity and penetration, even if they were devoid of any value besides. they contain the keenest analyses ever made of the vicious side of feminine character, obtained by specializing, as it were, on the more particularly feminine traits of human depravity. assuredly the procedure is onesided, but the delineation of a single side of life is beyond peradventure a legitimate artistic enterprise as long as it is not palmed upon us as an accurate and complete picture. unfortunately, strindberg's abnormal vision falsifies the things he looks at, and, being steeped in his insuperable prejudice, his pictures of life, in spite of the partial veracity they possess, never rise above the level of caricatures. he was incompetent to pass judgment upon an individual woman separately; to him all women were alike, and that means, all unmitigatedly bad! to the objection raised by one of the characters in "the father": "oh, there are so many kinds of women," the author's mouthpiece makes this clinching answer: "modern investigation has pronounced that there is only one kind." the autobiography of strindberg is largely inspired by his unreasoning hatred of women; the result, in the main, of his three unfortunate ventures into the uncongenial field of matrimony. in its first part, the account of his life is not without some traces of healthy humor, but as the story progresses, his entire philosophy of life becomes more and more aberrant under the increasing pressure of that obsession. he gets beside himself at the mere mention of anything feminine, and blindly hits away, let his bludgeon land where it will; logic, common sense, and common decency go to the floor before his vehement and brutal assault. every woman is a born liar and traitor. her sole aim in life is to thrive parasitically upon the revenue of her favors. since marriage and prostitution cannot provide a living for all, the oversupply now clamor for admission to the work-mart; but they are incompetent and lazy, and inveterate shirkers of responsibility. with triumphant malice he points to the perfidious readiness of woman to perform her tasks by proxy, that is, to delegate them to hired substitutes: her children are tended and taught by governesses and teachers; her garments are made by dressmakers and seamstresses; the duties of her household she unloads on servants,--and from selfish considerations of vanity, comfort, and love of pleasure, she withdraws even from the primary maternal obligation and lets her young be nourished at the breast of a stranger. strindberg in his rage never stops to think that the deputies in these cases,--cooks and housemaids and nurses and so forth,--themselves belong to the female sex, by which fact the impeachment is in large part invalidated. the play bearing the satirical title "comrades" makes a special application of the theory about the pre-established antagonism of the sexes. in a situation similar to that in "the father," husband and wife are shown in a yet sharper antithesis of character: a man of sterling character and ability foiled by a woman in all respects his inferior, yet imperiously determined to dominate him. at first she seems to succeed in her ambition, and in the same measure as she assumes a more and more mannish demeanor, the husband's behavior grows more and more effeminate. but the contest leads to results opposite to those in "the father." here, the man, once he is brought to a full realization of his plight, arouses himself from his apathy, reasserts his manhood, and, in the ensuing fight for supremacy, routs the usurper and comes into his own. the steps by which he passes through revolt from subjection to self-liberation, are cleverly signaled by his outward transformation, as he abandons the womanish style of dressing imposed on him by his wife's whim and indignantly flings into a corner the feminine costume which she would make him wear at the ball. * * * * * leaving aside, then, all question as to their artistic value, strindberg's dramas are deserving of attention as experiments in a fairly unexplored field of analytic psychology. they are the first literary creations of any great importance begotten by such bitter hatred of woman. the anti-feminism of strindberg's predecessors, not excepting that arch-misogynist, arthur schopenhauer himself, sprang from contempt, not from abhorrence and abject fear. in strindberg, misogyny turns into downright gynophobia. to him, woman is not an object of disdain, but the cruel and merciless persecutor of man. in order to disclose the most dangerous traits of the feminine soul, strindberg dissects it by a method that corresponds closely to ibsen's astonishing demonstration of masculine viciousness. the wide-spread dislike for strindberg's dramas is due, in equal parts, to the detestableness of his male characters, and to the optimistic disbelief of the general public in the reality of womanhood as he represents it. strindberg's portraiture of the sex appears as a monstrous slander, principally because no other painter has ever placed the model into the same disadvantageous light, and the authenticity of his pictures is rendered suspicious by their abnormal family resemblance. he was obsessed with the petrifying vision of a uniform cruel selfishness staring out of every woman's face: countess, courtezan, or kitchen maid, all are cast in the same gorgon mold. strindberg's aversion towards women was probably kindled into action, as has already been intimated, by his disgust at the sudden irruption of woman worship into literature; but, as has also been made clear, only the disillusionments and grievances of his private experience hardened that aversion into implacable hatred. at first he simply declined to ally himself with the feminist cult, because the women he knew seemed unworthy of being worshipped,--little vain dolls, frivolous coquettes, and pedants given to domestic tyranny, of such the bulk was made up. under the maddening spur of his personal misfortunes, his feeling passed from weariness to detestation, from detestation to a bitter mixture of fear and furious hate. he conceived it as his supreme mission and central purpose in life to unmask the demon with the angel's face, to tear the drapings from the idol and expose to view the hideous ogress that feeds on the souls of men. woman, in strindberg's works, is a bogy, constructed out of the vilest ingredients that enter into the composition of human nature, with a kind of convulsive life infused by a remnant of great artistic power. and this grewsome fabric of a diseased imagination, like frankenstein's monster, wreaks vengeance on its maker. his own mordant desire for her is the lash that drives him irresistibly to his destruction. it requires no profound psychologic insight to divine in this odious chimera the deplorable abortion of a fine ideal. the distortion of truth emanates in strindberg's work, as it does in any significant satire or caricature, from indignation over the contrast between a lofty conception and a disappointing reality. what, after all, can be the mission of this hard-featured gallery of females,--peevish, sullen, impudent, grasping, violent, lecherous, malignant, and vindictive,--if it is not to mark pravity and debasement with a stigma in the name of a pure and noble womanhood? * * * * * it should not be left unmentioned that we owe to august strindberg some works of great perfection fairly free from the black obsession and with a constructive and consistently idealistic tendency: splendid descriptions of a quaint people and their habitat, tinged with a fine sense of humor, as in "the hemsoe-dwellers"; charming studies of landscape and of floral and animal life, in the "portraits of flowers and animals"; the colossal work on the swedish people, once before referred to, a history conceived and executed in a thoroughly modern scientific spirit; two volumes of "swedish fortunes and adventures"; most of his historic dramas also are of superior order. but these works lie outside the scope of the more specific discussion of strindberg as a mystic and an eccentric to which this sketch is devoted. we may conclude by briefly considering the final phases of strindberg's checkered intellectual career, and by summing up his general significance for the age. it will be recalled that during the middle period of his life, (in 1888), strindberg came into personal touch with nietzsche. the effect of the latter's sensational philosophy is clearly perceptible in the works of that period, notably in "tschandala" and "by the open sea." evidently, nietzsche, at first, was very congenial to him. for both men were extremely aristocratic in their instincts. for a while, strindberg endorsed unqualifiedly the heterodox ethics of the towering paranoiac. for one thing, that philosophy supplied fresh food and fuel to his burning rage against womankind, and that was enough to bribe him into swallowing, for the time being, the entire substance of nietzsche's fantastic doctrine. he took the same ground as nietzsche, that the race had deteriorated in consequence of its sentimentality, namely through the systematic protection of physical and mental inferiority and unchecked procreation of weaklings. he seconded nietzsche's motion that society should exterminate its parasites, instead of pampering them. mankind can only be reinvigorated if the strong and healthy are helped to come into their own. the dreams of the pacifists are fatal to the pragmatic virtues and to the virility of the race. the greatest need is an aggressive campaign for the moral and intellectual sanitation of the world. so let the brain rule over the heart,--and so forth in the same strain. very soon, however, strindberg passed out of the sphere of nietzsche's influence. the alienation was due as much to his general instability as to the disparity between his pessimistic temper and the joyous exaltation of zarathustra-ism. his striking reversion to orthodoxy was by no means illogical. between pessimism and faith there exists a relation that is not very far to seek. when a person has forfeited his peace of soul and cannot find grace before his own conscience, he might clutch as a last hope the promise of vicarious redemption. extending the significance of his own personal experience to everything within his horizon, and erecting a dogmatic system upon this tenuous generalisation, strindberg reached the conviction that the purpose of living is to suffer, a conviction that threw his philosophy well into line with the religious and ethical ideas of the middle age. yet even at this juncture his cynicism did not desert him, as witness this comment of his: "religion must be a punishment, because nobody gets religion who does not have a bad conscience." this avowal preceded his saltatory approach to roman catholicism. in the later volumes of his autobiography he minutely describes the successive crises through which he passed in his agonizing search for certitude and salvation before his spirit found rest in the idea of destiny which formerly to him was synonymous with fate and now became synonymous with providence. "inferno" pictures his existence as a protracted and unbroken nightmare. he turned determinist, then fatalist, then mystic. the most trifling incidents of his daily life were spelt out according to swedenborg's "science of correspondences" and thereby assumed a deep and terrifying significance. in the most trivial events, such as the opening or shutting of a door, or the curve etched by a raindrop on a dusty pane of glass, he perceived intimations from the occult power that directed his life. into the most ordinary occurrence of the day he read a divine order, or threat, or chastisement. he was tormented by terrible dreams and visions; in the guise of ferocious beasts, his own sins agonized his flesh. and in the midst of all these tortures he studied and practised the occult arts: magic, astrology, necromancy, alchemy; he concocted gold by hermetical science! to all appearances utterly deranged, he was still lucid enough at intervals to carry on chemical, botanical, and physiological experiments of legitimate worth. then his reason cleared up once again and put a sudden end to an episode which he has described in these words: "to go in quest of god and to find the devil,--that is what happened to me." he took leave of swedenborg as he had taken leave of nietzsche, yet retained much gratitude for him; the great scandinavian seer had brought him back to god, so he averred, even though the conversion was effected by picturings of horror. "legends," the further continuation of his self-history, shows him vividly at his closest contact with the catholic church. but the most satisfactory portion of the autobiography from a human point of view, and from a literary point perhaps altogether the best thing strindberg has done, is the closing book of the series, entitled "alone." he wrote it at the age of fifty, during a period of comparative tranquillity of mind, and that fact is manifested by the composure and moderation of its style. now at last his storm-tossed soul seems to have found a haven. he accepts his destiny, and resigns himself to believing, since knowledge is barred. but even this state of serenity harbored no permanent peace; it signified merely a temporary suspension of those terrific internal combats. in strindberg's case, religious conversion is not an edifying, but on the contrary a morbid and saddening spectacle; it is equal to a declaration of complete spiritual bankruptcy. he turns to the church after finding all other pathways to god blocked. his type of christianity does not hang together with the labors and struggles of his secular life. a break with his past can be denied to no man; least of all to a leader of men. only, if he has deserted the old road, he should be able to lead in the new; he must have a new message if he sees fit to cancel the old. strindberg, however, has nothing to offer at the end. he stands before us timorous and shrinking, the accuser of his fellows turned self-accuser, a beggar stretching forth empty, trembling hands imploring forgiveness of his sins and the salvation of his soul through gracious mediation. his moral asseverations are either blank truisms, or intellectual aberrations. strindberg has added nothing to the stock of human understanding. a preacher, of course, is not in duty bound to generate original thought. indeed if such were to be exacted, our pulpits would soon be as sparsely peopled as already are the pews. ministers who are wondering hard why so many people stay away from church might well stop to consider whether the reason is not that a large portion of mankind has already secured, theoretically, a religious or ethical basis of life more or less identical with the one which churches content themselves with offering. the greatest religious teacher of modern times, leo tolstoy, was not by any means a bringer of new truths. the true secret of the tremendous power which nevertheless he wielded over the souls of men was that he extended the practical application of what he believed. if, therefore, we look for a lesson in strindberg's life as recited by himself, we shall not find it in his religious conversion. * * * * * taken in its entirety, his voluminous yet fragmentary life history is one of the most painful human documents on record. one can hardly peruse it without asking: was strindberg insane? it is a question which he often put to himself when remorse and self-reproach gnawed at his conscience and when he fancied himself scorned and persecuted by all his former friends. "why are you so hated?" he asks himself in one of his dialogues, and this is his answer: "i could not endure to see mankind suffer, and so i said and wrote: 'free yourselves, i shall help.' and so i said to the poor: 'do not let the rich suck your blood.' and to woman: 'do not let man oppress you.' and to the children: 'do not obey your parents if they are unjust.' the consequences,--well, they are quite incomprehensible; for of a sudden i had both sides against me, rich and poor, men and women, parents and children; add to that sickness and poverty, disgraceful pauperism, my divorce, lawsuits, exile, loneliness, and now, to top the climax,--do you believe that i am insane?" from his ultra-subjective point of view, the explanation here given of the total collapse of his fortunes is fairly accurate, at least in the essential aspects. still, many great men have been pursued by a similar conflux of calamities. overwhelming misfortunes are the surest test of manhood. how high a person bears up his head under the blows of fate is the best gage of his stature. but strindberg, in spite of his colossal physique, was not cast in the heroic mold. the breakdown of his fortunes caused him to turn traitor to himself, to recant and destroy his intellectual past. whether he was actually insane is a question for psychiaters to settle; normal he certainly was not. in medical opinion his modes of reacting to the obstructions and difficulties of the daily life were conclusively symptomatic of neurasthenia. certain obsessive ideas and idiosyncracies of his, closely bordering upon phobia, would seem to indicate grave psychic disorder. his temper and his world-view were indicative of hypochondria: he perceived only the hostile, never the friendly, aspects of events, people, and phenomena. dejectedly he declares: "there is falseness even in the calm air and the sunshine, and i feel that happiness has no place in my lot." destiny had assembled within him all the doubts and pangs of the modern soul, but had neglected to counterpoise them with positive and constructive convictions; so that when his small store of hopes and prospects was exhausted, he broke down from sheer hollowness of heart. he died a recluse, a penitent, and a renegade to all his past ideas and persuasions. evidently, with his large assortment of defects both of character and of intellect, strindberg could not be classed as one of the great constructive minds of our period. viewed in his social importance, he will interest future students of morals chiefly as an agitator, a polemist, and in a fashion, too, as a prophet; by his uniquely aggressive veracity, he rendered a measure of valuable service to his time. but viewed as a creative writer, both of drama and fiction, he has an incontestable claim to our lasting attention. his work shows artistic ability, even though it rarely attains to greatness and is frequently marred by the bizarre qualities of his style. presumably his will be a permanent place in the history of literature, principally because of the extraordinary subjective animation of his work. and perhaps in times less depressed than ours its gloominess may act as a valuable antidote upon the popular prejudice against being serious. his artistic profession of faith certainly should save him from wholesale condemnation. he says in one of his prefaces: "some people have accused my tragedy of being too sad, as though one desired a merry tragedy. people clamor for enjoyment as though enjoyment consisted in being foolish. i find enjoyment in the powerful and terrible struggles of life; and the capability of experiencing something, of learning something, gives me pleasure." the keynote to his literary productions is the cry of the agony of being. every line of his works is written in the shadow of the sorrow of living. in them, all that is most dismal and terrifying and therefore most tragical, becomes articulate. they are propelled by an abysmal pessimism, and because of this fact, since pessimism is one of the mightiest inspiring forces in literature, august strindberg, its foremost spokesman, deserves to be read and understood. iii the exaltation of friedrich nietzsche in these embattled times it is perfectly natural to expect from any discourse on nietzsche's philosophy first of all a statement concerning the relation of that troublesome genius to the origins of the war; and this demand prompts a few candid words on that aspect of the subject at the start. for more than three years the public has been persistently taught by the press to think of friedrich nietzsche mainly as the powerful promoter of a systematic national movement of the german people for the conquest of the world. but there is strong and definite internal evidence in the writings of nietzsche against the assumption that he intentionally aroused a spirit of war or aimed in any way at the world-wide preponderance of germany's type of civilization. nietzsche had a temperamental loathing for everything that is brutal, a loathing which was greatly intensified by his personal contact with the horrors of war while serving as a military nurse in the campaign of 1870. if there were still any one senseless enough to plead the erstwhile popular cause of pan-germanism, he would be likely to find more support for his argument in the writings of the de-gallicized frenchman, count joseph arthur gobineau, or of the germanized englishman, houston stewart chamberlain, than in those of the "hermit of maria-sils," who does not even suggest, let alone advocate, german world-predominance in a single line of all his writings. to couple friedrich nietzsche with heinrich von treitschke as the latter's fellow herald of german ascendancy is truly preposterous. treitschke himself was bitterly and irreconcilably set against the creator of zarathustra,(14) in whom ever since "unzeitgemässe betrachtungen" he had divined "the good european,"--which to the author of the _deutsche geschichte_ meant the bad prussian, and by consequence the bad german. (14) as is convincingly pointed out in a footnote of j. a. cramb's "germany and england." as a consummate individualist and by the same token a cosmopolite to the full, nietzsche was the last remove from national, or strictly speaking even from racial, jingoism. even the imputation of ordinary patriotic sentiments would have been resented by him as an insult, for such sentiments were to him a sure symptom of that gregarious disposition which was so utterly abhorrent to his feelings. in his german citizenhood he took no pride whatsoever. on every occasion that offered he vented in mordant terms his contempt for the country of his birth, boastfully proclaiming his own derivation from alien stock. he bemoaned his fate of having to write for germans; averring that people who drank beer and smoked pipes were hopelessly incapable of understanding him. of this extravagance in denouncing his countrymen the following account by one of his keenest american interpreters gives a fair idea. "no epithet was too outrageous, no charge was too farfetched, no manipulation or interpretation of evidence was too daring to enter into his ferocious indictment. he accused the germans of stupidity, superstitiousness, and silliness; of a chronic weakness of dodging issues, a fatuous 'barn-yard' and 'green-pasture' contentment, of yielding supinely to the commands and exactions of a clumsy and unintelligent government; of degrading education to the low level of mere cramming and examination passing; of a congenital inability to understand and absorb the culture of other peoples, and particularly the culture of the french; of a boorish bumptiousness, and an ignorant, ostrichlike complacency; of a systematic hostility to men of genius, whether in art, science, or philosophy; of a slavish devotion to the two great european narcotics, alcohol and christianity; of a profound beeriness, a spiritual dyspepsia, a puerile mysticism, an old-womanish pettiness, and an ineradicable liking for the obscure, evolving, crepuscular, damp, and shrouded."(15) it certainly requires a violent twist of logic to hold this catalogue of invectives responsible for the transformation of a sluggish and indolent bourgeoisie into a "volk in waffen" unified by an indomitable and truculent rapacity. (15) h. l. mencken, "the mailed fist and its prophet." _atlantic monthly_, november, 1914. neither should nietzsche's general condemnation of mild and tender forbearance--on the ground that it blocks the purpose of nature--be interpreted as a call to universal militancy. by his ruling it is only supermen that are privileged to carry their will through. but undeniably he does teach that the world belongs to the strong. they may grab it at any temporary loss to the common run of humanity and, if need be, with sanguinary force, since their will is, ulteriorly, identical with the cosmic purpose. of course this is preaching war of some sort, but nietzsche was not in favor of war on ethnic or ethical grounds, like that fanatical militarist, general von bernhardi, whom the great mass of his countrymen in the time before the war would have bluntly rejected as their spokesman. anyway, nietzsche did not mean to encourage germany to subjugate the rest of the world. he even deprecated her victory in the bloody contest of 1870, because he thought that it had brought on a form of material prosperity of which internal decay and the collapse of intellectual and spiritual ideals were the unfortunate concomitants. at the same time, the universal decrepitude prevented the despiser of his own people from conceiving a decided preference for some other country. he held that all european nations were progressing in the wrong direction,--the deadweight of exaggerated and misshapen materialism dragged them back and down. english life he deemed almost irredeemably clogged by utilitarianism. even france, the only modern commonwealth credited by nietzsche with an indigenous culture, was governed by what he stigmatizes as the life philosophy of the shopkeeper. nietzsche is destitute of national ideals. in fact he never thinks in terms of politics. he aims to be "a good european, not a good german." in his aversion to the extant order of society he never for a moment advocates, like rousseau or tolstoy, a breach with civilization. cataclysmic changes through anarchy, revolution, and war were repugnant to his ideals of culture. for two thousand years the races of europe had toiled to humanize themselves, school their character, equip their minds, refine their tastes. could any sane reformer have calmly contemplated the possible engulfment in another saturnian age of the gains purchased by that enormous expenditure of human labor? according to nietzsche's conviction, the new dispensation could not be entered in a book of blank pages. a higher civilization could only be reared upon a lower. so it seems that he is quite wrongly accused of having been an "accessory before the deed," in any literal or legal sense, to the stupendous international struggle witnessed to-day. and we may pass on to consider in what other way he was a vital factor of modern social development. for whatever we may think of the political value of his teachings, it is impossible to deny their arousing and inspiriting effect upon the intellectual, moral, and artistic faculties of his epoch and ours. * * * * * it should be clearly understood that the significance of nietzsche for our age is not to be explained by any weighty discovery in the realm of knowledge. nietzsche's merit consists not in any unriddling of the universe by a metaphysical key to its secrets, but rather in the diffusion of a new intellectual light elucidating human consciousness in regard to the purpose and the end of existence. nietzsche has no objective truths to teach, indeed he acknowledges no truth other than subjective. nor does he put any faith in bare logic, but on the contrary pronounces it one of mankind's greatest misfortunes. his argumentation is not sustained and progressive, but desultory, impressionistic, and freely repetitional; slashing aphorism is its most effective tool. and so, in the sense of the schools, he is not a philosopher at all; quite the contrary, an implacable enemy of the _métier_. and yet the formative and directive influence of his vaticinations, enunciated with tremendous spiritual heat and lofty gesture, has been very great. his conception of life has acted upon the generation as a moral intoxicant of truly incalculable strength. withal his published work, amounting to eighteen volumes, though flagrantly irrational, yet does contain a perfectly coherent doctrine. only, it is a doctrine to whose core mere peripheric groping will never negotiate the approach. its essence must be caught by flashlike seizure and cannot be conveyed except to minds of more than the average imaginative sensibility. for its central ideas relate to the remotest ultimates, and its dominant prepossession, the _overman_, is, in the final reckoning, the creature of a utopian fancy. to be more precise, nietzsche extorts from the darwinian theory of selection a set of amazing connotations by means of the simultaneous shift from the biological to the poetic sphere of thought and from the averagely socialized to an uncompromisingly self-centred attitude of mind. this doubly eccentric position is rendered feasible for him by a whole-souled indifference to exact science and an intense contempt for the practical adjustments of life. he is, first and last, an imaginative schemer, whose visions are engendered by inner exuberance; the propelling power of his philosophy being an intense temperamental enthusiasm at one and the same time lyrically sensitive and dramatically impassioned. it is these qualities of soul that made his utterance ring with the force of a high moral challenge. all the same, he was not any more original in his ethics than in his theory of knowledge. in this field also his receptive mind threw itself wide open to the flow of older influences which it encountered. the religion of personal advantage had had many a prophet before nietzsche. among the older writers, machiavelli was its weightiest champion. in germany, nietzsche's immediate predecessor was "max stirner,"(16) and as regards foreign thinkers, nietzsche declared as late as 1888 that to no other writer of his own century did he feel himself so closely allied by the ties of congeniality as to ralph waldo emerson. (16) his real name was kaspar schmidt; he lived from 1806-1856. the most superficial acquaintance with these writers shows that nietzsche is held responsible for certain revolutionary notions of which he by no means was the originator. of the connection of his doctrine with the maxims of "the prince" and of "the ego and his own" (_der einzige und sein eigentum_)(17) nothing further need be said than that to them nietzsche owes, directly or indirectly, the principle of "non-morality." however, he does not employ the same strictly intellectual methods. they were logicians rather than moralists, and their ruler-man is in the main a construction of cold reasoning, while the ruler-man of nietzsche is the vision of a genius whose eye looks down a much longer perspective than is accorded to ordinary mortals. that a far greater affinity of temper should have existed between nietzsche and emerson than between him and the two classic non-moralists, must bring surprise to the many who have never recognized the concord sage as an exponent of unfettered individualism. yet in fact emerson goes to such an extreme of individualism that the only thing that has saved his memory from anathema is that he has not many readers in his after-times, and these few do not always venture to understand him. and emerson, though in a different way from nietzsche's, was also a rhapsodist. in his poetry, where he articulates his meaning with far greater unrestraint than in his prose, we find without any difficulty full corroboration of his spiritual kinship with nietzsche. for instance, where may we turn in the works of the latter for a stronger statement of the case of power versus pity than is contained in "the world soul"? "he serveth the servant, the brave he loves amain, he kills the cripple and the sick, and straight begins again; for gods delight in gods, and thrust the weak aside,- to him who scorns their charities their arms fly open wide." from such a world-view what moral could proceed more logically than that of zarathustra: "and him whom ye do not teach to fly, teach--how to fall quicker"? (17) by machiavelli and stirner, respectively. but after all, the intellectual origin of nietzsche's ideas matters but little. wheresoever they were derived from, he made them strikingly his own by raising them to the splendid elevation of his thought. and if nevertheless he has failed to take high rank and standing among the sages of the schools, this shortage in his professional prestige is more than counterbalanced by the wide reach of his influence among the laity. what might the re-classification, or perchance even the re-interpretation, of known facts about life have signified beside nietzsche's lofty apprehension of the sacredness of life itself? for whatever may be the social menace of his reasoning, his commanding proclamation to an expectant age of the doctrine that progress means infinite growth towards ideals of perfection has resulted in a singular reanimation of the individual sense of dignity, served as a potent remedy of social dry-rot, and furthered our gradual emergence from the impenetrable darkness of ancestral traditions. in seeking an adequate explanation of his power over modern minds we readily surmise that his philosophy draws much of its vitality from the system of science that underlies it. and yet while it is true enough that nietzsche's fundamental thesis is an offshoot of the darwinian theory, the violent individualism which is the driving principle of his entire philosophy is rather opposed to the general orientation of darwinism, since that is social. not to the author of the "descent of man" directly is the modern ethical glorification of egoism indebted for its measure of scientific sanction, but to one of his heterodox disciples, namely to the bio-philosopher w. h. rolph, who in a volume named "biologic problems," with the subtitle, "an essay in rational ethics,"(18) deals definitely with the problem of evolution in its dynamical bearings. the question is raised, why do the extant types of life ascend toward higher goals, and, on reaching them, progress toward still higher goals, to the end of time? under the reason as explained by darwin, should not evolution stop at a definite stage, namely, when the object of the competitive struggle for existence has been fully attained? self-preservation naturally ceases to act as an incentive to further progress, so soon as the weaker contestants are beaten off the field and the survival of the fittest is abundantly secured. from there on we have to look farther for an adequate causation of the ascent of species. unless we assume the existence of an absolutistic teleological tendency to perfection, we are logically bound to connect upward development with favorable external conditions. by substituting for the darwinian "struggle for existence" a new formula: "struggle for surplus," rolph advances a new fruitful hypothesis. in all creatures the acquisitive cravings exceed the limit of actual necessity. under darwin's interpretation of nature, the struggle between individuals of the same species would give way to pacific equilibrium as soon as the bare subsistence were no longer in question. yet we know that the struggle is unending. the creature appetites are not appeased by a normal sufficiency; on the contrary, "_l'appetit vient en mangeant_"; the possessive instinct, if not quite insatiable, is at least coextensive with its opportunities for gratification. whether or not it be true--as carlyle claims--that, after all, the fundamental question between any two human beings is, "can i kill thee, or canst thou kill me?"--at any rate in civilized human society the contest is not waged merely for the naked existence, but mainly for life's increments in the form of comforts, pleasures, luxuries, and the accumulation of power and influence; and the excess of acquisition over immediate need goes as a residuum into the structure of civilization. in plain words, then, social progress is pushed on by individual greed and ambition. at this point rolph rests the case, without entering into the moral implicates of the subject, which would seem to obtrude themselves upon the attention. (18) _biologische probleme, zugleich als versuch einer rationellen ethik._ leipzig, 1882. now to a believer in progressive evolution with a strong ethical bent such a theory brings home man's ulterior responsibility for the betterment of life, and therefore acts as a call to his supreme duty of preparing the ground for the arrival of a higher order of beings. the argument seems simple and clinching. living nature through a long file of species and genera has at last worked up to the _homo sapiens_ who as yet does not even approach the perfection of his own type. is it a legitimate ambition of the race to mark time on the stand which it has reached and to entrench itself impregnably in its present mediocrity? nietzsche did not shrink from any of the inferential conclusions logically to be drawn from the biologic argument. if growth is in the purpose of nature, then once we have accepted our chief office in life, it becomes our task to pave the way for a higher genus of man. and the only force that makes with directness for that object is the will to power. to foreshadow the resultant human type, nietzsche resurrected from goethe's vocabulary the convenient word _übermensch_--"overman." * * * * * any one regarding existence in the light of a stern and perpetual combat is of necessity driven at last to the alternative between making the best of life and making an end of it; he must either seek lasting deliverance from the evil of living or endeavor to wrest from the world by any means at his command the greatest sum of its gratifications. it is serviceable to describe the two frames of mind respectively as the optimistic and the pessimistic. but it would perhaps be hasty to conclude that the first of these attitudes necessarily betokens the greater strength of character. friedrich nietzsche's philosophy sprang from pessimism, yet issued in an optimism of unheard-of exaltation; carrying, however, to the end its plainly visible birthmarks. he started out as an enthusiastic disciple of arthur schopenhauer; unquestionably the adherence was fixed by his own deep-seated contempt for the complacency of the plebs. but he was bound soon to part company with the grandmaster of pessimism, because he discovered the root of the philosophy of renunciation in that same detestable debility of the will which he deemed responsible for the bovine lassitude of the masses; both pessimism and philistinism came from a lack of vitality, and were symptoms of racial degeneracy. but before nietzsche finally rejected schopenhauer and gave his shocking counterblast to the undermining action of pessimism, he succumbed temporarily to the spell of another gigantic personality. we are not concerned with richard wagner's musical influence upon nietzsche, who was himself a musician of no mean ability; what is to the point here is the prime principle of wagner's art theory. the key to the wagnerian theory is found, also, in schopenhauer's philosophy. wagner starts from the pessimistic thesis that at the bottom of the well of life lies nothing but suffering,--hence living is utterly undesirable. in one of his letters to franz liszt he names as the duplex root of his creative genius the longing for love and the yearning for death. on another occasion, he confesses his own emotional nihilism in the following summary of _tristan und isolde_: "_sehnsucht, sehnsucht, unstillbares, ewig neu sich gebärendes verlangen--schmachten und dursten; einzige erlösung: tod, sterben, untergehen,--nichtmehrerwachen._"(19) but from the boundless ocean of sorrow there is a refuge. it was wagner's fundamental dogma that through the illusions of art the individual is enabled to rise above the hopelessness of the realities into a new cosmos replete with supreme satisfactions. man's mundane salvation therefore depends upon the ministrations of art and his own artistic sensitiveness. the glorification of genius is a natural corollary of such a belief. (19) "longing, longing, unquenchable desire, reproducing itself forever anew--thirst and drought; sole deliverance: death, dissolution, extinction,--and no awaking." nietzsche in one of his earliest works examines wagner's theory and amplifies it by a rather casuistic interpretation of the evolution of art. after raising the question, how did the greeks contrive to dignify and ennoble their national existence? he points, by way of an illustrative answer, not perchance to the periclean era, but to a far more primitive epoch of hellenic culture, when a total oblivion of the actual world and a transport into the realm of imagination was universally possible. he explains the trance as the effect of intoxication,--primarily in the current literal sense of the word. such was the significance of the cult of dionysos. "through singing and dancing," claims nietzsche, "man manifests himself as member of a higher community. walking and talking he has unlearned, and is in a fair way to dance up into the air." that this supposititious dionysiac phase of hellenic culture was in turn succeeded by more rational stages, in which the impulsive flow of life was curbed and dammed in by operations of the intellect, is not permitted by nietzsche to invalidate the argument. by his arbitrary reading of ancient history he was, at first, disposed to look to the forthcoming _universal-kunstwerk_(20) as the complete expression of a new religious spirit and as the adequate lever of a general uplift of mankind to a state of bliss. but the typical disparity between wagner and nietzsche was bound to alienate them. wagner, despite all appearance to the contrary, is inherently democratic in his convictions,--his earlier political vicissitudes amply confirm this view,--and fastens his hope for the elevation of humanity through art upon the sort of genius in whom latent popular forces might combine to a new summit. nietzsche on the other hand represents the extreme aristocratic type, both in respect of thought and of sentiment. "i do not wish to be confounded with and mistaken for these preachers of equality," says he. "for within _me_ justice saith: men are not equal." his ideal is a hero of coercive personality, dwelling aloft in solitude, despotically bending the gregarious instincts of the common crowd to his own higher purposes by the dominating force of his will to might. (20) work of all arts. the concept of the overman rests, as has been shown, upon a fairly solid substructure of plausibility, since at the bottom of the author's reasoning lies the notion that mankind is destined to outgrow its current status; the thought of a humanity risen to new and wondrous heights of power over nature is not necessarily unscientific for being supremely imaginative. the overman, however, cannot be produced ready made, by any instantaneous process; he must be slowly and persistently willed into being, through love of the new ideal which he is to embody: "all great love," speaketh zarathustra, "seeketh to create what it loveth. _myself_ i sacrifice into my love, and _my neighbor_ as myself, thus runneth the speech of all creators." only the fixed conjoint purpose of many generations of aspiring men will be able to create the overman. "could you create a god?--then be silent concerning all gods! but ye could very well create beyond-man. not yourselves perhaps, my brethren! but ye could create yourselves into fathers and fore-fathers of beyond-man; and let this be your best creating. but all creators are hard." nietzsche's startlingly heterodox code of ethics coheres organically with the overman hypothesis, and so understood is certain to lose some of its aspect of absurdity. the racial will, as we have seen, must be taught to aim at the overman. but the volitional faculty of the generation, according to nietzsche, is so debilitated as to be utterly inadequate to its office. hence, advisedly to stimulate and strengthen the enfeebled will power of his fellow men is the most imperative and immediate task of the radical reformer. once the power of willing, as such, shall have been,--regardless of the worthiness of its object,--brought back to active life, it will be feasible to give the will to might a direction towards objects of the highest moral grandeur. unfortunately for the race as a whole, the throng is ineligible for partnership in the auspicious scheme of co-operative procreation: which fact necessitates a segregative method of breeding. the overman can only be evolved by an ancestry of master-men, who must be secured to the race by a rigid application of eugenic standards, particularly in the matter of mating. of marriage, nietzsche has this definition: "marriage, so call i the will of two to create one who is more than they who created him." for the bracing of the weakened will-force of the human breed it is absolutely essential that master-men, the potential progenitors of the superman, be left unhampered to the impulse of "living themselves out" (_sich auszuleben_),--an opportunity of which under the regnant code of morals they are inconsiderately deprived. since, then, existing dictates and conventions are a serious hindrance to the requisite autonomy of the master-man, their abolishment might be well. yet on the other hand, it is convenient that the _vielzuviele_, the "much-too-many," i. e. the despised generality of people, should continue to be governed and controlled by strict rules and regulations, so that the will of the master-folk might the more expeditiously be wrought. would it not, then, be an efficacious compromise to keep the canon of morality in force for the general run, but suspend it for the special benefit of master-men, prospective or full-fledged? from the history of the race nietzsche draws a warrant for the distinction. his contention is that masters and slaves have never lived up to a single code of conduct. have not civilizations risen and fallen according as they were shaped by this or that class of nations? history also teaches what disastrous consequences follow the loss of caste. in the case of the jewish people, the domineering type or morals gave way to the servile as a result of the babylonian captivity. so long as the jews were strong, they extolled all manifestations of strength and energy. the collapse of their own strength turned them into apologists of the so-called "virtues" of humility, long-suffering, forgiveness,--until, according to the judæo-christian code of ethics, being good came to mean being weak. so races may justly be classified into masters and slaves, and history proves that to the strong goes the empire. the ambitions of a nation are a sure criterion of its worth. "i walk through these folk and keep mine eyes open. they have become _smaller_ and are becoming ever smaller. _and the reason of that is their doctrine of happiness and virtue._ for they are modest even in their virtue; for they are desirous of ease. but with ease only modest virtue is compatible. true, in their fashion they learn how to stride and to stride forward. that i call their _hobbling_. thereby they become an offense unto every one who is in a hurry. and many a one strideth on and in doing so looketh backward, with a stiffened neck. i rejoice to run against the stomachs of such. foot and eyes shall not lie, nor reproach each other for lying. but there is much lying among small folk. some of them _will_, but most of them _are willed_ merely. some of them are genuine, but most of them are bad actors. there are unconscious actors among them, and involuntary actors. the genuine are always rare, especially genuine actors. here is little of man; therefore women try to make themselves manly. for only he who is enough of a man will save the woman in woman. and this hypocrisy i found to be worst among them, that even those who command feign the virtues of those who serve. 'i serve, thou servest, we serve.' thus the hypocrisy of the rulers prayeth. and, alas, if the highest lord be merely the highest servant! alas! the curiosity of mine eye strayed even unto their hypocrisies, and well i divined all their fly-happiness and their humming round window panes in the sunshine. so much kindness, so much weakness see i. so much justice and sympathy, so much weakness. round, honest, and kind are they towards each other, as grains of sand are round, honest, and kind unto grains of sand. modestly to embrace a small happiness--they call 'submission'! and therewith they modestly look sideways after a new small happiness. at bottom they desire plainly one thing most of all: to be hurt by nobody. thus they oblige all and do well unto them. but this is _cowardice_; although it be called 'virtue.' and if once they speak harshly, these small folk,--i hear therein merely their hoarseness. for every draught of air maketh them hoarse. prudent are they; their virtues have prudent fingers. but they are lacking in clenched fists; their fingers know not how to hide themselves behind fists. for them virtue is what maketh modest and tame. thereby they have made the wolf a dog and man himself man's best domestic animal. 'we put our chair in the midst'--thus saith their simpering unto me--'exactly as far from dying gladiators as from happy swine.' this is mediocrity; although it be called moderation."(21) (21) "thus spake zarathustra," pp. 243-245. the only law acknowledged by him who would be a master is the bidding of his own will. he makes short work of every other law. whatever clogs the flight of his indomitable ambition must be ruthlessly swept aside. obviously, the enactment of this law that would render the individual supreme and absolute would strike the death-knell for all established forms and institutions of the social body. but such is quite within nietzsche's intention. they are noxious agencies, ingeniously devised for the enslavement of the will, and the most pernicious among them is the christian religion, because of the alleged divine sanction conferred by it upon subserviency. christianity would thwart the supreme will of nature by curbing that lust for domination which the laws of nature as revealed by science sanction, nay prescribe. nietzsche's ideas on this subject are loudly and over-loudly voiced in _der antichrist_ ("the anti-christ"), written in september 1888 as the first part of a planned treatise in four instalments, entitled _der wille zur macht. versuch einer umwertung aller werte_. ("the will to power. an attempted transvaluation of all values".) * * * * * the master-man's will, then, is his only law. that is the essence of _herrenmoral_. and so the question arises, whence shall the conscience of the ruler-man derive its distinctions between the right and the wrong? the arch-iconoclast brusquely stifles this naïve query beforehand by assuring us that such distinctions in their accepted sense do not exist for personages of that grander stamp. heedless of the time-hallowed concepts that all men share in common, he enjoins mastermen to take their position uncompromisingly outside the confining area of conventions, in the moral independence that dwells "beyond good and evil." good and evil are mere denotations, devoid of any real significance. right and wrong are not ideals immutable through the ages, nor even the same at any time in all states of society. they are vague and general notions, varying more or less with the practical exigencies under which they were conceived. what was right for my great-grandfather is not _ipso facto_ right for myself. hence, the older and better established a law, the more inapposite is it apt to be to the living demands. why should the ruler-man bow down to outworn statutes or stultify his self-dependent moral sense before the artificial and stupidly uniform moral relics of the dead past? good is whatever conduces to the increase of my power,--evil is whatever tends to diminish it! only the weakling and the hypocrite will disagree. unmistakably this is a straightout application of the "pragmatic" criterion of truth. nietzsche's unconfessed and cautious imitators, who call themselves pragmatists, are not bold enough to follow their own logic from the cognitive sphere to the moral. they stop short of the natural conclusion to which their own premises lead. morality is necessarily predicated upon specific notions of truth. so if truth is an alterable and shifting concept, must not morality likewise be variable? the pragmatist might just as well come out at once into the broad light and frankly say: "laws do not interest me in the abstract, or for the sake of their general beneficence; they interest me only in so far as they affect me. therefore i will make, interpret, and abolish them to suit myself." to nietzsche the "quest of truth" is a palpable evasion. truth is merely a means for the enhancement of my subjective satisfaction. it makes not a whit of difference whether an opinion or a judgment satisfies this or that scholastic definition. i call true and good that which furthers my welfare and intensifies my joy in living; and,--to vindicate my self-gratification as a form, indeed the highest, of "social service,"--the desirable thing is that which matters for the improvement of the human stock and thereby speeds the advent of the superman. "oh," exclaims zarathustra, "that ye would understand my word: be sure to do whatever ye like,--but first of all be such as _can will_! be sure to love your neighbor as yourself,--but first of all be such as _love themselves_,--as love themselves with great love, with contempt. thus speaketh zarathustra, the ungodly." by way of throwing some light upon this phase of nietzsche's moral philosophy, it may be added that ever since 1876 he was an assiduous student of herbert spencer, with whose theory of social evolution he was first made acquainted by his friend, paul rée, who in two works of his own, "psychologic observations," (1875), and "on the origin of moral sentiments," (1877), had elaborated upon the spencerian theory about the genealogy of morals. the best known among all of nietzsche's works, _also sprach zarathustra_ ("thus spake zarathustra"), is the magna charta of the new moral emancipation. it was composed during a sojourn in southern climes between 1883 and 1885, during the convalescence from a nervous collapse, when after a long and critical depression his spirit was recovering its accustomed resilience. nietzsche wrote his _magnum opus_ in solitude, in the mountains and by the sea. his mind always was at its best in settings of vast proportions, and in this particular work there breathes an exaltation that has scarcely its equal in the world's literature. style and diction in their supreme elation suit the lofty fervor of the sentiment. from the feelings, as a fact, this great rhapsody flows, and to the feelings it makes its appeal; its extreme fascination must be lost upon those who only know how to "listen to reason." the wondrous plastic beauty of the language, along with the high emotional pitch of its message, render "zarathustra" a priceless poetic monument; indeed its practical effect in chastening and rejuvenating german literary diction can hardly be overestimated. its value as a philosophic document is much slighter. it is not even organized on severely logical lines. on the contrary, the four component parts are but brilliant variations upon a single generic theme, each in a different clef, but harmoniously united by the incremental ecstasy of the movement. the composition is free from monotony, for down to each separate aphorism every part of it has its special lyric nuance. the whole purports to convey in the form of discourse the prophetic message of zarathustra, the hermit sage, an idealized self-portrayal of the author. in the first book the tone is calm and temperate. zarathustra exhorts and instructs his disciples, rails at his adversaries, and discloses his superiority over them. in the soliloquies and dialogues of the second book he reveals himself more fully and freely as the superman. the third book contains the meditations and rhapsodies of zarathustra now dwelling wholly apart from men, his mind solely occupied with thought about the eternal return of the present. in the fourth book he is found in the company of a few chosen spirits whom he seeks to imbue with his perfected doctrine. in this final section of the work the deep lyric current is already on the ebb; it is largely supplanted by irony, satire, sarcasm, even buffoonery, all of which are resorted to for the pitiless excoriation of our type of humanity, deemed decrepit by the sage. the author's intention to present in a concluding fifth division the dying zarathustra pronouncing his benedictions upon life in the act of quitting it was not to bear fruit. "zarathustra"--nietzsche's terrific assault upon the fortifications of our social structure--is too easily mistaken by facile cavilers for the ravings of an unsound and desperate mind. to a narrow and superficial reading, it exhibits itself as a wholesale repudiation of all moral responsibility and a maniacal attempt to subvert human civilization for the exclusive benefit of the "glorious blonde brute, rampant with greed for victory and spoil." yet those who care to look more deeply will detect beneath this chimerical contempt of conventional regulations no want of a highminded philanthropic purpose, provided they have the vision necessary to comprehend a love of man oriented by such extremely distant perspectives. at all events they will discover that in this rebellious propaganda an advancing line of life is firmly traced out. the indolent and thoughtless may indeed be horrified by the appalling dangers of the gospel according to zarathustra. but in reality there is no great cause for alarm. society may amply rely upon its agencies, even in these stupendous times of universal war, for protection from any disastrous organic dislocations incited by the teachings of zarathustra, at least so far as the immediate future is concerned--in which alone society appears to be interested. moreover, our apprehensions are appeased by the sober reflection that by its plain unfeasibleness the whole supersocial scheme of nietzsche is reduced to colossal absurdity. its limitless audacity defeats any formulation of its "war aims." for what compels an ambitious imagination to arrest itself at the goal of the superman? why should it not run on beyond that first terminal? in one of mr. g. k. chesterton's labored extravaganzas a grotesque sort of super-overman _in spe_ succeeds in going beyond unreason when he contrives this lucid self-definition: "i have gone where god has never dared to go. i am above the silly supermen as they are above mere men. where i walk in the heavens, no man has walked before me, and i am alone in a garden." it is enough to make one gasp and then perhaps luckily recall goethe's consoling thought that under the care of providence the trees will not grow into the heavens. ("_es ist dafür gesorgt, dass die bäume nicht in den himmel wachsen._") as matter of fact, the ideas promulgated in _also sprach zarathustra_ need inspire no fear of their winning the human race from its venerable idols, despite the fact that the pull of natural laws and of elemental appetites seems to be on their side. the only effect to be expected of such a philosophy is that it will act as an antidote for moral inertia which inevitably goes with the flock-instinct and the lazy reliance on the accustomed order of things. nietzsche's ethics are not easy to valuate, since none of their standards are derived from the orthodox canon. his being a truly personalized form of morality, his principles are strictly cognate to his temperament. to his professed ideals there attaches a definite theory of society. and since his philosophy is consistent in its sincerity, its message is withheld from the man-in-the-street, deemed unworthy of notice, and delivered only to the _élite_ that shall beget the superman. to nietzsche the good of the greatest number is no valid consideration. the great stupid mass exists only for the sake of an oligarchy by whom it is duly exploited under nature's decree that the strong shall prey upon the weak. let, then, this favored set further the design of nature by systematically encouraging the elevation of their own type. * * * * * we have sought to dispel the fiction about the shaping influence of nietzsche upon the thought and conduct of his nation, and have accounted for the miscarriage of his ethics by their fantastic impracticability. yet it has been shown also that he fostered in an unmistakable fashion the class-consciousness of the aristocrat, born or self-appointed. to that extent his influence was certainly malign. yet doubtless he did perform a service to our age. the specific nature of this service, stated in the fewest words, is that to his great divinatory gift are we indebted for an unprecedented strengthening of our hold upon reality. in order to make this point clear we have to revert once more to nietzsche's transient intellectual relation to pessimism. we have seen that the illusionism of schopenhauer and more particularly of wagner exerted a strong attraction on his high-strung artistic temperament. nevertheless a certain realistic counter-drift to the ultra-romantic tendency of wagner's theory caused him in the long run to reject the faith in the power of art to save man from evil. almost abruptly, his personal affection for the "master," to whom in his eventual mental eclipse he still referred tenderly at lucid moments, changed to bitter hostility. henceforth he classes the glorification of art as one of the three most despicable attitudes of life: philistinism, pietism, and estheticism, all of which have their origin in _cowardice_, represent three branches of the ignominious road of escape from the terrors of living. in three extended diatribes nietzsche denounces wagner as the archetype of modern decadence; the most violent attack of all is delivered against the point of juncture in which wagner's art gospel and the christian religion culminate: the promise of redemption through pity. to nietzsche's way of thinking pity is merely the coward's acknowledgment of his weakness. for only insomuch as a man is devoid of fortitude in bearing his own sufferings is he unable to contemplate with equanimity the sufferings of his fellow creatures. since religion enjoins compassion with all forms of human misery, we should make war upon religion. and for the reason that wagner's crowning achievement, his _parsifal_, is a veritable sublimation of mercy, there can be no truce between its creator and the giver of the counsel: "be hard!" perhaps this notorious advice is after all not as ominous as it sounds. it merely expresses rather abruptly nietzsche's confidence in the value of self-control as a means of discipline. if you have learned calmly to see others suffer, you are yourself able to endure distress with manful composure. "therefore i wash the hand which helped the sufferer; therefore i even wipe my soul." but, unfortunately, such is the frailty of human nature that it is only one step from indifference about the sufferings of others to an inclination to exploit them or even to inflict pain upon one's neighbors for the sake of personal gain of one sort or another. why so hard? said once the charcoal unto the diamond, are we not near relations? why so soft? o my brethren, thus i ask you. are ye not my brethren? why so soft, so unresisting, and yielding? why is there so much disavowal and abnegation in your hearts? why is there so little fate in your looks? and if ye are not willing to be fates, and inexorable, how could ye conquer with me someday? and if your hardness would not glance, and cut, and chip into pieces--how could ye create with me some day? for all creators are hard. and it must seem blessedness unto you to press your hand upon millenniums as upon wax,- blessedness to write upon the will of millenniums as upon brass,--harder than brass, nobler than brass. the noblest only is perfectly hard. this new table, o my brethren, i put over you: become hard!(22) (22) "thus spake zarathustra," p. 399, sec. 29. the repudiation of wagner leaves a tremendous void in nietzsche's soul by depriving his enthusiasm of its foremost concrete object. he loses his faith in idealism. when illusions can bring a man like wagner to such an odious outlook upon life, they must be obnoxious in themselves; and so, after being subjected to pitiless analysis, they are disowned and turned into ridicule. and now, the pendulum of his zeal having swung from one emotional extreme to the other, the great rhapsodist finds himself temporarily destitute of an adequate theme. however, his fervor does not long remain in abeyance, and soon it is absorbed in a new object. great as is the move it is logical enough. since illusions are only a hindrance to the fuller grasp of life which behooves all free spirits, nietzsche energetically turns from self-deception to its opposite, self-realization. in this new spiritual endeavor he relies far more on intuition than on scientific and metaphysical speculation. from his own stand he is certainly justified in doing this. experimentation and ratiocination at the best are apt to disassociate individual realities from their complex setting and then proceed to palm them off as illustrations of life, when in truth they are lifeless, artificially preserved specimens. "encheiresin naturae nennt's die chemie, spottet ihrer selbst und weiss nicht wie."(23) nietzsche's realism, by contrast, goes to the very quick of nature, grasps all the gifts of life, and from the continuous flood of phenomena extracts a rich, full-flavored essence. it is from a sense of gratitude for this boon that he becomes an idolatrous worshiper of experience, "_der grosse jasager_,"--the great sayer of yes,--and the most stimulating optimist of all ages. to nietzsche reality is alive as perhaps never to man before. he plunges down to the very heart of things, absorbs their vital qualities and meanings, and having himself learned to draw supreme satisfaction from the most ordinary facts and events, he makes the common marvelous to others, which, as was said by james russell lowell, is a true test of genius. no wonder that deification of reality becomes the dominant _motif_ in his philosophy. but again that onesided aristocratic strain perverts his ethics. to drain the intoxicating cup at the feast of life, such is the divine privilege not of the common run of mortals but only of the elect. they must not let this or that petty and artificial convention, nor yet this or that moral command or prohibition, restrain them from the exercise of that higher sense of living, but must fully abandon themselves to its joys. "since man came into existence he hath had too little joy. that alone, my brethren, is our original sin."(24) the "much-too-many" are doomed to inanity by their lack of appetite at the banquet of life: such folk sit down unto dinner and bring nothing with them, not even a good hunger. and now they backbite: "all is vanity!" but to eat well and drink well, o my brethren, is, verily, no vain art! break, break the tables of those who are never joyful!(25) (23) goethe's _faust_, ii, ll. 1940-1. bayard taylor translates: _encheiresin naturae_, this chemistry names, nor knows how herself she banters and blames! (24) "thus spake zarathustra," p. 120. (25) _ibid._, p. 296, sec. 13. the will to live holds man's one chance of this-worldly bliss, and supersedes any care for the remote felicities of any problematic future state. yet the nietzschean cult of life is not to be understood by any means as a banal devotion to the pleasurable side of life alone. the true disciple finds in every event, be it happy or adverse, exalting or crushing, the factors of supreme spiritual satisfaction: joy and pain are equally implied in experience, the will to live encompasses jointly the capacity to enjoy and to suffer. it may even be paradoxically said that since man owes some of his greatest and most beautiful achievements to sorrow, it must be a joy and a blessing to suffer. the unmistakable sign of heroism is _amor fati_, a fierce delight in one's destiny, hold what it may. consequently, the precursor of the superman will be possessed, along with his great sensibility to pleasure, of a capacious aptitude for suffering. "ye would perchance abolish suffering," exclaims nietzsche, "and we,--it seems that we would rather have it even greater and worse than it has ever been. the discipline of suffering,--tragical suffering,--know ye not that only this discipline has heretofore brought about every elevation of man?" "spirit is that life which cutteth into life. by one's own pain one's own knowledge increaseth;--knew ye that before? and the happiness of the spirit is this: to be anointed and consecrated by tears as a sacrificial animal;--knew ye that before?" and if, then, the tragical pain inherent in life be no argument against joyfulness, the zest of living can be obscured by nothing save the fear of total extinction. to the disciple of nietzsche, by whom every moment of his existence is realized as a priceless gift, the thought of his irrevocable separation from all things is unbearable. "'was this life?' i shall say to death. 'well, then, once more!'" and--to paraphrase nietzsche's own simile--the insatiable witness of the great tragi-comedy, spectator and participant at once, being loath to leave the theatre, and eager for a repetition of the performance, shouts his endless _encore_, praying fervently that in the constant repetition of the performance not a single detail of the action be omitted. the yearning for the endlessness not of life at large, not of life on any terms, but of _this my life_ with its ineffable wealth of rapturous moments, works up the extreme optimism of nietzsche to its stupendous _a priori_ notion of infinity, expressed in the name _die ewige wiederkehr_ ("eternal recurrence"). it is a staggeringly imaginative concept, formed apart from any evidential grounds, and yet fortified with a fair amount of logical armament. the universe is imagined as endless in time, although its material contents are not equally conceived as limitless. since, consequently, there must be a limit to the possible variety in the arrangement and sequence of the sum total of data, even as in the case of a kaleidoscope, the possibility of variegations is not infinite. the particular co-ordination of things in the universe, say at this particular moment, is bound to recur again and again in the passing of the eons. but under the nexus of cause and effect the resurgence of the past from the ocean of time is not accidental nor is the configuration of things haphazard, as is true in the case of the kaleidoscope; rather, history, in the most inclusive acceptation of the term, is predestined to repeat itself; this happens through the perpetual progressive resurrection of its particles. it is then to be assumed that any aspect which the world has ever presented must have existed innumerable millions of times before, and must recur with eternal periodicity. that the deterministic strain in this tremendous _vorstellung_ of a cyclic rhythm throbbing in the universe entangles its author's fanatical belief in evolution in a rather serious self-contradiction, does not detract from its spiritual lure, nor from its wide suggestiveness, however incapable it may be of scientific demonstration. from unfathomed depths of feeling wells up the pæan of the prophet of the life intense. o mensch! gib acht! was spricht die tiefe mitternacht? ich schlief, ich schlief--, aus tiefem traum bin ich erwacht:- die welt ist tief, und tiefer als der tag gedacht. tief ist ihr weh--, lust--tiefer noch als herzeleid: weh spricht: vergeh! doch alle lust will ewigkeit- will tiefe, tiefe ewigkeit!(26) (26) o man! lose not sight! what saith the deep midnight? "i lay in sleep, in sleep; from deep dream i woke to light. the world is deep, and deeper than ever day though! it might. deep is its woe,- and deeper still than woe--delight." saith woe: "pass, go! eternity's sought by all delight,- eternity deep--by all delight. "thus spake zarathustra," the drunken song, p. 174.--the translation but faintly suggests the poetic appeal of the original. a timid heart may indeed recoil from the iron necessity of reliving _ad infinitum_ its woeful terrestrial fate. but the prospect can hold no terror for the heroic soul by whose fiat all items of experience have assumed important meanings and values. he who has cast in his lot with destiny in spontaneous submission to all its designs, cannot but revere and cherish his own fate as an integral part of the grand unalterable fatality of things. * * * * * if this crude presentment of friedrich nietzsche's doctrine has not entirely failed of its purpose, the _leitmotifs_ of that doctrine will have been readily referred by the reader to their origin; they can be subsumed under that temperamental category which is more or less accurately defined as the _romantic_. glorification of violent passion,--quest of innermost mysteries,--boundless expansion of self-consciousness,--visions of a future of transcendent magnificence, and notwithstanding an ardent worship of reality a quixotically impracticable detachment from the concrete basis of civic life,--these outstanding characteristics of the nietzschean philosophy give unmistakable proof of a central, driving, romantic inspiration: nietzsche shifts the essence and principle of being to a new center of gravity, by substituting the future for the present and relying on the untrammeled expansion of spontaneous forces which upon closer examination are found to be without definite aim or practical goal. for this reason, critically to animadvert upon nietzsche as a social reformer would be utterly out of place; he is simply too much of a poet to be taken seriously as a statesman or politician. the weakness of his philosophy before the forum of logic has been referred to before. nothing can be easier than to prove the incompatibility of some of his theorems. how, for instance, can the absolute determinism of the belief in cyclic recurrence be reconciled with the power vested in superman to deflect by his autonomous will the straight course of history? or, to touch upon a more practical social aspect of his teaching,--if in the order of nature all men are unequal, how can we ever bring about the right selection of leaders, how indeed can we expect to secure the due ascendancy of character and intellect over the gregarious grossness of the demos? again, it is easy enough to controvert nietzsche almost at any pass by demonstrating his unphilosophic onesidedness. were nietzsche not stubbornly onesided, he would surely have conceded--as any sane-minded person must concede in these times of suffering and sacrifice--that charity, self-abnegation, and self-immolation might be viewed, not as conclusive proofs of degeneracy, but on the contrary as signs of growth towards perfection. besides, philosophers of the _métier_ are sure to object to the haziness of nietzsche's idea of vitality which in truth is oriented, as is his philosophy in general, less by thought than by sentiment. notwithstanding his obvious connection with significant contemporaneous currents, the author of "zarathustra" is altogether too much _sui generis_ to be amenable to any crude and rigid classification. he may plausibly be labelled an anarchist, yet no definition of anarchism will wholly take him in. anarchism stands for the demolition of the extant social apparatus of restraint. its battle is for the free determination of personal happiness. nietzsche's prime concern, contrarily, is with internal self-liberation from the obsessive desire for personal happiness in any accepted connotation of the term; such happiness to him does not constitute the chief object of life. the cardinal point of nietzsche's doctrine is missed by those who, arguing retrospectively, expound the gist of his philosophy as an incitation to barbarism. nothing can be more remote from his intentions than the transformation of society into a horde of ferocious brutes. his impeachment of mercy, notwithstanding an appearance of reckless impiety, is in the last analysis no more and no less than an expedient in the truly romantic pursuit of a new ideal of love. compassion, in his opinion, hampers the progress towards forms of living that shall be pregnant with a new and superior type of perfection. and in justice to nietzsche it should be borne in mind that among the various manifestations of that human failing there is none he scorns so deeply as cowardly and petty commiseration of self. it also deserves to be emphasized that he nowhere endorses selfishness when exercised for small or sordid objects. "i love the brave. but it is not enough to be a swordsman, one must also know against whom to use the sword. and often there is more bravery in one's keeping quiet and going past, in order to spare one's self for a worthier enemy: ye shall have only enemies who are to be hated, but not enemies who are to be despised."(27) despotism must justify itself by great and worthy ends. and no man must be permitted to be hard towards others who lacks the strength of being even harder towards himself. (27) "thus spake zarathustra," p. 304. at all events it must serve a better purpose to appraise the practical importance of nietzsche's speculations than blankly to denounce their immoralism. nietzsche, it has to be repeated, was not on the whole a creator of new ideas. his extraordinary influence in the recent past is not due to any supreme originality or fertility of mind; it is predominantly due to his eagle-winged imagination. in him the emotional urge of utterance was, accordingly, incomparably more potent than the purely intellectual force of opinion: in fact the texture of his philosophy is woven of sensations rather than of ideas, hence its decidedly ethical trend. the latent value of nietzsche's ethics in their application to specific social problems it would be extremely difficult to determine. their successful application to general world problems, if it were possible, would mean the ruin of the only form of civilization that signifies to us. his philosophy, if swallowed in the whole, poisons; in large potations, intoxicates; but in reasonable doses, strengthens and stimulates. such danger as it harbors has no relation to grossness. his call to the joy of living and doing is no encouragement of vulgar hedonism, but a challenge to persevering effort. he urges the supreme importance of vigor of body and mind and force of will. "o my brethren, i consecrate you to be, and show unto you the way unto a new nobility. ye shall become procreators and breeders and sowers of the future.--not whence ye come be your honor in future, but whither ye go! your will, and your foot that longeth to get beyond yourselves, be that your new honor!"(28) (28) "thus spake zarathustra," p. 294. it would be a withering mistake to advocate the translation of nietzsche's poetic dreams into the prose of reality. unquestionably his utopia if it were to be carried into practice would doom to utter extinction the world it is devised to regenerate. but it is generally acknowledged that "prophets have a right to be unreasonable," and so, if we would square ourselves with friedrich nietzsche in a spirit of fairness, we ought not to forget that the daring champion of reckless unrestraint is likewise the inspired apostle of action, power, enthusiasm, and aspiration, in fine, a prophet of vitality and a messenger of hope. iv the revivalism of leo tolstoy in the intellectual record of our times it is one of the oddest events that the most impressive preacher who has taken the ear of civilized mankind in this generation raised up his voice in a region which in respect of its political, religious, and economic status was until recently, by fairly common consent, ruled off the map of europe. the greatest humanitarian of his century sprang up in a land chiefly characterized in the general judgment of the outside world by the reactionism of its government and the stolid ignorance of its populace. a country still teeming with analphabeticians and proverbial for its dense medievalism gave to the world a writer who by the great quality of his art and the lofty spiritualism of his teaching was able not only to obtain a wide hearing throughout all civilized countries, but to become a distinct factor in the moral evolution of the age. the stupefying events that have recently revolutionized the russian state have given the world an inkling of the secrets of the slavic type of temperament, so mystifying in its commixture of simplicity and strength on the one hand with grossness and stupidity, and on the other hand with the highest spirituality and idealism. for such people as in these infuriated times still keep up some objective and judicious interest in products of the literary art, the volcanic upheaval in the social life of russia has probably thrown some of tolstoy's less palpable figures into a greater plastic relief. tolstoy's own character, too, has become more tangible in its curious composition. the close analogy between his personal theories and the dominant impulses of his race has now been made patent. we are better able to understand the people of whom he wrote because we have come to know better the people for whom he wrote. the emphasis of tolstoy's popular appeal was unquestionably enhanced by certain eccentricities of his doctrine, and still more by his picturesque efforts to conform his mode of life, by way of necessary example, to his professed theory of social elevation. the personality of tolstoy, like the character of the russian people, is many-sided, and since its aspects are not marked off by convenient lines of division, but are, rather, commingled in the great and varied mass of his literary achievements, it is not easy to make a definitive forecast of his historic position. tentatively, however, the current critical estimate may be summed up in this: as a creative writer, in particular of novels and short stories, he stood matchless among the realists, and the verdict pronounced at one time by william dean howells when he referred to tolstoy as "the only living writer of perfect fiction" is not likely to be overruled by posterity. nor will competent judges gainsay his supreme importance as a critic and moral revivalist of society, even though they may be seriously disposed to question whether his principles of conduct constitute in their aggregate a canon of much practical worth for the needs of the western world. as a philosopher or an original thinker, however, he will hardly maintain the place accorded him by the less discerning among his multitudinous followers, for in his persistent attempt to find a new way of understanding life he must be said to have signally failed. wisdom in him was hampered by utopian fancies; his dogmas derive from idiosyncrasies and lead into absurdities. then, too, most of his tenets are easily traced to their sources: in his vagaries as well as in his noblest and soundest aspirations he was merely continuing work which others had prepared. * * * * * an objective survey of tolstoy's work in realistic fiction, in which he ranked supreme, should start with the admission that he was by no means the first arrival among the russians in that field. nicholas gogol, fedor dostoievsky, and ivan turgenieff had the priority by a small margin. of these three powerful novelists, dostoievsky (1821-1881) has probably had an even stronger influence upon modern letters than has tolstoy himself. he was one of the earliest writers of romance to show the younger generation how to found fiction upon deeper psychologic knowledge. his greatest proficiency lay, as is apt to be the case with writers of a realistic bent, in dealing with the darkest side of life. the wretched and outcast portion of humanity yielded to his skill its most congenial material. his novels--"poor folk," (1846), "memoirs from a dead house," (1862), "raskolnikoff," (1866), "the idiot," (1868), "the karamasoffs," (1879)--take the reader into company such as had heretofore not gained open entrance to polite literature: criminals, defectives, paupers, and prostitutes. yet he did not dwell upon the wretchedness of that submerged section of humanity from any perverse delight in what is hideous or for the satisfaction of readers afflicted with morbid curiosity, but from a compelling sense of pity and brotherly love. his works are an appeal to charity. in them, the imperdible grace of the soul shines through the ugliest outward disguise to win a glance from the habitual indifference of fortune's _enfants gâtés_. dostoievsky preceded tolstoy in frankly enlisting his talents in the service of his outcast brethren. with the same ideal of the writer's mission held in steady view, tolstoy turned his attention from the start, and then more and more as his work advanced, to the pitiable condition of the lower orders of society. it must not be forgotten in this connection that his career was synchronous with the growth of a social revolution which, having reached its full force in these days, is making russia over for better or for worse, and whose wellsprings tolstoy helps us to fathom. * * * * * for the general grouping of his writings it is convenient to follow tolstoy's own division of his life. his dreamy poetical childhood was succeeded by three clearly distinct stages: first, a score of years filled up with self-indulgent worldliness; next, a nearly equal length of time devoted to artistic ambition, earnest meditation, and helpful social work; last, by a more gradual transition, the ascetic period, covering a long stretch of years given up to religious illumination and to the strenuous advocacy of the simple life. the remarkable spiritual evolution of this great man was apparently governed far more by inborn tendencies than by the workings of experience. of tolstoy in his childhood, youth, middle age, and senescence we gain trustworthy impressions from numerous autobiographical documents, but here we shall have to forego anything more than a passing reference to the essential facts of his career. he was descended from an aristocratic family of german stock but domiciled in russia since the fourteenth century. the year of his birth was 1828, the same as ibsen's. in youth he was bashful, eccentric, and amazingly ill-favored. the last-named of these handicaps he outgrew but late in life, still later did he get over his bashfulness, and his eccentricity never left him. his penchant for the infraction of custom nearly put a premature stop to his career when in his urchin days he once threw himself from a window in an improvised experiment in aerial navigation. at the age of fourteen he was much taken up with subtile speculations about the most ancient and vexing of human problems: the future life, and the immortality of the soul. entering the university at fifteen, he devoted himself in the beginning to the study of oriental languages, but later on his interest shifted to the law. at sixteen he was already imbued with the doctrines of jean jacques rousseau that were to play such an important rôle in guiding his conduct. in 1846 he passed out of the university without a degree, carrying away nothing but a lasting regret over his wasted time. he went directly to his ancestral estates, with the idealistic intention to make the most of the opportunity afforded him by the patriarchal relationship that existed in russia between the landholder and the _adscripti glebae_ and to improve the condition of his seven hundred dependents. his efforts, however, were foredoomed to failure, partly through his lack of experience, partly also through a certain want of sincerity or tenacity of purpose. the experiment in social education having abruptly come to its end, the disillusionized reformer threw himself headlong into the diversions and dissipations of the capital city. in his "confession" he refers to that chapter of his existence as made up wholly of sensuality and worldliness. he was inordinately proud of his noble birth,--at college his inchoate apostleship of the universal brotherhood of man did not shield him from a general dislike on account of his arrogance,--and he cultivated the most exclusive social circles of moscow. he freely indulged the love of sports that was to cling through life and keep him strong and supple even in very old age. (up to a short time before his death he still rode horseback and perhaps none of the renunciations exacted by his principles came so hard as that of giving up his favorite pastime of hunting.) but he also fell into the evil ways of gilded youth, soon achieving notoriety as a toper, gambler, and _courreur des femmes_. after a while his brother, who was a person of steadier habits and who had great influence over him, persuaded him to quit his profligate mode of living and to join him at his military post. under the bracing effect of the change, the young man's moral energies quickly revived. in the wilds of the caucasus he at once grew freer and cleaner; his deep affection for the half-civilized land endeared him both to the cossack natives and the russian soldiers. he entered the army at twenty-three, and from november, 1853, up to the fall of sebastopol in the summer of 1855, served in the crimean campaign. he entered the famous fortress in november, 1854, and was among the last of its defenders. the indelible impressions made upon his mind by the heroism of his comrades, the awful scenes and the appalling suffering he had to witness, were responsible then and later for descriptions as harrowing and as stirring as any that the war literature of our own day has produced. in the crimea he made his début as a writer. among the tales of his martial period the most popular and perhaps the most excellent is the one called "the cossacks." turgenieff pronounced it the best short story ever written in russian, and it is surely no undue exaggeration to say of tolstoy's novelettes in general that in point of technical mastery they are unsurpassed. sick at heart over the unending bloodshed in the caucasus the young officer made his way back to petrograd, and here, lionized in the salons doubly, fur his feats at arms and in letters, he seems to have returned, within more temperate limits, to his former style of living. at any rate, in his own judgment the ensuing three years were utterly wasted. the mental inanity and moral corruption all about him swelled his sense of superiority and self-righteousness. the glaring humbug and hypocrisy that permeated his social environment was, however, more than he could long endure. having resigned his officer's commission he went abroad in 1857, to switzerland, germany, and france. the studies and observations made in these travels sealed his resolution to settle down for good on his domain and to consecrate his life to the welfare of his peasants. but a survey of the situation found upon his return made him realize that nothing could be done for the "muzhik" without systematic education: therefore, in order to prepare himself for efficacious work as a teacher, he spent some further time abroad for special study, in 1859. after that, the educational labor was taken up in full earnest. the lord of the land became the schoolmaster of his subjects, reenforcing the effect of _viva voce_ teaching by means of a periodical published expressly for their moral uplift. this work he continued for about three years, his hopes of success now rising, now falling, when in a fit of despondency he again abandoned his philanthropic efforts. about this time, 1862, he married sophia andreyevna behrs, the daughter of a moscow physician. with characteristic honesty he forced his private diary on his fiancée, who was only eighteen, so that she might know the full truth about his pre-conjugal course of living. about the countess tolstoy much has been said in praise and blame. let her record speak for itself. of her union with the great novelist thirteen children were born, of whom nine reached an adult age. the mother nursed and tended them all, with her own hands made their clothes, and until they grew to the age of ten supplied to them the place of a schoolmistress. it must not be inferred from this that her horizon did not extend beyond nursery and kitchen, for during the earlier years she acted also as her husband's invaluable amanuensis. before the days of the typewriter his voluminous manuscripts were all copied by her hand, and recopied and revised--in the case of "war and peace" this happened no less than seven times, and the novel runs to sixteen hundred close-printed pages!--and under her supervision his numerous works were not only printed but also published and circulated. moreover, she managed his properties, landed, personal, and literary, to the incalculable advantage of the family fortune. this end, to be sure, she accomplished by conservative and reliable methods of business; for while of his literary genius she was the greatest admirer, she never was in full accord with his communistic notions. and the highest proof of all her extraordinary _tüchtigkeit_ and devotion is that by her common sense and tact she was enabled to function for a lifetime as a sort of buffer between her husband's world-removed dreamland existence and the rigid and frigid reality of facts. thus tolstoy's energies were left to go undivided into literary production; its amount, as a result, was enormous. if all his writings were to be collected, including the unpublished manuscripts now reposing in the rumyantzoff museum, which are said to be about equal in quantity to the published works, and if to this collection were added his innumerable letters, most of which are of very great interest, the complete set of tolstoy's works would run to considerably more than one hundred volumes. to discuss all of tolstoy's writings, or even to mention all, is here quite out of the question. all those, however, that seem vital for the purpose of a just estimate and characterization will be touched upon. * * * * * the literary fame of tolstoy was abundantly secured already in the earlier part of his life by his numerous short stories and sketches. the three remarkable pen pictures of the siege of sebastopol, and tales such as "the cossacks," "two hussars," "polikushka," "the snow-storm," "the encounter," "the invasion," "the captive in the caucasus," "lucerne," "albert," and many others, revealed together with an exceptional depth of insight an extraordinary plastic ability and skill of motivation; in fact they deserve to be set as permanent examples before the eyes of every aspiring author. in their characters and their setting they present true and racy pictures of a portentous epoch, intimate studies of the human soul that are full of charm and fascination, notwithstanding their tragic sadness of outlook. manifestly this author was a prose poet of such marvelous power that he could abstain consistently from the use of sweeping color, overwrought sentiment, and high rhetorical invective. at this season tolstoy, while he refrained from following any of the approved literary models, was paying much attention to the artistic refinement of his style. there was to be a time when he would abjure all considerations of artistry on the ground that by them the ethical issue in a narration is beclouded. but it would be truer to say conversely that in his own later works, since "anna karenina," the clarity of the artistic design was dimmed by the obtrusive didactic purpose. fortunately the artistic interest was not yet wholly subordinated to the religious urge while the three great novels were in course of composition: "war and peace," (1864-69), "anna karenina," (first part, 1873; published complete in 1877), and "resurrection," (1899). to the first of these is usually accorded the highest place among all of tolstoy's works; it is by this work that he takes his position as the chief epic poet of modern times. "war and peace" is indeed an epic rather than a novel in the ordinary meaning. playing against the background of tremendous historical transactions, the narrative sustains the epic character not only in the hugeness of its dimensions, but equally in the qualities of its technique. there is very little comment by the author upon the events, and merely a touch of subjective irony here and there. the story is straightforwardly told as it was lived out by its characters. tolstoy has not the self-complacency to thrust in the odds and ends of his personal philosophy, as is done so annoyingly even by a writer of george meredith's consequence, nor does he ever treat his readers with the almost simian impertinence so successfully affected by a bernard shaw. if "war and peace" has any faults, they are the faults of its virtues, and spring mainly from an unmeasured prodigality of the creative gift. as a result of tolstoy's excessive range of vision, the orderly progress of events in that great novel is broken up somewhat by the profusion of shapes that monopolize the attention one at a time much as individual spots in a landscape do under the sweeping glare of the search-light. yet although in the externalization of this crowding multitude of figures no necessary detail is lacking, the grand movement as a whole is not swamped by the details. the entire story is governed by the conception of events as an emanation of the cosmic will, not merely as the consequence of impulses proceeding from a few puissant geniuses of the napoleonic order. it is quite in accord with such a view of history that the machinery of this voluminous epopee is not set in motion by a single conspicuous protagonist. as a matter of fact, it is somewhat baffling to try to name the principals in the story, since in artistic importance all the figures are on an equal footing before their maker; possibly the fact that tolstoy's ethical theory embodied the most persistent protest ever raised against the inequality of social estates proved not insignificant for his manner of characterization. ethical justice, however, is carried to an artistic fault, for the feelings and reactions of human nature in so many diverse individuals lead to an intricacy and subtlety of motivation which obscures the organic causes through overzeal in making them patent. anyway, tolstoy authenticates himself in this novel as a past master of realism, particularly in his utterly convincing depictment of russian soldier life. and as a painter of the battlefield he ranks, allowing for the difference of the medium, with vasili verestschagin at his best. it may be said in passing that these two russian pacifists, by their gruesome exposition of the horrors of war, aroused more sentiment against warfare than did all the spectacular and expensive peace conferences inaugurated by the crowned but hollow head of their nation, and the splendid declamations of the possessors of, or aspirants for, the late mr. nobel's forty-thousand dollar prize. like all true realists, tolstoy took great pains to inform himself even about the minutiæ of his subjects, but he never failed, as did in large measure zola in _la débâcle_, to infuse emotional meaning into the static monotony of facts and figures. in his strong attachment for his own human creatures he is more nearly akin to the idealizing or sentimentalizing type of realists, like daudet, kipling, hauptmann, than to the downright matter-of-fact naturalists such as zola or gorki. but to classify him at all would be wrong and futile, since he was never leagued with literary creeds and cliques and always stood aloof from the heated theoretical controversies of his time even after he had hurled his great inclusive challenge to art. "war and peace" was written in tolstoy's happiest epoch, at a time, comparatively speaking, of spiritual calm. he had now reached some satisfying convictions in his religious speculations, and felt that his personal life was moving up in the right direction. his moral change is made plain in the contrast between two figures of the story, prince andrey and peter bezukhoff: the ambitious worldling and the honest seeker after the right way. in his second great novel, "anna karenina," the undercurrent of the author's own moral experience has a distinctly greater carrying power. it is through the earnest idealist, levine, that tolstoy has recorded his own aspirations. characteristically, he does not make levine the central figure. "anna karenina" is undoubtedly far from "pleasant" reading, since it is the tragical recital of an adulterous love. but the situation, with its appalling consequence of sorrow, is seized in its fullest psychological depth and by this means saved from being in any way offensive. the relation between the principals is viewed as by no means an ordinary liaison. anna and vronsky are serious-minded, honorable persons, who have struggled conscientiously against their mutual enchantment, but are swept out of their own moral orbits by the resistless force of fate. this fatalistic element in the tragedy is variously emphasized; so at the beginning of the story, where anna, in her emotional confusion still half-ignorant of her infatuation, suddenly realizes her love for vronsky; or in the scene at the horse races where he meets with an accident. throughout the narrative the psychological argumentation is beyond criticism. witness the description of anna's husband, a sort of cousin-in-kind of ibsen's thorvald helmer, reflecting on his future course after his wife's confession of her unfaithfulness. or that other episode, perhaps the greatest of them all, when anna, at the point of death, joins together the hands of her husband and her lover. or, finally, the picture of anna as she deserts her home leaving her son behind in voluntary expiation of her wrong-doing, an act, by the way, that betrays a nicety of conscience far too subtle for the rhadamantine inquisitors who demand to know why, if anna would atone to karenin, does she go with vronsky? how perfectly true to life, subsequently, is the rapid _dégringolade_ of this passion under the gnawing curse of the homeless, workless, purposeless existence which little by little disunites the lovers! only the end may be somewhat open to doubt, with its metastasis of the heroine's character,--unless indeed we consider the sweeping change accounted for by the theory of duplex personality. she herself believes that there are two quite different women alive in her, the one steadfastly loyal to her obligations, the other blindly driven into sin by the demon of her uncontrollable temperament. in the power of analysis, "anna karenina" is beyond doubt tolstoy's masterpiece, and yet in its many discursive passages it already foreshadows the disintegration of his art, or more precisely, its ultimate capitulation to moral propagandism. for it was while at work upon this great novel that the old perplexities returned to bewilder his soul. in the tumultuous agitation of his conscience, the crucial and fundamental questions, why do we live? and how should we live? could nevermore be silenced. now a definitive attitude toward life is forming; to it all the later works bear a vital relation. and so, in regard to their moral outlook, tolstoy's books may fitly be divided into those written before and those written since his "conversion." "anna karenina" happens to be on the dividing line. he was a man well past fifty, of enviable social position, in prosperous circumstances, widely celebrated for his art, highly respected for his character, and in his domestic life blessed with every reason for contentment. yet all the gifts of fortune sank into insignificance before that vexing, unanswered why? in the face of a paralyzing universal aimlessness, there could be to him no abiding sense of life in his personal enjoyments and desires. the burden of life became still less endurable face to face with the existence of evil and with the wretchedness of our social arrangements. with so much toil and trouble, squalor, ignorance, crime, and every conceivable kind of bodily and mental suffering all about me, why should i be privileged to live in luxury and idleness? this ever recurring question would not permit him to enjoy his possessions without self-reproach. to think of thousands of fellowmen lacking the very necessaries, made affluence and its concomitant ways of living odious to him. we know that in 1884, or thereabouts, he radically changed his views and modes of life so as to bring them into conformity with the laws of the gospel. but before this conversion, in the despairing anguish that attacked him after the completion of "anna karenina," he was frequently tempted to suicide. although the thought of death was very terrible to him then and at all times, still he would rather perish than live on in a world made heinous and hateful by the iniquity of men. then it was that he searched for a reason why the vast proportion of humanity endure life, nay enjoy it, and why self-destruction is condemned by the general opinion, and this in spite of the fact that for most mortals existence is even harder than it could have been for him, since he at least was shielded from material want and lived amid loving souls. the answer he found in the end seemed to lead by a straight road out of the wilderness of doubt and despair. the great majority, so he ascertained, are able to bear the burden of life because they heed the ancient injunction: "_ora et labora_"; they _work_ and they _believe_. might he not sweeten his lot after the same prescription? being of a delicate spiritual sensibility, he had long realized that people of the idle class were for the most part inwardly indifferent to religion and in their actions defiant of its spirit. in the upper strata of society religious thought, where it exists, is largely adulterated or weakened; sophisticated by education, doctored by science, thinned out with worldly ambitions and with practical needs and considerations. the faith that supports life is found only among simple folk. for faith, to deserve the name, must be absolute, uncritical, unreasoning. starting from these convictions as a basis, tolstoy resolutely undertook _to learn to believe_; a determination which led him, as it has led other ardent religionists, so far astray from ecclesiastical paths that in due course of time he was unavoidably excommunicated from his church. his convictions made him a vehement antagonist of churchdom because of its stiffness of creed and laxness of practice. for his own part he soon arrived at a full and absolute acceptance of the christian faith in what he considered to be its primitive and essential form. in "walk ye in the light," (1893), the reversion of a confirmed worldling to this original conception of christianity gives the story of the writer's own change of heart. to the period under discussion belongs tolstoy's drama, "the power of darkness," (1886).(29) it is a piece of matchless realism, probably the first unmixedly naturalistic play ever wrought out. it is brutally, terribly true to life, and that to life at its worst, both in respect of the plot and the actors, who are individualized down to the minutest characteristics of utterance and gesture. withal it is a species of modern morality, replete with a reformatory purpose that reflects deeply the author's tensely didactic state of mind. his instructional zeal is heightened by intimate knowledge of the russian peasant, on his good side as well as on his bad. some of his short stories are crass pictures of the muzhik's bestial degradation, veritable pattern cards of human and inhuman vices. in other stories, again, the deep-seated piety of the muzhik, and his patriarchal simplicity of heart are portrayed. as instance, the story of "two old men," (1885), who are pledged to attain the holy land: the one performs his vow to the letter, the other, much the godlier of the two, is kept from his goal by a work of practical charity. in another story a muzhik is falsely accused of murder and accepts his undeserved punishment in a devout spirit of non-resistance. in a third, a poor cobbler who intuitively walks in the light is deemed worthy of a visit from christ. (29) the only tragedy brought out during his life time. in "the power of darkness," the darkest traits of peasant life prevail, yet the frightful picture is somehow christianized, as it were, so that even the miscreant nikita, in spite of his monstrous crimes, is sure of our profound compassion. we are gripped at the very heartstrings by that great confession scene where he stutters out his budget of malefactions, forced by his awakened conscience and urged on by his old father: "speak out, my child, speak it off your soul, then you will feel easier." "the power of darkness" was given its counterpart in the satirical comedy, "fruits of culture," (1889). the wickedness of refined society is more mercilessly excoriated than low-lived infamy. but artistically considered the peasant tragedy is far superior to the "society play." * * * * * tolstoy was a pessimist both by temperament and philosophical persuasion. this is made manifest among other things by the prominent place which the idea of death occupies in his writings. his feelings are expressed with striking simplicity by one of the principal characters in "war and peace": "one must often think of death, so that it may lose its terrors for us, cease to be an enemy, and become on the contrary a friend that delivers us from this life of miseries." still, in tolstoy's stories, death, as a rule, is a haunting spectre. this conception comes to the fore even long after his conversion in a story like "master and man." throughout his literary activity it has an obsessive hold on his mind. even the shadowing of the animal mind by the ubiquitous spectre gives rise to a story: "cholstomjer, the story of a horse," (1861), and in one of the earlier tales even the death of a tree is pictured. death is most terrifying when, denuded of its heroic embellishments in battle pieces such as "the death of a soldier" ("sebastopol") or the description of prince andrey's death in "war and peace," it is exposed in all its bare and grim loathsomeness. such happens in the short novel published in 1886 under the name of "the death of ivan ilyitch,"--in point of literary merit one of tolstoy's greatest performances. it is a plain tale about a middle-aged man of the official class, happy in an unreflecting sort of way in the jog-trot of his work and domestic arrangements. suddenly his fate is turned,--by a trite mishap resulting in a long, hopeless sickness. his people at first give him the most anxious care, but as the illness drags on their devotion gradually abates, the patient is neglected, and soon almost no thought is given to him. in the monotonous agony of his prostration, the sufferer slowly comes to realize that he is dying, while his household has gone back to its habitual ways mindless of him, as though he were already dead, or had never lived. all through this lengthened crucifixion he still clings to life, and it is only when the family, gathering about him shortly before the release, can but ill conceal their impatience for the end, that ivan at last accepts his fate: "i will no longer let them suffer--i will die; i will deliver them and myself." so he dies, and the world pursues its course unaltered,--in which consists the after-sting of this poignant tragedy. * * * * * between the years 1879 and 1886 tolstoy published the main portion of what may be regarded as his spiritual autobiography, namely, "the confession," (1879, with a supplement in 1882), "the union and translation of the four gospels," (1881-2), "what do i believe?" (also translated under the title "my religion," 1884) and "what then must we do?" (1886). he was now well on the way to the logical ultimates of his ethical ideas, and in the revulsion from artistic ambitions so plainly foreshown in a treatise in 1887: "what is true art?" he repudiated unequivocally all his earlier work so far as it sprang from any motives other than those of moral teaching. without a clear appreciation of these facts a just estimate of "the kreutzer sonata" (1889) is impossible. the central character of the book is a commonplace, rather well-meaning fellow who has been tried for the murder of his wife, slain by him in a fit of insensate jealousy, and has been acquitted because of the extenuating circumstances in the case. the object of the story is to lay bare the causes of his crime. tolstoy's ascetic proclivity had long since set him thinking about sex problems in general and in particular upon the ethics of marriage. and by this time he had arrived at the conclusion that the demoralized state of our society is chiefly due to polygamy and polyandrism; corroboration of his uncompromising views on the need of social purity he finds in the evangelist matthew, v:27-28, where the difference between the old command and its new, far more rigorous, interpretation is bluntly stated: "ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, thou shalt not commit adultery: but i say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." now tolstoy thinks that society, far from concurring in the scriptural condemnation of lewdness, caters systematically to the appetites of the voluptuary. if tolstoy is right in his diagnosis, then the euphemistic term "social evil" has far wider reaches of meaning than those to which it is customarily applied. with the head person in "the kreutzer sonata," tolstoy regards society as no better than a _maison de tolérance_ conducted on a very comprehensive scale. women are reared with the main object of alluring men through charms and accomplishments; the arts of the hairdresser, the dressmaker, and milliner, as well as the exertions of governesses, music masters, and linguists all converge toward the same aim: to impart the power of attracting men. between the woman of the world and the professional courtezan the main difference in the light of this view lies in the length of the service. pozdnicheff accordingly divides femininity into long term and short term prostitutes, which rather fantastic classification tolstoy follows up intrepidly to its last logical consequence. the main idea of "the kreutzer sonata," as stated in the postscript, is that sexless life is best. a recommendation of celibacy as mankind's highest ideal to be logical should involve a wish for the disappearance of human life from the globe. a world-view of such pessimistic sort prevents itself from the forfeiture of all bonds with humanity only by its concomitant reasoning that a race for whom it were better not to be is the very one that will struggle desperately against its _summum bonum_. since race suicide, then, is a hopeless desideratum, the reformer must turn to more practicable methods if he would at least alleviate the worst of our social maladjustments. idleness is the mother of all mischief, because it superinduces sensual self-indulgence. therefore we must suppress anything that makes for leisure and pleasure. at this point we grasp the meaning of tolstoy's vehement recoil from art. it is, to a great extent, the strong-willed resistance of a highly impressionable puritan against the enticements of beauty,--their distracting and disquieting effect, and principally their power of sensuous suggestion. the last extensive work published by tolstoy was "resurrection," (1889). in artistic merit it is not on a level with "war and peace" and "anna karenina," nor can this be wondered at, considering the opinion about the value of art that had meanwhile ripened in the author. "resurrection" was written primarily for a constructive moral purpose, yet the subject matter was such as to secrete, unintendedly, a corrosive criticism of social and religious cant. the satirical connotation of the novel could not have been more grimly brought home than through this fact, that the hero by his unswerving allegiance to christian principles of conduct greatly shocks, at first, our sense of the proprieties, instead of eliciting our enthusiastic admiration. in spite of our highest moral notions prince nekhludoff, like that humbler follower of the voice of conscience in gerhart hauptmann's novel, impresses us as a "fool in christ." the story, itself, leads by degrees from the under-world of crime and punishment to a great spiritual elevation. maslowa, a drunken street-walker, having been tried on a charge of murder, is wrongfully sentenced to transportation for life, because--the jury is tired out and the judge in a hurry to visit his mistress. prince nekhludoff, sitting on that jury, recognizes in the victim of justice a girl whose downfall he himself had caused. he is seized by penitence and resolves to follow the convict to siberia, share her sufferings, dedicate his life to her redemption. she has sunk so low that his hope of reforming her falters, yet true to his resolution he offers to marry her. although the offer is rejected, yet the suggestion of a new life which it brings begins to work a change in the woman. in the progress of the story her better nature gradually gains sway until a thorough moral revolution is completed. "resurrection" derives its special value from its clear demonstration of those rules of conduct to which the author was straining with every moral fiber to conform his own life. from his ethical speculations and social experiments are projected figures like that of maria paulovna, a rich and beautiful woman who prefers to live like a common workingwoman and is drawn by her social conscience into the revolutionary vortex. in this figure, and more definitely still in the political convict simonson, banished because of his educational work among the common people, tolstoy studies for the first time the so-called "intellectual" type of revolutionist. his view of the "intellectuals" is sympathetic, on the whole. they believe that evil springs from ignorance. their agitation issues from the highest principles, and they are capable of any self-sacrifice for the general weal. still tolstoy, as a thoroughly anti-political reformer, deprecates their organized movement. altogether, he repudiated the systems of social reconstruction that go by the name of socialism, because he relied for the regeneration of society wholly and solely upon individual self-elevation. in an essential respect he was nevertheless a socialist, inasmuch as he strove for the ideal of universal equality. his social philosophy, bound up inseparably with his personal religious evolution, is laid down in a vast number of essays, letters, sketches, tracts, didactic tales, and perhaps most comprehensively in those autobiographical documents already mentioned. sociologically the most important of these is a book on the problem of property, entitled, "what then must we do?" (1886), which expounds the passage in luke iii:10, 11: "and the people asked him, saying, what shall we do then? he answered and saith unto them, he that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise." not long before that, he had thought of devoting himself entirely to charitable work, but practical experiments at moscow demonstrated to him the futility of almsgiving. speaking on that point to his english biographer, aylmer maude,(30) he remarked: "all such activity, if people attribute importance to it, is worthless." when his interviewer insisted that the destitute have to be provided for somehow and that the count himself was in the habit of giving money to beggars, the latter replied: "yes, but i do not imagine that i am doing good! i only do it for myself, because i know that i have no right to be well off while they are in misery." it is worth mention in passing that during the famine of 1891-2 this determined opponent of organized charity, in noble inconsistency with his theories, led in the dispensation of relief to the starving population of middle russia. (30) "the life of tolstoy," later years, p. 643 f. but in "what then must we do?" he treats the usual organized dabbling in charity as utterly preposterous: "give away all you have or else you can do no good." ... "if i give away a hundred thousand and still withhold five hundred thousand, i am far from acting in the spirit of charity, and remain a factor of social injustice and evil. at the sight of the freezing and hungering i must still feel responsible for their plight, and feel that since we should live in conditions where that evil can be abstained from, it is impossible for me in the position in which i deliberately place myself to be anything other than a source of general evil." it was chiefly due to the influence of two peasants, named sutayeff and bondareff, that tolstoy decided by a path of religious reasoning to abandon "parasitical existence,"--that is, to sacrifice all prerogatives of his wealth and station and to share the life of the lowly. he reasoned as follows: "since i am to blame for the existence of social wrong, i can lessen my blame only by making myself like unto those that labor and are heavy-laden." economically, tolstoy reasons from this fallacy: if all men do not participate equitably in the menial work that has to be performed in the world, it follows that a disproportionate burden of work falls upon the shoulders of the more defenseless portion of humanity. whether this undue amount of labor be exacted in the form of chattel slavery, or, which is scarcely less objectionable, in the form of the virtual slavery imposed by modern industrial conditions, makes no material difference. the evil conditions are bound to continue so long as the instincts that make for idleness prevail over the co-operative impulses. the only remedy lies in the simplification of life in the upper strata of the social body, overwork in the laboring classes being the direct result of the excessive demands for the pleasures and luxuries of life in the upper classes. to bondareff in particular tolstoy confessedly owes the conviction that the best preventive for immorality is physical labor, for which reason the lower classes are less widely removed from grace than the upper. bondareff maintained on scriptural grounds that everybody should employ at least a part of his time in working the land. this view tolstoy shared definitely after 1884. not only did he devote a regular part of his day to agricultural labor; he learned, in addition, shoemaking and carpentry, meaning to demonstrate by his example that it is feasible to return to those patriarchal conditions under which the necessities of life were produced by the consumer himself. from this time forth he modelled his habits more and more upon those of the common rustic. he adopted peasant apparel and became extremely frugal in his diet. although by natural taste he was no scorner of the pleasures of the table, he now eliminated one luxury after another. about this time he also turned strict vegetarian, then gave up the use of wine and spirits, and ultimately even tobacco, of which he had been very fond, was made to go the way of flesh. he practiced this self-abnegation in obedience to the law of life which he interpreted as a stringent renunciation of physical satisfactions and personal happiness. nor did he shirk the ultimate conclusion to which his premises led: if the law of life imposes the suppression of all natural desires and appetites and commands the voluntary sacrifice of every form of property and power, it must be clear that life itself is devoid of sense and utterly undesirable. and so it is expressly stated in his "thoughts."(31) (31) no. 434. * * * * * to what extent tolstoy was a true christian believer may best be gathered from his own writings, "what do i believe?" (1884), "on life," (1887), and "the kingdom of god is within you," (1893). although at the age of seventeen he had ceased to be orthodox, there can be no question whatever that throughout his whole life religion remained the deepest source of his inspiration. by the early eighties he had emerged from that acute scepticism that well-nigh cost him life and reason, and had, outwardly at least, made his peace with the church, attending services regularly, and observing the feasts and the fasts; here again in imitating the muzhik in his religious practices he strove apparently to attain also to the muzhik's actual gift of credulity. but in this endeavor his superior culture proved an impediment to him, and his widening doctrinal divergence from the established church finally drew upon his head, in 1891, the official curse of the holy synod. and yet a leading religious journal was right, shortly after his death, in this comment upon the religious meaning of his life: "if christians everywhere should put their religious beliefs into practice with the simplicity and sincerity of tolstoy, the entire religious, moral, and social life of the world would be revolutionized in a month." the orthodox church expelled him from its communion because of his radicalism; but in his case radicalism meant indeed the going to the roots of christian religion, to the original foundations of its doctrines. in the teachings of the _primitive_ church there presented itself to tolstoy a dumfoundingly simple code for the attainment of moral perfection. hence arose his opposition to the _established_ church which seemed to have strayed so widely from its own fundamentals. since tolstoy's life aimed at the progressive exercise of self-sacrifice, his religious belief could be no gospel of joy. in fact, his is a sad, gray, ascetic religion, wholly devoid of poetry and emotional uplift. he did not learn to believe in the divinity of christ nor in the existence of a god in any definite sense personal, and it is not even clear whether he believed in an after-life. and yet he did not wrongfully call himself a christian, for the mainspring of his faith and his labor was the message of christ delivered to his disciples in the sermon on the mount. this, for tolstoy, contained all the philosophy and the theology of which the modern world stands in need, since in the precept of non-resistance is joined forever the issue between the law and the gospel: "ye have heard that it hath been said, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: but i say unto you, that ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." and farther on: "ye have heard that it hath been said, thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. but i say unto you. love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you, and persecute you." ... in this commandment tolstoy found warrant for unswerving forbearance toward every species of private and corporate aggression. offenders against individuals or the commonwealth deserve nothing but pity. prisons should be abolished and criminals never punished. tolstoy went so far as to declare that even if he saw his own wife or daughters being assaulted, he would abstain from using force in their defense. the infliction of the death penalty was to him the most odious of crimes. no life, either human or animal, should be wilfully destroyed. the doctrine of non-resistance removes every conceivable excuse for war between the nations. a people is as much bound as is an individual by the injunction: "whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." war is not to be justified on patriotic grounds, for patriotism, far from being a virtue, is an enlarged and unduly glorified form of selfishness. consistently with his convictions, tolstoy put forth his strength not for the glory of his nation but for the solidarity of mankind. the cornerstones of tolstoy's religion, then, were these three articles of faith. first, true faith gives life. second, man must live by labor. third, evil must never be resisted by means of evil. * * * * * outside of the sphere of religious thought it is inaccurate to speak of a specific tolstoyan philosophy, and it is impossible for the student to subscribe unconditionally to the hackneyed formula of the books that tolstoy "will be remembered as perhaps the most profound influence of his day on human thought." yet the statement might be made measurably true if it were modified in accordance with the important reservation made earlier in this sketch. in the field of thought he was not an original explorer. he was great only as the promulgator, not as the inventor, of ideas. his work has not enriched the wisdom of man by a single new thought, nor was he a systematizer and expounder of thought or a philosopher. in fact he possessed slight familiarity with philosophical literature. among the older metaphysicians his principal guide was spinoza, and in more modern speculative science he did not advance beyond schopenhauer. to the latter he was not altogether unlike in his mental temper. at least he showed himself indubitably a pessimist in his works by placing in fullest relief the bad side of the social state. we perceive the pessimistic disposition also through his personal behavior, seeing how he desponded under the discords of life, how easily he lost courage whenever he undertook to cope with practical problems, and how sedulously he avoided the contact with temptations. it was only by an almost total withdrawal from the world, and by that entire relief from its daily and ordinary affairs which he owed to the devotion of his wife that tolstoy was enabled during his later years to look upon the world less despairingly. like his theology, so, too, his civic and economic creed was marked by the utmost and altogether too primitive simplicity. political questions were of slight interest to him, unless they touched upon his vital principles. if, therefore, we turn from his very definite position in matters of individual conduct to his political views, we shall find that he was wanting in a program of practical changes. his only positive contribution to economic discussion was a persistent advocacy of agrarian reform. under the influence of henry george he became an eloquent pleader for the single tax and the nationalization of the land. this question he discussed in numerous places, with especial force and clearness in a long article entitled "a great iniquity."(32) he takes the view that the mission of the state, if it have any at all, can only consist in guaranteeing the rights of every one of its denizens, but that in actual fact the state protects only the rights of the propertied. intelligent and right-minded citizens must not conspire with the state to ride rough-shod over the helpless majority. keenly alive to the unalterable tendency of organized power to abridge the rights of individuals and to dominate both their material and spiritual existence, tolstoy fell into the opposite extreme and would have abolished with a clean sweep all factors of social control, including the right of property and the powers of government, and transformed society into a community of equals and brothers, relying for its peace and well-being upon a universal love of liberty and justice. (32) printed in the (london) _times_ of september 10, 1905. by his disbelief in authority, the rejection of the socialists' schemes of reconstruction, his mistrust of fixed institutions and reliance on individual right-mindedness for the maintenance of the common good, tolstoy in the sphere of civic thought separated himself from the political socialists by the whole diameter of initial principle: he might not unjustly be classified, therefore, as an anarchist, if this definition were neither too narrow nor too wide. the christian socialists might claim him, because he aspires ardently to ideals essentially christian in their nature, and there is surely truth in the thesis that "every thinker who understands and earnestly accepts the teaching of the master is at heart a socialist." at the same time, christianity and socialism do not travel the whole way together. for a religion that enjoins patience and submission can hardly be conducive to the full flowering of socialism. and tolstoy's attitude towards the church differs radically from that of the christian socialists. on the whole one had best abstain from classifying men of genius. the base of tolstoy's social creed was the non-recognition of private property. the effect of the present system is to maintain the inequality of men and thereby to excite envy and stir up hatred among them. eager to set a personal example and precedent, tolstoy rendered himself nominally penniless by making all his property, real and personal, over to his wife and children. likewise he abdicated his copyrights. thus he reduced himself to legal pauperism with a completeness of success that cannot but stir with envy the bosom of any philanthropist who shares mr. andrew carnegie's conviction that to die rich is to die disgraced. tolstoy's detractors have cast a plausible suspicion upon his sincerity. they pointed out among other things that his relinquishment of pecuniary profit in his books was apparent, not real. since russia has no copyright conventions with other countries, it was merely making a virtue of necessity to authorize freely the translation of his works into foreign languages. as for the russian editions of his writings, it is said that in so far as the heavy hand of the censor did not prevent, the countess, as her husband's financial agent, managed quite skilfully to exploit them. * * * * * altogether, did tolstoy practice what he professed? inconsistency between principles and conduct is a not uncommon frailty of genius, as is notoriously illustrated by tolstoy's real spiritual progenitor, jean jacques rousseau. now there are many discreditable stories in circulation about the muzhik lord of yasnaya polyana. he urged upon others the gospel commands: "lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth" and: "take what ye have and give to the poor," and for his own part lived, according to report, in sumptuous surroundings. he went ostentatiously on pilgrimages to holy places, barefooted but with an expert pedicure attending him. he dressed in a coarse peasant blouse, but underneath it wore fine silk and linen. he was a vegetarian of the strictest observance, yet so much of an epicure that his taste for unseasonable dainties strained the domestic resources. he preached simplicity, and according to rumor dined off priceless plate; taught the equality of men, and was served by lackies in livery. he abstained from alcohol and tobacco, but consumed six cups of strong coffee at a sitting. finally, he extolled the sexless life and was the father of thirteen children. it was even murmured that notwithstanding his professed affection for the muzhik and his incessant proclamation of universal equality, the peasantry of yasnaya polyana was the most wretchedly-treated to be found in the whole province and that the extortionate landlordism of the tolstoys was notorious throughout the empire. much of this, to be sure, is idle gossip, unworthy of serious attention. nevertheless, there is evidence enough to show that tolstoy's insistence upon a literal acceptance of earlier christian doctrines led him into unavoidable inconsistencies and shamed him into a tragical sense of dishonesty. unquestionably tolstoy lived very simply and laboriously for a man of great rank, means, and fame, but his life was neither hard nor cramped. having had no personal experience of garret and hovel, he could have no first-hand practical knowledge of the sting of poverty, nor could he obtain hardship artificially by imposing upon himself a mild imitation of physical discomfort. for the true test of penury is not the suffering of to-day but the oppressive dread of to-morrow. his ostensible muzhik existence, wanting in none of the essentials of civilization, was a romance that bore to the real squalid pauperism of rural russia about the same relation that the bucolic make-belief of boucher's or watteau's swains and shepherdesses bore to the unperfumed truth of a sheep-farm or a hog-sty. as time passed, and the sage turned his thoughts to a more rigid enforcement of his renunciations, it was no easy task for a devoted wife to provide comfort for him without shaking him too rudely out of his fond illusion that he was enduring privations. after all, then, his practice did not tally with his theory; and this consciousness of living contrary to his own teachings was a constant source of unhappiness which no moral quibbles of his friends could still. yet no man could be farther from being a hypocrite. if at last he broke down under a burden of conscience, it was a burden imposed by the reality of human nature which makes it impossible for any man to live up to intentions of such rigor as tolstoy's. from the start he realized that he did not conform his practice entirely to his teachings, and as he grew old he was resolved that having failed to harmonize his life with his beliefs he would at least corroborate his sincerity by his manner of dying. even in this, however, he was to be thwarted. in his dramatic ending, still plainly remembered, we feel a grim consistency with the lifelong defeat of his will to suffer. early in 1910 a student by the name of manzos addressed a rebuke to tolstoy for simulating the habits of the poor, denouncing his mode of life as a form of mummery. he challenged the sage to forsake his comforts and the affections of his family, and to go forth and beg his way from place to place. "do this," entreated the young fanatic, "and you will be the first true man after christ." with his typical large-heartedness, tolstoy accepted the reproof and said in the course of his long reply:(33) ... "the fact that i am living with wife and daughter in terrible and shameful conditions of luxury when poverty surrounds me on all sides, torments me ever more and more, and there is not a day when i am not thinking of following your advice. i thank you very, very much for your letter." as a matter of fact, he had more than once before made ready to put his convictions to a fiery proof by a final sacrifice,--leaving his home and spending his remaining days in utter solitude. but when he finally proceeded to carry out this ascetic intention and actually set out on a journey to some vague and lonely destination, he was foiled in his purpose. if ever tolstoy's behavior irresistibly provoked misrepresentation of his motives it was by this somewhat theatrical hegira. the fugitive left yasnaya polyana, not alone, but with his two favorite companions, his daughter alexandra and a young hungarian physician who for some time had occupied the post of private secretary to him. after paying a farewell visit to his sister, a nun cloistered in shamardin, he made a start for the trans-caucasus. his idea was to go somewhere near the tolstoy colony at the black sea. but in an early stage of the journey, a part of which was made in an ordinary third-class railway compartment, the old man was overcome by illness and fatigue. he was moved to a trackman's hut at the station of astopovo, not farther than eighty miles from his home, and here,--surrounded by his hastily summoned family and tenderly nursed for five days,--he expired. thus he was denied the summit of martyrdom to which he had aspired,--a lonely death, unminded of men. (33) february 17, 1910. * * * * * even a summary review like this of tolstoy's life and labors cannot be concluded without some consideration of his final attitude toward the esthetic embodiment of civilization. the development of his philosophy of self-abnegation had led irresistibly, as we have seen, to the condemnation of all self-regarding instincts. among these, art appeared to him as one of the most insidious. he warned against the cultivation of the beautiful on the ground that it results in the suppression and destruction of the moral sense. already in 1883 it was known that he had made up his mind to abandon his artistic aspirations out of loyalty to his moral theory, and would henceforth dedicate his talents exclusively to the propagation of humanitarian views. in vain did the dean of russian letters, turgenieff, appeal to him with a death-bed message: "my friend, great writer of the russians, return to literary work! heed my prayer." tolstoy stood firm in his determination. nevertheless, his genius refused to be throttled by his conscience; he could not paralyze his artistic powers; he could merely bend them to his moral aims. as a logical corollary to his opposition to art for art's sake, tolstoy cast from him all his own writings antedating "confession,"--and denounced all of them as empty manifestations of worldly conceit. his authorship of that immortal novel, "war and peace," filled him with shame and remorse. his views on art are plainly and forcibly expounded in the famous treatise on "what is art?" and in the one on "shakespeare." in both he maintains that art, no matter of what sort, should serve the sole purpose of bringing men nearer to each other in the common purpose of right living. hence, no art work is legitimate without a pervasive moral design. the only true touchstone of an art work is the uplifting strength that proceeds from it. therefore, a painting like the "angelus," or a poem like "the man with the hoe" would transcend in worth the creations of a michael angelo or a heinrich heine even as the merits of sophocles, shakespeare, and goethe are outmatched in tolstoy's judgment by those of victor hugo, charles dickens, and george eliot. by the force of this naïve reasoning and his theoretical antipathy toward true art, he was led to see in "uncle tom's cabin" the veritable acme of literary perfection, for the reason that this book wielded such an enormous and noble influence upon the most vital question of its day. he strongly discountenanced the literary practice of revamping ancient themes, believing with ibsen that modern writers should impart their ideas through the medium of modern life. yet at the same time he was up in arms against the self-styled "moderns"! they took their incentives from science, and this tolstoy decried, because science did not fulfill its mission of teaching people how rightly to live. in this whole matter he reasoned doggedly from fixed ideas, no matter to what ultimates the argument would carry him. for instance, he did not stick at branding shakespeare as an utter barbarian, and to explain the reverence for such "disgusting" plays as "king lear" as a crass demonstration of imitative hypocrisy. art in general is a practice aiming at the production of the beautiful. but what is "beautiful"? asked tolstoy. the current definitions he pronounced wrong because they were formulated from the standpoint of the pleasure-seeker. such at least has been the case since the renaissance. from that time forward, art, like all cults of pleasure, has been evil. to the pleasure-seeker, the beautiful is that which is enjoyable; hence he appraises works of art according to their ability to procure enjoyment. in tolstoy's opinion this is no less absurd than if we were to estimate the nutritive value of food-stuffs by the pleasure accompanying their consumption. so he baldly declares that we must abolish beauty as a criterion of art, or conversely, must establish truth as the single standard of beauty. "the heroine of my stories whom i strive to represent in all her beauty, who was ever beautiful, is so, and will remain so, is truth." his views on art have a certain analogy with two modern schools,--much against his will, since he strenuously disavows and deprecates everything modern; they make us think on the one hand of the "naturalists," inasmuch as like them tolstoy eschews all intentional graces of style and diction: and on the other hand of the "impressionists," with whom he seems united by his fundamental definition of art, namely that it is the expression of a dominant emotion calculated to reproduce itself in the reader or beholder. lacking, however, a deep and catholic understanding for art, tolstoy, in contrast with the modern impressionists, would restrict artists to the expression of a single type of sentiments, those that reside in the sphere of religious consciousness. to him art, as properly conceived and practiced, must be ancillary to religion, and its proper gauge is the measure of its agreement with accepted moral teachings. remembering, then, the primitive form of belief to which tolstoy contrived to attain, we find ourselves face to face with a theory of art which sets up as the final arbiter the man "unspoiled by culture," and he, in tolstoy's judgment, is the russian muzhik. * * * * * this course of reasoning on art is in itself sufficient to show the impossibility for any modern mind of giving sweeping assent to tolstoy's teachings. and a like difficulty would be experienced if we tried to follow him in his meditations on any other major interest of life. seeking with a tremendous earnestness of conscience to reduce the bewildering tangle of human affairs to elementary simplicity, he enmeshed himself in a new network of contradictions. the effect was disastrous for the best part of his teaching; his own extremism stamped as a hopeless fantast a man incontestably gifted by nature, as few men have been in history, with the cardinal virtues of a sage, a reformer, and a missionary of social justice. because of this extremism, his voice was doomed to remain that of one crying in the wilderness. the world could not do better than to accept tolstoy's fundamental prescriptions: simplicity of living, application to work, and concentration upon moral culture. but to apply his radical scheme to existing conditions would amount to a self-stultification of the race, for it would entail the unpardonably sinful sacrifice of some of the finest and most hard-won achievements of human progress. for our quotidian difficulties his example promises no solution. the great mass of us are not privileged to test our individual schemes of redemption in the leisured security of an ideal experiment station; not for every man is there a yasnaya polyana, and the sophia andreyevnas are thinly sown in the matrimonial market. but even though tolstoyism will not serve as a means of solving the great social problems, it supplies a helpful method of social criticism. and its value goes far beyond that: the force of his influence was too great not to have strengthened enormously the moral conscience of the world; he has played, and will continue to play, a leading part in the establishing and safeguarding of democracy. after all, we do not have to separate meticulously what is true in tolstoy's teaching from what is false in order to acknowledge him as a voice of his epoch. for as lord morley puts the matter in the case of jean jacques rousseau: "there are some teachers whose distinction is neither correct thought, nor an eye for the exigencies of practical organization, but simply depth and fervor of the moral sentiment, bringing with it the indefinable gift of touching many hearts with love of virtue and the things of the spirit." [ transcriber's note: the following is a list of corrections made to the original. the first line is the original line, the second the corrected one. sublimal regions of the inner life, and that their work somehow brings subliminal regions of the inner life, and that their work somehow brings in the writings of the de-gallisized frenchman, count joseph arthur in the writings of the de-gallicized frenchman, count joseph arthur the same time, the universal decreptitude prevented the despiser of his the same time, the universal decrepitude prevented the despiser of his artistic design was dimmed by the obstrusive didactic purpose. artistic design was dimmed by the obtrusive didactic purpose. ] http://www.freeliterature.org tolstoy by romain rolland author of "jean christophe" translated by bernard miall t. fisher unwin london: adelphi terrace leipsic: inselstrasse 20 1911 preface to those of my own generation, the light that has but lately failed was the purest that illumined their youth. in the gloomy twilight of the later nineteenth century it shone as a star of consolation, whose radiance attracted and appeased our awakening spirits. as one of the many--for there are many in france--to whom tolstoy was very much more than an admired artist: for whom he was a friend, the best of friends, the one true friend in the whole of european art--i wish to lay before this sacred memory my tribute of gratitude and of love. the days when i learned to know him are days that i shall never forget. it was in 1886. after some years of silent germination the marvellous flowers of russian art began to blossom on the soil of france. translations of tolstoy and of dostoyevsky were being issued in feverish haste by all the publishing houses of paris. between the years '85 and '87 came _war and peace_, _anna karenin, childhood and youth, polikushka, the death of ivan ilyitch,_ the novels of the caucasus, and the _tales for the people_. in the space of a few months, almost of a few weeks, there was revealed to our eager eyes the presentment of a vast, unfamiliar life, in which was reflected a new people, a new world. i had but newly entered the normal college. my fellow-scholars were of widely divergent opinions. in our little world were such realistic and ironical spirits as the philosopher georges dumas; poets, like suarès, burning with love of the italian renaissance; faithful disciples of classic tradition; stendhalians, wagnerians, atheists and mystics. it was a world of plentiful discussion, plentiful disagreement; but for a period of some months we were nearly all united by a common love of tolstoy. it is true that each loved him for different reasons, for each discovered in him himself; but this love was a love that opened the door to a revelation of life; to the wide world itself. on every side--in our families, in our country homes--this mighty voice, which spoke from the confines of europe, awakened the same emotions, unexpected as they often were. i remember my amazement upon hearing some middle-class people of nivernais, my native province--people who felt no interest whatever in art, people who read practically nothing--speak with the most intense feeling of _the death of ivan ilyitch_. i have read, in the writings of distinguished critics, the theory that tolstoy owed the best of his ideas to the french romantics: to george sand, to victor hugo. we may ignore the absurdity of supposing that tolstoy, who could not endure her, could ever have been subject to the influence of george sand; but we cannot deny the influence of jean-jacques rousseau and of stendhal; nevertheless, we belittle the greatness of tolstoy, and the power of his fascination, if we attribute them to his ideas. the circle of ideas in which art moves and has its being is a narrow one. it is not in those ideas that his might resides, but in his expression of them; in the personal accent, the imprint of the artist, the colour and savour of his life. whether tolstoy's ideas were or were not borrowed--a matter to be presently considered--never yet had a voice like to his resounded throughout europe. how else can we explain the thrill of emotion which we all of us felt upon hearing that psychic music, that harmony for which we had so long waited, and of which we felt the need? in our opinion the style counted for nothing. most of us, myself included, made the acquaintance of melchior de vogüé's work on the subject of the russian novel[1] after we had read the novels of tolstoy; and his admiration of our hero seemed, after ours, a pallid thing. m. de vogüé spoke essentially as a man of letters pure and simple. but for our part it was not enough to admire the presentation of life: we lived it; it was our own. ours it was by its ardent love of life, by its quality of youth; ours by its irony, its disillusion, its pitiless discernment, and its haunting sense of mortality. ours by its dreams of brotherly love, of peace among men; ours by its terrible accusation of the lies of civilisation; ours by its realism; by its mysticism ours; by its savour of nature, its sense of invisible forces, its vertigo in the face of the infinite. to many of us the novels of tolstoy were what _werther_ was to an earlier generation: the wonderful mirror of our passions, our strength, our weaknesses, of our hopes, our terrors, our discouragement. we were in no wise anxious to reconcile these many contradictions; still less did we concern ourselves to imprison this complex, multiple mind, full of echoes of the whole wide world, within the narrow limits of religious or political categories, as have the greater number of those who have written of tolstoy in these latter years: incapable of extricating themselves from the conflict of parties, dragging him into the arena of their own passions, measuring him by the standards of their socialistic or clerical coteries. as if our coteries could be the measure of a genius? what is it to me if tolstoy is or is not of my party? shall i ask of what party shakespeare was, or dante, before i breathe the atmosphere of his magic or steep myself in its light? we did not say, as do the critics of to-day, that there were two tolstoys: the tolstoy of the period before the crisis and he of the period after the crisis; that the one was the great artist, while the other was not an artist at all. for us there was only one tolstoy, and we loved the whole of him; for we felt, instinctively, that in such souls as his all things are bound together and each has its integral place. [1] _le roman russe._ contents preface i. childhood ii. boyhood and youth iii. youth: the army iv. early work: tales of the caucasus v. sebastopol: war and religion vi. st. petersburg vii. "family happiness" viii. marriage ix. "anna karenin" x. the crisis xi. reality xii. art and conscience xiii. science and art xiv. theories of art: music xv. "resurrection" xvi. religion and politics xvii. old age xviii. conclusion index tolstoy chapter i childhood our instinct was conscious then of that which reason must prove to-day. the task is possible now, for the long life has attained its term; revealing itself, unveiled, to the eyes of all, with unequalled candour, unexampled sincerity. to-day we are at once arrested by the degree in which that life has always remained the same, from the beginning to the end, in spite of all the barriers which critics have sought to erect here and there along its course; in spite of tolstoy himself, who, like every impassioned mind, was inclined to the belief, when he loved, or conceived a faith, that he loved or believed for the first time; that the commencement of his true life dated from that moment. commencement--recommencement!' how often his mind was the theatre of the same struggles, the same crises i we cannot speak of the unity of his ideas, for no such unity existed; we can only speak of the persistence among them of the same diverse elements; sometimes allied, sometimes inimical; more often enemies than allies. unity is to be found neither in the spirit nor the mind of a tolstoy; it exists only in the internal conflict of his passions, in the tragedy of his art and his life. in him life and art are one. never was work more intimately mingled with the artist's life; it has, almost constantly, the value of autobiography; it enables us to follow the writer, step by step, from the time when he was twenty-five years of age, throughout all the contradictory experiences of his adventurous career. his _journal_, which he commenced before the completion of his twentieth year, and continued until his death,[1] together with the notes furnished by m. birukov,[2] completes this knowledge, and enable us not only to read almost day by day in the history of tolstoy's conscience, but also to reconstitute the world in which his genius struck root, and the minds from which his own drew sustenance. his was a rich inheritance. the tolstoys and the volkonskys were very ancient families, of the greater nobility, claiming descent from rurik; numbering among their ancestors companions of peter the great, generals of the seven years' war, heroes of the napoleonic struggle, decembrists, and political exiles. this inheritance included family traditions; old memories to which tolstoy was indebted for some of the most original types in his _war and peace;_ there was the old prince bolkonsky, his maternal grandfather, voltairian, despotic, a belated representative of the aristocracy of the days of catherine ii.; prince nikolas grigorovitch volkonsky, a cousin of his mother, who was wounded at austerlitz, and, like prince andrei, was carried off the field of battle under the eyes of napoleon; his father, who had some of the characteristics of nicolas rostoff;[3] and his mother, the princess marie, the ugly, charming woman with the beautiful eyes, whose goodness illumines the pages of _war and peace._ he scarcely knew his parents. those delightful narratives, _childhood_ and _youth_, have, therefore, but little authenticity; for the writer's mother died when he was not yet two years of age. he, therefore, was unable to recall the beloved face which the little nikolas irtenieff evoked beyond a veil of tears: a face with a luminous smile, which radiated gladness.... "ah! if in difficult moments i could only see that smile, i should not know what sorrow is."[4] yet she doubtless endowed him with her own absolute candour, her indifference to opinion, and her wonderful gift of relating tales of her own invention. his father he did in some degree remember. his was a genial yet ironical spirit; a sad-eyed man who dwelt upon his estates, leading an independent, unambitious life. tolstoy was nine years old when he lost him. his death caused him "for the first time to understand the bitter truth, and filled his soul with despair."[5] here was the child's earliest encounter with the spectre of terror; and henceforth a portion of his life was to be devoted to fighting the phantom, and a portion to its celebration, its transfiguration. the traces of this agony are marked by a few unforgettable touches in the final chapters of his _childhood_, where his memories are transposed in the narrative of the death and burial of his mother. five children were left orphans in the old house at yasnaya polyana.[6] there leo nikolayevitch was born, on the 28th of august, 1828, and there, eighty-two years later, he was to die. the youngest of the five was a girl: that marie who in later years became a religious; it was with her that tolstoy took refuge in dying, when he fled from home and family. of the four sons, sergius was charming and selfish, "sincere to a degree that i have never known equalled"; dmitri was passionate, selfcentred, introspective, and in later years, as a student, abandoned himself eagerly to the practices of religion; caring nothing for public opinion; fasting, seeking out the poor, sheltering the infirm; suddenly, with the same quality of violence, plunging into debauchery; then, tormented by remorse, ransoming a girl whom he had known in a public brothel, and receiving her into his home; finally dying of phthisis at the age of twenty-nine.[7] nikolas, the eldest, the favourite brother, had inherited his mother's gift of imagination, her power of telling stories;[8] ironical, nervous, and refined; in later years an officer in the caucasus, where he formed the habit of a drunkard; a man, like his brother, full of christian kindness, living in hovels, and sharing with the poor all that he possessed. tourgenev said of him "that he put into practice that humble attitude towards life which his brother leo was content to develop in theory." the orphans were cared for by two great-hearted women, one was their aunt tatiana,[9] of whom tolstoy said that "she had two virtues: serenity and love." her whole life was love; a devotion that never failed. "she made me understand the moral pleasure of loving." the other was their aunt alexandra, who was for ever serving others, herself avoiding service, dispensing with the help of servants. her favourite occupation was reading the lives of the saints, or conversing with pilgrims or the feeble-minded. of these "innocents" there were several, men and women, who lived in the house. one, an old woman, a pilgrim, was the godmother of tolstoy's sister. another, the idiot gricha, knew only how to weep and pray.... "gricha, notable christian! so mighty was your faith that you felt the approach of god; so ardent was your love that words rushed from your lips, words that your reason could not control. and how you used to celebrate his splendour, when speech failed you, when, all tears, you lay prostrated on the ground!"[10] who can fail to understand the influence, in the shaping of tolstoy, of all these humble souls? in some of them we seem to see an outline, a prophecy, of the tolstoy of later years. their prayers and their affection must have sown the seeds of faith in the child's mind; seeds of which the aged man was to reap the harvest. with the exception of the idiot gricha, tolstoy does not speak, in his narrative of _childhood_, of these humble helpers who assisted in the work of building up his mind. but then how clearly we see it through the medium of the book--this soul of a little child; "this pure, loving heart, a ray of clear light, which always discovered in others the best of their qualities"--this more than common tenderness! being happy, he ponders on the only creature he knows to be unhappy; he cries at the thought, and longs to devote himself to his good. he hugs and kisses an ancient horse, begging his pardon, because he has hurt him. he is happy in loving, even if he is not loved. already we can see the germs of his future genius; his imagination, so vivid that he cries over his own stories; his brain, always busy, always trying to discover of what other people think; his precocious powers of memory[11] and observation; the attentive eyes, which even in the midst of his sorrow scrutinise the faces about him, and the authenticity of their sorrow. he tells us that at five years of age he felt for the first time "that life is not a time of amusement, but a very heavy task."[12] happily he forgot the discovery. in those days he used to soothe his mind with popular tales; those mythical and legendary dreams known in russia as _bylines;_ stories from the bible; above all the sublime _history of joseph,_ which he cited in his old age as a model of narrative art: and, finally, the arabian nights, which at his grandmother's house were recited every evening, from the vantage of the window-seat, by a blind story-teller. [1] with the exception of a few interruptions: one especially of considerable length, between 1865 and 1878. [2] for his remarkable biography of _léon tolstoï, vie et oeuvre, mémoires, souvenirs, lettres, extraits du journal intime, notes et documents biographiques, réunis, coordonnés et annotés par p. birukov,_ revised by leo tolstoy, translated into french from the ms. by j. w. bienstock. [3] he also fought in the napoleonic campaigns, and was a prisoner in france during the years 1814-15. [4] _childhood_, chap. ii. [5] _childhood_, chap, xxvii. [6] yasnaya polyana, the name of which signifies "the open glade" (literally, the "light glade"), is a little village to the south of moscow, at a distance of some leagues from toula, in one of the most thoroughly russian of the provinces. "here the two great regions of russia," says m. leroy-beaulieu, "the region of the forests and the agricultural region, meet and melt into each other. in the surrounding country we meet with no finns, tatars, poles, jews, or little russians. the district of toula lies at the very heart of russia." [7] tolstoy has depicted him in _anna karenin,_ as the brother of levine. [8] he wrote the _diary of a hunter._ [9] in reality she was a distant relative. she had loved tolstoy's father, and was loved by him; but effaced herself, like sonia in _war and peace_. [10] _childhood_, chap. xii. [11] he professes, in his autobiographical notes (dated 1878), to be able to recall the sensations of being swaddled as a baby, and of being bathed in a tub. see _first memories._ [12] _first memories._ chapter ii boyhood and youth he studied at kazan.[1] he was not a notable student. it used to be said of the three brothers[2]: "sergius wants to, and can; dmitri wants to, and can't; leo can't, and doesn't want to." he passed through the period which he terms "the desert of adolescence"; a desert of sterile sands, blown upon by gales of the burning winds of folly. the pages of _boyhood_, and in especial those of _youth_[3] are rich in intimate confessions relating to these years. he was a solitary. his brain was in a condition of perpetual fever. for a year he was completely at sea; he roamed from one system of philosophy to another. as a stoic, he indulged in self-inflicted physical tortures. as an epicurean he debauched himself. then came a faith in metempsychosis. finally he fell into a condition of nihilism not far removed from insanity; he used to feel that if only he could turn round with sufficient rapidity he would find himself face to face with nothingness ... he analysed himself continually: "i no longer thought of a thing; i thought of what i thought of it."[4] this perpetual self-analysis, this mechanism of reason turning in the void, remained to him as a dangerous habit, which was "often," in his own words, "to be detrimental to me in life"; but by which his art has profited inexpressibly.[5] as another result of self-analysis, he had lost all his religious convictions; or such was his belief. at sixteen years of age ceased to pray; he went to church no longer;[6] but his faith was not extinguished; it was only smouldering. "nevertheless, i did believe--in something. but in what? i could not say. i still believed in god; or rather i did not deny him. but in what god? i did not know. nor did i deny christ and his teaching; but i could not have said precisely what that doctrine was."[7] from time to time he was obsessed by dreams of goodness. he wished to sell his carriage and give the money to the poor: to give them the tenth part of his fortune; to live without the help of servants, "for they were men like himself." during an illness[8] he wrote certain "rules of life." he naively assigned himself the duty of "studying everything, of mastering all subjects: law, medicine, languages, agriculture, history, geography, and mathematics; to attain the highest degree of perfection in music and painting," and so forth. i had "the conviction that the destiny of man was a process of incessant self-perfection." insensibly, under the stress of a boy's passions, of a violent sensuality and a stupendous pride of self,[9] this faith in perfection went astray, losing its disinterested quality, becoming material and practical. if he still wished to perfect his will, his body, and his mind, it was in order to conquer the world and to enforce its love.[10] he wished to please. to please: it was not an easy ambition. he was then of a simian ugliness: the face was long, heavy, brutish; the hair was cropped close, growing low upon the forehead; the eyes were small, with a hard, forbidding glance, deeply sunken in shadowy orbits; the nose was large, the lips were thick and protruding, and the ears were enormous.[11] unable to alter this ugliness, which even as a child had subjected him to fits of despair,[12] he pretended to a realisation of the ideal man of the world, _l'homme comme il faut._[13] this ideal led him to do as did other "men of the world": to gamble, run foolishly into debt, and to live a completely dissipated existence.[14] one quality always came to his salvation: his absolute sincerity. "do you know why i like you better than the others?" says nekhludov to his friend. "you have a precious and surprising quality: candour." "yes, i am always saying things which i am ashamed to own even to myself."[15] in his wildest moments he judges himself with a pitiless insight. "i am living an utterly bestial life," he writes in his _journal_. "i am as low as one can fall." then, with his mania for analysis, he notes minutely the causes of his errors: "1. indecision or lack of energy. 2. self-deception. 3. insolence. 4. false modesty. 5. ill-temper. 6. licentiousness. 7. spirit of imitation. 8. versatility. 9. lack of reflection." while still a student he was applying this independence of judgment to the criticism of social conventions and intellectual superstitions. he scoffed at the official science of the university; denied the least importance to historical studies, and was put under arrest for his audacity of thought. at this period he discovered rousseau, reading his _confessions_ and _émile_. the discovery affected him like a mental thunderbolt. "i made him an object of religious worship. i wore a medallion portrait of him hung round my neck, as though it were a holy image."[16] his first essays in philosophy took the form of commentaries on rousseau (1846-47). in the end, however, disgusted with the university and with "smartness," he returned to yasnaya polyana, to bury himself in the country (1847-51); where he once more came into touch with the people. he professed to come to their assistance, as their benefactor and their teacher. his experiences of this period have been related in one of his earliest books, _a russian proprietor_ (_a landlord's morning_) (1852); a remarkable novel, whose hero, prince nekhludov, nekhludov figures also in _boyhood_ and _youth_ (1854), in _a brush with the enemy_ (1856); the _diary of a sportsman_ (1856); _lucerne_ (1857); and _resurrection_ (1899). we must remember that different characters appear under this one name. tolstoy has not always given nekhludov the same physical aspect; and the latter commits suicide at the end of the _diary of a sportsman_. these different nekhludovs are various aspects of tolstoy, endowed with his worst and his best characteristics, is tolstoy in disguise. nekhludov is twenty years old. he has left the university to devote himself to his peasants. he has been labouring for a year to do them good. in the course of a visit to the village we see him striving against jeering indifference, rooted distrust, routine, apathy, vice, and ingratitude. all his efforts are in vain. he returns indoors discouraged, and muses on his dreams of a year ago; his generous enthusiasm, his "idea that love and goodness were one with happiness and truth: the only happiness and the only truth possible in this world." he feels himself defeated. he is weary and ashamed. "seated before the piano, his hand unconsciously moved upon the keys. a chord sounded; then a second, then a third.... he began to play. the chords were not always perfect in rhythm; they were often obvious to the point of banality; they did not reveal any talent for music; but they gave him a melancholy, indefinable sense of pleasure. at each change of key he awaited, with a flutter of the heart, for what was about to follow; his imagination vaguely supplementing the deficiencies of the actual sound. he heard a choir, an orchestra ... and his keenest pleasure arose from the enforced activity of his imagination, which brought before him, without logical connection, but with astonishing clearness, the most varied scenes and images of the past and the future...." once more he sees the moujiks--vicious, distrustful, lying, idle, obstinate, contrary, with whom he has lately been speaking; but this time he sees them with all their good qualities and without their vices; he sees into their hearts with the intuition of love; he sees therein their patience, their resignation to the fate which is crushing them; their forgiveness of wrongs, their family affection, and the causes of their pious, mechanical attachment to the past. he recalls their days of honest labour, healthy and fatiguing.... "'it is beautiful,' he murmurs.... why am i not one of these?'"[17] the entire tolstoy is already contained in the hero of this first novel;[18] his piercing vision and his persistent illusions. he observes men and women with an impeccable realism; but no sooner does he close his eyes than his dreams resume their sway; his dreams and his love of mankind. [1] from 1842 to 1847. science was as yet unorganised; and its teachers, even in western europe, had not the courage of the facts they taught. men still sought for an anchor in the philosophic systems of the ancients. the theory of evolution, put forward at the beginning of the century, had fallen into obscurity. science was dry, dogmatic, uncoordinated, insignificant. hence, perhaps, the contempt for science which distinguished tolstoy throughout his life, and which made the later tolstoy possible.--trans. [2] nikolas, five years older than leo, had completed his studies in 1844. [3] the english translation is entitled _ childhood, boyhood, youth._ [4] _youth_, six. [5] notably in his first volumes--in the _tales of sebastopol_. [6] this was the time when he used to read voltaire, and find pleasure in so doing. [7] _confessions,_ vol. i. [8] in march and april, 1847. [9] "all that man does he does out of _amour-propre,_" says nekhludov, in _boyhood._ in 1853 tolstoy writes, in his _journal_: "my great failing: pride. a vast self-love, without justification.... i am so ambitious that if i had to choose between glory and virtue (which i love) i am sure i should choose the former." [10] "i wanted to be known by all, loved by all. i wanted every one, at the mere sound of my name, to be struck with admiration and gratitude." [11] according to a portrait dated 1848, in which year he attained his twentieth year. [12] "i thought there would be no happiness on earth for any one who had so large a nose, so thick lips, and such small eyes." [13] "i divided humanity into three classes: the 'correct,' or 'smart,' who alone were worthy of esteem; those who were not 'correct,' who deserved only contempt and hatred; and the people, the _plebs,_ who simply did not exist." (_youth,_ xxxi.) [14] especially during a period spent in st. petersburg, 1847-48. [15] _boyhood._ [16] conversations with m. paul boyer _(le temps),_ august 28, 1901. [17] _a russian proprietor._ [18] contemporary with _childhood._ chapter iii youth: the army tolstoy, in the year 1850, was not as patient as nekhludov. yasnaya polyana had disillusioned and disappointed him. he was as weary of the people as he was of the world of fashion; his attitude as benefactor wearied him; he could bear it no more. moreover, he was harassed by creditors. in 1851 he escaped to the caucasus; to the army in which his brother nikolas was already an officer. he had hardly arrived, hardly tasted the quiet of the mountains, before he was once more master of himself; before he had recovered his god. "last night[1] i hardly slept. i began to pray to god. i cannot possibly express the sweetness of the feeling that came to me when i prayed. i recited the customary prayers; but i went on praying for a long time. i felt the desire of something very great, very beautiful.... what? i cannot say what. i wanted to be one with the infinite being: to be dissolved, comprehended, in him. i begged him to forgive me my trespasses.... but no, i did not beg him; i felt that he did pardon me, since he granted me that moment of wonderful joy. i was praying, yet at the same time i felt that i could not, dared not pray. i thanked him, not in words, but in thought.... scarcely an hour had passed, and i was listening to the voice of vice. i fell asleep dreaming of glory, of women: it was stronger than i. never mind! i thank god for that moment of happiness: for showing me my pettiness and my greatness. i want to pray, but i do not know how; i want to understand, but i dare not. i abandon myself to thy will!"[2] the flesh was not conquered; not then, nor ever; the struggle between god and the passions of man continued in the silence of his heart. tolstoy speaks in his _journal_ of the three demons which were devouring him: 1. _the passion for gambling._ possible struggle. 2. _sensuality_. struggle very difficult. 3. _vanity_. the most terrible of all. at the very moment when he was dreaming of living for others and of sacrificing himself, voluptuous or futile thoughts would assail him: the image of some cossack woman, or "the despair he would feel if his moustache were higher on one side than the other."--"no matter!" god was there; he would not forsake him. even the effervescence of the struggle was fruitful: all the forces of life were exalted thereby. "i think the idea of making a journey to the caucasus, however frivolous at the time of conception, was inspired in me from above. god's hand has guided me. i never cease to thank him. i feel that i have become better here; and i am firmly convinced that whatever happens to me can only be for my good, since it is god himself who has wished it...."[3] it is the song of gratitude of the earth in spring. earth covers herself with flowers; all is well, all is beautiful. in 1852 the genius of tolstoy produces its earliest flowers: _childhood, the russian proprietor, the invasion, boyhood;_ and he thanks the spirit of life who has made him fruitful.[4] [1] the 11th of june, 1851, in the fortified camp of starï-iourt, in the caucasus. [2] _journal._ [3] letter to his aunt tatiana, january, 1852. [4] a portrait dated 1851 already shows the change which is being accomplished in his mind. the head is raised; the expression is somewhat brighter; the cavities of the orbits are less in shadow; the eyes themselves still retain their fixed severity of look, and the open mouth, shadowed by a growing moustache, is gloomy and sullen; there is still a quality of defiant pride, but far more youth. chapter iv early work: tales of the caucasus _the story of my childhood_[1] was commenced in the autumn of 1851, at tiflis; it was finished at piatigorsk in the caucasus, on the 2nd of july, 1852. it is curious to note that while in the midst of that nature by which he was so intoxicated, while leading a life absolutely novel, in the midst of the stirring risks of warfare, occupied in the discovery of a world of unfamiliar characters and passions, tolstoy should have returned, in this his first work, to the memories of his past life. but _childhood_ was written during a period of illness, when his military activity was suddenly arrested. during the long leisure of a convalescence, while alone and suffering, his state of mind inclined to the sentimental;[2] the past unrolled itself before his eyes at a time when he felt for it a certain tenderness. after the exhausting tension of the last few unprofitable years, it was comforting to live again in thought the "marvellous, innocent, joyous, poetic period" of early childhood; to reconstruct for himself "the heart of a child, good, sensitive, and capable of love." with the ardour of youth and its illimitable projects, with the cyclic character of his poetic imagination, which rarely conceived an isolated subject, and whose great romances are only the links in a long historic chain, the fragments of enormous conceptions which he was never able to execute,[3] tolstoy at this moment regarded his narrative of _childhood_ as merely the opening chapters of a _history of four periods_, which was to include his life in the caucasus, and was in all probability to have terminated in the revelation of god by nature. in later years tolstoy spoke with great severity of his _childhood_, to which he owed some part of his popularity. "it is so bad," he remarked to m. birukov: "it is written with so little literary conscience!... there is nothing to be got from it." he was alone in this opinion. the manuscript was sent, without the author's name, to the great russian review, the _sovremennik_ (_contemporary_); it was published immediately (september 6, 1852), and achieved a general success; a success confirmed by the public of every country in europe. yet in spite of its poetic charm, its delicacy of touch and emotion, we can understand that it may have displeased the tolstoy of later years. it displeased him for the very reasons by which it pleased others. we must admit it frankly: except in the recording of certain provincial types, and in a restricted number of passages which are remarkable for their religious feeling or for the realistic treatment of emotion,[4] the personality of tolstoy is barely in evidence. a tender, gentle sentimentality prevails from cover to cover; a quality which was always afterwards antipathetic to tolstoy, and one which he sedulously excluded from his other romances. we recognise it; these tears, this sentimentality came from dickens, who was one of tolstoy's favourite authors between his fourteenth and his twenty-first year. tolstoy notes in his _journal_: "dickens: _david copperfield_. influence considerable." he read the book again in the caucasus. two other influences, to which he himself confesses, were sterne and töppfer. "i was then," he says, "under their inspiration."[5] who would have thought that the _nouvelles genevoises_ would be the first model of the author of _war and peace?_ yet knowing this to be a fact, we discern in tolstoy's _childhood_ the same bantering, affected geniality, transplanted to the soil of a more aristocratic nature. so we see that the readers of his earliest efforts found the writer's countenance familiar. it was not long, however, before his own personality found self-expression. his _boyhood_ (_adolescence_), though less pure and less perfect than _childhood_, exhibits a more original power of psychology, a keen feeling for nature, and a mind full of distress and conflict, which dickens or töppfer would have been at a loss to express. in the _russian proprietor_ (october, 1852[6]) tolstoy's character appeared sharply defined, marked by his fearless sincerity and his faith in love. among the remarkable portraits of peasants which he has painted in this novel, we find an early sketch of one of the finest conceptions of his _popular tales:_ the old man with the beehives; a the little old man under the birch-tree, his hands outstretched, his eyes raised, his bald head shining in the sun, and all around him the bees, touched with gold, never stinging him, forming a halo.... but the truly typical works of this period are those which directly register his present emotions: namely, the novels of the caucasus. the first, _the invasion_ (finished in december, 1852), impresses the reader deeply by the magnificence of its landscapes: a sunrise amidst the mountains, on the bank of a river; a wonderful night-piece, with sounds and shadows noted with a striking intensity; and the return in the evening, while the distant snowy peaks disappear in the violet haze, and the clear voices of the regimental singers rise and fall in the transparent air. many of the types of _war and peace_ are here drawn to the life: captain khlopoff, the true hero, who by no means fights because he likes fighting, but because it is his duty; a man with "one of those truly russian faces, placid and simple, and eyes into which it is easy and agreeable to gaze." heavy, awkward, a trifle ridiculous, indifferent to his surroundings, he alone is unchanged in battle, where all the rest are changed; "he is exactly as we have seen him always: with the same quiet movements, the same level voice, the same expression of simplicity on his heavy, simple face." next comes the lieutenant who imitates the heroes of lermontov; a most kindly, affectionate boy, who professes the utmost ferocity. then comes the poor little subaltern, delighted at the idea of his first action, brimming over with affection, ready to fall on his comrade's neck; a laughable, adorable boy, who, like petia rostoff, contrives to get stupidly killed. in the centre of the picture is the figure of tolstoy, the observer, who is mentally aloof from his comrades, and _i_ already utters his cry of protest against warfare: "is it impossible, then, for men to live in peace, in this world so full of beauty, under this immeasurable starry sky? how is it they are able, here, to retain their feelings of hostility and vengeance, and the lust of destroying their fellows? all there is of evil in the human heart ought to disappear at the touch of nature, that most immediate expression of the beautiful and the good."[7] other tales of the caucasus were to follow which were observed at this time, though not written until a later period. in 1854-55. _the woodcutters_ was written; a book notable for its exact and rather frigid realism; full of curious records of russian soldier-psychology--notes to be made use of in the future. in 1856 appeared _a brush with the enemy_, in which there is a man of the world, a degraded non-commissioned officer, a wreck, a coward, a drunkard and a liar, who cannot support the idea of being slaughtered like one of the common soldiers he despises, the least of whom is worth a hundred of himself. above all these works, as the summit, so to speak, of this first mountain range, rises one of the most beautiful lyric romances that ever fell from tolstoy's pen: the song of his youth, the poem of the caucasus, _the cossacks_.[8] the splendour of the snowy mountains displaying their noble lines against the luminous sky fills the whole work with its music. the book is unique, for it belongs to the flowering-time of genius, "the omnipotent god of youth," as tolstoy says, "that rapture which never returns." what a spring-tide torrent! what an overflow of love! "'i love--i love so much!... how brave! how good!' he repeated: and he felt as though he must weep. why? who was brave, and whom did he love? that he did not precisely know."[9] this intoxication of the heart flows on, unchecked. olenin, the hero, who has come to the caucasus, as tolstoy came, to steep himself in nature, in the life of adventure, becomes enamoured of a young cossack girl, and abandons himself to the medley of his contradictory aspirations. at one moment he believes that "happiness is to live for others, to sacrifice oneself," at another, that "self-sacrifice is only stupidity"; finally he is inclined to believe, with erochta, the old cossack, that "everything is precious. god has made everything for the delight of man. nothing is a sin. to amuse oneself with a handsome girl is not a sin: it is only health." but what need to think at all? it is enough to live. life is all good, all happiness; life is all-powerful and universal; life is god. an ardent naturalism uplifts and consumes his soul. lost in the forest, amidst "the wildness of the woods, the multitude of birds and animals, the clouds of midges in the dusky green, in the warm, fragrant air, amidst the little runlets of water which trickle everywhere beneath the boughs"; a few paces from the ambushes of the enemy, olenin is "seized suddenly by such a sense of causeless happiness that in obedience to childish habit he crossed himself and began to give thanks to somebody." like a hindu fakir, he rejoices to tell himself that he is alone and lost in this maëlstrom of aspiring life: that myriads of invisible beings, hidden on every hand, are that moment hunting him to death; that these thousands of little insects humming around him are calling: "here, brothers, here! here is some one to bite!" and it became obvious to him that he was no longer a russian gentleman, in moscow society, but simply a creature like the midge, the pheasant, the stag: like those which were living and prowling about him at that moment. "like them, i shall live, i shall die. and the grass will grow above me...." and his heart is full of happiness. tolstoy lives through this hour of youth in a delirium of vitality and the love of life. he embraces nature, and sinks himself in her being. to her he pours forth and exalts his griefs, his joys, and his loves; in her he lulls them to sleep. yet this romantic intoxication never veils the lucidity of his perceptions. nowhere has he painted landscape with a greater power than in this fervent poem; nowhere has he depicted the type with greater truth. the contrast of nature with the world of men, which forms the basis of the book; and which through all tolstoy's life is to prove one of his favourite themes, and an article of his _credo,_ has already inspired him, the better to castigate the world, with something of the bitterness to be heard in the _kreutzer sonata_.[10] but for those who love him he is no less truly himself; and the creatures of nature, the beautiful cossack girl and her friends, are seen under a searching light, with their egoism, their cupidity, their venality, and all their vices. an exceptional occasion was about to offer itself for the exercise of this heroic veracity. [1] published in english as part of _childhood, boyhood, youth._ [2] his letters of this period to his aunt tatiana are full of tears and of sentimentality. he was, as he says, _liovariova,_ "leo the sniveller" (january 6, 1852). [3] the _russian proprietor_ (_a landlord's morning_) is the fragment of a projected _romance of a russian landowner. the cossacks_ forms the first portion of a great romance of the caucasus. in the author's eyes the huge _war and peace_ was only a sort of preface to a contemporary epic, of which _the decembrists_ was to have been the nucleus. [4] see the passage relating to the pilgrim gricha, or to the death of his mother. [5] letter to birukov. [6] completed only in 1855-56. _the two old men_ (1885). [7] _the invasion._ [8] although completed much later--in 1860--and appearing only in 1863--the bulk of this volume was of this period. [9] _the cossacks_. [10] for example, see oleniln's letter to his friends in russia. chapter v sebastopol: war and religion in november, 1853, war was declared upon turkey. tolstoy obtained an appointment to the army of roumania; he was transferred to the army of the crimea, and on november 7, 1854, he arrived in sebastopol. he was burning with enthusiasm and patriotic faith. he went about his duties courageously, and was often in danger, in especial throughout the april and may of 1855, when he served on every alternate day in the battery of of the 4th bastion. living for months in a perpetual tremor and exaltation, face to face with death, his religious mysticism revived. he became familiar with god. in april, 1855, he noted in his diary a prayer to god, thanking him for his protection in danger and beseeching him to continue it, "so that i may achieve the glorious and eternal end of life, of which i am still ignorant, although i feel a presentiment of it." already this object of his life was not art, but religion. on march 5, 1855, he wrote: "i have been led to conceive a great idea, to whose realisation i feel capable of devoting my whole life. this idea is the foundation of a new religion; the religion of the christ, but purified of dogmas and mysteries.... to act with a clear conscience, in order to unite men by means of religion."[1] this was to be the programme of his old age. however, to distract himself from the spectacles which surrounded him, he began once more to write. how could he, amidst that hail of lead, find the necessary freedom of mind for the writing of the third part of his memories: _youth?_ the book is chaotic; and we may attribute to the conditions of its production a quality of disorder, and at times a certain dryness of abstract analysis, which is increased by divisions and subdivisions after the manner of stendhal.[2] yet we admire his calm penetration of the mist of dreams and inchoate ideas which crowd a young brain. his work is extraordinarily true to itself, and at moments what poetic freshness!--as in the vivid picture of springtime in the city, or the tale of the confession, and the journey to the convent, on account of the forgotten sin! an impassioned pantheism lends to certain pages a lyric beauty, whose accents recall the tales of the caucasus. for example, this description of an evening in the spring: "the calm splendour of the shining crescent; the gleaming fish-pond; the ancient birch-trees, whose long-tressed boughs were on one side silvered by the moonlight, while on the other they covered the path and the bushes with their black shadows; the cry of a quail beyond the pond; the barely perceptible sound of two ancient trees which grazed one another; the humming of the mosquitoes; the fall of an apple on the dry leaves; and the frogs leaping up to the steps of the terrace, their backs gleaming greenish under a ray of moonlight.... the moon is mounting; suspended in the limpid sky, she fills all space with her light; the splendour of the moonlit water grows yet more brilliant, the shadows grow blacker, the light more transparent.... and to me, an obscure and earthy creature, already soiled with every human passion, but endowed with all the stupendous power of love, it seemed at that moment that all nature, the moon, and i myself were one and the same."[3] but the present reality, potent and imperious, spoke more loudly than the dreams of the past. _youth_ remained unfinished; and captain count tolstoy, behind the plating of his bastion, amid the rumbling of the bombardment, or in the midst of his company, observed the dying and the living, and recorded their miseries and his own, in his unforgettable narratives of _sebastopol._ these three narratives_--sebastopol in december, 1854, sebastopol in may, 1855, sebastopol in august, 1855_--are generally confounded with one another; but in reality they present many points of difference. the second in particular, in point both of feeling and of art, is greatly superior to the others. the others are dominated by patriotism; the second is charged with implacable truth. it is said that after reading the first narrative[4] the tsarina wept, and the tsar, moved by admiration, commanded that the story should be translated into french, and the author sent out of danger. we can readily believe it. nothing in these pages but exalts warfare and the fatherland. tolstoy had just arrived; his enthusiasm was intact; he was afloat on a tide of heroism. as yet he could see in the defenders of sebastopol neither ambition nor vanity, nor any unworthy feeling. for him the war was a sublime epic; its heroes were "worthy of greece." on the other hand, these notes exhibit no effort of the imagination, no attempt at objective representation. the writer strolls through the city; he sees with the utmost lucidity, but relates what he sees in a form which is wanting in freedom: "you see ... you enter ... you notice...." this is first-class reporting; rich in admirable impressions. very different is the second scene: _sebastopol in may, 1855_. in the opening lines we read: "here the self-love, the vanity of thousands of human beings is in conflict, or appeased in death...." and further on: "and as there were many men, so also were there many forms of vanity.... vanity, vanity, everywhere vanity, even at the door of the tomb! it is the peculiar malady of our century.... why do the homers and shakespeares speak of love, of glory, and of suffering, and why is the literature of our century nothing but the interminable history of snobs and egotists?" the narrative, which is no longer a simple narrative on the part of the author, but one which sets before us men and their passions, reveals that which is concealed by the mask of heroism. tolstoy's clear, disillusioned gaze plumbs to the depths the hearts of his companions in arms; in them, as in himself, he reads pride, fear, and the comedy of those who continue to play at life though rubbing shoulders with death. fear especially is avowed, stripped of its veils, and shown in all its nakedness. these nervous crises,[5] this obsession of death, are analysed with a terrible sincerity that knows neither shame nor pity. it was at sebastopol that tolstoy learned to eschew sentimentalism, "that vague, feminine, whimpering passion," as he came disdainfully to term it; and his genius for analysis, the instinct for which awoke, as we saw, in the later years of his boyhood, and which was at times to assume a quality almost morbid,[6] never attained to a more hypnotic and poignant intensity than in the narrative of the death of praskhoukhin. two whole pages are devoted to the description of all that passed in the mind of the unhappy man during the second following upon the fall of the shell, while the fuse was hissing towards explosion; and one page deals with all that passed before him after it exploded, when "he was killed on the spot by a fragment which struck him full in the chest." as in the intervals of a drama we hear the occasional music of the orchestra, so these scenes of battle are interrupted by wide glimpses of nature; deep perspectives of light; the symphony of the day dawning upon the splendid landscape, in the midst of which thousands are agonising. tolstoy the christian, forgetting the patriotism of his first narrative, curses this impious war: "and these men, christians, who profess the same great law of love and of sacrifice, do not, when they perceive what they have done, fall upon their knees repentant, before him who in giving them life set within the heart of each, together with the fear of death, the love of the good and the beautiful. they do not embrace as brothers, with tears of joy and happiness!" as he was completing this novel--a work that has a quality of bitterness which, hitherto, none of his work had betrayed--tolstoy was seized with doubt. had he done wrong to speak? "a painful doubt assails me. perhaps these things should not have been said. perhaps what i am telling is one of those mischievous truths which, unconsciously hidden in the mind of each one of us, should not be expressed lest they become harmful, like the lees that we must not stir lest we spoil the wine. if so, when is the expression of evil to be avoided? when is the expression of goodness to be imitated? who is the malefactor and who is the hero? all are good and all are evil...." but he proudly regains his poise: "the protagonist of my novel, whom i love with all the strength of my soul, whom i try to present in all her beauty, who always was, is, and shall be beautiful, is truth." after reading these pages[7] nekrasov, the editor of the review _sovremennik_, wrote to tolstoy: "that is precisely what russian society needs to-day: the truth, the truth, of which, since the death of gogol, so little has remained in russian letters.... this truth which you bring to our art is something quite novel with us. i have only one fear: lest the times, and the cowardice of life, the deafness and dumbness of all that surrounds us, may make of you what it has made of most of us--lest it may kill the energy in you."[8] nothing of the kind was to be feared. the times, which waste the energies of ordinary men, only tempered those of tolstoy. yet for a moment the trials of his country and the capture of sebastopol aroused a feeling of regret for his perhaps too unfeeling frankness, together with a feeling of sorrowful affection. in his third narrative--_sebastopol in august, 1855_--while describing a group of officers playing cards and quarrelling, he interrupts himself to say: "but let us drop the curtain quickly over this picture. to-morrow--perhaps to-day--each of these men will go cheerfully to meet his death. in the depths of the soul of each there smoulders the spark of nobility which will make him a hero." although this shame detracts in no wise from the forcefulness and realism of the narrative, the choice of characters shows plainly enough where lie the sympathies of the writer. the epic of malakoff and its heroic fall is told as affecting two rare and touching figures: two brothers, of whom the elder, kozeltoff, has some of the characteristics of tolstoy. who can forget the younger, the ensign volodya, timid and enthusiastic, with his feverish monologues, his dreams, his tears?--tears that rise to his eyes for a mere nothing; tears of tenderness, tears of humiliation--his fear during the first hours passed in the bastion (the poor boy is still afraid of the dark, and covers his head with his cloak when he goes to bed); the oppression caused by the feeling of his own solitude and the indifference of others; then, when the hour arrives, his joy in danger. he belongs to the group of poetic figures of youth (of whom are petia in _war and peace_, and the sub-lieutenant in _the invasion_), who, their hearts full of affection, make war with laughter on their lips, and are broken suddenly, uncomprehending, on the wheel of death. the two brothers fall wounded, both on the same day--the last day of the defence. the novel ends with these lines, in which we hear the muttering of a patriotic anger: "the army was leaving the town; and each soldier, as he looked upon deserted sebastopol, sighed, with an inexpressible bitterness in his heart, and shook his fist in the direction of the enemy."[9] [1] _journal._ [2] we notice this manner also in _the woodcutters_, which was completed at the same period. for example: "there are three kinds of love: 1. æsthetic love; 2. devoted love; 3. active love," &c. (_youth_). "there are three kinds of soldiers: 1. the docile and subordinate; 2. the authoritative; 3. the boasters--who themselves are subdivided into: (a) the docile who are cool and lethargic; (b) those who are earnestly docile; (c) docile soldiers who drink," &c. (_the woodcutters_). [3] _youth,_ xxxii. [4] sent to the review _sovremennik_ and immediately published. [5] tolstoy refers to them again at a much later date, in his _conversations_ with his friend teneromo. he tells him of a crisis of terror which assailed him one night when he was lying down in the "lodgement" dug out of the body of the rampart, under the protective plating. this _episode of the siege of sebastopol_ will be found in the volume entitled _the revolutionaries._ [6] droujinine, a little later, wrote him a friendly letter in which he sought to put him on his guard against this danger: "you have a tendency to an excessive minuteness of analysis; it may become a serious fault. sometimes you seem on the point of saying that so-and-so's calf indicated a desire to travel in the indies.... you must restrain this tendency: but do not for the world suppress it." (letter dated 1856 cited by p. birukov.) [7] mutilated by the censor. [8] 1 september 2, 1855. [9] in 1889, when writing a preface to _memories of sebastopol, by an officer of artillery_ (a. j. erchoff), tolstoy returned in fancy to these scenes. every heroic memory had disappeared. he could no longer remember anything but the fear which lasted for seven months--the double fear: the fear of death and the fear of shame--and the horrible moral torture. all the exploits of the siege reduced themselves, for him, to this: he had been "flesh for cannon." chapter vi st. petersburg when, once issued from this hell, where for a year he had touched the extreme of the passions, vanities, and sorrows of humanity, tolstoy found himself, in november, 1855, amidst the men of letters of st. petersburg, they inspired him with a feeling of disdain and disillusion. they seemed to him entirely mean, ill-natured, and untruthful. these men, who appeared in the distance to wear the halo of art--even tourgenev, whom he had admired, and to whom he had but lately dedicated _the woodcutters_--even he, seen close at hand, had bitterly disappointed him. a portrait of 1856 represents him in the midst of them: tourgenev, gontcharov, ostrovsky, grigorovitch, droujinine. he strikes one, in the free-and-easy atmosphere of the others, by reason of his hard, ascetic air, his bony head, his lined cheeks, his rigidly folded arms. standing upright, in uniform, behind these men of letters, he has the appearance, as suarès has wittily said, "rather of mounting guard over these gentry than of making one of their company; as though he were ready to march them back to gaol."[1] yet they all gathered about their young colleague, who came to them with the twofold glory of the writer and the hero of sebastopol. tourgenev, who had "wept and shouted 'hurrah!'" while reading the pages of _sebastopol_, held out a brotherly hand. but the two men could not understand one another. although both saw the world with the same clear vision, they mingled with that vision the hues of their inimical minds; the one, ironic, resonant, amorous, disillusioned, a devotee of beauty; the other proud, violent tormented with moral ideas, pregnant with a hidden god. what tolstoy could never forgive in these literary men was that they believed themselves an elect, superior caste; the crown of humanity. into his antipathy for them there entered a good deal of the pride of the great noble and the officer who condescendingly mingles with liberal and middle-class scribblers.[2] it was also a characteristic of his--he himself knew it--to "oppose instinctively all trains of reasoning, all conclusions, which were generally admitted."[3] a distrust of mankind, a latent contempt for human reason, made him always on the alert to discover deception in himself or others. "he never believed in the sincerity of any one. all moral exhilaration seemed false to him; and he had a way of fixing, with that extraordinarily piercing gaze of his, the man whom he suspected was not telling the truth."[4] "how he used to listen! how he used to gaze at those who spoke to him, from the very depths of his grey eyes, deeply sunken in their orbits! with what irony his lips were pressed together!"[5] "tourgenev used to say that he had never experienced anything more painful than this piercing gaze, which, together with two or three words of envenomed observation, was capable of infuriating anybody."[6] at their first meetings violent scenes occurred between tolstoy and tourgenev. when at a distance they cooled down and tried to do one another justice. but as time went on tolstoy's dislike of his literary surroundings grew deeper. he could not forgive these artists for the combination of their depraved life and their moral pretensions. "i acquired the conviction that nearly all were immoral men, unsound, without character, greatly inferior to those i had met in my bohemian military life. and they were sure of themselves and selfcontent, as men might be who were absolutely sound. they disgusted me."[7] he parted from them. but he did not at once lose their interested faith in art.[8] his pride was flattered thereby. it was a faith which was richly rewarded; it brought him "women, money, fame." "of this religion i was one of the pontiffs; an agreeable and highly profitable situation." the better to consecrate himself to this religion, he sent in his resignation from the army (november, 1856). but a man of his temper could not close his eyes for long. he believed, he was eager to believe, in progress. it seemed to him "that this word signified something." a journey abroad, which lasted from the end of january to the end of july of 1857, during which period he visited france, switzerland, and germany, resulted in the destruction of this faith. in paris, on the 6th of april, 1857, the spectacle of a public execution "showed him the emptiness of the superstition of progress." "when i saw the head part from the body and fall into the basket i understood in every recess of my being that no theory as to the reason of the present order of things could justify such an act. even though all the men in the world, supported by this or that theory, were to find it necessary, i myself should know that it was wrong; for it is not what men say or do that decides what is good or bad, but my own heart."[9] in the month of july the sight of a little perambulating singer at lucerne, to whom the wealthy english visitors at the schweizerhof were refusing alms, made him express in the _diary of prince d. nekhludov_ his contempt for all the illusions dear to liberals, and for those "who trace imaginary lines upon the sea of good and evil." "for them civilisation is good; barbarism is bad; liberty is good; slavery is bad. and this imaginary knowledge destroys the instinctive, primordial cravings, which are the best. who will define them for me--liberty, despotism, civilisation, barbarism? where does not good co-exist with evil? there is within us only one infallible guide: the universal spirit which whispers to us to draw closer to one another." on his return to russia and yasnaya he once more busied himself about the peasants. not that he had any illusions left concerning them. he writes: "the apologists of the people and its good sense speak to no purpose; the crowd is perhaps the union of worthy folk; but if so they unite only on their bestial and contemptible side, a side which expresses nothing but the weakness and cruelty of human nature."[10] thus he does not address himself to the crowd, but to the individual conscience of each man, each child of the people. for there light is to be found. he founded schools, without precisely knowing what he would teach. in order to learn, he undertook another journey abroad, which lasted from the 3rd of july, 1860, to the 23rd of april, 1861.[11] he studied the various pedagogic systems of the time. need we say that he rejected one and all? two visits to marseilles taught him that the true education of the people is effected outside the schools (which he considered absurd), by means of the journals, the museums, the libraries, the street, and everyday life, which he termed "the spontaneous school." the spontaneous school, in opposition to the obligatory school, which he considered silly and harmful; this was what he wished and attempted to institute upon his return to yasnaya polyana.[12] liberty was his principle. he would not admit that an elect class, "the privileged liberal circle," should impose its knowledge and its errors upon "the people, to whom it is a stranger." it had no right to do so. this method of forced education had never succeeded in producing, at the university, "the men of whom humanity has need; but men of whom a depraved society has need; officials, official professors, official literary men, or men torn aimlessly from their old surroundings, whose youth has been spoiled and wasted, and who can find no plan in life: irritable, puny liberals."[13] go to the people to learn what they want i if they do not value "the art of reading and writing which the intellectuals force upon them," they have their reasons for that; they have other spiritual needs, more pressing and more legitimate. try to understand those needs, and help them to satisfy them! these theories, those of a revolutionary conservative, as tolstoy always was, he attempted to put into practice at yasnaya, where he was rather the fellow-disciple than the master of his pupils.[14] at the same time, he endeavoured to introduce a new human spirit into agricultural exploitation. appointed in 1861 territorial arbitrator for the district of krapiona, he was the people's champion against the abuses of power on the part of the landowners and the state. we must not suppose that this social activity satisfied him, or entirely filled his life. he continued to be the prey of contending passions. although he had suffered from the world, he always loved it and felt the need of it. pleasure resumed him at intervals, or else the love of action. he would risk his life in hunting the bear. he played for heavy stakes. he would even fall under the influence of the literary circles of st. petersburg, for which he felt such contempt. after these aberrations came crises of disgust. such of his writings as belong to this period bear unfortunate traces of this artistic and moral uncertainty. _the two hussars_ (1856) has a quality of pretentiousness and elegance, a snobbish worldly flavour, which shocks one as coming from tolstoy. _albert_, written at dijon in 1857, is weak and eccentric, with no trace of the writer's habitual depth or precision. the _diary of a sportsman_ (1856), a more striking though hasty piece of work, seems to betray the disillusionment which tolstoy inspired in himself. prince nekhludov, his _doppellganger,_ his double, kills himself in a gaming-house. "he had everything: wealth, a name, intellect, and high ambitions; he had committed no crime; but he had done still worse: he had killed his courage, his youth; he was lost, without even the excuse of a violent passion; merely from a lack of will." the approach of death itself does not alter him: "the same strange inconsequence, the same hesitation, the same frivolity of thought...." death!... at this period it began to haunt his mind. _three deaths_ (1858-59) already foreshadowed the gloomy analysis of _the death of ivan ilyitch;_ the solitude of the dying man, his hatred of the living, his desperate query--"why?" the triptych of the three deaths--that of the wealthy woman, that of the old consumptive postilion, and that of the slaughtered dog--is not without majesty; the portraits are well drawn, the images are striking, although the whole work, which has been too highly praised, is somewhat loosely constructed, while the death of the dog lacks the poetic precision to be found in the writer's beautiful landscapes. taking it as a whole, we hardly know how far it is intended as a work of art for the sake of art, or whether it has a moral intention. tolstoy himself did not know. on the 4th of february, 1858, when he read his essay of admittance before the _muscovite society of amateurs of russian literature_, he chose for his subject the defence of art for art's sake.[16] it was the president of the society, khomiakov, who, after saluting in tolstoy "the representative of purely artistic literature," took up the defence of social and moral art.[17] a year later the death of his dearly-loved brother, nikolas, who succumbed to phthisis[18] at hyères, on the 19th of september, 1860, completely overcame tolstoy; shook him to the point of "crushing his faith in goodness, in everything," and made him deny even his art: "truth is horrible.... doubless, so long as the desire to know and to speak the truth exists men will try to know and to speak it. this is the only remnant left me of my moral concepts. it is the only thing i shall do; but not in the form of art, your art. art is a lie, and i can no longer love a beautiful lie."[19] less than six months later, however, he returned to the "beautiful lie" with _polikushka_,[20] which of all his works is perhaps most devoid of moral intention, if we except the latent malediction upon money and its powers for evil; a work written purely for art's sake; a masterpiece, moreover, whose only flaws are a possibly excessive wealth of observation, an abundance of material which would have sufficed for a great novel, and the contrast, which is too severe, a little too cruel, between the humorous opening and the atrocious climax.[21] [1] suarès: _tolstoï_, edition of the _union pour l'action morale,_ 1899 (reprinted, in the _cahiers de la quinzaine,_ under the title _tolstoï vivant_). [2] tourgenev complained, in a conversation, of "this stupid nobleman's pride, his bragging junkerdom." [3] "a trait of my character, it may be good or ill, but it is one which was always peculiar to me, is that in spite of myself i always used to resist external epidemic influences.... i had a hatred of the general tendency." (letter to p. birukov.) [4] tourgenev. [5] grigorovitch. [6] eugène gardine: _souvenirs sur tourgeniev,_ 1883. see _vie et oeuvre de tolstoï,_ by birukov. [7] _confessions._ [8] "there was no difference between us and an asylum full of lunatics. even at the time i vaguely suspected as much; but as all madmen do, i regarded them as all mad excepting myself."--_confessions_. [9] _confessions._ [10] _diary of prince d. nekhludov._ [11] at dresden, during his travels he made the acquaintance of auerbach, who had been the first to inspire him with the idea of educating the people; at kissingen he met froebel, in london herzen, and in brussels proudhon, who seems to have made a great impression upon him. [12] especially in 1861-62. [13] _education and culture._ see _vie et oeuvre,_ by birukov, vol. ii. [14] tolstoy explained these principles in the review _yasnaya polyana,_ 1862. [16] lecture on _the superiority of the artistic element in literature over all its contemporary tendencies._ [17] he cited against tolstoy his own examples, including the old postilion in _the three deaths._ [18] we may remark that another brother, dmitri, had already died of the same disease in 1856. tolstoy himself believed that he was attacked by it in 1856, in 1862, and in 1871. he was, as he writes (the 28th of october, 1852), "of a strong constitution, but feeble in health." he constantly suffered from chills, sore throats, toothache, inflamed eyes, and rheumatism. in the caucasus, in 1852, he had "two days in the week at least to keep his room." illness stopped him for several months in 1854, on the road from silistria to sebastopol. in 1856, at yasnaya, he was seriously ill with an affection of the lungs. in 1862 the fear of phthisis induced him to undergo a _koumiss_ cure at samara, where he lived with the bachkirs, and after 1870 he returned thither almost yearly. his correspondence with fet is full of preoccupations concerning his health. this physical condition enables one the better to understand his obsession by the thought of death. in later years he spoke of this illness as of his best friend: "when one is ill one seems to descend a very gentle slope, which at a certain point is barred by a curtain, a light curtain of some filmy stuff; on the hither side is life, beyond is death. how far superior is the state of illness, in moral value, to that of health! do not speak to me of those people who have never been ill! they are terrible, the women especially so! a woman who has never known illness is an absolute wild beast!" (conversations with m. paul boyer, _le temps_, 27th of august, 1901.) [19] letter to fet, october 17, 1860 _(further letters_: in the french version, _correspondance inédite,_ pp. 27-30). [20] written in brussels, 1861. [21] another novel written at this period is a simple narrative of a journey_--the snowstorm_--which evokes personal memories, and is full of the beauty of poetic and quasi-musical impressions. tolstoy used almost the same background later, in his _master and servant_ (1895). chapter vii "family happiness" from this period of transition, during which the genius of the man was feeling its way blindly, doubtful of itself and apparently exhausted, "devoid of strong passion, without a directing will," like nekhludov in the _diary of a sportsman_--from this period issued a work unique in its tenderness and charm: _family happiness_ (1859). this was the miracle of love. for many years tolstoy had been on friendly terms with the bers family. he had fallen in love with the mother and the three daughters in succession.[1] his final choice fell upon the second, but he dared not confess it. sophie andreyevna bers was still a child; she was seventeen years old, while tolstoy was over thirty; he regarded himself as an old man, who had not the right to associate his soiled and vitiated life with that of an innocent young girl. he held out for three years.[2] afterwards; in _anna karenin,_ he related how his declaration to sophie bers was effected, and how she replied to it: both of them tracing with one finger, under a table, the initials of words they dared not say. like levine in _anna karenin_, he was so cruelly honest as to place his intimate journal in the hands of his betrothed, in order that she should be unaware of none of his past transgressions; and sophie, like kitty in _anna karenin_, was bitterly hurt by its perusal. they were married on the 23rd of september, 1862. in the artist's imagination this marriage was consummated three years earlier, when _family happiness_ was written.[3] for these years he had been living in the future; through the ineffable days of love that does not as yet know itself: through the delirious days of love that has attained self-knowledge, and the hour in which the divine, anticipated words are whispered; when the tears arise "of a happiness which departs for ever and will never return again"; and the triumphant reality of the early days of marriage; the egoism of lovers, "the incessant, causeless joy," then the approaching weariness, the vague discontent, the boredom of a monotonous life, the two souls which softly disengage themselves and grow further and further away from one another; the dangerous attraction of the world for the young wife--flirtations, jealousies, fatal misunderstandings;--love dissimulated, love lost; and at length the sad and tender autumn of the heart; the face of love which reappears, paler, older, but more touching by reason of tears and the marks of time; the memory of troubles, the regret for the ill things done and the years that are lost; the calm of the evening; the august passage from love to friendship, and the romance of the passion of maternity.... all that was to come, all this tolstoy had dreamed of, tasted in advance; and in order to live through those days more vividly he lived in the well-beloved. for the first time--perhaps the only time in all his writings--the story passes in the heart of a woman, and is told by her; and with what exquisite delicacy, what spiritual beauty!--the beauty of a soul withdrawn behind a veil of the truest modesty. for once the analysis of the writer is deprived of its cruder lights; there is no feverish struggle to present the naked truth. the secrets of the inward life are divined rather than spoken. the art and the heart of the artist are both touched and softened; there is a harmonious balance of thought and form. _family happiness_ has the perfection of a work of racine. marriage, whose sweet and bitter tolstoy presented with so limpid a profundity, was to be his salvation. he was tired, unwell, disgusted with himself and his efforts. the brilliant success which had crowned his earlier works had given way to the absolute silence of the critics and the indifference of the public.[4] he pretended, haughtily, to be not ill-pleased. "my reputation has greatly diminished in popularity; a fact which was saddening me. now i am content; i know that i have to say something, and that i have the power to speak it with no feeble voice. as for the public, let it think what it will!"[5] but he was boasting: he himself was not sure of his art. certainly he was the master of his literary instrument; but he did not know what to do with it, as he said in respect of _polikuskha:_ "it was a matter of chattering about the first subject that came to hand, by a man who knows how to hold his pen."[6] his social work was abortive. in 1862 he resigned his appointment as territorial arbitrator. the same year the police made a search at yasnaya polyana, turned everything topsy-turvy, and closed the school. tolstoy was absent at the time, suffering from overwork; fearing that he was attacked by phthisis. "the squabbles of arbitration had become so painful to me, the work of the school so vague, and the doubts which arose from the desire of teaching others while hiding my own ignorance of what had to be taught, were so disheartening that i fell ill. perhaps i should then have fallen into the state of despair to which i was to succumb fifteen years later, had there not remained to me an unknown aspect of life which promised salvation--the life of the family."[7] [1] when a child he had, in a fit of jealousy, pushed from a balcony the little girl--then aged nine--who afterwards became madame bers, with the result that she was lame for several years. [2] see, in _family happiness,_ the declaration of sergius: "suppose there were a mr. a, an elderly man who had lived his life, and a lady b, young and happy, who as yet knew neither men nor life. as the result of various domestic happenings, he came to love her as a daughter, and was not aware that he could love her in another way ..." &c. [3] perhaps this novel contained the memories also of a romantic love affair which commenced in 1856, in moscow, the second party to which was a young girl very different to himself, very worldly and frivolous, from whom he finally parted, although they were sincerely attached to one another. [4] from 1857 to 1861. [5] _journal,_ october, 1857. [6] letter to fet, 1863 (_vie et oeuvre_). [7] _confessions._ chapter viii marriage at first he rejoiced in the new life, with the passion which he brought to everything.[1] the personal influence of countess tolstoy was a godsend to his art. greatly gifted[2] in a literary sense, she was, as she says, "a true author's wife," so keenly did she take her husband's work to heart. she worked with him--worked to his dictation; re-copied his rough drafts.[3] she sought to protect him from his religious dæmon, that formidable genie which was already, at moments, whispering words that meant the death of art. she tried to shut the door upon all social utopias.[4] she requickened her husband's creative genius. she did more: she brought as an offering to that genius the wealth of a fresh feminine temperament. with the exception of the charming silhouettes in _childhood_ and _boyhood_, there are few women in the earlier works of tolstoy, or they remain of secondary importance. woman appears in _family happiness,_ written under the influence of his love for sophie bers. in the works which follow there are numerous types of young girls and women, full of intensest life, and even superior to the male types. one likes to think not only that countess tolstoy served her husband as the model for natasha in _war and peace_[5] and for kitty in _anna karenin_,[6] but that she was enabled, by means of her confidences and her own vision, to become his discreet and valuable collaborator. certain pages of _anna karenin_ in particular seem to me to reveal a woman's touch. thanks to the advantages of this union, tolstoy enjoyed for a space of twelve or fourteen years a peace and security which had been long unknown to him.[7] he was able, sheltered by love, to dream and to realise at leisure the masterpieces of his brain, the colossal monuments which dominate the fiction of the nineteenth century_--war and peace_ (1864-69) and _anna karenin_ (1873-77). _war and peace_ is the vastest epic of our times--a modern _iliad._ a world of faces and of passions moves within it. over this human ocean of innumerable waves broods a sovereign mind, which serenely raises or stills the tempest. more than once in the past, while contemplating this work, i was reminded of homer and of goethe, in spite of the vastly different spirit and period of the work. since then i have discovered that at the period of writing these books tolstoy was as a matter of fact nourishing his mind upon homer and goethe.[8] moreover, in the notes, dated 1865, in which he classifies the various departments of letters, he mentions, as belonging to the same family, "odyssey, iliad, 1805,"[9] the natural development of his mind led him from the romance of individual destinies to the romance of armies and peoples, those vast human hordes in which the wills of millions of beings are dissolved. his tragic experiences at the siege of sebastopol helped him to comprehend the soul of the russian nation and its daily life. according to his first intentions, the gigantic _war and peace_ was to be merely the central panel of a series of epic frescoes, in which the poem of russia should be developed from peter the great to the decembrists.[10] and in june, 1863, he notes in his diary: "i am reading goethe, and many ideas are coming to life within me." in the spring of 1863 tolstoy was re-reading goethe, and wrote of _faust_ as "the poetry of the world of thought; the poetry which expresses that which can be expressed by no other art." later he sacrificed goethe, as he did shakespeare, to his god. but he remained faithful in his admiration of homer. in august, 1857, he was reading, with equal zest, the _iliad_ and the bible. in one of his latest works, the pamphlet attacking shakespeare (1903), it is homer that he opposes to shakespeare as an example of sincerity, balance, and true art. to be truly sensible of the power of this work, we must take into account its hidden unity. too many readers, unable to see it in perspective, perceive in it nothing but thousands of details, whose profusion amazes and distracts them. they are lost in this forest of life. the reader must stand aloof, upon a height; he must attain the view of the unobstructed horizon, the vast circle of forest and meadow; then he will catch the homeric spirit of the work, the calm of eternal laws, the awful rhythm of the breathing of destiny, the sense of the whole of which every detail makes a part; and the genius of the artist, supreme over the whole, like the god of genesis who broods upon the face of the waters. in the beginning, the calm of the ocean. peace, and the life of russia before the war. the first hundred pages reflect, with an impassive precision, a detached irony, the yawning emptiness of worldly minds. only towards the hundredth page do we hear the cry of one of these living dead--the worst among them, prince basil: "we commit sins; we deceive one another; and why do we do it all? my friend, i am more than sixty years old.... all ends in death.... death--what horror!" among these idle, insipid, untruthful souls, capable of every aberration, of every crime, certain saner natures are prominent: genuine natures by their clumsy candour, like pierre besoukhov; by their deeply rooted independence, their old russian peculiarities, like marie dmitrievna; by the freshness of their youth, like the little rostoffs: natures full of goodness and resignation, like the princess marie; and those who, like prince andrei, are not good, but proud, and are tormented by an unhealthy existence. now comes the first muttering of the waves. the russian army is in austria. fatality is supreme: nowhere more visibly imperious than in the loosing of elementary forces--in the war. the true leaders are those who do not seek to lead or direct, but, like kutuzov or bagration, to "allow it to be believed that their personal intentions are in perfect agreement with what is really the simple result of the force of circumstances, the will of subordinates, and the caprices of chance." the advantage of surrendering to the hand of destiny! the happiness of simple action, a sane and normal state.... the troubled spirits regain their poise. prince andrei breathes, begins to live.... and while in the far distance, remote from the lifegiving breath of the holy tempest, pierre and the princess marie are threatened by the contagion of their world and the deception of love, andrei, wounded at austerlitz, has suddenly, amid the intoxication of action brutally interrupted, the revelation of the serene immensity of the universe. lying on his back, "he sees nothing now, except, very far above him, a sky infinitely deep, wherein light, greyish clouds go softly wandering." "what peacefulness! how calm!" he was saying to himself; "it was not like this when i was running by and shouting.... how was it i did not notice it before, this illimitable depth? how happy i am to have found it at last! yes, all is emptiness, all is deception, except this. and god be praised for this calm!..." but life resumes him, and again the wave falls. left once more to themselves, in the demoralising atmosphere of cities, the restless, discouraged souls wander blindly in the darkness. sometimes through the poisoned atmosphere of the world sweep the intoxicating, maddening odours of nature, love, and springtime; the blind forces, which draw together prince andrei and the charming natasha, to throw her, a moment later, into the arms of the first seducer to hand. so _i_ much poetry, so much tenderness, so much purity of heart, tarnished by the world! and always "the wide sky which broods above the outrage and abjectness of the earth." but man does not see it. even andrei has forgotten the light of austerlitz. for him the sky is now only "a dark, heavy vault" which covers the face of emptiness. it is time for the hurricane of war to burst once more upon these vitiated minds. the fatherland, russia, is invaded. then comes the day of borodino, with its solemn majesty. enmities are effaced. dologhov embraces his enemy pierre. andrei, wounded, weeps for pity and compassion over the misery of the man whom he most hated, anatol kuraguin, his neighbour in the ambulance. the unity of hearts is accomplished; unity in passionate sacrifice to the country and submission to the divine laws. "to accept the frightful necessity of war, seriously and austerely.... to human liberty, war is the most painful act of submission to the divine laws. simplicity of heart consists in submission to the will of god." the soul of the russian people and its submission to destiny are incarnated in the person of the commander-in-chief, kutuzov. "this old man, who has no passions left, but only experience, the result of the passions, and in whom intelligence, which is intended to group together facts and to draw from them conclusions, is replaced by a philosophical contemplation of events, devises nothing and undertakes nothing; but he listens to and remembers everything; he knows how to profit by it at the right moment; he will hinder nothing that is of use, he will permit nothing harmful. he sees on the faces of his troops that inexpressible force which is known as the will to conquer; it is latent victory. he admits something more powerful than his own will: the inevitable march of the facts which pass before his eyes; he sees them, he follows them, and he is able mentally to stand aloof." in short, he has the heart of a russian. this fatalism of the russian people, calmly heroic, is personified also in the poor moujik, platon karatayev, simple, pious, and resigned, with his kindly patient smile in suffering and in death. through suffering and experience, above the ruins of their country, after the horrors of its agony, pierre and andrei, the two heroes of the book, attain, through love and faith, to the moral deliverance and the mystic joy by which they behold god living. tolstoy does not stop here. the epilogue, of which the action passes in 1820, deals with the transition from one age to another: from one napoleonic era to the era of the decembrists. it produces an impression of continuity, and of the resumption of life. instead of commencing and ending in the midst of a crisis, tolstoy finishes, as he began, at the moment when a great wave has spent itself, while that following it is gathering itself together. already we obtain a glimpse of the heroes to be, of the conflicts which will ensue between them, and of the dead who are born again in the living.[11] i have tried to indicate the broad lines of the romance; for few readers take the trouble to look for them. but what words are adequate to describe the extraordinary vitality of these hundreds of heroes, all distinct individuals, all drawn with unforgettable mastery: soldiers, peasants, great nobles, russians, austrians, frenchmen! not a line savours of improvisation. for this gallery of portraits, unexampled in european literature, tolstoy made sketches without number: "combined," as he says, "millions of projects"; buried himself in libraries; laid under contribution his family archives,[12] his previous notes, his personal memories. this meticulous preparation ensured the solidity of the work, but did not damp his spontaneity. tolstoy worked with enthusiasm, with an eagerness and a delight which communicate themselves to the reader. above all, the great charm of _war and peace_ resides in its spirit of youth. no other work of tolstoy's presents in such abundance the soul of childhood and of youth; and each youthful spirit is a strain of music, pure as a spring, full of a touching and penetrating grace, like a melody of mozart's. of such are the young nikolas rostoff, sonia, and poor little petia. most exquisite of all is natasha. dear little girl!--fantastic, full of laughter, her heart full of affection, we see her grow up before us, we follow her through life, with the tenderness one would feel for a sister--who that has read of her does not feel that he has known her?... that wonderful night of spring, when natasha, at her window, flooded with the moonlight, dreams and speaks wildly, above the window of the listening andrei ... the emotions of the first ball, the expectation of love, the burgeoning of riotous dreams and desires, the sleigh-ride, the night in the snow-bound forest, full of fantastic lights; nature, and the embrace of her vague tenderness: the evening at the opera, the unfamiliar world of art, in which reason grows confused; the folly of the heart, and the folly of the body yearning for love; the misery that floods the soul; the divine pity which watches over the dying lover.... one cannot evoke these pitiful memories without emotion; such emotion as one would feel in speaking of a dear and beloved woman. how such a creation shows the weakness of the female types in almost the whole of contemporary drama and fiction! life itself has been captured; life so fluid, so supple, that we seem to see it throbbing and changing from one line to another. princess marie, the ugly woman, whose goodness makes her beautiful, is no less perfect a portrait; but how the timid, awkward girl would have blushed, how those who resemble her must blush, at finding unveiled all the secrets of a heart which hides itself so fearfully from every glance! in general the portraits of women are, as i have said, very much finer than the male characters; in especial than those of the two heroes to whom tolstoy has given his own ideas: the weak, pliable nature of pierre besoukhov, and the hard, eager nature of prince andrie bolkonsky. these are characters which lack a centre of gravity; they oscillate perpetually, rather than evolve; they run from one extreme to the other, yet never advance. one may, of course, reply that in this they are thoroughly russian. i find, however, that russians have criticised them in similar terms. tourgenev doubtless had them in mind when he complained that tolstoy's psychology was a stationary matter. "no real development. eternal hesitations: oscillations of feeling."[13] tolstoy himself admitted that he had at times rather sacrificed the individual character to the historical design.[14] it is true, in fact, that the glory of _war and peace_ resides in the resurrection of a complete historical period, with its national migrations, its warfare of peoples. its true heroes are these peoples; and behind them, as behind the heroes of homer, the gods who lead them; the forces, invisible, "infinitely small, which direct the masses," the breath of the infinite. these gigantic conflicts, in which a hidden destiny hurls the blind nations together, have a mythical grandeur. our thoughts go beyond the _iliad:_ we are reminded of the hindu epics. [1] "domestic happiness completely absorbs me" (january 5, 1863). "i am so happy! so happy! i love her so!" (february 8, 1863). see _vie et oeuvre._ [2] she had written several novels. [3] it is said that she copied _war and peace_ seven times. [4] directly after his marriage tolstoy suspended his work of teaching, his review, and his school. [5] her sister tatiana, intelligent and artistic, whose wit and musical talent were greatly admired by tolstoy, also served him as a model. tolstoy used to say, "i took tania [tatiana]; i beat her up with sonia {sophie bers, countess tolstoy}, and out came natasha" (cited by p. birukov). [6] the installation of dolly in the tumble-down country house; dolly and the children; a number of details of dress and toilet; without speaking of certain secrets of the feminine mind, which even the intuition of a man of genius might perhaps have failed to penetrate, if a woman had not betrayed them to him. [7] here is a characteristic instance of tolstoy's enslavement by his creative genius: his _journal_ is interrupted for thirteen years, from november 1, 1865, when the composition of _war and peace_ was in full swing. the egoism of the artist has silenced the monologue of the conscience.--this period of creation was also a period of robust physical life. tolstoy was "mad on hunting." "hunting, i forget everything...." (letter of 1864.) in september, 1864, during a hunt on horse back, he broke his arm, and it was during his convalescence that the first portions of _war and peace_ were dictated.--"on recovering consciousness after fainting, i said to myself: 'i am an artist.' and i am, but a lonely artist." (letter to fet, january 29, 1865.) all the letters written at this time to fet are full of an exulting joy of creation. "i regard all that i have hitherto published," he says, "as merely a trial of my pen." (_ibid._) [8] before this date tolstoy had noted, among the books which influenced him between the ages of twenty and thirty-five: "goethe: _hermann and dorothea_--very great influence." "homer: _iliad and odyssey_ (in russian)--very great influence." [9] the two first parts of _war and peace_ appeared in 1865-66 under the title _the year 1805._ [10] tolstoy commenced this work in 1863 by _the decembrists_, of which he wrote three fragments. but he saw that the foundations of his plan were not sufficiently assured, and going further back, to the period of the napoleonic wars, he wrote _war and peace._ publication was commenced in the _rousski viestnik_ of january, 1865; the sixth volume was completed in the autumn of 1869. then tolstoy ascended the stream of history; and he conceived the plan of an epic romance dealing with peter the great; then of another, _mirovitch_, dealing with the rule of the empresses of the eighteenth century and their favourites. he worked at it from 1870 to 1873, surrounded with documents, and writing the first drafts of various portions; but his realistic scruples made him renounce the project: he was conscious that he could never succeed in resuscitating the spirit of those distant periods in a sufficiently truthful fashion. later, in january, 1876, he conceived the idea of another romance of the period of nikolas i.; then he eagerly returned to the _decembrists_, collecting the evidence of survivors and visiting the scenes of the action. in 1878 he wrote to his aunt, countess a. a. tolstoy: "this work is so important to me! you cannot imagine how much it means to me; it is as much to me as your faith is to you. i would say even more." (_correspondence_) but in proportion as he plumbed the subject he grew away from it; his heart was in it no longer. as early as april, 1879, he wrote to fet: "_the decembrists_? if i were thinking of it, if i were to write it, i should flatter myself with the hope that the very atmosphere of my mind would be insupportable to those who fire upon men for the good of humanity." (_ibid._) at this period of his life the religious crisis had set in; he was about to burn his ancient idols. [11] pierre besoukhov, who has married natasha, will become a decembrist. he has founded a secret society to watch over the general good, a sort of _tugelbund._ natasha associates herself with his plans with the utmost enthusiasm. denissov cannot conceive of a pacific revolution; but is quite ready for an armed revolt. nikolas rostoff has retained his blind soldier's loyalty. he who said before austerlitz, "we have only one thing to do: to fight and never to think," is angry with pierre, and exclaims: "my oath before all! if i were ordered to march against you with my squadron i should march and i should strike home." his wife, princess marie, agrees with him. prince andrei's son, little nikolas bolkonsky, fifteen years old, delicate, sickly, yet charming, with wide eyes and golden hair, listens feverishly to the discussion; all his love is pierre's and natasha's; he does not care greatly for nikolas and marie; he worships his father, whom he has never seen; he dreams of growing like him, of being grown up, of doing something wonderful, he knows not what. "whatever they tell me, i will do it.... yes, i shall do it. _he_ would have been pleased with me."--and the book ends with the dream of a child, who sees himself in the guise of one of plutarch's heroes, with his uncle pierre by his side, preceded by glory, and followed by an army.--if the _decembrists_ had been written then little bolkonsky would doubtless have been one of its heroes. [12] i have remarked that the two families rostoff and bolkonsky, in _war and peace,_ recall the families of tolstoy's father and mother by many characteristics. again, in the novels of the caucasus and sebastopol there are many of the types of soldiers, officers and men, which appear in _war and peace_. [13] letter of february 2, 1868, cited by birukov. [14] notably, he said, that of prince andrei in the first part. chapter ix "anna karenin" _anna karenin,_ with _war and peace,_[1] marks the climax of this period of maturity. _anna karenin_ is the more perfect work; the work of a mind more certain of its artistic creation, richer too in experience; a mind for which the world of the heart holds no more secrets. but it lacks the fire of youth, the freshness of enthusiasm, the mighty pinions of _war and peace_. already tolstoy has lost something of the joy of creation. the temporary peace of the first months of marriage has flown. into the enchanted circle of love and art which countess tolstoy had drawn about him moral scruples begin to intrude. even in the early chapters of _war and peace,_ written one year after marriage, the confidences of prince andrei to pierre upon the subject of marriage denote the disenchantment of the man who sees in the beloved woman the stranger, the innocent enemy, the involuntary obstacle to his moral development. some letters of 1865 announce the coming return of religious troubles. as yet they are only passing threats, blotting out the joy of life. but during the months of 1869, when tolstoy was finishing _war and peace,_ there fell a more serious blow. he had left his home for a few days to visit a distant estate. one night he was lying in bed; it had just struck two: "i was dreadfully tired; i was sleepy, and felt comfortable enough. all of a sudden i was seized by such anguish, such terror as i had never felt in all my life. i will tell you about it in detail; it was truly frightful. i leapt from the bed and told them to get the horses ready. while they were putting them in i fell asleep, and when i woke again i was completely recovered. yesterday the same thing happened, but in a much less degree." the palace of illusion, so laboriously raised by the love of the wife, was tottering. in the spiritual blank which followed the achievement of _war and peace_ the artist was recaptured by his philosophical[2] and educational preoccupations; he wished to write a spelling-book for the people; he worked at it feverishly for four years; he was prouder of it than of _war and peace_, and when it was finished (1872) he wrote a second (1875). then he conceived a passion for greek; he studied latin from morning to night; he abandoned all other work; he discovered "the delightful xenophon," and homer, the real homer; not the homer of the translators, "all these joukhovskys and vosses who sing with any sort of voice they can manage to produce, guttural, peevish, mawkish," but "this other devil, who sings at the top of his voice, without it ever entering his head that any one may be listening."[3] "without a knowledge of greek, no education! i am convinced that until now i knew nothing of all that is truly beautiful and of a simple beauty in human speech." this is folly, and he admits as much. he goes to school again with such passionate enthusiasm that he falls ill. in 1871 he was forced to go to samara to undergo the _koumiss_ cure, staying with the bachkirs. nothing pleased him but his greek. at the end of a lawsuit, in 1872, he spoke seriously of selling all that he possessed in russia and of settling in england. countess tolstoy was in despair: "if you are always absorbed in your greeks you will never get well. it is they who have caused this suffering and this indifference concerning your present life. it is not in vain that we call greek a dead language; it produces a condition of death in the spirit."[4] finally, to the great joy of the countess, after many plans abandoned before they were fairly commenced, on march 19, 1873, he began to write _anna karenin.[5]_ while he worked at it his life i was saddened by domestic sorrow;[6] his wife was ill. "happiness does not reign in the house,"[7] he writes to fet in 1876. to some extent the work bears traces of these depressing experiences, and of passions disillusioned.[8] save in the charming passages dealing with the betrothal of levine, love is no longer presented with the spirit of youth and poetry which places certain pages of _war and peace_ on a level with the most beautiful lyric poetry of all times. it has assumed a different character: bitter, sensual, imperious. the fatality which broods over the romance is no longer, as in _war and peace_, a kind of krishna, murderous and serene, the destiny of empires, but the madness of love, "venus herself." she it is, in the wonderful ball scene, when passion seizes upon anna and vronsky unawares, who endows the innocent beauty of anna, crowned with forget-me-not and clothed in black velvet, with "an almost infernal seductiveness." she it is who, when vronsky has just declared his love, throws a light upon anna's face; but a light "not of joy; it was the terrible glare of an incendiary fire upon a gloomy night." she it is who, in the veins of this loyal and reasonable woman, this young, affectionate mother, pours a voluptuous stream as of irresistible ichor, and installs herself in her heart, never to leave it until she has destroyed it. no one can approach anna without feeling the attraction and the terror of this hidden dæmon. kitty is the first to discover it, with a shock of bewilderment. a mysterious fear mingles with the delight of vronsky when he goes to see anna. levine, in her presence, loses all his will. anna herself is perfectly well aware that she is no longer her own mistress. as the story develops the implacable passion consumes, little by little, the whole moral structure of this proud woman. all that is best in her, her sincere, courageous mind, crumbles and falls; she has no longer the strength to sacrifice her worldly vanity; her life has no other object than to please her lover; she refuses, with shame and terror, to bear children; jealousy tortures her; the sensual passion which enslaves her obliges her to lie with her gestures, her voice, her eyes; she falls to the level of those women who no longer seek anything but the power of making every man turn to look after them; she uses morphia to dull her sufferings, until the intolerable torments which consume her overcome her with the bitter sense of her moral downfall, and cast her beneath the wheels of the railway-carriage. "and the little moujik with the untidy beard"--the sinister vision which has haunted her dreams and vronsky's--"leaned over the track from the platform of the carriage"; and, as the prophetic dream foretold, "he was bent double over a sack, in which he was hiding the remains of something which had known life, with its torments, its betrayals, and its sorrow." "vengeance is mine, saith the lord."[9] around this tragedy of a soul consumed by love and crushed by the law of god--a painting in a single shade, and of terrible gloom--tolstoy has woven, as in _war and peace,_ the romances of other lives. unfortunately these parallel stories alternate in a somewhat stiff and artificial manner, without achieving the organic unity of the symphony of _war and peace_. it may also be said that the perfect realism of certain of the pictures--the aristocratic circles of st. petersburg and their idle discourse--is now and again superfluous and unnecessary. finally, and more openly than in _war and peace_, tolstoy has presented his own moral character and his philosophic ideas side by side with the spectacle of life. none the less, the work is of a marvellous richness. there is the same profusion of types as in _war and peace,_ and all are of a striking justness. the portraits of the men seem to me even superior. tolstoy has depicted with evident delight the amiable egoist, stepan arcadievitch, whom no one can look at without responding to his affectionate smile, and karenin, the perfect type of the high official, the distinguished and commonplace states-man, with his mania for concealing his real opinions and feelings under a mask of perpetual irony: a mixture of dignity and cowardice, of phariseeism and christian feeling: a strange product of an artificial world, from which he can never completely free himself in spite of his intelligence and his true generosity; a man afraid to listen to his i own heart, and rightly so afraid, since when he does surrender to it, he ends by falling into a state of nonsensical mysticism. but the principal interest of the romance, besides the tragedy of anna and the varied pictures of russian society towards 1860--of salons, officers' clubs, balls, theatres, races--lies in its autobiographical character. more than any other personage of tolstoy's books, constantine levine is the incarnation of the writer himself. not only has tolstoy attributed to him his own ideas--at one and the same time conservative and democratic--and the anti-liberalism of the provincial aristocrat who despises "intellectuals;[10] but he has made him the gift of part of his own life. the love of levine and kitty and their first years of marriage are a transposition of his own domestic memories, just as the death of levine's brother is a melancholy evocation of the death of tolstoy's brother, dmitri. the latter portion, useless to the romance, gives us an insight into the troubles which were then oppressing the author. while the epilogue of _war and peace_ was an artistic transition to another projected work, the epilogue to _anna karenin_ is an autobiographical transition to the moral revolution which, two years later, was to find expression in the _confessions._ already, in the course of _anna karenin,_ he returns again and again to a violent or ironical criticism of contemporary society, which he never ceased to attack in his subsequent works. war is declared upon deceit: war upon lies; upon virtuous as well as vicious lies; upon liberal chatter, fashionable charity, drawing-room religion, and philanthropy. war against the world, which distorts all truthful feelings, and inevitably crushes the generous enthusiasm of the mind! death throws an unexpected light upon the social conventions. before anna dying, the stilted karenin is softened. into this lifeless soul, in which everything is artificial, shines a ray of love and of christian forgiveness. all three--the husband, the wife, and the lover--are momentarily transformed. all three become simple and loyal. but as anna recovers, all three are sensible, "facing the almost holy moral strength which was guiding them from within, the existence of another force, brutal but all-powerful, which was directing their lives despite themselves, and which would not leave them in peace." and they knew from the beginning that they would be powerless in the coming struggle, in which they would be obliged to do the evil that the world would consider necessary."[11] if levine, like tolstoy, whose incarnation he is, also became purified in the epilogue to the book, it was because he too was touched by mortality. previously, "incapable of believing, he was equally incapable of absolute doubt."[12] after he beheld his brother die the terror of his ignorance possessed him. for a time this misery was stifled by his marriage; but it re-awakened at the birth of his firstborn. he passed alternately through crises of prayer and negation. he read the philosophers in vain. he began, in his distracted state, to fear the temptation of suicide. physical work was a solace; it presented no doubts; all was clear. levine conversed with the peasants; one of them spoke of the men "who live not for self, but for god." this was to him an illumination. he saw the antagonism between the reason and the heart. reason preached the ferocious struggle for life; there is nothing reasonable in loving one's neighbour: "reason has taught me nothing; all that i know has been given to me, revealed to me by the heart."[13] from this time peace returned. the word of the humble peasant, whose heart was his only guide, had led him back to god.... to what god? he did not seek to know. his attitude toward the church at this moment, as was tolstoy's for a long period, was humble, and in no wise defiant of her dogmas. "there is a truth even in the illusion of the celestial vault and in the apparent movement of the stars."[14] [1] it is regrettable that the beauty of the poetical conception of the work is often tarnished by the philosophical chatter with which tolstoy has loaded his work, especially in the later portions. he is determined to make an exposition of his theory of the fatality of history. the pity is that he returns to the point incessantly, and obstinately repeats himself. flaubert, who "gave vent to cries of admiration" while reading the first two volumes, which he declared "sublime" and "full of shakespearean things," threw the third volume aside in boredom: "he goes off horribly. he repeats himself, and he philosophises. we see the aristocrat, the author, and the russian, while hitherto we have seen nothing but nature and humanity." (letter to tourgenev, january, 1880.) [2] while he was finishing _war and peace_, in the summer of 1869, he discovered schopenhauer, and was filled with enthusiasm. "i am convinced that schopenhauer is the most genial of men. here is the whole universe reflected with an extraordinary clearness and beauty." (letter to fet, august 30, 1869.) [3] "between homer and his translators," he says again, "there is the difference between boiled and distilled water and the spring-water broken on the rocks, which may carry the sand along with it as it flows, but becomes more pure and fresh on that account." [4] papers of countess tolstoy (_vie et oeuvre)._ [5] it was completed in 1877. it appeared--minus the epilogue--in the _rousski viestniki._ [6] the death of three children (november 18, 1873, february, 1875, november, 1875); of his aunt tatiana, his adopted mother (june, 1874), and of his aunt pelagia (december, 1875). [7] letter to fet, march, 1876. [8] "woman is the stumbling-block of a man's career. it is difficult to love a woman and to do nothing of any profit; and the only way of not being reduced to inaction by love is to marry." (_anna karenin._) [9] the motto at the commencement of the book. [10] notice also, in the epilogue, the hostility towards warfare, nationalism, and pan-slavism. [11] "evil is that which is reasonable to the world. sacrifice and love are insanity." [12] (_anna karenin,_ vol. ii.) [13] _anna karenin,_ vol. ii. [14] _ibid._ chapter x the crisis the misery which oppressed levine, and the longing for suicide which he concealed from kitty, tolstoy was at this period concealing from his wife. but he had not as yet achieved the calm which he attributed to his hero. to be truthful, this mental state is hardly communicated to the reader. we feel that it is desired rather than realised, and that levine's relapse among his doubts is imminent. tolstoy was not duped by his desires. he had the greatest difficulty in reaching the end of his work. _anna karenin_ wearied him before he had finished it.[1] he could work no longer. he remained at a standstill; inert, without will-power, a prey to selfterror and self-disgust. there, in the emptiness of his life, rose the great wind which issued from the abyss; the vertigo of death. tolstoy told of these terrible years at a later period, when he was newly escaped from the abyss.[2] "i was not fifty," he said; "i loved; i was loved; i had good children, a great estate, fame, health, and moral and physical vigour; i could reap or mow like any peasant; i used to work ten hours at a stretch without fatigue. suddenly my life came to a standstill. i could breathe, eat, drink and sleep. but this was not to live. i had no desires left. i knew there was nothing to desire. i could not even wish to know the truth. the truth was that life is a piece of insanity. i had reached the abyss, and i saw clearly that there was nothing before me but death. i, a fortunate and healthy man, felt that i could not go on living. an irresistible force was urging me to rid myself of life.... i will not say that i wanted to kill myself. the force which was edging me out of life was something stronger than myself; it was an aspiration, a desire like my old desire for life, but in an inverse sense. i had to humour, to deceive myself, lest i should give way to it too promptly. there i was, a happy man,--and i would hide away a piece of cord lest i should hang myself from the beam that ran between the cupboards of my room, where i was alone every night while undressing. i no longer took my gun out for a little shooting, lest i should be tempted.[3] it seemed to me that life was a dreary farce, which was being played out before my eyes. forty years of work, of trouble, of progress, only to find that there is nothing! nothing! nothing will remain of me but putrescence and worms.... one can live only while one is intoxicated with life; but the moment the intoxication is over one sees that all is merely deceit, a clumsy fraud.... my family and art were no longer enough to satisfy me. my family consisted of unhappy creatures like myself. art is a mirror to life. when life no longer means anything it is no longer amusing to use the mirror. and the worst of it was, i could not resign myself--i was like a man lost in a forest, who is seized with horror because he is lost, and who runs hither and thither and cannot stop, although he knows that at every step he is straying further." salvation came from the people. tolstoy had always had for them "a strange affection, absolutely genuine,"[4] which the repeated experiences of his social disillusions were powerless to shake. of late years he, like levine, had drawn very near to them.[5] he began to ponder concerning these millions of beings who were excluded from the narrow circle of the learned, the rich, and the idle who killed themselves, endeavoured to forget themselves, or, like himself, were basely prolonging a hopeless life. he asked himself why these millions of men and women escaped this despair: why they did not kill themselves. he then perceived that they were living not by the light of reason, but without even thinking of reason; they were living by faith. what was this faith which knew nothing of reason? "faith is the energy of life. one cannot live without faith. the ideas of religion were elaborated in the infinite remoteness of human thought. the replies given by faith to life the sphinx contain the deepest wisdom of humanity." is it enough, then, to be acquainted with those formulæ of wisdom recorded in the volume of religion? no, for faith is not a science; faith is an act; it has no meaning unless it is lived. the disgust which tolstoy felt at the sight of rich and _right-thinking_ people, for whom faith was merely a kind of "epicurean consolation," threw him definitely among the simple folk who alone lived lives in agreement with their faith. "and he understood that the life of the labouring people was life itself, and that the meaning to be attributed to that life was truth." but how become a part of the people and share its faith? it is not enough to know that others are in the right; it does not depend upon ourselves whether we are like them. we pray to god in vain; in vain we stretch our eager arms toward him. god flies. where shall he be found? but one day grace descended: "one day of early spring i was alone in the forest, listening to its sounds.... i was thinking of my distress during the last three years; of my search for god; of my perpetual oscillations from joy to despair.... and i suddenly saw that i used to live only when i used to believe in god. at the very thought of him the delightful waves of life stirred in me. everything around me grew full of life; everything received a meaning. but the moment i no longer believed life suddenly ceased. "then what am i still searching for? a voice cried within me. for him, without whom man cannot live! to know god and to live--it is the same thing! for god is life.... "since then this light has never again deserted me."[6] he was saved. god had appeared to him.[7] but as he was not a hindu mystic, to whom ecstasy suffices; as to the dreams of the asiatic was added the thirst for reason and the need of action of the occidental, he was moved to translate his revelation into terms of practical faith, and to draw from the holy life the rules of daily existence. without any previous bias, and sincerely wishing to believe in the beliefs of his own flesh and blood, he began by studying the doctrine of the orthodox church, of which he was a member.[8] in order to become more intimately a part of that body he submitted for three years to all its ceremonies; confessing himself, communicating; not presuming to judge such matters as shocked him, inventing explanations for what he found obscure or incomprehensible, uniting himself, through and in their faith, with all those whom he loved, whether living or dead, and always cherishing the hope that at a certain moment "love would open to him the gates of truth." but it was all useless: his reason and his heart revolted. such ceremonies as baptism and communion appeared to him scandalous. when he was forced to repeat that the host was the true body and true blood of christ, "he felt as though a knife were plunged into his heart." but it was not the dogmas which raised between the church and himself an insurmountable wall, but the practical questions, and in especial two: the hateful and mutual intolerance of the churches[9] and the sanction, formal or tacit, of homicide: of war and of capital punishment. so he broke loose, and the rupture was the more violent in that for three years he had suppressed his faculty of thought. he walked delicately no longer. angrily and violently he trampled underfoot the religion which the day before he was still persistently practising. in his _criticism of dogmatic theology_ (1879-1881) he termed it not only an "insanity, but a conscious and interested lie."[10] he contrasted it with the new testament, in his _concordance and translation of the four gospels_ (1881-83). finally, upon the gospel he built his faith _(what my faith consists in,_ 1883). it all resides in these words: "i believe in the doctrine of the christ. i believe that happiness is possible on earth only when all men shall accomplish it." its corner-stone is the sermon on the mount, whose essential teaching tolstoy expresses in five commandments: "1. do not be angry. "2. do not commit adultery. "3. do not take oaths. "4. do not resist evil by evil. "5. be no man's enemy." this is the negative part of the doctrine; the positive portion is contained in this single commandment: "love god, and thy neighbour as thyself." "christ has said that he who shall have broken the least of these commandments will hold the lowest place in the kingdom of heaven." and tolstoy adds naively: "strange as it may seem, i have been obliged, after eighteen centuries, to discover these rules as a novelty." does tolstoy believe in the divinity of christ? by no means. in what quality does he invoke him? as the greatest of the line of sages--brahma, buddha, lao-tse, confucius, zoroaster, isaiah--who have revealed to man the true happiness to which he aspires, and the way which he must follow.[11] tolstoy is the disciple of these great religious creators, of these hindu, chinese, and hebrew demi-gods and prophets. he defends them, as he knows how to defend; defends them by attacking those whom he calls "the scribes" and "the pharisees"; by attacking the established churches and the representatives of arrogant science, or rather of "scientific philosophism." not that he appealed from reason to revelation. once escaped from the period of distress described in his _confessions_, he remained essentially a believer in reason; one might indeed say a mystic of reason. "in the beginning was the word," he says, with st. john; "the word, logos, that is, reason.[12] a book of his entitled _life_ (1887) bears as epigraph the famous lines of pascal:[13] "man is nothing but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed.... all our dignity resides in thought.... let us then strive to think well: that is the principle of morality." the whole book, moreover, is nothing but a hymn to reason. it is true that tolstoy's reason is not the scientific reason, the restricted reason "which takes the part for the whole and physical life for the whole of life," but the sovereign law which rules the life of man, "the law according to which _reasonable beings, that is men,_ must of necessity live their lives." "it is a law analogous to those which regulate the nutrition and the reproduction of the animal, the growth and the blossoming of herb and of tree, the movement of the earth and the planets. it is only in the accomplishment of this law, in the submission of our animal nature to the law of reason, with a view to acquiring goodness, that we truly live.... reason cannot be defined, and we have no need to define it, for not only do we all know it, but we know nothing else.... all that man knows he knows by means of reason and not by faith....[14] true life commences only at the moment when reason is manifested. the only real life is the life of reason." then what is the visible life, our individual existence? "it is not our life," says tolstoy, "for it does not depend upon ourselves. "our animal activity is accomplished without ourselves.... humanity has done with the idea of life considered as an individual existence. the negation of the possibility of individual good remains an unchangeable truth for every man of our period who is endowed with reason." then follows a long series of postulates, which i will not here discuss, but which show how tolstoy was obsessed by the idea of reason. it was in fact a passion, no less blind or jealous than the other passions which had possessed him during the earlier part of his life. one fire was flickering out, the other was kindling; or rather it was always the same fire, but fed with a different fuel. a fact which adds to the resemblance between the "individual" passions and this "rational" passion is that neither those nor this can be satisfied with loving. they seek to act; they long for realisation. "christ has said, we must not speak, but act." and what is the activity of reason?--love. "love is the only reasonable activity of man; love is the most reasonable and most enlightened state of the soul. all that man needs is that nothing shall obscure the sun of reason, for that alone can help him to grow.... love is the actual good, the supreme good which resolves all the contradictions of life; which not only dissipates the fear of death, but impels man to sacrifice himself to others: for there is no love but that which enables a man to give his life for those he loves: love is not worthy of the name unless it is a sacrifice of self. and the true love can only be realised when man understands that it is not possible for him to acquire individual happiness. it is then that all the streams of his life go to nourish the noble graft of the true love: and this graft borrows for its increase all the energies of the wild stock of animal individuality...."[15] thus tolstoy did not come to the refuge of faith like an exhausted river which loses itself among the sands. he brought to it the torrent of impetuous energies amassed during a full and virile life. this we shall presently see. this impassioned faith, in which love and reason are united in a close embrace, has found its most dignified expression in the famous reply to the holy synod which excommunicated him:[16] "i believe in god, who for me is love, the spirit, the principle of all things. i believe that he is in me as i am in him. i believe that the will of god has never been more clearly expressed than in the teaching of the man christ; but we cannot regard christ as god and address our prayers to him without committing the greatest sacrilege. i believe that the true happiness of man consists in the accomplishment of the will of god; i believe that the will of god is that every man shall love his fellows and do unto them always as he would they should do unto him, which contains, as the bible says, all the law and the prophets. i believe that the meaning of life for each one of us is only to increase the love within him; i believe that this development of our power of loving will reward us in this life with a happiness which will increase day by day, and with a more perfect felicity in the other world. i believe that this increase of love will contribute, more than any other factor, to founding the kingdom of god upon earth; that is, to replacing an organisation of life in which division, deceit, and violence are omnipotent, by a new order in which concord, truth, and brotherhood will reign. i believe that we have only one means of growing richer in love: namely, our prayers. not public prayer in the temple, which christ has formally reproved (matt. vi. 5-13), but the prayer of which he himself has given as an example; the solitary prayer which confirms in us the consciousness of the meaning of our life and the feeling that we depend solely upon the will of god.... i believe in life eternal; i believe that man is rewarded according to his acts, here and everywhere, now and for ever. i believe all these things so firmly that at my age, on the verge of the tomb, i have often to make an effort not to pray for the death of my body, that is, my birth into a new life."[17] [1] "now i am harnessing myself again to the wearisome and vulgar _anna karenin_, with the sole desire of getting rid of it as quickly as possible." (letters to fet, august 26, 1875.) "i must finish the romance, which is wearying me." (_ibid._ march 1,1876.) [2] in his _confessions_ (1879). [3] see _anna karenin._ "and levine, who had the love of a woman, and was the father of a family, put every kind of weapon away out of reach, as though he was afraid of yielding to the temptation of putting an end to his sufferings." this frame of mind was not peculiar to tolstoy and his characters. tolstoy was struck by the increasing number of suicides among the wealthy classes all over europe, and in russia more especially. he often alludes to the fact in such of his books as were written about this period. it was as though a great wave of neurasthenia had swept across europe in 1880, drowning its thousands of victims. those who were young men at the time will remember it; and for them tolstoy's record of this human experience will have a historic value. he has written the secret tragedy of a generation. [ f] _confessions._ [5] his portraits of this period betray this plebeian tendency. a painting by kramskoy (1873) represents tolstoy in a moujik's blouse, with bowed head: it resembles a german christ. the forehead is growing bare at the temples; the cheeks are lined and bearded.--in another portrait, dated 1881, he has the look of a respectable artisan in his sunday clothes: the hair cut short, the beard and whiskers spread out on either side; the face looks much wider below than above; the eyebrows are contracted, the eyes gloomy; the wide nostrils have a dog-like appearance; the ears are enormous. [6] _confessions._ [7] to tell the truth--not for the first time. the young volunteer in the caucasus, the officer at sebastopol, olenin of the _cossacks,_ prince andrei, and pierre besoukhov, in _war and peace,_ had had similar visions. but tolstoy was so enthusiastic that each time he discovered god he believed it was for the first time; that previously there had been nothing but night and the void. he saw nothing of his past but its shadows and its shames. we who, through reading his _journal_, know better than he himself the story of his heart, know also how profoundly religious was that heart, even when he was most astray. but he himself confesses in a passage in the preface to the _criticism o; dogmatic theology:_ "god! god! i have erred; i have sought the truth where i should not have sought it; and i knew that i erred. i flattered my evil passions, knowing them to be evil; _but i never forgot thee. i was always conscious of thee, even when i went astray_." the crisis of 1878-79 was only more violent than the rest; perhaps under the influence of repeated loss and the advance of age; its only novelty was that the image of god, instead of vanishing and leaving no trace when once the flame of ecstasy flickered out, remained with him, and the penitent, warned by past experience, hastened to "walk in the light while he had the light," and to deduce from his faith a whole system of life. not that he had not already tried to do so. (remember the _rules of life_ written when he was a student.) but at fifty years of age there was less likelihood that his passions would divert him from his path. [8] the sub-title of the _confessions_ is _introduction to the criticism of dogmatic theology and the examination of the christian doctrine._ [9] "i, who beheld the truth in the unity of love, was struck with the fact that religion itself destroyed that which it sought to produce." (_confessions_.) [10] "and i am convinced that the teaching of the church is in theory a crafty and evil lie, and in practice a concoction of gross superstitions and witchcraft, under which the meaning of the christian doctrine absolutely disappears." (_reply to the holy synod,_ april 4-17, 1901.) [11] as he grew older, this feeling of the unity of religious truth throughout human history--and of the kinship of christ with the other sages, from buddha down to kant and emerson--grew more and more accentuated, until in his later years tolstoy denied that he had "any predilection for christianity." of the greatest importance in this connection is a letter written between july 27 and august 4, 1909, to the painter jan styka, and recently reproduced in _le théosophe_ (january 16, 1911). according to his habit, tolstoy, full of his new conviction, was a little inclined to forget his former state of mind and the starting-point of his religious crisis, which was purely christian: "the doctrine of jesus," he writes, "is to me only one of the beautiful doctrines which we have received from the ancient civilisations of egypt, israel, hindostan, china, greece. the two great principles of jesus: the love of god, that is, of absolute perfection, and the love of one's neighbour, that is, of all men without distinction, have been preached by all the sages of the world: krishna, buddha, lao-tse, confucius, socrates, plato, epictetus, marcus aurelius, and, among the moderns, rousseau, pascal, kant, emerson, channing, and many others. truth, moral and religious, is everywhere and always the same.... i have no predilection for christianity. if i have been particularly attracted by the teaching of jesus, it is (1) because i was born and have lived among christians, and (2) because i have found a great spiritual joy in disengaging the pure doctrine from the astonishing falsifications created by the churches." [12] tolstoy protests that he does not attack true science, which is modest and knows its limits. (_life,_ chap. iv. there is a french version by countess tolstoy.) [13] tolstoy often read the _pensées_ during the period of this crisis, which preceded the _confessions._ he speaks of pascal in his letters to fet (april 14, 1877, august 3, 1879), recommending his friend to read the _pensées._ [14] in a letter _upon reason_, written on november 26, 1894, to baroness x (reproduced in _the revolutionaries_, 1906), tolstoy says the same thing: "man has received directly from god one sole instrument by which he may know himself and his relations with the world: there is no other means. this instrument is reason. reason comes from god. it is not only the highest human quality, but the only means by which the truth is to be known." [15] _life_, xxii.-xxv. as in the case of most of these quotations, i am expressing the sense of several chapters in a few characteristic phrases. [16] i hope later, when the complete works of tolstoy have been published, to study the various shades of this religious idea, which has certainly evolved in respect of many points, notably in respect of the conception of future life. [17] from a translation in the _temps_ for may 1, 1901. chapter xi reality he thought he had arrived in port, had achieved the haven in which his unquiet soul might take its repose. he was only at the beginning of a new period of activity. a winter passed in moscow (his family duties having obliged him to follow his family thither),[1] and the taking of the census, in which he contrived to lend a hand, gave him the occasion to examine at first hand the poverty of a great city. the impression produced upon him was terrible. on the evening of the day when he first came into contact with this hidden plague of civilisation, while relating to a friend what he had seen, "he began to shout, to weep, and to brandish his fist." "people can't live like that!" he cried, sobbing. "it cannot be! it cannot be!" he fell into a state of terrible despair, which did not leave him for months. countess tolstoy wrote to him on the 3rd of march, 1882: "you used to say, 'i used to want to hang myself because of my lack of faith.' now you have faith: why then are you so unhappy?" because he had not the sanctimonious, selfsatisfied faith of the pharisee; because he had not the egoism of the mystic, "who is too completely absorbed in the matter of his own salvation to think of the salvation of others";[2] because he knew love; because he could no longer forget the miserable creatures he had seen, and in the passionate tenderness of his heart he felt as though he were responsible for their sufferings and their abjectness; they were the victims of that civilisation in whose privileges he shared; of that monstrous idol to which an elect and superior class was always sacrificing millions of human beings. to accept the benefit of such crimes was to become an accomplice. his conscience would have given him no repose had he not denounced them. _what shall we do?_ (1884-86) is the expression of this second crisis; a crisis far more tragic than the first, and far richer in consequences. what were the personal religious sufferings of tolstoy in this ocean of human wretchedness--of material misery, not misery created by the mind of a self-wearied idler? it was impossible for him to shut his eyes to it, and having seen it he could but strive, at any cost, to prevent it. alas! was such a thing possible? an admirable portrait,[3] which i cannot look at without emotion, tells us plainly what suffering tolstoy was then enduring. it shows him facing the camera; seated, with his arms crossed; he is wear-a moujik's blouse. he looks overwhelmed. his hair is still black, but his moustache is already grey, and his long beard and whiskers are quite white. a double furrow traces symmetrical lines in the large, comely face. there is so much goodness, such tenderness, in the great dog-like muzzle, in the eyes that regard you with so frank, so clear, so sorrowful a look. they read your mind so surely! they pity and implore. the face is furrowed and bears traces of suffering; there are heavy creases beneath the eyes. he has wept. but he is strong, and ready for the fight. his logic was heroic: "i am always astonished by these words, so often repeated: 'yes, it is well enough in theory, but how would it be in practice?' as if theory consisted in pretty words, necessary for conversation, and was not in the least something to which practice should conform! when i come to understand a matter on which i have reflected, i cannot do otherwise than as i have understood."[4] he begins by describing, with photographic exactitude, the poverty of moscow as he has seen it in the course of his visits to the poorer quarters or the night-shelters.[5] he is convinced that money is not the power, as he had at first supposed, which will save these unhappy creatures, all more or less tainted by the corruption of the cities. then he seeks bravely for the source of the evil; unwinding link upon link of the terrible chain of responsibility. first come the rich, with the contagion of their accursed luxury, which entices and depraves the soul.[6] then comes the universal seduction of life without labour. then the state, that murderous entity, created by the violent in order that they might for their own profit despoil and enslave the rest of humanity. then the church, an accomplice; science and art, accomplices. how is a man to oppose this army of evil? in the first place, by refusing to join it. by refusing to share in the exploitation of humanity. by renouncing wealth and ownership of the soil,[7] and by refusing to serve the state. but this is not sufficient. one "must not lie," nor be afraid of the truth. one "must repent," and uproot the pride that is implanted by education. finally, one must work with one's hands. _"thou shalt win thy bread in the sweat of thy brow"_ is the first commandment and the most essential.[8] and tolstoy, replying in advance to the ridicule of the elect, maintains that physical labour does not in any way decrease the energy of the intellect; but that, on the contrary, it increases it, and that it responds to the normal demand of nature. health can only gain thereby; art will gain even more. but what is more important still, it will re-establish the union of man with man. in his subsequent works, tolstoy was to complete these precepts of moral hygiene. he was anxious to achieve the cure of the soul, to replenish its energy, by proscribing the vicious pleasures which deaden the conscience[9] and the cruel pleasures which kill it.[10] he himself set the example. in 1884, he sacrificed his most deeply rooted passion: his love of the chase.[11] he practised abstinence, which strengthens the will. so an athlete may subject himself to some painful discipline that he may grapple with it and conquer. _what shall we do?_ marks the first stage of the difficult journey upon which tolstoy was about to embark, quitting the relative peace of religious meditation for the social maëlstrom. it was then that the twenty years' war commenced which the old prophet of yasnaya polyana waged in the name of the gospel, single-handed, outside the limits of all parties, and condemning all; a war upon the crimes and lies of civilisation. [1] "i had hitherto passed my whole life away from the city." (_what shall we do?_) [2] tolstoy has many times expressed his antipathy for the "ascetics, who live for themselves only, apart from their fellows." he puts them in the same class as the conceited and ignorant revolutionists, "who pretend to do good to others without knowing what it is that they themselves need .... i love these two categories of men with the same love, but i hate their doctrines with the same hate. the only doctrine is that which orders a constant activity, an existence which responds to the aspirations of the soul and endeavours to realise the happiness of others. such is the christian doctrine. equally remote from religious quietism and the arrogant pretensions of the revolutionists, who seek to transform the world without knowing in what real happiness consists." (letters to a friend, published in the volume entitled _cruel pleasures,_ 1895.) [3] a daguerreotype of 1885, reproduced in _what shall we do?_ in the complete french edition. [4] _what shall we do?_ [5] all the first part of the book (the first fifteen chapters). [6] "the true cause of poverty is the accumulation of riches in the hands of those who do not produce, and are concentrated in the cities. the wealthy classes are gathered together in the cities in order to enjoy and to defend themselves. and the poor man comes to feed upon the crumbs of the rich. he is drawn thither by the snare of easy gain: by peddling, begging, swindling, or in the service of immorality." [7] "the pivot of the evil is property. property is merely the means cf enjoying the labour of others." property, he says again, is that which is not ours: it represents other people. "man calls his wife, his children, his slaves, his goods his property, but reality shows him his error; and he must renounce his property or suffer and cause others to suffer." tolstoy was already urging the russian revolution: "for three or four years now men have cursed us on the highway and called us sluggards and skulkers. the hatred and contempt of the downtrodden people are becoming more intense." (_what shall we do?_) [8] the peasant-revolutionist bondarev would have had this law recognised as a universal obligation. tolstoy was then subject to his influence, as also to that of another peasant, sutayev.--"during the whole of my life two russian thinkers have had a great moral influence over me, have enriched my mind, and have elucidated for me my own conception of the world. they were two peasants, sutayev and bondarev." (_what shall we do?_) in the same book tolstoy gives us a portrait of sutayev, and records a conversation with him. [9] _vicious pleasures,_ or in the french translation _alcohol and tobacco,_ 1895. [10] _cruel pleasures_ (_the meat-eaters; war; hunting_), 1895. [11] the sacrifice was difficult; the passion inherited. he was not sentimental; he never felt much pity for animals. for him all things fell into three planes: "1. reasoning beings; 2. animals and plants; 3. inanimate matter." he was not without a trace of native cruelty. he relates the pleasure he felt in watching the struggles of a wolf which he killed. remorse was of later growth. chapter xii art and conscience this moral revolution of tolstoy's met with little sympathy from his immediate world; his family and his relatives were appalled by it. for a long time countess tolstoy had been anxiously watching the progress of a symptom against which she had fought in vain. as early as 1874 she had seen with indignation the amount of time and energy which her husband spent in connection with the schools. "this spelling-book, this arithmetic, this grammar--i feel a contempt for them, and i cannot assume a semblance of interest in them." matters were very different when pedagogy was succeeded by religion. so hostile was the countess's reception of the first confidences of the convert that tolstoy felt obliged to apologise when he spoke of god in his letters: "do not be vexed, as you so often are when i mention god; i cannot help it, for he is the very basis of my thought."[1] the countess was touched, no doubt; she tried to conceal her impatience; but she did not understand; and she watched her husband anxiously. "his eyes are strange and fixed. he scarcely speaks. he does not seem to belong to this world." she feared he was ill. "leo is always working, by what he tells me. alas! he is writing religious discussions of some kind. he reads and he ponders until he gives himself the headache, and all this to prove that the church is not in agreement with the teaching of the gospel. he will hardly find a dozen people in russia whom the matter could possibly interest. but there is nothing to be done. i have only one hope: that he will be done with it all the sooner, and that it will pass off like an illness." the illness did not pass away. the situation between husband and wife became more and more painful. they loved one another; each had a profound esteem for the other; but it was impossible for them to understand one another. they strove to make mutual concessions, which became--as is usually the case--a form of mutual torment. tolstoy forced himself to follow his family to moscow. he wrote in his _journal:_ "the most painful month of my life. getting settled in moscow. all are settling down. but when, then, will they begin to live? all this, not in order to live, but because other folk do the same. unhappy people!"[2] during these days the countess wrote: "moscow. we shall have been here a month tomorrow. the first two weeks i cried every day, for leo was not only sad, but absolutely broken. he did not sleep, he did not eat, at times even he wept; i thought i should go mad."[3] for a time they had to live their lives apart. they begged one another's pardon for causing mutual suffering. we see how they always loved each other. he writes to her: "you say, 'i love you, and you do not need my love.' it is the only thing i do need.... your love causes me more gladness than anything in the world." but as soon as they are together again the same discord occurs. the countess cannot share this religious mania which is now impelling tolstoy to study hebrew with a rabbi. "nothing else interests him any longer. he is wasting his energies in foolishness. i cannot conceal my impatience."[4] she writes to him: "it can only sadden me that such intellectual energies should spend themselves in chopping wood, heating the samovar, and cobbling boots." she adds, with affectionate, half-ironical humour of a mother who watches a child playing a foolish game: "finally, i have pacified myself with the russian proverb: 'let the child play as he will, so long as he doesn't cry.'"[5] before the letter was posted she had a mental vision of her husband reading these lines, his kind, frank eyes saddened by their ironical tone; and she re-opened the letter, in an impulse of affection: "quite suddenly i saw you so clearly, and i felt such a rush of tenderness for you 1 there is something in you so wise, so naive, so persevering, and it is all lit up by the radiance of goodness, and that look of yours which goes straight to the soul.... it is something that belongs to you alone." in this manner these two creatures who loved also tormented one another and were straightway stricken with wretchedness because of the pain they had the power to inflict but not the power to avoid. a situation with no escape, which lasted for nearly thirty years; which was to be terminated only by the flight across the steppes, in a moment of aberration, of the ancient lear, with death already upon him. critics have not sufficiently remarked the moving appeal to women which terminates _what shall we do?_ tolstoy had no sympathy for modern feminism.[6] but of the type whom he calls "the mother-woman," the woman who knows the real meaning of life, he speaks in terms of pious admiration; he pronounces a magnificent eulogy of her pains and her joys, of pregnancy and maternity, of the terrible sufferings, the years without rest, the invisible, exhausting travail for which no reward is expected, and of that beatitude which floods the soul at the happy issue from labour, when the body has accomplished the law. he draws the portrait of the valiant wife who is a help, not an obstacle, to her husband. she knows that "the vocation of man is the obscure, lonely sacrifice, unrewarded, for the life of others." "such a woman will not only not encourage her husband in factitious and meriticious work whose only end is to profit by and enjoy the labour of others; but she will regard such activity with horror and disgust, as a possible seduction for her children. she will demand of her companion a true labour, which will call for energy and does not fear danger.... she knows that the children, the generations to come, are given to men as their holiest vision, and that she exists to further, with all her being, this sacred task. she will develop in her children and in her husband the strength of sacrifice.... it is such women who rule men and serve as their guiding star.... o mother-women! in your hands is the salvation of the world!"[7] this appeal of a voice of supplication, which still has hope--will it not be heard? a few years later the last glimmer of hope was dead. "perhaps you will not believe me; but you cannot imagine how isolated i am, nor in what a degree my veritable _i_ is despised and disregarded by all those about me."[8] if those who loved him best so misunderstood the grandeur of the moral transformation which tolstoy was undergoing, one could not look for more penetration or greater respect in others. tourgenev with whom he had sought to effect a reconciliation, rather in a spirit of christian humility than because his feelings towards him had suffered any change,[9] said ironically of tolstoy: "i pity him greatly; but after all, as the french say, every one kills his own fleas in his own way."[10] a few years later, when on the point of death, he wrote to tolstoy the well-known letter in which he prayed "his friend, the great writer of the russian world," to "return to literature."[11] all the artists of europe shared the anxiety and the prayer of the dying tourgenev. melchior de vogüé, at the end of his study of tolstoy, written in 1886, made a portrait of the writer in peasant costume, handling a drill, the pretext for an eloquent apostrophe: "craftsman, maker of masterpieces, this is not your tool!... our tool is the pen; our field, the human soul, which we must shelter and nourish. let us remind you of the words of a russian peasant, of the the first printer of moscow, when he was sent back to the plough: 'it is not my business to sow grains of corn, but to sow the seed of the spirit broadcast in the world.'" as though tolstoy had ever renounced his vocation as a sower of the seed of the mind! in the introduction to _what i believe_ he wrote: "i believe that my life, my reason, my light, is given me exclusively for the purpose of enlightening my fellows. i believe that my knowledge of the truth is a talent which is lent me for this object; that this talent is a fire which is a fire only when it is being consumed. i believe that the only meaning of my life is that i should live it only by the light within me, and should hold that light on high before men that they may see it."[12] but this light, this fire "which was a fire only when it was being consumed," was a cause of anxiety to the majority of tolstoy's fellow-artists. the more intelligent could not but suspect that there was a great risk that their art would be the first prey of the conflagration. they professed to believe that the whole art of literature was menaced; that the russian, like prospero, was burying for ever his magic ring with its power of creative illusion. nothing was further from the truth; and i hope to show that so far from ruining his art tolstoy was awakening forces which had lain fallow, and that his religious faith, instead of killing his artistic genius, regenerated it completely. [1] the summer of 1878. [2] october 8, 1881. _vie et oeuvre._ [3] october 14. _vie et oeuvre._ [4] 1882. [5] october 23, 1884. _vie et oeuvre._ [6] "the so-called right of women is merely the desire to participate in the imaginary labours of the wealthy classes, with a view to enjoying the fruit of the labour of others and to live a life that satisfies the sensual appetites. no genuine labourer's wife demands the right to share her husband's work in the mines or in the fields." [7] these are the last lines of _what shall we do?_ they are dated the 14th of february, 1886. [8] a letter to a friend, published under the title _profession of faith_, in the volume entitled _cruel pleasures,_ 1895. [9] the reconciliation took place in the spring of 1878. tolstoy wrote to tourgenev asking his pardon. tourgenev went to yasnaya polyana in august, 1878. tolstoy returned his visit in july, 1881. every one was struck with the change in his manner, his gentleness and his modesty. he was "as though regenerated." [10] letter to polonski (quoted by birukov). [11] letter to bougival june 28, 1883. [12] we find that m. de vogüé, in the reproach which he addressed to tolstoy, unconsciously used the phrases of tolstoy himself. "rightly or wrongly," he said, "for our chastisement perhaps, we have received from heaven that splendid and essential evil: thought.... to throw down this cross is an impious revolt." (_le roman russe,_ 1886.) now tolstoy wrote to his aunt, the countess a. a. tolstoy, in 1883: "each of us must bear his cross.... mine is the travail of the idea; evil, full of pride and seductiveness." (_letters._) chapter xiii science and art it is a singular fact that in speaking of tolstoy's ideas concerning science and art, the most important of the books in which these ideas are expressed--namely, _what shall we do?_ (1884-86)--is commonly ignored. there, for the first time, tolstoy fights the battle between art and science; and none of the following conflicts was to surpass the violence of their first encounter. it is a matter for surprise that no one, during the assaults which have been recently delivered in france upon the vanity of science and the intellectuals, has thought of referring to these pages. they constitute the most terrible attack ever penned against the eunuchs of science" and "the corsairs of art"; against those intellectual castes which, having destroyed the old ruling castes of the church, the state, and the army, have installed themselves in their place, and, without being able or willing to perform any service of use to humanity, lay claim to a blind admiration and service, proclaiming as dogmas an impudent faith in science for the sake of science and in art for the sake of art--the lying mask which they seek to make their justification and the apology for their monstrous egoism and their emptiness. "never make me say," continues tolstoy, "that i deny art or science. not only do i not deny them; it is in their name that i seek to drive the thieves from the temple." "science and art are as necessary as bread and water; even more necessary.... the true science is that of the true welfare of all human beings. the true art is the expression of the knowledge of the true welfare of all men." and he praises those who, "since men have existed, have with the harp or the cymbal, by images or by words, expressed their struggle against duplicity, their sufferings in that struggle, their hope in the triumph of good, their despair at the triumph of evil, and the enthusiasm of their prophetic vision of the future." he then draws the character of the perfect artist, in a page burning with mystical and melancholy earnestness: "the activity of science and art is only fruitful when it arrogates no right to itself and considers only its duties. it is only because that activity is such as it is, because its essence is sacrifice, that humanity honours it. the men who are called to serve others by spiritual work always suffer in the accomplishment of that task; for the spiritual world is brought to birth only in suffering and torture. sacrifice and suffering; such is the fate of the thinker and the artist, for his fate is the good of men. men are unhappy; they suffer; they die; there is no time for him to stroll about, to amuse himself. the thinker or the artist never strays upon olympian heights, as we are accustomed to think; he is always in a state of conflict, always in a state of emotion. he must decide and must say what will further the welfare of men, what will deliver them from suffering; and he has not decided it, he has not said it; and to-morrow it will perhaps be too late, and he will die.... the man who is trained in an establishment in which artists and scientists are formed (to tell the truth, such places make destroyers of art and of science); the man who receives diplomas and a pension--he will not be an artist or a thinker; but he who would be happy not to think, not to express what is implanted in his mind, yet cannot refrain from thought and self-expression: for he is carried along by two invisible forces: his inner need and his love of men. there are no artists who are fat, lovers of life, and satisfied with themselves."[1] this splendid page, which throws a tragic light upon the genius of tolstoy, was written under the immediate stress of the suffering caused him by the poverty of moscow, and under the conviction that science and art were the accomplices of the entire modern system of social inequality and hypocritical brutality. this conviction he was never to lose. but the impression of his first encounter with the misery of the world slowly faded, and became less poignant; the wound healed,[2] and in none of his subsequent books do we recover the tremor of pain and of vengeful anger which vibrates in this; nowhere do we find this sublime profession of the faith of the artist who creates with his life-blood, this exaltation of the sacrifice and suffering "which are the lot of the thinker"; this disdain for olympian art. those of his later works which deal with the criticism of art will be found to treat the question from a standpoint at once more literary and less mystical; the problem of art is detached from the background of that human wretchedness of which tolstoy could not think without losing his self-control, as on the night of his visit to the night-shelter, when upon returning home he sobbed and cried aloud in desperation. i do not mean to suggest that these didactic works are ever frigid. it is impossible for tolstoy to be frigid. until the end of his life he is the man who writes to fet: "if he does not love his personages, even the least of them, then he must insult them in such a way as to make the heavens fall, or must mock at them until he splits his sides."[3] he does not forget to do so, in his writings on art. the negative portion of this statement--brimming over with insults and sarcasms--is so vigorously expressed that it is the only part which has struck the artist. this method has so violently wounded the superstitions and susceptibilities of the brotherhood that they inevitably see, in the enemy of their own art, the enemy of all art whatsoever. but tolstoy's criticism is never devoid of the reconstructive element. he never destroys for the sake of destruction, but only to rebuild. in his modesty he does not even profess to build anything new; he merely defends art, which was and ever shall be, from the false artists who exploit it and dishonour it. "true science and true art have always existed and will always exist; it is impossible and useless to attack them," he wrote to me in 1887, in a letter which anticipated by more than ten years his famous criticism of art (_what is art?_).[4] "all the evil of the day comes from the fact that so-called civilised people, together with the scientists and artists, form a privileged caste, like so many priests; and this caste has all the faults of all castes. it degrades and lowers the principle in virtue of which it was organised. what we in our world call the sciences and the arts is merely a gigantic _humbug,_ a gross superstition into which we commonly fall as soon as we free ourselves from the old superstition of the church. to keep safely to the road we ought to follow we must begin at the beginning--we must raise the cowl which keeps us warm but obscures our sight. the temptation is great. we are born or we clamber upon the rungs of the ladder; and we find among the privileged the priests of civilisation, of _kultur_, as the germans have it. like the brahmin or catholic priests, we must have a great deal of sincerity and a great love of the truth before we cast doubts upon the principles which assure us of our advantageous position. but a serious man who ponders the riddle of life cannot hesitate. to begin to see clearly he must free himself from his superstitions, however profitable they may be to him. this is a condition _sine quâ non_.... to have no superstition. to force oneself into the attitude of a child or a descartes." this superstition of modern art, in which the interested castes believe, "this gigantic humbug," is denounced in tolstoy's _what is art?_ with a somewhat ungentle zest he holds it up to ridicule, and exposes its hypocrisy, its poverty, and its fundamental corruption. he makes a clean sweep of everything. he brings to this work of demolition the joy of a child breaking his toys. the whole of this critical portion is often full of humour, but sometimes of injustice: it is warfare. tolstoy used all weapons that came to his hand, and struck at hazard, without noticing whom he struck. often enough it happened--as in all battles--that he wounded those whom it should have been his duty to defend: ibsen or beethoven. this was the result of his enthusiasm, which left him no time to reflect before acting; of his passion, which often blinded him to the weakness of his reasons, and--let us say it--it was also the result of his incomplete artistic culture. setting aside his literary studies, what could he well know of contemporary art? when was he able to study painting, and what could he have heard of european music, this country gentleman who had passed three-fourths of his life in his muscovite village, and who had not visited europe since 1860; and what did he see when he was upon his travels, except the schools, which were all that interested him? he speaks of paintings from hearsay, citing pell-mell among the decadents such painters as puvis de chavannes, manet, monet, böcklin, stuck, and klinger; confidently admiring jules breton and lhermitte on account of their excellent sentiments; despising michelangelo, and among the painters of the soul never once naming rembrandt. in music he felt his way better,[5] but knew hardly anything of it; he could not get beyond the impressions of his childhood, swore by those who were already classics about 1840, and had not become familiar with any later composers (excepting tchaikowsky, whose music made him weep); he throws brahms and richard strauss into the bottom of the same bag, teaches beethoven his business,[6] and, in order to judge wagner, he thought it was sufficient to attend a single representation of _siegfried_, at which he arrived after the rise of the curtain, while he left in the middle of the second act,[7] in the matter of literature he is, it goes without saying, rather better informed. but by what curious aberration did he evade the criticism of the russian writers whom he knew so well, while he laid down the law to foreign poets, whose temperament was as far as possible removed from his own, and whose leaves he merely turned with contemptuous negligence![8] his intrepid assurance increased with age. it finally impelled him to write a book for the purpose of proving that shakespeare "was not an artist." "he may have been--no matter what: but he was not an artist."[9] his certitude is admirable. tolstoy does not doubt. he does not discuss. the truth is his. he will tell you: "the ninth symphony is a work which causes social disunion." again: "with the exception of the celebrated air for the violin by bach, the nocturne in e flat by chopin, and a dozen pieces, not even entire, chosen from among the works of haydn, mozart, weber, beethoven, and chopin,... all the rest may be rejected and treated with contempt, as examples of an art which causes social disunion." again: "i am going to prove that shakespeare cannot be ranked even as a writer of the fourth order. and as a character-painter he is nowhere." that the rest of humanity is of a different opinion is no reason for hesitating: on the contrary. "my opinion," he proudly says, "is entirely different from the established opinion concerning shakespeare throughout europe." obsessed by his hatred of lies, he scents untruth everywhere; and the more widely an idea is received, the more prickly he becomes in his treatment of it; he refuses it, suspecting in it, as he says with reference to the fame of shakespeare, "one of those epidemic influences to which men have always been subject. such were the crusades in the middle ages, the belief in witchcraft, the search for the philosopher's stone, and the passion for tulips. men see the folly of these influences only when they have won free from them. with the development of the press these epidemics have become particularly notable." and he gives as an example the most recent of these contagious diseases, the dreyfus affair, of which he, the enemy of all injustice, the defender of all the oppressed, speaks with disdainful indifference;[10] a striking example of the excesses into which he is drawn by his suspicion of untruth and that instinctive hatred of "moral epidemics" of which he admits himself the victim, and which he is unable to master. it is the reverse side of a virtue, this inconceivable blindness of the seer, the reader of souls, the evoker of passionate forces, which leads him to refer to _king lear_ as "an inept piece of work," and to the proud cordelia as a "characterless creature."[11] observe that he sees very clearly certain of shakespeare's actual defects--faults that we have not the sincerity to admit: the artificial quality of the poetic diction, which is uniformly attributed to all his characters; and the rhetoric of passion, of heroism, and even of simplicity. i can perfectly well understand that a tolstoy, who was the least literary of writers, should have been lacking in sympathy for the art of one who was the most genial of men of letters. but why waste time in speaking of that which he cannot understand? what is the worth of judgments upon a world which is closed to the judge? nothing, if we seek in these judgments the passport to these unfamiliar worlds. inestimably great, if we seek in them the key to tolstoy's art. we do not ask of a creative genius the impartiality of the critic. when a wagner or a tolstoy speaks of beethoven or of shakespeare, he is speaking in reality not of beethoven or of shakespeare, but of himself; he is revealing his own ideals. they do not even try to put us off the scent. tolstoy, in criticising shakespeare, does not attempt to make himself "objective." more: he reproaches shakespeare for his objective art. the painter of _war and peace_, the master of impersonal art, cannot sufficiently deride those german critics who, following the lead of goethe, "invent shakespeare," and are responsible for "the theory that art ought to be objective, that is to say, ought to represent human beings without any reference to moral values--which is the negation of the religious object of art." it is thus from the pinnacle of a creed that tolstoy pronounces his artistic judgments. we must not look for any personal after-thoughts in his criticisms. we shall find no trace of such a thing; he is as pitiless to his own works as to those of others.[12] what, then, does he really intend? what is the artistic significance of the religious ideal which he proposes? this ideal is magnificent. the term "religious art" is apt to mislead one as to the breadth of the conception. far from narrowing the province of art, tolstoy enlarges it. art, he says, is everywhere. "art creeps into our whole life; what we term art, namely, theatres, concerts, books, exhibitions, is only an infinitesimal portion of art. our life is full of artistic manifestations of every kind, from the games of children to the offices of religion. art and speech are the two organs of human progress. one affords the communion of hearts, the other the communion of thoughts. if either of the two is perverted, then society is sick. the art of to-day is perverted." since the renascence it has no longer been possible to speak of the art of the christian nations. class has separated itself from class. the rich, the privileged, have attempted to claim the monopoly of art; and they have made their pleasure the criterion of beauty. art has become impoverished as it has grown remoter from the poor. "the category of the emotions experienced by those who do not work in order to live is far more limited than the emotions of those who labour. the sentiments of our modern society may be reduced to three: pride, sensuality, and weariness of life. these three sentiments and their ramifications constitute almost entirely the subject of the art of the wealthy." it infects the world, perverts the people, propagates sexual depravity, and has become the worst obstacle to the realisation of human happiness. it is also devoid of real beauty, unnatural and insincere; an affected, fabricated, cerebral art. in the face of this lie of the æsthetics, this pastime of the rich, let us raise the banner of the living, human art: the art which unites the men of all classes and all nations. the past offers us glorious examples of such art. "the majority of mankind has always understood and loved that which we consider the highest art: the epic of genesis, the parables of the gospel, the legends, tales, and songs of the people." the greatest art is that which expresses the religious conscience of the period. by this tolstoy does not mean the teaching of the church. "every society has a religious conception of life; it is the ideal of the greatest happiness towards which that society tends." all are to a certain extent aware of this tendency; a few pioneers express it clearly. "a religious conscience always exists. it is the bed in which the river flows." the religious consciousness of our epoch is the aspiration toward happiness as realised by the fraternity of mankind. there is no true art but that which strives for this union. the highest art is that which accomplishes it directly by the power of love; but there is another art which participates in the same task, by attacking, with the weapons of scorn and indignation, all that opposes this fraternity. such are the novels of dickens and dostoyevsky, victor hugo's _les misérables_, and the paintings of millet. but even though it fail to attain these heights, all art which represents daily life with sympathy and truth brings men nearer together. such is _don quixote:_ such are the plays of molière. it is true that such art as the latter is continually sinning by its too minute realism and by the poverty of its subjects "when compared with ancient models, such as the sublime history of joseph." the excessive minuteness of detail is detrimental to such works, which for that reason cannot become universal. "modern works of art are spoiled by a realism which might more justly be called the provincialism of art." thus tolstoy unhesitatingly condemns the principle of his own genius. what does it signify to him that he should sacrifice himself to the future--and that nothing of his work should remain? "the art of the future will not be a development of the art of the present: it will be founded upon other bases. it will no longer be the property of a caste. art is not a trade or profession: it is the expression of real feelings. now the artist can only experience real feelings when he refrains from isolating himself; when he lives the life natural to man. for this reason the man who is sheltered from life is in the worst possible conditions for creative work." in the future "artists will all be endowed." artistic activity will be made accessible to all "by the introduction into the elementary schools of instruction in music and painting, which will be taught to the child simultaneously with the first principles of grammar." for the rest, art will no longer call for a complicated technique, as at present; it will move in the direction of simplicity, clearness, and conciseness, which are the marks of sane and classic art, and of homeric art.[13] how pleasant it will be to translate universal sentiments into the pure lives of this art of the future! to write a tale or a song, to design a picture for millions of beings, is a matter of much greater importance--and of much greater difficulty--than writing a novel or a symphony. it is an immense and almost virgin province. thanks to such works men will learn to appreciate the happiness of brotherly union. "art must suppress violence, and only art can do so. its mission is to bring about the kingdom of god, that is to say, of love."[14] which of us would not endorse these generous words? and who can fail to see that tolstoy's conception is fundamentally fruitful and vital, in spite of its utopianism and a touch of puerility? it is true that our art as a whole is only the expression of a caste, which is itself subdivided not only by the fact of nationality, but in each country also into narrow and hostile clans. there is not a single artist in europe who realises in his own personality the union of parties and of races. the most universal mind of our time was that of tolstoy himself. in him men of all nations and all classes have attained fraternity; and those who have tasted the virile joy of this capacious love can no longer be satisfied by the shreds and fragments of the vast human soul which are offered by the art of the european cliques. [1] _what shall we do?_ p. 378-9. [2] in time he even came to justify suffering--not only personal suffering, but the sufferings of others. "for the assuagement of the sufferings of others is the essence of the rational life. how then should the object of labour be an object of suffering for the labourer? it is as though the labourer were to say that an untilled field is a grief to him." (_life,_ chap, xxxiv.-xxxv.) [3] february 23, 1860. _further letters,_ pp. 19-20. it was for this reason that the "melancholy and dyspeptic" art of tourgenev displeased him. [4] this letter (october 4, 1887) has been printed in the _cahiers de la quinzaine,_ 1902, and in the _further letters_ (_correspondance inédite_), 1907. _what is art?_ appeared in 1897-98; but tolstoy had been pondering the matter for more than fourteen years. [5] i shall return to this matter when speaking of the _kreutzer sonata._ [6] his intolerance became aggravated after 1886. in _what shall we do?_ he did not as yet dare to lay hands on beethoven or on shakespeare. moreover, he reproached contemporary artists for daring to invoke their names. "the activity of a galileo, a shakespeare, a beethoven has nothing in common with that of a tyndall, a victor hugo, or a wagner; just as the holy father would deny all relationship with the orthodox popes." (_what shall we do?_) [7] for that matter, he wished to leave before the end of the first act. "for me the question was settled. i had no more doubt. there was nothing to be expected of an author capable of imagining scenes like these. one could affirm beforehand that he could never write anything that was not evil." [8] in order to make a selection from the french poets of the new schools he conceived the admirable idea of "copying, in each volume, the verses printed on page 28!" [9] _shakespeare,_ 1903. the book was written on the occasion of an article by ernest crosby upon _shakespeare and the working classes._ [10] "here was one of those incidents which often occur, without attracting the attention of any one, and without interesting--i do not say the world--but even the french military world." and further on: "it was not until some years had passed that men awoke from their hypnosis, and understood that they could not possibly know whether dreyfus were guilty or not, and that each of them had other interests more important and more immediate than the affaire dreyfus." (_shakespeare._) [11] "_king lear_ is a very poor drama, very carelessly constructed, which can inspire nothing but weariness and disgust."--_othello_, for which tolstoy evinces a certain sympathy, doubtless because the work is in harmony with his ideas of that time concerning marriage and jealousy, "while the least wretched of shakespeare's plays, is only a tissue of emphatic words." hamlet has no character at all: "he is the author's phonograph, who repeats all his ideas in a string." as for _the tempest, cymbeline, troilus and cressida,_ &c., tolstoy only mentions them on account of their "ineptitude." the only character of shakespeare's whom he finds natural is falstaff, "precisely because here the tongue of shakespeare, full of frigid pleasantries and inept puns, is in harmony with the false, vain, debauched character of this repulsive drunkard." tolstoy had not always been of this opinion. he read shakespeare with pleasure between 1860 and 1870, especially at the time when he contemplated writing a historical play about the figure of peter the great. in his notes for 1869 we find that he even takes _hamlet_ as his model and his guide. having mentioned his completed works, and comparing _war and peace_ to the homeric ideal, he adds: "hamlet and my future works; the poetry of the romance-writer in the depicting of character." [12] he classes his own "works of imagination" in the category of "harmful art." (_what is art?_) from this condemnation he does not except his own plays, "devoid of that religious conception which must form the basis of the drama of the future." [13] as early as 1873 tolstoy had written: "think what you will, but in such a fashion that every word may be understood by every one. one cannot write anything bad in a perfectly clear and simple language. what is immoral will appear so false if clearly expressed that it will assuredly be deleted. if a writer seriously wishes to speak to the people, he has only to force himself to be comprehensible. when not a word arrests the reader's attention the work is good. if he cannot relate what he has read the work is worthless." [14] this ideal of brotherhood and union among men is by no means, to tolstoy's mind, the limit of human activity; his insatiable mind conceives an unknown ideal, above and beyond that of love: "science will perhaps one day offer as the basis of art a much higher ideal, and art will realise it." chapter xiv theories of art: music the finest theory finds its value only in the works by which it is exemplified. with tolstoy theory and creation are always hand in hand, like faith and action. while he was elaborating his critique of art he was producing types of the new art of which he spoke: of two forms of art, one higher and one less exalted, but both "religious" in the most human sense. in one he sought the union of men through love; in the other he waged war upon the world, the enemy of love. it was during this period that he wrote those masterpieces: _the death of ivan ilyitch_ (1884-86), the _popular tales and stories_ (1881-1886), _the power of darkness_ (1886), the _kreutzer sonata_ (1889), and _master and servant_ (1895).[1] at the height and end of this artistic period, like a cathedral with two spires, the one symbolising eternal love and the other the hatred of the world, stands _resurrection_ (1899). all these works are distinguished from their predecessors by new artistic qualities. tolstoy's ideas had suffered a change, not alone in respect of the object of art, but also in respect of its form. in reading _what is art?_ or _shakespeare_ we are struck by the principles of art which tolstoy has enounced in these two books; for these principles are for the most part in contradiction to the greatest of his previous works. "clearness, simplicity, conciseness," we read in _what is art?_ material effects are despised; minute realism is condemned; and in _shakespeare_ the classic ideal of perfection and proportion is upheld. "without the feeling of balance no artists could exist." and although in his new work the unregenerate man, with his genius for analysis and his native savagery, is not entirely effaced, some aspects of the latter quality being even emphasised, his art is profoundly modified in some respects: the design is clearer, more vigorously accented; the minds of his characters are epitomised, foreshortened; the interior drama is intensified, gathered upon itself like a beast of prey about to spring; the emotion has a quality of universality; and is freed of all transitory details of local realism; and finally the diction is rich in illustrations, racy, and smacking of the soil. his love of the people had long led him to appreciate the beauty of the popular idiom. as a child he had been soothed by the tales of mendicant story-tellers. as a grown man and a famous writer, he experienced an artistic delight in chatting with his peasants. "these men," he said in later years to m. paul boyer,[2] "are masters. of old, when i used to talk with them, or with the wanderers who, wallet on shoulder, pass through our countryside, i used carefully to note such of their expressions as i heard for the first time expressions often forgotten by our modern literary dialect, but always good old russian currency, ringing sound.... yes, the genius of the language lives in these men." he must have been the more sensitive to such elements of the language in that his mind was not encumbered with literature.[3] through living far from any city, in the midst of peasants, he came to think a little in the manner of the people. he had the slow dialectic, the common sense which reasons slowly and painfully, step by step, with sudden disconcerting leaps, the mania for repeating any idea when he was once convinced, of repeating it unwearingly and indefinitely, and in the same words.[4] but these were faults rather than qualities. it was many years before he became aware of the latent genius of the popular tongue; the raciness of its images, its poetic crudity, its wealth of legendary wisdom. even at the time of writing _war and peace_ he was already subject to its influence. in march, 1872, he wrote to strakov: "i have altered the method of my diction and my writing. the language of the people has sounds to express all that the poet can say, and it is very dear to me. it is the best poetic regulator. if you try to say anything superfluous, too emphatic, or false, the language will not suffer it. whereas our literary tongue has no skeleton, you may pull it about in every direction, and the result is always something resembling literature." to the people he owed not only models of style; he owed them many of his inspirations. in 1877 a teller of _bylines_ came to yasnaya polyana, and tolstoy took notes of several of his stories. of the number was the legend _by what do men live?_ and _the three old men_, which became, as we know, two of the finest of the _popular tales and legends_ which tolstoy published a few years later.[5] this is a work unique in modern art. it is higher than art: for who, in reading it, thinks of literature? the spirit of the gospel and the pure love of the brotherhood of man are combined with the smiling geniality of the wisdom of the people. it is full of simplicity, limpidity, and ineffable goodness of heart; and that supernatural radiance which from time to time--so naturally and inevitably--bathes the whole picture; surrounding the old elias[6] like a halo, or hovering in the cabin of the cobbler michael; he who, through his skylight on the ground-level, sees the feet of people passing, and whom the lord visits in the guise of the poor whom the good cobbler has succoured.[7] sometimes in these tales the parables of the gospel are mingled with a vague perfume of oriental legends, of those _thousand and one nights_ which tolstoy had loved since childhood.[8] sometimes, again, the fantastic light takes on a sinister aspect, lending the tale a terrifying majesty. such is _pakhom the peasant_,[9] the tale of the man who kills himself in acquiring a great surface of and--all the land which he can encircle by walking for a whole day--and who dies on completing his journey. "on the hill the _starschina_, sitting on the ground, watched him as he ran; and he cackled, holding his stomach with both hands. and pakhom fell. "'ah! well done, my merry fellow! you have won a mighty lot of land!' "the _starschina_ rose, and threw a mattock to pakhom's servant. "'there he is: bury him.' "the servant was alone. he dug a ditch for pakhom, just as long as from his feet to his head: two yards, and he buried him." nearly all these tales conceal, beneath their poetic envelope, the same evangelical moral of renunciation and pardon. "do not avenge thyself upon whosoever shall offend thee.[10] "do not resist whosoever shall do thee evil.[11] "vengeance is mine, saith the lord."[12] and everywhere, and as the conclusion of all, is love. tolstoy, who wished to found an art for all men, achieved universality at the first stroke. throughout the world his work has met with a success which can never fail, for it is purged of all the perishable elements of art, and nothing is left but the eternal. _the power of darkness_ does not rise to this august simplicity of heart: it does not pretend to do so. it is the reverse side of the picture. on the one hand is the dream of divine love; on the other, the ghastly reality. we may judge, in reading this play, whether tolstoy's faith and his love of the people ever caused him to idealise the people or betray the truth. tolstoy, so awkward in most of his dramatic essays,[13] has here attained to mastery. the characters and the action, are handled with ease; the coxcomb nikita, the sensual, headstrong passion of anissia, the cynical good-humour of the old woman, matrena, who gloats maternally over the adultery of her son, and the sanctity of the old stammering hakim--god inhabiting a ridiculous body. then comes the fall of nikita, weak and without real evil, but fettered by his sin; falling to the depths of crime in spite of his efforts to check himself on the dreadful declivity; but his mother and his wife drag him downward.... "the peasants aren't worth much.... but the _babas!_ the women! they are wild animals ... they are afraid of nothing! ... sisters, there are millions of you, all russians, and you are all as blind as moles. you know nothing, you know nothing!... the moujik at least may manage to learn something--in the drink-shop, or who knows where?--in prison, or in the barracks; but the _baba_--what can she know? she has seen nothing, heard nothing. as she has grown up, so she will die.... they are like little blind puppies who go running here and there and ramming their heads against all sorts of filth.... they only know their silly songs: 'ho--o--o! ho--o--o!' what does it mean? ho--o--o? they don't know!"[14] then comes the terrible scene of the murder of the new-born child. nikita does not want to kill it. anissia, who has murdered her husband for him, and whose nerves have ever since been tortured by her crime, becomes ferocious, maddened, and threatens to give him up. she cries: "at least i shan't be alone any longer! he'll be a murderer too 1 let him know what it's like!" nikita crushes the child between two boards. in the midst of his crime he flies, terrified; he threatens to kill anissia and his mother; he sobs, he prays:-"little mother, i can't go on!" he thinks he hears the mangled baby crying. "where shall i go to be safe?" it is shakespearean. less violent, but still more poignant, is the dialogue of the little girl and the old servant-woman, who, alone in the house, at night, hear and guess at the crime which is being enacted off the stage. the end is voluntary expiation. nikita, accompanied by his father, the old hakim, enters barefooted, in the midst of a wedding. he kneels, asks pardon of all, and accuses himself of every crime. old hakim encourages him, looks upon him with a smile of ecstatic suffering. "god! oh, look at him, god!" the drama gains quite a special artistic flavour by the use of the peasant dialect. "i ransacked my notebooks in order to write _the power of darkness_," tolstoy told m. paul boyer. the unexpected images, flowing from the lyrical yet humorous soul of the russian people, have a swing and a vigour about them beside which images of the more literary quality seem tame and colourless. tolstoy revelled in them; we feel, in reading the play, that the artist while writing it amused himself by noting these expressions, these turns of thought; the comic side of them by no means escapes him,[15] even while the apostle is mourning amidst the dark places of the human soul. while he was studying the people, and sending into their darkness a ray of light from his station above them, he was also devoting two tragic romances to the still darker night of the middle classes and the wealthy. at this period the dramatic form was predominant over his ideas of art. the _death of ivan ilyitch_ and _the kreutzer sonata_ are both true dramas of the inner soul, of the soul turned upon itself and concentrated upon itself, and in _the kreutzer sonata_ it is the hero of the drama himself who unfolds it by narration. _the death of ivan ilyitch_ (1884-86) has impressed the french public as few russian works have done. at the beginning of this study i mentioned that i had witnessed the sensation caused by this book among the middle-class readers in the french provinces, a class apparently indifferent to literature and art. i think the explanation lies in the fact that the book represents, with a painful realism, a type of the average, mediocre man; a conscientious functionary, without religion, without ideals, almost without thought; the man who is absorbed in his duties, in his mechanical life, until the hour of his death, when he sees with terror that he has not lived. ivan ilyitch is the representative type of the european _bourgeoisie_ of 1880 which reads zola, goes to hear bernhardt, and, without holding any faith, is not even irreligious; for it does not take the trouble either to believe or to disbelieve; it simply never thinks of such matters. in the violence of its attacks, alternately bitter and almost comic, upon the world in general, and marriage in particular, the _death of ivan ilyitch_ was the first of a new series of works; it was the forerunner of the still more morose and unworldly _kreutzer sonata_ and _resurrection_. there is a lamentable yet laughable emptiness in this life (as there is in thousands and thousands of lives), with its grotesque ambitions, its wretched gratification of vanity, "always better than spending the evening opposite one's wife"; with its weariness and hatred of the official career; its privileges, and the embitterment which they cause; and its one real pleasure: whist. this ridiculous life is lost for a cause yet more ridiculous--a fall from a ladder, one day when ivan wished to hang a curtain over the drawing-room window. the lie of life. the lie of sickness. the lie of the well-to-do doctor, who thinks only of himself. the lie of the family, whom illness disgusts. the lie of the wife, who professes devotion, and calculates how she will live when her husband is dead. the universal lie, against which is set only the truth of a compassionate servant, who does not try to conceal his condition from the dying man, and helps him out of brotherly kindness. ivan ilyitch, "full of an infinite pity for himself," weeps over his loneliness and the egoism of men; he suffers horribly, until the day on which he perceives that his past life has been a lie, and that he can repair that lie. immediately all becomes clear--an hour before his death. he no longer thinks of himself; he thinks of his family; he pities them; he _must_ die and rid them of himself. "where are you, pain? here.... well, you have only to persist.--and death, where is death? he did not find it. in place of death he saw only a ray of light. 'it is over,' said some one.--he heard these words and repeated them to himself. 'death no longer exists,' he told himself." in _the kreutzer sonata_ there is not even this "ray of light." it is a ferocious piece of work; tolstoy lashes out at society like a wounded beast avenging itself for what it has suffered. we must not forget that the story is the confession of a human brute, who has taken life, and who is poisoned by the virus of jealousy. tolstoy hides himself behind his leading character. we certainly find his own ideas, though heightened in tone, in these furious invectives against hypocrisy in general; the hypocrisy of the education of women, of love, of marriage--marriage, that "domestic prostitution"; the hypocrisy of the world, of science, of physicians--those "sowers of crime." but the hero of the book impels the writer into an extraordinary brutality of expression, a violent rush of carnal images--all the excesses of a luxurious body--and, by reaction into all the fury of asceticism, the fear and hatred of the passions; maledictions hurled in the face of life by a monk of the middle ages, consumed with sensuality. having written the book tolstoy himself was alarmed: "i never foresaw at all," he said in the _epilogue to the kreutzer sonata_,"[16] that in writing this book a rigorous logic would bring me where i have arrived. my own conclusions terrified me at first, and i was tempted to reject them; but it was impossible for me to refuse to hear the voice of my reason and my conscience." he found himself repeating, in calmer tones, the savage outcry of the murderer posdnicheff against love and marriage. "he who regards woman--above all his wife--with sensuality, already commits adultery with her." "when the passions have disappeared, then humanity will no longer have a reason for being; it will have executed the law; the union of mankind will be accomplished." he will prove, on the authority of the gospel according to matthew, that "the christian ideal is not marriage; that christian marriage cannot exist; that marriage, from the christian point of view, is an element not of progress but of downfall; that love, with all that precedes and follows it, is an obstacle to the true human ideal."[17] but he had never formulated these ideas clearly, even to himself, until they fell from the lips of posdnicheff. as often happens with great creative artists, the work carried the writer with it; the artist outstripped the thinker; a process by which art lost nothing. in the power of its effects, in passionate concentration, in the brutal vividness of its impressions, and in fullness and maturity of form, nothing tolstoy has written equals the _kreutzer sonata_. i have not explained the title. to be exact, it is erroneous; it gives a false idea of the book, in which music plays only an accessory part. suppress the sonata, and all would be the same. tolstoy made the mistake of confusing two matters, both of which he took deeply to heart: the depraving power of music, and the depraving power of love. the demon of music should have been dealt with in a separate volume; the space which tolstoy has accorded it in the work in question is insufficient to prove the danger which he wishes to denounce. i must emphasise this matter somewhat; for i do not think the attitude of tolstoy in respect of music has ever been fully understood. he was far from disliking music. only the things one loves are feared as tolstoy feared the power of music. remember what a place the memories of music hold in _childhood_, and above all in _family happiness,_ in which the whole cycle of love, from its springtide to its autumn, is unrolled to the phrases of the _sonata quasi una fantasia_ of beethoven. remember, too, the wonderful symphonies which nekhludov[18] hears in fancy, and the little petia, the night before his death.[19] although tolstoy had studied music very indifferently, it used to move him to tears, and at certain periods of his life he passionately abandoned himself to its influence. in 1858 he founded a musical society, which in later years became the moscow conservatoire. "he was extremely fond of music," writes his brother-in-law, s. a. bers. "he used to play the piano, and was fond of the classic masters. he would often sit down to the piano before beginning his work.[20] probably he found inspiration in so doing. he always used to accompany my youngest sister, whose voice he loved. i have noticed that the sensations which the music evoked in him were accompanied by a slight pallor and an imperceptible grimace, which seemed expressive of fear."[21] it was really fear that he felt; fear inspired by the stress of those unknown forces which shook him to the roots of his being. in the world of music he felt his moral will, his reason, and all the reality of life dissolve. let us turn to the scene, in the first volume of _war and peace_, in which nikolas rostoff, who has just lost heavily at cards, returns in a state of despair. he hears his sister natasha singing. he forgets everything. "he waited with a feverish impatience for the note which was about to follow, and for a moment the only thing in all the world was the melody in three-quarter-time: _oh! mio crudele affetto!_ "'what an absurd existence ours is!' he thought. 'unhappiness, money, hatred, honour--they are all nothing.... here is the truth, the reality!... natasha, my little dove!... let us see if she is going to reach that b?... she has reached it, thank god!' "and to emphasise the b he sung the third octave below it in accompaniment. "'how splendid! i have sung it too,' he cried, and the vibration of that octave awoke in his soul all that was best and purest. beside this superhuman sensation, what were his losses at play and his word of honour?... follies! one could kill, steal, and yet be happy!" nikolas neither kills nor steals, and for him music is only a passing influence; but natasha is on the point of losing her self-control. after an evening at the opera, "in that strange world which is intoxicated and perverted by art, and a thousand leagues from the real world; a world in which good and evil, the extravagant and the reasonable, are mingled and confounded," she listened to a declaration from anatol kouraguin, who was madly in love with her, and she consented to elope with him. the older tolstoy grew, the more he feared music.[22] a man whose influence over him was considerable--auerbach, whom in 1860 he had met in dresden--had doubtless a hand in fortifying his prejudices. "he spoke of music as of a _pflichtloser genuss_ (a profligate amusement). according to him, it was an incentive to depravity."[23] among so many musicians, some of whose music is at least amoral, why, asks m. camille bellaigue,[24] should tolstoy have chosen beethoven, the purest, the chastest of all?--because he was the most powerful. tolstoy had early loved his music, and he always loved it. his remotest memories of _childhood_ were connected with the _sonata pathétique;_ and when nekhludov in _resurrection_ heard the _andante_ of the _symphony in c minor_, he could hardly restrain his tears: "he was filled with tenderness for himself and for those he loved." yet we have seen with what animosity tolstoy referred in his _what is art?_[25] to the "unhealthy works of the deaf beethoven"; and even in 1876 the fury with which "he delighted in demolishing beethoven and in casting doubts upon his genius" had revolted tchaikowsky and had diminished his admiration for tolstoy. the _kreutzer sonata_ enables us to plumb the depths of this passionate injustice. what does tolstoy complain of in beethoven? of his power. he reminds us of goethe; listening to the _symphony in c minor_, he is overwhelmed by it, and angrily turns upon the imperious master who subjects him against his will.[26] "this music," says tolstoy, "transports me immediately into the state of mind which was the composer's when he wrote it.... music ought to be a state matter, as in china. we ought not to let tom, dick, and harry wield so frightful a hypnotic power.... as for these things (the first _presto_ of the sonata) one ought only to be allowed to play them under particular and important circumstances...." yet we see, after this revolt, how he surrenders to the power of beethoven, and how this power is by his own admission a pure and ennobling force. on hearing the piece in question, posdnicheff falls into an indefinable state of mind, which he cannot analyse, but of which the consciousness fills him with delight. "there is no longer room for jealousy." the wife is not less transfigured. she has, while she plays, "a majestic severity of expression"; and "a faint smile, compassionate and happy, after she has finished." what is there perverse in all this? this: that the spirit is enslaved: that the unknown power of sound can do with him what it wills; destroy him, if it please. this is true, but tolstoy forgets one thing: the mediocrity and the lack of vitality in the majority of those who make or listen to music. music cannot be dangerous to those who feel nothing. the spectacle of the opera-house during a performance of _salomé_ is quite enough to assure us of the immunity of the public to the more perverse emotions evoked by the art of sounds. to be in danger one must be, like tolstoy, abounding in life. the truth is that in spite of his injustice where beethoven was concerned, tolstoy felt his music more deeply than do the majority of those who now exalt him. he, at least, knew the frenzied passions, the savage violence, which mutter through the art of the "deaf old man," but of which the orchestras and the virtuosi of to-day are innocent. beethoven would perhaps have preferred the hatred of tolstoy to the enthusiasm of his admirers. [1] to these years was attributed, in respect of the date of publication, and perhaps of completion, a work which was really written during the happy period of betrothal and the first years of marriage: the beautiful story of a horse, _kholstomier_ (1861-86). tolstoy speaks of it in 1883 in a letter to fet (_further correspondence_.) the art of the commencement, with its fine landscapes, its penetrating psychological sympathy, its humour, and its youth, has much in common with the art of tolstoy's maturity (_family happiness, war and peace_), the _macabre_ quality of the end, and the last pages comparing the body of the old horse with that of his master, are full of a realistic brutality characteristic of the years after 1880. [2] _le temps,_ august 29, 1901. [3] "as for style," his friend droujinin told him in 1856, "you are extremely illiterate; sometimes like an innovator and a great poet; sometimes like an officer writing to a comrade. all that you write with real pleasure is admirable. the moment you become indifferent your style becomes involved and is horrible." (_vie et oeuvre._) [4] _vie et oeuvre._--during the summer of 1879 tolstoy lived on terms of great intimacy with the peasants. [5] in the notes of his readings, between 1860 and 1870, tolstoy wrote: "the _bylines_--very greatly impressed." [6] _the two old men_ (1885). [7] _where love is, there god is also_ (1885). [8] _by what do men live?_ (1881); _the three old men_ (1884); _the godchild_ (1886). [9] this tale bears the sub-title, _does a man need much soil?_ (1886). [10] _the fire that flames does not go out_ (1885). [11] _the wax taper_ (1885); _the story of ivan the idiot._ [12] _the godson_ (1886). [13] the love of the theatre came to him somewhat late in life. it was a discovery of his, and he made this discovery during the winter of 1869-70. according to his custom, he was at once afire with enthusiasm. "all this winter i have busied myself exclusively with the drama; and, as always happens to men who have never, up to the age of forty, thought about such or such a subject, when they suddenly turn their attention to this neglected subject, it seems to them that they perceive a number of new and wonderful things.... i have read shakespeare, goethe, pushkin, gogol, and molière.... i want to read sophocles and euripides.... i have kept my bed a long time, being unwell--and when i am unwell a host of comic or dramatic characters begin to struggle for life within me ... and they do it with much success."--letters to fet, february 17-21, 1870 (_further letters_). [14] a variant of act iv. [15] the creation of this heart-breaking drama must have been a strain. he writes to teneromo: "i am well and happy. i have been working all this time at my play. it is finished." (january, 1887. _further letters._) [16] a french translation of this epilogue (_postface_), by m. halpérine-kaminsky was published in the volume _plaisirs vicieux_, under the title _des relations entre les sexes._ [17] let us take notice that tolstoy was never guilty of the simplicity of believing that the ideal of celibacy and absolute chastity was capable of realisation by humanity as we know it. but according to him an ideal is incapable of realisation by its very definition: it is an appeal to the heroic energies of the soul. "the conception of the christian ideal, which is the union of all living creatures in brotherly love, is irreconcilable with the conduct of life, which demands a continual effort towards an ideal which is inaccessible, but does not expect that it will ever be attained." [18] at the end of _a russian proprietor._ [19] _war and peace_.--i do not mention _albert_ (1857), the story of a musician of genius; the book is weak in the extreme. [20] the period spoken of is 1876-77. [21] s. a. bers, _memories of tolstoy._ [22] but he never ceased to love it. one of the friends of his later years was a musician, goldenreiser, who spent the summer of 1910 near yasnaya. almost every day he came to play to tolstoy during the latter's last illness. (_journal des débats,_ november 18, 1910.) [23] letter of april 21, 1861. [24] _tolstoï et la musique_ (_le gaulois,_ january 4, 1911). [25] not only to the later works of beethoven. even in the case of those earlier works which he consented to regard as "artistic," tolstoy complained of "their artificial form."--in a letter to tchaikowsky he contrasts with mozart and haydn "the artificial manner of beethoven, schubert, and berlioz, which produces calculated effects." [26] instance the scene described by m. paul boyer: "tolstoy sat down to play chopin. at the end of the fourth ballade, his eyes filled with tears. 'ah, the animal!' he cried. and suddenly he rose and went out." (_le temps,_ november 2, 1902.) chapter xv "resurrection" ten years separated _resurrection_ from the _kreutzer sonata_.[1] ten years which were more and more absorbed in moral propaganda. ten years also separated the former book from the end for which this life hungered, famished as it was for the eternal. _resurrection_ is in a sense the artistic testament of the author. it dominates the end of his life as _war and peace_ crowned its maturity. it is the last peak, perhaps the highest--if not the most stupendous--whose invisible summit is lost in the mists. tolstoy is seventy years old. he contemplates the world, his life, his past mistakes, his faith, his righteous anger. he sees them from a height. we find the same ideals as in his previous books; the same warring upon hypocrisy; but the spirit of the artist, as in _war and peace_, soars above his subject. to the sombre irony, the mental tumult of the _kreutzer sonata_ and _the death of ivan ilyitch_ he adds a religious serenity, a detachment from the world, which is faithfully reflected in himself. one is reminded, at times, of a christian goethe. all the literary characteristics which we have noted in the works of his later period are to be found here, and of these especially the concentration of the narrative, which is even more striking in a long novel than in a short story. there is a wonderful unity about the book; in which respect it differs widely from _war and peace_ and _anna karenin._ there are hardly any digressions of an episodic nature. a single train of action, tenaciously followed, is worked out in every detail. there is the same vigorous portraiture, the same ease and fullness of handling, as in the _kreutzer sonata._ the observation is more than ever lucid, robust, pitilessly realistic, revealing the animal in the man "the terrible persistence of the beast in man, more terrible when this animality is not openly obvious; when it is concealed under a so-called poetical exterior." witness the drawing-room conversations, which have for their object the mere satisfaction of a physical need: "the need of stimulating the digestion by moving the muscles of the tongue and gullet"; the crude vision of humanity which spares no one; neither the pretty korchagina, "with her two false teeth, the salient bones of her elbows, and the largeness of her finger-nails," and her _décolletage,_ which inspires in nekhludov a feeling of "shame and disgust, disgust and shame"; nor the herione, maslova, nothing of whose degradation is hidden; her look of premature age, her vicious, ignoble expression, her provocative smile, the odour of brandy that hangs about her, her red and swollen face. there is a brutality of naturalistic detail: as instance, the woman who converses while crouched over the commode. youth and the poetic imagination have vanished; except in the passages which deal with the memories of first love, whose music vibrates in the reader's mind with hypnotic intensity; the night of the holy saturday, and the night of passover; the thaw, the white mist so thick "that at five paces from the house one saw nothing but a shadowy mass, whence glimmered the red light of a lamp"; the crowing of the cocks in the night; the sounds from the frozen river, where the ice cracks, snores, bubbles, and tinkles like a breaking glass; and the young man who, from the night outside, looks through the window at the young girl who does not see him: seated near the table in the flickering light of the little lamp--katusha, pensive, dreaming, and smiling at her dreams. the lyrical powers of the writer are given but little play. his art has become more impersonal; more alien to his own life. the world of criminals and revolutionaries, which he here describes, was unfamiliar to him;[2] he enters it only by an effort of voluntary sympathy; he even admits that before studying them at close quarters the revolutionaries inspired him with an unconquerable aversion. all the more admirable is his impeccable observation--a faultless mirror. what a wealth of types, of precise details! how everything is _seen_; baseness and virtue, without hardness, without weakness, but with a serene understanding and a brotherly pity.... the terrible picture of the women in the prison! they are pitiless to one another; but the artist is the merciful god; he sees, in the heart of each, the distress that hides beneath humiliation, and the tearful eyes beneath the mask of effrontery. the pure, faint light which little by little waxes within the vicious mind of maslova, and at last illumines her with a sacrificial flame, has the touching beauty of one of those rays of sunshine which transfigure some humble scene painted by the brush of rembrandt. there is no severity here, even for the warders and executioners. "lord, forgive them, for they know not what they do!" ... the worst of it is that often they do know what they do; they feel all the pangs of remorse, yet they cannot do otherwise. there broods over the book the sense of the crushing and inevitable fatality which weighs upon those who suffer and those who cause that suffering: the director of the prison, full of natural kindness, as sick of his jailer's life as of the pianoforte exercises of the pale, sickly daughter with the dark circles beneath her eyes, who indefatigably murders a rhapsody of liszt; the governor-general of the siberian town, intelligent and kindly, who, in the hope of escaping the inevitable conflict between the good he wishes to do and the evil he is forced to do, has been steadily drinking since the age of thirty-five; who is always sufficiently master of himself to keep up appearances, even when he is drunk. and among these people we find the ordinary affection for wife and children, although their calling renders them pitiless in respect of the rest of humanity. the only character in this book who has no objective reality is nekhludov himself; and this is so because tolstoy has invested him with his own ideas. this is a defect of several of the most notable types in _war and peace_ and in _anna karenin_; for example, prince andrei, pierre besoukhov, levine, and others. the fault was less grave, however, in these earlier books; for the characters, by force of their circumstances and their age, were nearer to the author's actual state of mind. but in _resurrection_ the author places in the body of an epicurean of thirty-five the disembodied soul of an old man of seventy. i will not say that the moral crisis through which nekhludov is supposed to pass is absolutely untrue and impossible; nor even that it could not be brought about so suddenly.[3] but there is nothing in the temperament, the character, the previous life of the man as tolstoy depicts him, to announce or explain this crisis; and once it has commenced nothing interrupts it. tolstoy has, it is true, with profound observation, represented the impure alloy which at the outset is mingled with the thoughts of sacrifice; the tears of self-pity and admiration; and, later, the horror and repugnance which seize upon nekhludov when he is brought face to face with reality. but his resolution never flinches. this crisis has nothing in common with his previous crises, violent but only momentary.[4] henceforth nothing can arrest this weak and undecided character. a wealthy prince, much respected, greatly enjoying the good things of the world, on the point of marrying a charming girl who loves him and is not distasteful to him, he suddenly decides to abandon everything--wealth, the world, and social position--and to marry a prostitute in order to atone for a remote offence; and his exaltation survives, without flinching, for months; it holds out against every trial, even the news that the woman he wishes to make his wife is continuing her life of debauchery.[5] here we have a saintliness of which the psychology of a dostoyevsky would have shown us the source, in the obscure depths of the conscience or even in the organism of his hero. nekhludov, however, is by no means one of dostoyevsky's heroes. he is the type of the average man, commonplace, sane, who is tolstoy's usual hero. to be exact, we are conscious of the juxtaposition of a very materialistic[6] character and a moral crisis which belongs to another man, and that man the aged tolstoy. the same impression--one of elemental duality--is again produced at the end of the book, where a third part, full of strictly realistic observation, is set beside an evangelical conclusion which is not in any way essential; it is an act of personal faith,[7] which does not logically issue from the life under observation. this is not the first time that tolstoy's religion has become involved with his realism; but in previous works the two elements have been better mingled. here they are not amalgamated; they simply co-exist; and the contrast is the more striking in that tolstoy's faith is always becoming less and less indifferent to proof, while his realism is daily becoming more finely whetted, more free from convention. here is a sign, not of fatigue, but of age; a certain stiffness, so to speak, in the joints. the religious conclusion is not the organic development of the work. it is a _deus ex machinâ_. i personally am convinced that right in the depth of tolstoy's being--in spite of all his affirmations--the fusion between his two diverse natures was by no means complete: between the truth of the artist and the truth of the believer. although _resurrection_ has not the harmonious fullness of the work of his youth, and although i, for my part, prefer _war and peace_, it is none the less one of the most beautiful poems of human compassion; perhaps the most truthful ever written. more than in any other book i see through the pages of this those bright eyes of tolstoy's, the pale-grey, piercing eyes, "the look that goes straight to the heart,"[8] and in each heart sees its god. [1] _master and servant_ (1895) is more or less of a transition between the gloomy novels which preceded it and _resurrection;_ which is full of the light of the divine charity. but it is akin to _the death of ivan ilyitch_ and the _popular tales_ rather than to _resurrection,_ which only presents, towards the end of the book, the sublime transformation of a selfish and morally cowardly man under the stress of an impulse of sacrifice. the greater part of the book consists of the extremely realistic picture of a master without kindness and a servant full of resignation, who are surprised, by night, on the steppes, by a blizzard, in which they lose their way. the master, who at first tries to escape, deserting his companion, returns, and finding the latter half-frozen, throws himself upon him, covering him with his body, gives him of his warmth, and sacrifices himself by instinct; he does not know why, but the tears fill his eyes; it seems to him that he has become the man he is seeking to save--nikita--and that his life is no longer in himself, but in nikita. "nikita is alive; then i am still alive, myself." he has almost forgotten who he, vassili, was. he thinks: "vassili did not know what had to be done. but i, i know!" he hears the voice of him whom he was awaiting (here his dream recalls one of the _popular tales),_ of him who, a little while ago, had commanded him to lie upon nikita. he cries, quite happy: "lord, i am coming!" and he feels that he is free; that nothing is keeping him back any longer. he is dead. [2] while on the other hand he had mixed in all the various circles depicted in _war and peace, anna karenin, the cossacks,_ and _sebastopol_; the _salons_ of the nobles, the army, the life of the country estate. he had only to remember. [3] "men carry in them the germ of all the human qualities, and they manifest now one, now another, so that they often appear to be not themselves; that is, themselves as they habitually appear. among some these changes are more rare; among others more rapid. to the second class of men belongs nekhludov. under the influence of various physical or moral causes sudden and complete changes are incessantly being produced within him." (_resurrection_.) [4] "many times in his life he had proceeded to _clean up his conscience._ this was the term he used to denote those moral crises in which he decided to sweep out the moral refuse which littered his soul. at the conclusion of these crises he never failed to set himself certain rules, which he swore always to keep. he kept a diary; he began a new life. but each time it was not long before he fell once more to the same level, or lower still, than before the crisis." (_resurrection.)_ [5] upon learning that maslova is engaged in an intrigue with a hospital attendant, nekhludov is more than ever decided to "sacrifice his liberty in order to redeem the sin of this woman." [6] tolstoy has never drawn a character with so sure, so broad a touch as in the beginning of _resurrection._ witness the admirable description of nekhludov's toilet and his actions of the morning before the first session in the palace of justice. [7] the word "act" to be found here and there in the text in such phrases as "act of faith" "act of will," is used in a sense peculiar to catholic and orthodox christians. a penitent is told to perform an "act of faith" as penance; which is usually the repetition of certain prayers of the nature of a creed. the "act," in short, is a repetition, a declamation, a meditation: anything but an action.--(trans.) [8] letter of countess tolstoy's, 1884. chapter xvi religion and politics tolstoy never renounced his art. a great artist cannot, even if he would, abandon the reason of his existence. he can, for religious reasons, cease to publish, but he cannot cease to write. tolstoy never interrupted his work of artistic creation. m. paul boyer, who saw him, during the last few years, at yasnaya polyana, says that he would now give prominence to his evangelistic works, now to his works of imagination; he would work at the one as a relaxation from the other. when he had finished some social pamphlet, some _appeal to the rulers_ or _to the ruled,_ he would allow himself to resume one of the charming tales which he was, so to speak, in process of recounting to himself; such as his _hadji-mourad,_ a military epic, which celebrated an episode of the wars of the caucasus and the resistance of the mountaineers under schamyl.[1] art was still his relaxation, his pleasure; but he would have thought it a piece of vanity to make a parade of it. with the exception of his _cycle of readings for every day of the year_ (1904-5),[2] in which he collected the thoughts of various writers upon _life and the truth_--a true anthology of the poetical wisdom of the world, from the holy books of the east to the works of contemporary writers--nearly all his literary works of art, properly so called, which have been written later than 1900 have remained in manuscript.[3] on the other hand he was boldly and ardently casting his mystical and polemical writings upon the social battlefield. from 1900 to 1910 such work absorbed the greater part of his time and energy. russia was passing through an alarming crisis; for a moment the empire of the tsars seemed to totter on its foundations and about to fall in ruin. the russo-japanese war, the disasters which followed it, the revolutionary troubles, the mutinies in the army and the fleet, the massacres, the agrarian disorders, seemed to mark "the end of a world," to quote the title of one of tolstoy's writings. the height of the crisis was reached in 1904 and 1905. during these years tolstoy published a remarkable series of works: _war and revolution, the great crime, the end of a world._ during the last ten years of his life he occupied a situation unique not only in russia but in the world. he was alone, a stranger to all the parties, to all countries, and rejected by his church, which had excommunicated him.[4] the logic of his reason and the revolutionary character of his faith had "led him to this dilemma; to live a stranger to other men, or a stranger to the truth." he recalls the russian proverb: "an old man who lies is a rich man who steals," and he severs himself from mankind in order to speak the truth. he tells the whole truth, and to all. the old hunter of lies continues, unweariedly, to mark down all superstitions, religious or social, and all fetishes. the only exceptions are the old maleficent powers--the persecutrix, the church, and the imperial autocracy. perhaps his enmity towards them was in some degree appeased now that all were casting stones at them. they were familiar; therefore they were already not so formidable! after all, too, the church and the tsar were carrying on their peculiar trades; they were at least not deceptive. tolstoy, in his letter to the tsar nikolas ii.,[5] although he speaks the truth in a manner entirely unaccommodating to the man as sovereign, is full of gentleness for the sovereign as man; addressing him as "dear brother," praying him to "pardon him if he has hurt him unintentionally," and signing himself, "your brother who wishes you true happiness." what tolstoy can least find it in him to pardon--what he denounces with the utmost hatred--are the new lies; not the old ones, which are no longer able to deceive; not despotism, but the illusion of liberty. it is difficult to say which he hates the more among the followers of the newer idols: whether the socialists or the "liberals." he had a long-standing antipathy for the liberals. it had seized upon him suddenly when, as an officer fresh from sebastopol, he found himself in the society of the literary men of st. petersburg. it had been one of the causes of his misunderstanding with tourgenev. the arrogant noble, the man of ancient race, could not support these "intellectuals," with their profession of making the nation happy, whether by its will or against it, by forcing their utopian schemes upon it. very much a russian, and of the old stamp,[6] he instinctively distrusted all liberal innovations, and the constitutional ideas which came from the west; and his two journeys abroad only intensified his prejudices. on his return from his first journey he wrote: "to avoid the ambition of liberalism." on his return from the second: "a privileged society has no right whatsoever to educate in its own way the masses of which it knows nothing." in _anna karenin_ he freely expresses his contempt for liberals in general. levine refuses to associate himself with the work of the provincial institutions for educating the people, and the innovations which are the order of the day. the picture of the elections to the provincial assembly exposes the fool's bargain by which the country changes its ancient conservative administration for a liberal _régime_--nothing is really altered, except that there is one lie the more, while the masters are of inferior blood. "we are not worth very much perhaps," says the representative of the aristocracy, "but none the less we have lasted a thousand years." tolstoy fulminates against the manner in which the liberals abuse the words, "the people: the will of the people." what do they know of the people? who are the people? but it is more especially when the liberal movement seemed on the point of succeeding and achieving the convocation of, the first duma that tolstoy expressed most violently his disapprobation of its constitutional ideas. "during the last few years the deformation of christianity has given rise to a new species of fraud, which has rooted our peoples yet more firmly in their servility. with the help of a complicated system of parliamentary elections it was suggested to them that by electing their representatives directly they were participating in the government, and that in obeying them they were obeying their own will: in short, that they were free. this is a piece of imposture. the people cannot express its will, even with the aid of universal suffrage--1, because no such collective will of a nation of many millions of inhabitants could exist; 2, because even if it existed the majority of voices would not be its expression. without insisting on the fact that those elected would legislate and administrate not for the general good but in order to maintain themselves in power--without counting on the fact of the popular corruption due to pressure and electoral corruption--this fraud is particularly harmful because of the presumptuous slavery into which all those who submit to it fall.... these free men recall the prisoners who imagine that they are enjoying freedom when they have the right to elect those of their gaolers who are entrusted with the interior policing of the prison.... a member of a despotic state may be entirely free, even in the midst of the most brutal violence. but a member of a constitutional state is always a slave, for he recognises the legality of the violence done him.... and now men wish to lead the russian people into the same state of constitutional slavery in which the other european peoples dwell!"[7] in his hostility towards liberalism contempt was his dominant feeling. in respect of socialism his dominant feeling was--or rather would have been--hatred, if tolstoy had not forbidden himself to hate anything whatever. he detested it doubly, because socialism was the amalgamation of two lies: the lie of liberty and the lie of science. does it not profess to be founded upon some sort of economic science, whose laws absolutely rule the progress of the world? tolstoy is very hard upon science. he has pages full of terrible irony concerning this modern superstition and "these futile problems: the origin of species, spectrum analysis, the nature of radium, the theory of numbers, animal fossils and other nonsense, to which people attach as much importance to-day as they attributed in the middle ages to the immaculate conception or the duality of substance." he derides these "servants of science, who, just as the servants of the church, persuade themselves and others that they are saving humanity; who, like the church, believe in their own infallibility, never agree among themselves, divide themselves into sects, and, like the church, are the chief cause of unmannerliness, moral ignorance, and the long delay of humanity in freeing itself from the evils under which it suffers; for they have rejected the only thing that could unite humanity: the religious conscience."[8] but his anxiety redoubles, and his indignation bursts its bounds, when he sees the dangerous weapon of the new fanaticism in the hands of those who profess to be regenerating humanity. every revolutionist saddens him when he resorts to violence. but the intellectual and theoretical revolutionary inspires him with horror: he is a pedantic murderer, an arrogant, sterile intelligence, who loves not men but ideas.[9] moreover, these ideas are of a low order. "the object of socialism is the satisfaction of the lowest needs of man: his material well-being. and it cannot attain even this end by the means it recommends."[10] at heart, he is without love. he feels only hatred for the oppressors and "a black envy for the assured and easy life of the rich: a greed like that of the flies that gather about ordure."[11] when socialism is victorious the aspect of the world will be terrible. the european horde will rush upon the weak and barbarous peoples with redoubled force, and will enslave them, in order that the ancient proletariats of europe may debauch themselves at their leisure by idle luxury, as did the people of rome.[12] happily the principal energies of socialism spend themselves in smoke--in speeches, like those of m. jaurès. "what an admirable orator! there is something of everything in his speeches--and there is nothing.... socialism is a little like our russian orthodoxy: you press it, you push it into its last trenches, you think you have got it fast, and suddenly it turns round and tells you: 'no, i'm not the one you think, i'm somebody else.' and it slips out of your hands.... patience! let time do its work. there will be socialistic theories, as there are women's fashions, which soon pass from the drawing-room to the servants' hall."[13] although tolstoy waged war in this manner upon the liberals and socialists, it was not--far from it--to leave the field free for autocracy; on the contrary, it was that the battle might be fought in all its fierceness between the old world and the new, after the army of disorderly and dangerous elements had been eliminated. for tolstoy too was a believer in the revolution. but his revolution was of a very different colour to that of the revolutionaries; it was rather that of a believer of the middle ages, who looked on the morrow, perhaps that very day, for the reign of the holy spirit. "i believe that at this very hour the great revolution is beginning which has been preparing for two thousand years in the christian world--the revolution which will substitute for corrupted christianity and the system of domination which proceeds therefrom the true christianity, the basis of equality between men and of the true liberty to which all beings endowed with reason aspire."[14] what time does he choose, this seer and prophet, for his announcement of the new era of love and happiness? the darkest hour of russian history; the hour of disaster and of shame! superb power of creative faith! all around it is light--even in darkness. tolstoy saw in death the signs of renewal; in the calamities of the war in manchuria, in the downfall of the russian armies, in the frightful anarchy and the bloody struggle of the classes. his logic--the logic of a dream!--drew from the victory of japan the astonishing conclusion that russia should withdraw from all warfare, because the non-christian peoples will always have the advantage in warfare over the christian peoples "who have passed through the phase of servile submission." does this mean the abdication of the russian people? no; this is pride at its supremest. russia should withdraw from all warfare because she must accomplish "the great revolution." "the revolution of 1905, which will set men free from brutal oppression, must commence in russia. it is beginning." why must russia play the part of the chosen people? because the new revolution must before all repair the "great crime," the great monopolisation of the soil for the profit of a few thousands of wealthy men and the slavery of millions of men--the cruellest of enslavements;[15] and because no people was so conscious of this iniquity as the russian people.[16] again, and more especially, because the russian people is of all peoples most thoroughly steeped in the true christianity, so that the coming revolution should realise, in the name of christ, the law of union and of love. now this law of love cannot be fulfilled unless it is based upon the law of non-resistance to evil.[17] this non-resistance (let us mark this well, we who have the misfortune to see in it simply an utopian fad peculiar to tolstoy and to a few dreamers) has always been an essential trait of the russian people. "the russian people has always assumed, with regard to power, an attitude entirely strange to the other peoples of europe. it has never entered upon a conflict with power; it has never participated in it, and consequently has never been depraved by it. it has regarded power as an evil which must be avoided. an ancient legend represents the russians as appealing to the varingians to come and govern them. the majority of the russians have always preferred to submit to acts of violence rather than respond with violence or participate therein. they have therefore always submitted. "a voluntary submission, having nothing in common with servile obedience.[18] "the true christian may submit, indeed it is impossible for him not to submit without a struggle to no matter what violence; but he could not obey it--that is, he could not recognise it as legitimate."[19] at the time of writing these lines tolstoy was still subject to the emotion caused by one of the most tragical examples of this heroic nonresistance of a people--the bloody manifestation of january 22nd in st. petersburg, when an unarmed crowd, led by father gapon, allowed itself to be shot down without a cry of hatred or a gesture of self-defence. for a long time the old believers, known in russia as the _sectators_, had been obstinately practising, in spite of persecution, non-obedience to the state, and had refused to recognise the legitimacy of its power.[20] the absurdity of the russo-japanese war enabled this state of mind to spread without difficulty through the rural districts. refusals of military service became more and more general; and the more brutally they were punished the more stubborn the revolt grew in secret. in the provinces, moreover, whole races who knew nothing of tolstoy had given the example of an absolute and passive refusal to obey the state--the doukhobors of the caucasus as early as 1898 and the georgians of the gouri towards 1905. tolstoy influenced these movements far less than they influenced him; and the interest of his writings lies in the fact that in spite of the criticisms of those writers who were of the party of revolution, as was gorky,[21] he was the mouthpiece of the old russian people. the attitude which he preserved, in respect of men who at the peril of their lives were putting into practice the principles which he professed,[22] was one of extreme modesty and dignity. neither to the doukhobors and the gourians nor to the refractory soldiers did he assume the pose of a master or teacher. "he who suffers no trials can teach nothing to him who does so suffer." he implores "the forgiveness of all those whom his words and his writings may have caused to suffer."[23] he never urges any one to refuse military service. it is a matter for every man to decide for himself. if he discusses the matter with any one who is hesitating, "he always advises him not to refuse obedience so long as it would not be morally impossible." for if a man hesitates it is because he is not ripe; and "it is better to have one soldier the more than a renegade or hypocrite, which is what becomes of those who undertake a task beyond their strength."[24] he distrusts the resolution of the refractory gontcharenko. he fears "that this young man may have been carried away by vanity and vainglory, not by the love of god."[25] to the doukhobors he writes that they should not persist in their refusal of obedience out of pride, but "if they are capable of so doing, they should save their weaker women and their children. no one will blame them for that." they must persist "only if the spirit of christ is indeed within them, because then they will be happy to suffer."[26] in any case he prays those who are persecuted "at any cost not to break their affectionate relations with those who persecute them."[27] one must love even herod, as he says in a letter to a friend: "you say, 'one cannot love herod.'--i do not know, but i feel, and you also, that one must love him. i know, and you also, that if i do not love him i suffer, that there is no life in me."[28] the divine purity, the unvarying ardour of this love, which in the end can no longer be contented even by the words of the gospel: "love thy neighbour as thyself," because he finds in them a taint of egoism![29] too vast a love in the opinion of some; and so free from human egoism that it wastes itself in the void. yet who more than tolstoy distrusts "abstract love"? "the greatest modern sin: the abstract love of humanity, impersonal love for those who are--somewhere, out of sight.... to love those we do not know, those whom we shall never meet, is so easy a thing! there is no need to sacrifice anything; and at the same time we are so pleased with ourselves! the conscience is fooled.--no. we must love our neighbours--those we live with, and who are in our way and embarrass us."[30] i have read in most of the studies of tolstoy's work that his faith and philosophy are not original. it is true; the beauty of these ideas is eternal and can never appear a momentary fashion. others complain of their utopian character. this also is true; they are utopian, the new testament is utopian. a prophet is a utopian; he treads the earth but sees the life of eternity; and that this apparition should have been granted to us, that we should have seen among us the last of the prophets, that the greatest of our artists should wear this aureole on his brow--there, it seems to me, is a fact more novel and of far greater importance to the world than one religion the more, or a new philosophy. those are blind who do not perceive the miracle of this great mind, the incarnation of fraternal love in the midst of a people and a century stained with the blood of hatred! [1] _le temps_, november 2, 1902. [2] tolstoy regarded this as one of his most important works. "one of my books--_for every day_--to which i have the conceit to attach a great importance...." (letter to jan styka, july 27 august 9, 1909). [3] these works should shortly appear, under the supervision of countess alexandra, tolstoy's daughter. the list of them has been published in various journals. we may mention _hadji-mourad, father sergius,_ the psychology of a monk; _she had every virtue,_ the study of a woman; the _diary of a madman,_ the _diary of a mother,_ the _story of a doukhobor,_ the _story of a hive,_ the _posthumous journal of theodore kouzmitch, aliocha govchkoff, tikhon and melanie, after the ball, the moon shines in the dark, a young tsar, what i saw in a dream, who is the murderer?_ (containing social ideas), _modern socialism,_ a comedy; _the learned woman, childish wisdom,_ sketches of children who converse upon moral subjects; _the living corpse,_ a drama in seventeen tableaux; _it is all her fault,_ a peasant comedy in two acts, directed against alcohol (apparently tolstoy's last literary work, as he wrote it in may-june, 1910), and a number of social studies. it is announced that they will form two octavo volumes of six hundred pages each. but the essential work as yet unpublished is tolstoy's _journal,_ which covers forty years of his life, and will fill, so it is said, no less than thirty volumes. [4] the excommunication of tolstoy by the holy synod was declared on february 22, 1901. the excuse was a chapter of _resurrection_ relating to mass and the eucharist. this chapter has unhappily been suppressed in the french edition. [5] on the nationalisation of the soil. _(the great crime,_ 1905.) [6] "a 'great-russian,' touched with finnish blood." (m. leroy-beaulieu.) [7] _the end of a world_ (1905-6). see the telegram addressed by tolstoy to an american journal: "the agitation in the zemstvos has as its object the limitation of despotic power and the establishment of a representative government. whether or no they succeed the result will be a postponement of any true social improvement. political agitation, while producing the unfortunate illusion of such improvement by external means, arrests true progress, as may be proved by the example of all the constitutional states--france, england, america, &c." (preface to the french translation of _the great crime_, 1905.) in a long and interesting letter to a lady who asked him to join a _committee for the propagation of reading and writing among the people_, tolstoy expressed yet other objections to the liberals: they have always played the part of dupes; they act as the accomplices of the autocracy through fear; their participation in the government gives the latter a moral prestige, and accustoms them to compromises, which quickly make them the instruments of power. alexander ii. used to say that all the liberals were ready to sell themselves for honours if not for money; alexander iii. was able, without danger, to eradicate the liberal work of his father. "the liberals whispered among themselves that this did not please them; but they continued to attend the tribunals, to serve the state and the press; in the press they alluded to those things to which allusion was allowed, and were silent upon matters to which allusion was prohibited." they did the same under nikolas ii. "when this young man, who knows nothing and understands nothing, replies tactlessly and with effrontery to the representatives of the people, do the liberals protest? by no means ... from every side they send the young tsar their cowardly and flattering congratulations." (_further letters._) [8] _war and revolution._ in _resurrection,_ at the hearing of maslova's appeal, in the senate, it is a materialistic darwinist who is most strongly opposed to the revision, because he is secretly shocked that nekhludov should wish, as a matter of duty, to marry a prostitute; any manifestation of duty, and still more, of religious feeling, having the effect upon him of a personal insult. [9] as a type, take novodvorov, the revolutionary leader in _resurrection,_ whose excessive vanity and egoism have sterilised a fine intelligence. no imagination; "a total absence of the moral and æsthetic qualities which produce doubt." following his footsteps like a shadow is markel, the artisan who has become a revolutionist through humiliation and the desire for revenge; a passionate worshipper of science, which he cannot comprehend; a fanatical anticlerical and an ascetic. in _three more dead_ or _the divine and the human_ we shall find a few specimens of the new generation of revolutionaries: romane and his friends, who despise the old terrorists, and profess to attain their ends scientifically, by transforming an agricultural into an industrial people. [10] letters to the japanese izo-abe, 1904. (_further letters_). [11] conversations, reported by teneromo (published in _revolutionaries,_ 1906). [12] conversations, reported by teneromo (published in _revolutionaries,_ 1906). [13] conversation with m. paul boyer. (_le temps_, november 4, 1902.) [14] _the end of a world_. [15] "the cruellest enslavement is to be deprived of the earth, for the slave of a master is the slave of only one; but the man deprived of the land is the slave of all the world." (_the great crime_) [16] russia was actually in a somewhat special situation; and although tolstoy may have been wrong to found his generalisations concerning other european states upon the condition of russia, we cannot be surprised that he was most sensible to the sufferings which touched him most nearly. see, in _the great crime,_ his conversations on the road to toula with the peasants, who were all in want of bread because they lacked land, and who were all secretly waiting for the land to be restored to them. the agricultural population of russia forms 80 per cent, of the nation. a hundred million of men, says tolstoy, are dying of hunger because of the seizure of the soil by the landed proprietors. when people speak to them of remedying their evils through the agency of the press, or by the separation of church and state, or by nationalist representation, or even by the eight-hours day, they impudently mock at them: "those who are apparently looking everywhere for the means of bettering the condition of the masses of the people remind one of what one sees in the theatre, when all the spectators have an excellent view of an actor who is supposed to be concealed, while his fellow-players, who also have a full view of him, pretend not to see him, and endeavour to distract one another's attention from him." there is no remedy but that of returning the soil to the labouring people. as a solution of the property question, tolstoy recommends the doctrine of henry george and his suggested single tax upon the value of the soil. this is his economic gospel; he returns to it unwearied, and has assimilated it so thoroughly that in his writings he often uses entire phrases of george's. [17] "the law of non-resistance to evil is the keystone of the whole building. to admit the law of mutual help while misunderstanding the precept of non-resistance is to build the vault without sealing the central portion." (_the end of a world._) [18] in a letter written in 1900 to a friend (_further letters_) tolstoy complains of the false interpretation given to his doctrine of non-resistance. "people," he says, "confound _do not oppose evil by evil_ with _do not oppose evil_: that is to say, _be indifferent to evil._ ..." "whereas the conflict with evil is the sole object of christianity, and the commandment of non-resistance to evil is given as the most effectual means of conflict." [19] _the end of a world._ [20] tolstoy has drawn two types of these "sectators," one in _resurrection_ (towards the end) and one in _three more dead._ [21] after tolstoy's condemnation of the upheaval in the zemstvos, gorky, making himself the interpreter of the displeasure of his friends, wrote as follows: "this man has become the slave of his theory. for a long time he has isolated himself from the life of russia, and he no longer listens to the voice of the people. he hovers over russia at too great a height." [22] it was a bitter trial to him that he could not contrive to be persecuted. he had a thirst for martyrdom; but the government very wisely took good care not to satisfy him. "they are persecuting my friends all around me, and leaving me in peace, although if any one is dangerous it is i. evidently i am not worth persecution, and i am ashamed of the fact." (letter to teneromo, 1892, _further letters.)_ "evidently i am not worthy of persecution, and i shall have to die like this, without having ever been able to testify to the truth by physical suffering." (to teneromo, may 16,1892, _ibid._) "it hurts me to be at liberty." (to teneromo, june i, 1894, _ibid._) that he was at liberty was, heaven knows, no fault of his! he insults the tsars, he attacks the fatherland, "that ghastly fetish to which men sacrifice their life and liberty and reason." (_the end of a world._) then see, in _war and revolution,_ the summary of russian history. it is a gallery of monsters: "the maniac ivan the terrible, the drunkard peter i., the ignorant cook, catherine i., the sensual and profligate elizabeth, the degenerate paul, the parricide alexander i. [the only one of them for whom tolstoy felt a secret liking], the cruel and ignorant nikolas i.; alexander ii., unintelligent and evil rather than good; alexander iii., an undeniable sot, brutal and ignorant; nikolas ii., an innocent young officer of hussars, with an _entourage_ of coxcombs, a young man who knows nothing and understands nothing." [23] letter to gontcharenko, a "refractory," january 17, 1903. (_further letters._) [24] letter to a friend, 1900. (_correspondence_.) [25] to gontcharenko, february 2, 1903 (_ibid._). [26] to the doukhobors of the caucasus, 1898 (_ibid._). [27] to gontcharenko, january 17, 1903 (_ibid._). [28] to a friend, november, 1901. (_correspondence_). [29] "it is like a crack in a pneumatic machine; all the vapour of egoism that we wish to drain from the human soul re-enters by it." he ingeniously strives to prove that the original text has been wrongly read; that the exact wording of the second commandment was in fact "love thy neighbour as _himself_ (as god)." (_conversations with teneromo._) [30] _conversations with teneromo._ chapter xvii old age his face had taken on definite lines; had become as it will remain in the memory of men: the large countenance, crossed by the arch of a double furrow; the white, bristling eyebrows; the patriarchal beard, recalling that of the moses of dijon. the aged face was gentler and softer; it bore the traces of illness, of sorrow, of disappointment, and of affectionate kindness. what a change from the almost animal brutality of the same face at twenty, and the heavy rigidity of the soldier of sebastopol! but the eyes have always the same profound fixity, the same look of loyalty, which hides nothing and from which nothing is hidden. nine years before his death, in his reply to the holy synod (april 17, 1901) tolstoy had said: "i owe it to my faith to live in peace and gladness, and to be able also, in peace and gladness, to travel on towards death." reading this i am reminded of the ancient saying: "that we should call no man happy until he is dead." were they lasting, this peace and joy that he then boasted of possessing? the hopes of the "great revolution" of 1905 had vanished. the shadows had gathered more thickly; the expected light had never risen. to the upheavals of the revolutionaries exhaustion had succeeded. nothing of the old injustice was altered, except that poverty had increased. even in 1906 tolstoy had lost a little of his confidence in the historic vocation of the russian slavs, and his obstinate faith sought abroad for other peoples whom he might invest with this mission. he thought of the "great and wise chinese nation." he believed "that the peoples of the orient were called to recover that liberty which the peoples of the occident had lost almost without chance of recovery"; and that china, at the head of the asiatic peoples, would accomplish the transformation of humanity in the way of tao, the eternal law.[1] a hope quickly destroyed: the china of lao-tse and confucius was decrying its bygone wisdom, as japan had already done in order to imitate europe.[2] the persecuted doukhobors had migrated to canada, and there, to the scandal of tolstoy, they immediately reverted to the property system.[3] the gourians were scarcely delivered from the yoke of the state when they began to destroy those who did not think as they did; and the russian troops were called out to put matters in order. the very jews, "whose native country had hitherto been the fairest a man could desire--the book,"[4] were attacked by the malady of zionism, that movement of false nationalism, "which is flesh of the flesh of contemporary europeanism, or rather its rickety child."[5] tolstoy was saddened, but not discouraged. he had faith in god and in the future. "all would be perfect if one could grow a forest in the wink of an eye. unhappily, this is impossible; we must wait until the seed germinates, until the shoots push up, the leaves come, and then the stem which finally becomes a tree."[6] but many trees are needed to make a forest; and tolstoy was alone; glorious, but alone. men wrote to him from all parts of the world; from mohamedan countries, from china and japan, where _resurrection_ was translated, and where his ideas upon "the restitution of the land to the people" were being propagated.[7] the american papers interviewed viewed him; the french consulted him on matters of art, or the separation of church and state.[8] but he had not three hundred disciples, and he knew it. moreover, he did not take pains to make them. he repulsed the attempts of his friends to form groups of tolstoyans. "we must not go in search of one another, but we must all seek god.... you say: 'together it is easier.'--what? to labour, to reap, yes. but to draw near to god--one can only do so in isolation.... i see the world as an enormous temple in which the light falls from on high and precisely in the middle. to become united we must all go towards the light. then all of us, come together from all directions, will find ourselves in the company of men we did not look for; in that is the joy."[9] how many have found themselves together under the ray which falls from the dome? what matter! it is enough to be one and alone if one is with god. "as only a burning object can communicate fire to other objects, so only the true faith and life of a man can communicate themselves to other men and to spread the truth."[10] perhaps; but to what point was this isolated faith able to assure tolstoy of happiness? how far he was, in his latter days, from the voluntary calm of a goethe! one would almost say that he avoided it, fled from it, hated it. "one must thank god for being discontented with oneself. if one could always be so! the discord of life with what ought to be is precisely the sign of life itself, the movement upwards from the lesser to the greater, from worse to better. and this discord is the condition of good. it is an evil when a man is calm and satisfied with himself."[11] he imagines the following subject for a novel--showing that the persistent discontent of a levine or a besoukhov was not yet extinct in him: "i often picture to myself a man brought up in revolutionary circles, and at first a revolutionist, then a populist, then a socialist, then orthodox, then a monk at afone, then an atheist, a good paterfamilias, and finally a doukhobor. he takes up everything and is always forsaking everything; men deride him, for he has performed nothing, and dies, forgotten, in a hospital. dying, he thinks he has wasted his life. and yet he is a saint."[12] had he still doubts--he, so full of faith? who knows? in a man who has remained robust in body and mind even into old age life cannot come to a halt at a definite stage of thought. life goes onwards. "movement is life."[13] many things must have changed within him during the last few years. did he not modify his opinion of revolutionaries? who can even say that his faith in non-resistance to evil was not at length a little shaken? even in _resurrection_ the relations of nekhludov with the condemned "politicals" completely change his ideas as to the russian revolutionary party. "up till that time he had felt an aversion for their cruelty, their criminal dissimulation, their attempts upon life, their sufficiency, their selfcontentment, their insupportable vanity. but when he saw them more closely, when he saw how they were treated by the authorities, he understood that they could not be otherwise." and he admires their high ideal of duty, which implies total self-sacrifice. since 1900, however, the revolutionary tide had risen; starting from the "intellectuals," it had gained the people, and was obscurely moving amidst the thousands of the poor. the advance-guard of their threatening army defiled below tolstoy's window at yasnaya polyana. three tales, published by the _mercure de france,_[14] which were among the last pages written by tolstoy, give us a glimpse of the sorrow and the perplexity which this spectacle caused him. the years were indeed remote when the pilgrims wandered through the countryside of toula, pious and simple of heart. now he saw the invasion of starving wanderers. they came to him every day. tolstoy, who chatted with them, was struck by the hatred that animated them; they no longer, as before, saw the rich as "people who save their souls by distributing alms, but as bandits, brigands, who drink the blood of the labouring people." many were educated men, ruined, on the brink of that despair which makes a man capable of anything. "it is not in the deserts and the forests, but in slums of cities and on the great highways that the barbarians are reared who will do to modern civilisation what the huns and vandals did to the ancient civilisation." so said henry george. and tolstoy adds: "the vandals are already here in russia, and they will be particularly terrible among our profoundly religious people, because we know nothing of the curbs, the _convenances_ and public opinion, which are so strongly developed among european peoples." tolstoy often received letters from these rebels, protesting against his doctrine of non-resistance to evil, and saying that the evil that the rulers and the wealthy do to the people can only be replied to by cries of "vengeance! vengeance! vengeance!" did tolstoy still condemn them? we do not know. but when, a few days later, he saw in his own village the villagers weeping while their sheep and their samovars were seized and taken from them by callous authorities, he also cried vengeance in vain against these thieves, "these ministers and their acolytes, who are engaged in the brandy traffic, or in teaching men to murder, or condemning men to deportation, prison, or the gallows--these men, all perfectly convinced that the samovars, sheep, calves, and linen which they took from the miserable peasants would find their highest use in furthering the distillation of brandy which poisons the drinker, in the manufacture of murderous weapons, in the construction of jails and convict prisons, and above all in the distribution of appointments to their assistants and themselves." it is sad, after a whole life lived in the expectation and the proclamation of the reign of love, to be forced to close ones eye's in the midst of these threatening visions, and to feel one's whole position crumbling. it is still sadder for one with the impeccably truthful conscience of a tolstoy to be forced to confess to oneself that one's life has not been lived entirely in accordance with one's principles. here we touch upon the most pitiful point of these latter years--should we say of the last thirty years?--and we can only touch upon it with a pious and tentative hand, for this sorrow, of which tolstoy endeavoured to keep the secret, belongs not only to him who is dead, but to others who are living, whom he loved, and who loved him. he was never able to communicate his faith to those who were dearest to him--his wife and children. we have seen how the loyal comrade, who had so valiantly shared his artistic life and labour, suffered when he denied his faith in art for a different and a moral faith, which she did not understand. tolstoy suffered no less at feeling that he was misunderstood by his nearest friend. "i feel in all my being," he wrote to teneromo, "the truth of these words: that the husband and the wife are not separate beings, but are as one.... i wish most earnestly that i had the power to transmit to my wife a portion of that religious conscience which gives me the possibility of sometimes raising myself above the sorrows of life. i hope that it will be given her; very probably not by me, but by god, although this conscience is hardly accessible to women."[15] it seems that this wish was never gratified. countess tolstoy loved and admired the purity of heart, the candid heroism, and the goodness of the great man who was "as one" with her; she saw that "he marched ahead of the host and showed men the way they should follow";[16] when the holy synod excommunicated him she bravely undertook his defence and insisted on sharing the danger which threatened him. but she could not force herself to believe what she did not believe; and tolstoy was too sincere to urge her to pretend--he who loathed the petty deceits of faith and love even more than the negation of faith and love.[17] how then could he constrain her, not believing, to modify her life, to sacrifice her fortune and that of her children? with his children the rift was wider still. m. leroy-beaulieu, who saw tolstoy with his family at yasnaya polyana, says that "at table, when the father was speaking, the sons barely concealed their weariness and unbelief."[18] his faith had only slightly affected two or three of his daughters, of whom one, marie, was dead. he was morally isolated in the heart of his family. "he had scarcely any one but his youngest daughter and his doctor"[19] to understand him. he suffered from this mental loneliness; and he suffered from the social relations which were forced upon him; the reception of fatiguing visitors from every quarter of the globe; americans, and the idly curious, who wore him out; he suffered from the "luxury" in which his family life forced him to live. it was a modest luxury, if we are to believe the accounts of those who saw him in his simple house, with its almost austere appointments; in his little room, with its iron bed, its cheap chairs, and its naked walls! but even this poor comfort weighed upon him; it was a cause of perpetual remorse. in the second of the tales published by the _mercure de france_ he bitterly contrasts the spectacle of the poverty about him with the luxury of his own house. "my activity," he wrote as early as 1903, "however useful it may appear to certain people, loses the greater part of its importance by the fact that my life is not entirely in agreement with my professions."[20] why did he not realise this agreement? if he could not induce his family to cut themselves off from the world, why did he not leave them, go out of their life, thus avoiding the sarcasm and the reproach of hypocrisy expressed by his enemies, who were only too glad to follow his example and make it an excuse for denying his doctrines? he had thought of so doing. for a long time he was quite resolved. a remarkable letter[21] of his has recently been found and published; it was written to his wife on the 8th of june, 1897. the greater part of it is printed below. nothing could better express the secret of this loving and unhappy heart: "for a long time, dear sophie, i have been suffering from the discord between my life and my beliefs. i cannot force you to change your life or your habits. neither have i hitherto been able to leave you, for i felt that by my departure i should deprive the children, still very young, of the little influence i might be able to exert over them, and also that i should cause you all a great deal of pain. but i cannot continue to live as i have lived during these last sixteen years,[22] now struggling against you and irritating you, now succumbing myself to the influences and the seductions to which i am accustomed and which surround me. i have resolved now to do what i have wished to do for a long time: to go away.... just as the hindoos, when they arrive at their sixtieth year, go away into the forest; just as every aged and religious man wishes to consecrate the last years of his life to god and not to jesting, punning, family tittle-tattle, and lawn-tennis; so do i with all my strength desire peace and solitude, and, if not an absolute harmony, at least not this crying discord between my whole life and my conscience. if i had gone away openly there would have been supplications, discussions, arguments; i should have weakened, and perhaps i should not have carried out my decision, and it ought to be carried out. i beg you therefore to forgive me if my action grieves you. and you in particular, sophie--let me go, do not try to find me, do not be angry with me, and do not blame me. the fact that i have left you does not prove that i have any grievance against you.... i know that you _could not, could not_ see and think with me; this is why you could not change your life, could not sacrifice yourself to something you did not understand. i do not blame you at all; on the contrary, i remember with love and gratitude the thirty-five long years of our life together, and above all the first half of that period, when, with the courage and devotion of your mother's nature, you valiantly fulfilled what you saw as your mission. you have given to me and the world what you had to give. you have given much maternal love and made great sacrifices. ... but in the latter period of our life, in the last fifteen years, our paths have lain apart. i cannot believe that i am the guilty one; i know that i have changed; it was not your doing, nor the world's; it was because i could not do otherwise. i cannot blame you for not having followed me, and i shall always remember with love what you have given me.... goodbye, my dear sophie. i love you." "_the fact that i have left you_." he did not leave her. poor letter! it seemed to him that it was enough to write, and his resolution would be fulfilled. ... having written, his resolution was already exhausted. "if i had gone away openly there would have been supplications, i should have weakened." ... there was no need of supplications, of discussion; it was enough for him to see, a moment later, those whom he wished to leave; he felt that he _could not, could not_ leave them; and he took the letter in his pocket and buried it among his papers, with this subscription: "give this, after my death, to my wife sophie andreyevna." and this was the end of his plan of departure. was he not strong enough? was he not capable of sacrificing his affections to his god? in the christian annals there is no lack of saints with tougher hearts, who never hesitated to trample fearlessly underfoot both their own affections and those of others. but how could he? he was not of their company; he was weak: he was a man; and it is for that reason that we love him. more than fifteen years earlier, on a page full of heart-breaking wretchedness, he had asked himself: "well, leo tolstoy, are you living according to the principles you profess?" he replied miserably: "i am dying of shame; i am guilty; i am contemptible.... yet compare my former life with my life of to-day. you will see that i am trying to live according to the laws of god. i have not done the thousandth part of what i ought to do, and i am confused; but i have failed to do it not because i did not wish to do it, but because i could not. ... blame me, but not the path i am taking. if i know the road to my house, and if i stagger along it like a drunken man, does that show that the road is bad? show me another, or follow me along the true path, as i am ready to follow you. but do not discourage me, do not rejoice in my distress, do not joyfully cry out: 'look! he said he was going to the house, and he is falling into the ditch!' no, do not be glad, but help me, support me!... help me! my heart is torn with despair lest we should all be astray; and when i make every effort to escape you, at each effort, instead of having compassion, point at me with your finger crying, 'look, he is falling into the ditch with us!'"[23] when death was nearer, he wrote once more: "i am not a saint: i have never professed to be one. i am a man who allows himself to be carried away, and who often does not say all that he thinks and feels; not because he does not want to, but because he cannot, because it often happens that he exaggerates or is mistaken. in my actions it is still worse. i am altogether a weak man with vicious habits, who wishes to serve the god of truth, but who is constantly stumbling. if i am considered as a man who cannot be mistaken, then each of my mistakes must appear as a lie or a hypocrisy. but if i am regarded as a weak man, i appear then what i am in reality: a pitiable creature, yet sincere; who has constantly and with all his soul desired, and who still desires, to become a good man, a good servant of god." thus he remained, tormented by remorse, pursued by the mute reproaches of disciples more energetic and less human than himself;[24] tortured by his weakness and indecision, torn between the love of his family and the love of god--until the day when a sudden fit of despair, and perhaps the fever which rises at the approach of death, drove him forth from the shelter of his house, out upon the roads, wandering, fleeing, knocking at the doors of a convent, then resuming his flight, and at last falling upon the way, in an obscure little village, never to rise again.[25] on his death-bed he wept, not for himself, but for the unhappy; and he said, in the midst of his sobs: "there are millions of human beings on earth who are suffering: why do you think only of me?" then it came--it was sunday, november 20, 1910, a little after six in the morning--the "deliverance," as he named it: "death, blessed death." [1] letter to the chinese, october, 1906. (_further letters_). [2] tolstoy expressed a fear that this might happen in the above letter. [3] "it was hardly worth while to refuse military and police service only to revert to property, which is maintained only by those two services. those who enter the service and profit by property act better than those who refuse all service and enjoy property." (letter to the doukhobors of canada, 1899. _further letters_). [4] in the _conversations with teneromo_ there is a fine page dealing with "the wise jew, who, immersed in this book, has not seen the centuries crumble above his head, nor the peoples that appear and disappear from the face of the earth." [5] "to see the progress of europe in the horrors of the modern state, the bloodstained state, and to wish to create a new _judenstaat_ is an abominable sin." (_ibid._) [6] _appeal to political men,_ 1905. [7] in the appendix to _the great crime_ and in the french translation of _advice to the ruled_ is the appeal of a japanese society for the _re-establishment of the liberty of the earth._ [8] letter to paul sabatier, november 7, 1906. (_further letters._) [9] letters to teneromo, june, 1882, and to a friend, november, 1901. (_further letters_.) [10] _war and revolution._ [11] _war and revolution._ [12] perhaps this refers to the history of a doukhobor, the title of which figures in the list of tolstoy's unpublished works. [13] "suppose that all the men who had the truth were to be installed all together on an island. would that be life?" (to a friend, march, 1901. _further letters._) [14] december 1, 1910. [15] may 16, 1892. tolstoy's wife was then mourning the loss of a little boy, and he could do nothing to console her. [16] letter of january, 1883. [17] "i should never reproach any one for having no religion. the shocking thing is when men lie and pretend to religion." and further: "may god preserve us from pretending to love; it is worse than hatred." [18] _revue des deux mondes,_ december 15, 1910. [19] _ibid._ [20] to a friend, december 10, 1903. [21] _figaro,_ december 27, 1910. it was found among tolstoy's papers after his death. [22] this state of suffering dates, as we see, from 1881; that is, from the winter passed in moscow, and tolstoy's discovery of social wretchedness. [23] letter to a friend, 1895 (the french version being published in _plaisirs cruels,_ 1895). [24] it seems that during his last few years, and especially during the last few months, he was influenced by vladimir-grigorovitch tchertkoff, a devoted friend, who, long established in england, had consecrated his fortune to the publication and distribution of tolstoy's complete works. tchertkoff had been violently attacked by leo, tolstoy's eldest son. but although he was accused of being a rebellious and unmanageable spirit, no one could doubt his absolute devotion; and without approving of the almost inhuman harshness of certain actions apparently committed under his inspiration (such as the will by which tolstoy deprived his wife of all property in his writings without exception, including his private correspondence), we are forced to believe that he thought more of tolstoy's fame than tolstoy himself. [25] the _correspondance_ of the _union pour la verili_ publishes, in its issue for january 1, 1911, an interesting account of this flight. tolstoy left yasnaya polyana suddenly on october 28, 1910 (november 10th european style) about five o'clock in the morning. he was accompanied by dr. makovitski; his daughter alexandra, whom tchertkoff calls "his most intimate collaborator," was in the secret. at six in the evening of the same day he reached the monastery of optina, one of the most celebrated sanctuaries of russia, which he had often visited in pilgrimage. he passed the night there; the next morning he wrote a long article on the death penalty. on the evening of october 29th (november 11th) he went to the monastery of chamordino, where his sister marie was a nun. he dined with her, and spoke of how he would have wished to pass the end of his life at optina, "performing the humblest tasks, on condition that he was not forced to go to church." he slept at chamordino, and next morning took a walk through the neighbouring village, where he thought of taking a lodging; returning to his sister in the afternoon. at five o'clock his daughter alexandra unexpectedly arrived. she doubtless told him that his retreat was known, and that he was being followed; they left at once in the night. "tolstoy, alexandra, and makovitski were making for the koselk station, probably intending to gain the southern provinces, or perhaps the doukhobor colonies in the caucasus." on the way tolstoy fell ill at the railway-station of astapovo and was forced to take to his bed. it was there that he died. chapter xviii conclusion the struggle was ended; the struggle that had lasted for eighty-two years, whose battlefield was this life of ours. a tragic and glorious mellay, in which all the forces of life took part; all the vices and all the virtues.--all the vices excepting one: untruth, which he pursued incessantly, tracking it into its last resort and refuge. in the beginning intoxicated liberty, the conflict of passions in the stormy darkness, illuminated from time to time by dazzling flashes of light--crises of love and ecstasy and visions of the eternal. years of the caucasus, of sebastopol; years of tumultuous and restless youth. then the great peace of the first years of marriage. the happiness of love, of art, of nature_--war and peace_. the broad daylight of genius, which bathed the whole human horizon, and the spectacle of those struggles which for the soul of the artist were already things of the past. he dominated them, was master of them, and already they were not enough. like prince andrei, his eyes were turned towards the vast skies which shone above the battlefield. it was this sky that attracted him: "there are men with powerful wings whom pleasure leads to alight in the midst of the crowd, when their pinions are broken; such, for instance, am i. then they beat their broken wings; they launch themselves desperately, but fall anew. the wings will mend. i shall fly high. may god help me!"[1] these words were written in the midst of a terrible spiritual tempest, of which the _confessions_ are the memory and echo. more than once was tolstoy thrown to earth, his pinions shattered. but he always persevered. he started afresh. we see him hovering in "the vast, profound heavens," with his two great wings, of which one is reason and the other faith. but he does not find the peace he looked for. heaven is not without us, but within us. tolstoy fills it with the tempest of his passions. there he perceives the apostles of renunciation, and he brings to renunciation the same ardour that he brought to life. but it is always life that he strains to him, with the violence of a lover. he is "maddened with life." he is "intoxicated with life." he cannot live without this madness.[2] he is drunk at once with happiness and with unhappiness, with death and with immortality.[3] his renunciation of individual life is only a cry of exalted passion towards the eternal life. the peace which he finds, the peace of the soul which he invokes, is not the peace of death. it is rather the calm of those burning worlds which sail by the forces of gravity through the infinite spaces. with him anger is calm,[4]and the calm is blazing. faith has given him new weapons with which to wage, even more implacably, unceasing war upon the lies of modern society. he no longer confines himself to a few types of romance; he attacks all the great idols: the hypocrisies of religion, the state, science, art, liberalism, socialism, popular education, benevolence, pacificism.[5] he strikes at all, delivers his desperate attacks upon all. from time to time the world has sight of these great rebellious spirits, who, like john the forerunner, hurl anathemas against a corrupted civilisation. the last of these was rousseau. by his love of nature,[6] by his hatred of modern society, by his jealous independence, by his fervent adoration of the gospel and for christian morals, rousseau is a precursor of tolstoy, who says of him: "pages like this go to my heart; i feel that i should have written them."[7] but what a difference between the two minds, and how much more purely christian is tolstoy's! what a lack of humility, what pharisee-like arrogance, in this insolent cry from the _confessions_ of the genevese: "eternal being! let a single man tell me, if he dare: i was better than that man!" or in this defiance of the world: "i say it loudly and fearlessly: whosoever could believe me a dishonest man is himself a man to be suppressed." tolstoy wept tears of blood over the "crimes" of his past life: "i suffer the pangs of hell. i recall all my past baseness, and these memories do not leave me; they poison my life. usually men regret that they cannot remember after death. what happiness if it should be so! what suffering it would mean if, in that other life, i were to recall all the evil i have done down here!"[8] tolstoy was not the man to write his confessions, as did rousseau, because, as the latter said, "feeling that the good exceeded the evil it was in my interest to tell everything."[9] tolstoy, after having made the attempt, decided not to write his _memoirs;_ the pen fell from his hands; he did not wish to be an object of offence and scandal to those who would read it. "people would say: there, then, is the man whom many set so high! and what a shameful fellow he was! then with us mere mortals it is god who ordains us to be shameful."[10] never did rousseau know the christian faith, the fine modesty, and the humility that produced the ineffable candour of the aged tolstoy. behind rousseau we see the rome of calvin. in tolstoy we see the pilgrims, the innocents, whose tears and naive confessions had touched him as a child. but beyond and above the struggle with the world, which was common to him and to rousseau, another kind of warfare filled the last thirty years of tolstoy's life; a magnificent warfare between the highest powers of his mind: truth and love. truth--"that look which goes straight to the heart," the penetrating light of "those grey eyes which pierce you through"--truth was his earliest faith, and the empress of his art. "the heroine of my writings, she whom i love with all the forces of my being, she who always was, is, and will be beautiful, is truth."[11] the truth alone escaped shipwreck after the death of his brother.[12] the truth, the pivot of his life, the rock in the midst of an ocean. but very soon the "horrible truth"[13] was no longer enough for him. love had supplanted it. it was the living spring of his childhood; "the natural state of his soul."[14] when the moral crisis of 1880 came he never relinquished the truth; he made way for love.[15] love is "the basis of energy."[16] love is the "reason of life; the only reason, with beauty."[17] love is the essence of tolstoy ripened by life, of the author of _war and peace_ and the _letter to the holy synod_.[18] this interpenetration of the truth by love makes the unique value of the masterpieces he wrote in the middle part of his life--_nel mezzo del cammin_--and distinguishes his realism from the realism of flaubert. the latter places his faith in refraining from loving his characters. great as he may be, he lacks the _fiat lux!_ the light of the sun is not enough: we must have the light of the heart. the realism of tolstoy is incarnate in each of his creatures, and seeing them with their own eyes he finds in the vilest reasons for loving them and for making us feel the chain of brotherhood which unites us to all.[19] by love he penetrates to the roots of life. but this union is a difficult one to maintain. there are hours in which the spectacle of life and its suffering are so bitter that they appear an affront to love, and in order to save it, and to save his faith, a man must withdraw to such a height above the world that faith is in danger of losing truth as well. what shall he do, moreover, who has received at the hands of fate the fatal, magnificent gift of seeing the truth--the gift of being unable to escape from seeing it? who shall say what tolstoy suffered from the continual discord of his latter years--the discord between his unpitying vision, which saw the horror of reality, and his impassioned heart, which continued to expect love and to affirm it? we have all known these tragic conflicts. how often have we had to face the alternative--not to see, or to hate! and how often does an artist--an artist worthy of the name, a writer who knows the terrible, magnificent power of the written word--feel himself weighed down by anguish as he writes the truth![20] this truth, sane and virile, necessary in the midst of modern lies, this vital truth seems to him as the air we breathe.... but then we perceive that this air is more than the lungs of many can bear. it is too strong for the many beings enfeebled by civilisation; too strong for those who are weak simply in the kindness of their hearts. are we to take no account of this, and plunge them implacably into the truth that kills them? is there not above all a truth which, as tolstoy says, "is open to love"? or is the artist to soothe mankind with consoling lies, as peer gynt, with his tales, soothes his old dying mother? society is always face to face with this dilemma: the truth, or love. it resolves it in general by sacrificing both. tolstoy has never betrayed either of his two faiths. in the works of his maturity love is the torch of truth. in the works of his later years it is a light shining on high, a ray of mercy which falls upon life, but does not mingle with it. we have seen this in _resurrection_, wherein faith dominates the reality, but remains external to it. the people, whom tolstoy depicts as commonplace and mean when he regards the isolated figures that compose it, takes on a divine sanctity so soon as he considers it in the abstract.[21] in his everyday life appears the same discord as in his art, but the contrast is even more cruel. it was in vain that he knew what love required of him; he acted otherwise; he lived not according to god but according to the world. and love itself: how was he to behave with regard to love? how distinguish between its many aspects, its contradictory orders? was love of family, to come first, or love of all humanity? to his last day he was perplexed by these alternatives. what was the solution? he did not find it. let us leave the self-sufficient, the coldly intellectual, to judge him with disdain. they, to be sure, have found the truth; they hold it with assurance. for them, tolstoy was a sentimentalist, a weakling, who could only be of use as a warning. certainly he is not an example that they can follow: they are not sufficiently alive. tolstoy did not belong to the self-satisfied elect; he was of no church; of no sect; he was no more a scribe, to borrow his terms, than a pharisee of this faith or that. he was the highest type of the free christian, who strives all his life long towards an ideal that is always more remote.[22] tolstoy does not speak to the privileged, the enfranchised of the world of thought; he speaks to ordinary men_--hominibus bonæ voluntatis_. he is our conscience. he says what we all think, we average people, and what we all fear to read in ourselves. he is not a master full of pride: one of those haughty geniuses who are throned above humanity upon their art and their intelligence. he is--as he loved to style himself in his letters, by that most beautiful of titles, the most pleasant of all--"our brother." [1] _journal_, dated october 28, 1879. here is the entire passage: "there are in this world heavy folk, without wings. they struggle down below. there are strong men among them: as napoleon. he leaves terrible traces among humanity. he sows discord.--there are men who let their wings grow, slowly launch themselves, and hover: the monks. there are light fliers, who easily mount and fall: the worthy idealists. there are men with powerful wings.... there are the celestial ones, who out of their love of men descend to earth and fold their wings, and teach others how to fly. then, when they are no longer needed, they re-ascend: as did christ." [2] "one can live only while one is drunken with life." (_confessions_, 1879). "i am mad with living.... it is summer, the delicious summer. this year. i have struggled for a long time; but the beauty of nature has conquered me. i rejoice in life." (letter to fet, july, 1880.) these lines were written at the height of the religious crisis. [3] in his _journal,_ dated may 1, 1863: "the thought of death." ... "i desire and love immortality." [4] "i was intoxicated with that boiling anger and indignation which i love to feel, which i excite even when i feel it naturally, because it acts upon me in such a way as to calm me, and gives me, at least for a few moments, an extraordinary elasticity, and the full fire and energy of all the physical and moral capacities." (_diary of prince d. nekhludov,_ lucerne, 1857.) [5] his article on _war,_ written on the occasion of the universal peace congress in london in 1891, is a rude satire on the peacemakers who believe in international arbitration: "this is the story of the bird which is caught after a pinch of salt has been put on his tail. it is quite as easy to catch him without it. they laugh at us who speak of arbitration and disarmament by consent of the powers. mere verbiage, this! naturally the governments approve: worthy apostles! they know very well that their approval will never prevent their doing as they will." (_cruel pleasures._) [6] nature was always "the best friend" of tolstoy, as he loved to say: "a friend is good; but he will die, or he will go abroad, and one cannot follow him; while nature, to which one may be united by an act of purchase or by inheritance, is better. nature to me is cold and exacting, repulses me and hinders me; yet nature is a friend whom we keep until death, and into whom we shall enter when we die." (letter to fet, may 19, 1861. _further letters_.) he shared in the life of nature; he was born again in the spring. "march and april are my best months for work." towards the end of autumn he became more torpid. "to me it is the most dead of all the seasons; i do not think; i do not write; i feel agreeably stupid." (to fet, october, 1869.) but the nature that spoke so intimately to his heart was that of his own home, yasnaya polyana. although he wrote some very charming notes upon the lake of geneva when travelling in switzerland, and especially on the clarens district, whither the memory of rousseau attracted him, he felt himself a stranger amid the swiss landscape; and the ties of his native land appeared more closely drawn and sweeter: "i love nature when she surrounds me on every side, when on every hand the warm air envelopes me which extends through the infinite distance; when the very same lush grasses that i have crushed in throwing myself on the ground make the verdure of the infinite meadows; when the same leaves which, shaken by the wind, throw the shadow on my face, make the sombre blue of the distant forest; when the very air i breathe makes the light-blue background of the infinite sky; when not i alone am delighting in nature; when around me whirl and hum millions of insects and the birds are singing. the greatest delight in nature is when i feel myself making a part of all. here (in switzerland) the infinite distance is beautiful, but i have nothing in common with it." (may, 1851.) [7] conversations with m. paul boyer _(le temps,_ august 28, 1901). the similarity is really very striking at times, and might well deceive one. take the profession of faith of the dying julie: "i could not say that i believed what it was impossible for me to believe, and i have always believed what i said i believed. this was as much as rested with me." compare tolstoy's letter to the holy synod: "it may be that my beliefs are embarrassing or displeasing. it is not within my power to change them, just as it is not in my power to change my body. i cannot believe anything but what i believe, at this hour when i am preparing to return to that god from whom i came." or this passage from the _réponse à christophe de beaumont,_ which seems pure tolstoy: "i am a disciple of jesus christ. my master has told me that he who loves his brother accomplishes the law." or again: "the whole of the lord's prayer is expressed in these words: 'thy will be done!'" (_troisième lettre de la montague._) compare with: "i am replacing all my prayers with the _pater nosier._ all the requests i can make of god are expressed with greater moral elevation by these words: 'thy will be done!'" (tolstoy's _journal,_ in the caucasus, 1852-3.) the similarity of thought is no less striking in the province of art: "the first rule of the art of writing," said rousseau, "is to speak plainly and to express one's thought exactly." and tolstoy: "think what you will, but in such a manner that every word may be understood by all. one cannot write anything bad in perfectly plain language." i have demonstrated elsewhere that the satirical descriptions of the paris opera in the _nouvelle héloise_ have much in common with tolstoy's criticisms in _what is art?_ [8] _journal_, january 6, 1903. [9] _quatrième promenade._ [10] letter to birukov. [11] _sebastopol in may, 1853._ [12] "the truth.... the only thing that has been left me of my moral conceptions, the sole thing that i shall still fulfil." (october 17, 1860.) [13] _ibid._ [14] "the love of men is the natural state of the soul, and we do not observe it." (_journal,_ while he was a student at kazan.) [15] "the truth will make way for love." (_confessions._) [16] "'you are always talking of energy? but the basis of energy is love,' said anna, 'and love does not come at will.'" (_anna karenin._) [17] "beauty and love, those two sole reasons for human existence." (_war and peace._) [18] "i believe in god, who for me is love." (_to the holy synod,_ 1901.) "'yes, love!... not selfish love, but love as i knew it, for the first time in my life, when i saw my enemy dying at my side, and loved him.... it is the very essence of the soul. to love his neighbour, to love his enemies, to love all and each, is to love god in all his manifestations!... to love a creature who is dear to us is human love: to love an enemy is almost divine love!'" (prince andrei in _war and peace_.) [19] "the passionate love of the artist for his subject is the soul of art. without love no work of art is possible." (letter of september, 1889.) [20] "i write books, which is why i know all the evil they do." ... (letter to p. v. veriguin, leader of the doukhobors, 1898. _further letters_.) [21] see the _russian proprietor,_ or see in _confessions,_ the strongly idealised view of these men, simple, good, content with their lot, living serenely and having the sense of life: or, at the end of the second part of _resurrection,_ that vision "of a new humanity, a new world," which appeared to nekhludov when he met the workers returning from their toil. [22] "a christian should not think whether he is morally superior or inferior to others; but he is the better christian as he travels more rapidly along the road to perfection, whatever may be his position upon it at any particular moment. thus the stationary virtue of the pharisee is less christian than that of the thief, whose soul is moving rapidly towards the ideal, and who repents upon his cross." (_cruel pleasures_.) index (_the names of characters and titles of books are in italics._) alexandra, tolstoy's aunt ancestry, tolstoy's analysis, self _andrei bolkonsky, prince_ _anna karenin_ (novel) _anna karenin_ (character) arabian nights art- attacks on modern tolstoy's conception of his ignorance of his religious ideal of art christian art extinct the art of the future endowment of mission of austerlitz bach bachkirs, the _bagration_ beethoven bers family, the bers, s. a., 179 bers, sophie, _see_ countess tolstoy besoukhov, pierre bloody sunday böcklin boyer, paul _boyhood_ brahms breton, jules brothers, tolstoy's _brush with the enemy, a_ bylines caucasus, tolstoy joins army of the census, the, tolstoy assists in taking chavannes, p. de childhood, tolstoy's _childhood, boyhood, youth_ begun in the caucasus tolstoy's later opinion of see _boyhood_ and _youth_ china, tolstoy's admiration for, christ, tolstoy's conception of _concordance and translation of the four gospels,_ _confessions,_ _cossacks, the,_ countess tolstoy- character and abilities as model letter to creed, tolstoy's crimea, transference to the _criticism of dogmatic theology_ criticism of art, destructive _cycle of readings_ _death of ivan ilyitch, the_ _decembrists, the_ (a projected novel) _diary of a sportsman,_ _diary of prince d. nekhludov_ dmitri tolstoy death of don quixote dostoyevsky dreyfus affair, the droujinine education, tolstoy's ideas concerning _end of a world, the_ england, tolstoy contemplates retiring to _erochta,_ the old cossack execution, effect of a public faith, tolstoy's, brings no happiness family, tolstoy's family dissensions _family happiness_ father, tolstoy's feminism, tolstoy's attitude towards flaubert's opinion of tolstoy's work gapon, father george, henry georgians, the goethe gontcharov _great crime, the_ greek, tolstoy studies _gricha,_ the idiot grigorovitch hadji mourad hebrew, tolstoy studies home, tolstoy's, _see_ yasnaya polyana hugo, victor hunting, renounced ibsen introspection, tolstoy's faculty of _invasion, the_ _irtenieff, nikolas_ joseph, the history of _journal, tolstoy's_ _karenin_ karatayev kazan _khlopoff, captain_ _kitty levine_ klinger, max _kozeltoff,_ brothers, in _sebastopol in august, 1855_ _kreutzer sonata, the_ _kutuzov_ _levine_ in lhermitte liberal party, tolstoy's disdain of the _life_ literary society of st. petersburg, tolstoy's dislike of logic, heroic love- definition of tolstoy's attitude towards sexual law of lucerne, incident of the singer manet marriage, tolstoy's views concerning _marie, princess_ marie tolstoy _maslova_ _master and servant_ michelangelo millet molière moscow, effect of visit to music- love of ignorance of modern music in the _kreutzer sonata_ dread of suggested state control over _natasha_ _nekhludov_ _nekhludov, diary of prince d._ nikolas tolstoy dies of phthisis non-resistance old believers, the _olenin_ orthodox church, tolstoy's relations with the ostrovsky _pakhom the peasant_ parents, tolstoy's pascal pedagogy _polikushka,_ _popular tales_ popular idiom portraits of tolstoy- of 1848 of 1851 of 1856 of 1885 _posdnicheff_ _power of darkness, the_ _prashhoukhin,_ death of reason (letter upon) reason, tolstoy's distrust of religion- tolstoy's vague agnosticism as a youth revival of, in the caucasus rembrandt _resurrection_ revolution, tolstoy prophesies roumania, tolstoy joins army of rousseau, j. j., worship of _rules of life_ _russian proprietor, a_ written in the caucasus russo-japanese war st. petersburg, tolstoy's dislike of literary society of samara schopenhauer science, tolstoy attacks _sebastopol in december, 1854_ _sebastopol in may, 1855_ _sebastopol in august, 1855_ sebastopol, the siege of sexual morality _shakespeare_ shakespeare, no artist siegfried, hasty judgment on "smartness," tolstoy's worship of socialism, tolstoy's hatred of society, pictures of russian sophia bers, _see_ countess tolstoy _sovremennik,_ the (russian review) spelling-book, tolstoy's state, the, a murderous entity stepan arcadievitch sterne, influence of story-teller, a blind strauss stuck suarès suicidal tendencies tatiana, tolstoy's aunt tchaikowsky terror, attack of nervous _three deaths_ _three old men_ tolstoy, countess tolstoy, dmitri death of tolstoy, leo- reception of his work in france influence of rousseau and stendhal organic unity of his life ancestry and inheritances, childhood student days personal appearance _(see_ portraits) joins army of caucasus religious experiences first literary work effects of illness early work love of life transferred to crimea narratives of sebastopol enters st. petersburg literary society quarrels with tourgenev travels in europe studies pedagogy effect of his brother's death courtship marriage _war and peace_ _anna karenina_ effect of dmitri's death suicidal tendencies his "conversion" joins the orthodox church leaves it visits moscow commences to write on religious subjects differences with countess tolstoy spiritual loneliness attacks upon modern art and science his ignorance of art ignorance of modern music attack upon shakespeare religious and æsthetic ideals his fear of music political ideals religious ideals old age political hopes loneliness intends leaving his family death tolstoy, nikolas töppfer, influence of tourgenev criticism of tolstoy turkey, war declared upon _two hussars, the_ _volodya_, see _kozeltoff_ vogüé, melchior de _vronsky_ wagner, tolstoy's hasty judgment of _war and peace_ _what i believe_ _what is art?_ _what shall we do?_ woman, tolstoy's ideal of _woodcutters, the_ yasnaya polyana tolstoy returns to experiments at _youth_- written during the siege of sebastopol lyrical beauty of generously made available by the internet archive/american libraries.) a russian proprietor and other stories by count lyof n. tolstoï _translated from the russian_ by nathan haskell dole new york thomas y. crowell & co. 13 astor place * * * * * preface. the following tales are, with one exception, taken from the second volume of count l. n. tolstoï's collected works, and are representative of his literary activity between 1852 and 1859. the first story, though only a fragment of a projected novel to be called "a russian proprietor," is perfect and complete in itself. one cannot help feeling that it is autobiographical; count tolstoï himself, it will be remembered, having suddenly quitted the university of kazan, in spite of the entreaties of his friends, and retired to his paternal estate of yasnaya polyana, near tula. the aunt whose letter is quoted in the first chapter must have been count tolstoï's aunt, mentioned in the second chapter of "my confession." the "recollections of a scorer" and "two hussars" are both evidently reminiscent of count tolstoï's gambling-days. both must have been suggested by some such terrible experience as that told of the count's gambling-debt in the caucasus. "lucerne" and "albert" are likewise evidently transcripts from the author's own experience. the strange benefactor in each, and the shadowy prince nekhliudof, are all count tolstoï in phases quite distinct from what he is at present. "the three deaths," written in 1859, has little of the sombre power of "iván ilyitch." the scalpel which was so remorselessly applied to the soul in the latter is wholly hidden. it is realism pure and simple; and the contrast between the death of the peasant and of the lady is left to inference, made all the stronger by the unexpected and grandiose finale in the death of the tree. in interesting contrast to these characteristic stories is the little gem entitled "a prisoner in the caucasus," which is found in vol. iv. of the count's works under the heading "tales for children." the style is perfectly simple and lucid; the pictures of life in the tatar village among the mountains are intensely vivid, painted with strong and masterly touches; and the reader will not soon forget the little laughing maiden dina, with the rubles jingling in her braided hair. she stands forth as one of the most fascinating of the author's creations. nathan haskell dole. boston, dec. 5, 1887. * * * * * contents. page a russian proprietor 1 lucerne 87 recollections of a scorer 123 albert 148 two hussars 190 three deaths 286 a prisoner in the caucasus 308 * * * * * a russian proprietor. i. prince nekhliudof was nineteen years of age when, at the end of his third term at the university, he came to spend his summer vacation on his estate. he was alone there all the summer. in the autumn he wrote in his unformed, boyish hand, a letter to his aunt, the countess biéloretskaïa, who, according to his notion, was his best friend, and the most genial woman in the world. the letter was in french, and was to the following effect:- "dear auntie,--i have adopted a resolution upon which must depend the fate of my whole existence. i have left the university in order to devote myself to a country life, because i feel that i was born for it. for god's sake, dear auntie, don't make sport of me. you say that i am young. perhaps i am still almost a child; but this does not prevent me from feeling sure of my vocation, from wishing to accomplish it successfully, and from loving it. "as i have already written you, i found our affairs in indescribable confusion. wishing to bring order out of chaos, i made an investigation, and discovered that the principal trouble was due to the most wretched miserable condition of the peasants, and that this trouble could be remedied only by work and patience. "if you could only see two of my peasants, david and iván, and the way that they and their families live, i am convinced that one glance at these two unfortunates would do more to persuade you than all that i can tell you in justification of my resolve. is not my obligation sacred and clear, to labor for the welfare of these seven hundred human beings for whom i must be responsible to god? would it not be a sin to leave them to the mercy of harsh elders and overseers, so as to carry out plans of enjoyment or ambition? and why should i seek in any other sphere the opportunity of being useful, and doing good, when such a noble, brilliant, and paramount duty lies right at hand? "i feel that i am capable of being a good farmer;[1] and in order to make myself such an one as i understand the word to mean, i do not need my diploma as b.a., nor the rank which you so expect of me. dear auntie, do not make ambitious plans for me: accustom yourself to the thought that i am going on an absolutely peculiar path, but one that is good, and, i think, will bring me to happiness. i have thought and thought about my future duties, have written out some rules of conduct, and, if god only gives me health and strength, i shall succeed in my undertaking. [footnote 1: _khozyáïn_.] "do not show this letter to my brother vásya: i am afraid of his ridicule. he generally dictates to me, and i am accustomed to give way to him. whilst vanya may not approve of my resolve, at least he will understand it." the countess replied to her nephew in the following letter, also written in french:- "your letter, dear dmitri, showed nothing else to me than that you have a warm heart; and i have never had reason to doubt that. but, my dear, our good tendencies do us more harm in life than our bad ones. i will not tell you that you are committing a folly, that your behavior annoys me; but i will do my best to make one argument have an effect upon you. let us reason together, my dear. "you say you feel that your vocation is for a country life; that you wish to make your serfs happy, and that you hope to be a good farmer. "in the first place, i must tell you that we feel sure of our vocation only when we have once made a mistake in one; secondly, that it is easier to win happiness for ourselves than for others; and thirdly, that, in order to be a good master, it is necessary to be a cold and austere man, which you will never in this world succeed in being, even though you strive to make believe that you are. "you consider your arguments irresistible, and go so far as to adopt them as rules for the conduct of life; but at my age, my dear, people don't care for arguments and rules, but only for experience. now, experience tells me that your plans are childish. "i am now in my fiftieth year, and i have known many fine men; but i have never heard of a young man of good family and ability burying himself in the country under the pretext of doing good. "you have always wished to appear original, but your originality is nothing else than morbidly developed egotism. and, my dear, choose some better-trodden path. it will lead you to success; and success, if it is not necessary for you as success, is at least indispensable in giving you the possibility of doing good which you desire. the poverty of a few serfs is an unavoidable evil, or, rather, an evil which cannot be remedied by forgetting all your obligations to society, to your relatives, and to yourself. "with your intellect, with your kind heart, and your love for virtue, no career would fail to bring you success; but at all events choose one which would be worth your while, and bring you honor. "i believe that you are sincere, when you say that you are free from ambition; but you are deceiving yourself. ambition is a virtue at your age, and with your means it becomes a fault and an absurdity when a man is no longer in the condition to satisfy this passion. "and you will experience this if you do not change your intention. good-by, dear mitya. it seems to me that i have all the more love for you on account of your foolish but still noble and magnanimous plan. do as you please, but i forewarn you that i shall not be able to sympathize with you." the young man read this letter, considered it long and seriously, and finally, having decided that his genial aunt might be mistaken, sent in his petition for dismissal from the university, and took up his residence at his estate. ii. the young proprietor had, as he wrote his aunt, devised a plan of action in the management of his estate; and his whole life and activity were measured by hours, days, and months. sunday was reserved for the reception of petitioners, domestic servants, and peasants, for the visitation of the poor serfs belonging to the estate, and the distribution of assistance with the approval of the commune, which met every sunday evening, and was obliged to decide who should have help, and what amount should be given. in such employments passed more than a year, and the young man was now no longer a novice either in the practical or theoretical knowledge of estate management. it was a clear july sunday when nekhliudof, having finished his coffee and run through a chapter of "maison rustique," put his note-book and a packet of bank-notes into the pocket of his light overcoat, and started out of doors. it was a great country-house with colonnades and terraces where he lived, but he occupied only one small room on the ground floor. he made his way over the neglected, weed-grown paths of the old english garden, toward the village, which was distributed along both sides of the highway. nekhliudof was a tall, slender young man, with long, thick, wavy auburn hair, with a bright gleam in his dark eyes, a clear complexion, and rosy lips where the first down of young manhood was now beginning to appear. in all his motions and gait, could be seen strength, energy, and the good-natured self-satisfaction of youth. the serfs, in variegated groups, were returning from church: old men, maidens, children, mothers with babies in their arms, dressed in their sunday best, were scattering to their homes; and as they met the bárin they bowed low and made room for him to pass. after nekhliudof had walked some distance along the street, he stopped, and drew from his pocket his note-book, on the last page of which, inscribed in his own boyish hand, were a number of names of his serfs with memoranda. he read, "_iván churis asks for aid_;" and then, proceeding still farther along the street, entered the gate of the second hut[2] on the right. [footnote 2: _izbá_.] churis's domicile consisted of a half-decayed structure, with musty corners; the sides were rickety. it was so buried in the ground, that the banking, made of earth and dung, almost hid the two windows. the one on the front had a broken sash, and the shutters were half torn away; the other was small and low, and was stuffed with flax. a boarded entry with rotting sills and low door, another small building still older and still lower-studded than the entry, a gate, and a barn were clustered about the principal hut. all this had once been covered by one irregular roof; but now only over the eaves hung the thick straw, black and decaying. above, in places, could be seen the frame-work and rafters. in front of the yard were a well with rotten curb, the remains of a post, and the wheel, and a mud-puddle stirred up by the cattle where some ducks were splashing. near the well stood two old willows, split and broken, with their whitish-green foliage. they were witnesses to the fact that some one, some time, had taken interest in beautifying this place. under one of them sat a fair-haired girl of seven summers, watching another little girl of two, who was creeping at her feet. the watch-dog gambolling about them, as soon as he saw the bárin, flew headlong under the gate, and there set up a quavering yelp expressive of panic. "iván at home?" asked nekhliudof. the little girl seemed stupefied at this question, and kept opening her eyes wider and wider, but made no reply. the baby opened her mouth, and set up a yell. a little old woman, in a torn checkered skirt, belted low with an old red girdle, peered out of the door, and also said nothing. nekhliudof approached the entry, and repeated his inquiry. "yes, he's at home," replied the little old woman in a quavering voice, bowing low, and evincing timidity and agitation. after nekhliudof had asked after her health, and passed through the entry into the little yard, the old woman, resting her chin in her hand, went to the door, and, without taking her eyes off the bárin, began gently to shake her head. the yard was in a wretched condition, with heaps of old blackened manure that had not been carried away: on the manure were thrown in confusion a rotting block, pitchforks, and two harrows. there were pent-houses around the yard, under one side of which stood a wooden plough, a cart without a wheel, and a pile of empty good-for-nothing bee-hives thrown one upon another. the roof was in disrepair; and one side had fallen in so that the covering in front rested, not on the supports, but on the manure. churis, with the edge and head of an axe, was breaking off the wattles that strengthened the roof. iván was a peasant, fifty years of age. in stature, he was short. the features of his tanned oval face, framed in a dark auburn beard and hair where a trace of gray was beginning to appear, were handsome and expressive. his dark blue eyes gleamed with intelligence and lazy good-nature, from under half-shut lids. his small, regular mouth, sharply defined under his sandy thin mustache when he smiled, betrayed a calm self-confidence, and a certain bantering indifference toward all around him. by the roughness of his skin, by his deep wrinkles, by the veins that stood out prominently on his neck, face, and hands, by his unnatural stoop and the crooked position of his legs, it was evident that all his life had been spent in hard work, far beyond his strength. his garb consisted of white hempen drawers, with blue patches on the knees, and a dirty shirt of the same material, which kept hitching up his back and arms. the shirt was belted low in the waist by a girdle, from which hung a brass key. "good-day," said the bárin, as he stepped into the yard. churis glanced around, and kept on with his work; making energetic motions, he finished clearing away the wattles from under the shed, and then only, having struck the axe into the block, he came out into the middle of the yard. "a pleasant holiday, your excellency!" said he, bowing low and smoothing his hair. "thanks, my friend. i came to see how your affairs[3] were progressing," said nekhliudof with boyish friendliness and timidity, glancing at the peasant's garb. "just show me what you need in the way of supports that you asked me about at the last meeting." "supports, of course, sir, your excellency, sir.[4] i should like it fixed a little here, sir, if you will have the goodness to cast your eye on it: here this corner has given way, sir, and only by the mercy of god the cattle didn't happen to be there. it barely hangs at all," said churis, gazing with an expressive look at his broken-down, ramshackly, and ruined sheds. "now the girders and the supports and the rafters are nothing but rot; you won't see a sound timber. but where can we get lumber nowadays, i should like to know?" [footnote 3: _khozyáïstvo._] [footnote 4: _bátiushka._] "well, what do you want with the five supports when the one shed has fallen in? the others will be soon falling in too, won't they? you need to have every thing made new,--rafters and girders and posts; but you don't want supports," said the bárin, evidently priding himself on his comprehension of the case. churis made no reply. "of course you need lumber, but not supports. you ought to have told me so." "surely i do, but there's nowhere to get it. not all of us can come to the manor-house. if we all should get into the habit of coming to the manor-house and asking your excellency for every thing we wanted, what kind of serfs should we be? but if your kindness went so far as to let me have some of the oak saplings that are lying idle over by the threshing-floor," said the peasant, making a low bow and scraping with his foot, "then, maybe, i might exchange some, and piece out others, so that the old would last some time longer." "what is the good of the old? why, you just told me that it was all old and rotten. this part has fallen in to-day; to-morrow, that one will; the day after, a third. so, if any thing is to be done, it must be all made new, so that the work may not be wasted. now tell me what you think about it. can your premises[5] last out this winter, or not?" "who can tell?" "no, but what do you think? will they fall in, or not?" churis meditated for a moment. "can't help falling in," said he suddenly. "well, now you see you had better have said that at the meeting, that you needed to rebuild your whole place,[5] instead of a few props. you see, i should be glad to help you." [footnote 5: _dvor._] "many thanks for your kindness," replied churis, in an incredulous tone and not looking at the bárin. "if you would give me four joists and some props, then, perhaps, i might fix things up myself; but if any one is hunting after good-for-nothing timbers, then he'd find them in the joists of the hut." "why, is your hut so wretched as all that?" "my old woman and i are expecting it to fall in on us any day," replied churis indifferently. "a day or two ago, a girder fell from the ceiling, and struck my old woman." "what! struck her?" "yes, struck her, your excellency: whacked her on the back, so that she lay half dead all night." "well, did she get over it?" "pretty much, but she's been ailing ever since; but then she's always ailing." "what, are you sick?" asked nekhliudof of the old woman, who had been standing all the time at the door, and had begun to groan as soon as her husband mentioned her. "it bothers me here more and more, especially on sundays," she replied, pointing to her dirty lean bosom. "again?" asked the young master in a tone of vexation, shrugging his shoulders. "why, if you are so sick, don't you come and get advice at the dispensary? that is what the dispensary was built for. haven't you been told about it?" "certainly we have, but i have not had any time to spare; have had to work in the field, and at home, and look after the children, and no one to help me; if i weren't all alone".... iii. nekhliudof went into the hut. the uneven smoke-begrimed walls of the dwelling were hung with various rags and clothes; and, in the living-room, were literally covered with reddish cockroaches clustering around the holy images and benches. in the middle of this dark, fetid apartment, not fourteen feet square, was a huge crack in the ceiling; and in spite of the fact that it was braced up in two places, the ceiling hung down so that it threatened to fall from moment to moment. "yes, the hut is very miserable," said the bárin, looking into the face of churis, who, it seems, had not cared to speak first about this state of things. "it will crush us to death; it will crush the children," said the woman in a tearful voice, attending to the stove which stood under the loft. "hold your tongue," cried churis sternly; and with a slight smile playing under his mustaches, he turned to the master. "and i haven't the wit to know what's to be done with it, your excellency,--with this hut and props and planks. there's nothing to be done with them." "how can we live through the winter here? _okh, okh!_ oh, oh!" groaned the old woman. "there's one thing--if we put in some more props and laid a new floor," said the husband, interrupting her with a calm, practical expression, "and threw over one set of rafters, then perhaps we might manage to get through the winter. it is possible to live; but you'd have to put some props all over the hut, like that: but if it gets shaken, then there won't be any thing left of it. as long as it stands, it holds together," he concluded, evidently perfectly contented that he appreciated this contingency. nekhliudof was both vexed and grieved that churis had got himself into such a condition, without having come to him long before; since he had more than once, during his sojourn on the estate, told the peasants, and insisted upon it, that they should all apply directly to him for whatever they needed. he now felt some indignation against the peasant; he angrily shrugged his shoulders, and frowned. but the sight of the poverty in the midst of which he found himself, and churis's calm and self-satisfied appearance in contrast with this poverty, changed his vexation into a sort of feeling of melancholy and hopelessness. "well, iván, why on earth didn't you tell me about this before?" he asked in a tone of reproach, as he took a seat on the filthy, unsteady bench. "i didn't dare to, your excellency," replied churis with the same scarcely perceptible smile, shuffling with his black, bare feet over the uneven surface of the mud floor; but this he said so fearlessly and with such composure, that it was hard to believe that he had any timidity about going to his master. "we are mere peasants; how could we be so presuming?" began the old woman, sobbing. "hush up," said churis, again addressing her. "it is impossible for you to live in this hut: it's all rotten," cried nekhliudof after a brief silence. "now, this is how we shall manage it, my friend"[6].... [footnote 6: _bratets_, brother.] "i am listening." "have you seen the improved stone cottages that i have been building at the new farm,--the one with the undressed walls?" "indeed i have seen them," replied churis, with a smile that showed his white teeth still unimpaired. "everybody's agog at the way they're built. fine cottages! the boys were laughing and wondering if they wouldn't be turned into granaries; they would be so secure against rats. fine cottages," he said in conclusion, with an expression of absurd perplexity, shaking his head, "just like a jail!" "yes, they're splendid cottages, dry and warm, and no danger of fire," replied the bárin, a frown crossing his youthful face as he perceived the peasant's involuntary sarcasm. "without question, your excellency, fine cottages." "well, then, one of these cottages is just finished. it is twenty-four feet square, with an entry, and a barn, and it's entirely ready. i will let you have it on credit if you say so, at cost price; you can pay for it at your own convenience," said the bárin with a self-satisfied smile, which he could not control, at the thought of his benevolence. "you can pull down this old one," he went on to say; "it will make you a granary. we will also move the pens. the water there is splendid. i will give you enough land for a vegetable-garden, and i'll let you have a strip of land on all three sides. you can live there in a decent way. now, does not that please you?" asked nekhliudof, perceiving that as soon as he spoke of moving, churis became perfectly motionless, and looked at the ground without even a shadow of a smile. "it's as your excellency wills," he replied, not raising his eyes. the old woman came forward as though something had stung her to the quick, and began to speak; but her husband anticipated her. "it's as your excellency wills," he repeated resolutely, and at the same time humbly glancing at his master, and tossing back his hair. "but it would never do for us to live on a new farm." "why not?" "nay, your excellency, not if you move us over there: here we are wretched enough, but over there we could never in the world get along. what kind of peasants should we be there? nay, nay, it is impossible for us to live there." "but why not, pray?" "we should be totally ruined, your excellency." "but why can't you live there?" "what kind of a life would it be? just think! it has never been lived in; we don't know any thing about the water, no pasture anywhere. here we have had hemp-fields ever since we can remember, all manured; but what is there there? yes, what is there there? a wilderness! no hedges, no corn-kilns, no sheds, no nothing at all! oh, yes, your excellency; we should be ruined if you took us there; we should be perfectly ruined. a new place, all unknown to us," he repeated, shaking his head thoughtfully but resolutely. nekhliudof tried to point out to the peasant that the change, on the contrary, would be very advantageous for him; that they would plant hedges, and build sheds; that the water there was excellent, and so on: but churis's obstinate silence exasperated him, and he accordingly felt that he was speaking to no purpose. churis made no objection to what he said; but when the master finished speaking, he remarked with a crafty smile, that it would be best of all to remove to that farm some of the old domestic servants, and alyósha the fool, so that they might watch over the grain there. "that would be worth while," he remarked, and smiled once more. "this is foolish business, your excellency." "what makes you think the place is not inhabitable?" insisted nekhliudof patiently. "this place here isn't inhabitable, and hasn't been, and yet you live here. but there, you will get settled there before you know it; you will certainly find it easy".... "but, your excellency, kind sir,[7] how can it be compared?" replied churis eagerly, as though he feared that the master would not accept a conclusive argument. "here is our place in the world; we are happy in it; we are accustomed to it, and the road and the pond--where would the old woman do her washing? where would the cattle get watered? and all our peasant ways are here; here from time out of mind. and here's the threshing-floor, and the little garden, and the willows; and here my parents lived, and my grandfather; and my father gave his soul into god's keeping here, and i too would end my days here, your excellency. i ask nothing more than that. be good, and let the hut be put in order; we shall be always grateful for your kindness: but no, not for any thing, would we spend our last days anywhere else. let us stay here and say our prayers," he continued, bowing low; "do not take us from our nest, kind sir."[8] [footnote 7: _bátiushka._] [footnote 8: _bátiushka._] all the time that churis was speaking, there was heard in the place under the loft, where his wife was standing, sobs growing more and more violent; and when the husband said "_kind sir_," she suddenly darted forward, and with tears in her eyes threw herself at the bárin's feet. "don't destroy us, benefactor; you are our father, you are our mother! where are you going to move us to? we are old folks; we have no one to help us. you are to us as god is," lamented the old woman. nekhliudof leaped up from the bench, and was going to lift the old woman; but she, with a sort of passionate despair, beat her forehead on the earth floor, and pushed aside the master's hand. "what is the matter with you? get up, i beg of you. if you don't wish to go, it is not necessary. i won't oblige you to," said he, waving his hand, and retreating to the door. when nekhliudof sat down on the bench again, and silence was restored in the room, interrupted only by the sobs of the old woman, who was once more busy under the loft, and was wiping away her tears with the sleeves of her shirt, the young proprietor began to comprehend what was meant for the peasant and his wife by the dilapidated little hut, the crumbling well with the filthy pool, the decaying stalls and sheds, and the broken willows which could be seen before the crooked window; and the feeling that arose in him was burdensome, melancholy, and touched with shame. "why didn't you tell the commune last sunday, iván, that you needed a new hut? i don't know, now, how to help you. i told you all at the first meeting, that i had come to live in the country, and devote my life to you, that i was ready to deprive myself of every thing to make you happy and contented; and i vowed before god, now, that i would keep my word," said the young proprietor, not knowing that such a manner of opening the heart is incapable of arousing faith in any one, and especially in the russian, who loves not words but deeds, and is reluctant to be stirred up by feelings, no matter how beautiful they may be. but the simple-hearted young man was so pleased with this feeling that he experienced, that he could not help speaking. churis leaned his head to one side, and slowly blinking, listened with constrained attention to his master, as to a man to whom he must needs listen, even though he says things not entirely good, and absolutely foreign to his way of thinking. "but you see i cannot do all that everybody asks of me. if i did not refuse some who ask me for wood, i myself should be left without any, and i could not give to those who really needed. when i made this rule, i did it for the regulation of the peasants' affairs; and i put it entirely in the hands of the commune. this wood now is not mine, but yours, you peasants', and i cannot any longer dispose of it; but the commune disposes of it, as you know. come to the meeting to-night. i will tell the commune about your request: if they are disposed to give you a new hut, well and good; but i haven't any more wood. i wish with all my soul to help you; but if you aren't willing to move, then it is no longer my affair, but the commune's. do you understand me?" "many thanks for your kindness," replied churis in some agitation. "if you will give me some lumber, then we can make repairs. what is the commune? it's a well-known fact that".... "no, you come." "i obey. i will come. why shouldn't i come? only this thing is sure: i won't ask the commune." iv. the young proprietor evidently desired to ask some more questions of the peasants. he did not move from the bench; and he glanced irresolutely, now at churis, now at the empty, unlighted stove. "well, have you had dinner yet?" he asked at last. a mocking smile arose to churis's lips, as though it were ridiculous to him for his master to ask such foolish questions; he made no reply. "what do you mean,--dinner, benefactor?" said the old woman, sighing deeply. "we've eaten a little bread; that's our dinner. we couldn't get any vegetables to-day so as to boil some soup,[9] but we had a little kvas,--enough for the children." [footnote 9: _shchets_ for _shchi_.] "to-day was a fast-day for us, your excellency," remarked churis sarcastically, taking up his wife's words. "bread and onions; that's the way we peasants live. howsomever, praise be to the lord, i have a little grain yet, thanks to your kindness; it's lasted till now; but there's plenty of our peasants as ain't got any. everywheres there's scarcity of onions. only a day or two ago they sent to mikháïl the gardener, to get a bunch for a farthing: couldn't get any anywheres. haven't been to god's church scarcely since easter. haven't had nothing to buy a taper for mikóla [st. nicholas] with." nekhliudof, not by hearsay nor by trust in the words of others, but by the evidence of his own eyes, had long known the extreme depth of poverty into which his peasantry had sunken: but the entire reality was in such perfect contrast to his own bringing-up, the turn of his mind, and the course of his life, that in spite of himself he kept forgetting the truth of it; and every time when, as now, it was brought vividly, tangibly, before him, his heart was torn with painful, almost unendurable melancholy, as though some absolute and unavoidable punishment were torturing him. "why are you so poor?" he exclaimed, involuntarily expressing his thought. "how could such as we help being poor, sir,[10] your excellency? our land is so bad, you yourself may be pleased to know,--clay and sand-heaps; and surely we must have angered god, for this long time, ever since the cholera, the corn won't grow. our meadows and every thing else have been growing worse and worse. and some of us have to work for the farm, and some detailed for the manor-lands. and here i am with no one to help me, and i'm getting old. i'd be glad enough to work, but i hain't no strength. and my old woman's ailing; and every year there's a new girl born, and i have to feed 'em all. i get tired out all alone, and here's seven dependent on me. i must be a sinner in the eyes of the lord god, i often think to myself. and when god takes me off sudden-like, i feel it would be easier for me; just as it's better for them than to lead such a dog's life here".... [footnote 10: _bátiushka._] "oh, _okh_!" groaned the old woman, as a sort of confirmation of her husband's words. "and this is all the help i have," continued churis, pointing to the white-headed, unkempt little boy of seven, with a huge belly, who at this moment, timidly and quietly pushing the door open, came into the hut, and, resting his eyes in wonder and solemnity on the master, clung hold of churis's shirt-band with both hands. "this is all the assistance i have here," continued churis in a sonorous voice, laying his shaggy hand on the little lad's white hair. "when will he be good for any thing? but my work isn't much good. when i reach old age i shall be good for nothing; the rupture is getting the better of me. in wet weather it makes me fairly scream. i am getting to be an old man, and yet i have to take care of my land.[11] and here's yermilof, demkin, zabref, all younger than i am, and they have been freed from their land long ago. well, i haven't any one to help me with it; that's my misfortune. have to feed so many; that's where my struggle lies, your excellency." "i should be very glad to make it easier for you, truly. but how can i?" asked the young bárin in a tone of sympathy, looking at the serf. "how make it easier? it's a well-known fact, if you have the land you must do enforced labor also;[12] that's the regulation. i expect something from this youngster. if only you'd be good enough to let him off from going to school. but just a day or two ago, the officer[13] came and said that your excellency wanted him to go to school. do let him off; he has no capacity for learning, your excellency. he's too young yet; he won't understand any thing." [footnote 11: the lands belonging to the russian commune, or _mir_, were periodically distributed by allotment, each full-grown peasant receiving as his share a _tiagló_ representing what the average man and his wife were capable of cultivating. when the period was long--ten years for instance--it sometimes happened that a serf, by reason of illness, laziness, or other misfortune, would find it hard to cultivate his share, pay the tax on it, and also do the work required of him on his bárin's land. such was churis's complaint.] [footnote 12: _barshchina_: work on the master's land.] [footnote 13: _zemski._] "no, brother, you're wrong there," said the bárin. "your boy is old enough to understand; it's time for him to be learning. just think of it! how he'll grow up, and learn about farming; yes, and he'll know his a-b-c's, and know how to read; and read in church. he'll be a great help to you if god lets him live," said nekhliudof, trying to make himself as plain as possible, and at the same time blushing and stammering. "very true, your excellency. you don't want to do us an injury, but there's no one to take care of the house; for while i and the old woman are doing the enforced labor, the boy, though he's so young, is a great help, driving the cattle and watering the horses. whatever he is, he's a true muzhík;" and churis, with a smile, took the lad's nose between his fat fingers, and deftly removed the mucus. "nevertheless, you must send him to school, for now you are at home, and he has plenty of time,--do you hear? don't you fail." churis sighed deeply, and made no reply. v. "there's one other thing i wished to speak to you about," said nekhliudof. "why don't you haul out your manure?" "what manure, sir,[14] your excellency? there isn't any to haul out. what cattle have i got? one mare and colt; and last autumn i sold my heifer to the porter,--that's all the cattle i've got." [footnote 14: _bátiushka._] "i know you haven't much, but why did you sell your heifer?" asked the bárin in amazement. "what have i got to feed her on?" "didn't you have some straw for feeding the cow? the others did." "the others have their fields manured, but my land's all clay. i can't do any thing with it." "why don't you dress it, then, so it won't be clay? then the land would give you grain, and you'd have something to feed to your stock." "but i haven't any stock, so how am i going to get dressing?" "that's an odd _cercle vicieux_," said nekhliudof to himself; and he actually was at his wits' ends to find an answer for the peasant. "and i tell you this, your excellency, it ain't the manure that makes the corn grow, but god," continued the peasant. "now, one summer i had six sheaves on one little unmanured piece of land, and only a twelfth as much on that which was manured well. no one like god," he added with a sigh. "yes, and my stock are always dying off. five years past i haven't had any luck with 'em. last summer one heifer died; had to sell another, hadn't any thing to feed her on; and last year my best cow perished. they were driving her home from pasture; nothing the matter, but suddenly she staggered and staggered. and so now it's all empty here. just my bad luck!" "well, brother, since you say that you have no cattle to help you make fodder, and no fodder for your cattle, here's something towards a cow," said nekhliudof, reddening, and fetching forth from his pocket a packet of crumpled bank-notes and untying it. "buy you a cow at my expense, and get some fodder from the granary: i will give orders. see to it that you have a cow by next sunday. i shall come to see." churis hesitated long; and when he did not offer to take the money, nekhliudof laid it down on the end of the table, and a still deeper flush spread over his face. "many thanks for your kindness," said churis, with his ordinary smile, which was somewhat sarcastic. the old woman sighed heavily several times as she stood under the loft, and seemed to be repeating a prayer. the situation was embarrassing for the young prince: he hastily got up from the bench, went out into the entry, and called to churis to follow him. the sight of the man whom he had been befriending was so pleasant that he found it hard to tear himself away. "i am glad to help you," said he, halting by the well. "it's in my power to help you, because i know that you are not lazy. you will work, and i will assist you; and, with god's aid, you will come out all right." "there's no hope of coming out all right, your excellency," said churis, suddenly assuming a serious and even stern expression of countenance, as though the young man's assurance that he would come out all right had awakened all his opposition. "in my father's time my brothers and i did not see any lack; but when he died, we broke all up. it kept going from bad to worse. perfect wretchedness!" "why did you break up?" "all on account of the women, your excellency. it was just after your grandfather died; when he was alive, we should not have ventured to do it: then the present order of things came in. he was just like you, he took an interest in every thing; and we should not have dared to separate. the late master did not like to look after the peasants; but after your grandfather's time, andréï ilyitch took charge. god forgive him! he was a drunken, careless man. we came to him once and again with complaints,--no living on account of the women,--begged him to let us separate. well, he put it off, and put it off; but at last things came to such a pass, the women kept each to their own part; we began to live apart; and, of course, what could a single peasant do? well, there wasn't no law or order. andréï ilyitch managed simply to suit himself. 'take all you can get.' and whatever he could extort from a peasant, he took without asking. then the poll-tax was raised, and they began to exact more provisions, and we had less and less land, and the grain stopped growing. well, when the new allotment was made, then he took away from us our manured land, and added it to the master's, the villain, and ruined us entirely. he ought to have been hung. your father[15]--the kingdom of heaven be his!--was a good bárin, but it was rarely enough that we ever had sight of him: he always lived in moscow. well, of course they used to drive the carts in pretty often. sometimes it would be the season of bad roads,[16] and no fodder; but no matter! the bárin couldn't get along without it. we did not dare to complain at this, but there wasn't system. but now your grace lets any of us peasants see your face, and so a change has come over us; and the overseer is a different kind of man. now we know for sure that we have a bárin. and it is impossible to say how grateful your peasants are for your kindness. but before you came, there wasn't any real bárin: every one was bárin. ilyitch was bárin, and his wife put on the airs of a lady,[17] and the scribe from the police-station was bárin. too many of em! _ukh!_ the peasants had to put up with many trials." again nekhliudof experienced a feeling akin to shame or remorse. he put on his hat, and went on his way. [footnote 15: _bátiushka._] [footnote 16: _raspútitsa._] [footnote 17: _báruinya._] vi. "yukhvanka the clever[18] wants to sell a horse," was what nekhliudof next read in his note-book; and he proceeded along the street to yukhvanka's place.[19] yukhvanka's hut was carefully thatched with straw from the threshing-floor of the estate; the frame-work was of new light-gray aspen-wood (also from stock belonging to the estate), had two handsome painted shutters for the window, and a porch with eaves and ingenious balustrades cut out of deal planks. [footnote 18: _yukhvánka-mudr'yónui._] [footnote 19: _dvor._] the narrow entry and the cold hut were also in perfect order; but the general impression of sufficiency and comfort given by this establishment was somewhat injured by a barn enclosed in the gates, which had a dilapidated hedge and a sagging pent roof, appearing from behind it. just as nekhliudof approached the steps from one side, two peasant women came up on the other carrying a tub full of water. one was yukhvanka's wife, the other his mother. the first was a robust, healthy-looking woman, with an extraordinarily exuberant bosom, and wide fat cheeks. she wore a clean shirt embroidered on the sleeves and collar, an apron of the same material, a new linen skirt, peasant's shoes, a string of beads, and an elegant four-cornered head-dress of embroidered red paper and spangles. the end of the water-yoke was not in the least unsteady, but was firmly settled on her wide and solid shoulder. her easy forcefulness, manifested in her rosy face, in the curvature of her back, and the measured swing of her arms and legs, made it evident that she had splendid health and rugged strength. yukhvanka's mother, balancing the other end of the yoke, was, on the contrary, one of those elderly women who seem to have reached the final limit of old age and decrepitude. her bony frame, clad in a black dilapidated shirt and a faded linen skirt, was bent so that the water-yoke rested rather on her back than on her shoulder. her two hands, whose distorted fingers seemed to clutch the yoke, were of a strange dark chestnut color, and were convulsively cramped. her drooping head, wrapped up in some sort of a clout, bore the most monstrous evidences of indigence and extreme old age. from under her narrow brow, perfectly covered with deep wrinkles, two red eyes, unprotected by lashes, gazed with leaden expression to the ground. one yellow tooth protruded from her sunken upper lip, and, constantly moving, sometimes came in contact with her sharp chin. the wrinkles on the lower part of her face and neck hung down like little bags, quivering at every motion. she breathed heavily and hoarsely; but her bare, distorted legs, though it seemed as if they would have barely strength to drag along over the ground, moved with measured steps. vii. almost stumbling against the prince, the young wife precipitately set down the tub, showed a little embarrassment, dropped a courtesy, and then with shining eyes glanced up at him, and, endeavoring to hide a slight smile behind the sleeve of her embroidered shirt, ran up the steps, clattering in her wooden shoes. "mother,[20] you take the water-yoke to aunt nastásia," said she, pausing at the door, and addressing the old woman. [footnote 20: _mátushka._] the modest young proprietor looked sternly but scrutinizingly at the rosy woman, frowned, and turned to the old dame, who, seizing the yoke with her crooked fingers, submissively lifted it to her shoulder, and was about to direct her steps to the adjacent hut. "your son at home?" asked the prince. the old woman, her bent form bent more than usual, made an obeisance, and tried to say something in reply, but, suddenly putting her hand to her mouth, was taken with such a fit of coughing, that nekhliudof without waiting went into the hut. yukhvanka, who had been sitting on the bench in the "red corner,"[21] when he saw the prince, threw himself upon the oven, as though he were anxious to hide from him, hastily thrust something away in the loft, and, with mouth and eyes twitching, squeezed himself close to the wall, as though to make way for the prince. [footnote 21: where the holy images and the lighted taper are to be found.] yukhvanka was a light-complexioned fellow, thirty years of age, spare, with a young, pointed beard. he was well proportioned, and rather handsome, save for the unpleasant expression of his hazel eyes, under his knitted brow, and for the lack of two front teeth, which immediately attracted one's attention because his lips were short and constantly parted. he wore a sunday shirt with bright red gussets, striped print drawers, and heavy boots with wrinkled legs. the interior of vanka's hut was not as narrow and gloomy as that of churis's, though it was fully as stifling, as redolent of smoke and sheep-skin, and showing as disorderly an array of peasant garments and utensils. two things here strangely attracted the attention,--a small damaged samovár standing on the shelf, and a black frame near the _ikon_, with the remains of a dirty mirror and the portrait of some general in a red uniform. nekhliudof looked with distaste on the samovár, the general's portrait, and the loft, where stuck out, from under some rags, the end of a copper-mounted pipe. then he turned to the peasant. "how do you do, yepifán?" said he, looking into his eyes. yepifán bowed low, and mumbled, "good-morning, 'slency,"[22] with a peculiar abbreviation of the last word, while his eyes wandered restlessly from the prince to the ceiling, and from the ceiling to the floor, and not pausing on any thing. then he hastily ran to the loft, dragged out a coat, and began to put it on. [footnote 22: _vaciaso_ for _vashe siátelstvo_ (your excellency).] "why are you putting on your coat?" asked nekhliudof, sitting down on the bench, and evidently endeavoring to look at yepifán as sternly as possible. "how can i appear before you without it, 'slency? you see we can understand".... "i have come to ask you why you need to sell a horse? have you many horses? what horse do you wish to sell?" said the prince without wasting words, but propounding questions that he had evidently pre-considered. "we are greatly beholden to you, 'slency, that you do not think it beneath you to visit me, a mere peasant," replied yukhvanka, casting hasty glances at the general's portrait, at the stove, at the prince's boots, and every thing else except nekhliudof's face. "we always pray god for your 'slency." "why sell the horse?" repeated nekhliudof, raising his voice, and coughing. yukhvanka sighed, tossed back his hair (again his glance roved about the hut), and noticing the cat that lay on the bench contentedly purring, he shouted out to her, "scat, you rubbish!" and quickly addressed himself to the bárin. "a horse, 'slency, which ain't worth any thing. if the beast was good for any thing, i shouldn't think of selling him, 'slency." "how many horses have you in all?" "three horses, 'slency." "no colts?" "of course, 'slency. there is one colt." viii. "come, show me your horses. are they in the yard?"[23] [footnote 23: _dvor._] "indeed they are, 'slency. i have done as i was told, 'slency. could we fail to heed you, 'slency? yakof ilyitch told me not to send the horses out to pasture. 'the prince,' says he, 'is coming to look at them,' and so we didn't send them. for, of course, we shouldn't dare to disobey you, 'slency." while nekhliudof was on his way to the door, yukhvanka snatched down his pipe from the loft, and flung it into the stove. his lips were still drawn in with the same expression of constraint as when the prince was looking at him. a wretched little gray mare, with thin tail, all stuck up with burrs, was sniffing at the filthy straw under the pent roof. a long-legged colt two months old, of some nondescript color, with bluish hoofs and nose, followed close behind her. in the middle of the yard stood a pot-bellied brown gelding with closed eyes and thoughtfully pendent head. it was apparently an excellent little horse for a peasant. "so these are all your horses?" "no, indeed, 'slency. here's still another mare, and here's the little colt," replied yukhvanka, pointing to the horses, which the prince could not help seeing. "i see. which one do you propose to sell?" "this here one, 'slency," he replied, waving his jacket in the direction of the somnolent gelding, and constantly winking and sucking in his lips. the gelding opened his eyes, and lazily switched his tail. "he does not seem to be old, and he's fairly plump," said nekhliudof. "bring him up, and show me his teeth. i can tell if he's old." "you can't tell by one indication, 'slency. the beast isn't worth a farthing. he's peculiar. you have to judge both by tooth and limb, 'slency," replied yukhvanka, smiling very gayly, and letting his eyes rove in all directions. "what nonsense! bring him here, i tell you." yukhvanka stood still smiling, and made a deprecatory gesture; and it was only when nekhliudof cried angrily, "well, what are you up to?" that he moved toward the shed, seized the halter, and began to pull at the horse, scaring him, and getting farther and farther away as the horse resisted. the young prince was evidently vexed to see this, and perhaps, also, he wished to show his own shrewdness. "give me the halter," he cried. "excuse me. it's impossible for you, 'slency,--don't".... but nekhliudof went straight up to the horse's head, and, suddenly seizing him by the ears, threw him to the ground with such force, that the gelding, who, as it seems, was a very peaceful peasant steed, began to kick and strangle in his endeavors to get away. when nekhliudof perceived that it was perfectly useless to exert his strength so, and looked at yukhvanka, who was still smiling, the thought most maddening at his time of life occurred to him,--that yukhvanka was laughing at him, and regarding him as a mere child. he reddened, let go of the horse's ears, and, without making use of the halter, opened the creature's mouth, and looked at his teeth: they were sound, the crowns full, so far as the young man had time to make his observations. no doubt the horse was in his prime. meantime yukhvanka came to the shed, and, seeing that the harrow was lying out of its place, seized it, and stood it up against the wattled hedge. "come here," shouted the prince, with an expression of childish annoyance in his face, and almost with tears of vexation and wrath in his voice. "what! call this horse old?" "excuse me, 'slency, very old, twenty years old at least. a horse that".... "silence! you are a liar and a good-for-nothing. no decent peasant will lie, there's no need for him to," said nekhliudof, choking with the angry tears that filled his throat. he stopped speaking, lest he should be detected in weeping before the peasant. yukhvanka also said nothing, and had the appearance of a man who was almost on the verge of tears, blew his nose, and slowly shook his head. "well, how are you going to plough when you have disposed of this horse?" continued nekhliudof, calming himself with an effort, so as to speak in his ordinary voice. "you are sent out into the field on purpose to drive the horses for ploughing, and you wish to dispose of your last horse? and i should like to know why you need to lie about it." in proportion as the prince calmed down, yukhvanka also calmed down. he straightened himself up, and, while he sucked in his lips constantly, he let his eyes rove about from one object to another. "lie to you, 'slency? we are no worse off than others in going to work." "but what will you go on?" "don't worry. we will do your work, 'slency," he replied, starting up the gelding, and driving him away. "even if we didn't need money, i should want to get rid of him." "why do you need money?" "haven't no grain, 'slency; and besides, we peasants have to pay our debts, 'slency." "how is it you have no grain? others who have families have corn enough; but you have no family, and you are in want. where is it all gone?" "ate it up, 'slency, and now we haven't a bit. i will buy a horse in the autumn, 'slency." "don't for a moment think of selling your horse." "but if we don't then what'll become of us, 'slency? no grain, and forbidden to sell any thing," he replied, turning his head to one side, sucking in his lips, and suddenly glancing boldly into the prince's face. "of course we shall die of starvation." "look here, brother," cried nekhliudof, paling, and experiencing a feeling of righteous indignation against the peasant. "i can't endure such peasants as you are. it will go hard with you." "just as you will, 'slency," he replied, shutting his eyes with an expression of feigned submission: "i should not think of disobeying you. but it comes not from any fault of mine. of course, i may not please you, 'slency; at all events, i can do as you wish; only i don't see why i deserve to be punished." "this is why: because your yard is exposed, your manure is not ploughed in, your hedges are broken down, and yet you sit at home smoking your pipe, and don't work; because you don't give a crust of bread to your mother, who gave you your whole place,[24] and you let your wife beat her, and she has to come to me with her complaints." [footnote 24: _khozyáïstvo._] "excuse me, 'slency, i don't know what you mean by smoking your pipe," replied yukhvanka in a constrained tone, showing beyond peradventure that the complaint about his smoking touched him to the quick. "it is possible to say any thing about a man." "now you're lying again! i myself saw".... "how could i venture to lie to you, 'slency?" nekhliudof made no answer, but bit his lip, and began to walk back and forth in the yard. yukhvanka, standing in one place, and not lifting his eyes, followed the prince's legs. "see here, yepifán," said nekhliudof in a childishly gentle voice, coming to a pause before the peasant, and endeavoring to hide his vexation, "it is impossible to live so, and you are working your own destruction. just think. if you want to be a good peasant, then turn over a new leaf, cease your evil courses, stop lying, don't get drunk any more, honor your mother. you see, i know all about you. take hold of your work; don't steal from the crown woods, for the sake of going to the tavern. think how well off you might be. if you really need any thing, then come to me; tell me honestly, what you need and why you need it; and don't tell lies, but tell the whole truth, and then i won't refuse you any thing that i can possibly grant." "excuse me, 'slency, i think i understand you, 'slency," replied yukhvanka smiling as though he comprehended the entire significance of the prince's words. that smile and answer completely disenchanted nekhliudof so far as he had any hope of reforming the man and of turning him into the path of virtue by means of moral suasion. it seemed to him hard that it should be wasted energy when he had the power to warn the peasant, and that all that he had said was exactly what he should not have said. he shook his head gravely, and went into the house. the old woman was sitting on the threshold and groaning heavily, as it seemed to the young proprietor as a sign of approbation of his words which she had overheard. "here's something for you to get bread with," said nekhliudof in her ear, pressing a bank-note into her hand. "but keep it for yourself, and don't give it to yepifán, else he'll drink it up." the old woman with her distorted hand laid hold of the door-post, and tried to get up. she began to pour out her thanks to the prince; her head began to wag, but nekhliudof was already on the other side of the street when she got to her feet. ix. "davidka byélui[25] asks for grain and posts," was what followed yukhvanka's case in the note-book. [footnote 25: little david white.] after passing by a number of places, nekhliudof came to a turn in the lane, and there fell in with his overseer yakof alpátitch, who, while the prince was still at a distance, took off his oiled cap, and pulling out a crumpled bandanna handkerchief began to wipe his fat red face. "cover yourself, yakof! yakof, cover yourself, i tell you." "where do you wish to go, your excellency?" asked yakof, using his cap to shield his eyes from the sun, but not putting it on. "i have been at yukhvanka's. tell me, pray, why does he act so?" asked the prince as he walked along the street. "why indeed, your excellency!" echoed the overseer as he followed behind the prince in a respectful attitude. he put on his cap, and began to twist his mustache. "what's to be done with him? he's thoroughly good for nothing, lazy, thievish, a liar; he persecutes his mother, and to all appearances he is such a confirmed good-for-nothing that there is no reforming him." "i didn't know, your excellency, that he displeased you so." "and his wife," continued the prince, interrupting the overseer, "seems like a bad woman. the old mother is dressed worse than a beggar, and has nothing to eat; but she wears all her best clothes, and so does he. i really don't know what is to be done with them." yakof knit his brows thoughtfully when nekhliudof spoke of yukhvanka's wife. "well, if he behaves so, your excellency," began the overseer, "then it will be necessary to find some way to correct things. he is in abject poverty like all the peasants who have no assistance, but he seems to manage his affairs quite differently from the others. he's a clever fellow, knows how to read, and he's far from being a dishonest peasant. at the collection of the poll-taxes he was always on hand. and for three years, while i was overseer he was bailiff, and no fault was found with him. in the third year the warden took it into his head to depose him, so he was obliged to take to farming. perhaps when he lived in town at the station he got drunk sometimes, so we had to devise some means. they used to threaten him, in fun, and he came to his senses again. he was good-natured, and got along well with his family. but as it does not please you to use these means, i am sure i don't know what we are to do with him. he has really got very low. he can't be sent into the army, because, as you may be pleased to remember, two of his teeth are missing. yes, and there are others besides him, i venture to remind you, who absolutely haven't any".... "enough of that, yakof," interrupted nekhliudof, smiling shrewdly. "you and i have discussed that again and again. you know what ideas i have on this subject; and whatever you may say to me, i still remain of the same opinion." "certainly, your excellency, you understand it all," said yakof, shrugging his shoulders, and looking askance at the prince as though what he saw were worthy of no consideration. "but as far as the old woman is concerned, i beg you to see that you are disturbing yourself to no purpose," he continued. "certainly it is true that she has brought up the orphans, she has fed yukhvanka, and got him a wife, and so forth; but you know that is common enough among peasants. when the mother or father has transferred the property[26] to the son, then the new owners get control, and the old mother is obliged to work for her own living to the utmost of her strength. of course they are lacking in delicate feelings, but this is common enough among the peasantry; and so i take the liberty of explaining to you that you are stirred up about the old woman all for nothing. she is a clever old woman, and a good housewife;[27] is there any reason for a gentleman to worry over her? well, she has quarrelled with her daughter-in-law; maybe the young woman struck her: that's like a woman, and they would make up again while you torment yourself. you really take it all too much to heart," said the overseer looking with a certain expression of fondness mingled with condescension at the prince, who was walking silently with long strides before him up the street. [footnote 26: _khozyáïstvo._] [footnote 27: _khozyáïka._] "will you go home now?" he added. "no, to davidka byélui's or kazyól's--what is his name?" "well, he's a good-for-nothing, i assure you. all the race of the kazyóls are of the same sort. i haven't had any success with him; he cares for nothing. yesterday i rode past the peasant's field, and his buckwheat wasn't even sowed yet. what do you wish done with such people? the old man taught his son, but still he's a good-for-nothing just the same; whether for himself or for the estate, he makes a bungle of every thing. neither the warden nor i have been able to do any thing with him: we've sent him to the station-house, and we've punished him at home, because you are pleased now to like".... "who? the old man?" "yes, the old man. the warden more than once has punished him before the whole assembly, and, would you believe it? he would shake himself, go home, and be as bad as ever. and davidka, i assure your excellency, is a law-abiding peasant, and a quick-witted peasant; that is, he doesn't smoke and doesn't drink," explained yakof; "and yet he's worse than the other who gets drunk. there's nothing else to do with him than to make a soldier of him or send him to siberia. all the kazyóls are the same; and matriushka who lives in the village belongs to their family, and is the same sort of cursed good-for-nothing. don't you care to have me here, your excellency?" inquired the overseer, perceiving that the prince did not heed what he was saying. "no, go away," replied nekhliudof absent-mindedly, and turned his steps toward davidka byélui's. davidka's hovel[28] stood askew and alone at the very edge of the village. it had neither yard, nor cornkiln, nor barn. only some sort of dirty stalls for cattle were built against one side. on the other a heap of brush-wood and logs was piled up, in imitation of a yard.[29] [footnote 28: _izbá._] [footnote 29: _dvor._] tall green steppe-grass was growing in the place where the court-yard should have been. there was no living creature to be seen near the hovel, except a sow lying in the mire at the threshold, and grunting. nekhliudof tapped at the broken window; but as no one made answer, he went into the entry and shouted, "holloa there!"[30] [footnote 30: _khozyáeva_; literally, "master and mistress."] this also brought no response. he passed through the entry, peered into the empty stalls, and entered the open hut. an old red cock and two hens with ruffs were scratching with their legs, and strutting about over the floor and benches. when they saw a man they spread their wings, and, cackling with terror, flew against the walls, and one took refuge on the oven. the whole hut, which was not quite fourteen feet[31] square, was occupied by the oven with its broken pipe, a loom, which in spite of its being summer-time was not taken down, and a most filthy table made of a split and uneven plank. [footnote 31: six _arshin_.] although it was a dry situation, there was a filthy puddle at the door, caused by the recent rain, which had leaked through roof and ceiling. loft there was none. it was hard to realize that this was a human habitation, such decided evidence of neglect and disorder was impressed upon both the exterior and the interior of the hovel; nevertheless, in this hovel lived davidka byélui and all his family. at the present moment, notwithstanding the heat of the june day, davidka, with his head covered by his sheep-skin,[32] was fast asleep, curled up on one corner of the oven. the panic-stricken hen, skipping up on the oven, and growing more and more agitated, took up her position on davidka's back, but did not awaken him. [footnote 32: _polushubok._] nekhliudof, seeing no one in the hovel, was about to go, when a prolonged humid sigh betrayed the sleeper.[33] [footnote 33: _khozyáïn._] "holloa! who's there?" cried the prince. a second prolonged sigh was heard from the oven. "who's there? come here!" still another sigh, a sort of a bellow, and a heavy yawn responded to the prince's call. "well, who are you?" something moved slightly on the oven. the skirt of a torn sheep-skin[34] was lifted; one huge leg in a dilapidated boot was put down, then another, and finally davidka's entire figure emerged. he sat up on the oven, and rubbed his eyes drowsily and morosely with his fist. [footnote 34: _tulup._] slowly shaking his head, and yawning, he looked down into the hut, and, seeing the prince, began to make greater haste than before; but still his motions were so slow, that nekhliudof had time to walk back and forth three times from the puddle to the loom before davidka got down from the oven. davidka byélui or david white was white in reality: his hair, and his body, and his face all were perfectly white. he was tall and very stout, but stout as peasants are wont to be, that is, not in the waist alone, but in the whole body. his stoutness, however, was of a peculiar flabby, unhealthy kind. his rather comely face, with pale-blue good-natured eyes, and a wide trimmed beard, bore the impress of ill health. there was not the slightest trace of tan or blood: it was of a uniform yellowish ashen tint, with pale livid circles under the eyes, quite as though his face were stuffed with fat or bloated. his hands were puffy and yellow, like the hands of men afflicted with dropsy, and they wore a growth of fine white hair. he was so drowsy that he could scarcely open his eyes or cease from staggering and yawning. "well, aren't you ashamed of yourself," began nekhliudof, "sleeping in the very best part of the day,[35] when you ought to be attending to your work, when you haven't any corn?" [footnote 35: literally, "middle of the white day."] as davidka little by little shook off his drowsiness, and began to realize that it was the prince who was standing before him, he folded his arms across his stomach, hung his head, inclining it a trifle to one side, and did not move a limb or say a word; but the expression of his face and the pose of his whole body seemed to say, "i know, i know; it is an old story with me. well, strike me, if it must be: i will endure it." he evidently was anxious for the prince to get through speaking and give him his thrashing as quickly as possible, even if he struck him severely on his swollen cheeks, and then leave him in peace. perceiving that davidka did not understand him, nekhliudof endeavored by various questions to rouse the peasant from his vexatiously obstinate silence. "why have you asked me for wood when you have enough to last you a whole month here, and you haven't had any thing to do? what?" davidka still remained silent, and did not move. "well, answer me." davidka muttered something, and blinked his white eyelashes. "you must go to work, brother. what will become of you if you don't work? now you have no grain, and what's the reason of it? because your land is badly ploughed, and not harrowed, and no seed put in at the right time,--all from laziness. you asked me for grain: well, let us suppose that i gave it to you, so as to keep you from starving to death, still it is not becoming to do so. whose grain do i give you? whose do you think? answer me,--whose grain do i give you?" demanded nekhliudof obstinately. "the lord's," muttered davidka, raising his eyes timidly and questioningly. "but where did the lord's grain come from? think for yourself, who ploughed for it? who harrowed? who planted it? who harvested it? the peasants, hey? just look here: if the lord's grain is given to the peasants, then those peasants who work most will get most; but you work less than anybody. you are complained about on all sides. you work less than all the others, and yet you ask for more of the lord's grain than all the rest. why should it be given to you, and not to the others? now, if all, like you, lay on their backs, it would not be long before everybody in the world died of starvation. brother, you've got to labor. this is disgraceful. do you hear, david?" "i hear you," said the other slowly through his teeth. x. at this moment, the window was darkened by the head of a peasant woman who passed carrying some linen on a yoke, and presently davidka's mother came into the hovel. she was a tall woman, fifty years old, very fresh and lively. her ugly face was covered with pock-marks and wrinkles; but her straight, firm nose, her delicate, compressed lips, and her keen gray eyes gave witness to her mental strength and energy. the angularity of her shoulders, the flatness of her chest, the thinness of her hands, and the solid muscles of her black bare legs, made it evident that she had long ago ceased to be a woman, and had become a mere drudge. she came hurrying into the hovel, shut the door, set down her linen, and looked angrily at her son. nekhliudof was about to say something to her, but she turned her back on him, and began to cross herself before the black wooden _ikon_, that was visible behind the loom. when she had thus done, she adjusted the dirty checkered handkerchief which was tied around her head, and made a low obeisance to the prince. "a pleasant lord's day to you, excellency," she said. "god spare you; you are our father." when davidka saw his mother he grew confused, bent his back a little, and hung his head still lower. "thanks, arína," replied nekhliudof. "i have just been talking with your son about your affairs."[36] arína or aríshka burlák,[37] as the peasants used to call her when she was a girl, rested her chin on the clinched fist of her right hand, which she supported with the palm of the left, and, without waiting for the prince to speak further, began to talk so sharply and loud that the whole hovel was filled with the sound of her voice; and from outside it might have been concluded that several women had suddenly fallen into a discussion. [footnote 36: _khozyáïstvo._] [footnote 37: clod-hopper.] "what, my father, what is then to be said to him? you can't talk to him as to a man. here he stands, the lout," she continued contemptuously, wagging her head in the direction of davidka's woe-begone, stolid form. "how are _my_ affairs, your excellency? we are poor. in your whole village there are none so bad off as we are, either for our own work or for yours. it's a shame! and it's all his fault. i bore him, fed him, gave him to drink. didn't expect to have such a lubber. there is but one end to the story. grain is all gone, and no more work to be got out of him than from that piece of rotten wood. all he knows is to lie on top of the oven, or else he stands here, and scratches his empty pate," she said, mimicking him. "if you could only frighten him, father! i myself beseech you: punish him, for the lord god's sake! send him off as a soldier,--it's all one. but he's no good to me,--that's the way it is." "now, aren't you ashamed, davidka, to bring your mother to this?" said nekhliudof reproachfully, addressing the peasant. davidka did not move. "one might think that he was a sick peasant," continued arína, with the same eagerness and the same gestures; "but only to look at him you can see he's fatter than the pig at the mill. it would seem as if he might have strength enough to work on something, the lubber! but no, not he! he prefers to curl himself up on top of the oven. and even when he undertakes to do any thing, it would make you sick even to look at him, the way he goes about the work! he wastes time when he gets up, when he moves, when he does any thing," said she, dwelling on the words, and awkwardly swaying from side to side with her angular shoulders. "now, here to-day my old man himself went to the forest after wood, and told him to dig a hole; but he did not even put his hand to the shovel." she paused for a moment. "he has killed me," she suddenly hissed, gesticulating with her arms, and advancing toward her son with threatening gesture. "curse your smooth, bad face!" she scornfully, and at the same time despairingly, turned from him, spat, and again addressed the prince with the same animation, still swinging her arms, but with tears in her eyes. "i am the only one, benefactor. my old man is sick, old: yes, and i get no help out of him; and i am the only one at all. and this fellow hangs around my neck like a stone. if he would only die, then it would be easier; that would be the end of it. he lets me starve, the poltroon. you are our father. there's no help for me. my daughter-in-law died of work, and i shall too." xi. "how did she die?" inquired nekhliudof, somewhat sceptically. "she died of hard work, as god knows, benefactor. we brought her last year from baburin," she continued, suddenly changing her wrathful expression to one of tearfulness and grief. "well, the woman[38] was young, fresh, obliging, good stuff. as a girl, she lived at home with her father in clover, never knew want; and when she came to us, then she learned to do our work,--for the estate and at home and everywhere.... she and i--that was all to do it. what was it to me? i was used to it. she was going to have a baby, good father; and she began to suffer pain; and all because she worked beyond her strength. well, she did herself harm, the poor little sweetheart. last summer, about the time of the feast of peter and paul, she had a poor little boy born. but there was no bread. we ate whatever we could get, my father. she went to work too soon: her milk all dried up. the baby was her first-born. there was no cow, and we were mere peasants. she had to feed him on rye. well, of course, it was sheer folly. it kept pining away on this. and when the child died, she became so down-spirited,--she would sob and sob, and howl and howl; and then it was poverty and work, and all the time going from bad to worse. so she passed away in the summer, the sweetheart, at the time of the feast of st. mary's intercession. he brought her to it, the beast," she cried, turning to her son with wrathful despair. "i wanted to ask your excellency a favor," she continued after a short pause, lowering her voice, and making an obeisance. [footnote 38: _baba._] "what?" asked nekhliudof in some constraint. "you see he's a young peasant still. he demands so much work of me. to-day i am alive, to-morrow i may die. how can he live without a wife? he won't be any good to you at all. help us to find some one for him, good father." "that is, you want to get a wife for him? what? what an idea!" "god's will be done! you are in the place of parents to us." and after making a sign to her son, she and the man threw themselves on the floor at the prince's feet. "why do you stoop to the ground?" asked nekhliudof peevishly, taking her by the shoulder. "you know i don't like this sort of thing. marry your son, of course, if you have a girl in view. i should be very glad if you had a daughter-in-law to help you." the old woman got up, and began to rub her dry eyes with her sleeves. davidka followed her example, and, rubbing his eyes with his weak fist, with the same patiently-submissive expression, continued to stand, and listen to what arína said. "plenty of brides, certainly. here's vasiutka mikheïkin's daughter, and a right good girl she is; but the girl would not come to us without your consent." "isn't she willing?" "no, benefactor, she isn't." "well, what's to be done? i can't compel her. select some one else. if you can't find one at home, go to another village. i will pay for her, only she must come of her own free will. it is impossible to marry her by force. there's no law allows that; that would be a great sin." "_e-e-kh!_ benefactor! is it possible that any one would come to us of her own accord, seeing our way of life, our wretchedness? not even the wife of a soldier would like to undergo such want. what peasant would let us have his daughter?[39] it is not to be expected. you see we're in the very depths of poverty. they will say, 'since you starved one to death, it will be the same with my daughter.' who is to give her?" she added, shaking her head dubiously. "give us your advice, excellency." [footnote 39: _dyevka_, marriageable girl.] "well, what can i do?" "think of some one for us, kind sir," repeated arína urgently. "what are we to do?" "how can i think of any one? i can't do any thing at all for you as things are." "who will help us if you do not?" said arína, drooping her head, and spreading her palms with an expression of melancholy discontent. "here you ask for grain, and so i will give orders for some to be delivered to you," said the prince after a short silence, during which arína sighed, and davidka imitated her. "but i cannot do any thing more." nekhliudof went into the entry. mother and son with low bows followed the prince. xii. "o-okh! alas for my wretchedness!" exclaimed arína, sighing deeply. she paused, and looked angrily at her son. davidka immediately turned around, and, clumsily lifting his stout leg incased in a huge dirty boot over the threshold, took refuge in the opposite door. "what shall i do with him, father?" continued arína, turning to the prince. "you yourself see what he is. he is not a bad man;[40] doesn't get drunk, and is peaceable; wouldn't hurt a little child. it's a sin to say hard things of him. there's nothing bad about him, and god knows what has taken place in him to make him so bad to himself. you see he himself does not like it. would you believe it, father,[41] my heart bleeds when i look at him, and see what suffering he undergoes. you see, whatever he is, he is my son. i pity him. oh, how i pity him!... you see, it isn't as though he had done any thing against me or his father or the authorities. but, no: he's a bashful man, almost like a child. how can he bear to be a widower? help us out, benefactor," she said once more, evidently desirous of removing the unfavorable impression which her bitter words might have left upon the prince. "father, your excellency, i"--she went on to say in a confidential whisper, "my wit does not go far enough to explain him. it seems as though bad men had spoiled him." [footnote 40: _muzhík._] [footnote 41: _bátiushka._] she paused for a moment. "if we could find the men, we might cure him." "what nonsense you talk, arína! how can he be spoiled?" "my father, they spoil him so that they make him a no-man forever! many bad people in the world! out of ill-will they take a handful of earth from out of one's path, or something of that sort; and one is made a no-man forever after. isn't that a sin? i think to myself, might i not go to the old man danduk, who lives at vorobyevka? he knows all sorts of words; and he knows herbs, and he can make charms; and he finds water with a cross. wouldn't he help me?" said the woman. "maybe he will cure him." "what abjectness and superstition!" thought the young prince, shaking his head gloomily, and walking back with long strides through the village. "what's to be done with him? to leave him in this situation is impossible, both for myself and for the others and for him,--impossible," he said to himself, counting off on his fingers these reasons. "i cannot bear to see him in this plight; but how extricate him? he renders nugatory all my best plans for the management of the estate. if such peasants are allowed, none of my dreams will ever be realized," he went on, experiencing a feeling of despite and anger against the peasant in consequence of the ruin of his plans. "to send him to siberia, as yakof suggests, against his will, would that be good for him? or to make him a soldier? that is best. at least i should be quit of him, and i could replace him by a decent peasant." such was his decision. he thought about this with satisfaction; but at the same time something obscurely told him that he was thinking with only one side of his mind, and not wholly right. he paused. "i will think about it some more," he said to himself. "to send him off as a soldier--why? he is a good man, better than many; and i know.... shall i free him?" he asked himself, putting the question from a different side of his mind. "it wouldn't be fair. yes, it's impossible." but suddenly a thought occurred to him that greatly pleased him. he smiled with the expression of a man who has decided a difficult question. "i will take him to the house," he said to himself. "i will look after him myself; and by means of kindness and advice, and selecting his employment, i will teach him to work, and reform him." xiii. "that's the way i'll do," said nekhliudof to himself with a pleasant self-consciousness; and then, recollecting that he had still to go to the rich peasant dutlof, he directed his steps toward a lofty and ample establishment, with two chimneys, standing in the midst of the village. as he passed a neighboring hut on his way thither, he stopped to speak with a tall, disorderly-looking peasant-woman of forty summers, who came to meet him. "a pleasant holiday, father,"[42] she said, with some show of assurance, stopping at a little distance from him with a pleased smile and a low obeisance. "good-morning, my nurse. how are you? i was just going to see your neighbor." "pretty well, your excellency, my father. it's a good idea. but won't you come in? i beg you to. my old man would be very pleased." "well, i'll come; and we'll have a little talk with you, nurse. is this your house?" "it is, sir."[42] [footnote 42: _bátiushka._] and the nurse led the way into the hut. nekhliudof followed her into the entry, and sat down on a tub, and began to smoke a cigarette. "it's hot inside. it's better to sit down here, and have our talk," he said in reply to the woman's invitation to go into the hut. the nurse was a well-preserved and handsome woman. in the features of her countenance, and especially in her big black eyes, there was a strong resemblance to the prince himself. she folded her hands under her apron, and looking fearlessly at him, and incessantly moving her head, began to talk with him. "why is it, father? why do you wish to visit dutlof?" "oh, i am anxious for him to take thirty desiatins[43] of land of me, and enlarge his domain; and moreover i want him to buy some wood from me also. you see, he has money, so why should it be idle? what do you think about it, nurse?" [footnote 43: eighty-one acres.] "well, what can i say? the dutlofs are strong people: he's the leading peasant in the whole estate," replied the nurse, shaking her head. "last summer he built another building out of his own lumber. he did not call upon the estate at all. he has horses, and yearling colts besides, at least six troïkas, and cattle, cows, and sheep; so that it is a sight worth seeing when they are driven along the street from pasture, and the women of the house come out to get them into the yard. there is such a crush of animals at the gate that they can scarcely get through, so many of them there are. and two hundred bee-hives at the very least. he is a strong peasant, and must have money." "but what do you think,--has he much money?" asked the prince. "men say, out of spite of course, that the old man has no little money. but he does not go round talking about it, and he does not tell even his sons, but he must have. why shouldn't he take hold of the woodland? perhaps he is afraid of getting the reputation for money. five years ago he went into a small business with shkalik the porter. they got some meadow-land; and this shkalik, some way or other, cheated him, so that the old man was three hundred rubles out of pocket. and from that time he has sworn off. how can he help being forehanded, your excellency, father?" continued the nurse. "he has three farms, a big family, all workers; and besides, the old man--it is hard to say it--is a capital manager. he is lucky in every thing; it is surprising,--in his grain and in his horses and in his cattle and in his bees, and he's lucky in his children. now he has got them all married off. he has found husbands for his daughters; and he has just married ilyushka, and given him his freedom. he himself bought the letter of enfranchisement. and so a fine woman has come into his house." "well, do they live harmoniously?" asked the prince. "as long as there's the right sort of a head to the house, they get along. yet even the dutlofs--but of course that's among the women. the daughters-in-law bark at each other a little behind the oven, but the old man generally holds them in hand; and the sons live harmoniously." the nurse was silent for a little. "now, the old man, we hear, wants to leave his eldest son, karp, as master of the house. 'i am getting old,' says he. 'it's my business to attend to the bees.' well, karp is a good peasant, a careful peasant; but he doesn't manage to please the old man in the least. there's no sense in it." "well, perhaps karp wants to speculate in land and wood. what do you think about it?", pursued the prince, wishing to learn from the woman all that she knew about her neighbors. "scarcely, sir,"[44] continued the nurse. "the old man hasn't disclosed his money to his son. as long as he lives, of course, the money in the house will be under the old man's control; and it will increase all the time too." [footnote 44: _bátiushka._] "but isn't the old man willing?" "he is afraid." "what is he afraid of?" "how is it possible, sir, for a seignorial peasant to make a noise about his money? and it's a hard question to decide what to do with money anyway. here he went into business with the porter, and was cheated. where was he to get redress? and so he lost his money. but with the proprietor he would have any loss made good immediately, of course." "yes, hence," ... said nekhliudof, reddening. "but good-by, nurse." "good-by, sir, your excellency. greatly obliged to you." xiv. "hadn't i better go home?" mused nekhliudof, as he strode along toward the dutlof enclosure, and felt a boundless melancholy and moral weariness. but at this moment the new deal gates were thrown open before him with a creaking sound; and a handsome, ruddy fellow of eighteen in wagoner's attire appeared, leading a troïka of powerful-limbed and still sweaty horses. he hastily brushed back his blonde hair, and bowed to the prince. "well, is your father at home, ilya?" asked nekhliudof. "at the bee-house, back of the yard," replied the youth, driving the horses, one after the other, through the half-opened gates. "i will not give it up. i will make the proposal. i will do the best i can," reflected nekhliudof; and, after waiting till the horses had passed out, he entered dutlof's spacious yard. it was plain to see that the manure had only recently been carried away. the ground was still black and damp; and in places, particularly in the hollows, were left red fibrous clots. in the yard and under the high sheds, many carts stood in orderly rows, together with ploughs, sledges, harrows, barrels, and all sorts of farming implements. doves were flitting about, cooing in the shadows under the broad solid rafters. there was an odor of manure and tar. in one corner karp and ignát were fitting a new cross-bar to a large iron-mounted, three-horse cart. all three of dutlof's sons bore a strong family resemblance. the youngest, ilya, who had met nekhliudof at the gate, was beardless, of smaller stature, ruddier complexion, and more neatly dressed, than the others. the second, ignát, was rather taller and darker. he had a wedge-shaped beard; and though he wore boots, a driver's shirt, and a lamb's-skin cap, he had not such a festive, holiday appearance as his brother had. the eldest, karp, was still taller. he wore clogs, a gray kaftan, and a shirt without gussets. he had a reddish beard, trimmed; and his expression was serious, even to severity. "do you wish my father sent for, your excellency?" he asked, coming to meet the prince, and bowing slightly and awkwardly. "no, i will go to him at the hives: i wish to see what he's building there. but i should like a talk with you," said nekhliudof, drawing him to the other side of the yard, so that ignát might not overhear what he was about to talk about with karp. the self-confidence and degree of pride noticeable in the deportment of the two peasants, and what the nurse had told the young prince, so troubled him, that it was difficult for him to make up his mind to speak with them about the matter proposed. he had a sort of guilty feeling, and it seemed to him easier to speak with one brother out of the hearing of the other. karp seemed surprised that the prince took him to one side, but he followed him. "well, now," began nekhliudof awkwardly,--"i wished to inquire of you if you had many horses." "we have about five troïkas, also some colts," replied karp in a free-and-easy manner, scratching his back. "well, are your brothers going to take out relays of horses for the post?" "we shall send out three troïkas to carry the mail. and there's ilyushka, he has been off with his team; but he's just come back." "well, is that profitable for you? how much do you earn that way?" "what do you mean by profit, your excellency? we at least get enough to live on and bait our horses, thank god for that!" "then, why don't you take hold of something else? you see, you might buy wood, or take more land." "of course, your excellency: we might rent some land if there were any convenient." "i wish to make a proposition to you. since you only make enough out of your teaming to live on, you had better take thirty desiatins of land from me. all that strip behind sapof i will let you have, and you can carry on your farming better." and nekhliudof, carried away by his plan for a peasant farm, which more than once he had proposed to himself, and deliberated about, began fluently to explain to the peasant his proposition about it. karp listened attentively to the prince's words. "we are very grateful for your kindness," said he, when nekhliudof stopped, and looked at him in expectation of his answer. "of course here there's nothing very bad. to occupy himself with farming is better for a peasant than to go off as a whip. he goes among strangers; he sees all sorts of men; he gets wild. it's the very best thing for a peasant, to occupy himself with land." "you think so, do you?" "as long as my father is alive, how can i think, your excellency? it's as he wills." "take me to the bee-hives. i will talk with him." "come with me this way," said karp, slowly directing himself to the barn back of the house. he opened a low gate which led to the apiary, and after letting the prince pass through, he shut it, and returned to ignát, and silently took up his interrupted labors. xv. nekhliudof, stooping low, passed through the low gate, under the gloomy shed, to the apiary, which was situated behind the yard. a small space, surrounded by straw and a wattled hedge, through the chinks of which the light streamed, was filled with bee-hives symmetrically arranged, and covered with shavings, while the golden bees were humming around them. every thing was bathed in the warm and brilliant rays of the july sun. from the gate a well-trodden footway led through the middle to a wooden side-building, with a tin-foil image on it gleaming brightly in the sun. a few orderly young lindens lifting, above the thatched roof of the neighboring court-yard, their bushy tops, almost audibly rustled their dark-green, fresh foliage, in unison with the sound of the buzzing bees. all the shadows from the covered hedge, from the lindens, and from the hives, fell dark and short on the delicate curling grass springing up between the planks. the bent, small figure of the old man, with his gray hair and bald spot shining in the sun, was visible near the door of a straw-thatched structure situated among the lindens. when he heard the creaking of the gate, the old man looked up, and wiping his heated, sweaty face with the flap of his shirt, and smiling with pleasure, came to meet the prince. in the apiary it was so comfortable, so pleasant, so warm, so free! the figure of the gray-haired old man, with thick wrinkles radiating from his eyes, and wearing wide shoes on his bare feet, as he came waddling along, good-naturedly and contentedly smiling, to welcome the prince to his own private possessions, was so ingenuously soothing that nekhliudof for a moment forgot the trying impressions of the morning, and his cherished dream came vividly up before him. he already saw all his peasants just as prosperous and contented as the old man dutlof, and all smiling soothingly and pleasantly upon him, because to him alone they were indebted for their prosperity and happiness. "would you like a net, your excellency? the bees are angry now," said the old man, taking down from the fence a dirty gingham bag fragrant of honey, and handing it to the prince. "the bees know me, and don't sting," he added, with the pleasant smile that rarely left his handsome sunburned face. "i don't need it either. well, are they swarming yet?" asked nekhliudof, also smiling, though without knowing why. "yes, they are swarming, father, mitri mikolayévitch,"[45] replied the old man, throwing an expression of peculiar endearment into this form of addressing his bárin by his name and patronymic. "they have only just begun to swarm; it has been a cold spring, you know." [footnote 45: _bátiushka_; mitri mikolayévitch, rustic for dmitri nikolayévitch.] "i have just been reading in a book," began nekhliudof, defending himself from a bee which had got entangled in his hair, and was buzzing under his ear, "that if the wax stands straight on the bars, then the bees swarm earlier. therefore such hives as are made of boards ... with cross-b--" "you don't want to gesticulate; that makes it worse," said the little old man. "now don't you think you had better put on the net?" nekhliudof felt a sharp pain, but by some sort of childish egotism he did not wish to give in to it; and so, once more refusing the bag, continued to talk with the old man about the construction of hives, about which he had read in "maison rustique," and which, according to his idea, ought to be made twice as large. but another bee stung him in the neck, and he lost the thread of his discourse and stopped short in the midst of it. "that's well enough, father, mitri mikolayévitch," said the old man, looking at the prince with paternal protection; "that's well enough in books, as you say. yes; maybe the advice is given with some deceit, with some hidden meaning; but only just let him do as he advises, and we shall be the first to have a good laugh at his expense. and this happens! how are you going to teach the bees where to deposit their wax? they themselves put it on the cross-bar, sometimes straight and sometimes aslant. just look here!" he continued, opening one of the nearest hives, and gazing at the entrance-hole blocked by a bee buzzing and crawling on the crooked comb. "here's a young one. it sees; at its head sits the queen, but it lays the wax straight and sideways, both according to the position of the block," said the old man, evidently carried away by his interest in his occupation, and not heeding the prince's situation. "now, to-day, it will fly with the pollen. to-day is warm; it's on the watch," he continued, again covering up the hive and pinning down with a cloth the crawling bee; and then brushing off into his rough palm a few of the insects from his wrinkled neck. the bees did not sting him; but as for nekhliudof, he could scarcely refrain from the desire to beat a retreat from the apiary. the bees had already stung him in three places, and were buzzing angrily on all sides around his head and neck. "you have many hives?" he asked as he retreated toward the gate. "what god has given," replied dutlof sarcastically. "it is not necessary to count them, father; the bees don't like it. now, your excellency, i wanted to ask a favor of you," he went on to say, pointing to the small posts standing by the fence. "it was about osip, the nurse's husband. if you would only speak to him. in our village it's so hard to act in a neighborly way; it's not good." "how so?... ah, how they sting!" exclaimed the prince, already seizing the latch of the gate. "every year now, he lets his bees out among my young ones. we could stand it, but strange bees get away their comb and kill them," said the old man, not heeding the prince's grimaces. "very well, by and by; right away," said nekhliudof. and having no longer strength of will to endure, he hastily beat a retreat through the gate, fighting his tormentors with both hands. "rub it with dirt. it's nothing," said the old man, coming to the door after the prince. the prince took some earth, and rubbed the spot where he had been stung, and reddened as he cast a quick glance at karp and ignát, who did not deign to look at him. then he frowned angrily. xvi. "i wanted to ask you something about my sons, your excellency," said the old man, either pretending not to notice, or really not noticing, the prince's angry face. "what?" "well, we are well provided with horses, praise the lord! and that's our trade, and so we don't have to work on your land." "what do you mean?" "if you would only be kind enough to let my sons have leave of absence, then ilyushka and ignát would take three troïkas, and go out teaming for all summer. maybe they'd earn something." "where would they go?" "just as it happened," replied ilyushka, who at this moment, having put the horses under the shed, joined his father. "the kadminski boys went with eight horses to romen. not only earned their own living, they say, but brought back a gain of more than three hundred per cent. fodder, they say, is cheap at _odest_." "well, that's the very thing i wanted to talk with you about," said the prince, addressing the old man, and anxious to draw him shrewdly into a talk about the farm. "tell me, please, if it would be more profitable to go to teaming than farming at home?" "why not more profitable, your excellency?" said ilyushka, again putting in his word, and at the same time quickly shaking back his hair. "there's no way of keeping horses at home." "well, how much do you earn in the summer?" "since spring, as feed was high, we went to kief with merchandise, and to kursk, and back again to moscow with grits; and in that way we earned our living. and our horses had enough, and we brought back fifteen rubles in money." "there's no harm in taking up with an honorable profession, whatever it is," said the prince, again addressing the old man. "but it seems to me that you might find another form of activity. and besides, this work is such that a young man goes everywhere. he sees all sorts of people,--may get wild," he added, quoting karp's words. "what can we peasants take up with, if not teaming?" objected the old man with his sweet smile. "if you are a good driver, you get enough to eat, and so do your horses; but, as regards mischief, they are just the same as at home, thank the lord! it isn't the first time that they have been. i have been myself, and never saw any harm in it, nothing but good." "how many other things you might find to do at home! with fields and meadows"-"how is it possible?" interrupted ilyushka with animation. "we were born for this. all the regulations are at our fingers' ends. we like the work. it's the most enjoyable we have, your excellency. how we like to go teaming!" "your excellency, will you not do us the honor of coming into the house? you have not yet seen our new domicile," said the old man, bowing low, and winking to his son. ilyushka hastened into the house, and nekhliudof and the old man followed after him. xvii. as soon as he got into the house, the old man bowed once more; then using his coat-tail to dust the bench in the front of the room, he smiled, and said,-"what do you want of us, your excellency?" the hut was bright and roomy, with a chimney; and it had a loft and berths. the fresh aspen-wood beams, between which could be seen the moss, scarcely faded, were as yet not turned dark. the new benches and the loft were not polished smooth, and the floor was not worn. one young peasant woman, rather lean, with a serious oval face, was sitting on a berth, and using her foot to rock a hanging cradle that was suspended from the ceiling by a long hook. this was ilya's wife. in the cradle lay at full length a suckling child, scarcely breathing, and with closed eyes. another young woman, robust and rosy-cheeked, with her sleeves rolled up above her elbows, showing strong arms and hands red even higher than her wrists, was standing in front of the oven, and mincing onions in a wooden dish. this was karp's wife. a pock-marked woman, showing signs of pregnancy, which she tried to conceal, was standing near the oven. the room was hot, not only from the summer sun, but from the heat of the oven; and there was a strong smell of baking bread. two flaxen-headed little boys and a girl gazed down from the loft upon the prince, with faces full of curiosity. they had come in, expecting something to eat. nekhliudof was delighted to see this happy household; and at the same time he felt a sense of constraint in presence of these peasants, men and women, all looking at him. he flushed a little as he sat down on the bench. "give me a crust of hot bread: i am fond of it," said he, and the flush deepened. karp's wife cut off a huge slice of bread, and handed it on a plate to the prince. nekhliudof said nothing, not knowing what to say. the women also were silent, the old man smiled benevolently. "well, now why am i so awkward? as though i were to blame for something," thought nekhliudof. "why shouldn't i make my proposition about the farm? what stupidity!" still he remained silent. "well, father mitri mikolayévitch, what are you going to say about my boys' proposal?" asked the old man. "i should advise you absolutely not to send them away, but to have them stay at home, and work," said nekhliudof, suddenly collecting his wits. "you know what i have proposed to you. go in with me, and buy some of the crown woods and some more land"-"but how are we going to get money to buy it, your excellency?" he asked, interrupting the prince. "why, it isn't very much wood, only two hundred rubles' worth," replied nekhliudof. the old man gave an indignant laugh. "very good, if that's all. why not buy it?" said he. "haven't you money enough?" asked the prince reproachfully. "_okh!_ sir, your excellency!" replied the old man, with grief expressed in his tone, looking apprehensively toward the door. "only enough to feed my family, not enough to buy woodland." "but you know you have money,--what do you do with it?" insisted nekhliudof. the old man suddenly fell into a terrible state of excitement: his eyes flashed, his shoulders began to twitch. "wicked men may say all sorts of things about me," he muttered in a trembling voice. "but, so may god be my witness!" he said, growing more and more animated, and turning his eyes toward the ikon, "may my eyes crack, may i perish with all my family, if i have any thing more than the fifteen silver rubles which ilyushka brought home; and we have to pay the poll-tax, you yourself know that. and we built the hut"-"well, well, all right," said the prince, rising from the bench. "good-by, friends."[46] [footnote 46: _proshchaïte_, _khozyáeva_.] xviii. "my god! my god!" was nekhliudof's mental exclamation, as with long strides he hastened home through the shady alleys of his weed-grown garden, and, absent-mindedly, snapped off the leaves and branches which fell in his way. "is it possible that my dreams about the ends and duties of my life are all idle nonsense? why is it hard for me, and mournful, as though i were dissatisfied with myself because i imagined that having once begun this course i should constantly experience the fulness of the morally pleasant feeling which i had when, for the first time, these thoughts came to me?" and with extraordinary vividness and distinctness he saw in his imagination that happy moment which he had experienced a year before. he had arisen very early, before every one else in the house, and feeling painfully those secret, indescribable impulses of youth, he had gone aimlessly out into the garden, and from there into the woods; and, amid the energetic but tranquil nature pulsing with the new life of maytime, he had wandered long alone, without thought, and suffering from the exuberance of some feeling, and not finding any expression for it. then, with all the allurement of what is unknown, his youthful imagination brought up before him the voluptuous form of a woman; and it seemed to him that was the object of his indescribable longing. but another, deeper sentiment said, _not that_, and impelled him to search and be disturbed in mind. without thought or desire, as always happens after extra activity, he lay on his back under a tree, and looked at the diaphanous morning-clouds drifting over him across the deep, endless sky. suddenly, without any reason, the tears sprang to his eyes, and god knows in what way the thought came to him with perfect clearness, filling all his soul and giving him intense delight,--the thought that love and righteousness are the same as truth and enjoyment, and that there is only one truth, and only one possible happiness, in the world. the deeper feeling this time did not say, _not that_. he sat up, and began to verify this thought. "that is it, that is it," said he to himself, in a sort of ecstasy, measuring all his former convictions, all the phenomena of his life, by the truth just discovered to him, and as it seemed to him absolutely new. "what stupidity! all that i knew, all that i believed in, all that i loved," he had said to himself. "love is self-denying; this is the only true happiness independent of chance," he had said over and over again, smiling and waving his hands. applying this thought on every side to life, and finding in it confirmation both of life and that inner voice which told him that this was _it_, he had experienced a new feeling of pleasant agitation and enthusiasm. "and so i ought to do good if i would be happy," he thought; and all his future vividly came up before him, not as an abstraction, but in images in the form of the life of a proprietor. he saw before him a huge field, conterminous with his whole life, which he was to consecrate to the good, and in which really he should find happiness. there was no need for him to search for a sphere of activity; it was all ready. he had one out-and-out obligation: he had his serfs.... and what comfortable and beneficent labor lay before him! "to work for this simple, impressionable, incorruptible class of people; to lift them from poverty; to give them pleasure; to give them education which, fortunately, i will turn to use in correcting their faults, which arise from ignorance and superstition; to develop their morals; to induce them to love the right.... what a brilliant, happy future! and besides all this, i, who am going to do this for my own happiness, shall take delight in their appreciation, shall see how every day i shall go farther and farther toward my predestined end. a wonderful future! why could i not have seen this before? "and besides," so he had thought at the same time, "who will hinder me from being happy in love for a woman, in enjoyment of family?" and his youthful imagination portrayed before him a still more bewitching future. "i and my wife, whom i shall love as no one ever loved a wife before in the world, we shall always live amid this restful, poetical, rural nature, with our children, maybe, and with my old aunt. we have our love for each other, our love for our children; and we shall both know that our aim is the right. we shall help each other in pressing on to this goal. i shall make general arrangements; i shall give general aid when it is right; i shall carry on the farm, the savings bank, the workshop. and she, with her dear little head, and dressed in a simple white dress, which she lifts above her dainty ankle as she steps through the mud, will go to the peasants' school, to the hospital, to some unfortunate peasant who in truth does not deserve help, and everywhere carry comfort and aid.... children, old men, women, will wait for her, and look on her as on some angel, as on providence. then she will return, and hide from me the fact that she has been to see the unfortunate peasant, and given him money; but i shall know all, and give her a hearty hug, and rain kisses thick and fast on her lovely eyes, her modestly-blushing cheeks, and her smiling, rosy lips." xix. "where are those dreams?" the young man now asked himself as he walked home after his round of visits. "here more than a year has passed since i have been seeking for happiness in this course, and what have i found? it is true, i sometimes feel that i can be contented with myself; but this is a dry, doubtful kind of content. yet, no; i am simply dissatisfied! i am dissatisfied because i find no happiness here; and i desire, i passionately long for, happiness. i have not experienced delight, i have cut myself off from all that gives it. wherefore? for what end? does that make it easier for any one? "my aunt was right when she wrote that it is easier to find happiness than to give it to others. have my peasants become any richer? have they learned any thing? or have they shown any moral improvement? not the least. they are no better off, but it grows harder and harder every day for me. if i saw any success in my undertakings, if i saw any signs of gratitude, ... but, no! i see falsely directed routine, vice, untruthfulness, helplessness. i am wasting the best years of my life." thus he said to himself, and he recollected that his neighbors, as he heard from his nurse, called him "a mere boy;" that he had no money left in the counting-room; that his new threshing-machine, which he had invented, much to the amusement of the peasants, only made a noise, and did not thresh any thing when it had been set in motion for the first time in presence of numerous spectators, who had gathered at the threshing-floor; that from day to day he had to expect the coming of the district judge for the list of goods and chattels, which he had neglected to make out, having been engrossed in various new enterprises on his estate. and suddenly there arose before him, just as vividly as, before, that walk through the forest and his ideal of rural life had arisen,--just as vividly there appeared his little university room at moscow, where he used to sit half the night before a solitary candle, with his chum and his favorite boy friend. they used to read for five hours on a stretch, and study such stupid lessons in civil law; and when they were done with them, they would send for supper, open a bottle of champagne, and talk about the future which awaited them. how entirely different the young student had thought the future would be! then the future was full of enjoyment, of varied occupation, brilliant with success, and beyond a peradventure sure to bring them both to what seemed to them the greatest blessing in the world,--to fame. "he will go on, and go on rapidly, in that path," thought nekhliudof of his friend; "but i".... but by this time he was already mounting the steps to his house; and near it were standing a score of peasants and house-servants, waiting with various requests to the prince. and this brought him back from dreams to the reality. among the crowd was a ragged and blood-stained peasant-woman, who was lamenting and complaining of her father-in-law, who had been beating her. there were two brothers, who for two years past had been going on shares in their domestic arrangements, and now looked at each other with hatred and despair. there was also an unshaven, gray-haired domestic serf, with hands trembling from the effects of intoxication; and this man was brought to the prince by his son, a gardener, who complained of his disorderly conduct. there was a peasant, who had driven his wife out of the house because she had not worked any all the spring. there was also the wife, a sick woman, who sobbed, but said nothing, as she sat on the grass by the steps,--only showed her inflamed and swollen leg, carelessly wrapped up in a filthy rag. nekhliudof listened to all the petitions and complaints; and after he had given advice to one, blamed others, and replied to still others, he began to feel a sort of whimsical sensation of weariness, shame, weakness, and regret. and he went to his room. xx. in the small room occupied by nekhliudof stood an old leather sofa decorated with copper nails, a few chairs of the same description, an old-fashioned inlaid extension-table with scallops and brass mountings, and strewn with papers, and an old-fashioned english grand with narrow keys, broken and twisted. between the windows hung a large mirror with an old carved frame gilded. on the floor, near the table, lay packages of papers, books, and accounts. this room, on the whole, had a characterless and disorderly appearance; and this lively disorder presented a sharp contrast with the affectedly aristocratic arrangement of the other rooms of the great mansion. when nekhliudof reached his room, he flung his hat angrily on the table, and sat down in a chair which stood near the piano, crossed his legs, and shook his head. "will you have lunch, your excellency?" asked a tall, thin, wrinkled old woman, who entered just at this instant, dressed in a cap, a great kerchief, and a print dress. nekhliudof looked at her for a moment or two in silence, as though collecting his thoughts. "no: i don't wish any thing, nurse," said he, and again fell into thought. the nurse shook her head at him in some vexation, and sighed. "eh! father, dmitri nikolayévitch, are you melancholy? such tribulation comes, but it will pass away. god knows".... "i am not melancholy. what have you brought, malanya finogenovna?" replied nekhliudof, endeavoring to smile. "ain't melancholy! can't i see?" the old woman began to say with warmth. "the whole livelong day to be all sole alone! and you take every thing to heart so, and look out for every thing; and besides, you scarcely eat any thing. what's the reason of it? if you'd only go to the city, or visit your neighbors, as others do! you are young, and the idea of bothering over things so! pardon me, little father, i will sit down," pursued the old nurse, taking a seat near the door. "you see, we have got into such a habit that we lose fear. is that the way gentlemen do? there's no good in it. you are only ruining yourself, and the people are spoiled. that's just like our people: they don't understand it, that's a fact. you had better go to your auntie. what she wrote was good sense," said the old nurse, admonishing him. nekhliudof kept growing more and more dejected. his right hand, resting on his knee, lazily struck the piano, making a chord, a second, a third. nekhliudof moved nearer, drew his other hand from his pocket, and began to play. the chords which he made were sometimes not premeditated, were occasionally not even according to rule, often remarkable for absurdity, and showed that he was lacking in musical talent; but the exercise gave him a certain indefinable melancholy enjoyment. at every modification in the harmony, he waited with muffled heart-beat for what would come out of it; and when any thing came, he, in a dark sort of way, completed with his imagination what was missing. it seemed to him that he heard a hundred melodies, and a chorus, and an orchestra simultaneously joining in with his harmony. but his chief pleasure was in the powerful activity of his imagination; confused and broken, but bringing up with striking clearness before him the most varied, mixed, and absurd images and pictures from the past and the future. now it presents the puffy figure of davidka byélui, timidly blinking his white eyelashes at the sight of his mother's black fist with its net-work of veins; his bent back, and huge hands covered with white hairs, exhibiting a uniform patience and submission to fate, sufficient to overcome torture and deprivation. then he saw the brisk, presuming nurse, and, somehow, seemed to picture her going through the villages, and announcing to the peasants that they ought to hide their money from the proprietors; and he unconsciously said to himself, "yes, it is necessary to hide money from the proprietors." then suddenly there came up before him the fair head of his future wife, for some reason weeping and leaning on his shoulder in deep grief. then he seemed to see churis's kindly blue eyes looking affectionately at his pot-bellied little son. yes, he saw in him a helper and savior, apart from his son. "that is love," he whispered. then he remembered yukhvanka's mother, remembered the expression of patience and conciliation which, notwithstanding her prominent teeth and her irregular features, he recognized on her aged face. "it must be that i have been the first during her seventy years of life, to recognize her good qualities," he said to himself, and whispered "strange;" but he continued still to drum on the piano, and to listen to the sounds. then he vividly recalled his retreat from the bees, and the expressions on the faces of karp and ignát, who evidently wanted to laugh though they made believe not look at him. he reddened, and involuntarily glanced at the old nurse, who still remained sitting by the door, looking at him with silent attention, occasionally shaking her gray head. here, suddenly, he seemed to see a troïka of sleek horses, and ilyushka's handsome, robust form, with bright curls, gayly shining, narrow blue eyes, fresh complexion, and delicate down just beginning to appear on lip and chin. he remembered how ilyushka was afraid that he would not be permitted to go teaming, and how eagerly he argued in favor of the work that he liked so well. and he saw the gray early morning, that began with mist, and the smooth paved road, and the long lines of three-horse wagons, heavily laden and protected by mats, and marked with big black letters. the stout, contented, well-fed horses, thundering along with their bells, arching their backs, and tugging on the traces, pulled in unison up the hill, forcefully straining on their long-nailed shoes over the smooth road. as the train of wagons reached the foot of the hill, the postman had quickly dashed by with jingling bells, which were echoed far and wide by the great forest extending along on both sides of the road. "_a-a-aï!_" in a loud, boyish voice, shouts the head driver, who has a badge on his lambskin cap, and swings his whip around his head. beside the front wheel of the front team, the redheaded, cross-looking karp is walking heavily in huge boots. in the second team ilyushka shows his handsome head, as he sits on the driver's seat playing the bugle. three troïka-wagons loaded with boxes, with creaking wheels, with the sound of bells and shouts, file by. ilyushka once more hides his handsome face under the matting, and falls off to sleep. now it is a fresh, clear evening. the deal gates open for the weary horses as they halt in front of the tavern yard; and one after the other, the high mat-covered teams roll in across the planks that lie at the gates, and come to rest under the wide sheds. ilyushka gayly exchanges greetings with the light-complexioned, wide-bosomed landlady, who asks, "have you come far? and will there be many of you to supper?" and at the same time looks with pleasure on the handsome lad, with her bright, kindly eyes. and now, having unharnessed the horses, he goes into the warm house[47] crowded with people, crosses himself, sits down at the generous wooden bowl, and enters into lively conversation with the landlady and his companions. [footnote 47: _izbá_.] and then he goes to bed in the open air, under the stars which gleam down into the shed. his bed is fragrant hay, and he is near the horses, which, stamping and snorting, eat their fodder in the wooden cribs. he goes to the shed, turns toward the east, and after crossing himself thirty times in succession on his broad brawny chest, and throwing back his bright curls, he repeats "our father" and "lord have mercy" a score of times, and wrapping himself, head and all, in his cloak, sleeps the healthy, dreamless sleep of strong, fresh manhood. and here he sees in his vision the city of kief, with its saints and throngs of priests; romen, with its merchants and merchandise; he sees _odest_, and the distant blue sea studded with white sails, and the city of tsar-grad,[48] with its golden palaces, and the white-breasted, dark-browed turkish maidens; and thither he flies, lifting himself on invisible wings. [footnote 48: constantinople.] he flies freely and easily, always farther and farther away, and sees below him golden cities bathed in clear effulgence, and the blue sky with bright stars, and a blue sea with white sails; and smoothly and pleasantly he flies, always farther and farther away.... "splendid!" whispers nekhliudof to himself; and the thought, "why am i not ilyushka?" comes to him. lucerne. _from the recollections of prince nekhliudof._ july 20,1857. yesterday evening i arrived at lucerne, and put up at the best inn there, the schweitzerhof. "lucerne, the chief city of the canton, situated on the shore of the vierwaldstätter see," says murray, "is one of the most romantic places of switzerland: here cross three important highways, and it is only an hour's distance by steamboat to mount righi, from which is obtained one of the most magnificent views in the world." whether that be true or no, other guides say the same thing, and consequently at lucerne there are throngs of travellers of all nationalities, especially the english. the magnificent five-storied building of the hotel schweitzerhof is situated on the quay, at the very edge of the lake, where in olden times there used to be the crooked covered wooden bridge[49] with chapels on the corners and pictures on the roof. now, thanks to the tremendous inroad of englishmen, with their necessities, their tastes, and their money, the old bridge has been torn down, and in its place has been erected a granite quay, straight as a stick. on the quay are built the long, quadrangular five-storied houses; in front of the houses two rows of lindens have been set out and provided with supports, and between the lindens are the usual supply of green benches. [footnote 49: hofbrücke, torn down in 1852.] this is the promenade; and here back and forth stroll the englishwomen in their swiss straw hats, and the englishmen in simple and comfortable attire, and rejoice in that which they have caused to be created. possibly these quays and houses and lindens and englishmen would be excellent in their way anywhere else, but here they seem discordant amid this strangely grandiose and at the same time indescribably harmonious and smiling nature. as soon as i went up to my room, and opened the window facing the lake, the beauty of the sheet of water, of these mountains, and of this sky, at the first moment literally dazzled and overwhelmed me. i experienced an inward unrest, and the necessity of expressing in some manner the feelings that suddenly filled my soul to overflowing. i felt a desire to embrace, powerfully to embrace, some one, to tickle him, or to pinch him; in short, to do to him and to myself something extraordinary. it was seven o'clock in the evening. the rain had been falling all day, but now it had cleared off. the lake, blue as heated sulphur, spread out before my windows smooth and motionless, like a concave mirror between the variegated green shores; its surface was dotted with boats, which left behind them vanishing trails. farther away it was contracted between two monstrous headlands, and, darkling, set itself against and disappeared behind a confused pile of mountains, clouds, and glaciers. in the foreground stretched a panorama of moist, fresh green shores, with reeds, meadows, gardens, and villas. farther away, the dark-green wooded heights, crowned with the ruins of feudal castles; in the background, the rolling, pale-lilac-colored vista of mountains, with fantastic peaks built up of crags and dead white mounds of snow. and every thing was bathed in a fresh, transparent atmosphere of azure blue, and kindled by the warm rays of the setting sun, bursting forth through the riven skies. not on the lake nor on the mountains nor in the skies was there a single completed line, a single unmixed color, a single moment of repose; everywhere motion, irregularity, fantasy, endless conglomeration and variety of shades and lines; and above all, a calm, a softness, a unity, and a striving for the beautiful. and here amid this indefinable, confused, unfettered beauty, before my very window, stretched in stupid kaleidoscopic confusion the white line of the quay, the lindens with their supports, and the green seats,--miserable, tasteless creations of human ingenuity, not subordinated, like the distant villas and ruins, to the general harmony of the beautiful scene, but on the contrary brutally contradicting it.... constantly, though against my will, my eyes were attracted to that horribly straight line of the quay; and mentally i should have liked to spurn it, to demolish it like a black spot disfiguring the nose beneath one's eye. but the quay with the sauntering englishmen remained where it was, and i involuntarily tried to find a point of view where it would be out of my sight. i succeeded in finding such a view; and till dinner was ready i took delight, alone by myself, in this incomplete and therefore the more enjoyable feeling of oppression that one experiences in the solitary contemplation of natural beauty. about half-past seven i was called to dinner. two long tables, accommodating at least a hundred persons, were spread in the great, magnificently decorated dining-room on the first floor.... the silent gathering of the guests lasted three minutes,--the _frou-frou_ of women's dresses, the soft steps, the softly-spoken words addressed to the courtly and elegant waiters. and all the places were occupied by ladies and gentlemen dressed elegantly, even richly, and for the most part in perfect taste. as is apt to be the case in switzerland, the majority of the guests were english, and this gave the ruling characteristics of the common table: that is, a strict decorum regarded as an obligation, a reserve founded not in pride but in the absence of any necessity for social relationship, and finally a uniform sense of satisfaction felt by each in the comfortable and agreeable gratification of his wants. on all sides gleamed the whitest laces, the whitest collars, the whitest teeth,--natural and artificial,--the whitest complexions and hands. but the faces, many of which were very handsome, bore the expression merely of individual prosperity, and absolute absence of interest in all that surrounded them unless it bore directly on their own individual selves; and the white hands glittering with rings, or protected by mitts, moved only for the purpose of straightening collars, cutting meat, or filling wine-glasses; no soul-felt emotion was betrayed in these actions. occasionally members of some one family would exchange remarks in subdued voices, about the excellence of such and such a dish or wine, or about the beauty of the view from mount righi. individual tourists, whether men or women, sat alongside of each other in silence, and did not even seem to see each other. if it happened occasionally, that, out of this five-score human beings, two spoke to each other, the topic of their conversation consisted uniformly in the weather, or the ascent of the righi. knives and forks scarcely rattled on the plates, so perfect was the observance of propriety; and no one dared to convey pease and vegetables to the mouth otherwise than on the fork. the waiters, involuntarily subdued by the universal silence, asked in a whisper what wine you would be pleased to order. such dinners invariably depress me: i dislike them, and before they are over i become blue.... it always seems to me as if i were in some way to blame; just as when i was a boy i was set upon a chair in consequence of some naughtiness, and bidden ironically, "now rest a little while, my dear young fellow." and all the time my young blood was pulsing through my veins, and in the other room i could hear the merry shouts of my brothers. i used to try to rebel against this feeling of being choked down, which i experienced at such dinners, but in vain. all these dead-and-alive faces have an irresistible ascendency over me, and i myself become also as one dead. i have no desires, i have no thoughts: i do not even observe. at first i attempted to enter into conversation with my neighbors; but i got no response beyond the phrases which had been repeated in that place a hundred times, a thousand times, with absolutely no variation of countenance. and yet these people were by no means all stupid and feelingless; but evidently many of them, though they seemed so dead, had got into the habit of leading self-centred lives, which in reality were far more complicated and interesting than my own. why, then, should they deprive themselves of one of the greatest enjoyments of life,--the enjoyment that comes from the intercourse of man with man? how different it used to be in our _pension_ at paris, where twenty of us, belonging to as many different nationalities, professions, and individualities, met together at a common table, and, under the influence of the gallic sociability, found the keenest zest! there, from the very moment that we sat down, from one end of the table to the other, was general conversation, sandwiched with witticisms and puns, though often in a broken speech. there every one, without being solicitous for the proprieties, said whatever came into his head. there we had our own philosopher, our own disputant, our own _bel esprit_, our own butt,--all common property. there, immediately after dinner, we would move the table to one side, and, without paying too much attention to rhythm, take to dancing the polka on the dusty carpet, and often keep it up till evening. there, though we were rather flirtatious, and not over-wise, but perfectly respectable, still we were human beings. and the spanish countess with romantic proclivities, and the italian _abbate_ who insisted on declaiming from the divine comedy after dinner, and the american doctor who had the _entrée_ into the tuileries, and the young dramatic author with long hair, and the pianist who, according to her own account, had composed the best polka in existence, and the unhappy widow who was a beauty, and wore three rings on every finger,--all of us enjoyed this society, which, though somewhat superficial, was human and pleasant. and we each carried away from it hearty recollections of each other, perhaps lighter in some cases, and more serious in others. but at these english _table-d'hôte_ dinners, as i look at all these laces, ribbons, jewels, pomaded locks, and silken dresses, i often think how many living women would be happy, and would make others happy, with these adornments. strange to think how many friends and lovers--most fortunate friends and lovers--are sitting here side by side, without, perhaps, knowing it! and god knows why they never come to this knowledge, and never give each other this happiness, which they might so easily give, and which they so long for. i began to feel blue, as invariably happens after such a dinner; and, without waiting for dessert, i sallied out in the same frame of mind for a constitutional through the city. my melancholy frame of mind was not relieved, but rather confirmed by the narrow, muddy streets without lanterns, the shuttered shops, the encounters with drunken workmen, and with women hastening after water, or in bonnets, glancing around them as they turned the corners. it was perfectly dark in the streets, when i returned to the hotel without casting a glance about me, or having an idea in my head. i hoped that sleep would put an end to my melancholy. i experienced that peculiar spiritual chill and loneliness and heaviness, which, without any reason, beset those who are just arrived in any new place. looking steadfastly down, i walked along the quay to the schweitzerhof, when suddenly my ear was struck by the strains of a peculiar but thoroughly agreeable and sweet music. these strains had an immediately enlivening effect upon me. it was as though a bright, cheerful light had poured into my soul. i felt contented, gay. my slumbering attention was awakened again to all surrounding objects; and the beauty of the night and the lake, to which till then i had been indifferent, suddenly came over me with quickening force like a novelty. i involuntarily took in at a glance the dark sky with gray clouds flecking its deep blue, now lighted by the rising moon, the glassy dark-green lake with its surface reflecting the lighted windows, and far away the snowy mountains; and i heard the croaking of the frogs over on the freshenburg shore, and the dewy fresh call of the quail. directly in front of me, in the spot whence the sounds of music had first come, and which still especially attracted my attention, i saw, amid the semi-darkness on the street, a throng of people standing in a semi-circle, and in front of the crowd, at a little distance, a small man in dark clothes. behind the throng and the man, there stood out harmoniously against the dark, ragged sky, gray and blue, the black tops of a few lombardy poplars in some garden, and, rising majestically on high, the two stern spires that stand on the towers of the ancient cathedral. i drew nearer, and the strains became more distinct. at some distance i could clearly distinguish the full accords of a guitar, sweetly swelling in the evening air, and several voices, which, while taking turns with each other, did not sing any definite theme, but gave suggestions of one in places wherever the melody was most pronounced. the theme was in somewhat the nature of a mazurka, sweet and graceful. the voices sounded now near at hand, now far distant; now a bass was heard, now a tenor, now a falsetto such as the tyrolese warblers are wont to sing. it was not a song, but the graceful masterly sketch of a song. i could not comprehend what it was, but it was beautiful. those voluptuous, soft chords of the guitar, that sweet, gentle melody, and that solitary figure of the man in black, amid the fantastic environment of the lake, the gleaming moon, and the twin spires of the cathedral rising in majestic silence, and the black tops of the poplars,--all was strange and perfectly beautiful, or at least seemed so to me. all the confused, arbitrary impressions of life suddenly became full of meaning and beauty. it seemed to me as though a fresh fragrant flower had sprung up in my soul. in place of the weariness, dulness, and indifference toward every thing in the world, which i had been feeling the moment before, i experienced a necessity for love, a fulness of hope, and an unbounded enjoyment of life. "what dost thou desire, what dost thou long for?" an inner voice seemed to say. "here it is. thou art surrounded on all sides by beauty and poetry. breathe it in, in full, deep draughts, as long as thou hast strength. enjoy it to the full extent of thy capacity. 'tis all thine, all blessed!" i drew nearer. the little man was, as it seemed, a travelling tyrolese. he stood before the windows of the hotel, one leg a little advanced, his head thrown back; and, as he thrummed on the guitar, he sang his graceful song in all those different voices. i immediately felt an affection for this man, and a gratefulness for the change which he had brought about in me. the singer, so far as i was able to judge, was dressed in an old black coat. he had short black hair, and he wore a civilian's hat that was no longer new. there was nothing artistic in his attire, but his clever and youthfully gay motions and pose, together with his diminutive stature, formed a pleasing and at the same time pathetic spectacle. on the steps, in the windows, and on the balconies of the brilliantly lighted hotel, stood ladies handsomely decorated and attired, gentlemen with polished collars, porters and lackeys in gold-embroidered liveries; in the street, in the semi-circle of the crowd, and farther along on the sidewalk, among the lindens, were gathered groups of well-dressed waiters, cooks in white caps and aprons, and young girls wandering about with arms about each other's waists. all, it seemed, were under the influence of the same feeling that i myself experienced. all stood in silence around the singer, and listened attentively. silence reigned, except in the pauses of the song, when there came from far away across the waters the regular click of a hammer, and from the freshenburg shore rang in fascinating monotone the voices of the frogs, interrupted by the mellow, monotonous call of the quail. the little man in the darkness, in the midst of the street, poured out his heart like a nightingale, in couplet after couplet, song after song. though i had come close to him, his singing continued to give me greater and greater gratification. his voice, which was not of great power, was extremely pleasant and tender; the taste and feeling for rhythm which he displayed in the control of it were extraordinary, and proved that he had great natural gifts. after he sung each couplet, he invariably repeated the theme in variation, and it was evident that all his graceful variations came to him at the instant, spontaneously. among the crowd, and above on the schweitzerhof, and near by on the boulevard, were heard frequent murmurs of approval, though generally the most respectful silence reigned. the balconies and the windows kept filling more and more with handsomely dressed men and women leaning on their elbows, and picturesquely illuminated by the lights in the house. promenaders came to a halt, and in the darkness on the quay stood men and women in little groups. near me, at some distance from the common crowd, stood an aristocratic cook and lackey, smoking their cigars. the cook was forcibly impressed by the music, and at every high falsetto note enthusiastically nodded his head to the lackey, and nudged him with his elbow with an expression of astonishment that seemed to say, "how he sings! hey?" the lackey, whose careless smile betrayed the depth of feeling that he experienced, replied to the cook's nudges by shrugging his shoulders, as if to show that it was hard enough for him to be made enthusiastic, and that he had heard much better music. in one of the pauses of his song, while the minstrel was clearing his throat, i asked the lackey who he was, and if he often came there. "twice this summer he has been here," replied the lackey. "he is from aargau; he goes round begging." "well, do many like him come round here?" i asked. "oh, yes," replied the lackey, not comprehending the full force of what i asked; but, immediately after, recollecting himself, he added, "oh, no. this one is the only one i ever heard here. no one else." at this moment the little man had finished his first song, briskly twanged his guitar, and said something in his german patois, which i could not understand, but which brought forth a hearty round of laughter from the surrounding throng. "what was that he said?" i asked. "he says that his throat is dried up, he would like some wine," replied the lackey who was standing near me. "what? is he rather fond of the glass?" "yes, all that sort of people are," replied the lackey, smiling and pointing at the minstrel. the minstrel took off his cap, and swinging his guitar went toward the hotel. raising his head, he addressed the ladies and gentlemen standing by the windows and on the balconies, saying in a half-italian, half-german accent, and with the same intonation that jugglers use in speaking to their audiences,-"_messieurs et mesdames, si vous croyez que je gagne quelque chose, vous vous trompez: je ne suis qu'un pauvre tiaple._" he stood in silence a moment, but as no one gave him any thing, he once more took up his guitar and said,-"_à présent, messieurs et mesdames, je vous chanterai l'air du righi._" his hotel audience made no response, but stood in expectation of the coming song. below on the street a laugh went round, probably in part because he had expressed himself so strangely, and in part because no one had given him any thing. i gave him a few centimes, which he deftly changed from one hand to the other, and bestowed them in his vest-pocket; and then, replacing his cap, began once more to sing the graceful, sweet tyrolese melody which he had called _l'air du righi_. this song, which formed the last on his programme, was even better than the preceding, and from all sides in the wondering throng were heard sounds of approbation. he finished. again he swung his guitar, took off his cap, held it out in front of him, went two or three steps nearer to the windows, and again repeated his stock phrase,-"_messieurs et mesdames, si vous croyez que je gagne quelque chose_," which he evidently considered to be very shrewd and witty; but in his voice and motions i perceived a certain irresolution and childish timidity which were especially touching in a person of such diminutive stature. the elegant public, still picturesquely grouped in the lighted windows and on the balconies, were shining in their rich attire; a few conversed in soberly discreet tones, apparently about their singer who was standing there below them with outstretched hand; others gazed down with attentive curiosity on the little black figure; on one balcony could be heard the merry, ringing laughter of some young girl. in the surrounding crowd the talk and laughter grew constantly louder and louder. the singer for the third time repeated his phrase, but in a still weaker voice, and did not even end the sentence; and again he stretched his hand with his cap, but instantly drew it back. again not one of those brilliantly dressed scores of people standing to listen to him threw him a penny. the crowd laughed heartlessly. the little singer, so it seemed to me, shrunk more into himself, took his guitar into his other hand, lifted his cap, and said,-"_messieurs et mesdames, je vous remercie, et je vous souhais une bonne nuit._" then he put on his hat. the crowd cackled with laughter and satisfaction. the handsome ladies and gentlemen, calmly exchanging remarks, withdrew gradually from the balconies. on the boulevard the promenading began once more. the street, which had been still during the singing, assumed its wonted liveliness; a few men, however, stood at some distance, and, without approaching the singer, looked at him and laughed. i heard the little man muttering something between his teeth as he turned away; and i saw him, apparently growing more and more diminutive, hurry toward the city with brisk steps. the promenaders who had been looking at him followed him at some distance, still making merry at his expense. my mind was in a whirl; i could not comprehend what it all meant; and still standing in the same place, i gazed abstractedly into the darkness after the little man, who was fast disappearing, as he went with ever-increasing swiftness with long strides into the city, followed by the merry-making promenaders. i was overmastered by a feeling of pain, of bitterness, and above all, of shame for the little man, for the crowd, for myself, as though it were i who had asked for money and received none; as though it were i who had been turned to ridicule. without looking any longer, feeling my heart oppressed, i also hurried with long strides toward the entrance of the schweitzerhof. i could not explain the feeling that overmastered me; only there was something like a stone, from which i could not free myself, weighing down my soul and oppressing me. at the ample, well-lighted entrance, i met the porter, who politely made way for me. an english family was also at the door. a portly, handsome, and tall gentleman, with black side-whiskers, in a black hat, and with a plaid on one arm, while in his hand he carried a costly cane, came out slowly and full of importance. leaning on his arm was a lady, who wore a raw silk dress and bonnet with bright ribbons and the most costly laces. together with them was a pretty, fresh-looking young lady, in a graceful swiss hat with a feather _à la mousquetaire_; from under it escaped long light-yellow curls softly encircling her fair face. in front of them skipped a buxom girl of ten, with round white knees which showed from under her thin embroideries. "magnificent night!" the lady was saying in a sweet, happy voice, as i passed them. "oh, yes," growled the englishman lazily; and it was evident that he found it so enjoyable to be alive in the world, that it was too much trouble even to speak. and it seemed as though all of them alike found it so comfortable and easy, so light and free, to be alive in the world, their faces and motions expressed such perfect indifference to the lives of every one else, and such absolute confidence that it was to them that the porter made way and bowed so profoundly, and that when they returned they would find clean, comfortable beds and rooms, and that all this was bound to be, and was their indefeasible right, that i involuntarily contrasted them with the wandering minstrel who weary, perhaps hungry, full of shame, was retreating before the laughing crowd. and then suddenly i comprehended what it was that oppressed my heart with such a load of heaviness, and i felt an indescribable anger against these people. twice i walked up and down past the englishman, and each time, without turning out for him, my elbow punched him, which gave me a feeling of indescribable satisfaction; and then, darting down the steps, i hastened through the darkness in the direction toward the city taken by the little man. overtaking the three men who had been walking together, i asked them where the singer was; they laughed, and pointed straight ahead. there he was, walking alone with brisk steps; no one was with him; all the time, as it seemed to me, he was indulging in bitter monologue. i caught up with him, and proposed to him to go somewhere with me and drink a bottle of wine. he kept on with his rapid walk, and scarcely deigned to look at me; but when he perceived what i was saying, he halted. "well, i would not refuse, if you would be so kind," said he; "here is a little café, we can go in there. it's not fashionable," he added, pointing to a drinking-saloon that was still open. his expression "not fashionable" involuntarily suggested the idea of not going to an unfashionable café, but to go to the schweitzerhof, where those who had been listening to him were. notwithstanding the fact that several times he showed a sort of timid disquietude at the idea of going to the schweitzerhof, declaring that it was too fine for him there, still i insisted in carrying out my purpose; and he, putting the best face on the matter, gayly swinging his guitar, went back with me across the quay. a few loiterers who had happened along as i was talking with the minstrel, and had stopped to hear what i had to say, now, after arguing among themselves, followed us to the very entrance of the hotel, evidently expecting from the tyrolese some further demonstration. i ordered a bottle of wine of a waiter whom i met in the hall. the waiter smiled and looked at us, and went by without answering. the head waiter, to whom i addressed myself with the same order, listened to me solemnly, and, measuring the minstrel's modest little figure from head to foot, sternly ordered the waiter to take us to the room at the left. the room at the left was a bar-room for simple people. in the corner of this room a hunch-backed maid was washing dishes. the whole furniture consisted of bare wooden tables and benches. the waiter who came to serve us looked at us with a supercilious smile, thrust his hands in his pockets, and exchanged some remarks with the humpbacked dish-washer. he evidently tried to give us to understand that he felt himself immeasurably higher than the minstrel, both in dignity and social position, so that he considered it not only an indignity, but even an actual joke, that he was called upon to serve us. "do you wish _vin ordinaire_?" he asked with a knowing look, winking toward my companion, and switching his napkin from one hand to the other. "champagne, and your very best," said i, endeavoring to assume my haughtiest and most imposing appearance. but neither my champagne, nor my endeavor to look haughty and imposing, had the least effect on the servant: he smiled incredulously, loitered a moment or two gazing at us, took time enough to glance at his gold watch, and with leisurely steps, as though going out for a walk, left the room. soon he returned with the wine, bringing two other waiters with him. these two sat down near the dish-washer, and gazed at us with amused attention and a bland smile, just as parents gaze at their children when they are gently playing. only the dish-washer, it seemed to me, did not look at us scornfully but sympathetically. though it was trying and awkward to lunch with the minstrel, and to play the entertainer, under the fire of all these waiters' eyes, i tried to do my duty with as little constraint as possible. in the lighted room i could see him better. he was a small but symmetrically built and muscular man, though almost a dwarf in stature; he had bristly black hair, teary big black eyes, bushy eyebrows, and a thoroughly pleasant, attractively shaped mouth. he had little side-whiskers, his hair was short, his attire was very simple and mean. he was not over-clean, was ragged and sunburnt, and in general had the look of a laboring-man. he was far more like a poor tradesman than an artist. only in his ever humid and brilliant eyes, and in his firm mouth, was there any sign of originality or genius. by his face it might be conjectured that his age was between twenty-five and forty; in reality, he was thirty-seven. here is what he related to me, with good-natured readiness and evident sincerity, of his life. he was a native of aargau. in early childhood he had lost father and mother; other relatives he had none. he had never owned any property. he had been apprenticed to a carpenter; but twenty-two years previously one of his hands had been attacked by caries, which had prevented him from ever working again. from childhood he had been fond of singing, and he began to be a singer. occasionally strangers had given him money. with this he had learned his profession, bought his guitar, and now for eighteen years he had been wandering about through switzerland and italy, singing before hotels. his whole luggage consisted of his guitar, and a little purse in which, at the present time, there was only half a franc. that would have to suffice for supper and lodgings this night. every year now for eighteen years he had made the round of the best and most popular resorts of switzerland,--zurich, lucerne, interlaken, chamounix, etc.; by the way of the st. bernard he would go down into italy, and return over the st. gothard, or through savoy. just at present it was rather hard for him to walk, as he had caught a cold, causing him to suffer from some trouble in his legs,--he called it rheumatism,--which grew more severe from year to year; and, moreover, his voice and eyes had grown weaker. nevertheless, he was on his way to interlaken, aix-les-bains, and thence over the little st. bernard to italy, which he was very fond of. it was evident that on the whole he was well content with his life. when i asked him why he returned home, if he had any relatives there, or a house and land, his mouth parted in a gay smile, and he replied, "_oui, le sucre est bon, il est doux pour les enfants!_" and he winked at the servants. i did not catch his meaning, but the group of servants burst out laughing. "no, i have nothing of the sort, but still i should always want to go back," he explained to me. "i go home because there is always a something that draws one to one's native place." and once more he repeated with a shrewd, self-satisfied smile, his phrase, "_oui, le sucre est bon_," and then laughed good-naturedly. the servants were very much amused, and laughed heartily; only the hunch-backed dish-washer looked earnestly from her big kindly eyes at the little man, and picked up his cap for him, when, as we talked, he once knocked it off the bench. i have noticed that wandering minstrels, acrobats, even jugglers, delight in calling themselves artists, and several times i hinted to my comrade that he was an artist; but he did not at all accept this designation, but with perfect simplicity looked upon his work as a means of existence. when i asked him if he had not himself written the songs which he sang, he showed great surprise at such a strange question, and replied that the words of whatever he sang were all of old tyrolese origin. "but how about that song of the righi? i think that cannot be very ancient," i suggested. "oh, that was composed about fifteen years ago. there was a german in basel; he was a clever man; it was he who composed it. a splendid song. you see he composed it especially for travellers." and he began to repeat the words of the righi song, which he liked so well, translating them into french as he went along. "_if you wish to go to righi, you will not need shoes to wegis, (for you go that far by steamboat), but from wegis take a stout staff, also take upon your arm a maiden; drink a glass of wine on starting, only do not drink too freely, for if you desire to drink here, you must earn the right to, first._" "oh! a splendid song!" he exclaimed, as he finished. the servants, evidently, also found the song much to their mind, because they came up closer to us. "yes, but who was it composed the music?" i asked. "oh, no one at all; you know you must have something new when you are going to sing for strangers." when the ice was brought, and i had given my comrade a glass of champagne, he seemed somewhat ill at ease, and, glancing at the servants, he turned and twisted on the bench. we touched our glasses to the health of all artists; he drank half a glass, then he seemed to be collecting his ideas, and knit his brows in deep thought. "it is long since i have tasted such wine, _je ne vous dis que ça_. in italy the _vino d'asti_ is excellent, but this is still better. ah! italy; it is splendid to be there!" he added. "yes, there they know how to appreciate music and artists," said i, trying to bring him round to the evening's mischance before the schweitzerhof. "no," he replied. "there, as far as music is concerned, i cannot give anybody satisfaction. the italians are themselves musicians,--none like them in the world; but i know only tyrolese songs. they are something of a novelty to them, though." "well, you find rather more generous gentlemen there, don't you?" i went on to say, anxious to make him share in my resentment against the guests of the schweitzerhof. "there it would not be possible to find a big hotel frequented by rich people, where, out of a hundred listening to an artist's singing, not one would give him any thing." my question utterly failed of the effect that i expected. it did not enter his head to be indignant with them: on the contrary, he saw in my remark an implied slur upon his talent which had failed of its reward, and he hastened to set himself right before me. "it is not every time that you get any thing," he remarked; "sometimes one isn't in good voice, or you are tired; now to-day i have been walking ten hours, and singing almost all the time. that is hard. and these important aristocrats do not always care to listen to tyrolese songs." "but still, how can they help giving?" i insisted. he did not comprehend my remark. "that's nothing," he said; "but here the principal thing is, _on est tres serré pour la police_, that's what's the trouble. here, according to these republican laws, you are not allowed to sing; but in italy you can go wherever you please, no one says a word. here, if they want to let you, they let you; but if they don't want to, then they can throw you into jail." "what? that's incredible!" "yes, it is true. if you have been warned once, and are found singing again, they may put you in jail. i was kept there three months once," he said, smiling as though that were one of his pleasantest recollections. "oh! that is terrible!" i exclaimed. "what was the reason?" "that was in consequence of one of the new republican laws," he went on to explain, growing animated. "they cannot comprehend here that a poor fellow must earn his living somehow. if i were not a cripple, i would work. but what harm do i do to any one in the world by my singing? what does it mean? the rich can live as they wish, _un pauvre tiaple_ like myself can't live at all. what kind of laws are these republican ones? if that is the way they run, then we don't want a republic: isn't that so, my dear sir? we don't want a republic, but we want--we simply want--we want"--he hesitated a little,--"we want natural laws." i filled up his glass. "you are not drinking," i said. he took the glass in his hand, and bowed to me. "i know what you wish," he said, blinking his eyes at me, and threatening me with his finger. "you wish to make me drunk, so as to see what you can get out of me; but no, you sha'n't have that gratification." "why should i make you drunk?" i inquired. "all i wished was to give you a pleasure." he seemed really sorry that he had offended me by interpreting my insistence so harshly. he grew confused, stood up, and touched my elbow. "no, no," said he, looking at me with a beseeching expression in his moist eyes. "i was only joking." and immediately after he made use of some horribly uncultivated slang expression, intended to signify that i was, nevertheless, a fine young man. "_je ne vous dis que ça_," he said in conclusion. in this fashion the minstrel and i continued to drink and converse; and the waiters continued unceremoniously to stare at us, and, as it seemed, to make ridicule of us. in spite of the interest which our conversation aroused in me, i could not avoid taking notice of their behavior; and i confess i began to grow more and more angry. one of the waiters arose, came up to the little man, and, regarding the top of his head, began to smile. i was already full of wrath against the inmates of the hotel, and had not yet had a chance to pour it out on any one; and now i confess i was in the highest degree irritated by this audience of waiters. the porter, not removing his hat, came into the room, and sat down near me, leaning his elbows on the table. this last circumstance, which was so insulting to my dignity or my vainglory, completely enraged me, and gave an outlet for all the wrath which all the evening long had been boiling within me. i asked myself why he had so humbly bowed when he had met me before, and now, because i was sitting with the travelling minstrel, he came and took his place near me so rudely? i was entirely overmastered by that boiling, angry indignation which i enjoy in myself, which i sometimes endeavor to stimulate when it comes over me, because it has an exhilarating effect upon me, and gives me, if only for a short time, a certain extraordinary flexibility, energy, and strength in all my physical and moral faculties. i leaped to my feet. "whom are you laughing at?" i screamed at the waiter; and i felt my face turn pale, and my lips involuntarily set together. "i am not laughing," replied the waiter, moving away from me. "yes, you are: you are laughing at this gentleman. and what right have you to come, and to take a seat here, when there are guests? don't you dare to sit down!" the porter, muttering something, got up, and turned to the door. "what right have you to make sport of this gentleman, and to sit down by him, when he is a guest, and you are a waiter? why didn't you laugh at me this evening at dinner, and come and sit down beside me? because he is meanly dressed, and sings in the streets? is that the reason? and because i have better clothes? he is poor, but he is a thousand times better than you are; that i am sure of, because he has never insulted any one, but you have insulted him." "i didn't mean any thing," replied my enemy the waiter. "perhaps i disturbed him by sitting down." the waiter did not understand me, and my german was wasted on him. the rude porter was about to take the waiter's part; but i fell upon him so impetuously that the porter pretended not to understand me, and waved his hand. the hunch-backed dish-washer, either because she perceived my wrathful state, and feared a scandal, or possibly because she shared my views, took my part, and, trying to force her way between me and the porter, told him to hold his tongue, saying that i was right, but at the same time urging me to calm myself. "_der herr hat recht; sie haben recht_," she said over and over again. the minstrel's face presented a most pitiable, terrified expression; and evidently he did not understand why i was angry, and what i wanted: and he urged me to let him go away as soon as possible. but the eloquence of wrath burned within me more and more. i understood it all,--the throng that had made merry at his expense, and his auditors who had not given him any thing; and not for all the world would i have held my peace. i believe, that, if the waiters and the porter had not been so submissive, i should have taken delight in having a brush with them, or striking the defenceless english lady on the head with a stick. if at that moment i had been at sevastópol, i should have taken delight in devoting myself to slaughtering and killing in the english trench. "and why did you take this gentleman and me into this room, and not into the other? what?" i thundered at the porter, seizing him by the arm so that he could not escape from me. "what right had you to judge by his appearance that this gentleman must be served in this room, and not in that? have not all guests who pay, equal rights in hotels? not only in a republic, but in all the world! your scurvy republic!... equality, indeed! you would not dare to take an englishman into this room, not even those englishmen who have heard this gentleman free of cost; that is, who have stolen from him, each one of them, the few centimes which ought to have been given to him. how did you dare to take us to this room?" "that room is closed," said the porter. "no," i cried, "that isn't true; it isn't closed." "then you know best." "i know,--i know that you are lying." the porter turned his back on me. "eh! what is to be said?" he muttered. "what is to be said?" i cried. "you conduct us instanter into that room!" in spite of the dish-washer's warning, and the entreaties of the minstrel, who would have preferred to go home, i insisted on seeing the head waiter, and went with my guest into the big dining-room. the head waiter, hearing my angry voice, and seeing my menacing face, avoided a quarrel, and, with contemptuous servility, said that i might go wherever i pleased. i could not prove to the porter that he had lied, because he had hastened out of sight before i went into the hall. the dining-room was, in fact, open and lighted; and at one of the tables sat an englishman and a lady, eating their supper. although we were shown to a special table, i took the dirty minstrel to the very one where the englishman was, and bade the waiter bring to us there the unfinished bottle. the two guests at first looked with surprised, then with angry, eyes at the little man, who, more dead than alive, was sitting near me. they talked together in a low tone; then the lady pushed back her plate, her silk dress rustled, and both of them left the room. through the glass doors i saw the englishman saying something in an angry voice to the waiter, and pointing with his hand in our direction. the waiter put his head through the door, and looked at us. i waited with pleasurable anticipation for some one to come and order us out, for then i could have found a full outlet for all my indignation. but fortunately, though at the time i felt injured, we were left in peace. the minstrel, who before had fought shy of the wine, now eagerly drank all that was left in the bottle, so that he might make his escape as quickly as possible. he, however, expressed his gratitude with deep feeling, as it seemed to me, for his entertainment. his teary eyes grew still more humid and brilliant, and he made use of a most strange and complicated phrase of gratitude. but still very pleasant to me was the sentence in which he said that if everybody treated artists as i had been doing, it would be very good, and ended by wishing me all manner of happiness. we went out into the hall together. there stood the servants, and my enemy the porter apparently airing his grievances against me before them. all of them, i thought, looked at me as though i were a man who had lost his wits. i treated the little man exactly like an equal, before all that audience of servants; and then, with all the respect that i was able to express in my behavior, i took off my hat, and pressed his hand with its dry and hardened fingers. the servants made believe not pay the slightest attention to me. one of them only indulged in a sarcastic laugh. as soon as the minstrel had bowed himself out, and disappeared in the darkness, i went up-stairs to my room, intending to sleep off all these impressions and the foolish childish anger which had come upon me so unexpectedly. but finding that i was too much excited to sleep, i once more went down into the street with the intention of walking until i should have recovered my equanimity, and, i must confess, with the secret hope that i might accidentally come across the porter or the waiter or the englishman, and show them all their rudeness, and, most of all, their unfairness. but beyond the porter, who when he saw me turned his back, i met no one; and i began to promenade in absolute solitude along the quay. "this is an example of the strange fate of poetry," said i to myself, having grown a little calmer. "all love it, all are in search of it; it is the only thing in life that men love and seek, and yet no one recognizes its power, no one prizes this best treasure of the world, and those who give it to men are not rewarded. ask any one you please, ask all these guests of the schweitzerhof, what is the most precious treasure in the world, and all, or ninety-nine out of a hundred, putting on a sardonic expression, will say that the best thing in the world is money. "'maybe, though, this does not please you, or coincide with your elevated ideas,' it will be urged, 'but what is to be done if human life is so constituted that money alone is capable of giving a man happiness? i cannot force my mind not to see the world as it is,' it will be added, 'that is, to see the truth.' "pitiable is your intellect, pitiable the happiness which you desire! and you yourselves, unhappy creatures, not knowing what you desire, ... why have you all left your fatherland, your relatives, your money-making trades and occupations, and come to this little swiss city of lucerne? why did you all this evening gather on the balconies, and in respectful silence listen to the little beggar's song? and if he had been willing to sing longer, you would have been silent and listened longer. what! could money, even millions of it, have driven you all from your country, and brought you all together in this little nook of lucerne? could money have gathered you all on the balconies to stand for half an hour silent and motionless? no! one thing compels you to do it, and will forever have a stronger influence than all the other impulses of life: the longing for poetry which you know, which you do not realize, but feel, always will feel so long as you have any human sensibilities. the word 'poetry' is a mockery to you; you make use of it as a sort of ridiculous reproach; you regard the love for poetry as something meet for children and silly girls, and you make sport of them for it. for yourselves you must have something more definite. "but children look upon life in a healthy way: they recognize and love what man ought to love, and what gives happiness. but life has so deceived and perverted you, that you ridicule the only thing that you really love, and you seek for what you hate and for what gives you unhappiness. "you are so perverted that you did not perceive what obligations you were under to the poor tyrolese who rendered you a pure delight; but at the same time you feel yourselves needlessly obliged to bow before some lord, which gives you neither pleasure nor profit, but rather causes you to sacrifice your comfort and convenience. what absurdity! what incomprehensible lack of reason! "but it was not this that made the most powerful impression upon me this evening. this blindness to all that gives happiness, this unconsciousness of poetic enjoyment, i can almost comprehend, or at least i have become wonted to it, since i have almost everywhere met with it in the course of my life; the harsh, unconscious churlishness of the crowd was no novelty to me: whatever those who argue in favor of popular sentiment may say, the throng is a conglomeration of very possibly good people, but of people who touch each other only on their coarse animal sides, and express only the weakness and harshness of human nature. but how was it that you, children of a humane people, you christians, you simple people, repaid with coldness and ridicule the poor beggar who gave you a pure enjoyment? but no, in your country there are asylums for beggars. there are no beggars, there can be none; and there can be no feelings of sympathy, since that would be a confession that beggary existed. "but he labored, he gave you enjoyment, he besought you to give him something of your superfluity in payment for his labor of which you took advantage. but you looked upon him with a cool smile as upon one of the curiosities in your lofty brilliant palaces; and though there were a hundred of you, favored with happiness and wealth, not one man or one woman among you gave him a _sou_. abashed he went away from you, and the thoughtless throng, laughing, followed and ridiculed not you, but him, because you were cold, harsh, and dishonorable; because you robbed him in receiving the entertainment which he gave you: for this they jeered _him_. "'_on the 19th of july, 1857, before the schweitzerhof hotel, in which were lodging very opulent people, a wandering beggar minstrel sang for half an hour his songs, and played his guitar. about a hundred people listened to him. the minstrel thrice asked you all to give him something. no one person gave him a thing, and many made sport of him._' "this is not an invention, but an actual fact, as those who desire can find out for themselves by consulting the papers for the list of those who were at the schweitzerhof on the 19th of july. "this is an event which the historians of our time ought to describe in letters of inextinguishable flame. this event is more significant and more serious, and fraught with far deeper meaning, than the facts that are printed in newspapers and histories. that the english have killed several thousand chinese because the chinese would not sell them any thing for money while their land is overflowing with ringing coins; that the french have killed several thousand kabyles because the wheat grows well in africa, and because constant war is essential for the drill of an army; that the turkish ambassador in naples must not be a jew; and that the emperor napoleon walks about in plombières, and gives his people the express assurance that he rules only in direct accordance with the will of the people,--all these are words which darken or reveal something long known. but the episode that took place in lucerne on the 19th of july seems to me something entirely novel and strange, and it is connected not with the everlastingly ugly side of human nature, but with a well-known epoch in the development of society. this fact is not for the history of human activities, but for the history of progress and civilization. "why is it that this inhuman fact, impossible in any country,--germany, france, or italy,--is quite possible here where civilization, freedom, and equality are carried to the highest degree of development, where there are gathered together the most civilized travellers from the most civilized nations? why is it that these cultivated human beings, generally capable of every honorable human action, had no hearty, human feeling for one good deed? why is it that these people who in their palaces, their meetings, and their societies, labor warmly for the condition of the celibate chinese in india, about the spread of christianity and culture in africa, about the formation of societies for attaining all perfection,--why is it that they should not find in their souls the simple, primitive feeling of human sympathy? has such a feeling entirely disappeared, and has its place been taken by vainglory, ambition, and cupidity, governing these men in their palaces, meetings, and societies? has the spreading of that reasonable, egotistical association of people, which we call civilization, destroyed and rendered nugatory the desire for instinctive and loving association? and is this that boasted equality for which so much innocent blood has been shed, and so many crimes have been perpetrated? is it possible that nations, like children, can be made happy by the mere sound of the word 'equality'? "equality before the law? does the whole life of a people revolve within the sphere of law? only the thousandth part of it is subject to the law: the rest lies outside of it, in the sphere of the customs and intuitions of society. "but in society the lackey is better dressed than the minstrel, and insults him with impunity. i am better dressed than the lackey, and insult him with impunity. the porter considers me higher, but the minstrel lower, than himself; when i made the minstrel my companion, he felt that he was on an equality with us both, and behaved rudely. i was impudent to the porter, and the porter acknowledged that he was inferior to me. the waiter was impudent to the minstrel, and the minstrel accepted the fact that he was inferior to the waiter. "and is that government free, even though men seriously call it free, where a single citizen can be thrown into prison because, without harming any one, without interfering with any one, he does the only thing that he can to prevent himself from dying of starvation? "a wretched, pitiable creature is man with his craving for positive solutions, thrown into this everlastingly tossing, limitless ocean of _good_ and _evil_, of combinations and contradictions. for centuries men have been struggling and laboring to put the _good_ on one side, the _evil_ on the other. centuries will pass, and no matter how much the unprejudiced mind may strive to decide where the balance lies between the _good_ and the _evil_, the scales will refuse to tip the beam, and there will always be equal quantities of the _good_ and the _evil_ on each scale. "if only man would learn to form judgments, and not to indulge in rash and arbitrary thoughts, and not to make reply to questions that are propounded merely to remain forever unanswered! if only he would learn that every thought is both a lie and a truth!--a lie from the one-sidedness and inability of man to recognize all truth; and true because it expresses one side of mortal endeavor. there are divisions in this everlastingly tumultuous, endless, endlessly confused chaos of the _good_ and the _evil_. they have drawn imaginary lines over this ocean, and they contend that the ocean is really thus divided. "but are there not millions of other possible subdivisions from absolutely different standpoints, in other planes? certainly these novel subdivisions will be made in centuries to come, just as millions of different ones have been made in centuries past. "civilization is _good_, barbarism is _evil_; freedom, _good_; slavery, _evil_. now, this imaginary knowledge annihilates the instinctive, beatific, primitive craving for the _good_ that is in human nature. and who will explain to me what is freedom, what is despotism, what is civilization, what is barbarism? "where are the boundaries that separate them? and whose soul possesses so absolute a standard of good and evil as to measure these fleeting, complicated facts? whose wit is so great as to comprehend and weigh all the facts in the irretrievable past? and who can find any circumstance in which there is no union of _good_ and _evil_? and because i know that i see more of one than of the other, is it not because my standpoint is wrong? and who has the ability to separate himself so absolutely from life, even for a moment, as to look upon it from above? "one, only one infallible guide we have,--the universal spirit which penetrates all collectively and as units, which has endowed each of us with the craving for the right; the spirit which impels the tree to grow toward the sun, which stimulates the flower in autumn-tide to scatter its seed, and which obliges each one of us unconsciously to draw closer together. and this one unerring, inspiring voice rings out louder than the noisy, hasty development of culture. "who is the greater man, and who the greater barbarian,--that lord, who, seeing the minstrel's well-worn clothes, angrily left the table, who gave him not the millionth part of his possessions in payment of his labor, and now lazily sitting in his brilliant, comfortable room, calmly opines about the events that are happening in china, and justifies the massacres that have been done there; or the little minstrel, who, risking imprisonment, with a franc in his pocket, and doing no harm to any one, has been going about for a score of years, up hill and down dale, rejoicing men's hearts with his songs, though they have jeered at him, and almost cast him out of the pale of humanity; and who, in weariness and cold and shame, has gone off to sleep, no one knows where, on his filthy straw?" at this moment, from the city, through the dead silence of the night, far, far away, i caught the sound of the little man's guitar and his voice. "no," something involuntarily said to me, "you have no right to commiserate the little man, or to blame the lord for his well-being. who can weigh the inner happiness which is found in the soul of each of these men? there he stands somewhere in the muddy road, and gazes at the brilliant moonlit sky, and gayly sings amid the smiling, fragrant night; in his soul there is no reproach, no anger, no regret. and who knows what is transpiring now in the hearts of all these men within those opulent, brilliant rooms? who knows if they all have as much unencumbered, sweet delight in life, and as much satisfaction with the world, as dwells in the soul of that little man? "endless are the mercy and wisdom of him who has permitted and formed all these contradictions. only to thee, miserable little worm of the dust, audaciously, lawlessly attempting to fathom his laws, his designs,--only to thee do they seem like contradictions. "full of love he looks down from his bright, immeasurable height, and rejoices in the endless harmony in which you all move in endless contradictions. in thy pride thou hast thought thyself able to separate thyself from the laws of the universe. no, thou also, with thy petty, ridiculous anger against the waiters,--thou also hast disturbed the harmonious craving for the eternal and the infinite.".... recollections of a scorer. _a story._ well, it happened about three o'clock. the gentlemen were playing. there was the big stranger, as our men called him. the prince was there,--the two are always together. the whiskered bárin was there; also the little hussar, oliver, who was an actor, and there was the _pan_.[50] it was a pretty good crowd. [footnote 50: polish name for lord or gentleman.] the big stranger and the prince were playing together. now, here i was walking up and down around the billiard-table with my stick, keeping tally,--ten and forty-seven, twelve and forty-seven. everybody knows it's our business to score. you don't get a chance to get a bite of any thing, and you don't get to bed till two o'clock o' nights, but you're always being screamed at to bring the balls. i was keeping tally; and i look, and see a new bárin comes in at the door. he gazed and gazed, and then sat down on the sofa. very well! "now, who can that be?" thinks i to myself. "he must be somebody." his dress was neat,--neat as a pin,--checkered tricot pants, stylish little short coat, plush vest, and gold chain and all sorts of trinkets dangling from it. he was dressed neat; but there was something about the man neater still; slim, tall, his hair brushed forward in style, and his face fair and ruddy,--well, in a word, a fine young fellow. you must know our business brings us into contact with all sorts of people. and there's many that ain't of much consequence, and there's a good deal of poor trash. so, though you're only a scorer, you get used to telling folks; that is, in a certain way you learn a thing or two. i looked at the bárin. i see him sit down, modest and quiet, not knowing anybody; and the clothes on him are so bran-new, that thinks i, "either he's a foreigner,--an englishman maybe,--or some count just come. and though he's so young, he has an air of some distinction." oliver sat down next him, so he moved along a little. they began a game. the big man lost. he shouts to me. says he, "you're always cheating. you don't count straight. why don't you pay attention?" he scolded away, then threw down his cue, and went out. now, just look here! evenings, he and the prince plays for fifty silver rubles a game; and here he only lost a bottle of makon wine, and got mad. that's the kind of a character he is. another time he and the prince plays till two o'clock. they don't bank down any cash; and so i know neither of them's got any cash, but they are simply playing a bluff game. "i'll go you twenty-five rubles," says he. "all right." just yawning, and not even stopping to place the ball,--you see, he was not made of stone,--now just notice what he said. "we are playing for money," says he, "and not for chips." but this man puzzled me worse than all the rest. well, then, when the big man left, the prince says to the new bárin, "wouldn't you like," says he, "to play a game with me?" "with pleasure," says he. he sat there, and looked rather foolish, indeed he did. he may have been courageous in reality; but, at all events, he got up, went over to the billiard-table, and did not seem flustered as yet. he was not exactly flustered, but you couldn't help seeing that he was not quite at his ease. either his clothes were a little too new, or he was embarrassed because everybody was looking at him; at any rate, he seemed to have no energy. he sort of sidled up to the table, caught his pocket on the edge, began to chalk his cue, dropped his chalk. whenever he hit the ball, he always glanced around, and reddened. not so the prince. he was used to it; he chalked and chalked his hand, tucked up his sleeve; he goes and sits down when he pockets the ball, even though he is such a little man. they played two or three games; then i notice the prince puts up the cue, and says, "would you mind telling me your name?" "nekhliudof," says he. says the prince, "was your father commander in the corps of cadets?" "yes," says the other. then they began to talk in french, and i could not understand them. i suppose they were talking about family affairs. "_au revoir_," says the prince. "i am very glad to have made your acquaintance." he washed his hands, and went to get a lunch; but the other stood by the billiard-table with his cue, and was knocking the balls about. it's our business, you know, when a new man comes along, to be rather sharp: it's the best way. i took the balls, and go to put them up. he reddened, and says, "can't i play any longer?" "certainly you can," says i. "that's what billiards is for." but i don't pay any attention to him. i straighten the cues. "will you play with me?" "certainly, sir," says i. i place the balls. "shall we play for odds?" "what do you mean,--'play for odds'?" "well," says i, "you give me a half-ruble, and i crawl under the table." of course, as he had never seen that sort of thing, it seemed strange to him: he laughs. "go ahead," says he. "very well," says i, "only you must give me odds." "what!" says he, "are you a worse player than i am?" "most likely," says i. "we have few players who can be compared with you." we began to play. he certainly had the idea that he was a crack shot. it was a caution to see him shoot; but the pole sat there, and kept shouting out every time,-"ah, what a chance! ah, what a shot!" but what a man he was! his ideas were good enough, but he didn't know how to carry them out. well, as usual i lost the first game, crawled under the table, and grunted. thereupon oliver and the pole jumped down from their seats, and applauded, thumping with their cues. "splendid! do it again," they cried, "once more." well enough to cry "once more," especially for the pole. that fellow would have been glad enough to crawl under the billiard-table, or even under the blue bridge, for a half-ruble! yet he was the first to cry, "splendid! but you haven't wiped off all the dust yet." i, petrushka the marker, was pretty well known to everybody. only, of course, i did not care to show my hand yet. i lost my second game. "it does not become me at all to play with you, sir," says i. he laughs. then, as i was playing the third game, he stood forty-nine and i nothing. i laid the cue on the billiard-table, and said, "bárin, shall we play off?" "what do you mean by playing off?" says he. "how would you have it?" "you make it three rubles or nothing," says i. "why," says he, "have i been playing with you for money?" the fool! he turned rather red. very good. he lost the game. he took out his pocket-book,--quite a new one, evidently just from the english shop,--opened it: i see he wanted to make a little splurge. it is stuffed full of bills,--nothing but hundred-ruble notes. "no," says he, "there's no small stuff here." he took three rubles from his purse. "there," says he, "there's your two rubles; the other pays for the games, and you keep the rest for vodka." "thank you, sir, most kindly." i see that he is a splendid fellow. for such a one i would crawl under any thing. for one thing, it's a pity that he won't play for money. for then, thinks i, i should know how to work him for twenty rubles, and maybe i could stretch it out to forty. as soon as the pole saw the young man's money, he says, "wouldn't you like to try a little game with me? you play so admirably." such sharpers prowl around. "no," says the young man, "excuse me: i have not the time." and he went out. i don't know who that man was, that pole. some one called him _pan_ or the pole, and so it stuck to him. every day he used to sit in the billiard-room, and always look on. he was no longer allowed to take a hand in any game whatever; but he always sat by himself, and got out his pipe, and smoked. but then he could play well. very good. nekhliudof came a second time, a third time; he began to come frequently. he would come morning and evening. he learned to play french carom and pyramid pool,--every thing in fact. he became less bashful, got acquainted with everybody, and played tolerably well. of course, being a young man of a good family, with money, everybody liked him. the only exception was the "big guest:" he quarrelled with him. and the whole thing grew out of a trifle. they were playing pool,--the prince, the big guest, nekhliudof, oliver, and some one else. nekhliudof was standing near the stove talking with some one. when it came the big man's turn to play, it happened that his ball was just opposite the stove. there was very little space there, and he liked to have elbow-room. now, either he didn't see nekhliudof, or he did it on purpose; but, as he was flourishing his cue, he hit nekhliudof in the chest, a tremendous rap. it actually made him groan. what then? he did not think of apologizing, he was so boorish. he even went further: he didn't look at him; he walks off grumbling,-"who's jostling me there? it made me miss my shot. why can't we have some room?" then the other went up to him, pale as a sheet, but quite self-possessed, and says so politely,-"you ought first, sir, to apologize: you struck me," says he. "catch me apologizing now! i should have won the game," says he, "but now you have spoiled it for me." then the other one says, "you ought to apologize." "get out of my way! i insist upon it, i won't." and he turned away to look after his ball. nekhliudof went up to him, and took him by the arm. "you're a boor," says he, "my dear sir." though he was a slender young fellow, almost like a girl, still he was all ready for a quarrel. his eyes flash fire; he looks as if he could eat him alive. the big guest was a strong, tremendous fellow, no match for nekhliudof. "wha-at!" says he, "you call me a boor?" yelling out these words, he raises his hand to strike him. then everybody there rushed up, and seized them both by the arms, and separated them. after much talk, nekhliudof says, "let him give me satisfaction: he has insulted me." "not at all," said the other. "i don't care a whit about any satisfaction. he's nothing but a boy, a mere nothing. i'll pull his ears for him." "if you aren't willing to give me satisfaction, then you are no gentleman." and, saying this, he almost cried. "well, and you, you are a little boy: nothing you say or do can offend me." well, we separated them,--led them off, as the custom is, to different rooms. nekhliudof and the prince were friends. "go," says the former; "for god's sake make him listen to reason." the prince went. the big man says, "i ain't afraid of any one," says he. "i am not going to have any explanation with such a baby. i won't do it, and that's the end of it." well, they talked and talked, and then the matter died out, only the big guest ceased to come to us any more. as a result of this,--this row, i might call it,--he was regarded as quite the cock of the walk. he was quick to take offence,--i mean nekhliudof,--as to so many other things, however, he was as unsophisticated as a new-born babe. i remember once, the prince says to nekhliudof, "whom do you keep here?" "no one," says he. "what do you mean,--'no one'!" "why should i?" says nekhliudof. "how so,--why should you?" "i have always lived thus. why shouldn't i continue to live the same way?" "you don't say so? did you ever!" and saying this, the prince burst into a peal of laughter, and the whiskered bárin also roared. they couldn't get over it. "what, never?" they asked. "never!" they were dying with laughter. of course i understood well enough what they were laughing at him for. i keep my eyes open. "what," thinks i, "will come of it?" "come," says the prince, "come right off." "no; not for any thing," was his answer. "now, that is absurd," says the prince. "come along!" they went out. they came back at one o'clock. they sat down to supper; quite a crowd of them were assembled. some of our very best customers,--atánof, prince razin, count shustakh, mirtsof. and all congratulate nekhliudof, laughing as they do so. they call me in: i see that they are pretty jolly. "congratulate the bárin," they shout. "what on?" i ask. how did he call it? his initiation or his enlightenment; i can't remember exactly. "i have the honor," says i, "to congratulate you." and he sits there very red in the face, yet he smiles. didn't they have fun with him though! well and good. they went afterwards to the billiard-room, all very gay; and nekhliudof went up to the billiard-table, leaned on his elbow, and said,-"it's amusing to you, gentlemen," says he, "but it's sad for me. why," says he, "did i do it? prince," says he, "i shall never forgive you or myself as long as i live." and he actually burst into tears. evidently he did not know himself what he was saying. the prince went up to him with a smile. "don't talk nonsense," says he. "let's go home, anatoli." "i won't go anywhere," says the other. "why did i do that?" and the tears poured down his cheeks. he would not leave the billiard-table, and that was the end of it. that's what it means for a young and inexperienced man to.... in this way he used often to come to us. once he came with the prince, and the whiskered man who was the prince's crony; the gentlemen always called him "fedotka." he had prominent cheek-bones, and was homely enough, to be sure; but he used to dress neatly and ride in a carriage. what was the reason that the gentlemen were so fond of him? i really could not tell. "fedotka! fedotka!" they'd call, and ask him to eat and to drink, and they'd spend their money paying up for him; but he was a thorough-going beat. if ever he lost, he would be sure not to pay; but if he won, you bet he wouldn't fail to collect his money. often too he came to grief: yet there he was, walking arm in arm with the prince. "you are lost without me," he would say to the prince. "i am, fedot,"[51] says he; "but not a fedot of that sort." [footnote 51: _fedot, da nyé tot_, an untranslatable play on the word.] and what jokes he used to crack, to be sure! well, as i said, they had already arrived that time, and one of them says, "let's have the balls for three-handed pool." "all right," says the other. they began to play at three rubles a stake. nekhliudof and the prince play, and chat about all sorts of things meantime. "ah!" says one of them, "you mind only what a neat little foot she has." "oh," says the other, "her foot is nothing; her beauty is her wealth of hair." of course they paid no attention to the game, only kept on talking to one another. as to fedotka, that fellow was alive to his work; he played his very best, but they didn't do themselves justice at all. and so he won six rubles from each of them. god knows how many games he had won from the prince, yet i never knew them to pay each other any money; but nekhliudof took out two greenbacks, and handed them over to him. "no," says he, "i don't want to take your money. let's square it: play 'quits or double,'[52]--either double or nothing." [footnote 52: _kitudubl_ = fr. _quitte ou double_.] i set the balls. fedotka began to play the first hand. nekhliudof seemed to play only for fun: sometimes he would come very near winning a game, yet just fail of it. says he, "it would be too easy a move, i won't have it so." but fedotka did not forget what he was up to. carelessly he proceeded with the game, and thus, as if it were unexpectedly, won. "let us play double stakes once more," says he. "all right," says nekhliudof. once more fedotka won the game. "well," says he, "it began with a mere trifle. i don't wish to win much from you. shall we make it once more or nothing?" "yes." say what you may, but fifty rubles is a pretty sum, and nekhliudof himself began to propose, "let us make it double or quit." so they played and played. it kept going worse and worse for nekhliudof. two hundred and eighty rubles were written up against him. as to fedotka, he had his own method: he would lose a simple game, but when the stake was doubled, he would win sure. as for the prince, he sits by and looks on. he sees that the matter is growing serious. "enough!"[53] says he, "hold on." [footnote 53: _asé_ = _assez_.] my! they keep increasing the stake. at last it went so far that nekhliudof was in for more than five hundred rubles. fedotka laid down his cue, and said,-"aren't you satisfied for to-day? i'm tired," says he. yet i knew he was ready to play till dawn of day, provided there was money to be won. stratagem, of course. and the other was all the more anxious to go on. "come on! come on!" "no,--'pon my honor, i'm tired. come," says fedot; "let's go up-stairs; there you shall have your revanche." up-stairs with us meant the place where the gentlemen used to play cards. from that very day, fedotka wound his net round him so that he began to come every day. he would play one or two games of billiards, and then proceed up-stairs,--every day up-stairs. what they used to do there, god only knows; but it is a fact that from that time he began to be an entirely different kind of man, and seemed hand in glove with fedotka. formerly he used to be stylish, neat in his dress, with his hair slightly curled even; but now it would be only in the morning that he would be any thing like himself; but as soon as he had paid his visit up-stairs, he would not be at all like himself. once he came down from up-stairs with the prince, pale, his lips trembling, and talking excitedly. "i cannot permit such a one as _he_ is," says he, "to say that i am not"--how did he express himself? i cannot recollect, something like "not refined enough," or what,--"and that he won't play with me any more. i tell you i have paid him ten thousand, and i should think that he might be a little more considerate, before others, at least." "oh, bother!" says the prince, "is it worth while to lose one's temper with fedotka?" "no," says the other, "i will not let it go so." "why, old fellow, how can you think of such a thing as lowering yourself to have a row with fedotka?" "that is all very well; but there were strangers there, mind you." "well, what of that?" says the prince; "strangers? well, if you wish, i will go and make him ask your pardon." "no," says the other. and then they began to chatter in french, and i could not understand what it was they were talking about. and what would you think of it? that very evening he and fedotka ate supper together, and they became friends again. well and good. at other times again he would come alone. "well," he would say, "do i play well?" it's our business, you know, to try to make everybody contented, and so i would say, "yes, indeed;" and yet how could it be called good play, when he would poke about with his cue without any sense whatever? and from that very evening when he took in with fedotka, he began to play for money all the time. formerly he didn't care to play for stakes, either for a dinner or for champagne. sometimes the prince would say,-"let's play for a bottle of champagne." "no," he would say. "let us rather have the wine by itself. hollo there! bring a bottle!" and now he began to play for money all the time; he used to spend his entire days in our establishment. he would either play with some one in the billiard-room, or he would go "up-stairs." well, thinks i to myself, every one else gets something from him, why don't i get some advantage out of it? "well, sir," says i one day, "it's a long time since you have had a game with me." and so we began to play. well, when i won ten half-rubles of him, i says,-"don't you want to make it double or quit, sir?" he said nothing. formerly, if you remember, he would call me a fool for such a boldness. and we went to playing "quit or double." i won eighty rubles of him. well, what would you think? since that first time he used to play with me every day. he would wait till there was no one about, for of course he would have been ashamed to play with a mere marker in presence of others. once he had got rather warmed up by the play (he already owed me sixty rubles), and so he says,-"do you want to stake all you have won?" "all right," says i. i won. "one hundred and twenty to one hundred and twenty?" "all right," says i. again i won. "two hundred and forty against two hundred and forty?" "isn't that too much?" i ask. he made no reply. we played the game. once more it was mine. "four hundred and eighty against four hundred and eighty?" i says, "well, sir, i don't want to wrong you. let us make it a hundred rubles that you owe me, and call it square." you ought to have heard how he yelled at this, and yet he was not a proud man at all. "either play, or don't play!" says he. well, i see there's nothing to be done. "three hundred and eighty, then, if you please," says i. i really wanted to lose. i allowed him forty points in advance. he stood fifty-two to my thirty-six. he began to cut the yellow one, and missed eighteen points; and i was standing just at the turning-point. i made a stroke so as to knock the ball off of the billiard-table. no--so luck would have it. do what i might, he even missed the doublet. i had won again. "listen," says he. "peter,"--he did not call me _petrushka_ then,--"i can't pay you the whole right away. in a couple of months i could pay three thousand even, if it were necessary." and there he stood just as red, and his voice kind of trembled. "very good, sir," says i. with this he laid down the cue. then he began to walk up and down, up and down, the perspiration running down his face. "peter," says he, "let's try it again, double or quit." and he almost burst into tears. "what, sir, what! would you play against such luck?" "oh, let us play, i beg of you." and he brings the cue, and puts it in my hand. i took the cue, and i threw the balls on the table so that they bounced over on to the floor; i could not help showing off a little, naturally. i say, "all right, sir." but he was in such a hurry that he went and picked up the balls himself, and i thinks to myself, "anyway, i'll never be able to get the seven hundred rubles from him, so i can lose them to him all the same." i began to play carelessly on purpose. but no--he won't have it so. "why," says he, "you are playing badly on purpose." but his hands trembled, and when the ball went towards a pocket, his fingers would spread out and his mouth would screw up to one side, as if he could by any means force the ball into the pocket. even i couldn't stand it, and i say, "that won't do any good, sir." very well. as he won this game i says, "this will make it one hundred and eighty rubles you owe me, and fifty games; and now i must go and get my supper." so i laid down my cue, and went off. i went and sat down all by myself, at a small table opposite the door; and i look in and see, and wonder what he will do. well, what would you think? he began to walk up and down, up and down, probably thinking that no one's looking at him; and then he would give a pull at his hair, and then walk up and down again, and keep muttering to himself; and then he would pull his hair again. after that he wasn't seen for a week. once he came into the dining-room as gloomy as could be, but he didn't enter the billiard-room. the prince caught sight of him. "come," says he, "let's have a game." "no," says the other, "i am not going to play any more." "nonsense! come along." "no," says he, "i won't come, i tell you. for you it's all one whether i go or not, yet for me it's no good to come here." and so he did not come for ten days more. and then, it being the holidays, he came dressed up in a dress suit: he'd evidently been into company. and he was here all day long; he kept playing, and he came the next day, and the third.... and it began to go in the old style, and i thought it would be fine to have another trial with him. "no," says he, "i'm not going to play with you; and as to the one hundred and eighty rubles that i owe you, if you'll come at the end of a month, you shall have it." very good. so i went to him at the end of a month. "by god," says he, "i can't give it to you; but come back on thursday." well, i went on thursday. i found that he had a splendid suite of apartments. "well," says i, "is he at home?" "he hasn't got up yet," i was told. "very good, i will wait." for a body-servant he had one of his own serfs, such a gray-haired old man! that servant was perfectly single-minded, he didn't know any thing about beating about the bush. so we got into conversation. "well," says he, "what is the use of our living here, master and i? he's squandered all his property, and it's mighty little honor or good that we get out of this petersburg of yours. as we started from the country, i thought it would be as it was with the last bárin (may his soul rest in peace!), we would go about with princes and counts and generals; he thought to himself, 'i'll find a countess for a sweetheart, and she'll have a big dowry, and we'll live on a big scale.' but it's quite a different thing from what he expected; here we are, running about from one tavern to another as bad off as we could be! the princess rtishcheva, you know, is his own aunt, and prince borotintsef is his godfather. what do you think? he went to see them only once, that was at christmas-time; he never shows his nose there. yes, and even their people laugh about it to me. 'why,' says they, 'your bárin is not a bit like his father!' and once i take it upon myself to say to him,-"'why wouldn't you go, sir, and visit your aunt? they are feeling bad because you haven't been for so long.' "'it's stupid there, demyánitch,' says he. just to think, he found his only amusement here in the saloon! if he only would enter the service! yet, no: he has got entangled with cards and all the rest of it. when men get going that way, there's no good in any thing; nothing comes to any good.... _e-ekh!_ we are going to the dogs, and no mistake.... the late mistress (may her soul rest in peace!) left us a rich inheritance: no less than a thousand souls, and about three hundred thousand rubles worth of timber-lands. he has mortgaged it all, sold the timber, let the estate go to rack and ruin, and still no money on hand. when the master is away, of course, the overseer is more than the master. what does he care? he only cares to stuff his own pockets. "a few days ago, a couple of peasants brought complaints from the whole estate. 'he has wasted the last of the property,' they say. what do you think? he pondered over the complaints, and gave the peasants ten rubles apiece. says he, 'i'll be there very soon. i shall have some money, and i will settle all accounts when i come,' says he. "but how can he settle accounts when we are getting into debt all the time? money or no money, yet the winter here has cost eighty thousand rubles, and now there isn't a silver ruble in the house. and all owing to his kind-heartedness. you see, he's such a simple bárin that it would be hard to find his equal: that's the very reason that he's going to ruin,--going to ruin, all for nothing." and the old man almost wept. nekhliudof woke up about eleven, and called me in. "they haven't sent me any money yet," says he. "but it isn't my fault. shut the door," says he. i shut the door. "here," says he, "take my watch or this diamond pin, and pawn it. they will give you more than one hundred and eighty rubles for it, and when i get my money i will redeem it," says he. "no matter, sir," says i. "if you don't happen to have any money, it's no consequence; let me have the watch if you don't mind. i can wait for your convenience." i can see that the watch is worth more than three hundred. very good. i pawned the watch for a hundred rubles, and carried him the ticket. "you will owe me eighty rubles," says i, "and you had better redeem the watch." and so it happened that he still owed me eighty rubles. after that he began to come to us again every day. i don't know how matters stood between him and the prince, but at all events he kept coming with him all the time, or else they would go and play cards up-stairs with fedotka. and what queer accounts those three men kept between them! this one would lend money to the other, the other to the third, yet who it was that owed the money you never could find out. and in this way he kept on coming our way for well-nigh two years; only it was to be plainly seen that he was a changed man, such a devil-may-care manner he assumed at times. he even went so far at times as to borrow a ruble of me to pay a hack-driver; and yet he would still play with the prince for a hundred rubles stake. he grew gloomy, thin, sallow. as soon as he came he used to order a little glass of absinthe, take a bite of something, and drink some port wine, and then he would grow more lively. he came one time before dinner; it happened to be carnival time, and he began to play with a hussar. says he, "do you want to play for a stake?" "very well," says he. "what shall it be?" "a bottle of claude vougeaux? what do you say?" "all right." very good. the hussar won, and they went off for their dinner. they sat down at table, and then nekhliudof says, "simon, a bottle of claude vougeaux, and see that you warm it to the proper point." simon went out, brought in the dinner, but no wine. "well," says he, "where's the wine?" simon hurried out, brought in the roast. "let us have the wine," says he. simon makes no reply. "what's got into you? here we've almost finished dinner, and no wine. who wants to drink with dessert?" simon hurried out. "the landlord," says he, "wants to speak to you." nekhliudof turned scarlet. he sprang up from the table. "what's the need of calling me?" the landlord is standing at the door. says he, "i can't trust you any more, unless you settle my little bill." "well, didn't i tell you that i would pay the first of the month?" "that will be all very well," says the landlord, "but i can't be all the time giving credit, and having no settlement. there are more than ten thousand rubles of debts outstanding now," says he. "well, that'll do, _monshoor_, you know that you can trust me! send the bottle, and i assure you that i will pay you very soon." and he hurried back. "what was it? why did they call you out?" asked the hussar. "oh, some one wanted to ask me a question." "now it would be a good time," says the hussar, "to have a little warm wine to drink." "simon, hurry up!" simon came back, but still no wine, nothing. too bad! he left the table, and came to me. "for god's sake," says he, "petrushka, let me have six rubles!" he was pale as a sheet. "no, sir," says i: "by god, you owe me quite too much now." "i will give forty rubles for six, in a week's time." "if only i had it," says i, "i should not think of refusing you, but i haven't." what do you think! he rushed away, his teeth set, his fist doubled up, and ran down the corridor like one mad, and all at once he gave himself a knock on the forehead. "o my god!" says he, "what has it come to?" but he did not return to the dining-room; he jumped into a carriage, and drove away. didn't we have our laugh over it! the hussar asks,-"where is the gentleman who was dining with me?" "he has gone," said some one. "where has he gone? what message did he leave?" "he didn't leave any; he just took to his carriage, and went off." "that's a fine way of entertaining a man!" says he. now, thinks i to myself, it'll be a long time before he comes again after this; that is, on account of this scandal. but no. on the next day he came about evening. he came into the billiard-room. he had a sort of a box in his hand. took off his overcoat. "now let us have a game," says he. he looked out from under his eyebrows, rather fierce like. we played a game. "that's enough now," says he: "go and bring me a pen and paper; i must write a letter." not thinking any thing, not suspecting any thing, i bring some paper, and put it on the table in the little room. "it's all ready, sir," says i. "very good." he sat down at the table. he kept on writing and writing, and muttering to himself all the time: then he jumps up, and, frowning, says, "look and see if my carriage has come yet." it was on a friday, during carnival time, and so there weren't any of the customers on hand; they were all at some ball. i went to see about the carriage, and just as i was going out of the door, "petrushka! petrushka!" he shouted, as if something suddenly frightened him. i turn round. i see he's pale as a sheet, standing here and looking at me. "did you call me, sir?" says i. he makes no reply. "what do you want?" says i. he says nothing. "oh, yes!" says he. "let's have another game." then says he, "haven't i learned to play pretty well?" he had just won the game. "yes," says i. "all right," says he; "go now, and see about my carriage." he himself walked up and down the room. without thinking any thing, i went down to the door. i didn't see any carriage at all. i started to go up again. just as i am going up, i hear what sounds like the thud of a billiard-cue. i go into the billiard-room. i notice a peculiar smell. i look around; and there he is lying on the floor in a pool of blood, with a pistol beside him. i was so scared that i could not speak a word. he keeps twitching, twitching his leg; and stretched himself a little. then he sort of snored, and stretched out his full length in such a strange way. and god knows why such a sin came about,--how it was that it occurred to him to ruin his own soul,--but as to what he left written on this paper, i don't understand it at all. truly, you can never account for what is going on in the world. * * * * * "god gave me all that a man can desire,--wealth, name, intellect, noble aspirations. i wanted to enjoy myself, and i trod in the mire all that was best in me. i have done nothing dishonorable, i am not unfortunate, i have not committed any crime; but i have done worse: i have destroyed my feelings, my intellect, my youth. i became entangled in a filthy net, from which i could not escape, and to which i could not accustom myself. i feel that i am falling lower and lower every moment, and i cannot stop my fall. "and what ruined me? was there in me some strange passion which i might plead as an excuse? no! "my recollections are pleasant. one fearful moment of forgetfulness, which can never be erased from my mind, led me to come to my senses. i shuddered when i saw what a measureless abyss separated me from what i desired to be, and might have been. in my imagination arose the hopes, the dreams, and the thoughts of my youth. "where are those lofty thoughts of life, of eternity, of god, which at times filled my soul with light and strength? where that aimless power of love which kindled my heart with its comforting warmth?... "but how good and happy i might have been, had i trodden that path which, at the very entrance of life, was pointed out to me by my fresh mind and true feelings! more than once did i try to go from the ruts in which my life ran, into that sacred path. "i said to myself, now i will use my whole strength of will; and yet i could not do it. when i happened to be alone, i felt awkward and timid. when i was with others, i no longer heard the inward voice; and i fell all the time lower and lower. "at last i came to a terrible conviction that it was impossible for me to lift myself from this low plane. i ceased to think about it, and i wished to forget all; but hopeless repentance worried me still more and more. then, for the first time, the thought of suicide occurred to me.... "i once thought that the nearness of death would rouse my soul. i was mistaken. in a quarter of an hour i shall be no more, yet my view has not in the least changed. i see with the same eyes, i hear with the same ears, i think the same thoughts; there is the same strange incoherence, unsteadiness, and lightness in my thoughts.".... albert. _a story._ 1857. i. five rich young men went at three o'clock in the morning to a ball in petersburg to have a good time. much champagne was drunk; a majority of the gentlemen were very young; the girls were pretty; a pianist and a fiddler played indefatigably one polka after another; there was no cease to the noise of conversation and dancing. but there was a sense of awkwardness and constraint; every one felt somehow or other--and this is not unusual--that all was not as it should be. there were several attempts made to make things more lively, but simulated liveliness is much worse than melancholy. one of the five young men, who was more discontented than any one else, both with himself and with the others, and who had been feeling all the evening a sense of disgust, took his hat, and went out noiselessly on purpose, intending to go home. there was no one in the ante-room, but in the next room at the door he heard two voices disputing. the young man paused, and listened. "it is impossible, there are guests in there," said a woman's voice. "come, let me in, please. i will not do any harm," urged a man in a gentle voice. "indeed i will not without madame's permission," said the woman. "where are you going? oh, what a man you are!" the door was flung open, and on the threshold appeared the figure of a stranger. seeing a guest, the maid ceased to detain the man; and the stranger, timidly bowing, came into the room with a somewhat unsteady gait. he was a man of medium stature, with a lank, crooked back, and long dishevelled hair. he wore a short paletot, and tight ragged pantaloons over coarse dirty boots. his necktie, twisted into a string, exposed his long white neck. his shirt was filthy, and the sleeves came down over his lean hands. but, notwithstanding his thoroughly emaciated body, his face was attractive and fair; and a fresh color even mantled his cheeks under his thin dark beard and side-whiskers. his dishevelled locks, thrown back, exposed a low and remarkably pure forehead. his dark, languid eyes looked unswervingly forward with an expression of serenity, submission, and sweetness, which made a fascinating combination with the expression of his fresh, curved lips, visible under his thin moustache. advancing a few steps, he paused, turned to the young man, and smiled. he found it apparently rather hard to smile. but his face was so lighted up by it, that the young man, without knowing why, smiled in return. "who is that man?" he asked of the maid in a whisper, as the stranger walked toward the room where the dancing was going on. "a crazy musician from the theatre," replied the maid. "he sometimes comes to call upon madame." "where are you going, delesof?" some one at this moment called from the drawing-room. the young man who was called delesof returned to the drawing-room. the musician was now standing at the door; and, as his eyes fell on the dancers, he showed by his smile and by the beating of his foot how much pleasure this spectacle afforded him. "won't you come, and have a dance too?" said one of the guests to him. the musician bowed, and looked at the hostess inquiringly. "come, come. why not, since the gentlemen have invited you?" said the hostess. the musician's thin, weak face suddenly assumed an expression of decision; and smiling and winking, and shuffling his feet, he awkwardly, clumsily went to join the dancers in the drawing-room. in the midst of a quadrille a jolly officer, who was dancing very beautifully and with great liveliness, accidentally hit the musician in the back. his weak, weary legs lost their equilibrium; and the musician, making ineffectual struggles to keep his balance, measured his length on the floor. notwithstanding the sharp, hard sound made by his fall, almost everybody at the first moment laughed. but the musician did not rise. the guests grew silent, even the piano ceased to sound. delesof and the hostess were the first to reach the prostrate musician. he was lying on his elbow, and gloomily looking at the ground. when he had been lifted to his feet, and set in a chair, he threw back his hair from his forehead with a quick motion of his bony hand, and began to smile without replying to the questions that were put. "mr. albert! mr. albert!" exclaimed the hostess. "were you hurt? where? now, i told you that you had better not try to dance.... he is so weak," she added, addressing her guests. "it takes all his strength." "who is he?" some one asked the hostess. "a poor man, an artist. a very nice young fellow; but he's a sad case, as you can see." she said this without paying the least heed to the musician's presence. he suddenly opened his eyes as though frightened at something, collected himself, and remarked to those who were standing about him, "it's nothing at all," said he suddenly, arising from the chair with evident effort. and in order to show that he had suffered no injury, he went into the middle of the room, and was going to dance; but he tottered, and would have fallen again, had he not been supported. everybody felt constrained. all looked at him, and no one spoke. the musician's glance again lost its vivacity; and, apparently forgetting that any one was looking, he put his hand to his knee. suddenly he raised his head, advanced one faltering foot, and, with the same awkward gesture as before, tossed back his hair, and went to a violin-case, and took out the instrument. "it was nothing at all," said he again, waving the violin. "gentlemen, we will have a little music." "what a strange face!" said the guests among themselves. "maybe there is great talent lurking in that unhappy creature," said one of them. "yes: it's a sad case,--a sad case," said another. "what a lovely face!... there is something extraordinary about it," said delesof. "let us have a look at him."... ii. albert by this time, not paying attention to any one, had raised his violin to his shoulder, and was slowly crossing over to the piano, and tuning his instrument. his lips were drawn into an expression of indifference, his eyes were almost shut; but his lank, bony back, his long white neck, his crooked legs, and disorderly black hair presented a strange but somehow not entirely ridiculous appearance. after he had tuned his violin, he struck a quick chord, and, throwing back his head, turned to the pianist who was waiting to accompany him. "_melancholie, g sharp_," he said, turning to the pianist with a peremptory gesture. and immediately after, as though in apology for his peremptory gesture, he smiled sweetly, and with the same smile turned to his audience again. tossing back his hair with the hand that held the bow, albert stood at one side of the piano, and, with a flowing motion of the bow, touched the strings. through the room there swept a pure, harmonious sound, which instantly brought absolute silence. at first, it was as though a ray of unexpectedly brilliant light had flashed across the inner world of each hearer's consciousness; and the notes of the theme immediately followed, pouring forth abundant and beautiful. not one discordant or imperfect note distracted the attention of the listeners. all the tones were clear, beautiful, and full of meaning. all silently, with trembling expectation, followed the development of the theme. from a state of tedium, of noisy gayety, or of deep drowsiness, into which these people had fallen, they were suddenly transported to a world whose existence they had forgotten. in one instant there arose in their souls, now a sentiment as though they were contemplating the past, now of passionate remembrance of some happiness, now the boundless longing for power and glory, now the feelings of humility, of unsatisfied love, and of melancholy. now bitter-sweet, now vehemently despairing, the notes, freely intermingling, poured forth and poured forth, so sweetly, so powerfully, and so spontaneously, that it was not so much that sounds were heard, as that some sort of beautiful stream of poetry, long known, but now for the first time expressed, gushed through the soul. at each note that he played, albert grew taller and taller. at a little distance, he had no appearance of being either crippled or peculiar. pressing the violin to his chin, and with an expression of listening with passionate attention to the tones that he produced, he convulsively moved his feet. now he straightened himself up to his full height, now thoughtfully leaned forward. his left hand, curving over spasmodically on the strings, seemed as though it had swooned in its position, while it was only the bony fingers that changed about spasmodically; the right hand moved smoothly, gracefully, without effort. his face shone with complete, enthusiastic delight; his eyes gleamed with a radiant, steely light; his nostrils quivered, his red lips were parted in rapture. sometimes his head bent down closer to his violin, his eyes almost closed, and his face, half shaded by his long locks, lighted up with a smile of genuine blissfulness. sometimes he quickly straightened himself up, changed from one leg to the other, and his pure forehead, and the radiant look which he threw around the room, were alive with pride, greatness, and the consciousness of power. once the pianist made a mistake, and struck a false chord. physical pain was apparent in the whole form and face of the musician. he paused for a second, and with an expression of childish anger stamped his foot, and cried, "_moll, ce moll!_" the pianist corrected his mistake; albert closed his eyes, smiled, and, again forgetting himself and everybody else, gave himself up with beatitude to his work. everybody who was in the room while albert was playing preserved an attentive silence, and seemed to live and breathe only in the music. the gay officer sat motionless in a chair by the window, with his eyes fixed upon the floor, and drawing long heavy sighs. the girls, awed by the universal silence, sat along by the walls, only occasionally exchanging glances expressive of satisfaction or perplexity. the fat smiling face of the hostess was radiant with happiness. the pianist kept his eyes fixed on albert's face, and while his whole figure from head to foot showed his solicitude lest he should make some mistake, he did his best to follow him. one of the guests, who had been drinking more heavily than the rest, lay at full length on the sofa, and tried not to move lest he should betray his emotion. delesof experienced an unusual sensation. it seemed as though an icy band, now contracting, now expanding, were pressed upon his head. the roots of his hair seemed endued with consciousness; the cold shivers ran down his back, something rose higher and higher in his throat, his nose and palate were full of little needles, and the tears stole down his cheeks. he shook himself, tried to swallow them back and wipe them away without attracting attention, but fresh tears followed and streamed down his face. by some sort of strange association of impressions, the first tones of albert's violin carried delesof back to his early youth. old before his time, weary of life, a broken man, he suddenly felt as though he were a boy of seventeen again, self-satisfied and handsome, blissfully dull, unconsciously happy. he remembered his first love for his cousin who wore a pink dress, he remembered his first confession of it in the linden alley; he remembered the warmth and the inexpressible charm of the fortuitous kiss; he remembered the immensity and enigmatical mystery of nature as it surrounded them then. in his imagination as it went back in its flight, _she_ gleamed in a mist of indefinite hopes, of incomprehensible desires, and the indubitable faith in the possibility of impossible happiness. all the priceless moments of that time, one after the other, arose before him, not like unmeaning instants of the fleeting present, but like the immutable, full-formed, reproachful images of the past. he contemplated them with rapture, and wept,--wept not because the time had passed and he might have spent it more profitably (if that time had been given to him again he would not have spent it any more profitably), but he wept because it had passed and would never return. his recollections evolved themselves without effort, and albert's violin was their mouthpiece. it said, "they have passed, forever passed, the days of thy strength, of love, and of happiness; passed forever, and never will return. weep for them, shed all thy tears, let thy life pass in tears for these days; this is the only and best happiness that remains to thee." at the end of the next variation, albert's face grew serene, his eyes flushed, great clear drops of sweat poured down his cheeks. the veins swelled on his forehead; his whole body swayed more and more; his pale lips were parted, and his whole figure expressed an enthusiastic craving for enjoyment. despairingly swaying with his whole body, and throwing back his hair, he laid down his violin, and with a smile of proud satisfaction and happiness gazed at the bystanders. then his back assumed its ordinary curve, his head sank, his lips grew set, his eyes lost their fire; and as though he were ashamed of himself, timidly glancing round, and stumbling, he went into the next room. iii. something strange came over all the audience, and something strange was noticeable in the dead silence that succeeded albert's playing. it was as though each desired, and yet dared not, to acknowledge the meaning of it all. what did it mean,--this brightly lighted, warm room, these brilliant women, the dawn just appearing at the windows, these hurrying pulses, and the pure impressions made by the fleeting tones of music? but no one ventured to acknowledge the meaning of it all; on the contrary, almost all, feeling incapable of throwing themselves completely under the influence of what the new impression concealed from them, rebelled against it. "well, now, he plays mighty well," said the officer. "wonderfully," replied delesof, stealthily wiping his cheek with his sleeve. "one thing sure, it's time to be going, gentlemen," said the gentleman who had been lying on the sofa, straightening himself up a little. "we'll have to give him something, gentlemen. let us make a collection." at this time, albert was sitting alone in the next room, on the sofa. as he supported himself with his elbows on his bony knees, he smoothed his face with his dirty, sweaty hand, tossed back his hair, and smiled at his own happy thoughts. a large collection was taken up, and delesof was chosen to present it. aside from this, delesof, who had been so keenly and unwontedly affected by the music, had conceived the thought of conferring some benefit upon this man. it came into his head to take him home with him, to feed him, to establish him somewhere,--in other words, to lift him from his vile position. "well, are you tired?" asked delesof, approaching him. albert replied with a smile. "you have creative talent; you ought seriously to devote yourself to music, to play in public." "i should like to have something to drink," exclaimed albert, as though suddenly waking up. delesof brought him some wine, and the musician greedily drained two glasses. "what splendid wine!" he exclaimed. "what a lovely thing that _melancholie_ is!" said delesof. "oh, yes, yes," replied albert with a smile. "but pardon me, i do not know with whom i have the honor to be talking; maybe you are a count or a prince. couldn't you let me have a little money?" he paused for a moment. "i have nothing--i am a poor man: i couldn't pay it back to you." delesof flushed, grew embarrassed, and hastened to hand the musician the money that had been collected for him. "very much obliged to you," said albert, seizing the money. "now let us have some more music; i will play for you as much as you wish. only let me have something to drink, something to drink," he repeated, as he started to his feet. delesof gave him some more wine, and asked him to sit down by him. "pardon me if i am frank with you," said delesof. "your talent has interested me so much. it seems to me that you are in a wretched position." albert glanced now at delesof, now at the hostess, who just then came into the room. "permit me to help you," continued delesof. "if you need any thing, then i should be very glad if you would come and stay with me for a while. i live alone, and maybe i could be of some service to you." albert smiled, and made no reply. "why don't you thank him?" said the hostess. "it seems to me that this would be a capital thing for you.--only i would not advise you," she continued, turning to delesof, and shaking her head warningly. "very much obliged to you," said albert, seizing delesof's hand with both his moist ones. "only now let us have some music, please." but the rest of the guests were already making their preparations to depart; and as albert did not address them, they came out into the ante-room. albert bade the hostess farewell; and having taken his worn hat with wide brim, and a last summer's _alma viva_, which composed his only protection against the winter, he went with delesof down the steps. as soon as delesof took his seat in his carriage with his new friend, and became conscious of that unpleasant odor of intoxication and filthiness exhaled by the musician, he began to repent of the step that he had taken, and to curse himself for his childish softness of heart and lack of reason. moreover, all that albert said was so foolish and in such bad taste, and he seemed so near a sudden state of beastly intoxication, that delesof was disgusted. "what shall i do with him?" he asked himself. after they had been driving for a quarter of an hour, albert relapsed into silence, took off his hat, and laid it on his knee, then threw himself into a corner of the carriage, and began to snore.... the wheels crunched monotonously over the frozen snow, the feeble light of dawn scarcely made its way through the frosty windows. delesof glanced at his companion. his long body, wrapped in his mantle, lay almost lifeless near him. it seemed to him that a long head with large black nose was swaying on his trunk; but on examining more closely he perceived that what he took to be nose and face was the man's hair, and that his actual face was lower down. he bent over, and studied the features of albert's face. then the beauty of his brow and of his peacefully closed mouth once more charmed him. under the influence of nervous excitement caused by the sleepless hours of the long night and the music, delesof, as he looked at that face, was once more carried back to the blessed world of which he had caught a glimpse once before that night; again he remembered the happy and magnanimous time of his youth, and he ceased to repent of his rashness. at that moment he loved albert truly and warmly, and firmly resolved to be a benefactor to him. iv. the next morning when delesof was awakened to go to his office, he saw, with an unpleasant feeling of surprise, his old screen, his old servant, and his clock on the table. "what did i expect to see if not the usual objects that surround me?" he asked himself. then he recollected the musician's black eyes and happy smile; the motive of the _melancholie_ and all the strange experiences of the night came back into his consciousness. it was never his way, however, to reconsider whether he had done wisely or foolishly in taking the musician home with him. after he had dressed, he carefully laid out his plans for the day: he took some paper, wrote out some necessary directions for the house, and hastily put on his cloak and galoshes. as he went by the dining-room he glanced in at the door. albert, with his face buried in the pillow and lying at full length in his dirty, tattered shirt, was buried in the profoundest slumber on the saffron sofa, where in absolute unconsciousness he had been laid the night before. delesof felt that something was not right: it disturbed him. "please go for me to boriuzovsky, and borrow his violin for a day or two," said he to his man; "and when he wakes up, bring him some coffee, and get him some clean linen and some old suit or other of mine. fix him up as well as you can, please." when he returned home in the afternoon, delesof, to his surprise, found that albert was not there. "where is he?" he asked of his man. "he went out immediately after dinner," replied the servant. "he took the violin, and went out, saying that he would be back again in an hour; but since that time we have not seen him." "ta, ta! how provoking!" said delesof. "why did you let him go, zakhár?" zakhár was a petersburg lackey, who had been in delesof's service for eight years. delesof, as a single young bachelor, could not help intrusting him with his plans; and he liked to get his judgment in regard to each of his undertakings. "how should i have ventured to detain him?" replied zakhár, playing with his watch-charms. "if you had intimated, dmitri ivánovitch, that you wished me to keep him here, i might have kept him at home. but you only spoke of his wardrobe." "ta! how vexatious! well, what has he been doing while i was out?" zakhár smiled. "indeed, he's a real artist, as you may say, dmitri ivánovitch. as soon as he woke up he asked for some madeira: then he began to keep the cook and me pretty busy. such an absurd.... however, he's a very interesting character. i brought him some tea, got some dinner ready for him; but he would not eat alone, so he asked me to sit down with him. but when he began to play on the fiddle, then i knew that you would not find many such artists at izler's. one might well keep such a man. when he played 'down the little mother volga' for us, why, it was enough to make a man weep. it was too good for any thing! the people from all the floors came down into our entry to listen." "well, did you give him some clothes?" asked the bárin. "certainly i did: i gave him your dress-shirt, and i put on him an overcoat of mine. you want to help such a man as that, he's a fine fellow." zakhár smiled. "he asked me what rank you were, and if you had had important acquaintances, and how many _souls_ of peasantry you had." "very good: but now we must send and find him; and henceforth don't give him any thing to drink, otherwise you'll do him more harm than good." "that is true," said zakhár in assent. "he doesn't seem in very robust health: we used to have an overseer who, like him".... delesof, who had already long ago heard the story of the drunken overseer, did not give zakhár time to finish, but bade him make every thing ready for the night, and then go out and bring the musician back. he threw himself down on his bed, and put out the candle; but it was long before he fell asleep, for thinking about albert. "this may seem strange to some of my friends," said delesof to himself, "but how seldom it is that i can do any thing for any one beside myself! and i ought to thank god for a chance when one presents itself. i will not send him away. i will do every thing, at least every thing that i can, to help him. maybe he is not absolutely crazy, but only inclined to get drunk. it certainly will not cost me very much. where one is, there is always enough to satisfy two. let him live with me a while, and then we will find him a place, or get him up a concert; we'll help him off the shoals, and then there will be time enough to see what will come of it." an agreeable sense of self-satisfaction came over him after making this resolution. "certainly i am not a bad man: i might say i am far from being a bad man," he thought. "i might go so far as to say that i am a good man, when i compare myself with others." he was just dropping off to sleep when the sound of opening doors, and steps in the ante-room, roused him again. "well, shall i treat him rather severely?" he asked himself; "i suppose that is best, and i ought to do it." he rang. "well, did you find him?" he asked of zakhár, who answered his call. "he's a poor, wretched fellow, dmitri ivánovitch," said zakhár, shaking his head significantly, and closing his eyes. "what! is he drunk?" "very weak." "had he the violin with him?" "i brought it: the lady gave it to me." "all right. now please don't bring him to me to-night: let him sleep it off; and to-morrow don't under any circumstances let him out of the house." but before zakhár had time to leave the room, albert came in. v. "you don't mean to say that you've gone to bed at this time," said albert with a smile. "i was there again, at anna ivánovna's. i spent a very pleasant evening. we had music, told stories; there was a very pleasant company there. please let me have a glass of something to drink," he added, seizing a carafe of water that stood on the table, "only not water." albert was just as he had been the night before,--the same lovely smiling eyes and lips, the same fresh inspired brow, and weak features. zakhár's overcoat fitted him as though it had been made for him, and the clean, tall, stiffly-starched collar of the dress-shirt picturesquely fitted around his delicate white neck, giving him a peculiarly childlike and innocent appearance. he sat down on delesof's bed, smiling with pleasure and gratitude, and looked at him without speaking. delesof gazed into albert's eyes, and suddenly felt himself once under the sway of that smile. all desire for sleep vanished from him, he forgot his resolution to be stern: on the contrary, he felt like having a gay time, to hear some music, and to talk confidentially with albert till morning. delesof bade zakhár bring a bottle of wine, cigarettes, and the violin. "this is excellent," said albert. "it's early yet, we'll have a little music. i will play whatever you like." zakhár, with evident satisfaction, brought a bottle of lafitte, two glasses, some mild cigarettes such as albert smoked, and the violin. but, instead of going off to bed as his bárin bade him, he lighted a cigar, and sat down in the next room. "let us talk instead," said delesof to the musician, who was beginning to tune the violin. albert sat down submissively on the bed, and smiled pleasantly. "oh, yes!" said he, suddenly striking his forehead with his hand, and putting on an expression of anxious curiosity. the expression of his face always foretold what he was going to say. "i wanted to ask you,"--he hesitated a little,--"that gentleman who was there with you last evening.... you called him n. was he the son of the celebrated n.?" "his own son," replied delesof, not understanding at all what albert could find of interest in him. "indeed!" he exclaimed, smiling with satisfaction. "i instantly noticed that there was something peculiarly aristocratic in his manners. i love aristocrats. there is something splendid and elegant about an aristocrat. and that officer who danced so beautifully," he went on to ask. "he also pleased me very much, he was so gay and noble looking. it seems he is called adjutant n. n." "who?" asked delesof. "the one who ran into me when we were dancing. he must be a splendid man." "no, he is a silly fellow," replied delesof. "oh, no! it can't be," rejoined albert hotly. "there's something very, very pleasant about him. and he's a fine musician," added albert. "he played something from an opera. it's a long time since i have seen any one who pleased me so much." "yes, he plays very well; but i don't like his playing," said delesof, anxious to bring his companion to talk about music. "he does not understand classic music, but only donizetti and bellini; and that's no music, you know. you agree with me, don't you?" "oh, no, no! pardon me," replied albert with a gentle expression of vindication. "the old music is music; but modern music is music too. and in the modern music there are extraordinarily beautiful things. now, 'somnambula,' and the _finale_ of 'lucia,' and chopin, and 'robert'! i often think,"--he hesitated, apparently collecting his thoughts,--"that if beethoven were alive, he would weep tears of joy to hear 'somnambula.' it's so beautiful all through. i heard 'somnambula' first when viardot and rubini were here. that was something worth while," he said, with shining eyes, and making a gesture with both hands, as though he were casting something from his breast. "i'd give a good deal, but it would be impossible, to bring it back." "well, but how do you like the opera nowadays?" asked delesof. "bosio is good, very good," was his reply, "exquisite beyond words; but she does not touch me here," he said, pointing to his sunken chest. "a singer must have passion, and she hasn't any. she is enjoyable, but she doesn't torture you." "well, how about lablache?" "i heard him in paris, in 'the barber of seville.' then he was the only one, but now he is old. he can't be an artist, he is old." "well, supposing he is old, still he is fine in _morceaux d'ensemble_," said delesof, still speaking of lablache. "who said that he was old?" said albert severely. "he can't be old. the artist can never be old. much is needed in an artist, but fire most of all," he declared with glistening eyes, and raising both hands in the air. and, indeed, a terrible inner fire seemed to glow throughout his whole frame. "ah, my god!" he exclaimed suddenly. "you don't know petrof, do you,--petrof, the artist?" "no, i don't know him," replied delesof with a smile. "how i wish that you and he might become acquainted! you would enjoy talking with him. how he does understand art! he and i often used to meet at anna ivánovna's, but now she is vexed with him for some reason or other. but i really wish that you might make his acquaintance. he has great, great talent." "oh! does he paint pictures?" asked delesof. "i don't know. no, i think not; but he was an artist of the academy. what thoughts he had! whenever he talks, it is wonderful. oh, petrof has great talent, only he leads a very gay life!... it's too bad," said albert with a smile. the next moment he got up from the bed, took the violin, and began to play. "have you been at the opera lately?" asked delesof. albert looked round, and sighed. "ah, i have not been able to!" he said, clutching his head. again he sat down by delesof. "i will tell you," he went on to say, almost in a whisper. "i can't go: i can't play there. i have nothing, nothing at all,--no clothes, no home, no violin. it's a wretched life,--a wretched life!" he repeated the phrase. "yes, and why have i got into such a state? why, indeed? it ought not to have been," said he, smiling. "_akh! don juan._" and he struck his head. "now let us have something to eat," said delesof. albert, without replying, sprang up, seized the violin, and began to play the _finale_ of the first act of "don juan," accompanying it with a description of the scene in the opera. delesof felt the hair stand up on his head, when he played the voice of the dying commander. "no, i cannot play to-night," said albert, laying down the instrument. "i have been drinking too much." but immediately after he went to the table, poured out a brimming glass of wine, drank it at one gulp, and again sat down on the bed near delesof. delesof looked steadily at albert. the latter occasionally smiled, and delesof returned his smile. neither of them spoke, but the glance and smile brought them close together into a reciprocity of affection. delesof felt that he was growing constantly fonder and fonder of this man, and he experienced an inexpressible pleasure. "were you ever in love?" he asked suddenly. albert remained sunk in thought for a few seconds, then his face lighted up with a melancholy smile. he bent over toward delesof, and gazed straight into his eyes. "why did you ask me that question?" he whispered. "but i will tell you all about it. i like you," he added, after a few moments of thought, and glancing around. "i will not deceive you, i will tell you all, just as it was, from the beginning." he paused, and his eyes took on a strange wild appearance. "you know that i am weak in judgment," he said suddenly. "yes, yes," he continued. "anna ivánovna has told you about it. she tells everybody that i am crazy. it isn't true, she says it for a joke; she is a good woman, but i really have not been quite well for some time." albert paused again, and stood up, gazing with wide-opened eyes at the dark door. "you asked me if i had ever been in love. yes, i have been in love," he whispered, raising his brows. "that happened long ago; it was at a time when i still had a place at the theatre. i went to play second violin at the opera, and she came into a parquet box at the left." albert stood up, and bent over to delesof's ear. "but no," said he, "why should i mention her name? you probably know her, everybody knows her. i said nothing, but simply looked at her: i knew that i was a poor artist, and she an aristocratic lady. i knew that very well. i only looked at her, and had no thoughts." albert paused for a moment, as though making sure of his recollections. "how it happened i know not, but i was invited once to accompany her on my violin.... now i was only a poor artist!" he repeated, shaking his head and smiling. "but no, i cannot tell you, i cannot!" he exclaimed, again clutching his head. "how happy i was!" "what? did you go to her house often?" asked delesof. "once, only once.... but it was my own fault; i wasn't in my right mind. i was a poor artist, and she an aristocratic lady. i ought not to have spoken to her. but i lost my senses, i committed a folly. petrof told me the truth: 'it would have been better only to have seen her at the theatre.'" "what did you do?" asked delesof. "ah! wait, wait, i cannot tell you that." and, hiding his face in his hands, he said nothing for some time. "i was late at the orchestra. petrof and i had been drinking that evening, and i was excited. she was sitting in her box, and talking with some general. i don't know who that general was. she was sitting at the very edge of the box, with her arm resting on the rim. she wore a white dress, with pearls on her neck. she was talking with him, but she looked at me. twice she looked at me. she had arranged her hair in such a becoming way! i stopped playing, and stood near the bass, and gazed at her. then, for the first time, something strange took place in me. she smiled on the general, but she looked at me. i felt certain that she was talking about me; and suddenly i seemed to be not in my place in the orchestra, but was standing in her box, and seizing her hand in that place. what was the meaning of that?" asked albert, after a moment's silence. "a powerful imagination," said delesof. "no, no, ... i cannot tell," said albert frowning. "even then i was poor. i hadn't any room; and when i went to the theatre, i sometimes used to sleep there." "what, in the theatre?" asked delesof. "ah! i am not afraid of these stupid things. ah! just wait a moment. as soon as everybody was gone, i went to that box where she had been sitting, and slept there. that was my only pleasure. how many nights i spent there! only once again did i have that experience. at night many things seemed to come to me. but i cannot tell you much about them." albert contracted his brows, and looked at delesof. "what did it mean?" he asked. "it was strange," replied the other. "no, wait, wait!" he bent over to his ear, and said in a whisper,-"i kissed her hand, wept there before her, and said many things to her. i heard the fragrance of her sighs, i heard her voice. she said many things to me that one night. then i took my violin, and began to play softly. and i played beautifully. but it became terrible to me. i am not afraid of such stupid things, and i don't believe in them, but my head felt terribly," he said, smiling sweetly, and moving his hand over his forehead. "it seemed terrible to me on account of my poor mind; something happened in my head. maybe it was nothing; what do you think?" neither spoke for several minutes. _"und wenn die wolken sie verhüllen, die sonne bleibt doch ewig klar._[54]" hummed albert, smiling gently. "that is true, isn't it?" he asked. _"ich auch habe gelebt und genossen."_[55] [footnote 54: e'en though the clouds may veil it, the sun shines ever clear. ] [footnote 55: i also have lived and rejoiced. ] "ah, old man petrof! how this would have made things clear to you!" delesof, in silence and with dismay, looked at his companion's excited and colorless face. "do you know the juristen waltzes?" suddenly asked albert in a loud voice, and without waiting for an answer, jumped up, seized the violin, and began to play the waltz. in absolute self-forgetfulness, and evidently imagining that a whole orchestra was playing for him, albert smiled, began to dance, to shuffle his feet, and to play admirably. "hey, we will have a good time!" he exclaimed, as he ended, and waved his violin. "i am going," said he, after sitting down in silence for a little. "won't you come along too?" "where?" asked delesof in surprise. "let us go to anna ivánovna's again. it's gay there,--bustle, people, music." delesof for a moment was almost persuaded. however, coming to his senses, he promised albert that he would go with him the next day. "i should like to go this minute." "indeed, i wouldn't go." albert sighed, and laid down the violin. "shall i stay, then?" he looked over at the table, but the wine was gone; and so, wishing him a good-night, he left the room. delesof rang. "look here," said he to zakhár, "don't let mr. albert go anywhere without asking me about it first." vi. the next day was a holiday. delesof, on waking, sat in his parlor, drinking his coffee and reading a book. albert, who was in the next room, had not yet moved. zakhár discreetly opened the door, and looked into the dining-room. "would you believe it, dmitri ivánovitch, there he lies asleep on the bare sofa. i would not send him away for any thing, god knows. he's like a little child. indeed, he's an artist!" at twelve o'clock, there was a sound of yawning and coughing on the other side of the door. zakhár again crept into the dining-room; and the bárin heard his wheedling voice, and albert's gentle, beseeching voice. "well, how is he?" asked delesof, when zakhár came out. "he feels blue, dmitri ivánovitch. he doesn't want to get dressed. he's so cross. all he asks for is something to drink." "now, if we are to get hold of him, we must strengthen his character," said delesof to himself. and, forbidding zakhár to give him any wine, he again devoted himself to his book; in spite of himself, however, listening all the time for developments in the dining-room. but there was no movement there, only occasionally were heard a heavy chest cough and spitting. two hours passed. delesof, after dressing to go out, resolved to look in upon his guest. albert was sitting motionless at the window, leaning his head on his hands. he looked round. his face was sallow, morose, and not only melancholy but deeply unhappy. he tried to welcome his host with a smile, but his face assumed a still more woe-begone expression. it seemed as though he were on the point of tears. with effort he stood up and bowed. "if i might have just a little glass of simple vodka," he exclaimed with a supplicating expression. "i am so weak. if you please!" "coffee will be more strengthening, i would advise you." albert's face lost its childish expression; he gazed coldly, sadly, out of the window, and fell back into the chair. "wouldn't you like some breakfast?" "no, thank you, i haven't any appetite." "if you want to play on the violin, you will not disturb me," said delesof, laying the instrument on the table. albert looked at the violin with a contemptuous smile. "no, i am too weak, i cannot play," he said, and pushed the instrument from him. after that, in reply to all delesof's propositions to go to walk, to go to the theatre in the evening, or any thing else, he only shook his head mournfully, and refused to speak. delesof went out, made a few calls, dined out, and before the theatre hour, he returned to his rooms to change his attire and find out how the musician was getting along. albert was sitting in the dark ante-room, and, with his head resting on his hand, was gazing at the heated stove. he was neatly dressed, washed and combed; but his eyes were sad and vacant, and his whole form expressed even more weakness and debility than in the morning. "well, have you had dinner, mr. albert?" asked delesof. albert nodded his head, and, after looking with a terrified expression at delesof, dropped his eyes. it made delesof feel uncomfortable. "i have been talking to-day with a manager," said he, also dropping his eyes. "he would be very glad to make terms with you, if you would like to accept an engagement." "i thank you, but i cannot play," said albert, almost in a whisper; and he went into his room, and closed the door as softly as possible. after a few minutes, lifting the latch as softly as possible, he came out of the room, bringing the violin. casting a sharp, angry look at delesof, he laid the instrument on the table, and again disappeared. delesof shrugged his shoulders, and smiled. "what am i to do now? wherein am i to blame?" he asked himself. "well, how is the musician?" was his first question when he returned home late that evening. "bad," was zakhár's short and ringing reply. "he sighs all the time, and coughs, and says nothing at all, only he has asked for vodka four or five times, and once i gave him some. how can we avoid killing him this way, dmitri ivánovitch? that was the way the overseer".... "well, hasn't he played on the fiddle?" "didn't even touch it. i took it to him, twice--well, he took it up slowly, and carried it out," said zakhár with a smile. "do you still bid me refuse him something to drink?" "don't give him any thing to-day; we'll see what'll come of it. what is he doing now?" "he has shut himself into the parlor." delesof went into his library, took down a few french books, and the testament in german. "put these books to-morrow in his room; and look out, don't let him get away," said he to zakhár. the next morning zakhár informed his bárin that the musician had not slept a wink all night. "he kept walking up and down his rooms, and going to the sideboard to try to open the cupboard and door; but every thing, in spite of his efforts, remained locked." zakhár told how, while he was going to sleep, he heard albert muttering to himself in the darkness and gesticulating. * * * * * each day albert grew more gloomy and taciturn. it seemed as though he were afraid of delesof, and his face expressed painful terror whenever their eyes met. he did not touch either book or violin, and made no replies to the questions put to him. on the third day after the musician came to stay with him, delesof returned home late in the evening, tired and worried. he had been on the go all day, attending to his duties. though they had seemed very simple and easy, yet, as is often the case, he had not made any progress at all, in spite of his strenuous endeavors. afterwards he had stopped at the club, and lost at whist. he was out of spirits. "well, god be with him," he replied to zakhár, who had been telling him of albert's pitiable state. "to-morrow i shall be really worried about him. is he willing or not to stay with me, and follow my advice? no? then it's idle. i have done the best that i could." "that's what comes of trying to be a benefactor to people," said he to himself. "i am putting myself to inconvenience for him. i have taken this filthy creature into my rooms, which keeps me from receiving strangers in the morning; i work and trot; and yet he looks upon me as some enemy who, against his will, would keep him in pound. but the worst is, that he is not willing to take a step in his own behalf. that's the way with them all." that word _all_ referred to people in general, and especially to those with whom he had been associated in business that day. "but what is to be done for him now? what is he contemplating? why is he melancholy? is he melancholy on account of the debauch from which i rescued him? on account of the degradation in which he has been? the humiliation from which i saved him? can it be that he has fallen so low that it is a burden for him to look on a pure life?... "no, this was a childish action," reasoned delesof. "why should i undertake to direct others, when it is as much as i can do to manage my own affairs?" the impulse came over him to let him go immediately, but after a little deliberation he postponed it till the morning. during the night delesof was aroused by the noise of a falling table in the ante-room, and the sound of voices and stamping feet. "just wait a little, i will tell dmitri ivánovitch," said zakhár's voice; albert's voice replied passionately and incoherently. delesof leaped up, and went with a candle into the ante-room. zakhár in his nightdress was standing against the door; albert in cap and _alma viva_ was trying to pull him away, and was screaming at him in a pathetic voice. "you have no right to detain me; i have a passport; i have not stolen any thing from you. you must let me go. i will go to the police." "i beg of you, dmitri ivánovitch," said zakhár, turning to his bárin, and continuing to stand guard at the door. "he got up in the night, found the key in my overcoat-pocket, and he has drunk up the whole decanter of sweet vodka. was that good? and now he wants to go. you didn't give me orders, and so i could not let him out." albert, seeing delesof, began to pull still more violently on zakhár. "no one has the right to detain me! he cannot do it," he screamed, raising his voice more and more. "let him go, zakhár," said delesof. "i do not wish to detain you, and i have no right to, but i advise you to stay till to-morrow," he added, addressing albert. "no one has the right to detain me. i am going to the police," screamed albert more and more furiously, addressing only zakhár, and not heeding delesof. "guard!" he suddenly shouted at the top of his voice. "now, what are you screaming like that for? you see you are free to go," said zakhár, opening the door. albert ceased screaming. "how did they dare? they were going to murder me! no!" he muttered to himself as he put on his galoshes. not offering to say good-by, and still muttering something unintelligible, he went out of the door. zakhár accompanied him to the gate, and came back. "thank the lord, dmitri ivánovitch! any longer would have been a sin," said he to his bárin. "and now we must count the silver." delesof only shook his head, and made no reply. there came over him a lively recollection of the first two evenings which he and the musician had spent together; he remembered the last wretched days which albert had spent there; and above all he remembered the sweet but absurd sentiment of wonder, of love, and of sympathy, which had been aroused in him by the very first sight of this strange man; and he began to pity him. "what will become of him now?" he asked himself. "without money, without warm clothing, alone at midnight!" he thought of sending zakhár after him, but now it was too late. "is it cold out doors?" he asked. "a healthy frost, dmitri ivánovitch," replied the man. "i forgot to tell you that you will have to buy some more firewood to last till spring." "but what did you mean by saying that it would last?" vii. out of doors it was really cold; but albert did not feel it, he was so excited by the wine that he had taken and by the quarrel. as he entered the street, he looked around him, and rubbed his hands with pleasure. the street was empty, but the long lines of lights were still brilliantly gleaming; the sky was clear and beautiful. "what!" he cried, addressing the lighted window in delesof's apartments; and then thrusting his hands in his trousers pockets under his coat, and looking straight ahead, he walked with heavy and uncertain steps straight up the street. he felt an absolute weight in his legs and abdomen, something hummed in his head, some invisible power seemed to hurl him from side to side; but he still plunged ahead in the direction of where anna ivánovna lived. strange, disconnected thoughts rushed through his head. now he remembered his quarrel with zakhár, now something recalled the sea and his first voyage in the steamboat to russia; now the merry night that he had spent with some friend in the wine-shop by which he was passing; then suddenly there came to him a familiar air singing itself in his recollections, and he seemed to see the object of his passion and the terrible night in the theatre. but notwithstanding their incoherence, all these recollections presented themselves before his imaginations with such distinctness that when he closed his eyes he could not tell which was nearer to the reality: what he was doing, or what he was thinking. he did not realize and he did not feel how his legs moved, how he staggered and hit against a wall, how he looked around him, and how he made his way from street to street. as he went along the little morskaya, albert tripped and fell. collecting himself in a moment, he saw before him some huge and magnificent edifice, and he went toward it. in the sky not a star was to be seen, nor sign of dawn, nor moon, neither were there any street-lights there; but all objects were perfectly distinguishable. the windows of the edifice, which loomed up at the corner of the street, were brilliantly lighted, but the lights wavered like reflections. the building kept coming nearer and nearer, clearer and clearer, to albert. but the lights vanished the moment that albert entered the wide portals. inside it was dark. he took a few steps under the vaulted ceiling, and something like shades glided by and fled at his approach. "why did i come here?" wondered albert; but some irresistible power dragged him forward into the depths of the immense hall. there stood some lofty platform, and around it in silence stood what seemed like little men. "who is going to speak?" asked albert. no one answered, but some one pointed to the platform. there stood now on the platform a tall, thin man, with bushy hair and dressed in a variegated gown. albert immediately recognized his friend petrof. "how strange! what is he doing here?" said albert to himself. "no, brethren," said petrof, pointing to something, "you did not appreciate the man while he was living among you; you did not appreciate him! he was not a cheap artist, not a merely mechanical performer, not a crazy, ruined man. he was a genius, a great musical genius, who perished among you unknown and unvalued." albert immediately understood of whom his friend was speaking; but not wishing to interrupt him, he hung his head modestly. "he, like a sheaf of straw, was wholly consumed by the sacred fire which we all serve," continued the voice. "but he has completely fulfilled all that god gave him; therefore he ought to be considered a great man. you may despise him, torture him, humiliate him," continued the voice, more and more energetically, "but he has been, is, and will be immeasurably higher than you all. he is happy, he is good. he loved you all alike, or cared for you, it is all the same; but he has served only that with which he was so highly endowed. he loved one thing,--beauty, the only infinite good in the world. oh, yes, what a man he is! fall all of you before him. on your knees!" cried petrof in a thundering voice. but another voice mildly answered from another corner of the hall. "i do not wish to bow my knee before him," said the voice. albert instantly recognized delesof. "why is he great? and why should we bow before him? has he conducted himself in an honorable and righteous manner? has he brought society any advantage? do we not know how he borrowed money, and never returned it; how he carried off a violin that belonged to a brother artist, and pawned it?" "my god! how did he know all that?" said albert to himself, drooping his head still lower. "do we not know," the voice went on, "how he pandered to the lowest of the low, pandered to them for money? do we not know how he was driven out of the theatre? how anna ivánovna threatened to hand him over to the police?" "my god! that is all true, but protect me," cried albert. "you are the only one who knows why i did so." "stop, for shame!" cried petrof's voice again. "what right have you to accuse him? have you lived his life? have you experienced his enthusiasms?" "right! right!" whispered albert. "art is the highest manifestation of power in man. it is given only to the favored few, and it lifts the chosen to such an eminence that the head swims, and it is hard to preserve its integrity. in art, as in every struggle, there are heroes who bring all under subjection to them, and perish if they do not attain their ends." petrof ceased speaking; and albert lifted his head, and tried to shout in a loud voice, "right! right!" but his voice died without a sound. "that is not the case with you. this does not concern you," sternly said the artist petrof, addressing delesof. "yes, humble him, despise him," he continued, "for he is better and happier than all the rest of you." albert, with rapture in his heart at hearing these words, could not contain himself, but went up to his friend, and was about to kiss him. "get thee gone, i do not know you," replied petrof. "go your own way, you cannot come here." "here, you drunken fellow, you cannot come here," cried a policeman at the crossing. albert hesitated, then collected all his forces, and, endeavoring not to stumble, crossed over to the next street. it was only a few steps to anna ivánovna's. from the hall of her house a stream of light fell on the snowy _dvor_, and at the gate stood sledges and carriages. clinging with both hands to the balustrade, he made his way up the steps, and rang the bell. the maid's sleepy face appeared at the open door, and looked angrily at albert. "it is impossible," she cried; "i have been forbidden to let you in," and she slammed the door. the sounds of music and women's voices floated down to him. albert sat down on the ground, and leaned his head against the wall, and shut his eyes. at that very instant a throng of indistinct but correlated visions took possession of him with fresh force, mastered him, and carried him off into the beautiful and free domain of fancy. "yes! he is better and happier," involuntarily the voice repeated in his imagination. from the door were heard the sounds of a polka. these sounds also told him that he was better and happier. in a neighboring church was heard the sound of a prayer-bell; and the prayer-bell also told him that he was better and happier. "now i will go back to that hall again," said albert to himself. "petrof must have many things still to tell me." there seemed to be no one now in the hall; and in the place of the artist petrof, albert himself stood on the platform, and was playing on his violin all that the voice had said before. but his violin was of strange make: it was composed of nothing but glass, and he had to hold it with both hands, and slowly rub it on his breast to make it give out sounds. the sounds were so sweet and delicious, that albert felt he had never before heard any thing like them. the more tightly he pressed the violin to his breast, the more sweet and consoling they became. the louder the sounds, the more swiftly the shadows vanished, and the more brilliantly the walls of the hall were illuminated. but it was necessary to play very cautiously on the violin, lest it should break. albert played on the instrument of glass cautiously and well. he played things the like of which he felt no one would ever hear again. he was growing tired, when a heavy distant sound began to annoy him. it was the sound of a bell, but this sound seemed to have a language. "yes," said the bell, with its notes coming from somewhere far off and high up, "yes, he seems to you wretched; you despise him, but he is better and happier than you. no one ever will play more on that instrument!" these words which he understood seemed suddenly so wise, so novel, and so true, to albert, that he stopped playing, and, while trying not to move, lifted his eyes and his arms toward heaven. he felt that he was beautiful and happy. although no one was in the hall, albert expanded his chest, and proudly lifted his head, and stood on the platform so that all might see him. suddenly some one's hand was gently laid on his shoulder; he turned around, and in the half light saw a woman. she looked pityingly at him, and shook her head. he immediately became conscious that what he was doing was wrong, and a sense of shame came over him. "where shall i go?" he asked her. once more she gazed long and fixedly at him, and bent her head pityingly. she was the one, the very one whom he loved, and her dress was the same; on her round white neck was the pearl necklace, and her lovely arms were bare above the elbows. she took him in her arms, and bore him away through the hall. at the entrance of the hall, albert saw the moon and water. but the water was not below as is usually the case, and the moon was not above; there was a white circle in one place as sometimes happens. the moon and the water were together,--everywhere, above and below, and on all sides and around them both. albert and his love darted off toward the moon and the water, and he now realized that she whom he loved more than all in the world was in his arms: he embraced her, and felt inexpressible felicity. "is not this a dream?" he asked himself. but no, it was the reality, it was more than reality: it was reality and recollection combined. then he felt that the indescribable pleasure which he had felt during the last moment was gone, and would never be renewed. "why am i weeping?" he asked of her. she looked at him in silence, with pitying eyes. albert understood what she desired to say in reply. "just as when i was alive," he went on to say. she, without replying, looked straight forward. "this is terrible! how can i explain to her that i _am_ alive?" he asked himself in horror. "my god, i am alive! do understand me," he whispered. "he is better and happier," said a voice. but something kept oppressing albert ever more powerfully. whether it was the moon or the water, or her embrace or his tears, he could not tell, but he was conscious that he could not say all that it was his duty to say, and that all would be quickly over. * * * * * two guests coming out from anna ivánovna's rooms stumbled against albert lying on the threshold. one of them went back to anna ivánovna, and called her. "that was heartless," he said. "you might let a man freeze to death that way." "_akh!_ why, that is my albert. see where he was lying!" exclaimed the hostess. "annushka, have him brought into the room; find a place for him somewhere," she added, addressing the maid. "oh! i am alive, why do you bury me?" muttered albert, as they brought him unconscious into the room. two hussars. _a tale._ 1856. jomini, ay, jomini, but not a single word of vodka.[56] d. davuidof. at the very beginning of this century, when there were no railways, no macadamized roads, no gas or stearine candles, no low and springy sofas, no unvarnished furniture, no disillusionized young men with eye-glasses, no women philosophers of liberal tendencies, no dear camilles, such as our time has produced in abundance; in those naïve days when travellers made the journey from moscow to petersburg by stage or carriage, and took with them a whole kitchen of domestic preparations, and travelled for a week, night and day, over soft roads, muddy or dusty as the case might be, pinned their faith to pozharsky cutlets, valdaï bluebells, and pretzels; when during the long autumn evenings tallow candles burned till they had to be snuffed, and cast their rays on family circles of twenty or thirty people (at balls, wax or spermaceti candles were set up in candelabra); when furniture was placed with stiff precision; when our fathers were still young, not merely by the absence of wrinkles and gray hair, but fought duels for women, and were fain to rush from one end of a room to the other to pick up a handkerchief dropped accidentally or otherwise, and our mothers wore short waists and huge sleeves, and decided family affairs by the drawing of lots; when charming camilles avoided the light of day; in the naïve period of masonic lodges, of martinists, and of the _tugendbund_; at the time of the miloradovitches, davuidofs, and pushkins,--a meeting of landed proprietors took place in the governmental city of k., and the election of the college of nobles was drawing to a close. [footnote 56: from the poem entitled, "the song of an old hussar," in which a veteran contrasts the mighty days of the past with the dilettanti present. denis vasilyevitch davuidof, who was an officer of hussars, died in 1839.--tr.] i. "well, all right, it's all the same, be it in the hall," said a young officer dressed in a shuba, and wearing a hussar's helmet, as he dismounted from a travelling sledge in front of the best hotel of the city of k. "a great meeting, little father, your excellency,--a tremendous crowd," said the hall-boy, who had already learned from the officer's man that it was count turbin, and therefore honored him with the address of "your excellency." "madame afrimova and her daughters have expressed the intention of going away this evening; you can be accommodated with their room as soon as it is vacated,--no. 11," the hall-boy went on to say, noiselessly showing the count the way, and constantly turning round to look at him. in the sitting-room, at a small table under a blackened full-length portrait of the emperor alexander, sat a number of men, evidently belonging to the local aristocracy, drinking champagne; and on one side were some travelling merchants in blue shubas. the count entered the room, and calling blücher, a huge gray boarhound that accompanied him, he threw off his cloak, the collar of which was covered with frost, and, after ordering vodka, sat down at the table in a short blue-satin jacket, and entered into conversation with the gentlemen sitting there. the latter, attracted toward the new-comer by his handsome and frank exterior, offered him a glass of champagne. the count had begun to drink his glass of vodka; but now he also ordered a bottle of champagne, in order to return the courtesy of his new companions. the driver came in to ask for vodka-money. "sashka,"[57] cried the count, "give it to him." [footnote 57: diminished diminutive of aleksandr.] the driver went out with sashka, but quickly returned, holding the money in his hands. "what! little father, 'slency, is that right? i did my best for you. you promised me a half-ruble, and you have only given me a quarter!" "sashka, give him a ruble." sashka, hanging down his head, gazed at the driver's feet. "he will have enough," said he in his deep voice. "besides, i haven't any more money." the count drew from his pocket-book the two solitary blue notes[58] which were in it, and gave one to the driver, who kissed his hand, and went off. "i have come to the end," said the count, "my last five rubles." [footnote 58: blue notes were five rubles.] "true hussar style, count," said one of the nobles, whose mustaches, voice, and a certain energetic freedom in the use of his legs, proclaimed him, beyond a peradventure, to be a retired cavalryman. "are you going to spend some time here, count?" "i must have some money if i stay, otherwise i should not be very likely to. besides, there are no spare rooms, the devil take it, in this cursed tavern." "i beg of you, count," pursued the cavalryman, "wouldn't you like to come in with me? my room is no. 7. if you wouldn't object to sleep there for the present. we shall be here three days at least. to-day i was at the marshal's: how glad he would be to see you!" "that's right, count, stay with us," urged another of the table companions, a handsome young man. "what is your hurry? and besides, this happens only once in three years,--these elections. we might get a glimpse of some of our girls, count!" "sashka, get me some clean linen. i am going to have a bath," said the count, rising. "and then we will see; perhaps i may decide to pay my respects to the marshal." then he called the waiter, and said something to him in an undertone. the waiter replied, with a laugh, "that is within human possibility," and went out. "well, then, little father, i have given orders to have my trunk taken to your room," cried the count, as he went out of the door. "i shall consider it a favor: it delights me," replied the cavalryman as he hastened to the door, and cried, "no.7; don't forget!" when the count was out of hearing, the cavalryman returned to his place, and drawing his chair nearer to the _chinovnik_, and looking him straight in his smiling eyes, said,-"well, he's the very one." "what one?" "i tell you that he's that very same hussar duellist,--let me see, the famous turbin. he knew me. i'll wager he knew me. i assure you, at lebedyan he and i were on a spree for three weeks, and were never sober once. that was when i lost my remount. there was one little affair at that time,--we were engaged in it together. ah, he is a gay lad! isn't he, though?" "indeed he is. what pleasant manners he has! there's no fault to be found with him," replied the handsome young man. "how quickly we became acquainted!... he isn't more than twenty-two, is he?" "he certainly would not seem so, would he?... but he's really more than that. well, now you want to know who he is, don't you? who carried off megunova? he did. he killed sablin. he kicked matnyef out of the window. he 'did' prince nesterof out of three hundred thousand rubles. he's a regular madcap. you ought to know him,--a gambler, duellist, seducer, but a whole-souled fellow, a genuine hussar. we got talked about a good deal, but if any one really understood what it meant to be a genuine hussar! those were great times." and the cavalryman began to tell his comrade of a drinking-bout with the count, which had never taken place, nor could have taken place. it could not have taken place, first, because he had never seen the count before, and had retired from the service two years before the count had entered it; and secondly, because this cavalryman had never served in the cavalry, but had served four years as a very insignificant yunker in the bielevsky regiment; and just as soon as he was promoted to be ensign, he retired. but ten years before he had received an inheritance, and actually went to lebedyan; and there he spent seven hundred rubles with the cavalry officers, and had had made for him an uhlan's uniform with orange lapels, with the intention of entering the uhlans. his thought of entering the cavalry, and his three weeks spent with the officers at lebedyan, made the very happiest and most brilliant period of his life; so that he began to transfer his thought into a reality. then, as he added remembrance to it, he began actually to believe in his military past,--which did not prevent him from being a worthy man through his kindness of heart and uprightness. "yes, any one who has never served in the cavalry," he went on to say, "will never understand us fellows." he sat astride of his chair, and, thrusting out his lower lip, went on in a deep voice, "it happens you are riding along in front of the battalion. a devil is under you, not a horse, prancing along; thus you sit on this perfect devil. the battalion commander comes along. 'lieutenant,' says he, 'i beg of you--your service is absolutely indispensable. you must lead the battalion for the parade.' very well, and so it goes. you look around, you give a shout, you lead the brave fellows who are under your command. ah! the deuce take it! 'twas a glorious time!" the count came back from the bath, all ruddy, and with his hair wet, and went directly to no. 7, where the cavalryman was already sitting in his dressing-gown, with his pipe, and thinking with delight and some little anxiety of the good fortune that had befallen him in sharing his room with the famous turbin. "well, now," the thought came into his head, "suppose he should take me, and strip me naked, and carry me outside the town limits, and set me down in the snow, ... or smear me with tar ... or simply ... but, no: he would not do such a thing to a comrade," he said, trying to comfort himself. "sashka, give blücher something to eat," cried the count. sashka made his appearance. he had been drinking glasses of vodka ever since his arrival, and was beginning to be genuinely tipsy. "you have not been able to control yourself. you have been getting drunk, _canaillya_!... feed blücher." "it won't kill him to fast.... you see, ... he's so plump," replied sashka, caressing the dog. "now, none of your impudence. go, and feed him." "all you care for is to have your dog fat; but if a man drinks a little glass, then you pitch into him." "hey! i'll strike you," cried the count with a voice that made the window-panes rattle, and even scared the cavalryman somewhat. "you would better ask if _sashka_ has had any thing to eat to-day. all right, strike away, if a dog is more to you than a man," continued sashka. but at that instant he received such a violent blow of the fist across the face that he staggered, struck his head against the partition, and, clutching his nose, leaped through the door, and threw himself down on a bench in the corridor. "he has broken my teeth," he growled, wiping his bloody nose with one hand, and with the other scratching blücher's back, as the dog licked him. "he has broken my teeth, blüchka; and yet he is my count, and i would jump into the fire for him, that's a fact. because he's my count, do you understand, blüchka? and do you want something to eat?" after lying there a while, he got up, gave the dog his dinner, and, almost sobered, went to serve his master, and get him his tea. "you would simply offend me," said the cavalryman timidly, standing in front of the count, who was lying on the bed with his feet propped against the partition. "now, you see, i am an old soldier and comrade, i may say; instead of letting you borrow of any one else, it would give me great pleasure to let you have two hundred rubles. i haven't them with me now,--only a hundred,--but i can get the rest to-day; don't refuse, you would simply offend me, count!" "thanks, little father," said turbin, instantly perceiving what sort of relationship would exist between them, and slapping the cavalryman on the shoulder. "thanks. well, then, we'll go to the ball if you say so. but now what shall we do? tell me whom you have in your city: any pretty girls? anybody ready for a spree? who plays cards?" the cavalryman explained that there would be a crowd of pretty girls at the ball; that the police commissioner,[59] kolkof, who had just been re-elected, was the greatest hand for sprees, only he lacked the spirit of a genuine hussar, but still was a first-rate fellow; that ilyushka's chorus of gypsies had been singing at k. ever since the elections began; that stioshka[60] was the soloist, and that after the marshal's reception everybody went there nowadays. and the stakes were pretty high. "lukhnof, a visitor here," he said, "is sweeping in the money; and ilyin, a cornet of uhlans, who rooms in no. 8, has already lost a pile. the game has already begun there. they play there every evening; and he's a wonderfully fine young fellow, i tell you, count, this ilyin is. there's nothing mean about him--he'd give you his last shirt." [footnote 59: isprávnik.] [footnote 60: diminutive of stepanida, stephanie.] "then let us go to his room. we will see what sort of men you have," said the count. "come on! come on! they will be mighty glad." ii. ilyin, the cornet of uhlans, had not long been awake. the evening before, he had sat down at the gambling-table at eight o'clock, and lost for fifteen consecutive hours, till eleven o'clock that day. he had lost a great amount, but exactly how much he did not know, because he had had three thousand rubles of his money, and fifteen thousand belonging to the treasury, which he had long ago mixed up with his own, and he did not dare to settle his accounts lest his anticipations that he had made too great inroads on the public money should be confirmed. he went to sleep about noon, and slept that heavy, dreamless sleep, peculiar to very young men who have been losing heavily. waking at six, about the time that count turbin had arrived at the hotel, and seeing cards and chalk and soiled tables scattered around him in confusion in the room, he remembered with horror the evening's games, and the last card, a knave, which had lost him five hundred rubles; but, still scarcely believing in the reality, he drew out from under his pillow his money, and began to count it. he recognized a few notes which, with corners turned down and indorsements, had gone from hand to hand around the table; he remembered all the particulars. he had lost his own three thousand rubles, and twenty-five hundred belonging to the treasury had disappeared. the uhlan had been playing for four nights in succession. he had come from moscow, where the public money had been intrusted to him. at k. the post-superintendent had detained him under the pretext that there were no post-horses, but in reality in accordance with his agreement with the hotel-keeper to detain all visitors for a day. the uhlan, who was a gay young fellow, and had just received from his parent three thousand rubles for his military equipment, was glad to spend a few days in the city of k. during the elections, and counted on having a good time. he knew a landed proprietor whose family lived there, and he was preparing to call upon him and pay his addresses to his daughter, when the cavalryman appeared, and made his acquaintance. that very evening, without malice prepense, he took him down into the parlor, and introduced him to his friends, lukhnof and several other gamblers. from that time, the uhlan had kept steadily at gaming, and not only had not called on the proprietor, but had not thought of inquiring further for horses, and for four days had not left his room. after he had dressed, and taken his tea, he went to the window. he felt an inclination to go out so as to dispel the importunate recollections of the game. he put on his cloak, and went into the street. the sun had just sunk behind the white houses with their red roofs. it was already twilight. it was warm. the snow was softly falling in big, damp flakes, in the muddy streets. his mind suddenly became filled with unendurable melancholy at the thought that he had spent all that day in sleep, and now the day was done. "this day which has gone, will never come back again," he said to himself. "i have wasted my youth," he suddenly exclaimed, not because he really felt that he had wasted his youth,--he did not think about it at all,--but simply this phrase came into his head. "what shall i do now?" he reasoned; "borrow of some one, and go away?" a lady was passing along the sidewalk. "what a stupid woman!" he said to himself for some reason. "there's no one i can borrow of. i have wasted my youth." he came to a block of stores. a merchant in a fox-skin shuba was standing at the door of his shop, and inviting custom. "if i hadn't taken the eight, i should have won." a little old beggar-woman followed him, snivelling. "i have no one to borrow of." a gentleman in a bear-skin shuba passed him. a policeman was standing on the corner. "what can i do that will make sensation? fire a pistol at them? no! that would be stupid. i have wasted my youth. _akh!_ what a splendid harness that is hanging in that shop! i should like to be riding behind a troïka!... _ekh!_ you fine fellows![61] i am going back. lukhnof will be there pretty soon, and we'll have a game." [footnote 61: _golúbchiki_, little pigeons.] he returned to the hotel, and once more counted his money. no, he was not mistaken the first time; twenty-five hundred rubles of public money were missing, just as before. "i will put up twenty-five rubles first; the next time, a quarter stake; then on seven, on fifteen, on thirty, and on sixty ... three thousand. i will buy that harness, and start. he won't give me any odds, the villain! i have wasted my youth!" this was what was passing through the uhlan's mind just as lukhnof himself came into the room. "well, have you been up long, mikháïlo vasílyitch?" inquired lukhnof, deliberately removing from his thin nose his gold eye-glasses, and carefully wiping them with a red silk handkerchief. "no, only just this minute. i had a splendid sleep!" "a new hussar has just come. he is staying with zavalshevsky. had you heard about it?" "no, i hadn't. well, no one seems to be here yet. i believe they have gone to call on priakhin. they'll be here very soon." in fact, in a short time there came into the room an officer of the garrison, who was always hovering round lukhnof; a greek merchant with a huge hooked nose, cinnamon complexion, and deep-set black eyes; a stout, puffy proprietor, a brandy-distiller who gambled all night long, and always made his stakes on the basis of half a ruble. all of these wished to begin playing as promptly as possible, but the more daring players said nothing about it; lukhnof, in particular, with perfect equanimity, told stories of rascality in moscow. "just think of it," said he, "moscow, the metropolis, the capital; and there they go out at night with crooks, dressed like demons; and they scare the stupid people, and rob pedestrians, and that is the end of it. do the police notice it? no! it is astonishing!" the uhlan listened attentively to the tales of these highwaymen, but finally got up and unobtrusively ordered cards to be brought. the stout proprietor was the first to notice it. "well, gentlemen, we are wasting golden moments. to work, let us to work!" "yes, you won by the half-ruble last evening, and so you like it," exclaimed the greek. "it's a good time to begin," said the garrison officer. ilyin looked at lukhnof. lukhnof, returning his gaze, went on calmly with his story of the robbers who dressed themselves up like devils. "will you start the bank?" asked the uhlan. "isn't it rather early?" "byélof!" cried the uhlan, reddening for some reason or other; "bring me something to eat.... i haven't had any dinner to-day, gentlemen. bring some champagne, and distribute the cards." a this moment, the count and zavalshevsky entered. it proved that turbin and ilyin were in the same division. they immediately struck up an acquaintance, drank a glass of champagne, clinking their glasses together, and in five minutes were calling each other "thou." it was evident that ilyin made a very pleasant impression on the count. the count smiled whenever he looked at him, and was amused at his freshness. "what a fine young uhlan!" he said, "what a mustache! what a splendid mustache!" ilyin's upper lip bore the first down of a mustache, that was as yet almost white. "you were preparing to play, were you not?" asked the count. "well, i should like to win from you, ilyin. i think that you must be a master," he added smiling. "yes, we were just starting in," replied lukhnof, opening a pack of cards.... "aren't you going to join us, count?" "no, i won't to-night. if i did there wouldn't be any thing left of any of you! when i take a hand i always break the bank. but i haven't any money just now. i lost at volotchok, at the station-house. it was by some sort of infantry-man who wore rings; what a cheat he was! and he cleaned me out completely." "were you long there at the station?" asked ilyin. "i staid there twenty-two hours. i shall not forget that station, curse it! and the superintendent won't forget it either." "why?" "i got there, you see; the superintendent comes out, rascally face, the liar! 'there are no horses,' said he. well, now i must tell you, i have made a rule in such cases: when there are no horses, i keep on my shuba, and go straight to the superintendent's room,--not the waiting-room, mind you, but the superintendent's own room,--and i have all the windows and doors opened, as though it were stifling. well, that's what i did here. cold! you remember how cold it has been this last month; twenty degrees below. the superintendent began to remonstrate. i knock his teeth in for him. there was some old woman there; and some young girls and peasant-women[62] set up a piping, were going to seize their pots and fly to the village.... i go to the door, and say, 'let me have horses, and i'll go away: if you don't, i won't let you out, i'll freeze you all to death.'" [footnote 62: _babas._] "what an admirable way!" said the puffy proprietor, bursting out into a laugh. "that's the way one would freeze out cockroaches." "but i wasn't sufficiently on my guard: the superintendent and all his women managed to get out and run away. only the old woman remained on the oven as my hostage. she kept sniffing, and offering prayers to god. then we entered into negotiations. the superintendent came back, and, standing at a distance, tried to persuade me to let the old woman go. but i set blücher on him: blücher is a magnificent dog to take care of superintendents. even then the rascal did not let me have horses till the next morning. and then came along that footpad! i went into the next room, and began to play. have you seen blücher?--blücher! _fiu_!" blücher came running in. the players received him with flattering attention, although it was evident that they were anxious to get to work at entirely different matters. "by the way, gentlemen, why don't you begin your game? i beg of you, don't let me interfere with you. you see i am a chatterbox," said turbin. "_whether you love or not_, 'tis an excellent thing." iii. lukhnof took two candles, brought out a huge dark-colored pocket-book full of money; slowly, as though performing some sacrament, opened it on the table; took out two one-hundred-ruble notes, and laid them on the cards. "there, just the same as last evening; the bank begins with two hundred," said he, adjusting his glasses, and opening a pack of cards. "very well," said ilyin, not glancing at him, or interrupting his conversation with turbin. the game began. lukhnof kept the bank with mechanical regularity, occasionally pausing, and deliberately making notes, or looking sternly over his glasses, and saying in a weak voice, "throw." the stout proprietor talked louder than the rest, making various calculations at the top of his voice, while he wet his clumsy fingers and dog-eared his cards. the garrison officer silently wrote in a fine hand his account on a card, turned down small corners, pressing them against the table. the greek sat next the banker, attentively following the game with his deep black eyes, as though waiting for something. zavalshevsky, as he stood by the table, would suddenly become all of a tremble, draw from his trousers-pocket a blue note or a red,[63] lay a card on it, pound on it with his palm, and say, "bring me luck, little seven!" then he would bite his mustache, change from one leg to the other, and be in a continual state of excitement until the card came out. [footnote 63: five or ten rubles.] ilyin, who had been eating veal and cucumbers placed near him on the haircloth sofa, briskly wiped his hands on his coat, and began to put down one card after another. turbin, who had taken his seat at first on the sofa, immediately noticed that something was wrong. lukhnof did not look at the uhlan, or say any thing to him; but occasionally his eyes for an instant rested on the uhlan's hands. the most of his cards lost. "if i could only trump that little card," exclaimed lukhnof in reference to one of the stout proprietor's cards. he was still making half-ruble wagers. "trump ilyin's instead: what would be the use of trumping mine?" replied the proprietor. and, in point of fact, ilyin's cards were trumped oftener than the others'. he nervously tore up his losing card under the table, and with trembling hands chose another. turbin arose from the sofa, and asked the greek to give him his place next the banker. the greek changed places; and the count, taking his chair, and not moving his eyes, began to watch lukhnof's hands attentively. "ilyin," said he suddenly in his ordinary voice, which, entirely contrary to his desire, drowned out the others, "why do you stick to those routine cards? you don't know how to play!" "supposing i don't, it's all the same." "you'll lose that way surely. let me play against the bank for you." "no, excuse me, i beg of you. i'm always this way. play for yourself if you like." "i have told you that i am not going to play. but i should like to play for you. i hate to see you losing so." "ah, well! you see it's my luck." the count said nothing more, and leaning on his elbow began once more to watch the banker's hand just as attentively as before. "shameful!" he suddenly cried in a loud voice, dwelling on the word. lukhnof glared at him. "shameful, shameful!" he repeated still louder, staring straight into lukhnof's eyes. the game continued. "that is not right!" said turbin again, as lukhnof trumped one of ilyin's high cards. "what displeases you, count?" politely asked the banker with an air of indifference. "because you give ilyin a simplum, and turn down your corners. that's what is shameful!" lukhnof made a slight motion with his shoulders and brows, signifying that he was resigned to any fate, and then he went on with the game. "blücher, _fiu_!" cried the count, rising; "over with him!" he added quickly. blücher, bumping against the sofa with his back, and almost knocking the garrison officer from his feet, came leaping toward his master, looking at every one and wagging his tail as though he would ask, "who is misbehaving here, hey?" lukhnof laid down the cards, and moved his chair away. "this is no way to play," said he. "i detest dogs. what kind of a game can you have if a whole pack of hounds is to be brought in?" "especially that kind of dog: they are called blood-suckers, if i am not mistaken," suggested the garrison officer. "well, are we to play or not, mikháïlo vasílyitch?" asked lukhnof, addressing the uhlan. "don't bother us, count, i beg of you," said ilyin, turning to turbin. "come here for a moment," said turbin, taking ilyin's arm, and drawing him into the next room. there the count's words were perfectly audible, though he spoke in his ordinary tone. but his voice was so powerful that it could always be heard three rooms off. "are you beside yourself? don't you see that that man with the glasses is a cheat of the worst order?" "hey? nonsense! be careful what you say." "no nonsense! but quit it, i tell you. it makes no difference to me. another time i myself would have plucked you; but now i am sorry to see you ruining yourself. have you any public money left?" "no. what makes you think so about him?" "brother, i have been over this same road, and i know the ways of these professional gamblers. i tell you that the man in the glasses is a cheat. quit, please. i ask you as a comrade." "all right; i'll have just one more hand, and then have done with it." "i know what that 'one more' means: very well, we will see." they returned to the gaming-table. in one deal he laid down so many cards, and they were trumped so badly, that he lost a large amount. turbin rested his hand in the middle of the table, and said, "that's enough! now let us be going." "no, i can't go yet; leave me, please," said ilyin in vexation, shuffling the bent cards and not looking at turbin. "all right! the devil be with you! lose all you've got, if that please you; but it's time for me to be going.--come, zavalshevsky, let us go to the marshal's." and they went out. no one spoke, and lukhnof did not make the bank until the noise of their feet and of blücher's paws had died away down the corridor. "that's a madcap," said the proprietor, smiling. "well, now he won't bother us any more," said the garrison officer in a hurried whisper. and the game went on. iv. the band, composed of the marshal's domestic serfs, were stationed in the butler's pantry, which had been put in order on account of the ball, and, having turned up the sleeves of their coats, had begun at the signal of their leader to play the ancient polonaise "aleksandr, yelisaviéta;" and under the soft, brilliant light of the wax candles, the couples began to move in tripping measure through the great ballroom; a governor-general of catherine's time, with a star, taking out the gaunt wife of the marshal, the marshal with the governor's wife, and so on through all the hierarchy of the government in various combinations and variations,--when zavalshevsky in a blue coat with a huge collar, and epaulets on his shoulders, and wearing stockings and pumps, and exhaling about him an odor of jasmine with which he had plentifully drenched his mustaches, the facings of his coat, and his handkerchief, entered with the handsome count, who wore tight-fitting blue trousers and a red pelisse embroidered with gold, and wearing on his breast the cross of vladímir and a medal of 1812. the count was of medium height, but had an extremely handsome figure. his clear blue eyes of remarkable brilliancy, and dark hair which was rather long and fell in thick ringlets, gave his beauty a peculiar character. the count's presence at the ball was not unexpected. the handsome young man who had seen him at the hotel had already spoken of him to the marshal. the impressions made by this announcement were of various kinds, but on the whole were not altogether pleasant. "i suppose this young man will turn us into ridicule," was what the old women and the men said to themselves. "suppose he should run off with me," was what the wives and young ladies thought, with more or less apprehension. as soon as the polonaise was finished, and the couples had made each other low bows, once more the women formed little groups by themselves, and the men by themselves. zavalshevsky, proud and happy, led the count up to the hostess. the marshal's wife, conscious of a certain inward trepidation lest this hussar should make her the cause of some scandal before everybody, said proudly and scornfully, as she turned away, "very glad to see you. i hope that you will dance." and then she looked at the count mistrustfully with an expression that seemed to say, "now, if you insult any woman, then you are a perfect scoundrel after this." the count, however, quickly overcame this prejudice by his amiability, his politeness, and his handsome jovial appearance; so that in five minutes the expression on the face of the marshal's wife plainly declared to all who stood around her, "i know how to manage all these men. he immediately realized whom he was talking with. and now he will be charming to me all the rest of the evening." moreover, just then the governor, who had known his father, came up to the count, and very graciously drew him to one side, and entered into conversation with him, which still more pleased the fashionable society of the town, and raised the count in their estimation. then zavalshevsky presented the count to his sister, a plump young widow, who, ever since the count entered the room, had kept her big black eyes fastened upon him. the count asked the little widow for the waltz which at that moment the musicians had struck up, and it was his artistic dancing that conquered the last vestiges of the popular prejudice. "ah, he's a master at dancing!" said a stout lady, following the legs in blue trousers which were flashing through the ballroom, and mentally counting, "one, two, three; one, two, three,--he's a master." "how gracefully he moves his feet! how gracefully!" said another guest, who did not stand very high in the governmental society. "how does he manage to not hit any one with his spurs? wonderful, very skilful!" the count, by his skill in dancing, eclipsed the three best dancers of the city. these were, a governor's aide, a tall albino, who was famous for his rapid dancing and because he held the lady pressed very close to his breast; secondly, the cavalryman, who was famous for his graceful swaying during the waltz, and for his frequent but light tapping with his heels; and thirdly, a civilian of whom everybody said, that, though he was not very strong-minded, yet he was an admirable dancer and the life of all balls. in point of fact, this civilian from the beginning to the end of a ball invariably invited all the ladies in the order in which they sat, did not cease for a moment to dance, and only occasionally paused to wipe his weary but still radiant face with his cambric handkerchief, which would become wet through. the count had surpassed them all, and had danced with the three principal ladies,--with the stout one, who was rich, handsome, and stupid; with the middle-sized one, who was lean, and not particularly good-looking, but handsomely dressed; and with the little one, who was not pretty, but very witty. he had danced also with others,--with all the pretty women, and there were many pretty women there. but the little widow, zavalshevsky's sister, pleased the count more than all the rest; with her he danced a quadrille and a schottische and a mazurka. at first, when they took their places for the quadrille, he overwhelmed her with compliments, comparing her to venus and diana, and to a rosebush, and to some other flower besides. to all these amenities the little widow only bent her white neck, modestly dropped her eyes, and, looking at her white muslin dress, changed her fan from one hand to the other. when, at last, she said, "this is too much, count; you are jesting," etc., her voice, which was rather guttural, betrayed such _naïve_ simplicity of heart and amusing naturalness that the count, as he looked at her, actually compared her, not to a flower or to a rosebush, but to some kind of a pinkish-white wild-flower, exuberant and odorless, growing alone on a virgin snow-drift in some far, far-distant land. such a strange impression was made upon the count by this union of _naïveté_ and unconventionality together with fresh beauty, that several times, in the pauses of the conversation, when he looked silently into her eyes or contemplated the loveliness of her arms and neck, the desire came over him with such vehemence to take her into his arms and kiss her again and again, that he was really obliged to restrain himself. the little widow was quite satisfied with the impression which she perceived that she had made; but there was something in the count's behavior that began to disquiet her, and fill her with apprehensions, though the young hussar was not only flatteringly amiable, but even, to an extravagant degree, deferential in his treatment of her. he ran to get orgeat for her, picked up her handkerchief, snatched a chair from the hands of a scrofulous young proprietor, who was also anxious to pay her attention, and who was not quick enough. but perceiving that these assiduities, which were fashionable at that period, had little effect in making the lady well-disposed, he began to amuse her by telling her ridiculous anecdotes: he assured her that he was ready at a moment's notice to stand on his head, or to crow like a cock, or to jump out of the window, or to fling himself into a hole in the ice. this procedure was a brilliant success: the little widow became very gay; she rippled with laughter, displaying her marvellous white teeth, and became entirely satisfied with her cavalier. the count each moment grew more and more enchanted with her, so that at the end of the quadrille he was really in love with her. after the quadrille, when she was approached by her former admirer, a young man of eighteen, the son of a very rich proprietor, the same scrofulous young man from whom turbin had snatched away the chair, she received him with perfect coolness, and not one-tenth part of the constraint was noticeable in her which she felt when she was with the count. "you are very kind," she said, all the time gazing at turbin's back, and unconsciously reckoning how many yards[64] of gold-lace were used for his whole jacket. "you are very kind; you promised to come to take me for a walk, and to bring me some comfits." [footnote 64: _arshins._] "well, i did come, anna fedorovna, but you weren't at home, and i left the very best comfits for you," said the young man, in a voice that was very thin, considering his height. "you always are provided with excuses; i don't need your comfits. please do not think".... "i begin to see, anna fedorovna, how you have changed toward me, and i know why. but it is not right," he added, but without finishing his remark, evidently owing to some powerful interior emotion, which caused his lips to tremble strangely. anna fedorovna did not heed him, and continued to follow turbin with her eyes. the marshal, at whose house the ball was given,--a big, stout old man, who had lost his teeth,--came up to the count, and, taking him by the arm, invited him into his library to smoke and drink if he so desired. as soon as turbin disappeared, anna fedorovna felt that there was absolutely nothing for her to do in the ballroom, and slipping her hand through the arm of a dried-up old maid, who was a friend of hers, went with her into the dressing-room. "well, what do you think of him? is he nice?" asked the old maid. "only it's terrible--the way he follows you up!" said anna fedorovna, going to the mirror, and contemplating herself in it. her face was aglow, her eyes were full of mischief, her color was heightened; then suddenly imitating one of the ballet-dancers whom she had seen during election time, she pirouetted round on one toe, and, laughing her guttural but sweet laugh, she leaped up in the air, crossing her knees. "what a man he is! he even asked me for a _souvenir_," she confided to her friend. "but he will ne-e-ver get one," she said, singing the last words, and lifting one finger in the lilac-colored glove that reached to her elbow. in the library where turbin was conducted by the marshal, stood various kinds of vodka, liqueurs, edibles,[65] and champagne. in a cloud of tobacco-smoke the nobility were sitting, or walking up and down, talking about the elections. [footnote 65: _zakuski._] "when the whole of the high nobility of our district has honored him with an election," exclaimed the newly elected isprávnik who was already tolerably tipsy, "he certainly ought not to fail in his duties toward society in general." the conversation was interrupted by the count's coming. all were presented to him, and the isprávnik especially pressed his hand long between both of his, and asked him several times to go with him after the ball to the new tavern, where he would treat the gentlemen of the nobility, and where they would hear the gypsies sing. the count accepted his invitation, and drank with him several glasses of champagne. "why aren't you dancing, gentlemen?" he asked, as he was about to leave the library. "we aren't dancers," replied the isprávnik, laughing. "we prefer the wine, count; and besides, all these young ladies have grown up under my eyes, count. but still, i do sometimes take part in a schottische, count. i can do it, count." "come on then for a while," said turbin. "let us have some sport before we go to the gypsies." "what say you, gentlemen? let us come! let us delight our host!" and the three gentlemen who, since the beginning of the ball, had been drinking in the library and had very red faces, began to draw on their gloves, some of black kid, another of knit silk, and were just going with the count to the ballroom, when they were detained by the scrofulous young man, who, pale as a sheet, and scarcely able to refrain from tears, came straight up to turbin. "you have an idea, because you are a count, you can run into people as if you were at a fair," said he, with difficulty drawing his breath; "hence it isn't fitting"-once more the stream of his speech was interrupted by the involuntary trembling of his lips. "what?" cried turbin, frowning suddenly, "what?... you're a baby," he cried, seizing him by the arm, and squeezing it so that the blood rushed to the young man's head, not so much from vexation as from fright. "what is it? do you want to fight? if so, i am at your service." turbin had scarcely let go of his arm, which he had squeezed so powerfully, when two nobles seized the young man by the sleeve, and carried him off through a back door. "what! have you lost your wits? you've surely been drinking too much. we shall have to tell your papa. what's the matter with you?" they asked. "no, i haven't been drinking; but he ran into me, and did not apologize. he's a hog, that's what he is," whined the young man, now actually in tears. nevertheless they paid no attention to him, but carried him off home. "never mind, count," said the isprávnik and zavalshevsky assuringly. "he's a mere child. they still whip him: he's only sixteen years old. it's hard to tell what is to be done with him. what fly stung him? and his father is such an honorable man! he's our candidate." "well, the devil take him if he refuses".... and the count returned to the ballroom, and, as gayly as before, danced the schottische with the pretty little widow, and laughed heartily when he saw the antics of the gentlemen who had come with him out of the library. there was a general burst of merriment all through the ballroom when the isprávnik tripped, and measured his length on the floor in the midst of the dancers. v. anna fedorovna, while the count was in the library, went to her brother, and, for the very reason of her conviction that she ought to pretend to feel very little interest in the count, she began to question him. "who is this hussar that has been dancing with me? tell me, brother." the cavalryman explained, to the best of his ability, what a great man this hussar was, and in addition he told his sister that the count had stopped there simply because his money had been stolen on the route: he himself had loaned him a hundred rubles, but that was not enough. couldn't his sister let him have two hundred more? zavalshevsky asked her not to say any thing about this to any one, and, above all, not to the count. anna fedorovna promised to send the money the next day, and to keep it a secret; but somehow or other, during the schottische, she had a terrible desire to offer the count as much money as he needed. she deliberated, blushed, and at last, mastering her confusion, thus addressed herself to the task:-"my brother told me, count, that you had met with a misfortune on the road, and hadn't any money. now, if you need some, wouldn't you take some of me? i should be terribly glad." but after she had thus spoken, anna fedorovna suddenly was overcome with fright, and blushed. all the gayety had instantly vanished from the count's face. "your brother is a fool!" said he in a cutting tone. "you know, when a man insults a man, then they fight a duel; but when a woman insults a man, then what do they do? do you know?" poor anna fedorovna blushed to her ears with confusion. she dropped her eyes, and made no reply. "they kiss the woman in public," said the count softly, bending over to whisper in her ear. "permit me, however, to kiss your little hand," he added almost inaudibly, after a long silence, having some pity on his lady's confusion. "ah! only not quite yet," urged anna fedorovna, with a deep sigh. "but when, then? to-morrow i am going away early.... but really, you owe it to me." "well, then, of course it is impossible," said anna fedorovna smiling. "only give me a chance to see you before to-morrow, so that i may kiss your hand. i will find one." "how will you find one?" "that is my affair. i can do any thing to see you.... is it agreed?" "agreed." the schottische came to an end; they danced through the mazurka, and in it the count did marvels, purloining handkerchiefs, bending on one knee, and clinking his spurs in an extraordinary manner, after the warsaw style, so that all the old men came from their _boston_ to look into the ballroom; and the cavalryman who was the best dancer confessed himself outdone. after they had eaten supper, they danced still the _gross vater_, and began to disperse. the count all this time did not take his eyes from the little widow. he had not been insincere when he declared his readiness to throw himself into a hole in the ice. whether it was caprice or love or stubbornness, but that evening all the strength of his mind had been concentrated into one desire,--to see and to love her. as soon as he perceived that anna fedorovna was taking her farewell of the hostess, he hastened to the servants' quarters, and thence, without his shuba, to the place where the carriages were drawn up. "anna fedorovna zaïtsova's equipage," he cried. a high four-seated carriage with lanterns moved out, and started to drive up to the doorstep. "stop!" shouted the count to the coachman, rushing up toward the carriage through snow that was knee-deep. "what is wanted?" called the driver. "i want to get into the carriage," replied the count, opening the door as the carriage moved, and trying to climb in. "stop, you devil! stupid! vaska![66] stop!" cried the coachman to the postilion, and reining in the horses. "what are you getting into another person's carriage for? this belongs to the lady anna fedorovna, and not to your grace." [footnote 66: diminutive of vasili.] "hush up, blockhead! _na!_ there's a ruble for you; now come down and shut the door!" said the count. but as the coachman did not move, he lifted the steps himself, and, shutting the window, managed to pull the door to. in this, as in all ancient carriages, especially those upholstered in yellow galloon, there was an odor of mustiness and burnt bristles. the count's legs were wet to the knees from melting snow, and almost freezing in his thin boots and trousers; and his whole body was penetrated by a cold like that of winter. the coachman was grumbling on his box, and seemed to be getting ready to get down. but the count heard nothing and felt nothing. his face was aglow, his heart was beating violently. he convulsively clutched the yellow strap, thrust his head out of the side-window, and his whole being was concentrated in expectation. he was not doomed to wait long. at the door-steps, they shouted, "zaïtsova's carriage!" the coachman shook his reins, the carriage swung on its high springs; the lighted windows of the house passed one after another by the carriage-windows. "see here, rogue, if you tell the lackey that i am here," said the count, thrusting his head through the front window, and addressing the coachman, "you'll feel my whip; but if you hold your tongue, i will give you ten rubles more." he had scarcely time to close the window, when the carriage shook again still more violently, and then the wheels came to a stop. he drew back as far as possible into the corner; he ceased to breathe; he even shut his eyes, so apprehensive was he, lest his passionate expectation should be disappointed. the door was opened; one after the other, with a creak, the steps were let down; a woman's dress rustled, and the close atmosphere of the carriage was impregnated by the odor of jasmine; a woman's dainty feet hurried up the steps, and anna fedorovna, brushing against the count's leg with the skirt of her cloak, which was loosely thrown about her, silently, and with a deep sigh, took her place on the cushioned seat next him. whether she saw him or not, no one could decide, not even anna fedorovna herself: but when he took her hand, and said, "now i will kiss your little hand anyway," she evinced very little dismay. she said nothing, but let him take her hand, which he covered with kisses, not stopping at the glove. the carriage rolled off. "tell me something. you are not angry?" said he to her. she silently sank back into her corner, but suddenly, for some reason or other, burst into tears, and let her head fall on his breast. vi. the newly elected isprávnik, with his company, the cavalryman, and other members of the nobility, had already been listening for some time to the gypsies, and drinking at the new tavern, when the count, in a blue-lined bear-skin shuba which had belonged to anna fedorovna's late husband, joined them. "little father, your excellency! we have almost given up expecting you," said a squint-eyed black gypsy with brilliant teeth, who met him in the entry and divested him of his shuba. "we haven't met since we were at lebedyan.... stioshka has pined away on account of you." stioshka, a slender young gypsy-girl[67] with a cherry red bloom on her cinnamon-colored cheeks, with brilliant deep black eyes, shaded by long eyelashes, also hurried to meet him. "ah! dear little count![68] my sweetheart! this is a pleasure," she exclaimed through her teeth, with a joyous smile. [footnote 67: _tsiganotchka._] [footnote 68: _grafchik! golubchik!_] ilyushka himself came to greet turbin, pretending that he was very glad to see him. the old women, the wives, the young girls, hastened to the spot and surrounded the guest. one would have said that he was a relative or a god-brother to them. turbin kissed all the young gypsy girls on the lips; the old women and the men kissed him on the shoulder or on the hand. the gentlemen were also very glad of the count's arrival; the more because the festivity, having passed its apogee, was now becoming tame; every one began to feel a sense of satiety. the wine, having lost its exhilarating effect on the nerves, only served to load the stomach. everybody had discharged the last cannon of his wildness, and was looking around moodily. all the songs had been sung, and ran in the heads of each, leaving a mere impression of noise and confusion. whatever any one did that was strange and wild, the rest began to look upon it as nothing very entertaining or amusing. the isprávnik stretched out on the floor in shameless fashion at the feet of some old woman, kicked his leg in the air, and began to cry,-"champagne!... the count has come!... champagne!... he has come!... now give us champagne!... i will make a bath of champagne, and swim in it! gentlemen of the nobility, i love your admirable society!... stioshka, sing 'the narrow road.'" the cavalryman was also very gay, but in a different fashion. he was sitting in a corner of a sofa with a tall, handsome gypsy, liubasha; and with the consciousness that intoxication was beginning to cloud his eyes, he kept blinking them, and swinging his head, and repeating the same words over and over again: he was proposing in a whisper to the gypsy to fly with him somewhere. liubasha, smiling, listened to him as though what he said were very amusing to her, and at the same time rather melancholy. occasionally she cast her glances at her husband, the squint-eyed sashka, who was standing behind a chair near her. in reply to the cavalryman's declaration of love, she bent over to his ear, and begged him to buy her some perfume and a ribbon without any one knowing it, so that the others should not see it. "hurrah!" cried the cavalryman when the count came in. the handsome young man, with an expression of anxiety, was walking up and down the room with solicitously steady steps, and humming an air from the "revolt in the seraglio." an old _paterfamilias_, dragged out to see the gypsies through the irresistible entreaties of the gentlemen of the nobility, who had told him that if he staid away every thing would go to pieces, and in that case they had better not go, was lying on a sofa where he had stretched himself out immediately on his arrival; and no one paid any attention to him. a chinovnik, who had been there before, had taken off his coat, was sitting with his legs on the table, and was rumpling up his hair, and thus proving that he understood how to be dissipated. as soon as the count came in, the official unbuttoned his shirt-collar, and lifted his legs still higher. the count's arrival generally gave new life to the festivities. the gypsy girls, who had been scattered about the room, again formed their circle. the count seated stioshka, the soloist, on his knee, and ordered more champagne to be brought. ilyushka, with his guitar, stood in front of the soloist, and began the _plyaska_, that is, the gypsy song and dance, "when i walk upon the street," "hey! you hussars," "do you hear, do you understand?" and others of the usual order. stioshka sang splendidly. her flexible, sonorous contralto, with its deep chest notes, her smiles while she was singing, her mischievous, passionate eyes, and her little foot which involuntarily kept time to the measure of the song, her despairing wail at the end of each couplet,--this all touched some resonant but tender chord. it was evident that she lived only in the song that she was singing. ilyushka, in his smile, his back, his legs, his whole being, carrying out in pantomime the idea expressed in the song, accompanied it on his guitar, and, fixing his eyes upon her as though he were hearing her for the first time, attentively and carefully lifted and drooped his head with the rhythm of the song. then he suddenly straightened himself up as the singer sang the last note, and, as though he felt himself superior to every one else in the world, with proud deliberation kicked the guitar, turned it over, stamped his foot, tossed back his locks, and looked at the chorus with a frown. all his body, from his neck to his toes, began to dance in every sinew. and twenty powerful, energetic voices, each trying to outdo the other in making strange and extraordinary noises, were lifted in union. the old women sprang down from their chairs, waving their handkerchiefs, and showing their teeth, and crying in rhythmic measure, each louder than the other. the bassos, leaning their heads on one side, and swelling their necks, bellowed from behind their chairs. when stioshka emitted her high notes, ilyushka brought his guitar nearer to her as though trying to aid her; and the handsome young man, in his enthusiasm, cried out that now they struck b-flat. when they came to the national dance, the plyasovaya, and duniasha, with shoulders and bosom shaking, stepped in front of the count, and was passing on, turbin leaped from his place, took off his uniform, and, remaining only in his red shirt, boldly joined her, keeping up the same measure, and cutting with his feet such antics, that the gypsies laughed and exchanged glances of approval. the isprávnik, who was sitting turkish fashion, pounded his chest with his fist, and cried "_vivat!_" and then, seizing the count by the leg, began to tell him that out of two thousand rubles, he had only five hundred left and that he might do whatever he pleased, if only the count would permit him. the old _paterfamilias_ woke up, and wanted to go home, but they would not let him. the handsome young man asked a gypsy girl to waltz with him. the cavalryman, anxious to exalt himself by his friendship with the count, got up from his corner, and embraced turbin. "ah, my turtle-dove!" he cried. "why must you leave us so soon? ha?" the count said nothing, being evidently absorbed in thought. "where did you go? ah, you rascal, i know where you went!" this familiarity somehow displeased the count turbin. without smiling, he looked in silence into the cavalryman's face, and suddenly gave him such a terrible and grievous affront that the cavalryman was mortified, and for some time did not know what to make of such an insult, whether it were a joke or not a joke. at last he made up his mind that it was a joke; he smiled, and returned to his gypsy, assuring her that he would really marry her after easter. another song was sung, a third, they danced again; the round of gayety was kept up, and every one continued to feel gay. there was no end to the champagne. the count drank a great deal. his eyes seemed to grow rather moist, but he did not grow dizzy; he danced still better than the rest, spoke without any thickness, and even joined in a chorus, and supported stioshka when she sang "the sweet emotion of friendship." in the midst of the dance and song the merchant, who kept the hotel, came to beg the guests to go home, as it was three o'clock in the morning. the count took the landlord by the throat, and ordered him to dance the _prisiadka_. the merchant refused. the count snatched a bottle of champagne, and standing the merchant on his head ordered him to stay so, and then amid general hilarity poured the whole bottle over him. the dawn was already breaking. all were pale and weary except the count. "at all events, i must go to moscow," said he, suddenly rising. "come with me, all of you, to my room, children.... see me off, and let us have some tea." all accompanied him with the exception of the sleeping proprietor, who still remained there; they piled into three sledges that were waiting at the door, and drove off to the hotel. vii. "have the horses put in!" cried the count, as he entered the sitting-room of the hotel with all his friends including the gypsies. "sashka,--not the gypsy sashka, but mine,--tell the superintendent that if the horses are poor i will flog him. now give us some tea. zavalshevsky, make some tea; i am going to ilyin's; i want to find how things have gone with him," added turbin; and he went out into the corridor, and directed his steps to the uhlan's room. ilyin was just through playing, and, having lost all his money down to his last kopek, had thrown himself face down on the worn-out haircloth sofa, and was picking the hairs out one by one, sticking them in his mouth, biting them into two, and spitting them out again. two tallow candles, one of which was already burnt down to the paper, stood on the card-cluttered ombre-table, and mingled their feeble rays with the morning light which was beginning to shine through the window. the uhlan's mind was vacant of all thought: that strange thick fog of the gambling-passion muffled all the capabilities of his mind so that there was not even room for regret. once he endeavored to think what was left for him to do, how he should get away without a kopek, how he should pay back the fifteen thousand rubles of public money that he had lost in gambling, what his colonel would say, what his mother would say, what his comrades would say; and such fear came over him, and such disgust at himself, that, in his anxiety to rid himself of the thought of it, he arose and began to walk up and down through the room, trying only to walk on the cracks of the floor; and then once more he began to recall all the least details of the evening. he vividly imagined that he was winning the whole back again: he takes a nine, and lays down a king of spades on two thousand rubles; a queen lies at the right, at the left an ace, at the right a king of diamonds--and all was lost! but if he had had a six at the right and a king of diamonds at the left, then he would have won it all back, he would have staked all again on p, and would have won back his fifteen thousand rubles, then he would have bought a good pacer of the colonel, an extra pair of horses, and a phaëton. and what else besides? ah! indeed it would have been a splendid, splendid thing! again he threw himself down on the sofa, and began to bite the hairs once more. "why are they singing songs in no. 7?" he wondered. "it must be, they are having a jollification in turbin's room. i'm of a good mind to go there, and have a little drink." just at this moment the count came in. "well, have you been losing, brother, hey?" he cried. "i will pretend to be asleep, otherwise i shall have to talk with him, and i really want to sleep now." nevertheless turbin went up to him, and laid his hand caressingly on his head.... "well, my dear little friend, have you been losing? have you had bad luck? tell me." ilyin made no reply. the count took him by the arm. "i have been losing. what is it to you?" muttered ilyin, in a sleepy voice expressing indifference and vexation; he did not change his position. "every thing?" "well, yes. what harm is there in it? all! what is it to you?" "listen: tell me the truth, as to a comrade," said the count, who, under the influence of the wine that he had been drinking, was disposed to be tender, and continued to smooth the other's hair. "you know i have taken a fancy to you. tell me the truth. if you have lost the public money, i will help you; if you don't, it will be too late.... was it public money?" ilyin leaped up from the sofa. "if you wish me to tell you, don't speak to me so, because ... and i beg of you don't speak to me.... i will blow my brains out--that's the only thing that's left for me now!" he exclaimed with genuine despair, letting his head sink into his hands, and bursting into tears, although but the moment before he had been calmly thinking about his horses. "_ekh!_ you're a pretty young girl! well, who might not have the same thing happen to him? it isn't as bad as it might be; perhaps we can straighten things out: wait for me here." the count hastened from the room. "where is the _pomyeshchik_[69] lukhnof's room?" he demanded of the hall-boy. [footnote 69: landed proprietor.] the hall-boy offered to show the count the way. the count in spite of the objections of the lackey, who said that his master had only just come in and was preparing to retire, entered the room. lukhnof in his dressing-gown was sitting in front of a table, counting over a number of packages of bank-notes piled up before him. on the table was a bottle of rheinwein, of which he was very fond. he had procured himself this pleasure from his winnings. coldly, sternly, lukhnof looked at the count over his glasses, affecting not to recognize him. "it seems that you do not know me," said the count, proceeding toward the table with resolute steps. lukhnof recognized the count, and asked,-"what is your pleasure?" "i wish to play with you," said turbin, sitting down on the sofa. "now?" "yes." "another time i should be most happy, count; but now i am tired, and am getting ready to go to bed. won't you have some wine? it is excellent wine." "but i wish to play with you for a little while _now_." "i am not prepared to play any more. maybe some of the other guests will. _i will not_, count! i beg of you to excuse me." "then you will not?" lukhnof shrugged his shoulders as though to express his regret at not being able to fulfil the count's desires. "will you not play under any consideration?" the same gesture. "i am very desirous of playing with you.... say, will you play, or not?" silence. "will you play?" asked the count a second time. the same silence, and a quick glance over his glasses at the count's face, which was beginning to grow sinister. "will you play?" cried the count in a loud voice, striking his hand on the table so violently that the bottle of rheinwein toppled over and the wine ran out. "you have been cheating, have you not? will you play? i ask you the third time." "i have told you, no! this is truly strange, count, ... perfectly unjustifiable, to come this way, and put your knife at a man's throat," remarked lukhnof, not lifting his eyes. a brief silence followed, during which the count's face grew paler and paler. suddenly lukhnof received a terrible blow on the head, which stunned him. he fell back on the divan, trying to grasp the money, and screamed in a penetratingly despairing tone, such as was scarcely to be expected from him, he was always so calm and imposing in his deportment. turbin gathered up the remaining bank-notes that were lying on the table, pushed away the servant who had come to his master's assistance, and with quick steps left the room. "if you wish satisfaction, i am at your service; i shall be in my room for half an hour yet,--no. 7," added the count, turning back as he reached the door. "villain! thief!" cried a voice from within the room.... "i will have satisfaction at law!" ilyin, who had not paid any heed to the count's promise to help him, was still lying on the sofa in his room, drowned in tears of despair. the count's caresses and sympathy had awakened him to a consciousness of the reality, and now, amidst the fog of strange thoughts and recollections which filled his mind, it made itself more and more felt. his youth, rich in hopes, honor, his social position, the dreams of love and friendship, were all destroyed forever. the fountain of his tears began to run dry, a too calm feeling of hopelessness took possession of him; and the thought of suicide, now bringing no sense of repulsion or terror, more and more frequently recurred to him. at this moment the count's firm steps were heard. on turbin's face were still visible the last traces of his recent wrath, his hands trembled slightly; but in his eyes shone a kindly gayety and self-satisfaction. "there! it has been won back for you!" he cried, tossing upon the table several packages of bank-notes. "count them; are they all there? then come as soon as possible to the sitting-room; i am going off right away," he added, as though he did not perceive the tremendous revulsion of joy and gratefulness which rushed over the uhlan's face. then, humming a gypsy song, he left the room. viii. sashka, tightening his girdle, was waiting for the horses to be harnessed, but was anxious to go first and get the count's cloak, which, with the collar, must have been worth three hundred rubles, and return that miserable blue-lined shuba to that rascally man who had exchanged with the count at the marshal's. but turbin said that it was not necessary, and went to his room to change his clothes. the cavalryman kept hiccoughing as he sat silently by his gypsy maiden. the isprávnik called for vodka, and invited all the gentlemen to come and breakfast with him, promising them that his wife would, without fail, dance the national dance with the gypsies. the handsome young man was earnestly arguing with ilyushka that there was more soul in the piano-forte, and that it was impossible to take b-flat on the guitar. the chinovnik was gloomily drinking tea in one corner, and apparently the daylight made him feel ashamed of his dissipation. the gypsies were conversing together in romany, and urging that they should once more enliven the gentlemen; to which stioshka objected, declaring that it would only vex the _barorai_,--that is, in romany, count or prince, or rather great bárin. for the most part, the last spark of the orgy was dying out. "well, then, one more song for a farewell, and then home with you," exclaimed the count, fresh, gay, and radiant above all the others, as he came into the room ready dressed in his travelling suit. the gypsies had again formed their circle, and were just getting ready to sing, when ilyin came in with a package of bank-notes in his hand, and drew the count to one side. "i had only fifteen thousand rubles of public money, but you gave me sixteen thousand three hundred," said the uhlan; "this is yours, of course." "that's a fine arrangement. let me have it." ilyin handed him the money, looking timidly at the count, and opened his mouth to say something; but then he reddened so painfully that the tears came into his eyes, and he seized the count's hand, and began to squeeze it. "away with you, ilyushka ... listen to me! now, here's your money, but you must accompany me with your songs to the city limits!" and he threw on his guitar the thirteen hundred rubles which ilyin had brought him. but the count had forgotten to repay the cavalryman the one hundred rubles which he had borrowed of him the evening before. it was now ten o'clock in the morning. the little sun was rising above the housetops, the streets were beginning to fill with people, the merchants had long ago opened their shops, nobles and chinovniks were riding up and down through the streets, and ladies were out shopping, when the band of gypsies, the isprávnik, the cavalryman, the handsome young fellow, ilyin, and the count who was wrapped up in his blue-lined bear-skin shuba, came out on the door-steps of the hotel. it was a sunny day, and it thawed. three hired tróïkas, with their tails knotted, and splashing through the liquid mud, pranced up to the steps; and the whole jolly company prepared to take their places. the count, ilyin, stioshka, ilyushka, and sashka the count's man,[70] mounted the first sledge. [footnote 70: _denshchik._] blücher was beside himself with delight, and, wagging his tail, barked at the shaft-horse. the other gentlemen, together with the gypsies, men and women, climbed into the other sledges. from the very hotel the sledges flew off side by side, and the gypsies set up a merry chorus and song. the tróïkas, with the songs and jingling bells, dashed through the whole length of the city to the gates, compelling all the equipages which they met to rein up on the very sidewalks. merchants and passers-by who did not know them, and especially those who did, were filled with astonishment to see nobles of high rank, in the midst of "the white day," dashing through the streets with intoxicated gypsies, singing at the tops of their voices. when they reached the city limits, the tróïkas stopped, and all the party took farewell of the count. ilyin, who had drunk considerable at the leave-taking, and had all the time been driving the horses, suddenly became melancholy, and began to urge the count to stay just one day more; but when he was assured that this was impossible, quite unexpectedly threw himself into his arms, and began to kiss his new friend, and promised him that as soon as he got to camp, he would petition to be transferred into the regiment of hussars in which count turbin served. the count was extraordinarily hilarious; he tipped into a snow-drift the cavalryman, who, since morning, had definitely taken to saying _thou_ to him; he set blücher on the isprávnik; he took stioshka into his arms, and threatened to carry her off with him to moscow; but at last he tucked himself into the sledge, and stationed blücher by his side, who was always ready to ride. sashka took his place on the box, after once more asking the cavalryman to secure the count's cloak from _them_, and to send it to him. the count cried "go on,"[71] took off his cap, waved it over his head, and whistled in post-boy fashion to the horses. the tróïkas parted company. [footnote 71: _próshol._] as far as the eye could see, stretched a monotonous snow-covered plain, over which wound the yellowish muddy ribbon of the road. the bright sunlight, dancing, glistened on the melting snow, which was covered with a thin crust of transparent ice, and pleasantly warmed the face and back. the steam arose from the sweaty horses. the bells jingled. a peasant[72] with a creaking sledge, heavily loaded, slowly turned out into the slushy snow, twitching his hempen reins, and tramping with his well-soaked sabots.[73] [footnote 72: _muzhík._] [footnote 73: _lapti._] a stout, handsome peasant woman, with a child wrapped in a sheep-skin on her lap, who was seated on another load, used the end of her reins to whip up a white mangy-tailed old nag. suddenly the count remembered anna fedorovna. "turn round!" he cried. the driver did not understand. "turn round and drive back; back to the city! be quick about it." the tróïka again passed the city gate, and quickly drew up in front of the boarded steps of the zaïtsova dwelling. the count briskly mounted the steps, passed through the vestibule and the parlor, and finding the widow still asleep he took her in his arms, lifting her from her bed, and kissed her sleeping eyes again and again, and then darted back to the sledge. anna fedorovna awoke from her slumber, and demanded, "what has happened?" the count took his seat in his sledge, shouted to the driver, and now no longer delaying, and thinking not of lukhnof nor of the little widow, nor of stioshka, but only of what was awaiting him in moscow, rapidly left the city of k. behind him. ix. a score of years have passed. much water has run since then, many men have died, many children have been born, many have grown up and become old; still more thoughts have been born and perished. much that was beautiful and much that was ugly in the past have disappeared; much that is beautiful in the new has been brought forth, and still more that is incomplete and abortive of the new has appeared in god's world. count feódor turbin was long ago killed in a duel with some foreigner whom he struck on the street with his long whip. his son, who was as like him as two drops of water, had already reached the age of two or three and twenty, and was a lovely fellow, already serving in the cavalry. morally the young count turbin was entirely different from his father. there was not a shadow of those fiery, passionate, and in truth be it said, corrupt inclinations, peculiar to the last century. together with intelligence, cultivation, and inherited natural gifts, a love for the proprieties and amenities of life, a practical view of men and circumstances, wisdom and forethought, were his chief characteristics. the young count made admirable progress in his profession; at twenty-three he was already lieutenant.... when war broke out, he came to the conclusion that it would be more for his interests to enter the regular army; and he joined a regiment of hussars as captain of cavalry, where he soon was given command of a battalion. in the month of may, 1848, the s. regiment of hussars was on its way through the government of k., and the very battalion which the young count turbin commanded was obliged to be quartered for one night at morozovka, anna fedorovna's village. anna fedorovna was still alive, but was now so far from being young that she no longer called herself young, which, for a woman, means much. she had grown very stout, and this, it is said, restores youth in a woman. but that was not the worst of it: over her pale, stout flesh was a net-work of coarse, flabby wrinkles. she no longer went to the city, she even found it hard to mount into her carriage; but still she was just as good-natured and as completely vacant-minded as ever,--the truth might safely be told, now that it was no longer palliated by her beauty. under her roof lived her daughter liza, a rustic russian belle of twenty-three summers, and her brother, our acquaintance the cavalryman, who had spent all his patrimony in behalf of others, and now, in his old age, had taken refuge with anna fedorovna. the hair on his head had become perfectly gray; his upper lip was sunken, but the mustache that it wore was carefully dyed. wrinkles covered not only his brow and cheeks, but also his nose and neck; and yet his weak bow-legs gave evidence of the old cavalryman. anna fedorovna's whole family and household were gathered in the small parlor of the ancient house. the balcony door and windows, looking out into a star-shaped garden shaded by lindens, were open. anna fedorovna, in her gray hair and a lilac-colored gown,[74] was sitting on the sofa, before a small round mahogany table, shuffling cards. the old brother, dressed in spruce white pantaloons and a blue coat, had taken up his position near the window, knitting strips of white cotton on a fork, an occupation which his niece had taught him, and which gave him great enjoyment, as he had nothing else to do, his eyes not being strong enough to enable him to read newspapers, which was his favorite occupation. near him pímotchka, a _protégée_ of anna fedorovna, was studying her lessons under the guidance of liza, who with wooden knitting-needles was knitting stockings of goat-wool for her uncle. [footnote 74: _katsavéïka._] the last rays of the setting sun, as always at this time, threw under the linden alley their soft reflections on the last window-panes and the little _étagère_ which stood near it. in the garden it was so still that one could hear the swift rush of a swallow's wings, and so quiet in the room that anna fedorovna's gentle sigh, or the old man's cough as he kept changing the position of his legs, was the only sound. "how does this go, lízanka? show me, please. i keep forgetting," said anna fedorovna, pausing in the midst of her game of patience. liza, without stopping her work, went over to her mother, and, glancing at the cards, "ah!" says she. "you have mixed them all up, dear mamasha," said she, arranging the cards. "that is the way they should be placed. now they come as you desired," she added, secretly withdrawing one card. "now you are always managing to deceive me! you said that it would go." "no, truly; it goes, i assure you. it has come out right." "very well, then; very well, you rogue! but isn't it time for tea?" "i have just ordered the samovár heated. i will go and see about it immediately. shall we have it brought here?... now, pímotchka, hasten and finish your lessons, and we will go and take a run." and liza started for the door. "lízotchka! lízanka!" cried her uncle, steadfastly regarding his fork, "again it seems to me i have dropped a stitch. arrange it for me, my darling."[75] [footnote 75: _golúbchik._] "in a moment, in a moment. first i must have the sugar broken up." and in point of fact, within three minutes, she came running into the room, went up to her uncle, and took him by the ear. "that's to pay you for dropping stitches," said she laughing. "you have not been knitting as i taught you." "now, that'll do, that'll do, adjust it for me; there seems to be some sort of a knot." liza took the fork, pulled out a pin from her kerchief, which was blown back a little by the breeze coming through the window, picked it out a couple of times, and handed it back to her uncle. "now you must kiss me for that," said she, putting up her rosy cheek toward him, and re-adjusting her kerchief. "you shall have rum in your tea to-day. to-day is friday, you see." and again she went to the tea-room. "uncle dear, come and look! some hussars are riding up toward the house!" her ringing voice was heard to say. anna fedorovna and her brother hastened into the tea-room, the windows of which faced the village, and looked at the hussars. very little was to be seen; through the cloud of dust it could be judged only that a body of men was advancing. "what a pity, sister," remarked the uncle to anna fedorovna, "what a pity that we are so cramped, and the wing is not built yet, so that we might invite the officers here. officers of the hussars! they are such glorious, gay young fellows! i should like to have a glimpse at them." "well, i should be heartily glad, but you know yourself that there is nowhere to put them: my sleeping-room, liza's room, the parlor, and then your room,--judge for yourself. mikháïlo matveef has put the _stárosta's_[76] house in order for them; he says it will be nice there." [footnote 76: village elder.] "but we must find you a husband, lízotchka, among them,--a glorious hussar!" said the uncle. "no, i do not want a hussar: i want an uhlan. let me see, you served among the uhlans, didn't you, uncle?... i don't care to know these hussars. they say they are desperate fellows." and liza blushed a little, and then once more her ringing laugh was heard. "there's ustiushka running: we must ask her what she saw," said she. anna fedorovna sent to have ustiushka brought in. "she has no idea of sticking to her work, she must always be running off to look at the soldiers," said anna fedorovna.... "now, where have they lodged the officers?" "with the yeremkins, your ladyship. there are two of them, such lovely men! one of them is a count, they tell me." "what's his name?" "kazárof or turbínof. i don't remember, excuse me." "there now, you're a goose, you don't know how to tell any thing at all. you might have remembered his name!" "well, i'll run and find out." "i know that you are quite able to do that. but no, let danílo go.--brother, go and tell him to go; have him ask if there is not something which the officers may need; every thing must be done in good form; have them understand that it is the lady of the house who has sent to find out." the old people sat down again in the tea-room, and liza went to the servants' room to put the lumps of sugar in the sugar-bowl. ustiushka was telling them there about the hussars. "o my dear young lady, what a handsome man he is! that count!" she said, "absolutely a little cherubim,[77] with black eyebrows. you ought to have such a husband as that; what a lovely little couple you would make!" the other maids smiled approvingly; the old nurse, sitting by the window with her stocking, sighed, and, drawing a long breath, murmured a prayer. [footnote 77: _kherubimchik._] "it seems to me that the hussars have given you a great deal of pleasure," said liza. "you are a master hand at description. bring me the _mors_,[78] ustiushka, please; we must give the officers something sour to drink." and liza, laughing, went out with the sugar-bowl. [footnote 78: a sour beverage made of cranberries.] "but i should like to see what sort of a man this hussar is,--whether he is brunet or blondin. and i imagine he would not object to making our acquaintance. but he will go away, and never know that i was here and was thinking about him. and how many have passed by me in this way! no one ever sees me except uncle and ustiushka! how many times i have arranged my hair, how many pairs of cuffs i have put on, and yet no one ever sees me or falls in love with me," she thought with a sigh, contemplating her white, plump hand. "he must be tall, and have big eyes, and a nice little black mustache.... no! i am already over twenty-two, and no one has ever fallen in love with me except the pock-marked iván ipátuitch. and four years ago i was still better-looking; and so my girlhood has gone, and no one is the better for it. ah! i am an unhappy country maiden!" her mother's voice, calling her to bring the tea, aroused the country maiden from this momentary revery. she shook her little head, and went into the tea-room. the best things always happen unexpectedly; and the more you try to force them, the worse they come out. in the country it is rare that any attempt is made to impart education, and therefore when a good one is found it is generally a surprise. and thus it happened, in a notable degree, in the case of liza. anna fedorovna, through her own lack of intelligence and natural laziness, had not given liza any education at all; had not taught her music, nor the french language which is so indispensable. but the girl had fortunately been a healthy, bright little child: she had intrusted her to a wet-nurse and a day-nurse; she had fed her, and dressed her in print dresses and goat-skin shoes, and let her run wild and gather mushrooms and berries; had her taught reading and arithmetic by a resident seminarist. and thus, as fate would have it, at the age of sixteen, she found in her daughter a companion, a soul who was always cheerful and good-natured, and the actual mistress of the house. through her goodness of heart, anna fedorovna always had in her house some _protégée_, either a serf or some foundling. liza, from the time she was ten years old, had begun to take care of them; to teach them, clothe them, take them to church, and keep them still when they were inclined to be mischievous. then her old broken-down but good-natured uncle made his appearance, and he had to be taken care of like a child. then the domestic servants and the peasants began to come to the young mistress with their desires and their ailments; and she treated them with elderberry, mint, and spirits of camphor. then the domestic management of the house fell into her hands entirely. then came the unsatisfied craving for love, which found expression only in nature and religion. thus liza, by chance, grew into an active, good-naturedly cheerful, self-poised, pure, and deeply religious young woman. to be sure, she had her little fits of jealousy and envy when she saw, all around her in church, her neighbors dressed in new, fashionable hats that came from k.; she was sometimes vexed to tears by her old, irritable mother, and her caprices; she had her dreams of love in the most absurd and even the crudest forms, but her healthy activity, which she could not shirk, drove them away; and now, at twenty-two, not a single spot, not a single compunction, had touched the fresh, calm soul of this maiden, now developed into the fulness of perfect physical and moral beauty. liza was of medium height, rather plump than lean; her eyes were brown, small, with a soft dark shade on the lower lid; she wore her flaxen hair in a long braid. in walking she took long steps, and swayed like a duck, as the saying is. the expression of her face, when she was occupied with her duties, and nothing especially disturbed her, seemed to say to all who looked into it, "life in this world is good and pleasant to one who has a heart full of love, and a pure conscience." even in moments of vexation, of trouble, of unrest, or of melancholy, in spite of her tears, of the drawing-down of the left brow, of the compressed lips, of the petulance of her desires, even then in the dimples of her cheeks, in the corners of her mouth, and in her brilliant eyes, so used to smile and rejoice in life,--even then there shone a heart good and upright, and unspoiled by knowledge. x. it was still rather warm, though the sun was already set, when the battalion arrived at morozovka. in front of them, along the dusty village street, trotted a brindled cow, separated from the herd, bellowing, and occasionally stopping to look round, and never once perceiving that all she had to do was to turn out and let the battalion pass. peasants, old men, women, children, and domestic serfs, crowding both sides of the road, gazed curiously at the hussars. through a thick cloud of dust the hussars rode along on raven-black horses, curvetting and occasionally snorting. at the right of the battalion, gracefully mounted on beautiful black steeds, rode two officers. one was the commander, count turbin; the other a very young man, who had recently been promoted from the yunkers; his name was polózof. a hussar, in a white kittel, came from the best of the cottages, and, taking off his cap, approached the officers. "what quarters have been assigned to us?" asked the count. "for your excellency?" replied the quartermaster, his whole body shuddering. "here at the _stárosta's_; he has put his cottage in order. i tried to get a room at the mansion,[79] but they said no; the proprietress is so ill-tempered." [footnote 79: _barsky dvor._] "well, all right," said the count, dismounting and stretching his legs as he reached the _stárosta's_ cottage. "tell me, has my carriage come?" "it has deigned to arrive, your excellency," replied the quartermaster, indicating with his cap the leathern carriage-top which was to be seen inside the gate, and then hastening ahead into the entry of the cottage, which was crowded with the family of serfs, gathered to have a look at the officer. he even tripped over an old woman, as he hastily opened the door of the neatly cleaned cottage, and stood aside to let the count pass. the cottage was large and commodious, but not perfectly clean. the german body-servant,[80] dressed like a bárin, was standing in the cottage, and, having just finished setting up the iron bed, was taking out clean linen from a trunk. [footnote 80: _kammerdiener._] "_phu!_ what a nasty lodging!" exclaimed the count in vexation. "diádenko! is it impossible to find me better quarters at the proprietor's or somewhere?" "if your excellency command, i will go up to the mansion," replied diádenko; "but the house is small and wretched, and seems not much better than the cottage." "well, that's all now. you can go." and the count threw himself down on the bed, supporting his head with his hands. "johann!" he cried to his body-servant; "again you have made a hump in the middle. why can't you learn to make a bed decently?" johann was anxious to make it over again. "no, you need not trouble about it now!... where's my dressing-gown?" he proceeded to ask in a petulant voice. the servant gave him the dressing-gown. the count, before he put it on, examined the skirt. "there it is! you have not taken that spot out! could it be possible for any one to be a worse servant than you are?" he added, snatching the garment from the servant's hands, and putting it on. "now tell me, do you do this way on purpose? is tea ready?" "i haven't had time to make it," replied johann. "fool!" after this, the count took a french novel which was at hand, and read for some time without speaking; but johann went out into the entry to blow up the coals in the samovár. it was plain to see that the count was in a bad humor; it must have been owing to weariness, to the dust on his face, to his tightly-fitting clothes, and to his empty stomach. "johann!" he cried again, "give me an account of those ten rubles. what did you get in town?" the count looked over the account which the servant handed him, and made some dissatisfied remarks about the high prices paid. "give me the rum for the tea." "i did not get any rum," said johann. "delightful! how many times have i told you always to have rum?" "i didn't have money enough." "why didn't polózof buy it? you might have got some from his man." "the cornet polózof? i do not know. he bought tea and sugar." "beast! get you gone. you are the only man who has the power to exhaust my patience! you know that i always take rum in my tea when i am on the march." "here are two letters one of the staff brought for you," said the body-servant. the count, as he lay on the bed, tore open the letters, and began to read them. at this moment the cornet came in with gay countenance, having quartered the battalion. "well, how is it, turbin? it's first-rate here, seems to me. i am tired out, i confess it. it has been a warm day." "first-rate! i should think so! a dirty, stinking hut! and no rum, thanks to you. your stupid did not buy any, nor this one either. you might have said something anyway!" and he went on with his reading. after he had read the letter through, he crumpled it up, and threw it on the floor. "_why_ didn't you buy some rum?" the cornet in a whisper demanded of his servant in the entry. "didn't you have any money?" "well, why should we be always the ones to spend the money? i have enough to spend for without that, and _his_ german does nothing but smoke his pipe,--that's all." the second letter was evidently not disagreeable, because the count smiled as he read it. "who's that from?" asked polózof, returning to the room, and trying to arrange for himself a couch on the floor, near the oven. "from mina," replied the count gayly, handing him the letter. "would you like to read it? what a lovely woman she is! now, she's better than our young ladies, that's a fact. just see what feeling and what wit in that letter! there's only one thing that i don't like,--she asks me for money!" "no, that's not pleasant," replied the cornet. "well it's true i promised to give her some; but this expedition--and besides, if i am commander of the battalion, at the end of three months i will send some to her. i should not regret it; she's really a lovely woman. isn't she?" he asked with a smile, following with his eyes polózof's expression as he read the letter. "horribly misspelled, but sweet; it seems to me she really loves you," replied the cornet. "hm! i should think so! only these women truly love when they do love." "but who was that other letter from?" asked the cornet, pointing to the one which he had read. "that? oh, that's from a certain man, very ugly, to whom i owe a gambling debt, and this is the third time that he has reminded me of it. i can't pay it to him now. it's a stupid letter," replied the count, evidently nettled by the recollection of it. the two officers remained silent for some little time. the cornet, who, it seemed, had come under turbin's influence, drank his tea without speaking, though he occasionally cast a glance at the clouded face of the handsome count, who gazed steadily out of the window. he did not venture to renew the conversation. "well, then, i think it can be accomplished without difficulty," suddenly exclaimed the count, turning to polózof, and gayly nodding his head. "if we who are in the line get promoted this year, yes, and if we take part in some engagement, then i can overtake my former captains of the guard." they were drinking their second cup of tea, and the conversation was still dwelling on this theme, when the old danílo came with the message from anna fedorovna. "and she would also like to know whether you are not pleased to be the son of feódor ivánovitch turbin," he added, on his own responsibility, as he had found out the officer's name, and still remembered the late count's visit to the city of k. "our mistress,[81] anna fedorovna, used to be very well acquainted with him." [footnote 81: _báruinya._] "he was my father. now tell the lady that i am very much obliged, but that i need nothing; only, if it would not be possible to give me a cleaner room in the mansion, say, or somewhere." "now, why did you do that?" asked polózof after danílo had gone. "isn't it just the same thing? for one night isn't it just as well here? and it will put them to inconvenience." "there it is again! it seems to me we have had enough of being sent round among these smoky hovels.[82] it's easy enough to see that you are not a practical man. why shouldn't we seize the opportunity, when we can, of sleeping, even if it's for only one night, like decent men? and they, contrary to what you think, will be mighty glad. there's only one thing objectionable. if this lady used to know my father," continued the count, with a smile that discovered his white gleaming teeth,--"somehow i always feel a little ashamed of my late papasha; there's always some scandalous story, or some debt or other. and so i can't endure to meet any of my father's acquaintances. however, that was an entirely different age," he added seriously. [footnote 82: _kúrnaya izbá_, a peasant's hut without chimney.] "oh! i did not tell you," rejoined polózof. "i recently met ilyin, the brigade commander of uhlans. he is very anxious to see you; he is passionately fond of your father." "i think that he is terrible trash, that ilyin. but the worst is that all these gentlemen who imagine that they knew my father in order to make friends with me, insist upon telling me, as though it were very pleasant for me to hear, about escapades of his that make me blush. it is true i am not impulsive, and i look upon things dispassionately; while he was too hot-spirited a man, and sometimes he played exceedingly reprehensible tricks. however, that was all due to his time. in our day and generation, maybe, he would have been a very sensible man, for he had tremendous abilities; one must give him credit for that." in a quarter of an hour the servant returned, and brought an invitation for them to come and spend the night at the mansion. xi. as soon as anna fedorovna learned that the officer of hussars was the son of count feódor turbin, she was thrown into a great state of excitement. "oh! great heavens![83] he is my darling! danílo! run, hurry, tell them the lady invites them to stay at her house," she cried, in great agitation, and hastening to the servants' room. "lízanka! ustiushka! you must have your room put in order, liza. you can go into your uncle's room; and you, brother,--brother, you can sleep to-night in the parlor. it's for only one night." [footnote 83: _bátiuzhki moï!_] "that's nothing, sister! i would sleep on the floor." "he must be a handsome fellow, i think, if he's like his father. only let me see him, the turtle-dove! you shall see for yourself, liza. ah! his father was handsome! where shall we put the table? let it go there," said anna fedorovna, running about here and there. "there now, bring in two beds; get one from the overseer, and get from the _étagère_ the glass candlestick which my brother gave me for my birthday, and put in a wax candle." at last all was ready. liza, in spite of her mother's interference, arranged her room in her own way for the two officers. she brought out clean linen sheets, fragrant of mignonnette, and had the beds made; she ordered a carafe of water and candles near it on the little table. she burned scented paper in the girls' room, and moved her own little bed into her uncle's chamber. anna fedorovna gradually became calm, and sat down again in her usual place; she even took out her cards; but instead of shuffling them, she leaned on her fat elbow, and gave herself up to her thoughts. "how time has gone! how time has gone!" she exclaimed in a whisper. "it is long! long! isn't it? i seem to see him now! _akh!_ he was a scamp!" and the tears came into her eyes. "now here is lízanka, but she isn't at all what i was at her age. she is a nice girl; but no, not quite.... "lízanka, you had better wear your mousselin-de-laine dress this evening." "but are you going to invite them down-stairs, mamasha? you had better not do it," rejoined liza, with a feeling of invincible agitation at the thought of seeing the officers. "you had better not, mamasha!" in point of fact, she did not so much desire to see them, as she felt apprehensive of some painful pleasure awaiting her, as it seemed to her. "perhaps they themselves would like to make our acquaintance, lízotchka," said anna fedorovna, glancing at her daughter's hair, and at the same time thinking, "no, not such hair as i had at her age. no, lízotchka, how much i could wish for you!" and she really wished something very excellent for her daughter, but she could scarcely look forward to a match with the count; she could not desire such a relationship as she herself had formed with his father; but that something good would come of it, she wished very, very much for her daughter. she possibly had the desire to live over again in her daughter's happiness all the life which she lived with the late count. the old cavalryman was also somewhat excited by the count's coming. he went to his room, and shut himself up in it. at the end of a quarter of an hour, he re-appeared dressed in a hungarian coat and blue pantaloons; and with a troubled-happy expression of countenance, such as a girl wears when she puts on her first ball-dress, he started for the room assigned to the guests. "we shall have a glimpse of some of the hussars of to-day, sister. the late count was indeed a genuine hussar. we shall see! we shall see!" the officers had by this time come in by the back entrance, and were in the room that had been put at their service. "there now," said the count, stretching himself out in his dusty boots on the bed which had just been made for him, "if we aren't better off here than we were there in that hovel with the cockroaches!" "better? of course; but think what obligations we are putting ourselves under to the people here." "what rubbish! you must always be a practical man. they are mighty glad to have us, of course. fellow!" cried the count, "ask some one to put a curtain up at this window, else there'll be a draught in the night." at this moment the old man came in to make the acquaintance of the officers. though he was somewhat confused, he did not fail to tell how he had been a comrade of the late count's, who had been very congenial to him, and he even went so far as to say that more than once he had been under obligations to the late count. whether he meant, in speaking of the obligations to the late count, a reference to the hundred rubles which the count had borrowed and never returned, or to his throwing him into the snow-drift, or to the slap in the face, the old man failed to explain. however, the count was very urbane with the old cavalryman, and thanked him for his hospitality. "you must excuse us if it is not very luxurious, count,"--he almost said "your excellency," as he had got out of the habit of meeting with men of rank. "my sister's house is rather small. as for the window here, we will find something to serve as a curtain right away, and it will be first-rate," added the little old man; and under the pretext of going for a curtain, but really because he wanted to give his report about the officers as quickly as possible, he left the room. the pretty little ustiushka came, bringing her mistress's shawl to serve as a curtain. she was also commissioned to ask if the gentlemen would not like some tea. the cheerful hospitality had had a manifestly beneficent influence upon the count's spirits. he laughed and jested with ustiushka gayly, and went to such lengths that she even called him a bad man; he asked her if her mistress was pretty, and in reply to her question whether he would like some tea, replied that she might please bring him some, but above all, as his supper was not ready, he would like some vodka now, and a little lunch, and some sherry if there was any. the old uncle was in raptures over the young count's politeness, and praised to the skies the young generation of officers, saying that the men of the present day were far preferable to those of the past. anna fedorovna could not agree to that,--no one could be any better than count feódor ivánovitch,--and she was beginning to grow seriously angry, and remarked dryly, "for you, brother, the one who flatters you last is the best! without any question, the men of our time are better educated, but still feódor ivánovitch could dance the schottische, and was so amiable that everybody in his day, you might say, was stupid compared to him! only he did not care for any one else beside me. oh, certainly there were fine men in the old time!" at this moment came the message requesting the vodka, the lunch, and the sherry. "there now, just like you, brother! you never do things right. we ought to have had supper prepared.... liza, attend to it, that's my darling." liza hastened to the storeroom for mushrooms and fresh cream butter, and told the cook to prepare beef cutlets. "how much sherry is there? haven't you any left, brother?" "no, sister; i never have had any." "what! no sherry? but what is it you drink in your tea?" "that is rum, anna fedorovna." "isn't that the same thing? give them some of that. it is all the same, it'll make no difference. or would it not be better to invite them down here, brother? you know all about it. they would not be offended, i imagine, would they?" the cavalryman assured her that he would answer for it that the count, in his goodness of heart, would not decline, and that he would certainly bring them. anna fedorovna went off to put on, for some reason or other, her gros-grain dress and a new cap; but liza was so busy that she had no time to take off her pink gingham dress with wide sleeves. moreover, she was terribly wrought up; it seemed to her that something astonishing, like a very low black cloud, was sweeping down upon her soul. this count-hussar, this handsome fellow, seemed to her an absolutely novel and unexpected but beautiful creature. his character, his habits, his words, it seemed to her, must be something extraordinary, such as had never come into the range of her experience. all that he thought and said must be bright and true; all that he did must be honorable; his whole appearance must be beautiful. she could have no doubt of that. if he had demanded not merely a lunch and sherry, but even a bath in spirits of salvia, she would not have been surprised, she would not have blamed him, and she would have been convinced that this was just and reasonable. the count immediately accepted when the cavalryman brought him his sister's invitation; he combed his hair, put on his coat, and took his cigar-case. "will you come?" he asked of polózof. "indeed we had better not go," replied the cornet; "_ils feront des frais pour nous recevoir_." "rubbish! it will make them happy. besides, i have been making inquiries ... there's a pretty daughter here.... come along," said the count in french. "_je vous en prie, messieurs_," said the cavalryman, merely for the sake of giving them to understand that he also could speak french, and understood what the officers were saying. xii. liza, red in the face and with downcast eyes, was ostensibly occupied with filling up the teapot, and did not dare to look at the officers as they entered the room. anna fedorovna, on the contrary, briskly jumped up and bowed, and without taking her eyes from the count's face began to talk to him, now finding an extraordinary resemblance to his father, now presenting her daughter, now offering him tea, meats, or jelly-cakes. no one paid any attention to the cornet, thanks to his modest behavior; and he was very glad of it, because it gave him a chance, within the limits of propriety, to observe and study the details of liza's beauty, which had evidently come over him with the force of a surprise. the uncle listening to his sister's conversation had a speech ready on his lips, and was waiting for a chance to relate his cavalry experiences. the count smoked his cigar over his tea, so that liza had great difficulty in refraining from coughing, but he was very talkative and amiable; at first, in the infrequent pauses of anna fedorovna's conversation, he introduced his own stories, and finally he took the conversation into his own hands. one thing struck his listeners as rather strange: in his talk he often used words, which, though not considered reprehensible in his own set, were here rather audacious, so that anna fedorovna was a little abashed, and liza blushed to the roots of her hair. but this the count did not notice, and continued to be just as natural and amiable as ever. liza filled the glasses in silence, not putting them into the hands of the guests, but pushing them toward them; she had not entirely recovered from her agitation, but listened eagerly to the count's anecdotes. the count's pointless tales, and the pauses in the conversation, gradually re-assured her. the bright things that she had expected from him were not forthcoming, nor did she find in him that surpassing elegance for which she had confusedly hoped. even as soon as the third glass of tea, when her timid eyes once encountered his, and he did not avoid them, but continued almost too boldly to stare at her, with a lurking smile, she became conscious of a certain feeling of hostility against him; and she soon discovered that there was not only nothing out of the ordinary in him, but that he was very little different from those whom she had already seen; in fact, that there was no reason to be afraid of him. she noticed that he had long and neat finger-nails, but otherwise there was no mark of special beauty about him. liza suddenly, not without some inward sorrow, renouncing her dream, regained her self-possession; and only the undemonstrative cornet's glance, which she felt fixed upon her, disquieted her. "perhaps it is not the count, but the other," she said to herself. xiii. after tea, the old lady invited her guests into the other room, and again sat down in her usual place. "but perhaps you would like to rest, count?" she asked. "well, then, what would you like to amuse yourselves with, my dear guests?" she proceeded to ask after she had been assured to the contrary. "you play cards, do you not, count?--here, brother, you might take a hand in some game or other."... "why, you yourself can play _préférence_," replied the cavalryman. "you had better take a hand, then. the count will play, will he not? and you?" the officers were agreeable to every thing that might satisfy their amiable hosts. liza brought from her room her old cards which she used for divining whether her mother would speedily recover of a cold, or whether her uncle would return on such and such a day from the city if he chanced to have gone there, or whether her neighbor would be in during the day, and other like things. these cards, though they had been in use for two months, were less soiled than those which anna fedorovna used for the same purpose. "perhaps you are not accustomed to playing for small stakes," suggested the uncle. "anna fedorovna and i play for half-kopeks, and then she always gets the better of all of us." "ah! make your own arrangements. i shall be perfectly satisfied," said the count. "well, then, be it in paper kopeks for the sake of our dear guests; only let me gain, as i am old," said anna fedorovna, settling herself in her chair, and adjusting her mantilla. "maybe i shall win a ruble of them," thought anna fedorovna, who in her old age felt a little passion for cards. "if you would like, i will teach you to play with tablets," said the count, "and with the _miséries_. it is very jolly." everybody was delighted with this new petersburg fashion. the uncle went so far as to assert that he knew it, and that it was just the same thing as _boston_, but that he had forgotten somewhat about it. anna fedorovna did not comprehend it at all; and it took her so long to get into it, that she felt under the necessity of smiling and nodding her head assuringly, to give the impression that she now understood, and that now it was all perfectly clear to her. but there was no little amusement created when in the midst of the game anna fedorovna, with ace and king blank, called "_misérie_," and remained with the six. she even began to grow confused, smiled timidly, and hastened to assure them that she had not as yet become accustomed to the new way. nevertheless they put down the points against her, and many of them too; the more because the count, through his practice of playing on large stakes, played carefully, led very prudently, and never at all understood what the cornet meant by sundry raps with his foot under the table, or why he made such stupid blunders in playing. liza brought in more jelly-cakes, three kinds of preserves, and apples cooked in some manner with port-wine; and then, standing behind her mother's chair, she looked on at the game, and occasionally watched the officers, and especially the count's white hands with their delicate long finger-nails, as he with such skill, assurance, and grace, threw the cards, and took the tricks. once more anna fedorovna, with some show of temper going beyond the others, bid as high as seven, and lost three points; and when, at her brother's instigation, she tried to make some calculation, she found herself utterly confused and off the track. "it's nothing, mamasha; you'll win it back again," said liza, with a smile, anxious to rescue her mother from her ridiculous position. "some time you'll put a fine on uncle: then he will be caught." "but you might help me, lízotchka," cried anna fedorovna, looking with an expression of dismay at her daughter; "i don't know how this".... "but i don't know how to play this either," rejoined liza, carefully calculating her mother's losses. "but if you go on at this rate, mamasha, you will lose a good deal, and pímotchka will not have her new dress," she added in jest. "yes, in this way it is quite possible to lose ten silver rubles," said the cornet, looking at liza, and anxious to draw her into conversation. "aren't we playing for paper money?" asked anna fedorovna, gazing round at the rest. "i don't know, i am sure," replied the count. "but i don't know how to reckon in bank-notes. what are they? what do you mean by bank-notes?"[84] [footnote 84: _assignatsii._] "why, no one nowadays reckons in bank-notes," explained the cavalryman, who was playing like a hero and was on the winning side. the old lady ordered some sparkling wine, drank two glasses herself, grew quite flushed, and seemed to abandon all hope. one braid of her gray hair escaped from under her cap, and she did not even put it up. it was evident that she thought herself losing millions, and that she was entirely ruined. the cornet kept nudging the count's leg more and more emphatically. the count was noting down the old lady's losses. at last the game came to an end. in spite of anna fedorovna's efforts to bring her reckoning higher than it should be, and to pretend that she had been cheated in her account, and that it could not be correct, in spite of her dismay at the magnitude of her losses, at last the account was made out, and she was found to have lost nine hundred and twenty points. "isn't that equal to nine paper rubles?" she asked again and again; and she did not begin to realize how great her forfeit was, until her brother, to her horror, explained that she was "out" thirty-two and a half paper rubles, and that it was absolutely necessary for her to pay it. the count did not even sum up his gains, but, as soon as the game was over, arose and went over to the window where liza was arranging the lunch, and putting potted mushrooms on a plate. there he did with perfect calmness and naturalness what the cornet had been anxious and yet unable to effect all the evening,--he engaged her in conversation about the weather. the cornet at this time was brought into a thoroughly unpleasant predicament. anna fedorovna, in the absence of the count and liza, who had managed to keep her in a jovial frame of mind, became really angry. "indeed, it is too bad that we have caused you to lose so heavily," said polózof, in order to say something. "it is simply shameful." "i should think these tablets and _miséries_ were something of your own invention. i don't know any thing about them. how many paper rubles does the whole amount to?" she demanded. "thirty-two rubles, thirty-two and a half," insisted the cavalryman, who, from the effect of having been on the winning side, was in a very waggish frame of mind. "give him the money, sister.... give it to him." "i will give all i owe, only you must not ask for any more. no, i shall never win it back in my life." and anna fedorovna went to her room, all in excitement, hurried back, and brought nine paper rubles. only on the old man's strenuous insistence she was induced to pay the whole sum. polózof had some fear that the old lady would pour out on him the vials of her wrath if he entered into conversation with her. he silently, without attracting attention, turned away, and rejoined the count and liza, who were talking at the open window. on the table, which was now spread for the supper, stood two tallow candles, whose flame occasionally flickered in the gentle breeze of the mild may night. through the window opening into the garden came a very different light from that which filled the room. the moon, almost at its full, already beginning to lose its golden radiance, was pouring over the tops of the lofty lindens, and making brighter and brighter the delicate fleecy clouds that occasionally overcast it. from the pond, the surface of which, silvered in one place by the moon, could be seen through the trees, came the voices of the frogs. in the sweet-scented lilac-bush under the very window, which from time to time slowly shook its heavy-laden blossoms, birds were darting and fluttering. "what marvellous weather!" said the count, as he joined liza, and sat down in the low window-seat. "i suppose you go to walk a good deal, don't you?" "yes," rejoined liza, not experiencing the slightest embarrassment in the count's company. "every morning, at seven o'clock, i make the tour of the estate, and sometimes i take a walk with pímotchka,--mamma's _protégée_." "it's pleasant living in the country," cried the count, putting his monocle to his eye, and gazing first at the garden, and then at liza. "but don't you like to take a walk on moonlight nights?" "no. three years ago my uncle and i used to go out walking every moonlight night. he had some sort of strange illness,--insomnia. whenever there was a full moon, he could not sleep. his room like this opens into the garden, and the window is low. the moon shines right into it." "strange," remarked the count. "then this is your room." "no, i only sleep there for this one night. you occupy my room." "is it possible? ... oh, good heavens![85] i shall never in the world forgive myself for the trouble that i have caused," said the count, casting the monocle from his eye as a sign of sincerity.... "if i had only known that i was going to".... [footnote 85: _akh! bozhe moï!_] "how much trouble was it? on the contrary, i am very glad. my uncle's room is so nice and jolly: there's a low window there. i shall sit down in it before i go to bed, or perhaps i shall go down, out into the garden, and take a little walk." "what a glorious girl!" said the count to himself, replacing the monocle, and staring at her, and while pretending to change his seat in the window, trying to touch her foot with his. "and how shrewdly she gave me to understand that i might meet her in the garden at the window, if i would come down!" liza even lost in the count's eyes a large share of her charm, so easy did the conquest of her seem to him. "and how blissful it must be," said the count dreamily, gazing into the shadow-haunted alley, "to spend such a night in the garden with the object of one's love!" liza was somewhat abashed by these words, and by a second evidently deliberate pressure upon her foot. before she thought, she made some reply for the sake of dissimulating her embarrassment. she said, "yes, it is splendid to walk in the moonlight." there was something disagreeable about the whole conversation. she put the cover on the jar from which she had been taking the mushrooms, and was just turning from the window, when the cornet came toward her, and she felt a curiosity to know what kind of a man he was. "what a lovely night!" said he. "they can only talk about the weather," thought liza. "what a wonderful view!" continued the cornet, "only i should think it would be tiresome," he added through a strange propensity, peculiar to him, of saying things sure to offend the people who pleased him very much. "why should you think so? always the same cooking and always the same dress might become tiresome; but a lovely garden can never be tiresome when you enjoy walking, and especially when there's a moon rising higher and higher. from my uncle's room you can see the whole pond. i shall see it from there to-night." "and you haven't any nightingales at all, have you?" asked the count, greatly put out, because polózof had come and prevented him from learning the exact conditions of the rendezvous. "oh, yes, we always have them; last year the hunters caught one; and last week there was one that sang beautifully, but the district inspector[86] came along with his bells, and scared him away.... three years ago my uncle and i used to sit out in the covered alley, and listen to one for two hours at a time." [footnote 86: _stanovói._] "what is this chatterbox telling you about?" inquired the old uncle, joining the trio. "aren't you ready for something to eat?" at supper, the count by his reiterated praise of the viands, and his appetite, succeeded somewhat in pacifying anna fedorovna's unhappy state of mind. afterwards the officers made their adieux, and went to their room. the count shook hands with the old cavalier, and, to anna fedorovna's surprise, with her, without offering to kiss her hand; and he also squeezed liza's hand, at the same time looking straight into her eyes, and craftily smiling his pleasing smile. this glance again somewhat disconcerted the maiden. "he is very handsome," she said to herself, "only he is quite too conceited." xiv. "well, now, aren't you ashamed?" exclaimed polózof, when the two officers had reached the privacy of their chamber. "i tried to lose, and i kept nudging you under the table. now aren't you really ashamed? the poor old lady was quite beside herself." the count burst into a terrible fit of laughter. "a most amusing dame! how abused she felt!" and again he began to laugh so heartily that even johann, who was standing in front of him, cast down his eyes to conceal a smile. "and here is the son of an old family friend! ha, ha, ha!" continued the count in a gale of laughter. "no, indeed, it is not right. i felt really sorry for her," said the cornet. "what rubbish! how young you are! what! did you think that i was going to lose? why should i lose? i only lose when i don't know any better. ten rubles, brother, will come in handy. you must look on life in a practical way, or else you will always be a fool." polózof made no answer: in the first place, he wanted to think by himself about liza, who seemed to him to be an extraordinarily pure and beautiful creature. he undressed, and lay down on the clean soft bed which had been made ready for him. "how absurd all these honors and the glory of war!" he thought to himself, gazing at the window shaded by the shawl, through the interstices of which crept the pale rays of the moon. "here is happiness--to live in a quiet nook, with a gentle, bright, simple-hearted wife; that is enduring, true happiness." but somehow he did not communicate these imaginations to his friend; and he did not even speak of the rustic maiden, though he felt sure that the count was also thinking about her. "why don't you undress?" he demanded of the count, who was walking up and down the room. "oh, i don't feel like sleeping! put out the candle if you like," said he. "i can undress in the dark." and he continued to walk up and down. "he does not feel sleepy," repeated polózof, who after the evening's experiences felt more than ever dissatisfied with the count's influence upon him, and disposed to revolt against it. "i imagine," he reasoned, mentally addressing turbin, "what thoughts are now trooping through that well-combed head of yours. and i saw how she pleased you. but you are not the kind to appreciate that simple-hearted, pure-minded creature. mina is the one for you, you want the epaulets of a colonel.--indeed, i have a mind to ask him how he liked her." and polózof was about to address him, but he deliberated: he felt that not only he was not in the right frame of mind to discuss with him if the count's glance at liza was what he interpreted it to be, but that he should not have the force of mind necessary for him to disagree with him, so accustomed was he to submit to an influence which for him grew each day more burdensome and unrighteous. "where are you going?" he asked, as the count took his cap and went to the door. "i am going to the stable; i wish to see if every thing is all right." "strange!" thought the cornet; but he blew out the candle, and, trying to dispel the absurdly jealous and hostile thoughts that arose against his former friend, he turned over on the other side. anna fedorovna meantime, having crossed herself, and kissed her brother, her daughter, and her _protégée_, as affectionately as usual, also retired to her room. long had it been since the old lady had experienced in a single day so many powerful sensations. she could not even say her prayers in tranquillity; all the melancholy but vivid remembrances of the late count, and of this young dandy who had so ruthlessly taken advantage of her, kept coming up in her mind. nevertheless she undressed as usual, and drank a half glass of kvas which stood ready on the little table near the bed, and lay down. her beloved cat came softly into the room. anna fedorovna called her, and began to stroke her fur, and listen to her purring; but still she could not go to sleep. "it is the cat that disturbs me," she said to herself, and pushed her away. the cat fell to the floor softly, and, slowly waving her bushy tail, got upon the oven;[87] and then the maid, who slept in the room on the floor, brought her felt, and put out the candle, after lighting the night-lamp. [footnote 87: the _lezhanka_, a part of the oven built out as a sort of couch.] at last the maid began to snore; but sleep still refused to come to anna fedorovna, and calm her excited imagination. the face of the hussar constantly arose before her mental vision, when she shut her eyes; and it seemed to her that it appeared in various strange guises in her room, when she opened her eyes and looked at the commode, at the table, and her white raiment hanging up in the feeble light of the night-lamp. then it seemed hot to her in the feather-bed, and the ticking of the watch on the table seemed unendurable; exasperating to the last degree, the snoring of the maid. she wakened her, and bade her cease snoring. again the thoughts of the old count and of the young count, and of the game of _préférence_, became strangely mixed in her mind. now she seemed to see herself waltzing with the former count; she saw her own round white shoulders, she felt on them some one's kisses, and then she saw her daughter in the young count's embrace. once more ustiushka began to snore.... "no, it's somehow different now, the men aren't the same. _he_ was ready to fling himself into the fire for my sake. yes, i was worth doing it for! but this one, have no fear, is sound asleep like a goose, instead of wooing. how his father fell on his knees, and said, 'whatever you desire i will do, i could kill myself in a moment; what do you desire?' and he would have killed himself, if i had bade him!"... suddenly the sound of bare feet was heard in the corridor; and liza with a shawl thrown over her came in pale and trembling, and almost fell on her mother's bed.... after saying good-night to her mother, liza had gone alone to the room that had been her uncle's. putting on a white jacket, throwing a handkerchief round her thick long braids, she put out the light, opened the window, and curled up in a chair, turning her dreamy eyes to the pond which was now all shining with silver brilliancy. all her ordinary occupations and interests came up before her now in an entirely different light. her capricious old mother, unreasoning love for whom had become a part of her very soul, her feeble but amiable old uncle, the domestics, the peasants who worshipped their young mistress, the milch cows and the calves; all this nature which was forever the same in its continual death and resurrection, amid which she had grown up, with love for others, and with the love of others for her,--all this that gave her that gentle, agreeable peace of mind,--suddenly seemed to her something different; it all seemed to her dismal, superfluous. it was as though some one said to her, "fool, fool! for twenty years you have been occupied in trivialities, you have been serving others without reason, and you have not known what life, what happiness, were!" this was what she thought now as she gazed down into the depths of the motionless moonlit garden, and the thought came over her with vastly more force than ever before. and what was it that induced this train of thought? it was not in the least a sudden love for the count, as might easily be supposed. on the contrary, he did not please her. it might rather have been the cornet of whom she was thinking; but he was homely, poor, and taciturn. "no, it isn't that," she said to herself. her ideal was so charming! it was an ideal which might have been loved in the midst of this night, in the midst of this nature, without infringing its supernal beauty; an ideal not in the least circumscribed by the necessity of reducing it to coarse reality. in days gone by, her lonely situation, and the absence of people who might have attracted her, caused that all the strength of the love which providence has implanted impartially in the hearts of each one of us, was still intact and potential in her soul. but now she had been living too long with the pathetic happiness of feeling that she possessed in her heart this something, and occasionally opening the mysterious chalice of her heart, of rejoicing in the contemplation of its riches, ready to pour out without stint on some one all that it contained. god grant that she may not have to take this melancholy delight with her to the tomb! but who knows if there be any better and more powerful delight, or if it is not the only true and possible one? "o father in heaven," she thought, "is it possible that i have lost my youth and my happiness, and that they will never return?... will they never return again? is it really true?" she gazed in the direction of the moon at the bright far-off sky, studded with white wavy clouds, which, as they swept on toward the moon, blotted out the little stars. "if the moon should seize that little cloud above it, then it means that it is true," she thought. a thin smoke-like strip of cloud passed over the lower half of the brilliant orb, and gradually the light grew fainter on the turf, on the linden tops, on the pond: the black shadows of the trees grew less distinct. and as though to harmonize with the gloomy shade which was enveloping nature, a gentle breeze stirred through the leaves, and brought to the window the dewy fragrance of the leaves, the moist earth, and the blooming lilacs. "no, it is not true!" she said, trying to console herself; "but if the nightingale should sing this night, then i should take it to mean that all my forebodings are nonsense, and that there is no need of losing hope." and long she sat in silence, as though expecting some one, while once more all grew bright and full of life; and then again and again the clouds passed over the moon, and all became sombre. she was even beginning to grow drowsy, as she sat there by the window, when she was aroused by the nightingale's melodious trills clearly echoing across the pond. the rustic maiden opened her eyes. once more, with a new enjoyment, her whole soul was dedicated to that mysterious union with the nature which so calmly and serenely spread out before her. she leaned on both elbows. a certain haunting sensation of gentle melancholy oppressed her heart; and tears of pure, deep love, burning for satisfaction, good consoling tears, sprang to her eyes. she leaned her arms on the window-sill, and rested her head upon them. her favorite prayer seemed of its own accord to arise in her soul, and thus she fell asleep with moist eyes. the pressure of some one's hand awakened her. she started up. but the touch was gentle and pleasant. the hand squeezed hers with a stronger pressure. suddenly she realized the true state of things, screamed, tore herself away; and trying to make herself believe that it was not the count who, bathed in the brilliant moonlight, was standing in front of her window, she hastened from the room. xv. it was indeed the count. when he heard the maiden's cry, and the cough of the watchman who was coming from the other side of the fence in reply to the shriek, he had the sensation of being a thief caught in the act, and started to run across the dew-drenched grass, so as to hide in the depths of the garden. "oh, what a fool i was!" he said instinctively. "i frightened her. i ought to have been more gentle, to have wakened her by gentle words. oh! i am a beast, a blundering beast." he paused and listened. the watchman had come through the wicket-gate into the garden, dragging his cane along the sanded walk. he must hide. he went toward the pond. the frogs made him tremble as they hastily sprang from under his very feet into the water. there, notwithstanding his wet feet, he crouched down on his heels, and, began to recall all he had done,--how he had crept through the hedge, found her window, and at last caught a glimpse of a white shadow; how several times, while on the watch for the least noise, he had hastened away from the window; how at one moment it seemed to him that doubtless she was waiting for him with vexation in her heart that he was so dilatory, and the next how impossible it seemed that she would make an appointment with him so easily; and how, finally coming to the conclusion, that, through the embarrassment naturally felt by a country maiden, she was only pretending to be asleep, he had resolutely gone up to the window, and seen clearly her position, and then suddenly, for some occult reason, had run away again; and only after a powerful effort of self-control, being ashamed of his cowardice, he had gone boldly up to her and touched her on the hand. the watchman again coughed, and, shutting the squeaky gate, went out of the garden. the window in the young girl's room was shut, and the wooden shutters inside were drawn. the count was terribly disappointed to see this. he would have given a good deal to have a chance to begin it all over again; he would not have acted so stupidly. "a marvellous girl! what freshness! simply charming! and so i lost her. stupid beast that i was." however, as he was not in the mood to go to sleep yet, he walked, as chance should lead, along the path, through the linden alley, with the resolute steps of a man who has been angry. and now for him also this night brought, as its gifts of reconciliation, a strange, calming melancholy, and a craving for love. the clay path, here and there dotted with sprouting grass or dry twigs, was lighted by patches of pale light where the moon sent its rays straight through the thick foliage of the lindens. here and there a bending bough, apparently overgrown with gray moss, gleamed on one side. the silvered foliage occasionally rustled. at the house there was no light in the windows; all sounds were hushed, only the nightingale filled with his song all the immensity of silent and glorious space. "my god! what a night! what a marvellous night!" thought the count, breathing in the fresh fragrance of the garden. "something makes me feel blue, as though i were dissatisfied with myself and with others, and dissatisfied with my whole life. but what a splendid, dear girl! perhaps she was really offended." here his fancies changed. he imagined himself there in the garden with this district maiden in various and most remarkable situations; then his mistress mina supplanted the maiden's place. "what a fool i am! i ought simply to have put my arm around her waist, and kissed her." and with this regret the count returned to his room. the cornet was not yet asleep. he immediately turned over in bed, and looked at the count. "aren't you asleep?" asked the count. "no." "shall i tell you what happened?" "well." "no, i'd better not tell you.... yes, i will too. move your legs over a little." and the count, who had already given up vain regret for his unsuccessful intrigue, sat down with a gay smile on his comrade's bed. "could you imagine that the young lady of the house gave me a rendezvous?" "what is that you say?" screamed polózof, leaping up in bed. "well, now listen." "but how? when? it can't be!" "see here: while you were making out your accounts in _préférence_, she told me that she would this night be sitting at the window, and that it was possible to get in at that window. now, this is what it means to be a practical man: while you were there reckoning up with the old woman, i was arranging this little affair. you yourself heard her say right out in your presence, that she was going to sit at the window to-night, and look at the pond." "yes, but she said that without any meaning in it." "i am not so sure whether she said it purposely or otherwise. maybe she did not wish to come at it all at once, only it looked like that. but a wretched piece of work came out of it. like a perfect fool i spoilt the whole thing," he added, scornfully smiling at himself. "well, what is it? where have you been?" the count told him the whole story, with the exception of his irresolute and repeated advances. "i spoilt it myself; i ought to have been bolder. she screamed, and ran away from the window." "then she screamed and ran away?" repeated the cornet, replying with a constrained smile to the count's smile, which had such a long and powerful influence upon him. "yes, but now it's time to go to sleep." polózof again turned his back to the door, and lay in silence for ten minutes. god knows what was going on in his soul; but when he turned over again, his face was full of passion and resolution. "count turbin," said he in a broken voice. "are you dreaming, or not?" replied the count calmly. "what is it, cornet polózof?" "count turbin, you are a scoundrel," cried polózof, and he sprang from the bed. xvi. the next day the battalion departed. the officers did not see any of the household, or bid them farewell. neither did they speak together. it was understood that they were to fight their duel when they came to the next halting-place. but captain schultz, a good comrade, an admirable horseman, who was loved by everybody in the regiment, and had been chosen by the count for his second, succeeded in arranging the affair in such a manner that not only they did not fight, but that no one in the regiment knew about the matter; and turbin and polózof, though their old relations of friendship were never restored, still said "thou," and met at meals and at the gaming-table. three deaths _a tale._ 1859. i. it was autumn. along the highway came two equipages at a brisk pace. in the first carriage sat two women. one was a lady, thin and pale. the other, her maid, with a brilliant red complexion, and plump. her short, dry locks escaped from under a faded cap; her red hand, in a torn glove, put them back with a jerk. her full bosom, incased in a tapestry shawl, breathed of health; her restless black eyes now gazed through the window at the fields hurrying by them, now rested on her mistress, now peered solicitously into the corners of the coach. before the maid's face swung the lady's bonnet on the rack; on her knees lay a puppy; her feet were raised by packages lying on the floor, and could almost be heard drumming upon them above the noise of the creaking of the springs, and the rattling of the windows. the lady, with her hands resting in her lap and her eyes shut, feebly swayed on the cushions which supported her back, and, slightly frowning, struggled with a cough. she wore a white nightcap, and a blue neckerchief twisted around her delicate pale neck. a straight line, disappearing under the cap, parted her blonde hair, which was smoothly pomaded; and there was a dry, deathly appearance about the whiteness of the skin in this simple parting. the withered and rather sallow skin was loosely drawn over her delicate and pretty features, and there was a hectic flush on the cheeks and cheek-bones. her lips were dry and restless, her thin eyelashes had lost their curve, and a cloth travelling capote made straight folds over her sunken chest. although her eyes were closed, her face gave the impression of weariness, irascibility, and habitual suffering. the lackey, leaning back, was napping on the coach-box. the hired driver,[88] shouting in a clear voice, urged on his four powerful and sweaty horses, occasionally looking back at the other driver, who was shouting just behind them in an open barouche. the tires of the wheels, in their even and rapid course, left wide parallel tracks on the limy mud of the highway. [footnote 88: _yamshchik._] the sky was gray and cold, a moist mist was falling over the fields and the road. it was suffocating in the carriage, and smelt of eau-de-cologne and dust. the invalid leaned back her head, and slowly opened her eyes. her great eyes were brilliant, and of a beautiful dark color. "again!" said she, nervously pushing away with her beautiful attenuated hand the end of her maid's cloak, which occasionally hit against her knee. her mouth contracted painfully. matriósha raised her cloak in both hands, lifting herself up on her strong legs, and then sat down again, farther away. her fresh face was suffused with a brilliant scarlet. the invalid's handsome dark eyes eagerly followed the maid's motions; and then with both hands she took hold of the seat, and did her best to raise herself a little higher, but her strength was not sufficient. again her mouth became contracted, and her whole face took on an expression of unavailing, angry irony. "if you would only help me.... ah! it's not necessary. i can do it myself. only have the goodness not to put those pillows behind me.... on the whole, you had better not touch them, if you don't understand!" the lady closed her eyes, and then again, quickly raising the lids, gazed at her maid. matriósha looked at her, and gnawed her red lower lip. a heavy sigh escaped from the sick woman's breast; but the sigh was not ended, but was merged in a fit of coughing. she scowled, and turned her face away, clutching her chest with both hands. when the coughing fit was over, she once more shut her eyes, and continued to sit motionless. the coach and the barouche rolled into the village. matriósha drew her fat hand from under her shawl, and made the sign of the cross. "what is this?" demanded the lady. "a post-station, madame." "why did you cross yourself, i should like to know?" "the church, madame." the lady looked out of the window, and began slowly to cross herself, gazing with all her eyes at the great village church, in front of which the invalid's carriage was now passing. the two vehicles came to a stop together at the post-house. the sick woman's husband and the doctor dismounted from the barouche, and came to the coach. "how are you feeling?" asked the doctor, taking her pulse. "well, my dear, aren't you fatigued?" asked the husband, in french. "wouldn't you like to go out?" matriósha, gathering up the bundles, squeezed herself into the corner, so as not to interfere with the conversation. "no matter, it's all the same thing," replied the invalid. "i will not get out." the husband, after standing there a little while, went into the post-house. matriósha, jumping from the carriage, tiptoed across the muddy road, into the enclosure. "if i am miserable, there is no reason why the rest of you should not have breakfast," said the sick woman, smiling faintly to the doctor, who was standing by her window. "it makes no difference to them how i am," she remarked to herself as the doctor, turning from her with slow step, started to run up the steps of the station-house. "they are well, and it's all the same to them. o my god!" "how now, eduard ivánovitch," said the husband, as he met the doctor, and rubbing his hands with a gay smile. "i have ordered my travelling-case brought; what do you say to that?" "that's worth while," replied the doctor. "well now, how about _her_?" asked the husband with a sigh, lowering his voice and raising his brows. "i have told you that she cannot reach moscow, much less italy, especially in such weather." "what is to be done, then? oh! my god! my god!" the husband covered his eyes with his hand.... "give it here," he added, addressing his man, who came bringing the travelling-case. "you'll have to stop somewhere on the route," replied the doctor, shrugging his shoulders. "but tell me, how can that be done?" rejoined the husband. "i have done every thing to keep her from going: i have spoken to her of our means, and of our children whom we should have to leave behind, and of my business. she would not hear a word. she has made her plans for living abroad, as though she were well. but if i should tell her what her real condition is, it would kill her." "well, she is a dead woman now: you may as well know it, vasíli dmítritch. a person cannot live without lungs, and there is no way of making lungs grow again. it is melancholy, it is hard, but what is to be done about it? it is my business and yours to make her last days as easy as possible. it is the confessor that is needed here." "oh, my god! now just perceive how i am situated, in speaking to her of her last will. let come whatever may, yet i cannot speak of that. and yet you know how good she is." "try at least to persuade her to wait until the roads are frozen," said the doctor, shaking his head significantly: "something might happen during the journey." * * * * * "aksiúsha, oh, aksiúsha!" cried the superintendent's daughter, throwing a cloak over her head and tiptoeing down the muddy back steps. "come along. let us have a look at the shirkínskaya lady: they say she's got lung-trouble, and they're taking her abroad. i never saw how any one looked in consumption." aksiúsha jumped down from the door-sill; and the two girls, hand in hand, hurried out of the gates. shortening their steps, they walked by the coach, and stared in at the lowered window. the invalid bent her head toward them; but when she saw their inquisitiveness, she frowned and turned away. "oh, de-e-ar!" said the superintendent's daughter, vigorously shaking her head.... "how wonderfully pretty she used to be, and how she has changed! it is terrible! did you see? did you see, aksiúsha?" "yes, but how thin she is!" assented aksiúsha. "let us go by and look again; we'll make believe go to the well. did you see, she turned away from us; still i got a good view of her. isn't it too bad, masha?" "yes, but what terrible mud!" replied masha, and both of them started to run back within the gates. "it's evident that i have become a fright," thought the sick woman.... "but we must hurry, hurry, and get abroad, and there i shall soon get well." "well, and how are you, my dear?" inquired the husband, coming to the carriage with still a morsel of something in his mouth. "always one and the same question," thought the sick woman, "and he's even eating!" "it's no consequence," she murmured between her teeth. "do you know, my dear, i am afraid that this journey in such weather will only make you worse. eduard ivánovitch says the same thing. hadn't we better turn back?" she maintained an angry silence. "the weather will improve maybe, the roads will become good, and that would be better for you; then at least we could start all together." "pardon me. if i had not listened to you so long, i should at this moment be at berlin and have entirely recovered." "what's to be done, my angel? it was impossible, as you know. but now if you would wait a month, you would be ever so much better; i could finish up my business, and we could take the children with us." "the children are well, and i am ill." "but just see here, my love, if in this weather you should grow worse on the road.... at least we should be at home." "what is the use of being at home?... _die_ at home?" replied the invalid peevishly. but the word _die_ evidently startled her, and she turned upon her husband a supplicating and inquiring look. he dropped his eyes, and said nothing. the sick woman's mouth suddenly contracted in a childish fashion, and the tears sprang to her eyes. her husband covered his face with his handkerchief, and silently turned from the carriage. "no, i will go," cried the invalid; and lifting her eyes to the sky, she clasped her hands, and began to whisper incoherent words. "my god! why must it be?" she said, and the tears flowed more violently. she prayed long and fervently, but still there was just the same sense of constriction and pain in her chest, just the same gray melancholy in the sky and the fields and the road; just the same autumnal mist, neither thicker nor more tenuous, but ever the same in its monotony, falling on the muddy highway, on the roofs, on the carriage, and on the sheep-skin coats of the drivers, who were talking in strong, gay voices, as they were oiling and adjusting the carriage. ii. the coach was ready, but the driver loitered. he had gone into the driver's cottage,[89] where it was warm, close, dark, and suffocating; smelling of human occupation, of cooking bread, of cabbage, and of sheep-skin garments. [footnote 89: _izbá._] several drivers were in the room; the cook was engaged near the oven, on top of which lay a sick man wrapped up in pelts. "uncle khveódor! hey! uncle khveódor," called a young man, the driver, in a tulup, and with his knout in his belt, coming into the room, and addressing the sick man. "what do you want, rattlepate? what are you calling to fyédka[90] for?" demanded one of the drivers. "there's your carriage waiting for you." [footnote 90: fyédka and fyédya are diminutives of feódor, theodore.] "i want to borrow his boots. mine are worn out," replied the young fellow, tossing back his curls and straightening his mittens in his belt. "why? is he asleep? say, uncle khveódor!" he insisted, going to the oven. "what is it?" a weak voice was heard saying, and a blowsy, emaciated face was lifted up from the oven. a broad, gaunt hand, bloodless and covered with hairs, pulled up his overcoat over the dirty shirt that covered his bony shoulder. "give me something to drink, brother; what is it you want?" the young fellow handed him a small dish of water. "i say, fyédya," said he, hesitating, "i reckon you won't want your new boots now; let me have them? probably you won't need them any more." the sick man dropping his weary head down to the lacquered bowl, and dipping his thin, hanging mustache in the brown water, drank feebly and eagerly. his tangled beard was unclean; his sunken, clouded eyes were with difficulty raised to the young man's face. when he had finished drinking, he tried to raise his hand to wipe his wet lips, but his strength failed him, and he wiped them on the sleeve of his overcoat. silently, and breathing with difficulty through his nose, he looked straight into the young man's eyes, and tried to collect his strength. "maybe you have promised them to some one else?" said the young driver. "if that's so, all right. the worst of it is, it is wet outside, and i have to go out to my work, and so i said to myself, 'i reckon i'll ask fyédka for his boots; i reckon he won't be needing them.' but maybe you will need them,--just say".... something began to bubble up and rumble in the sick man's chest; he bent over, and began to strangle, with a cough that rattled in his throat. "now i should like to know where he would need them?" unexpectedly snapped out the cook, angrily addressing the whole hovel. "this is the second month that he has not crept down from the oven. just see how he is all broken up! and you can hear how it must hurt him inside. where would he need boots? they would not think of burying him in new ones! and it was time long ago, god pardon me the sin of saying so. just see how he chokes! he ought to be taken from this hovel to another, or somewhere. they say there's hospitals in the city; but what's you going to do? he takes up the whole room, and that's too much. there isn't any room at all. and yet you are expected to keep neat." "hey! seryóha, come along, take your place, the people are waiting," cried the head man of the station, coming to the door. seryóha started to go without waiting for his reply, but the sick man during his cough intimated by his eyes that he was going to speak. "you can take the boots, seryóha," said he, conquering the cough and getting his breath a little. "only, do you hear, buy me a stone when i am dead," he added hoarsely. "thank you, uncle; then i will take them, and as for the stone,--_éï-éï!_--i will buy you one." "there, children, you are witnesses," the sick man was able to articulate, and then once more he bent over and began to choke. "all right, we have heard," said one of the drivers. "but run, seryóha, or else the stárosta will be after you again. you know lady shirkínskaya is sick." seryóha quickly pulled off his ragged, unwieldy boots, and flung them under the bench. uncle feódor's fitted his feet exactly, and the young driver could not keep his eyes off them as he went to the carriage. "_ek!_ what splendid boots! here's some grease," called another driver with the grease-pot in his hand, as seryóha mounted to his box and gathered up the reins. "get them for nothing?" "so you're jealous, are you?" cried seryóha, lifting up and tucking around his legs the tails of his overcoat. "off with you, my darlings," he cried to the horses, cracking his knout; and the coach and barouche with their occupants, trunks, and other belongings, were hidden in the thick autumnal mist, and rapidly whirled away over the wet road. the sick driver remained on the oven in the stifling hovel, and, not being able to throw off the phlegm, by a supreme effort turned over on the other-side, and stopped coughing. till evening there was a continual coming and going, and eating of meals in the hovel, and the sick man was not noticed. before night came on, the cook climbed upon the oven, and pulled off the sheep-skin from his legs. "don't be angry with me, nastásya," murmured the sick man. "i shall soon leave you your room." "all right, all right, it's of no consequence. but what is the matter with you, uncle? tell me." "all my innards are gnawed out, god knows what it is!" "and i don't doubt your gullet hurts you when you cough so?" "it hurts me all over. my death is at hand, that's what it is. _okh! okh! okh!_" groaned the sick man. "now cover up your legs this way," said nastásya, comfortably arranging the overcoat so that it would cover him, and then getting down from the oven. during the night the hovel was faintly lighted by a single taper. nastásya and a dozen drivers were sleeping, snoring loudly, on the floor and the benches. only the sick man feebly choked and coughed, and tossed on the oven. in the morning no sound was heard from him. "i saw something wonderful in my sleep," said the cook, as she stretched herself in the early twilight the next morning. "i seemed to see uncle khveódor get down from the oven, and go out to cut wood. 'look here,' says he, 'i'm going to help you, násya;' and i says to him, 'how can you split wood?' but he seizes the hatchet, and begins to cut so fast, so fast that nothing but chips fly. 'why,' says i, 'ain't you been sick?'--'no,' says he, 'i am well,' and he kind of lifted up the axe, and i was scared; and i screamed and woke up. he can't be dead, can he?--uncle khveódor! hey, uncle!" feódor did not move. "now he can't be dead, can he? go and see," said one of the drivers who had just waked up. the emaciated hand, covered with reddish hair, that hung down from the oven, was cold and pale. "go tell the superintendent; it seems he is dead," said the driver. feódor had no relatives. he was a stranger. on the next day they buried him in the new burying-ground behind the grove; and nastásya for many days had to tell everybody of the dream which she had seen, and how she had been the first to discover that uncle feódor was dead. iii. spring had come. along the wet streets of the city swift streamlets ran purling between bits of ice; bright were the colors of people's dresses and the tones of their voices, as they hurried along. in the walled gardens, the buds on the trees were bourgeoning, and the fresh breeze swayed their branches with a soft gentle murmur. everywhere transparent drops were forming and falling.... the sparrows chattered incoherently, and fluttered about on their little wings. on the sunny side, on the walls, houses, and trees, all was full of life and brilliancy. the sky, and the earth, and the heart of man overflowed with youth and joy. in front of a great seignorial mansion, in one of the principal streets, fresh straw was laid; in the house lay that same invalid whom we saw hastening abroad. near the closed doors of the house stood the sick lady's husband, and a lady well along in years. on a sofa sat the confessor, with cast-down eyes, holding something wrapped up under his stole.[91] in one corner, in a voltaire easy-chair, reclined an old lady, the sick woman's mother, weeping violently. [footnote 91: called _epitrachilion_ in the greek church.] near her the maid stood holding a clean handkerchief, ready for the old lady's use when she should ask for it. another maid was rubbing the old lady's temples, and blowing on her gray head underneath her cap. "well, christ be with you, my dear," said the husband to the elderly lady who was standing with him near the door: "she has such confidence in you; you know how to talk with her; go and speak with her a little while, my darling, please go!" he was about to open the door for her; but his cousin held him back, putting her handkerchief several times to her eyes, and shaking her head. "there, now she will not see that i have been weeping," said she, and, opening the door herself, went to the invalid. the husband was in the greatest excitement, and seemed quite beside himself. he started to go over to the old mother, but after taking a few steps he turned around, walked the length of the room, and approached the priest. the priest looked at him, raised his brows toward heaven, and sighed. the thick gray beard also was lifted and fell again. "my god! my god!" said the husband. "what can you do?" exclaimed the confessor, sighing and again lifting up his brows and beard, and letting them drop. "and the old mother there!" exclaimed the husband, almost in despair. "she will not be able to endure it. you see, she loved her so, she loved her so, that she.... i don't know. you might try, holy father,[92] to calm her a little, and persuade her to go away." [footnote 92: _bátiushka._] the confessor arose and went over to the old lady. "it is true, no one can appreciate a mother's heart," said he, "but god is compassionate." the old lady's face was suddenly convulsed, and a hysterical sob shook her frame. "god is compassionate," repeated the priest, when she had grown a little calmer. "i will tell you, in my parish there was a sick man, and much worse than márya dmítrievna, and he, though he was only a shopkeeper,[93] was cured in a very short time, by means of herbs. and this very same shopkeeper is now in moscow. i have told vasíli dmítrievitch about him; it might be tried, you know. at all events, it would satisfy the invalid. with god, all things are possible." [footnote 93: _meshchánin._] "no, she won't get well," persisted the old lady. "why should god have taken her, and not me?" and again the hysterical sobbing overcame her so violently that she fainted away. the invalid's husband hid his face in his hands, and rushed from the room. in the corridor the first person whom he met was a six-year-old boy, who was chasing his little sister with all his might and main. "do you bid me take the children to their mamma?" inquired the nurse. "no, she is not able to see them. they distract her." the lad stopped for a moment, and after looking eagerly into his father's face, he cut a dido with his leg, and with merry shouts ran on. "i'm playing she's a horse, papásha," cried the little fellow, pointing to his sister. meantime, in the next room, the cousin had taken her seat near the sick woman, and was skilfully bringing the conversation by degrees round so as to prepare her for the thought of death. the doctor stood by the window, mixing some draught. the invalid in a white dressing-gown, all surrounded by cushions, was sitting up in bed, and gazed silently at her cousin. "ah, my dear!" she exclaimed, unexpectedly interrupting her, "don't try to prepare me; don't treat me like a little child! i am a christian woman. i know all about it. i know that i have not long to live; i know that if my husband had heeded me sooner, i should have been in italy, and possibly, yes probably, should have been well by this time. they all told him so. but what is to be done? it's as god saw fit. we all of us have sinned, i know that; but i hope in the mercy of god, that all will be pardoned, ought to be pardoned. i am trying to sound my own heart. i also have committed many sins, my love. but how much i have suffered in atonement! i have tried to bear my sufferings patiently".... "then shall i have the confessor come in, my love? it will be all the easier for you, after you have been absolved," said the cousin. the sick woman dropped her head in token of assent. "o god! pardon me a sinner," she whispered. the cousin went out, and beckoned to the confessor. "she is an angel," she said to the husband, with tears in her eyes. the husband wept. the priest went into the sick-room; the old lady still remained unconscious, and in the room beyond all was perfectly quiet. at the end of five minutes the confessor came out, and, taking off his stole, arranged his hair. "thanks be to the lord, she is calmer now," said he. "she wishes to see you." the cousin and the husband went to the sick-room. the invalid, gently weeping, was gazing at the images. "i congratulate you, my love," said the husband. "thank you. how well i feel now! what ineffable joy i experience!" said the sick woman, and a faint smile played over her thin lips. "how merciful god is! is it not so? he is merciful and omnipotent!" and again with an eager prayer she turned her tearful eyes towards the holy images. then suddenly something seemed to occur to her mind. she beckoned to her husband. "you are never willing to do what i desire," said she in a weak and querulous voice. the husband, stretching his neck, listened to her submissively. "what is it, my love?" "how many times i have told you that these doctors don't know any thing! there are uneducated women doctors: they make cures. that's what the good father said.... a shopkeeper.... send for him".... "for whom, my love?" "good heavens! you can never understand me." and the dying woman frowned, and closed her eyes. the doctor came to her, and took her hand. her pulse was evidently growing feebler and feebler. he made a sign to the husband. the sick woman remarked this gesture, and looked around in fright. the cousin turned away to hide her tears. "don't weep, don't torment yourselves on my account," said the invalid. "that takes away from me my last comfort." "you are an angel!" exclaimed the cousin, kissing her hand. "no, kiss me here. they only kiss the hands of those who are dead. my god! my god!" that same evening the sick woman was a corpse, and the corpse in the coffin lay in the parlor of the great mansion. in the immense room, the doors of which were closed, sat the clerk,[94] and with a monotonous voice read the psalms of david through his nose. [footnote 94: _diachók._] the bright glare from the wax candles in the lofty silver candelabra fell on the white brow of the dead, on the heavy waxen hands, on the stiff folds of the cerement which brought out into awful relief the knees and the feet. the clerk, not varying his tones, continued to read on steadily, and in the silence of the chamber of death his words rang out and died away. occasionally from distant rooms came the voice of children and their romping. "_thou hidest thy face, they are troubled; thou takest away their breath, they die and return to their dust._ "_thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created; and thou renewest the face of the earth._ "_the glory of the lord shall endure forever: the lord shall rejoice in his works._" the face of the dead was stern and majestic. but there was no motion either on the pure cold brow, or the firmly closed lips. she was all attention. but did she perhaps now understand these grand words? iv. at the end of a month, over the grave of the dead a stone chapel was erected. over the driver's there was as yet no stone, and only the fresh green grass sprouted over the mound that served as the sole record of the past existence of a man. "it will be a sin and a shame, seryóha," said the cook at the station-house one day, "if you don't buy a gravestone for khveódor. you kept saying, 'it's winter, winter,' but now why don't you keep your word? i heard it all. he has already come back once to ask why you don't do it; if you don't buy him one, he will come again, he will choke you." "well, now, have i denied it?" urged seryóha. "i am going to buy him a stone, as i said i would. i can get one for a ruble and a half. i have not forgotten about it; i'll have to get it. as soon as i happen to be in town, then i'll buy him one." "you ought at least to put up a cross, that's what you ought to do," said an old driver. "it isn't right at all. you're wearing those boots now." "yes. but where could i get him a cross? you wouldn't want to make one out of an old piece of stick, would you?" "what is that you say? make one out of an old piece of stick? no; take your axe, go out to the wood a little earlier than usual, and you can hew him out one. take a little ash-tree, and you can make one. you can have a covered cross. if you go then, you won't have to give the watchman a little drink of vodka. one doesn't want to give vodka for every trifle. now, yesterday i broke my axletree, and i go and hew out a new one of green wood. no one said a word." early the next morning, almost before dawn, seryóha took his axe, and went to the wood. over all things hung a cold, dead veil of falling mist, as yet untouched by the rays of the sun. the cast gradually grew brighter, reflecting its pale light over the vault of heaven still covered by light clouds. not a single grass-blade below, not a single leaf on the topmost branches of the tree-top, waved. only from time to time could be heard the sounds of fluttering wings in the thicket, or a rustling on the ground broke in upon the silence of the forest. suddenly a strange sound, foreign to this nature, resounded and died away at the edge of the forest. again the noise sounded, and was monotonously repeated again and again, at the foot of one of the ancient, immovable trees. a tree-top began to shake in an extraordinary manner; the juicy leaves whispered something; and the warbler, sitting on one of the branches, flew off a couple of times with a shrill cry, and, wagging its tail, finally perched on another tree. the axe rang more and more frequently; the white chips, full of sap, were scattered upon the dewy grass, and a slight cracking was heard beneath the blows. the tree trembled with all its body, leaned over, and quickly straightened itself with a fearful shudder on its base. for an instant all was still, then once more the tree bent over; a crash was heard in its trunk; and tearing the thicket, and dragging down the branches, it plunged toward the damp earth. the noise of the axe and of footsteps ceased. the warbler uttered a cry, and flew higher. the branch which she grazed with her wings shook for an instant, and then came to rest like all the others with their foliage. the trees, more joyously than ever, extended their branches over the new space that had been made in their midst. the first sunbeams, breaking through the cloud, gleamed in the sky, and shone along the earth and heavens. the mist, in billows, began to float along the hollows; the dew, gleaming, played on the green foliage; translucent white clouds hurried along their azure path. the birds hopped about in the thicket, and, as though beside themselves, voiced their happiness; the juicy leaves joyfully and contentedly whispered on the tree-tops; and the branches of the living trees slowly and majestically waved over the dead and fallen tree. a prisoner in the caucasus. i. a russian of rank was serving as an officer in the army of the caucasus. his name was zhilin. there came to him one day a letter from his home. his aged mother wrote him: "i am now getting along in years, and before i die i should like to see my beloved son. come and bid me farewell, lay me in the ground, and then with my blessing return again to your service. and i have been finding a bride for you, and she is intelligent and handsome and has property. if you like, you can marry and settle down together." zhilin cogitated, "it is very true: the old lady has been growing feeble; maybe i shall not have a chance to see her again. let us go, and if the bride is pretty--then i might marry." he went to his colonel, got his leave of absence, took his farewell of his comrades, gave the soldiers of his command nine gallons[95] of vodka as a farewell treat, and made his arrangements to depart. [footnote 95: four _vedros_, equivalent exactly to 8.80 gallons.] there was war at that time in the caucasus. the roads were not open for travel either by day or night. if any of the russians rode or walked outside of the fortress, the tatars were likely either to kill him or carry him off to the mountains. and it was arranged that twice a week an escort of soldiers should go from fortress to fortress. in front and behind marched the soldiers, and the travellers rode in the middle. it was now summer-time. at sunrise the baggage-train was made up behind the fortification; the guard of soldiery marched ahead, and the procession moved along the road. zhilin was on horseback, and his effects were on a cart that formed part of the train. they had twenty-five versts[96] to travel. the train marched slowly; sometimes the soldiers halted; sometimes a wagon-wheel came off, or a horse balked, and all had to stop and wait. [footnote 96: sixteen and a half miles.] the sun was already past the zenith, but the train had only gone half way, so great were the dust and heat. the sun was baking hot, and nowhere was there shelter. a bald steppe; not a tree or a shrub on the road. zhilin rode on ahead, occasionally stopping and waiting till the train caught up with him. he would listen, and hear the signal on the horn to halt again. and zhilin thought, "would i better go on alone without the soldiers? i have a good horse under me; if i fall in with the tatars, i can escape. or shall i wait?" he kept stopping and pondering. and just then another officer, also on horseback, rode up to him; his name was kostuilin, and he had a musket. he said, "zhilin, let us ride on ahead together. i am so hungry that i cannot stand it any longer, and the heat too,--you could wring my shirt out!" kostuilin was a heavy, stout, ruddy man, and the sweat was dripping from him. zhilin reflected, and said, "and your musket is loaded?" "it is." "all right, let us go. only one condition: not to separate." and they started on up the road. they rode along the steppe, talking and looking on each side. there was a wide sweep of view. as soon as the steppe came to an end, the road went into a pass between two mountains. and zhilin said, "i must ride up on that mountain, and reconnoitre, otherwise you see they might come down from the mountain and surprise us." but kostuilin said, "what is there to reconnoitre? let us go ahead." zhilin did not heed him. "no," says he, "you wait for me here below. i'll just glance around." and he spurred his horse up the mountain to the left. the horse that zhilin rode was a hunter; he had bought him out of a drove of colts, paying a hundred rubles for him, and he had himself trained him. he bore him up the steep slope as on wings. he had hardly reached the summit when before him less than seven hundred feet distant mounted tatars were standing,--thirty men. he saw them, and started to turn back, but the tatars had caught sight of him; they set out in pursuit of him, unstrapping their weapons as they gallop. zhilin dashes down the precipice with all the speed of his horse, and cries to kostuilin, "fire your gun!" and to his horse he says, though not aloud, "little mother, carry me safely, don't stumble; if you trip, i am lost. if we get back to the gun, we won't fall into their hands." but kostuilin, instead of waiting for him, as soon as he saw the tatars, galloped on with all his might toward the fortress. with his whip he belabored his horse, first on one side, then on the other; all that could be seen through the dust, was the horse switching her tail. zhilin saw that his case was desperate. the gun was gone; nothing was to be done with a sabre alone. he turned his horse back toward the train; he thought he might escape that way. but in front of him, he sees that six are galloping down the steep. his horse is good, but theirs are better; and besides, they have got the start of him. he started to wheel about, and was going to dash ahead again, but his horse had got momentum, and could not be held back; he flew straight down toward them. he sees a red-bearded tatar approaching him on a gray mare. he is gaining on him; he gnashes his teeth; he is getting his gun ready. "well," thinks zhilin, "i know you devils; if you should take me prisoner, you would put me in a hole, and flog me with a whip. i won't give myself up alive." now, zhilin was not of great size, but he was an uhlan. he drew his sabre, spurred his horse straight at the red-bearded tatar. he says to himself, "either i will crush him with my horse, or i will hack him down with my sabre." zhilin, however, did not reach the place on horseback; suddenly behind him, gun-shots were fired at the horse. the horse fell headlong, and pinned zhilin's leg to the ground. he tried to arise; but already ill-smelling tatars were sitting on him, and pinioning his hands behind his back. he burst from them, knocking the tatars over; but three others had dismounted from their horses, and began to beat him on the head with their gun-stocks. his sight failed him, and he staggered. the tatars seized him, took from their saddles extra saddle-girths, bent his arms behind his back, fastened them with a tatar knot, and lifted him up. they took his sabre from him, pulled off his boots, made a thorough search of him, pulled out his money and his watch, tore his clothes all to pieces. zhilin glanced at his horse. the poor beast lay as he had fallen, on his side, and was kicking, vainly trying to rise. in his head was a hole, and from the hole the black blood was pouring; the dust for an arshin around was wet with it. a tatar went to the horse to remove the saddle. he was still kicking, so the man took out his dagger, and cut his throat. the throat gave a whistling sound, a trembling ran over the body, and all was over. the tatars took off the saddle and the other trappings. the one with the red beard mounted his horse, and the others lifted zhilin behind him to keep him from falling; they fastened him with the reins to the tatar's belt, and thus they carried him off to the mountains. zhilin sat behind, swaying and bumping his face against the stinking tatar's back. all that he could see before him was the healthy tatar back, and the sinewy neck, and a smooth-shaven nape, showing blue beneath the cap. zhilin's head ached; the blood trickled into his eyes. and it was impossible for him to get a more comfortable position on the horse, or wipe away the blood. his arms were so tightly bound that his collar-bones ached. they rode long from mountain to mountain; they forded a river; then they entered a highway, and rode along a valley. zhilin tried to follow the route that they took him; but his eyes were glued together with blood, and it was impossible for him to turn round. it began to grow dark; they crossed still another river, and began to climb a rocky mountain. there was an odor of smoke. the barking of dogs was heard. they had reached an _aul_.[97] [footnote 97: _aul_ = tatar's village.--_author's note._] the tatars dismounted. the tatar children came running up, and surrounded zhilin, whistling and exulting. finally they began to fling stones at him. the tatar drove away the children, lifted zhilin from the horse, and called a servant. a nogáï, with prominent cheek-bones, came at the call. he wore only a shirt. the shirt was torn; his whole breast was bare. the tatar said something to him. the servant brought a foot-stock. it consisted of two oaken blocks provided with iron rings, and in one of the rings was a clamp with a lock. they unfastened zhilin's arms, put on the stock, and took him to a barn, pushed him in, and shut the door. zhilin fell on the manure. as he lay there, he felt round in the darkness, and when he had found a place that was less foul, he stretched himself out. ii. zhilin scarcely slept that night. the nights were short. he saw through a crack that it was growing light. zhilin got up, widened the crack, and managed to look out. through the crack he could see a road leading down from the mountain; at the right, a tatar _saklia_[98] with two trees near it. a black dog was lying on the road; a she-goat with her kids was walking by, all of them shaking their tails. [footnote 98: a mountain-hut in the caucasus.] he saw coming down the mountain a young tatar girl in a variegated shirt, ungirdled, in pantalettes and boots; her head was covered with a kaftan, and on it she bore a great tin water-jug. she walked along, swaying and bending her back, and holding by the hand a little tatar urchin, with shaven head, who wore a single shirt. after the tatar maiden had passed with her water-jug, the red-bearded tatar of the evening before came out, wearing a silk beshmet, a silver dagger in his belt, and sandals on his bare feet. on his head was a high cap of sheep-skin, dyed black, and with the point hanging down. he came out, stretched himself, stroked his red beard. he paused, gave some order to the servant, and went off somewhere. then two children on horseback came along on their way to the watering-trough. the hind-quarters of the horses were wet. other shaven-headed youngsters, with nothing but shirts on, and nothing on their legs, formed a little band, and came to the barn; they got a dry stick, and stuck it through the crack. zhilin growled "_ukh_" at them. the children began to cry, and scatter in every direction as fast as their legs would carry them; only their bare knees glistened. but zhilin began to be thirsty; his throat was parched. he said to himself, "i wonder if they won't come to look after me?" suddenly the barn-doors are thrown open. the red tatar came in, and with him another, of slighter stature and of dark complexion. his eyes were bright and black, his cheeks ruddy, his little beard well trimmed, his face jolly and always enlivened with a grin. the dark man's clothing was still richer: a silk beshmet of blue silk, embroidered with gold lace. in his belt, a great silver dagger; handsome morocco slippers embroidered with silver, and over the fine slippers he wore a larger pair of stout ones. his cap was tall, of white lamb's wool. the red tatar came in, muttered something, gave vent to some abusive language, and then stood leaning against the wall, fingering his dagger, and scowling under his brows at zhilin, like a wolf. but the dark tatar, nervous and active, and always on the go, as though he were made of springs, came straight up to zhilin, squatted down on his heels, showed his teeth, tapped him on the shoulder, began to gabble something in his own language, winked his eyes, and, clucking his tongue, kept saying, "a fine russ, a fine russ!"[99] [footnote 99: _urus_ in tatar.] zhilin did not understand him, and said, "drink; give me some water." the dark one grinned. "a fine russ!" and all the time he kept babbling. zhilin signified by his hands and lips that they should give him water. the dark one understood, grinned, put his head out of the door, and cried, "dina!" a young girl came running in,--a slender, lean creature of thirteen, with a face like the dark man's. evidently she was his daughter. she was dressed in a long blue shirt with wide sleeves and without a belt. on the bottom, on the breast, and on the cuffs it was relieved with red trimmings. she wore on her legs pantalettes and slippers, and over the slippers another pair with high heels. on her neck was a necklace wholly composed of half-ruble pieces. her head was uncovered; she had her hair in a black braid, and on the braid was a ribbon, and to the ribbon were attached various ornaments and a silver ruble. her father gave her some command. she ran out, and quickly returned, bringing a little tin pitcher. after she had handed him the water, she also squatted on her heels in such a way that her knees were higher than her shoulders. she sits that way, and opens her eyes, and stares at zhilin while he drinks, as though he were some wild beast. zhilin offered to return the pitcher to her. she darted away like a wild goat. even her father laughed. he sent her after something else. she took the pitcher, ran out, and brought back some unleavened bread on a small round board, and again squatted down, and stared without taking her eyes from him. the tatars went out, and again bolted the door. after a while the nogáï also comes to zhilin, and says, "_aï-da, khozyáïn, aï-da!_" but he does not know russian either. zhilin, however, perceived that he wished him to go somewhere. zhilin hobbled out with his clog; it was impossible to walk, so he had to drag one leg. the nogáï led the way for him. he sees before him a tatar village, of half a score of houses, and the native mosque with its minaret. in front of one house stood three horses saddled. lads held them by the bridle. from this house came the dark tatar, and waved his hand, signifying that zhilin was to come to him. he grinned, and kept saying something in his own tongue, and went into the house. zhilin followed him. the room was decent; the walls were smoothly plastered with clay. against the front wall were placed feather-beds; on the sides hung costly rugs; on the rugs were guns, pistols, and sabres, all silver-mounted. on one side a little oven was set in, on a level with the floor. the floor was of earth, clean as a threshing-floor, and the whole of the front portion was covered with felt; rugs were distributed over the felt, and on the rugs were down pillows. on the rugs were sitting some tatars in slippers only,--the dark tatar, the red-bearded one, and three guests. behind their backs, down cushions were placed; and before them on wooden plates were pancakes of millet-flour, and melted butter in a cup, and the tatar beer, called _buza_, in a pitcher. they ate with their fingers, and all dipped into the butter. the dark man leaped up, bade zhilin sit on one side, not on a rug but on the bare floor; going back again to his rug, he handed his guests cakes and _buza_. the servant showed zhilin his place; he himself took off his shoes, placed them by the door in a row with the slippers of the other guests, and took his seat on the felt as near as possible to his masters; and while they eat he looks at them, and his mouth waters. after the tatars had finished eating, a tatar woman entered, dressed in the same sort of shirt as the girl wore, and in pantalettes; her head was covered with a handkerchief. she carried out the butter and the cakes, and brought a handsome finger-bowl, and a pitcher with a narrow nose. the tatars finished washing their hands, then they folded their arms, knelt down, and puffed on all sides, and said their prayers. they talked in their own tongue. then one of the guests, a tatar, approached zhilin, and began to speak to him in russian. "kazi muhamet made you prisoner," said he, pointing to the red-bearded tatar; "and he has given you to abdul murat," indicating the dark one. "_abdul murat is now your master._"[100] [footnote 100: _khozyáïn._] zhilin said nothing. abdul murat began to talk, all the time pointing toward zhilin, and grinned as he talked-: "_soldat urus, korosho urus_." the interpreter went on to say, "he commands you to write a letter home, and have them send money to ransom you. as soon as money is sent, he will set you free." zhilin pondered a little, and then said, "does he wish a large ransom?" the tatars took counsel together, and then the interpreter said,-"three thousand silver rubles." "no," replied zhilin, "i can't pay that." abdul leaped up, began to gesticulate and talk to zhilin; he seemed all the time to think that zhilin understood him. the interpreter translated his words. "he means," says he, "how much will you give?" zhilin after pondering a little said, "five hundred rubles." then the tatars all began to talk at once. abdul began to scream at the red-bearded tatar. he grew so excited as he talked, that the spittle flew from his mouth. but the red-bearded tatar only frowned, and clucked with his tongue. when all became silent again, the interpreter said, "five hundred rubles is not enough to buy you of your master. he himself has paid two hundred for you. kazi muhamet was in debt to him. he took you for the debt. three thousand rubles; it is no use to send less. but if you don't write, they will put you in a hole, and flog you with a whip." "_ekh!_" thinks zhilin, "the more cowardly one is, the worse it is for him." he leaped to his feet, and said,-"now you tell him, dog that he is, that if he thinks he is going to frighten me, then i will not give him a single kopek nor will i write. i am not afraid of you, and you will never make me afraid of you, you dog!" the interpreter translated this, and again they all began to talk at once. they gabbled a long time, then the dark one got up and came to zhilin. "_urus_," says he, "_jigit, jigit urus!_" the word _jigit_ among them signifies a brave young man. and he grinned, said something to the interpreter, and the interpreter said, "give a thousand rubles." zhilin would not give in. "i will not pay more than five hundred. but if you kill me, you will get nothing at all." the tatars consulted together, sent out the servant, and they themselves looked first at the door, then at zhilin. the servant returned, followed by a rather stout man in bare feet and almost stripped. his feet also were in stocks. zhilin made an exclamation: he recognized kostuilin. and they brought him in, and placed him next his comrade; the two began to talk together, and the tatars looked on and listened in silence. zhilin told how it had gone with him; kostuilin told how his horse had stood stock still, and his gun had missed fire, and that this same abdul had overtaken him and captured him. abdul listened, pointed to kostuilin, and muttered something. the interpreter translated his words to mean that they now both belonged to the same master, and that the one who paid the ransom first would be freed first. "now," says he to zhilin, "you lose your temper so easily, but your comrade is calm; he has written a letter home; they will send five thousand silver rubles. and so he will be well fed, and he won't be hurt." and zhilin said, "let my comrade do as he pleases. maybe he is rich. but i am not rich; i will do as i have already told you. kill me if you wish, but it would not do you any good, and i will not pay you more than five hundred rubles." they were silent. suddenly abdul leaped up, brought a little chest, took out a pen, a sheet of paper, and ink, and pushed them into zhilin's hands, then tapped him on the shoulder, and said by signs, "write." he had agreed to take the five hundred rubles. "wait a moment," said zhilin to the interpreter. "tell him that he must feed us well, clothe us, and give us good decent foot-wear, and let us stay together. we want to have a good time. and lastly, that he take off these clogs." he looked at his tatar master, and smiled. the master also smiled, and when he learned what was wanted, said,-"i will give you the very best clothes: a cherkeska[101] and boots, fit for a wedding. and i will feed you like princes. and if you want to live together, why, you can live in the barn. but it won't do to take away the clogs: you would run away. only at night will i have them taken off." then he jumped up, tapped him on the shoulder: "you good, me good." [footnote 101: a sort of long circassian cloak.] zhilin wrote his letter, but he put on it the wrong address so that it might never reach its destination. he said to himself, "i shall run away." they took zhilin and kostuilin to the barn, strewed corn-stalks, gave them water in a pitcher, and bread, two old cherkeski, and some worn-out military boots. it was evident that they had been stolen from some dead soldier. when night came they took off their clogs, and locked them up in the barn. iii. thus zhilin and his comrade lived a whole month. their master was always on the grin. "you, iván, good--me, abdul, good." but he gave them wretched food; unleavened bread made of millet-flour, cooked in the form of cakes, but often not heated through. kostuilin wrote home again, and was anxiously awaiting the arrival of the money, and lost his spirits. whole days at a time, he sat in the barn, and counted the days till his money should arrive, or else he slept. but zhilin had no expectation that his letter would reach its destination, and he did not write another. "where," he asked himself,--"where would my mother get the money for my ransom? and besides, she lived for the most part on what i used to send her. if she made out to raise five hundred rubles, she would be in want till the end of her days. if god wills it, i may escape." and all the time he kept his eyes open, and made plans to elude his captors. he walked about the aul; he amused himself by whistling; or else he sat down and fashioned things, either modelling dolls out of clay or plaiting baskets of osiers, for zhilin was a master at all sorts of handiwork. one time he had made a doll with nose, and hands and feet, and dressed in a tatar shirt, and he set the doll on the roof. the tatar women were going for water. dina, the master's daughter, caught sight of the doll. she called the tatar girls. they set down their jugs, and looked and laughed. zhilin took the doll, and offered it to them. they keep laughing, but don't dare to take it. he left the doll, went to the barn, and watched what would take place. dina ran up to the doll, looked around, seized the doll, and fled. the next morning at dawn he sees dina come out on the doorstep with the doll. and she has already dressed it up in red rags, and was rocking it like a little child, and singing a lullaby in her own language. an old woman came out, gave her a scolding, snatched the doll away, broke it in pieces, and sent dina to her work. zhilin made another doll, a still better one, and gave it to dina. one time dina brought a little jug, put it down, took a seat, and looked at him. then she laughed, and pointed to the jug. "what is she so gay about?" thinks zhilin. he took the jug, and began to drink. he supposed that it was water, but it was milk. he drank up the milk. "good," says he. how delighted dina was! "good, iván, good!" and she jumped up, clapped her hands, snatched the jug, and ran away. and from that time she began to bring him secretly fresh milk every day. now, sometimes the tatars would make cheesecakes out of goat's milk, and dry them on their roofs. then she used to carry some of these cakes secretly to him. and another time, when her father had killed a sheep, she brought him a piece of mutton in her sleeve. she threw it down, and ran away. one time there was a tremendous shower, and for a whole hour the rain poured as from buckets; and all the brooks grew roily. wherever there had been a ford, the depth of the water increased to seven feet, and bowlders were rolled along by it. everywhere torrents were rushing, the mountains were full of the roaring. now, when the shower was over, streams were pouring all through the village. zhilin asked his master for a knife, whittled out a cylinder and some paddles, and made a water-wheel, and fastened manikins at the two ends. the little girls brought him some rags, and he dressed up the manikins, one like a man, the other like a woman. he fastened them on, and put the wheel in a brook. the wheel revolved, and the dolls danced. the whole village collected: the little boys and the little girls, the women, and even the tatars, came and clucked with their tongues. "_aï, urus! aï, iván!_" abdul had a russian watch, which had been broken. he took it, and showed it to zhilin, and clucked with his tongue. zhilin said,-"let me have it, i will fix it." he took it, opened the penknife, took it apart. then he put it together again, and gave it back. the watch ran. the tatar was delighted, brought him his old beshmet which was all in rags, and gave it to him. nothing else to be done,--he took it, and used it as a covering at night. from that time, zhilin's fame went abroad, that he was a "master." even from distant villages, they came to him. one brought him a gun-lock or a pistol to repair, another a watch. his master furnished him with tools,--a pair of pincers and gimlets and a little file. one time a tatar fell ill; they came to zhilin: "come cure him!" zhilin knew nothing of medicine. he went, looked at the sick man, said to himself, "perhaps he will get well, anyway." he went into the barn, took water and sand, and shook them up together. he whispered a few words to the water in presence of the tatars, and gave it to the sick man to drink. fortunately for him, the tatar got well. zhilin had by this time learned something of their language. and some of the tatars became accustomed to him; when they wanted him, they called him by name, "iván, iván;" but others always looked at him as though he was a wild beast. the red-bearded tatar did not like zhilin; when he saw him, he scowled and turned away, or else insulted him. there was another old man among them; he did not live in the aul, but came down from the mountain. zhilin never saw him except when he came to the mosque to prayer. he was of small stature; on his cap, he wore a white handkerchief as an ornament. his beard and mustaches were trimmed; they were white as wool, and his face was wrinkled and brick-red. his nose was hooked like a hawk's, and his eyes were gray and cruel, and he had no teeth except two tusks. he used to come in his turban, leaning on his staff, and glare like a wolf; whenever he saw zhilin, he would snort, and turn his back. one time zhilin went to the mountain to see where the old man lived. he descended a narrow path, and sees a little stone-walled garden. on the other side of the wall are cherry-trees, peach-trees, and a little hut with a flat roof. he went nearer; he sees bee-hives made of straw, and bees flying and humming around them. and the old man is on his knees before the hives, hammering something. zhilin raised himself up, so as to get a better view, and his clog made a noise. the old man looked up,--squealed; he pulled his pistol from his belt, and fired at zhilin, who had barely time to hide behind the wall. the old man came to make his complaint to zhilin's master. abdul called him in, grinned, and asked him: "why did you go to the old man's?" "i didn't do him any harm. i wanted to see how he lived." abdul explained it to the old man; but he was angry, hissed, mumbled something, showed his tusks, and threatened zhilin with his hands. zhilin did not understand it all; but he made out that the old man wished abdul to kill the two russians, and not have them in the aul. the old man went off. zhilin began to ask his master, "who is that old man?" and the master replied,-"he is a great man. he used to be our first _jigit_; he has killed many russians. he used to be rich. he had three wives and eight sons. all lived in one village. the russians came, destroyed his village, and killed seven of his sons. one son was left, and surrendered to the russians. the old man went and gave himself up to the russians also. he lived among them three months, found his son, killed him with his own hand, and escaped. since that time he has stopped fighting. he went to mecca to pray to god, and that's why he wears a turban. whoever has been to mecca is called a _hadji_, and wears a _chalma_. but he does not love you russians. he has bade me kill you, but i don't intend to kill you. i have paid out money for you, and besides, iván, i have come to like you. and so far from wishing to kill you, i would rather not let you go from me at all, if i had not given my word." he laughed, and began to repeat in russian, "_tvoyá iván, khorósh, moyá, abdul, khorósh._" iv. thus zhilin lived a month. in the daytime he walked about the aul or did some handiwork, but when night came, and it grew quiet in the aul, he burrowed in his barn. it was hard work digging because of the stones, and he sometimes had to use his file on them; and thus he dug a hole under the wall big enough to crawl through. "only," he thought, "i must know the region a little first, so as to escape in the right direction. and the tatars wouldn't tell me any thing." he waited till one time when his master was absent, then he went after dinner behind the aul to a mountain. his idea was to reconnoitre the country. but when abdul returned he commanded a small boy to follow zhilin, and not take his eyes from him. the little fellow tagged after zhilin, and kept crying,-"don't go there. father won't allow it. i will call the men if you go!" zhilin began to reason with him. "i am not going far," says he,--"only to that hill: i must get some herbs. come with me; i can't run away with this clog. to-morrow i will make you a bow and arrows." he persuaded the lad, they went together. to look at, the mountain is not far, but it was hard work with the clog; he went a little distance at a time, pulling himself up by main strength. zhilin sat down on the summit, and began to survey the ground. to the south behind the barn lay a valley through which a herd was grazing, and another aul was in sight at the foot of it. back of the village was another hill still steeper, and back of that still another. between the mountains lay a further stretch of forest, and then still other mountains constantly rising higher and higher. and higher than all, stood snow-capped peaks white as sugar, and one snowy peak rose like a dome above them all. to the east and west also were mountains. in every direction the smoke of auls was to be seen in the ravines. "well," he said to himself, "this is all their country." he began to look in the direction of the russian possessions. at his very feet was a little river, his village surrounded by gardens. by the river some women, no larger in appearance than little dolls, were standing and washing. behind the aul was a lower mountain, and beyond it two other mountains covered with forests. and between the two mountains a plain stretched far, far away in the blue distance; and on the plain lay what seemed like smoke. zhilin tried to remember in what direction, when he lived at home in the fortress, the sun used to rise, and where it set. he looked. "just about there," says he, "in that valley, our fortress ought to be. there, between those two mountains, i must make my escape." the little sun began to slope toward the west. the snowy mountains changed from white to purple; the wooded mountains grew dark; a mist arose from the valley; and the valley itself, where the russian fortress must be, glowed in the sunset as though it were on fire. zhilin strained his gaze. something seemed to hang waving in the air, like smoke arising from chimneys. and so it seemed to him that it must be from the fortress itself,--the russian fortress. it was already growing late. the voice of the mulla calling to prayer was heard. the herds began to return; the kine were lowing. the little lad kept repeating, "let us go!" but zhilin could not tear himself away. they returned home. "well," thinks zhilin, "now i know the place; i must make my escape." he proposed to make his escape that very night. the nights were dark; it was the wane of the moon. unfortunately the tatars returned in the evening. usually they came in driving the cattle with them, and came in hilarious. but this time they had no cattle; but they brought a tatar, dead on his saddle. it was kazi muhamet's brother. they rode in solemnly, and collected for the burial. zhilin also went out to look. they did not put the dead body in a coffin, but wrapped it in linen, and placed it under a plane-tree in the village, where it lay on the sward. the mulla came; the old men gathered together, their caps bound around with handkerchiefs. they took off their shoes, and sat in rows on their heels before the dead. in front was the mulla, behind him three old men in turbans, and behind them the rest of the tatars. the mulla lifted the dead man's head, and said, "allah!" (that means god.) he said this one word, and let the head fall back. all were silent; they sat motionless. again the mulla lifted the head, saying, "allah!" and all repeated it after him,-"allah!" then silence again. the dead man lay on the sward; he was motionless, and they sat as though they were dead. not one made a motion. the only sound was the rustling of the foliage of the plane-tree, stirred by the breeze. then the mulla offered a prayer. all got to their feet; they took the dead body in their arms, and carried it away. they brought it to a pit. the pit was not a mere hole, but was hollowed out under the earth like a cellar. they took the body under the armpits and by the legs, doubled it up, and let it down gently, shoved it forcibly under the ground, and laid the arms along the belly. the nogáï brought a green osier. they laid it in the pit; then they quickly filled it up with earth, and over the dead man's head they placed a gravestone. they smoothed the earth over, and again sat around the grave in rows. there was a long silence. "allah! allah! allah!" they sighed and got up. the red-bearded tatar gave money to the old men, then he got up, struck his forehead three times with a whip, and went home. the next morning zhilin sees the red-haired tatar leading a mare through the village, and three tatars following him. they went behind the village. kazi muhamet took off his beshmet, rolled up his sleeves,--his hands were powerful,--took out his dagger, and sharpened it on a whetstone. the tatars held back the mare's head. kazi muhamet approached, and cut the throat; then he turned the animal over, and began to flay it, pulling away the hide with his mighty fists. the women and maidens came, and began to wash the intestines and the lights. then they cut up the mare, and carried the meat to the hut. and the whole village collected at the kazi muhamet's to celebrate the dead. for three days they feasted on the mare and drank _buza_. thus they celebrated the dead. all the tatars were at home. on the fourth day about noon, zhilin sees that they are collecting for some expedition. their horses are brought out. they put on their gear, and started off, ten men of them, under the command of the kazi muhamet; only abdul staid at home. there was a new moon, but the nights were still dark. "now," thinks zhilin, "to-day we must escape." and he tells kostuilin. but kostuilin was afraid. "how can we escape? we don't know the way." "i know the way." "but we should not get there during the night." "well, if we don't get there we will spend the night in the woods. i have some cakes. what are you going to do? it will be all right if they send you the money, but you see, your friends may not collect so much. and the tatars are now angry because the russians have killed one of their men. they say they are thinking of killing us." kostuilin thought and thought. "all right, let us go!" v. zhilin crept down into his hole, and widened it so that kostuilin also could get through, and then they sat and waited till all should be quiet in the aul. as soon as the people were quiet in the aul, zhilin crept under the wall, and came out on the other side. he whispers to kostuilin, "crawl under." kostuilin also crept under, but in doing so he hit a stone with his leg, and it made a noise. now, the master had a brindled dog as a watch,--a most ferocious animal; they called him ulyashin. zhilin had been in the habit of feeding him. ulyashin heard the noise, and began to bark and jump about, and the other dogs joined in. zhilin gave a little whistle, threw him a piece of cake. ulyashin recognized him, began to wag his tail, and ceased barking. abdul had heard the disturbance, and cried from within the hut:-"_háït! háït!_ ulyashin." but zhilin scratched the dog behind the ears. the dog makes no more sound, rubs against his legs, and wags his tail. they wait behind the corner. all became silent again; the only sound was the bleating of a sheep in the fold, and far below them the water roaring over the pebbles. it is dark, but the sky is studded with stars. over the mountain the young moon hung red, with its horns turned upward. in the valleys a mist was rising, white as milk. zhilin started up, and said to his comrade in tatar, "well, brother, _aï-da_!" they set out again. but as they get under way, they hear the call of the mulla on the minaret:-"_allah! bis'm allah! el rakhman!_" "that means, the people will be going to the mosque." again they sat down and hid under the wall. they sat there long, waiting until the people should pass. again it grew still. "now for our fate!" they crossed themselves, and started. they went across the dvor, and down the steep bank to the stream, crossed the stream, proceeded along the valley. the mist was thick, and closed in all around them, but above their heads the stars could still be seen. zhilin used the stars to guide him which way to go. it was cool in the mist, it was easy walking, only their boots were troublesome,--they were worn at the heels. zhilin took his off, threw them away, and walked barefoot. he sprang from stone to stone, and kept glancing at the stars. kostuilin began to grow weary. "go slower," says he; "my boots chafe me, my whole foot is raw." "then take them off, it will be easier." kostuilin began to go barefoot, but that was still worse; he kept scraping his feet on the stones and having to stop. zhilin said to him, "you may cut your feet, but you will save your life; but if you are caught they will kill you, which would be worse." kostuilin said nothing, but crept along, groaning. for a long time they went down the valley. suddenly they hear dogs barking at the right. zhilin halted, looked around, climbed up the bank, and felt about with his hands. "_ekh!_" says he, "we have made a mistake; we have gone too far to the right. here is one of the enemy's villages. i could see it from the hill. we must go back to the left, up the mountain. there must be a forest there." but kostuilin objected. "just wait a little while, let us get breath. my feet are all blood." "eh, brother! they will get well. you should walk more lightly. this way." and zhilin turned back toward the left, and up hill toward the forest. kostuilin kept halting and groaning. zhilin tried to hush him up, and still hastened on. they climbed the mountain. and there they found the forest. they entered it; their clothes were all torn to pieces on the thorns. they found a little path through the woods. they walked along it. "halt!" there was the sound of hoofs on the path. they stopped to listen. it sounded like the tramping of a horse: then it also stopped. they set out once more; again the tramping hoofs. when they stopped, it stopped. zhilin crept ahead, and investigated a light spot on the path. something is standing there. it may be a horse, or it may not, but on it there is something strange, not at all like a man. it snorted--plainly! "what a strange thing!" zhilin gave a slight whistle. there was a dash of feet from the path into the forest, a crackling in the underbrush, and something rushed along like a hurricane, with a crashing of dry boughs. kostuilin almost fell to the ground in fright. but zhilin laughed, and said,-"that was a stag. do you hear how it crashes through the woods with its horns? we frightened him, and he frightened us." they went on their way. already the great bear was beginning to set; the dawn was not distant. and they were in doubt whether they should come out right or not. zhilin was inclined to think that they were on the right track, and that it would be about ten versts farther before they reached the russian fortress, but there is no certain guide; you could not tell in the night. they came to a little clearing. kostuilin sat down and said,-"do as you please, but i will not go any farther; my legs won't carry me." zhilin tried to persuade him. "no," says he, "i won't go, i can't go." zhilin grew angry; he threatens him, he scolds him. "then i will go on without you. good-by!" kostuilin jumped up and followed. they went four versts farther. the fog began to grow thicker in the forest. nothing could be seen before them; the stars were barely visible. suddenly they hear the tramping of a horse just in front of them; they can hear his shoes striking on the stones. zhilin threw himself down on his belly, and tried to listen by laying his ear to the ground. "yes, it is,--it is some one on horseback coming in our direction." they slipped off to one side of the road, crouched down in the bushes, and waited. zhilin crept close to the path, and looked. he sees a mounted tatar riding along, driving a cow. the man is muttering to himself. when the tatar had ridden by, zhilin returned to kostuilin. "well, god has saved us. up with you! come along!" kostuilin tried to rise, and fell back. "i can't; by god, i can't. my strength is all gone." the man was as though he were drunk. he was all of a sweat; and as they were surrounded by the cold fog, and his feet were torn, he was quite used up. zhilin tried to lift him by main force. then kostuilin cried, "_aï!_ it hurt." zhilin was frightened to death. "what are you screaming for? don't you know that tatar is near? he will hear you." but he said to himself, "now he is really played out, what can i do with him? i can't abandon a comrade. now," says he, "get up; climb on my back. i will carry you if you can't walk any longer." he took kostuilin on his shoulders, holding him by the thighs, and went along the path with his burden. "only," says he, "don't put your hands on my throat, for christ's sake! lean on my shoulders." it was hard for zhilin. his feet were also bloody, and he was weary. he stopped, and made it a little easier for himself by setting kostuilin down, and getting him better mounted. then he went on again. evidently the tatar had heard them when kostuilin screamed. zhilin caught the sound of some one following them and shouting in his language. zhilin put into the bushes. the tatar aimed his gun; he fired it off, but missed; began to whine in his native tongue, and galloped up the path. "well," says zhilin, "we are lost, brother. the dog,--he will be right back with a band of tatars on our track.... if we don't succeed in putting three versts between us, we are lost." and he thinks to himself, "the devil take it, that i had to bring this clod along with me! alone, i should have got there long ago." kostuilin said, "go alone. why should you be lost on my account?" "no, i will not go; it would not do to abandon a comrade." he lifted him again on his shoulder, and started on. thus he made a verst. it was forest all the way, and no sign of outlet. but the fog was now beginning to lift, and seemed to be floating away in little clouds: not a star could be seen. zhilin was tired out. a little spring gushed out by the road: it was walled in with stones. there he stopped, and dropped kostuilin. "let me rest a little," says he, "and get a drink. we will eat our cakes. it can't be very far now." he had just stretched himself out to drink, when the sound of hoofs was heard behind them. again they hid in the bushes at the right under the crest, and crouched down. they heard tatar voices. the tatars stopped at the very spot where they had turned in from the road. after discussing a while, they seemed to be setting dogs on the scent. the refugees hear the sound of a crashing through the bushes: a strange dog comes directly to them. he stops and barks. the tatars followed on their track. they are also strangers. they seized them, bound them, lifted them on horses, and carried them off. after they had ridden three versts, abdul, with two tatars, met them. he said something to their new captors. they were transferred to abdul's horses, and were brought back to the aul. abdul was no longer grinning, and he said not a word to them. they reached the village at daybreak; the prisoners were left in the street. the children gathered around them, tormenting them with stones and whips, and howling. the tatars gathered around them in a circle, and the old man from the mountain was among them. they began to discuss. zhilin made out that they were deciding on what should be done with them. some said that they ought to be sent farther into the mountains, but the old man declared that they must be killed. abdul argued against it. says he, "i have paid out money for them, i shall get a ransom for them." but the old man said, "they won't pay any thing; it will only be an injury to us. and it is a sin to keep russians alive. kill them, and that is the end of it." they separated. abdul came to zhilin, and reported the decision. "if," says he, "the ransom is not sent in two weeks, you will be flogged. and if you try to run away again, i will kill you like a dog. write your letter, and write it good!" paper was brought them; they wrote their letters. clogs were put on their feet again; they were taken behind the mosque.... there was a pit twelve feet[102] deep, and they were thrust down into this pit. [footnote 102: five arshins, 11.65 feet.] vi. life was made utterly wretched for them. their clogs were not taken off even at night, and they were not let out at all. unbaked dough was thrown down to them as though they were dogs, and water was let down in a jug. in the pit it was damp and suffocating. kostuilin became ill, and swelled up, and had rheumatism all over his body, and he groaned or slept all the time. even zhilin lost his spirits; he sees that they are in desperate straits. and he does not know how to get out. he had begun to make an excavation, but there was nowhere to hide the earth; abdul discovered it, and threatened to kill him. he was squatting down one time in the pit, and thinking about life and liberty, and he grew sad. suddenly a cake[103] fell directly into his lap, then another, and some cherries followed. he looked up, and there was dina. she peered down at him, laughed, and then ran away. and zhilin began to conjecture, "couldn't dina help me?" [footnote 103: _lepyóshka._] he cleared out a little place in the pit, picked up some clay, and made some dolls. he made men and women, horses and dogs; he said to himself, "when dina comes, i will give them to her." but dina did not make her appearance on the next day. and zhilin hears the trampling of horses' hoofs: men came riding up: the tatars collected at the mosque, arguing, shouting, and talking about the russians. the voice of the old man was heard. zhilin could not understand very well, but he made out that the russians were somewhere near, and the tatars were afraid that they would attack the aul, and they did not know what to do with the prisoners. they talked a while, and went away. suddenly zhilin heard a rustling at the edge of the pit. he sees dina squatting on her heels, with her knees higher than her head; she leaned over, her necklace hung down and swung over the pit. and her little eyes twinkled like stars. she took from her sleeve two cheesecakes, and threw them down to him. zhilin accepted them, and said, "why did you stay away so long? i have been making you some dolls. here they are." he began to toss them up to her one at a time. but she shook her head, and would not look at them. "i can't take them," said she. she said nothing more for a time, but sat there: then she said, "iván, they want to kill you." she made a significant motion across her throat. "who wants to kill me?" "father. the old man has ordered him to. but i am sorry for you." and zhilin said, "well, then, if you are sorry for me, bring me a long stick." she shook her head, meaning that it was impossible. he clasped his hands in supplication to her. "dina, please! bring one to me, dínushka!" "i can't," said she. "they would see me; they are all at home." and she ran away. afterwards, zhilin was sitting there in the evening, and wondering what he should do. he kept raising his eyes. he could see the stars, but the moon was not yet up. the mulla uttered his call, then all became silent. zhilin began already to doze, thinking to himself, "the little maid is afraid." suddenly a piece of clay fell on his head; he glanced up; a long pole was sliding over the edge of the pit, it slid out, began to descend toward him, it reached the bottom of the pit. zhilin was delighted. he seized it, pulled it along,--it was a strong pole. he had noticed it before on abdul's roof. he gazed up; the stars were shining high in the heavens, and dina's eyes, at the edge of the pit, gleamed in the darkness like a cat's. she craned her head over, and whispered, "iván, iván." and she waved her hands before her face, meaning, "softly, please." "what is it?" said zhilin. "all have gone, there are only two at home." and zhilin said, "well, kostuilin, let us go, let us make our last attempt. i will help you." kostuilin, however, would not hear to it. "no," says he, "it is not meant for me to get away from here. how could i go when i haven't even strength to turn over?" "all right, then. good-by.[104] don't think me unkind." [footnote 104: _proshchaï._] he kissed kostuilin. he clasped the pole, told dina to hold it firmly, and tried to climb up. twice he fell back,--his clog so impeded him. kostuilin boosted him; he managed to get to the top: dina pulled on the sleeves of his shirt with all her might, laughing heartily. zhilin pulled up the pole, and said, "carry it back to its place, dina, for if they found it they would flog you." she dragged off the pole, and zhilin began to go down the mountain. when he had reached the bottom of the cliff, he took a sharp stone, and tried to break the padlock of his clog. but the lock was strong; he could not strike it fairly. he hears some one hurrying down the hill, with light, skipping steps. he thinks, "that is probably dina again." dina ran to him, took a stone, and says, "let me try it." she knelt down, and began to work with all her might. but her hands were as delicate as osiers. she had no strength. she threw down the stone, and burst into tears. zhilin again tried to break the lock, and dina squatted by his side, and leaned against his shoulder. zhilin glanced up, and saw at the left behind the mountain a red glow like a fire; it was the moon just rising. "well," he says to himself, "i must cross the valley and get into the woods before the moon rises." he stood up, and threw away the stone. no matter for the clog--he must take it with him. "good-by," says he. "dínushka, i shall always remember you." dina clung to him, reached with her hands for a place to stow away some cakes. he took the cakes. "thank you," said he: "you are a thoughtful darling. who will make you dolls after i am gone?" and he stroked her hair. dina burst into tears, hid her face in her hands, and scrambled up the hillside like a kid. he could hear, in the darkness, the jingling of the coins on her braids. zhilin crossed himself, picked up the lock of his clog so that it might not make a noise, and started on his way, dragging his leg all the time, and keeping his eyes constantly on the glow where the moon was rising. he knew the way. he had eight versts to go in a direct course, but he would have to strike into the forest before the moon came entirely up. he crossed the stream, and now the light was increasing behind the mountain. he proceeded along the valley: it was growing light. he walks along, constantly glancing around; but still the moon was not visible. the glow was now changing to white light, and one side of the valley grew brighter and brighter. the shadow crept away from the mountain till it reached its very foot. zhilin still hurried along, all the time keeping to the shadow. he hurries as fast as he can, but the moon rises still faster; and now, at the right, the mountain-tops are illuminated. he struck into the forest just as the moon rose above the mountains. it became as light and white as day. on the trees all the leaves were visible. it was warm and bright on the mountain-side; every thing seemed as though it were dead. the only sound was the roaring of a torrent far below. he walked along in the forest; he had met no one. zhilin found a little spot in the forest where it was still darker, and began to rest. while he rested he ate one of his cakes. he procured a stone and once more tried to break the padlock, but he only bruised his hands, and failed to break the lock. he arose and went on his way. when he had gone a verst his strength gave out, his feet were sore. he had to walk ten steps at a time, and then rest. "there's nothing to be done for it," says he to himself. "i will push on as long as my strength holds out; for if i sit down, then i shall not get up again. if i do not reach the fortress before it is daylight, then i will lie down in the woods and spend the day, and start on to-morrow night again." he walked all night. once he passed two tatars on horseback, but he heard them at some distance, and hid behind a tree. already the moon was beginning to pale, the dew had fallen, it was near dawn, and zhilin had not reached the end of the forest. "well," says he to himself, "i will go thirty steps farther, strike into the forest, and sit down." he went thirty steps, and sees the end of the forest. he went to the edge; it was broad daylight. before him, as on the palm of his hand, were the steppe and the fortress; and on the left, not far away on the mountain-side, fires were burning, or dying out; the smoke rose, and men were moving around the watch-fires. he looks, and sees the gleaming of fire-arms: cossacks, soldiers! zhilin was overjoyed. he gathered his remaining strength, and walked down the mountain. and he says to himself, "god help me, if a mounted tatar should get sight of me on this bare field! i should not escape him, even though i am so near." even while these thoughts are passing through his mind, he sees at the left, on a hillock not fourteen hundred feet away, three tatars on the watch. they caught sight of him,--bore down upon him. then his heart failed within him. waving his arms, he shouted at the top of his voice, "brothers! help, brothers!" our men heard him,--mounted cossacks dashed out toward him. the cossacks were far off, the tatars near. and now zhilin collected his last remaining energies, seized his clog with his hand, ran toward the cossacks, and, without any consciousness of feeling, crossed himself and cried, "brothers, brothers, brothers!" the cossacks were fifteen in number. the tatars were dismayed. before they reached him, they stopped short. and zhilin reached the cossacks. the cossacks surrounded him, and questioned him: "who are you?" "what is your name?" "where did you come from?" but zhilin was almost beside himself; he wept, and kept on shouting, "brothers, brothers!" the soldiers hastened up, and gathered around him; one brought him bread, another kasha-gruel, another vodka, another threw a cloak around him, still another broke his chains. the officers recognized him, they brought him into the fortress. the soldiers were delighted, his comrades pressed into zhilin's room. zhilin told them what had happened to him, and he ended his tale with the words,-"that's the way i went home and got married! no, i see that such is not to be my fate." and he remained in the service in the caucasus. at the end of a month kostuilin was ransomed for five thousand rubles. he was brought home scarcely alive. * * * * * count tolstoï's works. anna karénina $1.75 childhood, boyhood, and youth 1.50 ivan ilyitch 1.25 my religion 1.00 my confession 1.00 what to do? 1.25 the invaders 1.25 a russian proprietor 1.50 thomas y crowell & co., publishers. 13 astor place, new york. * * * * * count tolstoi's works. the demand for these russian stories has but just fairly begun; but it is a literary movement more widespread, more intense, than anything this country has probably seen within the past quarter of a century.--_boston traveller._ anna karénina. 12mo, $1.75. "will take rank among the great works of fiction of the age."--_portland transcript._ "as you read on, you say not, 'this is _like_ life' but 'this _is_ life.'"--_w. d. howells._ iván ilyitch, and other stories. 12mo, $1.25. "no living author surpasses him, and only one or two approach him, in the power of picturing not merely places but persons, with minute and fairly startling fidelity."--_congregationalist._ "both the personal character and the literary art of tolstoi are manifested with simpler and clearer power in these writings than in his novels, and the book becomes necessary to an adequate understanding of tolstoi's mission and work."--_globe._ childhood, boyhood, youth. with portrait of the author. 12mo, $1.50. a series of reminiscences and traditions of the author's early life. "these exquisite sketches belong to the literature which never grows old, which lives forever in the heart of humanity as a cherished revelation."--_literary world._ my confession and the spirit of christ's teaching. 12mo, $1.00. an autobiographical account of the changes in the author's religious opinions, and the various causes by which it was brought about; all of which is told in the most delightful manner, and will enable the reader to understand more clearly his "my religion," which is the sequel to this volume. "like the writings of bunyan and thomas à kempis, tolstoi's confession will be read eagerly and become spiritual tonic and daily food to little children in the kingdom of christ, whatever be their 'church,' tongue, or nation."--_critic_, new york. my religion. a companion book to my confession. 12mo, $1.00. "should go to every household where the new testament is read. * * * every man whose eyes are lifted above the manger and the trough should take 'my religion' to his home. let him read it with no matter what hostile prepossessions, let him read it to confute it, but still read, and 'he that is able to receive it, let him receive it.'"--_new york sun._ what to do. thoughts evoked by the census of moscow. containing passages excluded by the press censor of russia. 12mo, $1.25. a sequel to "my confession" and "my religion." "fascinating and startling."--_boston daily advertiser._ "a very thoughtful and instructive work."--_zion's herald._ the invaders, and other stories. tales of the caucasus, 12mo, $1.25. "marked by the wonderful dramatic power which has made his name so popular with an immense circle of readers in this country and in europe."--_portland press._ a russian proprietor, and other stories. (_in press._) 12mo, $1.50. * * * * * thomas y. crowell & co. 13 astor place, new york. * * * * * important new books published by thomas y. crowell & co., 13 astor place, new york. count tolstoi's works.--the remarkable interest recently awakened by this "great writer of the russian land" has caused a constantly growing demand for the english translations of his works. the following are now ready:-anna karénina 12mo, $1.75 childhood, boyhood and youth 12mo, $1,50 the invaders " $1.25 my confession 12mo, $1.00 my religion " $1.00 ivan ilyitch, &c. " $1.25 what to do " $1.25 a russian proprietor (_in press_). les misérables.--by victor hugo. translated from the french by isabel f. hapgood. with 160 full-page illustrations, printed on fine calendered paper, and bound in neat and attractive style. 5 vols., cloth, gilt top, $7.50; half calf, $15.00. popular edition in one volume, 12mo, $1.50. the name of the translator is sufficient guaranty that the work has been skilfully and conscientiously performed. it is by far the completest and best translation of this masterpiece. the type is clear and attractive, the illustrations are by famous artists, and the volumes are in every way desirable. mrs. shillaber's cook-book.--a practical guide for housekeepers. by mrs. lydia shillaber. with an introduction by mrs. partington. 12mo, cloth, $1.25. kitchen edition, in oil-cloth, $1.25. first and second editions sold before publication. fourth edition now ready. the connection between laughter and good digestion is proverbial. it is therefore auspicious for the phenomenal success of this sensible and practical work that the genial mrs. partington is its sponsor. tennyson's works.--handy volume edition. complete. large type. from the latest text, including earlier poems. cloth, gilt top, 8 vols., $6.00; parchment, gilt top, $10.50; half calf, gilt edges, $12.00; american seal russia, gilt edge, round corners, $15.00; full calf, flexible, gilt edges, round corners, $21.00; full calf, gilt edges, padded, round corners, $25.00; tree calf, gilt edge, $30.00. all of the above are boxed in fancy leatherette or calf boxes, according to style of binding, and make the most elegant and convenient edition of this author's poems. washington irving's works.--from new plates. cloth, 12mo, 6 vols., $7.50; library edition, gilt top, $9.00; half calf, marbled, $15.00. an admirable library edition of an american classic. poems in color.--with 56 exquisite illustrations from original designs by w. j. whittemore. sea pictures, by tennyson. sunrise on the hills, by longfellow. the worship of nature, by whittier. i remember, by hood. to a waterfowl, by bryant. to a mountain daisy, by burns. these bright-colored and suggestive little designs are illustrations in the best sense of the word. they interpret the poems. nothing could be more appropriate for a christmas or birthday remembrance. 6 volumes. fancy paper covers, 50 cents each, cloth covers, stamped in gold, 75 cents each; celluloid covers, lithographed, $1.00 each. initials and pseudonyms.--a dictionary of literary disguises. by william cushing and albert r. frey. a new edition, enlarged and revised. royal, 8vo, cloth, $5.00; half morocco, $7.50; interleaved, cloth, $7.50; interleaved, half morocco, $10.00. a most convenient and even necessary adjunct for the desk of a literary worker. christ and christianity series.--by rev. h. r. haweis. 5 vols., 12mo, each $1.25. those who are familiar with mr. haweis's vivid and fascinating style will welcome these five volumes, which are written with deeply religious and earnest feeling. st. paul's problem and its solution.--dedicated to the young people's society of christian endeavor, and setting forth under the guise of fiction the work of this society. by faye huntington, author of "transformed," "what fide remembers," etc. 12mo. $1.25. "it is a good helpful book, whose value and merits can be understood only through a personal reading."--_church press._ sigrid.--an icelandic love story. translated from the danish of jon thordsson thoroddsen. 12mo. $1.25. a charming picture of manners and customs in "ultima thule." * * * * * what the critics say of crowell's illustrated edition of les misérables. "this translation of victor hugo's masterpiece is the best one that has been made."--_n. y. observer._ "can hardly fail to be accepted by critical authorities as the permanent standard."--_boston traveller._ "has been many times translated into english, but never has the work been done by so clever and faithful a translator as miss hapgood."--_albany press._ "the most spirited rendering of hugo's masterpiece into english, and the illustrations and the letter-press are just as deserving of praise."--_phila. press._ "the translation will no doubt supersede all others."--_cin-times-star._ "the publishers have made this book very attractive. they are to be commended not only for the edition before us, but more especially for a popular edition which will make this great work accessible to a wider class of readers."--_boston advertiser._ "deserves the highest praise."--_nation._ "miss hapgood is sympathetic; she becomes one with her author. her rendering of 'les misérables' has not been equalled. it will not be surpassed. the standard--it is here--is attained."--_national republican._ ask your bookseller for crowell's illustrated edition of les misérables. by victor hugo. translated from the french by isabel f. hapgood. with 160 full-page illustrations, printed on fine calendered paper, and bound in neat and attractive style. 5 vols., cloth, gilt top, $7.50; half calf, $15.00. popular edition in one vol., 12mo, $1.50. thomas y. crowell & co. 13 astor place, new york. * * * * * _count tolstoï's greatest work of fiction_, anna karénina. by count leo. tolstoï. translated from the russian by nathan haskell dole. royal 12mo, 750 pp., $1.75. "as you read on you say, not, 'this is like life,' but, 'this is life.' it has not only the complexion, the very hue, of life, but its movement, its advances, its strange pauses, its seeming reversions to former conditions, and its perpetual change, its apparent isolations, its essential solidarity. it is a world, and you live in it while you read, and long afterward; but at no step have you been betrayed, not because your guide has warned or exhorted you, but because he has been true, and has shown you all things as they are."--_w. d. howells, in harpers' monthly._ "the power of this book lies in the author's supreme control of the influences which affect human action, in his vivid apprehension of the operation of inexorable law, in his intuitive knowledge of the action and reaction of spiritual conditions. with a noble art he throws against the shadow, that deepens ever to the end, a radiant soul development that serenely grows brighter till we know it is tolstoï himself, his experience, his best. it is a great book, and of such creations the most sincere admiration falls sadly short of fitting expression."--_washington post._ "the effect of the whole is stimulating and elevating. the book is certainly one of decided genius."--_new york tribune._ "it is difficult to speak of this noble book without incurring the suspicion of extravagance."--_new york examiner._ "will take rank among the great works of fiction of the age."--_portland transcript._ "characterized by all the breadth and complexity, the insight, and the profound analysis of 'middlemarch.'"--_critic, new york._ "it is not undue praise to say that, since the publication of goethe's 'elective affinities,' no such relentless analysis of the human emotions, and of the action and reaction of social relations, has appeared as is shown in count tolstoï's novel, 'anna karénina.'"--_boston traveller._ thomas y. crowell & co., 13 astor place, new york. * * * * * the labor movement in america. by richard t. ely, ph.d., associate in political economy, johns hopkins university; author of "french and german socialism," "the past and the present of political economy," etc. 12mo. price, $1.50. contents. survey of the field. early american communism. the growth and present condition of labor organizations in america. the economic value of labor organizations. the educational value of labor organizations. other aspects of labor organizations. co-operation in america. the beginnings of modern socialism in america. the internationalists. the propaganda of deed and the educational campaign. the socialistic labor party. the strength of revolutionary socialism.--its significance. remedies. platform of principles of the national labor union. pledge and preamble of the journeymen bricklayers' association of philadelphia. declaration of principles and objects of the cigar makers' progressive union of america. extracts from the constitution of the national amalgamated association of iron and steel workers of the united states. manifesto of the international working people's association. letter to tramps, reprinted from the "alarm" of chicago. platform and present demands of the socialistic labor party. declaration of independence, july 4, 1886, by an american socialist. notices of the press. "the subject has been his specialty for probably a dozen years, and it is safe to say that he is more thoroughly and intimately acquainted with it than any other man in the country."--_lancaster intelligencer, pa._ "the best work on the subject--we regard it as a great step toward the solution of pending difficulties."--_north western presbyterian._ "no man in this country speaks with the same authority or deserves more earnest attention. must take its place as an essential in the education of every one who has heart to feel or desire to comprehend what ground for dissatisfaction really exists."--_orange chronicle._ "deserves the most careful study. no question just now should more profoundly interest the thinking men of all classes."--_the age of steel._ "the review of the labor organizations in this country from the year 1800 to 1886 is a masterly presentation, and will justify even a poor man buying the book."--_the beacon._ "a timely book by an able hand. we heartily commend this book to every thoughtful citizen."--_portland argus._ "the work is among the best--we think it is the best--which the perplexing labor question has evoked."--_the interior._ "every intelligent reader in the country will find the book most useful."--_st. louis republican._ "no one who wishes to understand the problems of labor and capital can afford to be without professor ely's work."--_rochester chronicle._ "professor ely's volume deserves the careful study of manufacturers and employers of labor especially. it deals with well authenticated facts more than theories--a remarkable and timely book."--_boston traveller._ "his treatment is broad and comprehensive, dealing with the fundamental questions of the labor movement to the exclusion of such minor and incidental topics as are often prone to intrude themselves into a discussion of this nature."--_school journal._ "we believe it will have a positive effect in helping to maintain kindly relations between the laborer and his employer."--_troy times._ "it is without doubt the most complete historical sketch yet published of the origin and growth both of socialism and of labor organizations."--_new york observer._ "heartily commended to the careful attention of all concerned in the labor question, whether employers or employed."--_cleveland plaindealer._ _for sale by all booksellers._ thomas y. crowell & co., 13 astor place, new york. * * * * * mrs. shillaber's cook-book. _a practical guide for housekeepers._ by mrs. lydia shillaber. with an introduction by mrs. partington. 12mo, cloth, $1.25. kitchen edition, in oilcloth, $1.25. fourth edition now ready. _extract from mrs. partington's introduction._ "well, well," said mrs. partington, her spectacles beaming with delight as she turned over the leaves of the new cookery book, "i declare it excites my salivation glands even to read the names of these good things. it seems as though the greatest epicac might find something among all these meats and cosmetics to give a jest to appetite.... now a book like this will come into a house like an oasis in the desert of the great sahara, and be a quarantine of perpetual peace." "has the best characteristic of simplicity, variety, and usefulness."--_boston journal._ "a thoroughly intelligible and practical guide for young housekeepers."--_boston advertiser._ "the most sensible cook-book of the season."--_journal of education._ "numerous household hints in the book, which of themselves make it valuable."--_pittsburg chronicle-telegraph._ "the work will certainly commend itself to the housekeeper."--_american hebrew._ "to all in the culinary work this is a model guide."--_ohio state journal._ "a formidable rival of the numerous works of its kind."--_christian index._ thomas y. crowell & co. 13 astor place, new york. * * * * * the google books library project (http://books.google.com) note: project gutenberg also has an html version of this file which includes the original illustrations. see 52242-h.htm or 52242-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/52242/52242-h/52242-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/52242/52242-h.zip) images of the original pages are available through the google books library project. see https://books.google.com/books?id=pjjgaaaayaaj transcriber's note: text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). text enclosed by equal signs is in bold face (=bold=). a carat character is used to denote superscription. superscripted characters are enclosed by curly brackets following a carat character (example: m^{me}). small uppercase have been replaced with regular uppercase. the life of tolstoy first fifty years [illustration: _portrait of tolstoy when commencing anna karénina, 1873, by kramskóy._] the life of tolstoy first fifty years by aylmer maude 'a man so various that he seemed to be not one, but all mankind's epitome.' dryden fifth edition new york dodd, mead and company 1911 first edition september 1908 second edition october 1908 third edition september 1910 fourth edition january 1911 fifth edition april 1911 preface the reason i have written this work is because so many among us are interested in tolstoy and so few seem to understand him. it would seem therefore that an english life of tolstoy is needed, and having lived in russia for twenty-three years, known tolstoy well for several years, visited him frequently in moscow, and stayed with him repeatedly at yásnaya polyána, i am perhaps as well qualified as any one to write it, especially as i have long made a careful study of his views. my wife and i have translated several of his works, have known people closely connected with him, and some ten years ago we took part in an unsuccessful 'tolstoy' colony; besides which i went to canada at his wish to make arrangements for the doukhobór migration, of which i subsequently wrote the history. moreover, i am impartial. that is to say, i have taken pains to understand tolstoy's views, and to see the good there is in them; but being a westerner, i see also certain things tolstoy overlooks, and i know that these things knock big holes in some of his most cherished 'principles.' the book has had the great advantage of being carefully revised by his wife, the countess s. a. tolstoy, who both verbally and in writing has rendered me most valuable assistance. i owe sincere thanks also to my friend p. i. birukóf, tolstoy's russian biographer. he modestly speaks of his own work as 'a collection of those materials for the biography of leo tolstoy which are accessible to me.' i have no hesitation in saying that his care and integrity in gathering and using those materials, entitle him to the gratitude of all who deal with the same subject. there is one small matter of typography which needs a word of explanation. i have sought to tell as much of the story as possible in tolstoy's own words, and have also had occasion to quote other writers. at times the russian text quoted contains allusions or expressions which might perplex an english reader unless a word or two of explanation were added. to introduce paragraphs of explanation would interrupt the narrative, besides lengthening the book. to have recourse to frequent footnotes in cases where two or three words of explanation are all that is required is unsightly and unsatisfactory; so i have adopted the plan of using square brackets [ ] to enclose such explanations. the ordinary round parentheses ( ) i have kept for their common use, and for cases where, for clearness' sake, words are added that are not contained in the original. beyond indicating the varying value of sums of money mentioned, i have not troubled the reader with the fluctuations of the rouble, which went from over 38 pence before the crimean war, to 19 pence after the russo-turkish war of 1878. if he wants a concise history of the russian currency, he can find it in the preface to my edition of _sevastopol_. in that as in other matters i have tried to be accurate without being pedantic. it is tolstoy and his views that i aim at presenting to english readers; and i have kept in the background, as far as i could, the obstacles resulting from the tower of babel. aylmer maude. great baddow, chelmsford, _20th august 1910_. contents preface v note on pronunciation of russian names xiii i. ancestry and parentage 1 ii. youth and early manhood 16 iii. the caucasus 59 iv. the crimean war 93 v. petersburg; love affair; drouzhínin 138 vi. travels abroad 166 vii. at yásnaya again; tourgénef; arbiter; magazine 214 viii. the school 246 ix. marriage 282 x. nearing the crisis 329 xi. confession 399 xii. works: 1852-1878 427 chronology 450 index 457 list of illustrations portrait of tolstoy when commencing _anna karénina_, 1873. by kramskóy _frontispiece_ _facing page_ tolstoy in 1848, after leaving the university 48 map of sevastopol 113 prominent russian writers, 1856: tourgénef, sologoúb, tolstoy, nekrásof, grigoróvitch, and panáef 142 tolstoy in 1856, the year he left the army 152 tolstoy in 1860, the year his brother nicholas died 200 tolstoy in 1862, the year of his marriage 290 tolstoy's library, showing the wooden crosspiece from which he wished to hang himself 402 note on pronunciation of russian names the spelling of russian names in latin letters in a work of this kind, presents great difficulties. to begin with, we have as yet (though it is much needed) no accepted method of transliteration from russian into english; and though it is not difficult for any one to frame or select his own system of transliteration--as i have done for my translations--this does not entirely meet the case when one has to deal with the names of people, many of whom have adopted a spelling of their own. on the one hand, a man has a right to decide how he will have his own name spelt; but on the other hand, the inclusion of a dozen different systems of transliteration in one book, is apt to create confusion. i have had to do the best i could under the circumstances. to pronounce the names correctly, in accord with the system of transliteration i have adopted, the reader should note the following: i. lay stress on the syllable marked with an accent. ii. vowel sounds are broad and open: _a_ as in f_a_ther. _e_ as _a_ in f_a_te. but _e_ initial and unaccented is pronounced _ye_. _i_ as _ee_ in m_ee_t. _o_ as in l_o_ch. _u_ as _you_. in diphthongs the broad sounds are retained: _ou_ as _oo_ in b_oo_t. _ya_ as in _ya_rd. _ye_ as in _ye_s. _yo_ as in _yo_re. _ay_ as _eye_. _ey_ as in th_ey_. _oy_ as in b_oy_. iii. _y_ with a vowel forms a diphthong; _y_ at the end of a word, after a consonant, sounds something like _ie_ in hyg_ie_ne. iv. consonants: _g_ is hard, as in _g_o. _zh_ is like _z_ in a_z_ure. _r_ is sounded strongly, as in _r_ough, ba_rr_en. _s_ is sharp, as in _s_eat, pa_ss_. where i know of a spelling deliberately adopted by the owner of a name, i have felt bound to follow it. for instance, the name which under my system of transliteration i should have spelt 'suhotín,' appears in the book as soohoteén, but in such cases, on the first occasion on which the name occurs, i have given my usual transliteration in square brackets. i hope the day is not distant when some system will be generally agreed upon in this matter. any system would be better than the present anarchy. chapter i ancestry and parentage ancestors. count peter. russian titles. tolstoy's grandfather and father. his maternal grandfather and mother. first recollections. aunty tatiána. antecedents. 1353 in the annals of the russian nobility it is recorded that a man named idris came from 'the lands of cæsar,' that is to say, from the holy roman empire, in the year 1353 with two sons and 3000 followers, and settling at tchernígof in little russia was received with favour by the reigning grand duke, who granted him much land. a great-grandson of this idris, andrew by name, migrated to moscow, where he was well received by the reigning grand duke vasíly, who conferred upon him the surname of tolstóy. 1645 as, however, the annals of the russian nobility were to a large extent concocted in the reign of peter the great, it is extremely doubtful whether this story is reliable. be that as it may, it is certain that peter tolstoy, born in 1645, was a russian who distinguished himself in the service of the state. during the struggles which preceded the acquisition of power by peter the great, he made the mistake of allying himself with that autocrat's ambitious half-sister, sophia. the defeat of her guards, the streltsí, caused him quickly to transfer his allegiance to peter, whose favour he eventually managed to secure. when drinking with his chosen companions in later days, the tsar would often pat tolstoy's head, saying, 'little head, little head, had you been less wise, you would have come off your shoulders long ago.' 1697, 1716, 1717 this peter tolstoy held a commission in the guards, and fought in the azof campaign of 1696; but later on he went abroad to study shipbuilding when peter the great was seeking volunteers for that purpose. he was sent in 1701 as ambassador to the sublime porte, and in the years 1710-1713, when political affairs were critical, he twice suffered severe imprisonment in the seven towers--the stronghold wherein the sultan occasionally confined the ambassadors of states with whose conduct he felt dissatisfied. returning to russia in 1714, tolstoy obtained the favour of prince ménshikof and became a minister of state. he married; but his wife does not appear to have been of sufficient importance for any one to have said anything about her. he accompanied peter the great to holland and france, and rendered him an important though discreditable service. peter the great's son, the refractory alexis, who disliked his father's reforms, had escaped from russia and was living with his mistress euphrosyne at st. elmo, near naples. by threats and promises, and by the aid of this woman, tolstoy induced the unfortunate tsarévitch to return to russia, and when he had got him there, took a leading part in his trial and secret execution. 30 aug. 1725 for this service tolstoy received large estates and was promoted to the headship of the secret chancellery. on the day of the coronation of peter's second wife, catherine, tolstoy was made a count. his coat of arms shows seven towers, in memory of his imprisonment by the sultan, and is appropriately supported by two wolf-hounds rampant, looking outwards. 6 may 1727, 1729 on the death of peter the great, tolstoy actively supported ménshikof in securing the throne for catherine the first, and he was one of the seven members of the upper secret council which practically ruled russia. on the question of choosing a successor to catherine, he ventured however to oppose ménshikof. the latter was too powerful for him; and forfeiting his title of count and deprived of all offices rewards and estates, tolstoy, at the age of eighty-two, was banished for life to the solovétz monastery, situated on an island in the white sea. here, two years later, he died. ménshikof himself, one may remark in passing, finished his life that same year in siberia, having been banished by an order signed by the boy he had placed on the throne. to be a russian minister of state in those days was almost as dangerous as it is in our times to be a revolutionary conspirator. the title of count was revived in the family in 1770, for the benefit of peter tolstoy's grandson; whose son, count elias tolstoy (he figures in _war and peace_ as the elder count rostóf), was the grandfather of leo tolstoy, whose life this book narrates. there is one matter which it may be as well to explain at the outset, as english readers are so often puzzled by it: i refer to the nature of russian titles of nobility. the only really russian title is that of _knyaz_, commonly translated 'prince.' it is borne by descendants of rúrik, by descendants of the lithuanian prince ghedimin, and by descendants of various tartar khans whose dominions russia has annexed. it has also been conferred by imperial decree on a dozen or more other russian families. though _knyaz_ is translated 'prince,' _velíky knyaz_, curiously enough, is not translated 'great prince,' but 'grand duke,' and this indicates how difficult it is to find suitable equivalents for these titles. not till the time of peter the great were the german titles, count (_graf_) and baron, introduced into russia. both of these are now common among the russo-german landlords of the baltic provinces; and less so among real russians. it must be borne in mind that there is no law of primogeniture in russia. each son and daughter inherits the family title, so that there are usually several, and sometimes many, people with equal rights to use the same title. though springing from one stock, they may be only distantly connected. there are for instance other counts tolstoy, contemporaries of leo tolstoy and distant cousins of his. one of these, the poet count alexis tolstoy, was a well-known author and dramatist. another, the reactionary count dmítry tolstoy, was successively head of the holy synod, minister of education, and minister of the interior. tolstoy's grandfather already mentioned, count elias tolstoy, was an easy-going generous trustful and extravagant man, who married a wealthy princess gortchakóf, but ran through her money and his own, and at last to secure a means of livelihood, procured the post of governor of kazán. this he was able to do, thanks to his family influence. it is recorded to his credit that, contrary to the general custom of the time, he accepted no bribes (except from the government contractor, who was considered the natural financial prop of a provincial governor), though his wife accepted presents without his knowledge. their eldest daughter married a count osten-saken. she became guardian of leo tolstoy and of his brothers and sister, after they had lost their parents. another daughter married v. i. úshkof. leo tolstoy was under her charge when he lived in kazán and studied at its university. the first fact known to us about his father, count nicholas tolstoy, is characteristic of the manners of his class and day. when he was only sixteen, his parents arranged a _liaison_ between him and a peasant girl, such connections being considered necessary for the health of young men. a son was born, and tolstoy records his 'strange feeling of consternation when (in after years) this brother of mine, fallen into destitution and bearing a greater resemblance to my father than any of us, used to beg help of us, and was thankful for the ten or fifteen roubles we used to give him.' 1812, 1814 nicholas tolstoy was not yet seventeen when napoleon invaded russia; but in spite of his parents' efforts to dissuade him, he insisted on entering the army, and thanks to his mother's family influence, quickly obtained an appointment as adjutant to prince andrew gortchakóf, a general in command. he went through the campaigns of 1813 and 1814; and in the latter year he and his orderly, while on their way to rejoin the russian army in germany, after taking despatches to petersburg, were captured by the french. the orderly managed to hide his master's gold coins in his boots, and for months never risked taking them off, though his feet grew sore and he suffered extreme discomfort. thanks to this devotion, nicholas tolstoy, after reaching paris, was able to live in comfort. having attained the rank of lieutenant-colonel, he left the army when the war was over, and, disillusioned with military service, returned to kazán, where his father (completely ruined by that time) was still governor. 1820 in 1820 count elias died, leaving his estate so encumbered that his son declined to accept the inheritance. the young man had to face the task of providing for his old mother, who was accustomed to great luxury, as well as for his sister and a distant cousin, tatiána alexándrovna érgolsky, who had been adopted into the family; and so a marriage was arranged for him with the wealthy but plain princess marie volkónsky, who was no longer very young. his father's life, tolstoy tells us, was then passed in attending to the estate, a business in which he was not very expert, but in which he exercised a virtue great for those days: he was not cruel, but perhaps even lacked firmness. during his lifetime i never heard of corporal punishment. if it ever was administered to the serfs, the cases were so rare and my father took so little part in them, that we children never heard them mentioned. it was after his death that i learnt, for the first time, that such punishment ever took place at home. like most men who served in the army in the early years of alexander's reign, he [count nicholas tolstoy] was not what is now called a liberal, but out of self-respect he considered it impossible to serve during the latter [reactionary] part of alexander's reign, or under nicholas. during all my childhood and youth, our family had no intimate relations with any government official. i, of course, understood nothing about this in childhood, but i understood that my father never humbled himself before any one, nor altered his brisk, merry, and often chaffing tone. this feeling of self-respect, which i witnessed in him, increased my love and admiration for him. leo tolstoy's mother's family, the volkónskys, were descended from rúrik (the first ruler mentioned in russian history) as well as from st. michael the martyr, prince of tchernígof; and through them, even more than on his father's side, tolstoy is connected with many of the leading families of the russian aristocracy. prince nicholas volkónsky, his mother's father, came into conflict with the most powerful of the favourites of catherine the great, for tolstoy tells us that: having attained the high position of commander-in-chief, he lost it suddenly by refusing to marry potémkin's niece and mistress, varvára engelhardt. to potémkin's suggestion that he should do so, he replied: 'what makes him think i will marry his strumpet?' he married instead, a princess catherine troubetskóy, and after retiring from the service, settled down on his estate at yásnaya polyána. his wife soon died, leaving him only one surviving child, a daughter, tolstoy's mother. tolstoy writes of this grandfather: he was regarded as a very exacting master, but i never heard any instance of his being cruel or inflicting the severe punishments usual in those days. i believe such cases did occur on his estate, but the enthusiastic respect for his importance and cleverness was so great among the servants and peasants whom i have often questioned about him, that though i have heard my father condemned, i have heard only praise of my grandfather's intelligence, business capacity, and interest in the welfare both of the peasants and of his enormous household. later, a strange chance brought prince volkónsky again into touch with varvára engelhardt, whom he had refused to marry. she married a prince sergius golítsin, who consequently received promotions and decorations and rewards; and tolstoy tells us: with this sergius golítsin and his family, my grandfather formed so close a friendship that my mother from her childhood was betrothed to one of his ten sons.... this alliance, however, was not destined to be consummated, for the young man died prematurely of fever. in a portrait of prince n. volkónsky which has been preserved in the family there is much that corresponds to leo tolstoy's own appearance. 'both,' as his brother-in-law remarks, 'have high, open foreheads and large organs of the creative faculty, and in both the organs of musical talent are exceedingly prominent and are covered by thick, overhanging eyebrows, from beneath which small, deep-set, grey eyes literally pierce the soul of the man on whom they are turned.' 1822 prince n. volkónsky died in 1820, and two years later his daughter married count nicholas tolstoy. of her tolstoy tells us: i do not remember my mother. i was a year-and-a-half old when she died. by some strange chance no portrait of her has been preserved, so that as a real physical being i cannot picture her to myself. i am in a way glad of this, for in my conception of her there is only her spiritual figure, and all that i know about her is beautiful; and i think this has come about not merely because all who spoke to me of my mother tried to say only what was good, but because there actually was much good in her. she was well educated, spoke five languages, played the piano well, and had a wonderful gift for improvising tales in the most delightful manner. it is said that at balls her young lady friends would leave the dance and gather in a dark room to hear her tell a story, which shyness induced her to do where she could not be seen. tolstoy remarks that 'her most valuable quality was that though hot-tempered, she was yet self-restrained. "she would get quite red in the face and even cry," her maid told me, "but would never say a rude word."' she had one quality tolstoy values very highly--that of never condemning any one. it was a quality shared by her eldest son, nicholas; and leo tolstoy says: in the _lives of the saints_ by d. rostóvsky, there is a short story which has always touched me exceedingly, of a certain monk, who to the knowledge of all his brethren had many faults, but whom an old monk, in a dream, saw occupying a place of honour among the saints. the old man asked in astonishment, 'how could this monk, so unrestrained in many ways, deserve so great a reward?' the answer was: 'he never condemned any one.' tolstoy adds: 'if such rewards did exist, i think my brother and my mother would have received them.' another feature tolstoy records of his mother is 'her truthfulness and the simple tone of her correspondence.' he tells us that in his imagination his mother appeared to me a creature so elevated, pure and spiritual, that often in the middle period of my life, during my struggles with overwhelming temptations, i prayed to her soul begging her to aid me; and such prayer always helped me much. 1828 five children were born to nicholas and marie tolstoy. first came four sons, of whom leo was the youngest. his name in russian is lyóf nikoláyevitch (leo, son-of-nicholas) tolstóy. leo tolstoy is the way he signs himself when using the latin alphabet; and when pronouncing his name it should be remembered that the accent falls on the second syllable, and that that syllable rhymes with 'boy.' the fancy spellings _tolstoi_ and _tolstoï_ are due to the fact that some of the early translators and reviewers, not being able to read russian, relied on french versions, and did not know how tolstoy spells or pronounces his own name. he was born on 28th august 1828[1] at yásnaya polyána, with a caul--which both in russia and in england is considered a sign of good-fortune. [1] the dates mentioned in the text are usually old style (twelve days behind our calendar), unless the contrary is expressly stated. a year and a half later a daughter, marie, was born; and in giving birth to her the mother died, on 7th march 1830. pilgrims, monks, nuns, and various half-crazy devotees were frequent visitors at the house, and even took up their abode there. one of these was a nun, márya gerásimovna, who in her youth had made pilgrimages to various holy places dressed as a man. after the birth of four boys tolstoy's mother longed for a daughter, and promised márya gerásimovna that she should be godmother if by prayer she enabled her to obtain her desire. the next child really was a daughter. the promise was kept, and thereafter márya gerásimovna, though she lived partly in the toúla convent, was free of the tolstoys' house and spent much of her time there. tolstoy gives us his earliest reminiscences in an autobiographical fragment published in 1878: these are my first recollections. i cannot arrange them in order, for i do not know which come first or last. of some of them i do not even know whether they happened in a dream or when i was awake. i lie bound[2] and wish to stretch out my arms, but cannot. i scream and cry, and my screams are disagreeable to myself, but i cannot stop. some one--i do not remember who--bends over me. this all happens in semi-darkness. i only know there were two people there. my cries affect them: they are agitated by my screams, but do not untie me as i want them to, and i scream still louder. to them it seems necessary that i should be bound, but i know it is unnecessary and i wish to prove this to them, and i again burst into cries which are unpleasant to myself but are yet unrestrainable. i feel the injustice and cruelty--not of people, for they pity me, but--of fate, and i pity myself. i do not know and shall never know, what it was all about: whether i was swaddled while still a baby at the breast, and struggled to free my hands; whether they swaddled me when i was more than a year old, to prevent my scratching some sore, or whether i have gathered into this one recollection (as one does in a dream) many different impressions. the one sure thing is, that this was the first and strongest impression of my life. and what remains on my memory is not my cries nor my suffering, but the complexity and contradictoriness of the impressions. i desire freedom, it would harm no one, but i who need strength am weak, while they are strong. [2] russian babies are usually swaddled tightly with bands, making them look like fresh mummies. the next impression is a pleasant one. i am sitting in a tub, and am surrounded by a new and not unpleasant smell of something with which they are rubbing my tiny body. probably it was bran, put into the water of my bath; the novelty of the sensation caused by the bran aroused me, and for the first time i became aware of, and liked, my own little body with the visible ribs on my breast, and the smooth, dark, wooden tub, the bared arms of my nurse, the warm, steaming, swirling water, the noise it made, and especially the smooth feel of the wet rim of the tub as i passed my hands along it. my next recollections belong to the time when i was five or six, and there are very few of them, and not one that relates to life outside the walls of the house. nature, up to the age of five, did not exist for me. all that i remember, happened in bed or in our rooms. neither grass, nor leaves, nor sky, nor sun existed for me. it cannot be that no one ever gave me flowers and leaves to play with, that i never saw any grass, that they never shaded me from the sun; but up to the time when i was five or six years old, i have no recollection of what we call nature. probably, to see it, one has to be separate from it, and i was nature. the recollection that comes next after the tub is that of ereméyevna. 'ereméyevna' was the name with which they used to frighten us children. probably they had long frightened us with it, but my recollection of it is this: i am in bed and feel well and happy as usual, and i should not remember it, but that suddenly the nurse, or some one of those who made up my life, says something in a voice new to me, and then goes away; and in addition to being happy i am also frightened. and besides me there is some one else like me. (probably my sister mary, whose crib stood in the same room.) and i now remember a curtain near my bed; and both my sister and i are happy and frightened at the strange thing happening to us, and i hide in my pillow: hide, and glance at the door from behind which i expect something new and merry. we laugh, and hide, and wait. and then some one appears in a dress and cap quite unknown to me, but i recognise that it is the same person who is always with us (whether my nurse or aunt i do not remember), and this some one says something about bad children and about ereméyevna in a gruff voice which i know. and i squeal with fear and pleasure, and really am frightened, and yet am glad to be frightened, and wish her who is frightening me not to know that i have recognised her. we become quiet, but presently begin whispering to one another again, on purpose that ereméyevna may come back. i have another recollection similar to this of ereméyevna (but as it is clearer it probably belongs to a later date) which has always remained inexplicable to me. in this recollection the chief part is played by our german tutor, theodore ivánitch, but i am sure i was not yet in his charge; so the event must have taken place before i was five. it is my first recollection of theodore ivánitch, and it took place at so early an age that i can remember no one else: neither my brothers nor my father nor any one. if i have some notion of some one individual person, it is only of my sister, and this only because she, like me, was afraid of ereméyevna. with this recollection is joined my first conception of the fact that our house had a top story. how i climbed there--whether i went by myself or whether any one carried me--i have quite forgotten, but i remember that many of us are there, and we all form a circle holding each other's hands; among us are some women i did not know (for some reason i remember that they were washer-women), and we all begin to go round and to jump; and theodore ivánitch jumps, lifting his legs too high and too loudly and noisily, and i at one and the same instant feel that this is bad and depraved, and notice him and (i believe) begin to cry--and all is over. that is all i remember up to the age of five. neither my nurses, aunts, brothers, sister, nor my father, nor the rooms, nor my toys, do i remember. my more distinct recollections begin from the time i was moved downstairs to theodore ivánitch and the elder boys. when i was moved downstairs to theodore ivánitch and the boys, i experienced for the first time and therefore more strongly than ever since, the feeling which is called the sense of duty, the consciousness of the cross every man is called upon to bear. it was hard to leave what i was accustomed to from the beginning of things, and i was sad, poetically sad, not so much at parting from people: sister, nurse, and aunt, as at parting with my crib, the curtain and the pillow; and i feared the new life into which i was entering. i tried to see the jolly side of this new life awaiting me; i tried to believe the caressing words with which theodore ivánitch lured me to him. i tried not to see the contempt with which the boys received me, the youngest boy. i tried to think it was a shame for a big boy to live with girls, and that there was nothing good in the life upstairs with nurse; but my heart was terribly sad, i knew i was irreparably losing my innocence and happiness; and only a feeling of personal dignity and the consciousness of doing my duty upheld me. (often in after-life i have experienced similar moments at the parting of crossroads, when entering on a fresh course.) i experienced quiet grief at the irreparableness of my loss; i was unable to believe that it would really happen. though i had been told that i should be moved to the boys' rooms, i remember that the dressing-gown with a cord sewn to its back, which they put on me, seemed to cut me off for ever from upstairs, and i then for the first time observed--not all those with whom i had lived upstairs, but--the chief person with whom i lived, and whom i did not remember before. this was my aunty tatiána alexándrovna érgolsky. i remember her short, stout, black-haired, kindly, tender, and compassionate. it was she who put the dressing-gown on me, and embracing me and kissing me, tied it round my waist; and i saw that she felt as i did, that it was sad, terribly sad, but had to be; and for the first time i felt that life is not a game but a serious matter. 'aunty' tatiána alexándrovna érgolsky, mentioned in the above reminiscences, was a very distant relative who being left an orphan, had been brought up by tolstoy's paternal grandparents. she was very attractive and affectionate. she loved and was loved by count nicholas, leo's father, but stood aside that he might marry the rich princess marie volkónsky and repair the family fortunes. six years after his wife's death count nicholas asked tatiána to marry him and be a mother to his children. not wishing (tolstoy tells us) to spoil her pure, poetic relations with the family, she refused the first but fulfilled the second of these requests. the joyousness of tolstoy's boyhood was largely due to the care and affection of this excellent woman, and in the most firmly rooted of his principles--such as his detestation of corporal punishment and his approval of complete chastity--it is easy to trace her unconscious influence. here for instance is one episode: we children were returning home from a walk with our tutor, when near the barn we met the fat steward, andrew, followed by the coachman's assistant, 'squinting kouzmá' as he was called, whose face was sad. he was a married man and no longer young. one of us asked andrew where he was going, and he quietly replied that he was going to the barn, where kouzmá had to be punished. i cannot describe the dreadful feeling which these words and the sight of the good-natured crestfallen kouzmá produced on me. in the evening i told this to my aunt tatiána, who hated corporal punishment and, wherever she had influence, never allowed it for us any more than for the serfs. she was greatly revolted at what i told her, and rebuking me said, 'why did you not stop him?' her words grieved me still more.... i never thought that we could interfere in such things, and yet it appeared that we could. but it was too late, and the dreadful deed had been done. to sum up what we know of tolstoy's antecedents: he was descended on his father's side and still more on his mother's, from aristocratic families who were more or less in passive opposition to the government, and who shared the humanitarian sympathies current in the early years of the reign of alexander i. a cousin of tolstoy's mother was one of the decembrists, and on the accession of nicholas i in 1825 took part in their abortive attempt to establish constitutional government. he was exiled to eastern siberia for thirty years, doing hard labour in irons part of the time. his wife (another princess marie volkónsky) voluntarily accompanied him, as nekrásof has told in a well-known russian poem. several members of the family towards the end of their lives retired into convents or monasteries. we find strong family love uniting the homes of tolstoy's parents and grandparents; and even after their death, tolstoy's nature ripened in a congenial atmosphere of family affection; and many of his most pronounced sympathies and antipathies are not peculiar to himself, but were shared equally by other members of the family. chief authorities for chapter i p. birukof: _lyof nikolayevitch tolstoy. biografiya_: moscow, 1906. (the russian edition is much more readable and accurate than the english.) referred to hereafter as _birukof_. s. a. behrs: _vospominaniya o grafe l. n. tolstom_, smolensk, 1894, is very valuable as being the work of one who spent twelve summers at yasnaya, and knew tolstoy intimately. referred to hereafter as _behrs_. there is an english edition of this book: _recollections of count leo tolstoy_, london, 1893, but it is incomplete, and inferior to the russian in many ways. it gives the author's name wrongly as c. a. behrs. leo tolstoy, _first recollections_, a fragment: tolstoy's collected works, moscow, 1892. supplement to _novy mir_, graf lyof tolstoy: st. petersburg, 1903. referred to hereafter as _novy mir_. chapter ii childhood and early manhood yásnaya polyána. aunt tatiána. the german tutor. the brothers: nicholas, sergius and demetrius. doúnetchka. the house-serfs. a family scene. pilgrims and saints. death of father and grandmother. flying. personal appearance. corporal punishment. originality. riding lessons. the countess osten-saken. aunt p. i. úshkof. books. abstract speculations. kazán university. imprisonment. diary. demetrius. books: dickens and rousseau. yásnaya again. petersburg. consistency. rudolph the musician. women. gambling. gipsy girls. money difficulties. the liberty of russian nobles. yásnaya polyána (bright glade), where tolstoy was born, had been an ancestral estate of the volkónskys and belonged to his mother, the princess marie. it is situated ten miles south of toúla, in a pleasantly undulating country. the estate, which is enclosed by an old brick wall, is well wooded and has many avenues of lime-trees, a river and four lakes. in tolstoy's grandfather's time, sentinels kept guard at the small, round, brick towers, which now stand neglected at the entrance of the main birch avenue leading to the house. something of the great confidence in himself and readiness to despise others, which despite all his efforts to be humble, characterise tolstoy, may be due to the fact that he was born and grew up on an estate where for generations his ancestors had been the only people of importance. 'aunty' tatiána alexándrovna érgolsky had been brought up by his grandmother on an equality with her own children. she (tatiána) was resolute, self-sacrificing, and, says tolstoy, must have been very attractive with her enormous plait of crisp, black, curly hair, her jet-black eyes, and vivacious, energetic expression. when i remember her she was more than forty, and i never thought about her as pretty or not pretty. i simply loved her eyes, her smile, and her dusky broad little hand, with its energetic little cross vein. we had two aunts and a grandmother; they all had more right to us than tatiána alexándrovna, whom we called aunt only by habit (for our kinship was so distant that i could never remember what it was), but she took the first place in our upbringing by right of love to us (like buddha in the story of the wounded swan), and we felt her right. i had fits of passionately tender love for her. i remember once, when i was about five, how i squeezed in behind her on the sofa in the drawing-room and she caressingly touched me with her hand. i caught it and began to kiss it, and to cry with tender love of her.... aunty tatiána had the greatest influence on my life. from early childhood she taught me the spiritual delight of love. she taught me this joy not by words; but by her whole being she filled me with love. i saw, i felt, how she enjoyed loving, and i understood the joy of love. this was the first thing. secondly, she taught me the delights of an unhurried, quiet life. another, though a much less important, influence was that of the tutor, theodore rössel (who figures as karl ivánovitch mauer in tolstoy's early sketch, _childhood_). tolstoy owes his excellent knowledge of german and french to the fact that his father, following a custom common among well-to-do russians, engaged foreign teachers and let his children learn languages not so much from books as by conversation, while they were still quite young. rössel's 'honest, straightforward, and loving nature' helped to develop the boy's good qualities. tolstoy got on well, too, with his brothers, who were five-and-a-half, two, and one year older than himself, as well as with his little sister marie, his junior by a year-and-a-half. he not only loved, but deeply respected, his eldest brother nicholas (pet name, nikólenka), whose influence lasted until, and even after, his death in 1860. of him tolstoy says: he was a wonderful boy, and later a wonderful man. tourgénef used to say of him very truly, that he only lacked certain faults to be a great writer. he lacked the chief fault needed for authorship--vanity, and was not at all interested in what people thought of him. the qualities of a writer which he possessed were, first of all, a fine artistic sense, an extremely developed sense of proportion, a good-natured gay sense of humour, an extraordinary inexhaustible imagination, and a truthful and highly moral view of life; and all this without the slightest conceit. his imagination was such that for hours together he could tell fairy-tales or ghost-stories, or amusing tales in the style of mrs. radcliffe, without a pause and with such vivid realisation of what he was narrating that one forgot it was all invention.... when he was not narrating or reading (he read a great deal) he used to draw. he almost invariably drew devils with horns and twisted moustaches, intertwined in the most varied attitudes and engaged in the most diverse occupations. these drawings were also full of imagination. it was he who, when i was five and my brothers, dmítry six and sergéy seven, announced to us that he possessed a secret by means of which, when disclosed, all men would become happy: there would be no more disease, no trouble, no one would be angry with anybody, all would love one another, and all would become 'ant-brothers.'... we even organised a game of ant-brothers, which consisted in sitting under chairs, sheltering ourselves with boxes, screening ourselves with handkerchiefs, and cuddling against one another while thus crouching in the dark.... the ant-brotherhood was revealed to us, but not the chief secret: the way for all men to cease suffering any misfortune, to leave off quarrelling and being angry, and become continuously happy; this secret he said he had written on a green stick, buried by the road at the edge of a certain ravine, at which spot (since my body must be buried somewhere) i have asked to be buried in memory of nikólenka. besides this little stick, there was also a certain fanfarónof hill, up which he said he could lead us, if only we would fulfil all the appointed conditions. these were: first, to stand in a corner and not think of a white bear. i remember how i used to get into a corner and try (but could not possibly manage) not to think of a white bear. the second condition was to walk without wavering along a crack between the boards of the floor; and the third was, for a whole year not to see a hare, alive or dead or cooked; and it was necessary to swear not to reveal these secrets to any one. he who fulfilled these, and other more difficult conditions which nikólenka would communicate later, would have one wish, whatever it might be, fulfilled. nikólenka, as i now conjecture, had probably read or heard of the freemasons--of their aspirations toward the happiness of mankind, and of the mysterious initiatory rites on entering their order; he had probably also heard about the moravian brothers [in russian _ant_ is _mouravéy_]. writing when he was over seventy, tolstoy adds: the ideal of ant-brothers lovingly clinging to one another, though not under two arm-chairs curtained by handkerchiefs, but of all mankind under the wide dome of heaven, has remained the same for me. as i then believed that there existed a little green stick whereon was written the message which could destroy all evil in men and give them universal welfare, so i now believe that such truth exists and will be revealed to men, and will give them all it promises. it was, however, tolstoy's second brother, sergius (or sergéy: pet name, seryózha), whom tolstoy in his young days most enthusiastically admired and wished to imitate. sergius was handsome, proud, straightforward, and singularly sincere. of him leo tolstoy says: i loved and wished to be like him. i admired his handsome appearance, his singing (he was always singing), his drawing, his gaiety and especially (strange as it may seem to say so) the spontaneity of his egotism. i myself was always aware of myself and self-conscious; i always guessed, rightly or wrongly, what other people thought or felt about me, and this spoilt my joy in life. this probably is why in others i specially liked the opposite feature--spontaneity of egotism. and for this i specially loved seryózha. the word _loved_ is not correct. i loved nikólenka; but for seryózha i was filled with admiration as for something quite apart from and incomprehensible to me. of the third brother, demetrius (or dmítry: pet name, mítenka), only a year older than himself, tolstoy tells us: i hardly remember him as a boy. i only know by hearsay that as a child he was very capricious. he was nearest to me in age and i played with him oftenest, but did not love him as much as i loved seryózha, nor as i loved and respected nikólenka. he and i lived together amicably. i do not recollect that we quarrelled. probably we did, and we may even have fought.... as a child i remember nothing special about mítenka except his childish merriment. tolstoy says he was 'afraid of beggars, and of one of the volkónskys, who used to pinch me; but, i think, of no one else.' a girl, doúnetchka temeshóf, was adopted as a member of the family. she was a natural daughter of a wealthy bachelor friend of tolstoy's father. i remember how, when i had already learnt french, i was made to teach her that alphabet. at first it went all right (we were both about five years old), but later she probably became tired, and ceased to name correctly the letters i pointed out. i insisted. she began to cry. i did the same, and when our elders came, we could say nothing owing to our hopeless tears. in his later recollections of her he says: she was not clever, but was a good, simple girl; and, above all, so pure that we boys never had any but brotherly relations with her. by which he means that there was no flirtation. the relations between the family and its servants, who were serfs (and of whom there were about thirty), were, as in many a russian family, often really affectionate. one instance of a serf's devotion has already been quoted; and such cases were not rare. in _childhood_ mention is made of the old housekeeper, praskóvya isáyevna, who was completely devoted to the welfare of the family, and tolstoy says: 'all that i there wrote about her was actual truth.' here is another example illustrating both kindly toleration of minor offences committed by a serf, and the family affection which sweetened life: my pleasantest recollections of my father are of his sitting with grandmother on the sofa, helping her to play patience. my father was polite and tender with every one, but to my grandmother he was always particularly tenderly submissive. they used to sit--grandma playing patience, and from time to time taking pinches from a gold snuff-box. my aunts sit in arm-chairs, and one of them reads aloud. we children come in to say good-night, and sometimes sit there. we always take leave of grandma and our aunts by kissing their hands. i remember once, in the middle of a game of patience and of the reading, my father interrupts my aunt, points to a looking-glass and whispers something. we all look in the same direction. it was the footman tíkhon, who (knowing that my father was in the drawing-room) was going into the study to take some tobacco from a big leather folding tobacco-pouch. my father sees him in the looking-glass, and notices his figure carefully stepping on tip-toe. my aunts laugh. grandmama for a long time does not understand, but when she does, she too smiles cheerfully. i am enchanted by my father's kindness, and on taking leave of him kiss his white muscular hand with special tenderness. an important feature of the life in which tolstoy grew up was furnished by the half-crazy saints who swarmed in russia in those days, and are still occasionally to be met with. readers of _childhood_ will remember grísha, an admirable specimen of that class, about whom tolstoy makes the following characteristic note in his memoirs: grísha is an invented character. we had many of these half-crazy saints at our house, and i was taught to regard them with profound respect, for which i am deeply grateful to those who brought me up. if there were some among them who were insincere, or who experienced periods of weakness and insincerity, yet the aim of their life, though practically absurd, was so lofty that i am glad i learned in childhood unconsciously to understand the height of their achievement. they accomplished what marcus aurelius speaks of when he says: 'there is nothing higher than to endure contempt for one's good life.' so harmful and so unavoidable is the desire for human glory which always contaminates good deeds, that one cannot but sympathise with the effort not merely to avoid praise, but even to evoke contempt. such a character was márya gerásimovna, my sister's godmother, and the semi-idiot evdokímoushka, and some others in our house. how deeply these early impressions were engraved on tolstoy's mind is obvious from his earliest as well as his latest writings. take, for instance, the lines from _childhood_ referring to grísha's prayer overheard by the children. much water has flowed away since then, many recollections of the past have lost for me their meaning and become blurred fancies; even the pilgrim grísha himself has long since finished his last pilgrimage; but the impression he produced on me and the feeling he evoked, will never die out of my memory. in tolstoy's later life we shall again and again find this medieval note recurring (with whatever of truth or falsity it contains), and the assertion that it is not the usefulness or uselessness of a man's life that matters, so much as his self-abnegation and the humility of his soul. to complete the picture of tolstoy's early boyhood at yásnaya polyána, we must think of him as interested in his father's dogs and horses and hunting (in _childhood_ he tells the true story of how he hunted his first hare), and also in the games and masquerades with which the family and visitors, as well as the servants, amused themselves, especially at new year. in spite of his sensitive introspective nature, tolstoy's childhood was a happy one; and to it he always looks back with pleasure. he speaks of 'that splendid, innocent, joyful, poetic period of childhood, up to fourteen,' and he tells us that the impressions of early childhood, preserved in one's memory, grow in some unfathomable depth of the soul, like seeds thrown on good ground, till after many years they thrust their bright, green shoots into god's world. 1837 when tolstoy was eight years old the family moved to moscow for his elder brothers' education. the following summer they lost their father, who, having gone to toúla on business, fell down in the street on his way to visit his friend temeshóf, and died of apoplexy. what money he had with him was stolen, but some unnegotiable bonds were brought back to the tolstoys in moscow by an unknown beggar. the funeral took place at yásnaya polyána; and leo, who did not attend it, long fancied that his father was not really dead. looking at the faces of strangers in the streets of moscow, he felt almost certain he might at any moment meet him alive again. this event brought the problems of life and death vividly to the boy's mind, and nine months later the impression was intensified by the death of his grandmother, who never recovered from the shock of her son's death. hers was the first death tolstoy witnessed, and he never forgot the horror he felt when, as she lay dying of dropsy, he was admitted to kiss her swollen white hand and saw her, dressed in white, lying motionless on a high white bed. but he says: i remember that new jackets of black material, braided with white, were made for all of us. it was dreadful to see the undertakers' men hanging about near the house, and then bringing in the coffin, with its lid covered with glazed brocade, and my grandmother's stern face, with its roman nose, and her white cap and the white kerchief on her neck, lying high in the coffin on the table; and it was sad to see the tears of our aunts and of páshenka; but yet the new braided jackets and the soothing attitude adopted towards us by those around, gratified us.... i remember how pleasant it was to me to overhear during the funeral the conversation of some gossiping female guests, who said, 'complete orphans; their father only lately dead, and now the grandmother gone too.' some time after this, an event occurred that is recorded on the first page of tolstoy's _confession_: i remember how, when i was about eleven, a boy vladímir milútin (long since dead), a grammar school pupil, visited us one sunday and announced as the latest novelty a discovery made at his school. the discovery was that there is no god, and all that we are taught about him is a mere invention. i remember how interested my elder brothers were in this news. they called me to their council and we all, i remember, became animated, and accepted the news as something very interesting and fully possible. various stories have been preserved relating to tolstoy's boyhood, and some of them are sufficiently characteristic to be worth repeating. one incident which made a strong impression on the lad, keenly sensitive as he always was to any shade of injustice, was the following: soon after the death of their father and grandmother, the orphan tolstoys, then living in rather straitened circumstances (owing to the property being left in trust), were invited to a christmas tree at the house of an acquaintance, and the young princes gortchakóf, nephews of the then minister of war, were also among the guests. all the children received presents; but whereas the gortchakófs had expensive ones, the tolstoys, to their annoyance, received cheap common ones. another occurrence that clung to his recollection through life, was the friendly welcome they received one day when they made their way uninvited into a private garden in moscow; and the sad disappointment they experienced when, returning a few days later unaccompanied by a pretty and attractive girl who had been with them on the former occasion, they were coldly informed that it was private ground, not open to the public. other stories, told by tolstoy himself or by the family, illustrate his impulsive, imaginative, strenuous and rather erratic nature at this period. when he was about seven or eight years old he had an ardent desire to fly, and persuaded himself that it was possible to do so. it was only necessary to sit down tight on your heels, clasping your arms firmly round your knees, and the tighter you held them the higher you would fly. as tolstoy was always ardent to put his beliefs into practice, it is not very surprising that one day, soon after the family had moved to moscow, he stayed behind in the class-room when he should have come down to dinner, and climbing out on the window-sill, some six yards from the ground, threw himself out. he was picked up unconscious. the ill results of his fall were fortunately confined to a slight concussion of the brain; and after sleeping for eighteen hours on end he woke up again quite well. it would be a mistake to take his story, _childhood_, as strictly autobiographical; but it contains many passages which one knows from other sources to be true of his own life, and one such is the passage in which (speaking in the character of nikólenka) he says: i knew very well that i was plain, and therefore every reference to my appearance was painfully offensive to me.... moments of despair frequently came over me: i imagined that there could be no happiness on earth for a man with so broad a nose, such thick lips, and such small grey eyes as mine. i asked god to perform a miracle and change me into a handsome boy, and all i then had and all i could ever possess in the future, i would have given for a handsome face. in fact, his personal appearance caused the sensitive lad much concern, but his efforts to improve it were unsuccessful. on one occasion he clipped his eyebrows, and the unsatisfactory results of that operation occasioned him great grief. he records in his reminiscences the following incident, which certainly intensified his lifelong antipathy to corporal punishment: i do not remember for what, but for something quite undeserving of punishment, st. thomas [the resident french tutor who succeeded rössel] first locked me into a room, and secondly threatened to flog me. i thereupon experienced a dreadful feeling of anger indignation and disgust, not only towards st. thomas himself, but towards the violence with which i was threatened. when quite a small boy he conceived an attachment for the nine-year-old daughter of his father's friend, islényef, and being jealous of her for daring to talk to others, he angrily pushed her off a balcony, with the result that she limped for a long time afterwards. a quarter of a century later, when he married this lady's daughter, his mother-in-law used laughingly to remind him of the incident, and say, 'evidently you pushed me off the balcony in my childhood that you might marry my daughter afterwards!' his sister relates that once when they were driving in a troika (_i.e._ three horses abreast) to yásnaya, leo got down during a break in the journey and went forward on foot. when the carriage started again and began to overtake him he took to running, and when the horses went faster he also increased his speed, racing as hard as he could. he was not overtaken till he had gone about two miles and was completely tired out. he was lifted back into the carriage gasping for breath, perspiring and quite exhausted. any one not endowed with the remarkable physical vigour that, in spite of frequent attacks of ill-health, has characterised tolstoy through life, would probably have done themselves serious injury had they taxed their vital resources as recklessly as he often did. all accounts agree in representing him as an original and odd little fellow, unwilling to do things like other people. he would for instance enter a drawing-room and, carefully placing his feet together and bending his head, would make his bow backwards, saluting each of the company in turn. two incidents are recorded relating to the love of riding which has remained a characteristic of his through life. when his brothers were sent to a riding-school, leo (in spite of his father's assurances and those of the riding-master that he was too small to begin and would tumble off) also obtained permission to learn to ride. at his first lesson he duly tumbled off, but begged to be replaced in the saddle; and he did not fall off again, but became an expert horseman. in one of the short stories he wrote many years later for the use of school-children, he tells how he once wished to ride the old horse raven after his brothers had each had a turn on it; and how raven being too tired to move from the stables, he beat it till he broke his switch on its sides. he then demanded a stouter switch from the serf in charge, but the man replied: 'ah, master, you have no pity! why do you beat him? he is twenty years old, and is tired out; he can hardly breathe. why, for a horse, he is as old as timoféyitch [a very old peasant living at the place]. you might as well get on timoféyitch's back, and drive him beyond his strength like that, with a switch. would you feel no pity for him?' i thought of timoféyitch, and hearkened to the man. i got off the horse's back; and when i noticed how its steaming sides were working, and how heavily it breathed through its nostrils, swishing its thin tail, i understood how hard it was for it. till then i had thought that it was as happy as i was myself. and i felt so sorry for raven that i began to kiss his sweaty neck and to beg his pardon for having beaten him. since then i have grown up, but i always have pity on horses, and always remember raven and timoféyitch when i see horses ill-treated. he does not appear to have been very good at his lessons, and himself somewhere mentions the dictum of a student who used to coach his brothers and himself, and said of their aptitude for learning: 'sergéy both wishes and can, dmítry wishes but can't' (this was not true), 'and leo neither wishes nor can.' (this, i think, was perfectly true.) on the other hand, st. thomas, the french tutor already referred to (he figures in _childhood_ as st. jérôme), must have noticed the lad's capacity, for he used to say, '_ce petit a une tête: c'est un petit molière_' (this little one has a head: he is a little molière). 1837 after the father's death the family property passed under the control of the court of wards, and expenses had to be cut down. it was therefore decided that, though the two elder brothers had to remain in moscow for the sake of their education, the three younger children should return to yásnaya polyána, where living was cheaper, in charge of their much loved aunty tatiána. their legal guardian, the countess alexandra ('aline') ilýnishna osten-saken, remained in moscow with the elder boys. this lady had made what seemed a brilliant marriage with the wealthy count osten-saken, whose family was among the first in the baltic provinces; but her married life was a terrible one. her husband went out of his mind and tried to kill her. while he was confined in an asylum, the countess gave birth to a still-born child. to save her from this fresh shock, a girl born of a servant, the wife of a court cook, was substituted for the still-born baby. this girl, páshenka, lived with the tolstoy family, and was already grown up when tolstoy was quite a child. subsequently the countess alexandra lived first with her parents and then with her brother, tolstoy's father. though she was a devotee of the orthodox russo-greek church of which tolstoy eventually became so fierce an opponent, much in her character and conduct accords with the precepts laid down in his later writings; and it is evident that certain aspects of his understanding of the christian character, which strike most englishmen as peculiar, far from being invented out of his own head, are derived from a deeply-rooted russian and family tradition. he tells us: my aunt was a truly religious woman. her favourite occupation was reading the lives of the saints, conversing with pilgrims, half-crazy devotees, monks and nuns, of whom some always lived in our house, while others only visited my aunt.... she was not merely outwardly religious, keeping the fasts, praying much, and associating with people of saintly life, but she herself lived a truly christian life, trying not only to avoid all luxury and acceptance of service, but herself serving others as much as possible. she never had any money, for she gave away all she had to those who asked. a servant related to me how, during their life in moscow, my aunt used carefully on tip-toe to pass her sleeping maid, when going to matins, and used herself to perform all the duties which it was in those days customary for a maid to perform. in food and dress she was as simple and unexacting as can possibly be imagined. unpleasant as it is to me to mention it, i remember from childhood a specific acid smell connected with my aunt, probably due to negligence in her toilet: and this was the graceful poetic aline with beautiful blue eyes, who used to love reading and copying french verses, who played on the harp, and always had great success at the grandest balls! i remember how affectionate and kind she always was, and this equally to the most important men and women and to the nuns and pilgrims. tolstoy goes on to tell how pleasantly she bore the jests and teasing that her devotion to the priests brought upon her. i remember her dear good-natured laugh, and her face shining with pleasure. the religious feeling which filled her soul was evidently so important to her, so much higher than anything else, that she could not be angry or annoyed at anything, and could not attribute to worldly matters the importance others attach to them. 1840 in the summer of 1839 the whole family assembled at yásnaya polyána. the next year, 1840, was a famine year. the crops were so poor that corn had to be bought to feed the serfs, and to raise funds for this purpose one of the tolstoys' estates had to be sold. the supply of oats for the horses was stopped, and tolstoy remembers how he and his brothers, pitying their ponies, secretly gathered oats for them in the peasants' fields, quite unconscious of the crime they were committing. 1841 in the autumn of that year the whole family moved to moscow, returning to yásnaya for the following summer. the next autumn their guardian, the kind good countess alexandra osten-saken, died in the convent or 'hermitage' founded by óptin (a robber chief of the fourteenth century) in the government of kaloúga, to which she had retired. after her death her sister, pelagéya ilýnishna úshkof, became their guardian. she was the wife of a kazán landowner. aunty tatiána and she were not on friendly terms; there was no open quarrel between them, but v. i. úshkof (pelagéya's husband) had been a suitor for tatiána's hand in his youth, and had been refused. pelagéya could not forgive her husband's old love for tatiána. the change of guardianship led to the removal of the family to kazán, and to the children being separated from aunty tatiána, much to her grief. the books which up to the age of fourteen, when he went to kazán, had most influenced tolstoy were, he tells us, the story of joseph from the bible, the _forty thieves_ and _prince kamaralzaman_ from the _arabian nights_, various russian folk-legends, poúshkin's _tales_ and his poem _napoleon_, and _the black hen_ by pogorélsky. the influence the story of joseph had on him, he says, was 'immense.' in his aptitude for abstract speculation, as in other respects, the boy was truly father to the man; and in a passage, certainly autobiographical, in _boyhood_, he says: it will hardly be believed what were the favourite and most common subjects of my reflections in my boyhood--so incompatible were they with my age and situation. but in my opinion incompatibility between a man's position and his moral activity is the surest sign of truth.... at one time the thought occurred to me that happiness does not depend on external causes, but on our relation to them; and that a man accustomed to bear suffering cannot be unhappy. to accustom myself therefore to endurance, i would hold tatíshef's dictionaries in my outstretched hand for five minutes at a time, though it caused me terrible pain; or i would go to the lumber room and flog myself on my bare back with a cord so severely that tears started to my eyes. at another time suddenly remembering that death awaits me every hour and every minute, i decided (wondering why people had not understood this before) that man can only be happy by enjoying the present and not thinking of the future; and for three days, under the influence of this thought, i abandoned my lessons, and did nothing but lie on my bed and enjoy myself, reading a novel and eating honey-gingerbreads, on which i spent my last coins.... but no philosophic current swayed me so much as scepticism, which at one time brought me to the verge of insanity. i imagined that except myself no one and nothing existed in the world, that objects are not objects but apparitions, appearing only when i pay attention to them and disappearing as soon as i cease to think of them. in a word, i coincided with schelling in the conviction that what exists is not objects, but only my relation to them. there were moments in which under the influence of this fixed idea, i reached such a stage of absurdity that i glanced quickly round hoping to catch nothingness by surprise, there where i was not. the philosophical discoveries i made greatly flattered my vanity: i often imagined myself a great man, discovering new truths for the benefit of humanity, and i looked on other mortals with a proud consciousness of my own dignity; yet, strange to say, when i came in contact with these mortals i grew timid before each of them. the higher i stood in my own opinion the less was i able to show any consciousness of my own dignity before others, or even to avoid being ashamed of every word or movement of my own--even the simplest. at the time of the move to kazán, a serf lad of about his own age was presented to each of the young tolstoys to attend on him. alexis, the one given to leo tolstoy, remained in his service all his life, and died at yásnaya a few years ago. 1841 for five and a half years, from the autumn of 1841 to the spring of 1847, the brothers lived at kazán, returning each summer to yásnaya for the vacation. they all entered kazán university. the aunt who was their guardian, and with whom they lived the greater part of the time, was a kind but not particularly clever woman. her house was the centre of much hospitality and gaiety. 1844 leo tolstoy prepared to enter the faculty of oriental languages, in which a knowledge of arabic and turco-tartar was required. he worked hard, and matriculated in may 1844 before he was sixteen, passing in french (for which he received the mark 5+; 5 being in an ordinary way the highest mark, and the + indicating exceptional distinction), german, arabic, and turco-tartar very well, and in english, logic, mathematics and russian literature, well; but he did indifferently in latin, and failed completely in history and geography, getting the lowest mark, a 1, for each of them. of history he says, 'i knew nothing,' and of geography 'still less'; adding, 'i was asked to name the french seaports, but i could not name a single one.' at the end of the summer vacation he was admitted for re-examination in the subjects in which he had failed, and passed successfully. 1844-1845 the winter season when tolstoy, as a student at the university and a young man of good position, entered kazán society, was a particularly gay one. he attended many balls, given by the governor of the province, by the _maréchal de la noblesse_, and by private people, as well as many masquerades, concerts, tableaux-vivants, and private theatricals. he is still remembered by old inhabitants as having been 'present at all the balls, soirées, and aristocratic parties, a welcome guest everywhere, and always dancing, but, far from being a ladies' man, he was distinguished by a strange awkwardness and shyness.' at carnival time in 1845 he and his brother sergius took parts in two plays given for some charitable object. his performance was a great success. as to the nature of kazán society and of his surroundings there, accounts are contradictory. on the one hand, we have his own statement that (imitating his brother sergius in this as in other matters) he became 'depraved.' birukóf, too, speaks of 'the detestable surroundings of tolstoy's life in kazán,' and another writer, zagóskin, a fellow-student of tolstoy's at the university, says that the surroundings in which the latter moved were demoralising and must have been repellent to him. on the other hand, on seeing zagóskin's remarks, tolstoy (in whom there is often observable a strong spirit of contradiction) replied: i did not feel any repulsion, but was very glad to enjoy myself in kazán society, which was then very good. i am on the contrary thankful to fate that i passed my first youth in an environment where a young man could be young without touching problems beyond his grasp, and that i lived a life which, though idle and luxurious, was yet not evil. the explanation of these contradictions, no doubt, is that the family circle in which tolstoy lived was an affectionate one, and that he himself not only enjoyed his life, but formed friendships and made efforts at which in later years he looked back with satisfaction. yet there was assuredly much in his life and in the life around him which (except when others were severe on it) he recalled with grave disapproval, a disapproval he has plainly expressed in his _confession_. to come as near as we may to the truth, we must allow for the personal equation which, in tolstoy's case, is violent and fluctuating. with constant amusements going on around him, it is not surprising that at the end of his first university year he failed in his examinations. the failure does not however appear to have been entirely his fault, for he tells us: ivanóf, professor of russian history, prevented me from passing to the second course (though i had not missed a single lecture and knew russian history quite well) because he had quarrelled with my family. the same professor also gave me the lowest mark--a 'one'--for german, though i knew the language incomparably better than any student in our division. 1845 instead of remaining for a second year in the first course of oriental languages, tolstoy preferred to leave that faculty, and in august 1845 he entered the faculty of law. during the first months of this new course he hardly studied at all, throwing himself more than ever into the gay life of kazán society. before midwinter however he began for the first time, as he tells us, 'to study seriously, and i even found a certain pleasure in so doing.' comparative jurisprudence and criminal law interested him, and his attention was especially arrested by a discussion on capital punishment. meyer, professor of civil law, set him a task which quite absorbed him; it was the comparison of montesquieu's _esprit des lois_ with catherine the second's _great nakaz_. the conclusion to which he came was, that in catherine's _nakaz_ one finds montesquieu's liberal ideas mixed with the expression of catherine's own despotism and vanity, and that the _nakaz_ brought more fame to catherine than good to russia. 1846 he passed his examinations successfully in may 1846, and was duly admitted to the second year's course of jurisprudence. some time previously tolstoy and another student had disputed which of them had the better memory, and to test this, each of them learnt by heart the reply to one examination question in history. tolstoy's task was to learn the life of mazeppa, and as luck would have it that was just the question he happened to draw at his examination, so that he naturally obtained a 5, the highest mark. from the autumn of 1846 the three brothers, sergius demetrius and leo, ceased to live at their aunt's, and settled in a flat of their own, consisting of five rooms. a fellow-student, nazáryef, has given us his impression of tolstoy as a student. he says: i kept clear of the count, who from our first meeting repelled me by his assumption of coldness, his bristly hair and the piercing expression of his half-closed eyes. i had never met a young man with such a strange and, to me, incomprehensible air of importance and self-satisfaction.... at first i seldom met the count, who in spite of his awkwardness and bashfulness had joined the small group of so-called 'aristocrats.' he hardly replied to my greetings, as if wishing to intimate that even here we were far from being equals, since he drove up with a fast trotter and i came on foot.... it so happened that nazáryef and tolstoy were both late for a lecture on history one day, and were incarcerated together by order of the inspector. one gathers that tolstoy was in those days particularly careful of his personal appearance, his clothes indicating his aristocratic pretensions. but though externally the tolstoy of 1846 differed greatly from the tolstoy of forty years later, his conversation ran on much the same lines as in later life, and was uttered with the intensity of conviction and the flashes of dry humour which have since made even the most didactic of his writings so readable. their conversation in their place of confinement having led to some mention of lérmontof's poem, _the demon_, tolstoy took occasion to speak ironically of verse generally, and then, noticing a volume his companion had of karamzín's _history of russia_, he attacked history as the dullest and almost the most useless of subjects. a collection of fables and useless details, sprinkled with a mass of unnecessary figures and proper names.... who wants to know that the second marriage of john the terrible, with temrúk's daughter, took place on 21st august 1562; and his fourth marriage, with anna alexéyevna koltórsky, in 1572? yet they expect me to grind all this, and if i don't, the examiner gives me a 'one.' later on, says nazáryef, 'the, to me, irresistible force of tolstoy's doubts fell upon the university, and on university teaching in general. the phrase, "the temple of science," was constantly on his lips. remaining perfectly serious himself, he portrayed our professors in such a comical light that, in spite of all my efforts to appear indifferent, i laughed like one possessed.... "yet," said tolstoy, "we both had a right to expect that we should leave this temple useful men, equipped with knowledge. but what shall we really carry away from the university?... what shall we be good for, and to whom shall we be necessary?" nazáryef says that in spite of the feeling half of dislike, half of perplexity, that tolstoy evoked in him, he well remembers that he was dimly conscious of something remarkable, exceptional, and at the same time inexplicable, about him. from the educational articles tolstoy wrote sixteen years later, we know that he disapproved of examinations, of the restricted groove of studies marked out for the students in each faculty, and of the system which made it necessary for the professors to deliver original lectures of their own, and obliged the students to listen to those lectures and to study them, however incompetent the professors might be. 1847 the fact that his brother sergius had finished his studies and was leaving, strengthened tolstoy's dissatisfaction with the university; and finally, without waiting for the may examinations at which he might have qualified for the third year's course, we find him, soon after easter 1847, applying to have his name removed from the university roll 'on account of ill-health and family affairs.' he really had been in hospital in march, but the plea of ill-health was a mere excuse. his failure to take a degree was a source of great annoyance and disappointment to him, and it must not be supposed that he left kazán with any idea of taking life easily or neglecting further study. from the time he was a boy he had kept a diary of every little sin he had committed, and especially of any offence against the seventh commandment, in order that he might repent, and if possible refrain for the future, and his diary shows how full he was at this time of strenuous resolutions. during the last year of his life at kazán he made close friends with a student named dyákof (the nehlúdof of _boyhood_), and under his influence had developed an ecstatic worship of the ideal of virtue, and the conviction that it is man's destiny continually to perfect himself. to put all mankind right and to destroy all human vices and misfortunes, appeared a matter that could well be accomplished. it seemed quite easy and simple to put oneself right, to acquire all the virtues, and to be happy. here are some rules he set himself at that time: 1. to fulfil what i set myself, despite all obstacles. 2. to fulfil well what i do undertake. 3. never to refer to a book for what i have forgotten, but always to try to recall it to mind myself. 4. always to make my mind work with its utmost power. 5. always to read and think aloud. 6. not to be ashamed of telling people who interrupt me, that they are hindering me: letting them first feel it, but (if they do not understand) telling them, with an apology. deciding to settle at yásnaya for two years, he drew up a list of studies he intended to pursue for his own mental development, and to qualify for a university degree; and this list was, as the reader will see, appalling in its scope. 1. to study the whole course of law necessary to get my degree. 2. to study practical medicine, and to some extent its theory also. 3. to study: french, russian, german, english, italian, and latin. 4. to study agriculture, theoretically and practically. 5. to study history, geography, and statistics. 6. to study mathematics (the high school course). 7. to write my [university] thesis. 8. to reach the highest perfection i can in music and painting. 9. to write down rules (for my conduct). 10. to acquire some knowledge of the natural sciences, and, 11. to write essays on all the subjects i study. such rules and resolutions abound in tolstoy's diary. after failing to act up to them, he again and again gathers his energies and maps out for himself plans of life and courses of study sufficient to tax the energies of an intellectual giant. as to his religious opinions at this time, he tells us: i was baptized and brought up in the orthodox christian faith. i was taught it in childhood and all through my boyhood and youth. but before i left the university, in my second year, at the age of eighteen, i no longer believed anything i had been taught. (_confession._) his diary nevertheless shows that he prayed frequently and earnestly; the fact no doubt being, that though intellectually he discarded the orthodox russo-greek church, in times of trouble or distress he instinctively appealed to god for help. his opinions were wavering and immature, as he himself tells us in another passage: the religious beliefs taught me in childhood disappeared... and as from the time i was fifteen i began to read philosophic works, my rejection of those beliefs very soon became a conscious one. from the age of sixteen i ceased going to church and fasting of my own accord. i did not believe what had been taught me from childhood, but i believed in something. what it was i believed in, i could not at all have said. i believed in a god, or rather i did not deny god; but i could not have said what sort of god. neither did i deny christ and his teaching, but what his teaching consisted in i could also not have said. looking back on that time now, i see clearly that my faith--my only real faith, that which apart from my animal instincts gave impulse to my life--was a belief in perfecting oneself. but in what this perfecting consisted and what its object was, i could not have said. i tried to perfect myself mentally--i studied everything i could: anything life threw in my way; i tried to perfect my will, i drew up rules which i tried to follow; i perfected myself physically, cultivating my strength and agility by all sorts of exercises and accustoming myself to endurance and patience by all kinds of privations. and all this i considered to be perfecting myself. the beginning of it all was, of course, moral perfecting; but that was soon replaced by perfecting in general: by the desire to be better, not in one's own eyes or those of god, but in the eyes of other people. and very soon this effort again changed into a desire to be stronger than others: to be more famous, more important and richer than others. (_confession._) when speaking of tolstoy's relations with women, it should be borne in mind that incontinence for young men was then considered so natural that few of them in his position would have felt any serious qualms of conscience about such visits to houses of ill-fame as he lets us know that he began to pay at this time. his brother dmítry however led a chaste life, and alternating with gross lapses of conduct, we find leo noting down for his own guidance such resolutions as the following: to regard the society of women as a necessary unpleasantness of social life, and to keep away from them as much as possible. from whom indeed do we get sensuality, effeminacy, frivolity in everything, and many other vices, if not from women? whose fault is it, if not women's, that we lose our innate qualities of boldness, resolution, reasonableness, justice, etc.? women are more receptive than men, therefore in virtuous ages women were better than we; but in the present depraved and vicious age they are worse than we are. during his years at the university, tolstoy saw much of his brother dmítry, of whom he says: i remember also at the university that when my elder brother dmítry, suddenly in the passionate way natural to him devoted himself to religion and began to attend all the church services, to fast, and to lead a pure and moral life, we all, and even our elders, unceasingly held him up to ridicule and called him, for some unknown reason, 'noah.' i remember that moúsin-poúshkin (then curator of kazán university), when inviting us to a dance at his house, ironically remonstrated with my brother, who had declined the invitation, and used the argument that even david danced before the ark. i sympathised with these jokes my elders made, and deduced from them the conclusion that though it is necessary to learn the catechism and go to church, one must not take such things too seriously. (_confession._) again we read of this brother: his peculiarities became manifest, and are impressed on my mind from the time of our life at kazán. formerly in moscow i remember that he did not fall in love, as seryózha and i did, and was not fond of dancing or of military pageants, but studied well and strenuously.... at kazán i, who had always imitated seryózha, began to grow depraved.... not only at kazán, but even earlier, i used to take pains about my appearance. i tried to be elegant, _comme il faut_. there was no trace of anything of this kind in mítenka. i think he never suffered from the usual vices of youth; he was always serious thoughtful pure and resolute, though hot-tempered, and whatever he did, he did to the best of his ability.... he wrote verses with great facility. i remember how admirably he translated schiller's _der jüngling am bache_, but he did not devote himself to this occupation.... he grew up associating little with others, always--except in his moments of anger--quiet and serious. he was tall, rather thin, and not very strong, with long, large hands and round shoulders. i do not know how or by what he was attracted at so early an age towards a religious life, but it began in the very first year of his university career. his religious aspirations naturally directed him to church life, and he devoted himself to this with his usual thoroughness. in mítenka there must have existed that valuable characteristic which i believe my mother to have had, and which i knew in nikólenka, but of which i was altogether devoid--complete indifference to other people's opinion about oneself. until quite lately (in old age) i have never been able to divest myself of concern about people's opinion; but mítenka was quite free from this. i never remember on his face that restrained smile which involuntarily appears when one is being praised. i always remember his serious quiet sad, sometimes severe, almond-shaped hazel eyes. only in our kazán days did we begin to pay particular attention to him, and then merely because, while seryózha and i attached great importance to what was _comme il faut_--to externalities--he was careless and untidy, and we condemned him for this. we others, especially seryózha, kept up acquaintance with our aristocratic comrades and other young men. mítenka on the contrary selected out of all the students a piteous-looking, poor, shabbily dressed youth, poluboyárinof [which may be translated half-noble]--whom a humorous fellow-student of ours called polubezobédof [half-dinnerless]--and consorted only with him, and with him prepared for the examinations.... we brothers, and even our aunt, looked down on mítenka with a certain contempt for his low tastes and associates; and the same attitude was adopted by our frivolous comrades. after their university days were over, tolstoy saw little of his brother demetrius; so it will be convenient here to sacrifice chronological sequence and say what more there is to tell of the latter's life and death. the material is again supplied by tolstoy's reminiscences. when we divided up the family property, according to custom the estate where we lived, yásnaya polyána, was given to me. seryózha, as a lover of horses and according to his wish, received pirogóvo, where there was a stud. to mítenka and nikólenka were given the two other estates: to nikólenka, nikolsky; to mítenka, the kursk estate, sher-batchóvka. i have kept a note of mítenka's, showing how he regarded the possession of serfs. the idea that it is wrong, and that serfs ought to be liberated, was quite unknown in our circle in the 'forties. the hereditary possession of serfs seemed a necessary condition of life, and all that could be done to prevent its being an evil, was to attend not only to their material but also to their moral welfare. in this sense mítenka wrote very seriously naïvely and sincerely. thinking he could not do otherwise, he, a lad of twenty, when he left the university took it upon himself to direct the morality of hundreds of peasant families, and to do this (as gógol recommended in his _letters to a landowner_) by threats of punishments and by punishments.... but, besides this duty to his serfs, there was another duty which at that time it seemed impossible not to fulfil: namely, military or civil service. and mítenka decided to enter the civil service. tolstoy proceeds to tell how his brother, desiring to be useful to his country, chose legislation as his speciality, and going to petersburg astonished the head of the department as well as certain aristocratic acquaintances by asking where he could find a place in which he could be _useful_. the friend to whom he went for advice, regarded the service of the state merely as a means of satisfying ambition, and 'such a question had probably never occurred to him before.' eventually we find demetrius returning home discouraged, and taking up some local work. all this, to some extent, helps us to understand leo tolstoy's sceptical attitude towards the institution of government, and his strong belief that men in government service are solely actuated by selfish motives. tolstoy continues: after we had both left the university, i lost sight of him. i know he lived the same severe, abstemious life, knowing neither wine tobacco nor, above all, women, till he was twenty-six, which was very rare in those days. i know also that he associated with monks and pilgrims.... i think i was already in the caucasus when an extraordinary change took place. he suddenly took to drinking smoking wasting money and going with women. how it happened i do not know; i did not see him at the time. i only know that his seducer was a thoroughly immoral man of very attractive appearance, the youngest son of islényef [an uncle of the lady leo tolstoy subsequently married]. in this life mítenka remained the same serious religious man he was in everything. he ransomed from the brothel a prostitute named másha, who was the first woman he knew, and took her into his house. but this life did not last long. i believe it was less the vicious and unhealthy life he led for some months in moscow, than his mental struggle and his qualms of conscience, that suddenly destroyed his powerful organism. he became consumptive, went to the country, was doctored in the provincial town, and took to his bed in orél, where i saw him for the last time just after the crimean war. he was in a dreadful state of emaciation: one could even see how his enormous hand joined on to the two bones of his lower arm; his face was all eyes, and they were still the same beautiful serious eyes, with a penetrating expression of inquiry in them. he was constantly coughing and spitting, but was loth to die, and reluctant to believe he was dying. poor pockmarked másha, whom he had rescued, was with him and nursed him. in my presence, at his own wish, a wonder-working icon was brought. i remember the expression of his face when he prayed to it.... he died a few days later! students of the didactic writings of tolstoy's later years will notice how closely his injunctions to a man to keep to the first woman, whoever she be, with whom he has had intimate relations, correspond with the line actually followed by his brother demetrius. when tolstoy left the university, however, these things were still unthought of. let us, before returning to the events of his own life at that time, notice some books which he read between the ages of fourteen and twenty-one. they included: the sermon on the mount from st. matthew's gospel, rousseau's _confession_ and _émile_, and dickens's _david copperfield_, which all had an 'immense' influence on him. in another category came works which he says had 'very great' influence. these were: rousseau's _nouvelle héloïse_, sterne's _sentimental journey_, poúshkin's _eugene onégin_, schiller's _the robbers_, gógol's _dead souls_, tourgénef's _a sportsman's sketches_, drouzhínin's _pólenka sax_, grigoróvitch's _antón goremýka_, and the chapter _tamán_ from lérmontof's _a hero of our times_. in a third category he mentions some of gógol's shorter stories, and prescott's _conquest of mexico_, as having had 'great' influence. in these works one finds many ideas which have been congenial to tolstoy throughout his life, and his adhesion to which has only become firmer with age. in illustration of this, take a couple of passages from dickens which many readers may have passed without much attention, but which to tolstoy represented the absolute truth of the matters they touch on. david copperfield says of parliament: ...i considered myself reasonably entitled to escape from the dreary debates. one joyful night, therefore, i noted down the music of the parliamentary bagpipes for the last time, and i have never heard it since; though i still recognise the old drone in the newspapers without any substantial variation (except, perhaps, that there is more of it) all the livelong session. to most englishmen with memories of pym and hampden, or personal knowledge of the lives of men who have devoted themselves disinterestedly to public affairs, parliamentary or local, dickens's sneer at parliament seems but a paradox or a joke; but to tolstoy, with his inherited dislike of government, this testimony from a great english writer (who had served as a parliamentary reporter) seemed irrefutable evidence of the futility of parliaments. take, again, a passage in which dickens hits a nail adroitly on the head: mr. micawber had a relish in this formal piling up of words, which, however ludicrously displayed in his case, was, i must say, not at all peculiar to him. i have observed it, in the course of my life, in numbers of men. it seems to me to be a general rule. in the taking of legal oaths, for instance, deponents seem to enjoy themselves mightily when they come to several grand words in succession, for the expression of one idea--as, that they utterly detest, abominate, and abjure, and so forth--and the old anathemas were made relishing on the same principle. we talk about the tyranny of words, but we like to tyrannise over them too. we are fond of having a large superfluous establishment of words to wait upon us on great occasions; we think it looks important, and sounds well. as we are not particular about the meaning of our liveries on state occasions, if they be but fine and numerous enough, so the meaning or necessity of our words is a secondary consideration, if there be but a great parade of them. no modern writer has ever more carefully eschewed the practice dickens here attacks than tolstoy has done throughout his career. indeed, he is far stricter than dickens in this respect. but much more important than the influence of dickens was that of rousseau, of whom tolstoy once remarked: i have read the whole of rousseau--all his twenty volumes, including his _dictionary of music_. i was more than enthusiastic about him, i worshipped him. at the age of fifteen i wore a medallion portrait of him next my body instead of the orthodox cross. many of his pages are so akin to me that it seems to me that i must have written them myself. another writer who influenced tolstoy, though to a very much smaller extent, was voltaire, of whom he says: i also remember that i read voltaire when i was very young, and his ridicule (of religion) not only did not shock me, but amused me very much. everything tolstoy has done in his life he has done with intensity; and that this applies to the way in which he read books in his youth, is shown by the fact that we find him as an old man, in 1898, in _what is art?_ according the highest praise to books he had read before he was twenty-one, or even before he was fourteen. it was in the spring of 1847 that tolstoy, who was not yet nineteen, returned to his estate of yásnaya polyána, to live with his dear aunty tatiána; to 'perfect' himself, to study, to manage his estate, and to improve the condition of his serfs. the last part of this programme, at any rate, was not destined to have much success. though one must never treat tolstoy's fiction as strictly autobiographical, yet _a squire's morning_ gives a very fair idea of his own efforts to improve the lot of his serfs, and of the difficulties and failures he encountered in the course of that attempt. in that story prince nehlúdof decides to leave the university and settle in the country, and writes to his aunt: as i already wrote you, i found affairs in indescribable disorder. wishing to put them right, i discovered that the chief evil is the truly pitiable, wretched condition of the serfs, and this is an evil that can only be remedied by work and patience. if you could but see two of my serfs, david and iván, and the life they and their families lead, i am sure the sight of these two poor wretches would convince you more than all i can say in explanation of my intention. is it not my plain and sacred duty to care for the welfare of these seven hundred people for whom i must account to god? will it not be a sin if, following plans of pleasure or ambition, i abandon them to the caprice of coarse elders and stewards? and why should i seek in any other sphere opportunities of being useful and doing good, when i have before me such a noble brilliant and intimate duty? not only is this letter just such as tolstoy himself may have written, but the difficulties nehlúdof encounters when he tries to move his peasants from the ruts to which generations of serfdom had accustomed them, are just those tolstoy himself met with: the suspicion shown by the serfs towards any fresh interference on the part of the master, and the fact that ways to which a community have grown accustomed are not easily changed by the sudden effort of a well-intentioned but inexperienced proprietor. after spending the summer of 1847 at yásnaya, tolstoy went to petersburg, where we find him settled in autumn; and early next year he entered for examination at the university of that city. 1848 on the 13th of the following february he wrote to his brother sergius: i write you this letter from petersburg, where i intend to remain _for ever_.... i have decided to stay here for my examinations and then to enter the service.... in brief, i must say that petersburg life has a great and food influence on me: it accustoms me to activity and supplies the place of a fixed table of occupations. somehow one cannot be idle; every one is occupied and active; one cannot find a man with whom one could lead an aimless life, and one can't do it alone.... i know you will not believe that i have changed, but will say, 'it's already the twentieth time, and nothing comes of you--the emptiest of fellows.' no, i have now altered in quite a new way. i used to say to myself: 'now i will change,' but at last i see that i _have_ changed, and i say, 'i have changed.' above all, i am now quite convinced that one cannot live by theorising and philosophising, but must live positively, _i.e._ must be a practical man. that is a great step in advance and a great change; it never happened to me before. if one is young and wishes to live, there is no place in russia but petersburg for it.... [illustration: tolstoy in 1848, after he had left the university.] on the 1st of may he wrote again to his brother, in a very different strain: seryózha! i think you already say i am 'the emptiest of fellows,' and it is true. god knows what i have done! i came to petersburg without any reason, and have done nothing useful here, but have spent heaps of money and got into debt. stupid! insufferably stupid! you can't believe how it torments me. above all, the _debts_, which i _must_ pay _as soon as possible_, because if i don't pay them soon, besides losing the money, i shall lose my reputation.... i know you will cry out; but what's to be done? one commits such folly once in a lifetime. i have had to pay for my freedom (there was no one to thrash me, that was my chief misfortune) and for philosophising, and now i have paid for it. be so kind as to arrange to get me out of this false and horrid position--penniless and in debt all round. he goes on to mention that he had passed two examinations at the university, but that he had altered his mind, and now, instead of completing his examinations, wanted to 'enter the horse guards as a junker.' (a junker was a young man who volunteered for the army as a cadet. before receiving a commission, a junker lived with the officers, while preparing to become one of them.) god willing, i will amend and become a steady man at last, i hope much from my service as a junker, which will train me to practical life, and _nolens-volens_ i shall have to earn the rank of officer. with luck, _i.e._ if the guards go into action, i may get a commission even before the usual two years are up. the guards start for the front at the end of may. at present i can do nothing: first, because i have no money (of which i shall not need much, i fancy), and secondly, because my two birth-certificates are at yásnaya. have them sent on as soon as possible. before long, tolstoy was again writing to his brother: in my last letter i wrote much nonsense, of which the chief item was that i intended to enter the horse guards; i shall act on that plan only in case i fail in my examinations, and if the war is a serious one. the war in question was russia's share in quelling the hungarian rebellion of 1849. not a thought of the justice or otherwise of the cause seems at that time to have crossed the mind of him who in later life became so powerful an indicter of war. this is tolstoy's own summary, written many years later, of the period we are now dealing with: it was very pleasant living in the country with aunty tatiána, but an indefinite thirst for knowledge drew me away to a distance. this was in 1848, and i was still uncertain what to undertake. in petersburg two roads were open to me. i could either enter the army, to take part in the hungarian campaign, or i could complete my studies at the university, to enter the civil service. my thirst for knowledge conquered my ambition, and i again began to study. i even passed two examinations in law, but then all my good resolutions broke down. spring came, and the charm of country life again drew me back to my estate. of the two examinations he passed at this time he says: in 1848 i went to pass the examinations for my degree at petersburg university, knowing literally nothing, and reading up during only one week. i worked day and night; and passed with honours in civil and criminal law. but in spite of this success he did not take the remaining examinations, and returned to yásnaya without having obtained a degree--finally abandoning the attempt to do so. in later times, when tolstoy's reputation was world-wide, critics often amused themselves by detecting inconsistencies in his conduct and questioning his sincerity. but the proof of his sincerity is writ large in the story of his life. time after time, from the earliest pages of his diary, we find him vehemently resolving never more to do certain things, but always to do other things, and again and again confessing in the greatest tribulation, that he had failed to carry out his intentions; yet in spite of everything he returns, and again returns, to his earliest ideals and gradually shapes his life into accord with them, and eventually forms habits which, when he first extolled them, appeared utterly beyond his reach. not insincerity but impetuosity, retrieved by extraordinary tenacity of purpose, has always characterised him. it was the same with his thirst for knowledge as with his yet deeper thirst after righteousness. often as he was swayed by the lures of life, each of those two great desires found its satisfaction at last. the letters quoted above show some consciousness of the fact that there is a practical side to life not to be mastered by theorising; but the duty of learning by experience as well as by ratiocination is one tolstoy has very seldom dwelt on, and never, i think, realised at all fully. another characteristic matter alluded to in these letters is the difficulty he found himself in for lack of his birth-certificates and other papers. russia has long suffered from a superabundance of red tape, which contrasts strongly with the slipshod habits of its people, and promotes the hatred of officialism that is there so common. the fact that tolstoy has on several occasions been put to great inconvenience for lack of certificates, which it was not in his nature methodically to keep in readiness, is a small matter, but it has probably had its share in increasing his strong dislike of governments. from petersburg he brought back with him to yásnaya a gifted but drunken german musician named rudolph, with whom he had chanced to make acquaintance, and whose talent he had discerned. for some time tolstoy devoted himself passionately to music, acquiring sufficient skill on the piano to become an excellent and sympathetic accompanist. he was always very susceptible to the influence of music, and in music, as in literature, he had strong sympathies and antipathies. rudolph supplies the principal figure in tolstoy's story _albert_, written several years later. aunt tatiána, who had played the piano excellently in youth, but had quite given it up for nearly thirty years, and who was now fifty-three years of age, resumed its practice and, tolstoy tells us, played duets with him, and often surprised him by the accuracy and beauty of her execution. for the next three years he lived partly at yásnaya and partly in moscow, and led a life alternating between the asceticism of his brother demetrius and the self-indulgence of his brother sergius; with dissipation, hunting, gambling, and the society of gipsy-girl singers. these were among the wildest and most wasted years of his life; but even here we find him, in the summer of 1850, resuming his diary with penitence and self-reproach, and drawing up a time-table of how his days are in future to be spent: estate management, bathing, diary-writing, music, dinner, rest, reading, bathing, and again estate business to close the day. this curriculum was, however, neglected. gusts of passion again swept away his good resolutions. 1849 at this time he made his first attempt to start a school for the peasant children of yásnaya; but it was closed again two years later when he was in pecuniary difficulties; and it was not till 1862 that he discovered that he had infringed the law by opening it without official permission. in relation to women, tolstoy's ideal was a regular and affectionate family life. women were for him divided into two groups: those sacred ones who could be looked on as possible wives or sisters, and those who, like the gipsy singers, could be paid for and possessed for short periods. to try to wipe out by a money payment any obligation arising from intimate relations, seems to have been his fixed rule. his animal passions were very strong, and late in life i have heard him say that neither drinking, cards, smoking, nor any other bad habit, had been nearly so hard for him to overcome as his desire for women. but he never doubted that that desire was a bad one. to judge him fairly, it must be remembered how loose was the general tone of the society in which he lived, and that the advice given him at this critical time of his life by those who were his natural guides, was not that he should live a chaste life, but that he should attach himself to a woman of good social position. in his _confession_ he tells us: the kind aunt with whom i lived, herself the purest of beings, always told me that there was nothing she so desired for me as that i should have relations with a married woman: '_rien ne forme un jeune homme, comme une liaison avec une femme comme il faut_' [nothing so forms a young man, as an intimacy with a woman of good breeding]. another happiness she desired for me was that i should become an aide-de-camp, and if possible aide-de-camp to the emperor. but the greatest happiness of all would be that i should marry a very rich girl and become possessed of as many serfs as possible. we never find tolstoy involved in any family scandal, or called on to fight a duel about women; but his diary at this period contains many traces of his struggles and his falls; as when he writes: men whom i consider morally lower than myself, do evil better than i.... i live an animal life, though not quite debauched. my occupations are almost all abandoned, and i am greatly depressed in spirit. his pecuniary affairs became disordered, owing to his gambling and other bad habits, and towards the end of 1850 he thought of trying to earn money by taking on a contract to run the post-station at toúla, which before railways were built was an undertaking of some importance. varied however as tolstoy's abilities unquestionably are, nature never intended him to be a man of business, and this plan fortunately came to nothing. 1850-1851 the winter of 1850-51 he passed for the most part in moscow, and as a foretaste of the simplification of life which was to be such a prominent feature of his later years, we find him writing to his aunt at yásnaya: '_je dîne à la maison avec des stchi et kasha dont je me contente parfaitement_' [i dine at home on cabbage soup and buckwheat porridge, with which i am quite contented]; and he goes on to say that he only awaits the preserves and home-made liqueurs (which she no doubt sent him) to have everything as he was accustomed to have it in the country. we find aunty tatiána warning him against card-playing. tolstoy replies in french: [3]tout ce que vous me dîtes au sujet de la perversité du jeu est très vrai et me revient souvent à l'esprit. c'est pourquoi je crois que je ne jouerai plus.... 'je crois,' mais j'espère bientôt vous dire pour sûr. [3] all that you say about the perversity of play is very true, and i often think about it, and that is why i believe that i shall gamble no more.... 'i believe,' but i hope soon to tell you for certain. 1851 in march 1851 he returned to moscow after visiting yásnaya, and he notes in his diary that he went there with the treble aim of playing cards, getting married, and entering the civil service. not one of these three objects was attained. he took an aversion to cards. for marriage he considered a conjunction of love, reason, and fate to be necessary, and none of these was present. as to entering the service, it was again the fact that he had not brought the necessary documents with him that barred the way. in march he writes to aunty tatiána and says he believes it to be true that spring brings a moral renovation. it always does him good, and he is able to maintain his good intentions for some months. winter is the season that causes him to go wrong. next came a period of religious humility: he fasted diligently and composed a sermon, which of course was never preached. he also tried unsuccessfully to write a gipsy story and an imitation of sterne's _sentimental journey_. this period of his life was brought to a close by the return from the caucasus, on leave of absence, of his eldest brother nicholas, who was by this time an artillery officer. anxious to economise and pay off the debts he had contracted at cards, especially one of rs. 4000 to ogaryóf, a gendarme officer, who owned a small estate not far from yásnaya, leo resolved to accompany his brother on the latter's return to the caucasus. he entrusted his estate to the care of his brother-in-law (mary's husband), who was to pay his debts and allow him only rs. 500 (then equal to about £80) a year to live on, and he gave his word not to play cards any more. tolstoy had another reason for wishing to escape from his accustomed surroundings. his brother sergius was very fond of the gipsy choirs, famous in russia for their musical talent. these choirs used to visit yásnaya, and leo tolstoy, who shared his brother's susceptibility to the fascinations of the gipsy girls, saw a means of safety in flight to the caucasus. before closing this chapter, let us note the extraordinary freedom enjoyed by young men of tolstoy's class in those days of serfdom. economically, serfdom supplied them with means, at the expense of a class deprived of almost all rights and absolutely dependent on their owners. even if a member of the aristocracy ruined himself, family interest or a prudent marriage often retrieved the position for him. religious restraint counted for little, for side by side with superstition, scepticism was common among the educated. the standard of morals expected of a young man was elastic and ill-defined. no irksome sense of public duty pressed on his attention. politics, in our sense of the word, were forbidden; and though he had to enter the state service (civil or military), this was regarded either as a way of making a career for himself, or as a mere formality. the detachment from the real business of life in which young russians grew up, and the comparative isolation in which they lived on their country estates, explain the extremely radical conclusions often arrived at by those of them who wished to make the world better. chain a man to the heavily laden car of social progress, and he can only advance very slowly, though any advance he does accomplish represents much effort and is of practical importance. detach him from that car, and he may easily and pleasantly fly away on the winds of speculation to the uttermost realm of the highest heaven, without its producing any immediately perceptible result on the lives of his fellow-men. what i mean is, that the less a man is involved in practical work, the easier and pleasanter it is for him to take up extreme positions; i do not mean to deny that activity in the realm of thought and feeling exerts an unseen yet potent influence on other minds, and ultimately on practical affairs. a knowledge of the social surroundings in which tolstoy grew up makes it easier to understand the doctrines he subsequently taught. it was partly because he grew up in a detached and irresponsible position that the state of his own mind and soul were to him so much more important than the immediate effect of his conduct on others, and the same cause led him to remain in ignorance of lessons every intelligent man of business among us learns of necessity. his independent position made easier the formation of that state of mind free from intellectual prejudice which enabled him later on to examine the claims of the church, of the bible, of the economists, of governments, and the most firmly established manners and customs of society, untrammelled by the fear of shocking or hurting other people, though all the time his feelings were so sensitive that it has never been possible for him to doubt or question the goodness of those lines of conduct which he had admired and approved when in childhood he saw them practised by those near and dear to him. contrasting his moral attitude with that of a young englishman anxious to do right in our day, i should say that tolstoy had no adequate sense of being a responsible member of a complex community with the opinions and wishes of which it is necessary to reckon. on the contrary, his tendency was to recognise with extraordinary vividness a personal duty revealed by the working of his own conscience and intellect apart from any systematic study of the social state of which he was a member. he thus came to see things in a way we do not see them, while he remained blind to some things with which we are quite familiar. that is one reason why he is so extraordinarily interesting: he puts things in a way no englishman would ever dream of putting them, and yet we feel how near akin we of the western twentieth-century world are to this nineteenth-century russian noble, who has so much in common with the medieval saint and the oriental fatalist; and this helps us to realise that all nations and classes of men are, indeed, of one blood. later on, in the sequel to this work, when we have to deal with tolstoy's peaceful anarchism and his conviction that no external regulation of society is necessary, but that all men would naturally do right were they not hampered by man-made laws, it will be useful to bear in mind that his own strength grew through having to steer unaided through the stormy seas of passion, and from finding his own way to a haven the lights of which had first shone on him in childhood. like the rest of mankind, he judges others by himself. chief authorities for chapter ii birukof. behrs. _novy mir._ _education and instruction_, and _on the education of the people_, in vol. iv. of tolstoy's collected works: moscow, 1903. _confession._ published by the _svobodnoe slovo_, christchurch, 1901. prof. zagoskin, _stoudentcheskie gody gr. tolstogo_, in _istoritchesky vestnik_: january 1894. v. n. nazaryef, _zhizn i ludi bylogo vremeni_, in _istoritchesky vestnik_: november 1900. tolstoy's talk with pogodin, quoted in mihaylovsky's _literary recollections_: petersburg, 1900. _l. n. tolstoy._ by e. solovef: petersburg, 1897. light is also thrown on this period by tolstoy's _childhood_, _boyhood_, and _youth_, _the memoirs of a billiard marker_, _two hussars_, _a squire's morning_, and _albert_ (which, however, are not autobiographies), as well as by stories included in tolstoy's readers for school-children--_the old horse_ and _how i learned to ride_. chapter iii the caucasus journey. russian conquest. letters to aunt tatiána. diary. cossacks. he volunteers. enters army. hádji mourát. story of a gaming debt. sádo. dreams for the future. _childhood._ shooting. boúlka. slow promotion. _the raid._ the censor. danger. applies for discharge. applies to gortchakóf. _memoirs of a billiard marker._ receives his commission. his retrospect. 1851 the brothers nicholas and leo left yásnaya polyána on 20th april 1851, and spent a couple of weeks in moscow. the frankness of leo's intercourse with his aunt tatiána is illustrated by the following letter which he wrote, telling her of a visit he paid to sokólniki, a pleasant outskirt of moscow on the borders of a pine forest, where a fête is held on may-day. that he wrote in french is explained by the fact that tatiána, like many russian ladies educated early in the nineteenth century, knew french better than she did russian. [4]j'ai été à la promenade de sokólniki par un temps détestable, c'est pourquoi je n'ai rencontré personne des dames de la société, que j'avais envie de voir. comme vous prétendez que je suis un homme à épreuves, je suis allé parmi les plébs, dans les tentes bohémiennes. vous pouvez aisément vous figurer le combat intérieur qui s'engagea là-bas pour et contre. au reste j'en sortis victorieux, c.à d. n'ayant rien donné que ma bénédiction aux joyeux descendants des illustres pharaons. nicolas trouve que je suis un compagnon de voyage très agréable, si ce n'était ma propreté. il se fâche de ce que, comme il le dit, je change de linge 12 fois par jour. moi je le trouve aussi compagnon très agréable, si ce n'était sa saleté. je ne sais lequel de nous a raison. [4] i went to the fête at sokólniki in detestable weather, which was why i did not meet any of the society ladies i wished to see. as you say i am a man who tests himself, i went among the plebs in the gipsy tents. you can easily imagine the inward struggle i there experienced, for and against. however, i came out victorious: that is to say, having given nothing but my blessing to the gay descendants of the illustrious pharaohs. nicholas considers me a very agreeable travelling companion, except for my cleanliness. he is cross because he says i change my linen 12 times a day. i also find him a very agreeable companion, except for his dirtiness. i do not know which of us is right. on leaving moscow, instead of travelling to the caucasus by the usual route _viâ_ vorónesh, nicholas tolstoy, who liked to do things his own way, decided that they would drive first to kazán. here they stayed a week, visiting acquaintances, and that was long enough for leo to fall in love with a young lady to whom his shyness prevented his expressing his sentiments. he left for the caucasus bearing his secret with him, and we hear no more of the matter. from kazán they drove to sarátof, where they hired a boat large enough to take their travelling carriage on board, and with a crew of three men, made their way down the vólga to astrakhán, sometimes rowing, sometimes sailing, and sometimes drifting with the stream. the scorn of luxury and social distinctions so prominent in tolstoy's later philosophy, was at this period more to the taste of his brother nicholas. a gentleman drove past them in kazán leaning on his walking-stick with ungloved hands, and that was sufficient to cause leo to speak of him contemptuously, whereupon nicholas, in his usual tone of good-natured irony, wanted to know why a man should be despised for not wearing gloves. from astrakhán they had still to drive some two hundred and seventy miles to reach starogládovsk, where nicholas tolstoy's battery was stationed. the whole journey from moscow, including the stay in kazán, took nearly a month. it may be convenient here to explain why the russians were then fighting in the caucasus. georgia, situated to the south of the caucasian mountains, had been voluntarily annexed to russia in 1799 to escape the oppression of persia; and it therefore became politically desirable for russia to subdue the tribes that separated her from her newly acquired dependency. during the first half of the nineteenth century this task proceeded very slowly, but at the time we are speaking of, prince baryatínsky, in command of the russian forces stationed on the left bank of the river térek, which flows into the caspian sea, was undertaking a series of expeditions against the hostile native tribes. up to that time the russians had held hardly anything south of the térek and north of the caucasian mountains, except their own forts and encampments; but in less than another decade, baryatínsky had captured shámyl (the famous leader who so long defied russia) and had subdued the whole country. soon after the brothers tolstoy arrived at starogládovsk, nicholas was ordered to the fortified camp at goryatchevódsk ('hot springs'), an advanced post recently established to protect the invalids who availed themselves of those mineral waters. here leo tolstoy first saw, and was deeply impressed by, the beauty of the magnificent mountain range which he has so well described in _the cossacks_. in july 1851 he wrote to his aunt tatiána: [5]nicolas est parti dans une semaine après son arrivée, et moi je l'y suivis, de sorte que nous sommes presque depuis trois semaines ici où nous logeons dans une tente. mais comme le temps est beau et que je me fais un peu à ce genre de vie, je me trouve très bien. ici il y a des coups d'oeil magnifiques, à commencer par l'endroit où sont les sources. c'est une énorme montagne de pierres l'une sur l'autre, dont les unes se sont détachées et forment des espèces de grottes, les autres restent suspendues à une grande hauteur. elles sont toutes coupées par les courants d'eau chaude, qui tombent avec bruit dans quelques endroits et couvrent surtout le matin toute la partie élevée de la montagne d'une vapeur blanche qui se détache continuellement de cette eau bouillante. l'eau est tellement chaude qu'on cuit dedans les oeufs _hard_ en trois minutes. au milieu de ce ravin sur le torrent principal il y a trois moulins, l'un au-dessus de l'autre, qui sont construits d'une manière toute particulière et très pittoresque. toute la journée les femmes tartares ne cessent de venir au-dessus et au-dessous de ces moulins pour laver leur linge. ii faut vous dire qu'elles lavent avec les pieds. c'est comme une fourmilière toujours remuante. les femmes sont pour la plupart belles et bien faites. les costumes des femmes orientales malgré leur pauvreté, sont gracieux. les groupes pittoresques que forment les femmes, joint à la beauté sauvage de l'endroit fait un coup d'oeil véritablement admirable. je reste très souvent des heures à admirer ce paysage. puis le coup d'oeil du haut de la montagne est encore plus beau et tout à fait dans un autre genre. mais je crains de vous ennuyer avec mes descriptions. je suis très content d'être aux eaux puisque j'en profite. je prends des bains ferrugineux et je ne sens plus de douleur aux pieds. [5] nicholas left within a week of his arrival and i have followed him, so that we have now been almost three weeks here, lodging in a tent but as the weather is fine and i am getting accustomed to this kind of life, i feel very well. there are magnificent views here, beginning where the springs are situated. it is an enormous mountain of rocks one upon another, some of which are detached and form, as it were, grottoes; others remain suspended at a great height. they are all intersected by torrents of hot water which fall noisily in certain parts and, especially in the morning, cover the whole upper part of the mountain with a white vapour which this boiling water continually gives off. the water is so hot that one can boil eggs hard in three minutes. in the middle of this ravine, by the chief torrent, stand three mills one above the other, built in a quite peculiar and very picturesque manner. all day long, above and below these mills, tartar women come unceasingly to wash clothes. i should mention that they wash with their feet. it is like an ant-hill, always in motion. the women, for the most part, are beautiful and well formed. in spite of their poverty the costumes of oriental women are graceful. the picturesque groups formed by the women, added to the savage beauty of the place, furnish a really admirable _coup d'oeil_. i very often remain for hours admiring the view. then again, in quite a different way, the view from the top of the mountain is even more beautiful. but i fear to weary you with my descriptions. i am very glad to be at the springs, for i benefit by them. i take ferruginous baths, and no longer have pain in my feet. as showing how hot these springs were, it may be mentioned that a dog belonging to nicholas tumbled into the water and was scalded to death. the officers tolstoy met, he found to be men without education, and he wrote: 'at first many things in this society shocked me, but i have accustomed myself to them, without however attaching myself to these gentlemen. i have found a happy mean, in which there is neither pride nor familiarity.' he was helped by the fact that nicholas was popular with every one; and, by adopting the plan of having vódka, wine, and something to eat always ready for those who dropped in to see him, he succeeded in keeping on good terms with these men, though he did not care to know them intimately. the following extract from his diary preserves the record of the rapidly changing moods he experienced in those days. soon after reaching the caucasus he noted: stary urt, _11th june 1851_. yesterday i hardly slept all night. having posted up my diary, i prayed to god. it is impossible to convey the sweetness of the feeling i experienced during my prayer. i said the prayers i usually repeat by heart: 'our father,' 'to the virgin,' etc., and still remained in prayer. if one defines prayer as a petition or as thanksgiving, then i did not pray. i desired something supreme and good; but what, i cannot express, though i was clearly conscious of what i wanted. i wished to merge into the universal being. i asked him to pardon my crimes; yet no, i did not ask that, for i felt that if he had given me this blissful moment, he had pardoned me. i asked, and at the same time felt that i had nothing to ask, and that i cannot and do not know how to ask; i thanked him, but not with words or thoughts. i combined in one feeling both petition and gratitude. fear quite vanished. i could not have separated any one emotion--faith, hope or love--from the general feeling. no, this was what i experienced yesterday: it was love of god, lofty love, uniting in itself all that is good, excluding all that is bad. how dreadful it was to me to see the trivial and vicious side of life! i could not understand its having any attraction for me. how i asked god with a pure heart to accept me into his bosom! i did not feel the flesh.... but no, the carnal, trivial side again asserted itself, and before an hour had passed i almost consciously heard the voice of vice, vanity, and the empty side of life; i knew whence that voice came, knew it had ruined my bliss! i struggled against it, and yet yielded to it. i fell asleep thinking of fame and of women; but it was not my fault, i could not help it. again, on 2nd july, after writing down reflections on suffering and death, he concludes: how strong i seem to myself to be against all that can happen; how firm in the conviction that one must expect nothing here but death; yet a moment later i am thinking with pleasure of a saddle i have ordered, on which i shall ride dressed in a cossack cloak, and of how i shall carry on with the cossack girls; and i fall into despair because my left moustache is higher than my right, and for two hours i straighten it out before the looking-glass. by august he was back again at starogládovsk, and, full of energy, risked his life as a volunteer in expeditions against the circassians. having met ilyá tolstoy, an officer and a relation, he was introduced by him to the commander-in-chief, general baryatínsky. the latter had noticed leo tolstoy during one of the expeditions, and on making his acquaintance complimented him on his bravery and advised him to enter the army. ilyá tolstoy urged the same advice, and leo accepted it. towards the end of october he went a tiresome but beautiful seven-days' journey to tiflis, where he had to pass the examination qualifying him to become a junker (cadet). from there he wrote to his aunt tatiána a letter containing the first intimation of the vocation that was ultimately to make him far more famous than baryatínsky himself: [6]vous rappelez-vous, bonne tante, un conseil que vous m'avez donné jadis--celui de faire des romans? eh bien! je suis votre conseil et les occupations dont je vous parle consistent à faire de la littérature. je ne sais si ce que j'écris paraîtra jamais dans le monde, mais c'est un travail qui m'amuse et dans lequel je persévère depuis trop longtemps pour l'abandonner. [6] do you remember, dear aunt, the advice you once gave me--to write novels? well, i am following your advice, and the occupation i mentioned to you consists in producing literature. i do not know if what i am writing will ever be published, but it is work that amuses me, and in which i have persevered too long to abandon it. for two months he lived in the 'german' suburb of tiflis, paying rs. 5 a month (at that time equal to about 16s.) for his two-roomed lodging; disturbed by no one, writing _childhood_, and trying to enter the army--the main obstacle to which was that, as usual, he found himself without his birth-certificate and other documents. he seldom enjoyed good health for many consecutive months, and during his stay in tiflis he was confined to the house for some weeks by illness. at last, on 23rd december 1851, he was able to write to his brother, sergius, announcing that in a few days he expected to receive his appointment as junker in the 4th battery of artillery, and that on the day he received it he would set out for starogládovsk, and from there go on campaign, and to the best of his ability 'assist, with the aid of a cannon, in destroying the predatory and turbulent asiatics.' he goes on to tell of hunting. he had been out nine times, and had killed two foxes and about sixty grey hares. he had also hunted wild boar and deer, but had not killed any. in the same letter tolstoy mentions hádji mourát, the hero of a tale he wrote more than fifty years later, and that has been put aside for posthumous publication. he says: 'if you wish to show off with news from the caucasus, you may recount that a certain hádji mourát (the second in importance to shámyl himself) surrendered a few days ago to the russian government. he was the leading dare-devil and "brave" in all circassia, but was led to commit a mean action.' 1852 a little later, on 6th january 1852, we find him again in tiflis, writing to aunt tatiána. [7]je viens de recevoir votre lettre du 24 novembre et je vous y réponds le moment même (comme j'en ai pris l'habitude). dernièrement je vous écrivais que votre lettre m'a fait pleurer et j'accusai ma maladie de cette faiblesse. j'ai eu tort. toutes vos lettres me font depuis quelque temps le même effet. j'ai toujours été _lyóva-ryóva_ [leo, cry-baby]. avant cette faiblesse me faisait honte, mais les larmes que je verse en pensant à vous et à votre amour pour nous, sont tellement douces que je les laisse couler, sans aucune fausse-honte. votre lettre est trop pleine de tristesse pour qu'elle ne produise pas sur moi le même effet. c'est vous qui toujours m'avez donné des conseils et quoique malheureusement je ne les aie pas suivis quelquefois, je voudrais toute ma vie n'agir que d'après vos avis. permettez-moi pour le moment de vous dire l'effet qu'a produit sur moi votre lettre et les idées qui me sont venues en la lisant. si je vous parle trop franchement je sais que vous me le pardonnerez en faveur de l'amour que j'ai pour vous. en disant que c'est votre tour de nous quitter pour aller rejoindre ceux qui ne sont plus et que vous avez tant aimés, en disant que vous demandez à dieu de mettre un terme à votre existence qui vous semble si insupportable et isolée,--pardon, chère tante, mais il me paraît qu'en disant cela vous offensez dieu et moi et nous tous qui vous aimons tant. vous demandez à dieu la mort, c. à dire le plus grand malheur qui puisse m'arriver (ce n'est pas une phrase, mais dieu m'est témoin que les deux plus grands malheurs qui puissent m'arriver ce serait votre mort ou celle de nicolas--les deux personnes que j'aime plus que moi-même). que resterait-il pour moi si dieu exauçait votre prière? pour faire plaisir à qui, voudrais-je devenir meilleur, avoir de bonnes qualités, avoir une bonne réputation dans le monde? quand je fais des plans de bonheur pour moi, l'idée que vous partagerez et jouirez de mon bonheur m'est toujours présente. quand je fais quelque chose de bon, je suis content de moi-même, parce que je sais que vous serez contente de moi. quand j'agis mal, ce que je crains le plus--c'est de vous faire du chagrin. votre amour est tout pour moi, et vous demandez à dieu qu'il nous sépare! je ne puis vous dire le sentiment que j'ai pour vous, la parole ne suffit pas pour vous l'exprimer et je crains que vous ne pensiez que j'exagère et cependant je pleure à chaudes larmes en vous écrivant. [7] i have just received your letter of 24 november, and i reply at once (as i have formed the habit of doing). i wrote you lately that your letter made me cry, and i blamed my illness for that weakness. i was wrong. for some time past all your letters have had the same effect on me. i always was leo cry-baby. formerly i was ashamed of this weakness, but the tears i shed when thinking of you, and of your love for us, are so sweet that i let them flow without any false shame. your letter is too full of sadness not to produce the same effect on me. it is you who have always given me counsel, and though unfortunately i have not always followed it, i should wish all my life to act only in accord with your advice. for the moment, permit me to tell you the effect your letter has had on me, and the thoughts that have come to me while reading it. if i speak too freely, i know you will forgive it, on account of the love i have for you. by saying that it is your turn to leave us, to rejoin those who are no more and whom you have loved so much, by saying that you ask god to set a limit to your life which seems to you so insupportable and isolated--pardon me, dear aunt, but it seems to me that in so saying you offend god and me and all of us who love you so much. you ask god for death, that is to say, for the greatest misfortune that can happen to me. (this is not a phrase, for god is my witness that the two greatest misfortunes that could come to me would be your death and that of nicholas--the two persons whom i love more than myself.) what would be left to me if god granted your prayer? to please whom should i then wish to become better, to have good qualities and a good reputation in the world? when i make plans of happiness for myself, the idea that you will share and enjoy my happiness is always present. when i do anything good, i am satisfied with myself because i know you will be satisfied with me. when i act badly, what i most fear is to cause you grief. your love is everything to me, and you ask god to separate us! i cannot tell you what i feel for you; words do not suffice to express it. i fear lest you should think i exaggerate, and yet i shed hot tears while writing to you. in the same letter he tells of one of those remarkable 'answers to prayer,' instances of thought-transference, or (if the reader pleases) simply coincidences, which have played so great a part in the history of all religious bodies. [8]aujourd'hui il m'est arrivé une de ces choses qui m'auraient fait croire en dieu, si je n'y croyais déjà fermement depuis quelque temps. l'été à stáry urt tous les officiers qui y étaient ne faisaient que jouer et assez gros jeu. comme en vivant au camp il est impossible de ne pas se voir souvent, j'ai très souvent assisté au jeu et malgré les instances qu'on me faisait j'ai tenu bon pendant un mois; mais un beau jour en plaisantant, j'ai mis un petit enjeu, j'ai perdu, j'ai recommencé, j'ai encore perdu, la chance en était mauvaise, la passion du jeu s'est reveillée et en deux jours j'ai perdu tout ce que j'avais d'argent et celui que nicolas m'a donné (à peu près 250 r. argent) et par dessus cela encore 500 r. argent pour lequel j'ai donné une lettre de change payable au mois de janvier 1852. il faut vous dire que près du camp il y a un _aoul_ qu'habitent les tchitchéniens. un jeune garçon (tchitchénien) sado venait au camp et jouait, mais comme il ne savait pas compter et inscrire il y avait des chenapans qui le trichaient. je n'ai jamais voulu jouer pour cette raison contre sado, et même je lui ai dit qu'il ne fallait pas qu'il jouât, parce qu'on le trompait et je me suis proposé de jouer pour lui par procuration. il m'a été très reconnaissant pour ceci et m'a fait cadeau d'une bourse. comme c'est l'usage de cette nation de se faire des cadeaux mutuels, je lui ai donné un misérable fusil que j'avais acheté pour 8 rb. il faut vous dire que pour devenir _kounák_, ce qui veut dire ami, il est d'usage de se faire des cadeaux, et puis de manger dans la maison du _kounák_. après cela, d'après l'ancien usage de ces peuples (qui n'existe presque plus que par tradition) on devient ami à la vie et à la mort, c.à d. que si je lui demande tout son argent, ou sa femme, ou ses armes, ou tout ce qu'il a de plus précieux, il doit me les donner, et moi aussi je ne dois rien lui refuser. sado m'a engagé de venir chez lui et d'être _kounák_. j'y suis allé. après m'avoir régalé à leur manière, il m'a proposé de choisir dans sa maison tout ce que je voudrais--ses armes, son cheval ... tout. j'ai voulu choisir ce qu'il y avait de moins cher et j'ai pris une bride de cheval montée en argent, mais il m'a dit que je l'offensais et m'a obligé de prendre une _sword_ qui vaut au moins 100 r. arg. son père est un homme assez riche, mais qui a son argent enterré et ne donne pas le sou à son fils. le fils pour avoir de l'argent va voler chez l'ennemi des chevaux, des vaches; quelquefois il expose 20 fois sa vie pour voler une chose qui ne vaut pas 10 r., mais ce n'est pas par cupidité qu'il le fait, mais par genre. le plus grand voleur est très estimé et on l'appelle '_dzhigit_,' un _brave_. tantôt sado a 1000 r. arg., tantôt pas le sou. après une visite chez lui, je lui ai fait cadeau de la montre d'argent de nicolas et nous sommes devenus les plus grands amis du monde. plusieurs fois il m'a prouvé son dévouement en s'exposant à des dangers pour moi, mais ceci pour lui n'est rien--c'est devenu une habitude et un plaisir. quand je suis parti de stáry urt et que nicolas y est resté, sado venait chez lui tous les jours et disait qu'il ne savait que devenir sans moi et qu'il s'ennuyait terriblement. par une lettre je faisais connaître à nicolas, que mon cheval étant malade, je le priais de m'en trouver un à stáry urt; sado ayant appris cela n'eut rien de plus pressé que de venir chez moi et de me donner son cheval, malgré tout ce que j'ai pu faire pour refuser. après la bêtise que j'ai fait de jouer à stáry urt, je n'ai plus repris les cartes en mains, et je faisais continuellement la morale à sado qui a la passion du jeu et quoiqu'il ne connaisse pas le jeu, a toujours un bonheur étonnant. hier soir je me suis occupé à penser à mes affaires pécuniaires, à mes dettes; je pensais comment je ferais pour les payer. ayant longtemps pensé à ces choses, j'ai vu que si je ne dépense pas trop d'argent, toutes mes dettes ne m'embarrasseront pas et pourront petit à petit être payées dans 2 ou 3 ans; mais les 500 rbs., que je devais payer ce mois, me mettaient au désespoir. il m'était impossible de les payer et pour le moment ils m'embarrassaient beaucoup plus que ne l'avaient fait autrefois les 4000 d'ogaryéff. cette bêtise d'avoir fait les dettes que j'avais en russie et de venir en faire de nouvelles ici me mettait au désespoir. le soir en faisant ma prière, j'ai prié dieu qu'il me tire de cette désagréable position et avec beaucoup de ferveur. 'mais comment est-ce que je puis me tirer de cette affaire?' pensai-je en me couchant. 'il ne peut rien arriver qui me donne la possibilité d'acquitter cette dette.' je me représentais déjà tous les désagréments que j'avais à essuyer à cause de cela: how when he presents the note for collection, the authorities will demand an explanation as to why i did not pay, etc. 'lord, help me!' said i, and fell asleep. le lendemain je reçois une lettre de nicolas à laquelle était jointe la votre et plusieurs autres--il m'écrit: the other day sádo came to see me. he has won your notes-of-hand from knorring, and has brought them to me. he was so pleased to have won them, and asked me so often, 'what do you think? will your brother be glad that i have done this?' that i have grown very fond of him. that man is really attached to you. n'est-ce pas étonnant que de voir ses voeux aussi exaucés le lendemain même? c. à d., qu'il n'y a rien d'aussi étonnant que la bonté divine pour un être qui la mérite si peu que moi. et n'est-ce pas que le trait de dévouement de sado est admirable? il sait que j'ai un frère serge, qui aime les chevaux et comme je lui ai promis de le prendre en russie quand j'y irai, il m'a dit, que dût-il lui en coûter 100 fois la vie, il volera le meilleur cheval qu'il y ait dans les montagnes, et qu'il le lui amènera. faites, je vous prie, acheter à toúla un _6-barrelled pistol_ et un _musical-box_, si cela ne coûte pas trop cher. ce sont des choses qui lui feront beaucoup de plaisir. [8] to-day one of those things happened to me which would have made me believe in god, if i had not for some time past firmly believed in him. in summer, at stáry urt, all the officers who were there did nothing but play, and play rather high. as, living in camp, one has to meet frequently, i was very often present at play, but in spite of persuasions i kept steady for a month; but one fine day for fun i put down a small stake. i lost, staked again, and lost again. i was in bad luck; the passion for play reawoke in me, and in two days i had lost all the money i had, and what nicholas gave me (about rs. 250) and another rs. 500 besides, for which i gave a note-of-hand payable in january 1852. i should tell you that near the camp there is an aoul [native village] inhabited by circassians. a young fellow (a circassian) named sádo used to come to the camp and play; but as he could neither reckon nor write, there were scamps who cheated him. for that reason i never wished to play against sádo, and i even told him that he ought not to play, because he was being cheated; and i offered to play for him. he was very grateful to me for this, and presented me with a purse; and as it is the custom of that nation to exchange presents, i gave him a wretched gun i had bought for rs. 8. i should tell you that to become a _kounák_, that is to say, a _friend_, it is customary to exchange presents, and afterwards to eat in the house of one's _kounák_. after that, according to the ancient custom of these peoples (which hardly exists now except as a tradition) you become friends for life and death: that is to say, if i asked of him all his money, or his wife, or his weapons, or all the most precious things he has, he must give them to me, and i also must not refuse him anything. sádo made me promise to come to his house and become his kounák. i went. after having regaled me in their fashion, he asked me to choose anything in his house that i liked: his weapons, his horse--anything. i wished to choose what was of least value, and took a horse's bridle with silver mountings; but he said i was offending him, and obliged me to take a sword worth at least rs. 100. his father is a rather rich man, but keeps his money buried, and does not give his son a cent. the son, to have money, goes and steals horses and cows from the enemy. sometimes he risks his life 20 times to steal something not worth rs. 10, but he does it not from greed, but because it is 'the thing.' the greatest robber is most esteemed, and is called _dzhigit_, 'a _brave_.' sometimes sádo has rs. 1000, sometimes not a cent. after one visit to him, i gave him nicholas's silver watch, and we became the greatest friends in the world. he has proved his devotion several times by exposing himself to danger for my sake; but that is nothing to him--it has become a habit and a pleasure. when i left stáry urt and nicholas remained there, sádo used to go to him every day, saying that he did not know how to get on without me, and that he felt terribly dull. i wrote to nicholas saying that as my horse was ill i begged him to find me one at stáry urt. sádo having learnt this, must needs come to me and give me his horse, in spite of all i could do to refuse it. after the folly i committed in playing at stáry urt, i did not touch a card again, and i was always lecturing sádo, who is devoted to gambling and, though he does not know how to play, always has astonishing luck. yesterday evening i was engaged in considering my money matters and my debts, and thinking how i was to pay them. having long thought of these things, i saw that if i do not spend too much, all my debts will not embarrass me, but can be paid off little by little in 2 or 3 years; but the rs. 500 that i had to pay this month, threw me into despair. it was impossible for me to pay it, and at the moment it embarrassed me much more than did previously the 4000 of ogaryóf. the stupidity, after having contracted those debts in russia, of coming here and adding fresh ones, made me despair. in the evening while saying my prayers, i asked god--and very fervently--to get me out of this disagreeable scrape. 'but how can i get out of this scrape?' thought i, as i lay down. 'nothing can happen that will make it possible for me to meet that debt.' i already pictured to myself all the unpleasantnesses i should have to go through because of it. (see english sentence in the french text, above.) next day i received a letter from nicholas enclosing yours and several others. he wrote me: (see english sentence in the french text, above). is it not astonishing to see one's petitions granted like this the very next day? that is to say, there is nothing so wonderful as the divine goodness to one who merits it so little as i. and is not the trait of sádo's devotion admirable? he knows i have a brother sergius, who loves horses, and as i have promised to take him to russia when i go, he tells me that, if it costs him his life 100 times over, he will steal the best horse to be found in the mountains, and will take it to him. please, have a 6-barrelled pistol bought in toúla and sent to me, and also a musical-box, if that does not cost too much. these are things which will give him much pleasure. in explanation of this letter one has to mention that sádo was a 'peaceful' circassian, that is, one friendly to russia (though his tribe in general were hostile), and further, that the passages printed in english in the midst of the french text, are in the original written in russian. a few days later we find tolstoy on his way back to starogládovsk, stopping (probably for post-horses) at the post-station mozdók, and again writing his aunt a long letter in which he says: [9]la religion et l'expérience que j'ai de la vie (quelque petite qu'elle soit) m'ont appris que la vie est une épreuve. dans moi elle est plus qu'une épreuve, c'est encore l'expiation de mes fautes. j'ai dans l'idée que l'idée si frivole que j'ai eu d'aller faire un voyage au caucase--est une idée qui m'a été inspirée d'en haut. c'est la main de dieu qui m'a guidé--je ne cesse de l'en remercier. je sens que je suis devenu meilleur ici (et ce n'est pas beaucoup dire puisque j'ai été très mauvais) et je suis fermement persuadé que tout ce qui peut m'arriver ici ne sera que pour mon bien, puisque c'est dieu lui-même qui l'a voulu ainsi. peut-être c'est une idée bien hardie, néanmoins j'ai cette conviction. c'est pour cela que je supporte les fatigues et les privations physiques dont je parle (ce ne sont pas des privations physiques--il n'y en a pas pour un garçon de 23 ans qui se porte bien) sans les ressentir, même avec une espèce de plaisir en pensant au bonheur qui m'attend. voilà comment je le représente: après un nombre indéterminé d'années, ni jeune, ni vieux, je suis à yásnaya; mes affaires sont en ordre, je n'ai pas d'inquiétudes, ni de tracasseries. vous habitez yásnaya aussi. vous avez un peu vieillie, mais êtes encore fraîche et bien portante. nous menons la vie que nous avons menée,--je travaille le matin, mais nous nous voyons presque toute la journée. nous dînons. le soir je fais une lecture qui ne vous ennuie pas, puis nous causons--moi je vous raconte ma vie au caucase, vous me parlez de vos souvenirs--de mon père, de ma mère, vous me contez des '_terrible tales_' que jadis nous écoutions les yeux effrayés et la bouche béante. nous nous rappelons les personnes qui nous ont été chères et qui ne sont plus; vous pleurerez, j'en ferai de même, mais ces larmes seront douces; nous causerons des frères qui viendront nous voir de temps en temps, de la chère marie qui passera aussi quelques mois de l'année a yásnaya qu'elle aime tant, avec tous ses enfants. nous n'aurons point de connaissances--personne ne viendra nous ennuyer et faire des commérages. c'est un beau rêve, mais ce n'est pas encore tout ce que je me permets de rêver.--je suis marié--ma femme est une personne douce, bonne, aimante; elle a pour vous le même amour que moi; nous avons des enfants qui vous appellent grandmaman; vous habitez la grande maison en haut, la même chambre que jadis habitait grandmaman. toute la maison est dans le même ordre qu'elle a été du temps de papa et nous recommençons la même vie, seulement en changéant de rôle; vous prenez le rôle de grandmaman, mais vous êtes encore meilleure; moi le rôle de papa, mais je désespère de jamais le mériter; ma femme celui de maman, les enfants le nôtre; marie le rôle des deux tantes, leurs malheurs exceptés.... mais il manquera un personnage pour prendre le rôle que vous avez joué dans notre famille; jamais il ne se trouvera une âme aussi belle, aussi aimante que la vôtre. vous n'avez pas de successeur. il y aura trois nouveaux personnages, qui paraîtront de temps en temps sur la scène--les frères, surtout l'un qui sera souvent avec nous: nicolas--vieux garçon, chauve, retiré du service, toujours aussi bon, aussi noble. i imagine how he will, as of old, tell the children fairy tales of his own invention, and how they will kiss his greasy hands (but which are worthy of it), how he will play with them, how my wife will bustle about to get him his favourite dishes, how he and i will recall our common memories of days long past, how you will sit in your accustomed place and listen to us with pleasure; how, as of yore, you will call us, old men, 'lyóvotchka' and 'nikólenka,' and will scold me for eating with my fingers, and him for not having clean hands. si on me faisait empereur de russie, si on me donnait le pérou, en un mot si une fée venait avec sa baguette me demander ce que je désire--la main sur la conscience, je répondrais que je désire seulement que ce rêve puisse devenir une réalité. [9] religion and the experience i have of life (however small it may be) have taught me that life is a trial. in my case it is more than a trial, it is also an expiation of my faults. it seems to me that the frivolous idea i had of journeying to the caucasus was an idea with which i was inspired from above. it is the hand of god that has guided me--i do not cease to thank him for it. i feel that i have become better here (and that is not saying much, for i was very bad) and i am firmly persuaded that all that can happen to me here can only be for my good, since it is god himself who has so willed it. perhaps it is a very audacious notion; nevertheless it is my conviction. that is why i bear the fatigues and the physical privations i have mentioned (they are not physical privations: there are none for a fellow of 23 who is in good health) without resenting them, and even with a kind of pleasure in thinking of the happiness that awaits me. this is how i picture it: after an indefinite number of years, neither young nor old, i am at yásnaya; my affairs are in order, i have no anxieties or worries. you also live at yásnaya. you have aged a little, but you are still fresh and in good health. we lead the life we used to lead. i work in the morning, but we see one another almost all day. we have dinner. in the evening i read aloud something which does not weary you, and then we talk. i tell you of my life in the caucasus, you tell me your recollections of my father and my mother; and you tell me the 'terrible tales' we used to listen to with frightened eyes and open mouths. we remind each other of those who were dear to us and who are now no more; you will weep, i shall do the same, but those tears will be sweet; we shall talk about my brothers, who will come to see us from time to time; of dear marie, who with all her children will also spend some months of the year at yásnaya, which she loves so much. we shall have no acquaintances--no one will come to weary us and carry tales. it is a beautiful dream, but it is not all that i let myself dream.--i am married. my wife is a gentle creature, kind and affectionate; she has the same love for you as i have. we have children who call you grandmamma; you live upstairs in the big house, in what used to be grandmamma's room. the whole house is as it was in papa's time, and we recommence the same life, only changing our rôles. you take the rôle of grandmamma, but you are still better; i take papa's place, though i despair of ever deserving it; my wife, that of mamma; the children take ours; marie, that of the two aunts (excepting their misfortunes) ... but some one will be lacking to take the part you played in our family--never will any one be found with a soul so beautiful, so loving, as yours. you have no successor. there will be three new characters who will appear from time to time on the scene--the brothers, especially the one who will often be with us, nicholas: an old bachelor, bald, retired from service, as good and noble as ever. i imagine how he will, as of old, tell the children fairy tales of his own invention, and how they will kiss his greasy hands (but which are worthy of it), how he will play with them, how my wife will bustle about to get him his favourite dishes, how he and i will recall our common memories of days long past, how you will sit in your accustomed place and listen to us with pleasure; how, as of yore, you will call us, old men, 'lyóvotchka' and 'nikólenka,' and will scold me for eating with my fingers, and him for not having clean hands. if they made me emperor of russia, or gave me peru: in a word, if a fairy came with her wand asking me what i wished for--my hand on my conscience, i should reply that i only wish that this dream may become a reality. he returned to starogládovsk a junker, and in february took part in an expedition as a non-commissioned artillery officer, and nearly received a st. george's cross for bravery, but lost it because, once again, he had not his documents in order. writing to his aunt tatiána some months later (june 1852), he says: [10]pendant cette expédition, j'ai eu l'occasion d'être deux fois présenté à la croix de st. georges et je n'ai pas pu la recevoir à cause du retard de quelques jours de ce maudit papier. j'ai été présenté pour la journée du 18 février (ma fête), mais on a été obligé de refuser à cause du manque de ce papier. la liste des présentations partit le 19, le 20 le papier était arrivé. je vous avoue franchement que de tous les honneurs militaires c'est cette seule petite croix que j'ai eu la vanité d'ambitionner. [10] during this expedition, i twice had the chance of being presented to receive a st. george's cross, and i was prevented from receiving it by that confounded paper being a few days late. i was nominated to receive it on 18 february (my name's day), but it had to be refused me for want of that paper. the list of nominations was sent off on the 19th, the paper came on the 20th. i frankly confess that of all military honours, that little cross is the only one which i have had the vanity to desire. on a second occasion he had the refusal of the coveted cross, but his colonel pointed out to him that besides being sometimes given to junkers favoured by their officers, these crosses were also, and more usually, granted to old and deserving privates, whom they entitled to a life pension; and that if tolstoy would forego the one intended for him, it would be given to a veteran who deserved it, and to whom it would secure a subsistence for his old age. tolstoy, to his honour be it said, renounced the coveted decoration. he had a third chance of securing it later on, but this time, absorbed in playing chess till late at night, he omitted to go on duty, and the commander of the division noticing his absence, placed him under arrest and cancelled the award which had been already made in his favour. chess, i may here mention, has always been a favourite game of tolstoy's. he has never studied the game from books, but has played much and plays ingeniously and well. the kind of warfare in which he was now engaged, is well described in _the raid_ and _the wood-felling_. a detachment would set out to seize a tartar village, make a clearing in a forest, or capture cattle. it would exchange cannonand rifle-shots with tartar skirmishers, and would lose perhaps half a dozen men killed or wounded before accomplishing its object; but the more serious part of the work came when the expedition returned to the fortified camp from which it had started. as soon as the retreat commenced, tartar sharpshooters would swarm out, trying to cut off stragglers and inflicting as much damage as possible. even after the russians were beyond rifle-shot, a chance ball from a tartar cannon might reach them within sight of their own quarters. to see a single man one has known well, struck down by a deadly bullet, may impress an observer as vividly as the myriad corpses of a great battlefield; and in tolstoy's earliest war-sketches one feels the note of horror at war quite as strongly as when, later on, he described far bloodier struggles at sevastopol. when not on campaign, tolstoy was generally stationed at the cossack village of starogládovsk, where he lived more or less the life vividly described in _the cossacks_. the grebénsky cossacks located there were descended from russian dissenters (old-believers) who had fled from the persecution of former tsars and had settled among the mohammedan circassians near the river térek. they had retained the purity of their russian speech, and remained nominally christians, but had intermarried with the natives and adopted many of their manners and customs. love of freedom, idleness, robbery, hunting, and war were their most prominent characteristics. they considered themselves altogether superior both to the semi-savage mohammedan natives and to the tame, disciplined russians. drunkenness was not so much a weakness of these men as 'a tribal rite, to abandon which would have been considered as an act of apostasy.' the work was done by the women, or by hired nogai-tartar labourers. the women were physically better developed than the men, and were celebrated for their beauty, combining the purest type of circassian features with the powerful build of northern women. in their relations with men, especially before marriage, they enjoyed absolute freedom. there was much that attracted tolstoy in the simple life of these people: their frankness, their skill in hunting, their contempt for all that is artificial or weak, and their freedom from the moral struggles that tormented him. with one beautiful girl--mariána--he fell deeply in love, but she remained indifferent to the attentions of a man who was inferior in the arts of war and hunting to some of the young men of her own tribe. his courtship failed (as he says of his hero in _the cossacks_) because he could not, like a dashing young cossack, 'steal herds, get drunk on tchikir wine, troll songs, kill people, and when tipsy climb in at her window for a night, without thinking who he was or why he existed.' though one has always to be carefully on one's guard against taking tolstoy's stories as though they were autobiographical, there are passages in _the cossacks_ which certainly apply to himself, and give a vivid idea of some of his moods at this time, as well as of his way of life while living as a junker at starogládovsk. on one occasion the hero is out hunting in the woods and asks himself: 'how must i live so as to be happy, and why was i formerly not happy?' and he remembered his previous life, and felt disgusted with himself.... and suddenly a new light seemed revealed to him. 'happiness,' said he to himself, 'consists in living for others. that is clear. the demand for happiness is innate in man; therefore it is legitimate. if we seek to satisfy it selfishly: by seeking wealth, fame, comforts, or love, circumstances may render the satisfaction of these desires impossible. it follows that they are illegitimate, but not that the demand for happiness itself is illegitimate. but what desire is there that can always be satisfied in spite of external conditions? what desire? love, self-sacrifice!' he was so glad and excited at discovering this, as it seemed to him, new truth, that he jumped up and began impatiently seeking for some one for whom he might quickly sacrifice himself: to whom he might do good, and whom he could love. 'yes; i need nothing for myself!' he kept mentally repeating: 'then why not live for others?' in the same story tolstoy tells us that his hero lived monotonously and regularly. he had little to do with his commander or fellow-officers. in the caucasus the position of a junker with means of his own was in this respect particularly favourable. he was not sent to drill nor kept at work. as a reward for going on an expedition he was recommended for a commission, and meanwhile he was left alone. the officers considered him an aristocrat, and therefore in their intercourse with him bore themselves with dignity. card-playing and the officers' carousals with singers, of which he had had experience when on service with the detachment, seemed to him unattractive, and he avoided the officers' society. again he tells us that his hero often thought seriously of abandoning all else, enrolling himself as a cossack, buying a cottage, and marrying a cossack girl ... and living with uncle eróshka, going with him to hunt and to fish, and with the cossacks on expeditions. 'why don't i do this? what am i waiting for?' he asked himself.... but a voice told him to wait, and not to decide. he was restrained by a dim consciousness that he could not fully live the life of eróshka and loukáshka, because he had another happiness,--he was restrained by the thought that happiness lies in self-sacrifice.... he continually sought an opportunity to sacrifice himself for others, but it did not present itself. in the same story the cossack loukáshka kills a tartar 'brave' at night, and rises greatly in the popular esteem and in his own; and the hero thinks to himself: 'what nonsense and confusion! a man kills another and is as happy and satisfied as though he had done an excellent deed. does nothing tell him there is here no cause for great rejoicing? that happiness consists not in killing others, but in sacrificing oneself?' we have a yet safer record of tolstoy's feelings in his diary, in which about this time he noted down the following reflections concerning the chief faults he was conscious of in himself: 1. the passion of gaming is a covetous passion, gradually developing into a craving for strong excitement. against this passion one can struggle. 2. sensuality is a physical need, a demand of the body, excited by imagination. it increases with abstinence, and therefore the struggle against it is very difficult. the best way is by labour and occupation. 3. vanity is the passion least harmful to others and most harmful to oneself. in another passage, indicating quite a different phase of consciousness, he writes: for some time past repentance for the loss of the best years of life has begun to torment me, and this since i commenced to feel that i could do something good.... there is something in me which compels me to believe that i was not born to be like everybody else. in may we find him going on furlough to pyatigórsk to drink the mineral water and to be treated for rheumatism. this is his description of pyatigórsk, written nearly twenty years later in his reading book for children: pyatigórsk (five hills) is so called because it stands on mount besh-tau. _besh_ means in tartar 'five,' _tau_ means 'hill.' from this mountain flows a hot sulphur stream. the water is boiling, and over the places where it springs from the mountain there is always steam, as from a samovár. the whole place where the town stands is very gay. from the mountain flow hot springs, and at the foot of the mountain flows the river podkoúmok. the mountain slopes are wooded, all around are fields, and afar off one sees the great caucasian mountains. on these the snow never melts, and they are always as white as sugar. when the weather is clear, wherever one goes one sees the great mountain, elbrus, like a sugar cone. people come to the hot springs for their health; and over the springs, arbours and awnings have been erected, and gardens and paths have been laid out all around. in the morning a band plays, and people drink the waters, or bathe, or stroll about. here he was joined by his sister mary and her husband. she also came to pyatigórsk to be cured of rheumatism. she tells how her brother leo was at this time attracted by spiritualism, and would sometimes even borrow a table from a _café_ and have a _séance_ on the boulevard. he remained in pyatigórsk till 5th august, and then returned to starogládovsk. from thence he wrote to his aunt, repeating what he had said before of the officers with whom he had to associate. [11]il y a une trop grande différence dans l'éducation, les sentiments et la manière de voir de ceux que je rencontre ici pour que je trouve quelque plaisir avec eux. il n'y a que nicolas qui a le talent, malgré l'énorme différence qu'il y a entre lui et tous ces messieurs, à s'amuser avec eux et à être aimé de tous. je lui envie ce talent, mais je sens que je ne puis en faire autant. [11] there is too great a difference in the education, the sentiments, and the point of view of those i meet here, for me to find any pleasure in their company. only nicholas, in spite of the enormous difference between him and all these gentlemen, has the talent to amuse himself with them, and to be loved by all. i envy him this talent, but feel that i cannot do the same. he mentions that for some time past he has acquired a taste for reading history, and says that he perseveres in his literary occupations. he had already three times rewritten a work he had in hand, and intended to rewrite it again. he felt much more content with himself at this time, and adds: [12]il y a eu un temps où j'étais vain de mon esprit et de ma position dans le monde, de mon nom; mais à présent je sais et je sens que s'il y a en moi quelque chose de bon et que si j'ai à en rendre grâce à la providence, c'est pour un coeur bon, sensible et capable d'amour, qu'il lui a plu de me donner et de me conserver. [12] there was a time when i was vain of my intelligence, of my position in the world, and of my name; but now i know and feel that if there is anything good in me, and if i have anything to thank providence for, it is for a good heart, sensitive and capable of love, which it has pleased it to give me and to preserve in me. on 29th june he again notes in his diary: he whose aim is his own happiness, is bad; he whose aim is the good opinion of others, is weak; he whose aim is the happiness of others, is virtuous; he whose aim is god, is great. 1852 on 2nd july he completed _childhood_, and a few days later despatched the manuscript, signed only with the initials l. n. t., to the best petersburg monthly, _the contemporary_. on 28th august he received a reply from the editor, the poet nekrásof, saying he would publish the story and that he thought its author had talent. another letter followed, dated 5th september 1852, in which nekrásof said that having re-read the story in proof, he found it 'much better than i had realised at first. i can say definitely that its author has talent.' he added that it would appear in the next number of his magazine. tolstoy notes in his diary: 'received letter from nekrásof; praises, but no money.' nekrásof's next letter is dated 30th october, and explains that it is not customary to pay authors for their first work, but that he hopes tolstoy will send him more stories, and that in future he will pay him as much as to the very best known writers, namely rs. 50 (nearly £7 at that time) per sheet of sixteen pages. he mentioned also that _childhood_ had been very well received by the public. tolstoy kept his authorship a secret, revealing it to no one except nicholas and aunt tatiána. his sister mary was by this time back at her husband's estate, situated near tourgénef's village of spássky. there tourgénef came one day to visit her, bringing with him the last number of the _contemporary_. full of praise of a new story by an unknown author, he began reading it aloud, and to her great astonishment mary recognised, one after another, various incidents from her own childhood. her first guess was that nicholas must have written it. among the writers who at once acclaimed tolstoy's genius was panáef, co-editor of the _contemporary_, who, tourgénef pretended, had to be carefully shunned by his friends on the névsky (the chief street in petersburg) lest he should insist on reading them extracts from the new story. before long the work reached dostoyévsky in siberia, and he was so struck by it that he wrote to a friend asking him to find out who the talented l. n. t. was. meanwhile tolstoy continued his military career in the caucasus. on his return to starogládovsk in august, he had noted in his diary: 'simplicity--that is the quality which above all others i desire to attain.' he had to pass an unpleasant month in consequence of the autumn manoeuvres, about which he wrote: 'it was not very pleasant to have to march about and fire off cannons; especially as it disturbed the regularity of my life'; and he rejoiced when it was over and he was again able to devote himself to 'hunting, writing, reading, and conversation with nicholas.' he had become fond of shooting game, at which--as at all physical exercises--he was expert; and he spent two or three hours a day at it. he writes to his aunt tatiána: at 100 paces from my lodging i find wild fowl, and in half an hour i kill 2, 3, or 4. besides the pleasure, the exercise is excellent for my health, which in spite of the waters is not very good. i am not ill, but i often catch cold and suffer from sore throat or from toothache or from rheumatism, so that i have to keep to my room at least two days in the week. one of the forms of sport he enjoyed during his stay in the caucasus was strepet shooting: the strepet being a steppe grouse. before they migrate in mid-august, these birds assemble in enormous flocks, and are extremely wild and difficult of approach. it is hardly possible to get within two hundred or two hundred and fifty yards of such a flock. tolstoy had a horse that was specially trained for this particular sport. on it he used to ride at a foot-pace two or three times round a flock, carefully narrowing the circle till he got as near as possible without alarming the birds. then he would dash forward at full gallop with his gun ready. the moment the birds rose he dropped his reins on the horse's neck, and the well-trained animal would instantly stop, allowing its master to take aim. tolstoy's military career was not giving him satisfaction. having left home without any definite plans, he had neglected to bring any documents with him, and the result of this was that instead of becoming an officer within eighteen months, as he expected to do when he entered the army, he now, after serving for ten months, received notice that he would have to serve another three years before he could obtain his commission. in this difficulty he applied to his aunt p. i. úshkof, who by application to an influential friend eventually succeeded in hastening his promotion. meanwhile however tolstoy--who had made up his mind to retire from the army as soon as he received his commission--almost lost patience. on 24th december he completed the sketch entitled _the raid: a volunteer's story_, and two days later posted it to the _contemporary_, in which magazine it appeared in march 1853. the following passage occurs in this his first story of war, and foreshadows the attitude he ultimately made definitely his own. he is describing a march through caucasian scenery to a night attack on a tartar _aoul_, and he says: nature, beautiful and strong, breathed conciliation. can it be that people have not room to live in this beautiful world, under this measureless, starry heaven? can feelings of enmity, vengeance, or lust to destroy one's fellow beings, retain their hold on man's soul amid this enchanting nature? all that is evil in man's heart should, one would think, vanish in contact with nature--this immediate expression of beauty and goodness. from the very start we find tolstoy hampered in his work by that incubus of all russian writers, the censor. in a letter to his brother sergius in may he writes: '_childhood_ was spoilt, and _the raid_ simply ruined by the censor. all that was good in it has been struck out or mutilated.' in comparing tolstoy's literary achievement with that of western writers, one should make a large allowance for the continual annoyance, delay, mutilation, and suppression inflicted on him by that terrible satellite of despotism. 1853 in january, the battery in which leo tolstoy served went on active service against shámyl. the expedition assembled at fort grózny, where scenes of debauchery occurred. on 18th february tolstoy's life was in great danger. a shell fired by the enemy smashed the carriage of a cannon he was pointing. strange to say he was not even wounded. on 1st april he returned with his detachment to starogládovsk; and in may we find him writing to his brother sergius that he had applied for his discharge, and hoped in six weeks' time to return home a free man. difficult as his admission to the army had been, he found, however, that to retire was a yet harder matter, destined to take not weeks but years. on 13th june his life was again in danger owing to an adventure which supplied him with the subject he utilised later on in _a prisoner in the caucasus_. it being dangerous to travel between the russian forts without an escort, non-combatants, as well as stores and baggage, were periodically convoyed from one post to another. on these expeditions it was forbidden for any one to detach himself from the main body; but the intolerable slowness of the infantry march on a hot day, frequently tempted those who were mounted, to ride on, and to run the risk of being attacked by the 'tartars' (who were generally circassians). on one such occasion five horsemen, including tolstoy and his friend sádo, disobeyed the regulations and rode ahead. the two friends ascended the hillside to see whether any foes were visible, while their three companions proceeded along the valley below. hardly had the two reached the crest of the ridge when they saw thirty mounted tartars galloping towards them. calculating that there was not time to rejoin their companions in the valley, tolstoy shouted them a warning, and raced off along the ridge towards fort grózny, which was their destination. the three did not, at first, take his warning seriously, but wasting some precious moments before turning to rejoin the column, were overtaken by the tartars, and two of them were very severely wounded before a rescue party from the convoy put the enemy to flight. meanwhile tolstoy and sádo, pursued by seven horsemen along the hill ridge, had to ride nearly three miles to reach the fort. it so happened that tolstoy was trying a young horse of sádo's, while sádo was riding tolstoy's ambler, which could not gallop. though tolstoy could easily have escaped on sádo's fiery horse, he would not desert his comrade. sádo had a gun, unluckily not loaded, and so he could only make a pretence with it of aiming at his pursuers. it seemed almost certain that both fugitives would be killed; but apparently the tartars decided to capture them alive, perhaps wishing to revenge themselves on sádo for being a pro-russian, and therefore they did not shoot them down. at last a sentinel at grózny having espied their plight, gave the alarm and some cossacks galloped to their rescue. at sight of these, the tartars made off and the fugitives escaped uninjured. tolstoy continued his habit of forming resolutions; and about this time he wrote: 'be straightforward, not rough, but frank with all men; yet not childishly frank without any need.... refrain from wine and women ... the pleasure is so small and uncertain, and the remorse so great.... devote yourself completely to whatever you do. on experiencing any strong sensation, wait; but having once considered the matter, though wrongly, act decisively.' from the middle of july to october, tolstoy again stayed at pyatigórsk. a companion he had brought with him to the caucasus was his black bulldog, boúlka. he intended to leave it at home, but after he had started, the dog had broken a pane of glass and escaped from the room in which it was confined, and when tolstoy, after stopping at the first post-station, was just resuming his journey, he saw something black racing along the road after him. it was boúlka, who rushed to his master, licked his hand, and lay down panting in the shade of a cart. the dog had galloped nearly fourteen miles in the heat of the day, and was rewarded by being taken to the caucasus, where it was destined to meet with many adventures. on one occasion this dog boldly attacked a wild boar, and had its stomach ripped open by the latter's tusk. while its wound was being sewn up, the dog licked its master's hand. on another occasion, when tolstoy was sitting at night with a friend in the village street, intending to start for pyatigórsk at daybreak, they suddenly heard a sucking-pig squeal, and guessed that a wolf was killing it. tolstoy ran into the house, seized a loaded gun, and returned in time to see a wolf running straight towards him from the other side of a wattle-fence. the wolf jumped on to the top of the fence and descended close to tolstoy who, almost touching him with the muzzle of his gun, drew the trigger. the gun missed fire, and the wolf raced off, chased by boúlka and by tolstoy's setter, milton. the wolf escaped, but not till it had snapped at boúlka and inflicted a slight wound on his head. strange to say, the wolf ventured to return a little later into the middle of the street, and again escaped unhurt. not long after, in pyatigórsk, shortly before tolstoy left the caucasus, while drinking coffee in the garden of his lodging, he heard a tremendous noise of men and dogs, and, on inquiry, learnt that convicts had been let out of gaol to kill the dogs, of whom there were too many in the town, but that orders had been given to spare dogs wearing collars. as ill-luck would have it, tolstoy had removed boúlka's collar; and boúlka, apparently recognising the convicts as his natural enemies, rushed out into the street and flew at one of them. a man had just freed the long hook he carried, from the corpse of a dog he had caught and held down while his companions beat it to death with bludgeons. he now adroitly hooked boúlka and drew the unfortunate dog towards him, calling to his mate to kill it, which the latter prepared to do. boúlka however bounded aside with such force that the skin of his thigh burst where the hook held it, and with tail between his legs and a red wound on his thigh, he flew back into the house and hid under tolstoy's bed. his escape was not of much use. the wolf that had snapped at him six weeks before must have been mad, for boúlka after showing premonitory symptoms of rabies, disappeared, and was never heard of more. tolstoy's state of mind during the latter part of this year is indicated by his letters. to his brother sergius he wrote on 20th july: i think i already wrote you that i have sent in my resignation. god knows, however, on account of the war with turkey, whether it will be accepted, or when. this disturbs me very much, for i have now grown so accustomed to happy thoughts of soon settling down in the country, that to return to starogládovsk and again wait unendingly--as i have to wait for everything connected with my service--will be very unpleasant. again, in december, he writes from starogládovsk: please write about my papers quickly. this is necessary. '_when shall i come home?_' god only knows. for nearly a year i have been thinking only of how to sheath my sword, but still cannot manage it. and as i must fight somewhere, i think it will be pleasanter to do so in turkey than here, and i have therefore applied to prince serge dmítrievitch [gortchakóf] about it, and he writes me that he has written to his brother, but what the result will be, i do not know. it will be remembered that tolstoy's paternal grandmother was a gortchakóf. through her he was nearly related to prince s. d. gortchakóf and to his brother, prince michael dmítrievitch gortchakóf, who had been a friend of his father's in the war of 1812, and was now in command of the russian army on the danube. the letter continues: at any rate by new year i expect to change my way of life, which i confess wearies me intolerably. stupid officers, stupid conversations, and nothing else. if there were but a single man to whom one could open one's soul! tourgénef is right: 'what irony there is in solitude,'--one becomes palpably stupid oneself. although nikólenka has gone off with the hounds--heaven knows why (epíshka[13] and i often call him 'a pig' for so doing)--i go out hunting alone for whole days at a time from morning to evening, with a setter. that is my only pleasure--and not a pleasure but a narcotic. one tires oneself out, gets famished, sleeps like the dead, and a day has passed. when you have an opportunity, or are yourself in moscow, buy me dickens' _david copperfield_ in english, and send me _sadler's english dictionary_ which is among my books. [13] the cossack hunter epíshka, the original of eróshka, who figures so prominently in _the cossacks_. of the entries in his diary at this time, we may note the following: all the prayers i have invented i replace by the one prayer, 'our father.' all the requests i can make to god are far more loftily expressed and more worthily of him, in the words 'thy kingdom come, as in heaven so on earth.' about this time he completed his _memoirs of a billiard marker_, and sent it to the _contemporary_ with a letter expressing his own dissatisfaction with the hasty workmanship of the story; it did not appear till more than a year later. he was also now at work on _boyhood_. seventeen years after tolstoy had left the caucasus, an officer stationed at starogládovsk found his memory still fresh among the cossacks, and saw mariána (comparatively aged by that time), as well as several elderly cossack hunters who had shot wild fowl and wild boars with tolstoy. in his regiment he left the reputation of being an excellent narrator, who enthralled every one by his conversation. 1854 not till january 1854 did the long-expected order arrive allowing him to pass the examination (a pure formality at that time) entitling him to become an officer. on the 19th he left for home, and on 2nd february reached yásnaya, where he enjoyed a three weeks' stay with his aunt tatiána, his brother, and a friend. on this journey he encountered a severe storm, to which we owe _the snow storm_, published a couple of years later, and probably also much of the storm description in _master and man_, written in later life. the russo-turkish war had now begun in earnest, and, as a result of his application, he received orders to join the army of the danube, which he set out accordingly to do. of the caucasian period of his life, as of his university days, tolstoy has at different times expressed himself differently. to birukóf, in 1905, he spoke of it as one of the best times of his life, notwithstanding all his deflections from his dimly recognised ideals. yet two years earlier, writing of the four periods of his life, he had spoken of 'the terrible twenty years of coarse dissipation, the service of ambition, vanity, and above all, of lust,' which followed after the age of fourteen. but what it comes to is, that tolstoy is a man of moods, and judges himself and others, sometimes by ordinary and sometimes by extraordinary standards. chief authorities for chapter iii birukof. behrs. u. bitovt, _graf l. tolstoy v literatoure i iskousstve_: petersburg, 1903. (hereafter called 'bitovt.') though ill-arranged, this book is valuable to any one engaged on the difficult task of compiling a bibliography of tolstoy's works. nekrasof's letters to tolstoy published in the literary supplement to the _niva_, february 1898. much light is also thrown on this period of tolstoy's life by the following works, which must not be considered autobiographical: _the raid._ _the wood-felling._ _meeting a moscow acquaintance._ _the cossacks_, and _the snow storm_, as well as by stories included in tolstoy's _readers_: _boulka._ _boulka and the wild boar._ _milton and boulka._ _boulka and the wolf._ _what happened to boulka in pyatigorsk._ _boulka's and milton's end._ _a prisoner in the caucasus._ chapter iv the crimean war joins army of the danube. siege of silistria. sevastopol. projected newspaper. _sevastopol in december._ battle of the tchérnaya. capture of the maláhof. courier to petersburg. song. relations with superiors and fellow-officers. self-depreciation. _the wood-felling._ _sevastopol in may._ the censor. on war. at twenty-five years of age it fell to tolstoy's lot to take part in a great european war and thereby to extend the range of his experience in a way that considerably affected his subsequent life and writings. tolstoy tells us that he got his first understanding of war from stendhal, the author of _le rouge et le noir_ and _la chartreuse de parme_. in conversation with paul boyer, tolstoy once spoke of those novels as inimitable works of art, adding, 'i am greatly indebted to stendhal. he taught me to understand war. re-read the description of the battle of waterloo in _la chartreuse de parme_. who ever before so described war? described it, that is, as it is in reality? do you remember fabrice riding over the field of battle and understanding "nothing"?' tolstoy's brother nicholas, though fond of war, also disbelieved in the popular romantic view of it, and used to say: 'all _that_ is embellishment, and in real war there is no embellishment.'--'a little later, in the crimea,' added tolstoy in his talk with boyer, 'i had a grand chance to see with my own eyes that this is so.' of the causes that led to the war it need only be said that the rule of the turks over christian populations had long kept a dangerous sore open in europe, and the consequent diplomatic difficulties were complicated by the indefiniteness of two lines in the treaty of kainardji, which catherine the great had imposed upon turkey in 1774. there was also friction between the eastern and western churches, with reference to the custody of the places in palestine rendered holy by their traditional connection with the prince of peace. nicholas i, who had wellnigh drilled all intelligence out of those near him in his government and in his army, was not accustomed to be thwarted. dimly conscious of the first faint symptoms of that growth of liberalism which a few years later, in the early 'sixties, led to sweeping reforms in russia, he felt inclined to demonstrate the beneficence of his rule not by allowing changes to be made at home, but by arbitrarily inflicting reforms on turkey. failing to get his way by diplomatic pressure, he rashly proceeded to occupy the danubian principalities as a 'material guarantee' of turkey's compliance with his demands. he was opposed by austria and prussia as strongly as by england and france, and the pressure exerted by the four powers sufficed to compel him to withdraw his army from turkish soil. thereupon the war, which had as yet been waged only between russia and turkey, might well have ended, had not england and france undertaken a quite needless invasion of the crimea: an enterprise in which austria and prussia refused to join. the end did not justify the proceedings, for in spite of success in this war, napoleon the third's dynasty crumbled to dust within twenty years, while within a like period after palmerston's death lord salisbury frankly admitted that we had 'put our money on the wrong horse.' as to nicholas i, his pride was destined to be bitterly mortified by the results of an enterprise which not only failed of its immediate object, but by its failure actually hastened the coming of those reforms in russia against which he had set his face. even turkey did not really benefit by being allowed to oppress her subject races for a couple of generations longer. it was the influence of napoleon iii, as kinglake has pointed out, that led england to take part in the war. having by treachery and murder made himself emperor of the french, that monarch found himself for a time dangerously isolated from the support of people of good repute. in consultation with palmerston, he decided to subordinate the traditional eastern policy of his country to that of england if thereby he could succeed in being publicly paraded as the friend and ally of queen victoria. as soon as he had secured an alliance with england, with palmerston's aid, and helped by the extraordinary war fever which seized the english nation, he quickly forced the peacefully disposed lord aberdeen along an inclined plane which ultimately plunged both nations into a war for which no sufficient motive justification or excuse existed. 1854 hostilities between russia and turkey had begun in october 1853, but france and england did not break off negotiations with the former power till the end of march 1854, the very month in which tolstoy reached bucharest on his way through wallachia to join the army. from there he wrote to his aunt, telling of his journey. the roads after he had passed khersón, and especially after he had crossed the frontier, were abominable; his journey lasted nine days; and he 'arrived almost ill with fatigue.' a few days later, on 17th march, he wrote of his first interview with gortchakóf: [14]le prince gortchakóf n'était pas ici. hier il vient d'arriver et je viens de chez lui. il m'a reçu mieux que je ne croyais--en vrai parent. il m'a embrassé, il m'a engagé de venir dîner tous les jours chez lui et il veut me garder auprès de lui, mais ce n'est pas encore décidé. pardon, chère tante, que je vous écris peu--je n'ai pas encore la tête à moi,--cette grande et belle ville, toutes ces présentations, l'opéra italien, le théâtre français, les deux jeunes gortchakóf qui sont de très braves garçons ... de sorte que je ne suis pas resté deux heures chez moi, et je n'ai pas pensé à mes occupations. [14] prince gortchakóf was not here. he arrived yesterday, and i have just come from his lodgings. he received me better than i expected--quite as a relation. he embraced me, and made me promise to dine at his house every day. he wants to keep me near him, but this is not yet decided. forgive me, dear aunt, for writing but little to you--i have not yet collected my wits; this large and fine town, all these presentations, the italian opera, the french theatre, the two young gortchakófs, who are very fine lads ... so that i have not remained two hours at home, and have not thought of my duties. on 22nd march he adds: 'i learnt yesterday that i am not to remain with the prince, but am to go to oltenitza to join my battery.' in may he wrote: [15]tandis que vous me croyez exposé à tous les dangers de la guerre je n'ai pas encore senti la poudre turque, et je suis très tranquillement à boukarest à me promener, à faire de la musique et à manger des glaces. en effet tout ce temps, excepté deux semaines que j'ai passées à oltenitza où j'ai été attaché à une batterie, et une semaine que j'ai passée en courses par la moldavie, valachie et bessarabie par ordre du gén. serjpoutóvsky auprès duquel je suis à présent _by special appointment_, je suis resté à boukarest et à vous avouer franchement, ce genre de vie un peu dissipé, tout à fait oisif et très coûteux que je mène ici me déplaît infiniment. auparavant c'était le service qui m'y retenait, mais à présent j'y suis resté pendant près de trois semaines à cause d'une fièvre que j'ai attrapée pendant mon voyage, mais dont, dieu merci, je suis pour le moment assez rétabli pour rejoindre dans deux ou trois jours mon général qui est au camp près de silistrie. a propos de mon général, il a l'air d'être un très brave homme et paraît, quoique nous nous connaissons fort peu, être bien disposé à mon égard. ce qui est encore fort agréable est que son état-major est composé pour la plupart de gens comme il faut. [15] while you are fancying me exposed to all the dangers of war, i have not yet smelt turkish powder, but am very quietly at bucharest, strolling about, making music, and eating ices. in fact, all this time, except for two weeks i spent at oltenitza, where i was attached to a battery, and one week i passed making excursions in moldavia wallachia and bessarabia by order of general serzhpoutóvsky, on whose staff i now am by special appointment, i have been at bucharest; and to speak frankly, the rather dissipated, quite idle and very expensive kind of life that i lead here, displeases me very much. formerly it was the service that kept me here; but now for three weeks i have been kept here by a fever caught during my journey, but from which, thank god, i have for the present recovered sufficiently to be able in two or three days' time to rejoin my general, who is in camp near silistria. apropos of my general, he appears to be a very fine fellow, and though we know each other very slightly, seems well disposed toward me. what is also agreeable is that his staff consists for the most part of gentlemen. we shall find tolstoy modifying this opinion, a little later on; but it is worth noting that at this time he was fully alive to the superiority of '_gens comme il faut_,' and that his depreciation of them in later years may have been partly a reaction from a previous over-valuation. by june 1854 the military and political situation was as follows. the russians had advanced through moldavia and wallachia to the danube, had crossed that river, and were besieging silistria. austria, supporting the other great powers, had massed a powerful army on the turkish frontier, and a glance at the map of europe will show that the russian army, far removed from its base, was in imminent danger of being cut off by the austrians, who peremptorily summoned russia to evacuate the principalities, and on 14th june concluded a formal alliance with the porte. these circumstances explain the sudden abandonment of the siege of silistria mentioned in the following letter, addressed by leo tolstoy to his aunt tatiána and to his brother nicholas conjointly; though when he wrote it, the causes which produced the result he described were a mystery to him. [16]je vais vous parler donc de mes souvenirs de silistrie. j'y ai vu tant de choses intéressantes, poétiques et touchantes que le temps que j'y ai passé ne s'effacera jamais de ma mémoire. notre camp était disposé de l'autre côté du danube c.à d. sur la rive droite sur un terrain très élevé au milieu de superbes jardins, appartenant à mustafa pasha--le gouverneur de silistrie. la vue de cet endroit est non seulement magnifique, mais pour nous tous du plus grand intérêt. sans parler du danube, de ces îles et de ces rivages, les uns occupés par nous, les autres par les turcs, on voyait la ville, la forteresse, les petits forts de silistrie comme sur la main. on entendait les coups de canons, de fusils qui ne cessaient ni jour ni nuit, et avec une lunette d'approche on pouvait distinguer les soldats turcs. il est vrai que c'est un drôle de plaisir que de voir de gens s'entretuer et cependant tous les soirs et matins je me mettais sur ma cart et je restais des heures entières à regarder et ce n'était pas moi le seul qui le faisait. le spectacle était vraiment beau, surtout la nuit. les nuits ordinairement mes soldats se mettent aux travaux des tranchées, et les turcs se jettent sur eux pour les en empêcher, alors il fallait voir et entendre cette fusillade. la première nuit que j'ai passée au camp ce bruit terrible m'a reveillé et effrayé, je croyais qu'on est allé a l'assaut et j'ai bien vite fait seller mon cheval, mais ceux qui avait déjà passé quelque temps au camp me dirent que je n'avais qu'à me tenir tranquille, que cette canonnade et fusillade était une chose ordinaire et qu'on appela en plaisantant, 'allah'; alors je me suis recouché, mais ne pouvant m'endormir je me suis amusé, une montre à la main, à compter les coups de canon que j'entendais et j'ai compté 110 explosions dans l'espace d'une minute. et cependant tout ceci n'a eu de près l'air aussi effrayant que cela le paraît. la nuit, quand on n'y voyait rien, c'était à qui brûlerait le plus de poudre et avec ces milliers de coups de canons on tuait tout au plus une trentaine d'hommes de part et d'autre. ceci donc est un spectacle ordinaire que nous avions tous les jours et dans lequel, quand on m'envoyait avec des ordres dans les tranchées, je prenais aussi ma part; mais nous avions aussi des spectacles extraordinaires, comme celui de la veille de l'assaut quand on a fait sauter une mine de 240 pouds de poudre sous un des bastions de l'ennemi. le matin de cette journée le prince avait été aux tranchées avec tout son état-major (comme le général auprès duquel j'étais en fait partie, j'y ai aussi été) pour faire les dispositions définies--vu pour l'assaut du lendemain. le plan, trop long pour que je puisse l'expliquer ici, était si bien fait, tout était si bien prévu que personne ne doutait de la réussite. a propos de cela il faut que je vous dise encore que je commence à avoir de l'admiration pour le prince (au reste il faut en entendre parler parmi les officiers et les soldats, non seulement je n'ai jamais entendu dire du mal de lui, mais il est généralement adoré). je l'ai vu au feu pour la première fois pendant cette matinée. il faut voir cette figure un peu ridicule avec sa grande taille, ses mains derrière le dos, sa casquette en arrière, ses lunettes et sa manière de parler comme un dindon. on voit qu'il était tellement occupé de la marche générale des affaires que les balles et les boulets n'existaient pas pour lui; il s'expose au danger avec tant de simplicité, qu'on dirait qu'il n'en a pas l'idée et qu'involontairement qu'on n'a plus peur de lui que pour soi-même; et puis donnant ses ordres avec tant de clarté et de précision et avec cela toujours affable avec chacun. c'est un grand, c.à d. un homme qui s'est voué toute sa vie au service de sa patrie et pas par l'ambition, mais par le devoir. je vais vous raconter un trait de lui qui se lie à l'histoire de cet assaut que j'ai commencé à raconter. l'après-dîner du même jour on a fait sauter la mine, et près de 600 pièces d'artillerie ont fait feu sur le fort qu'on voulait prendre, et on continuait ce feu pendant toute la nuit, c'était un de ces coups d'oeil et une de ces émotions qu'on n'oublie jamais. le soir de nouveau le prince, avec tout le tremblement, est allé coucher aux tranchées pour diriger lui-même l'assaut qui devait commencer à 3 heures de la nuit même. nous étions tous là et comme toujours à la veille d'une bataille nous faisions tous semblant de ne pas plus penser de la journée de demain qu'à une journée ordinaire et tous, j'en suis sûr, au fond du coeur ressentaient un petit serrement de coeur et pas même un petit mais un grand, à l'idée de l'assaut. comme tu sais que le temps qui précède une affaire est le temps le plus désagréable--c'est le seul où on a le temps d'avoir peur, et la peur est un sentiment des plus désagréables. vers le matin, plus le moment approchait, plus le sentiment diminuait et vers 3 heures quand nous attendions tous à voir partir le bouquet de fusées qui était le signal de l'attaque--j'étais si bien disposé que si l'on était venu me dire que l'assaut n'aurait pas lieu, cela m'aurait fait beaucoup de peine. et voilà que juste une heure avant le moment de l'assaut arrive un aide de camp du maréchal avec l'ordre d'ôter le siège de silistrie. je puis dire sans craindre de me tromper que cette nouvelle a été reçue par tous--soldats, officiers et généraux--comme un vrai malheur, d'autant plus qu'on savait par les espions, qui nous venaient très souvent de silistrie, et avec lesquels j'avais très souvent l'occasion de causer moi-même, on savait que ce fort pris,--chose dont personne ne doutait--silistrie ne pouvait tenir plus de 2 ou 3 jours. n'est-ce pas que si cette nouvelle devait faire de la peine à quelqu'un ce devait être au prince, qui pendant toute cette campagne ayant fait toute chose pour le mieux, au beau milieu de l'action vit venir le maréchal sur son dos pour gâter les affaires et puis ayant la seule chance de réparer nos revers par cet assaut, il reçoit le contre ordre du maréchal au moment de le commencer. eh bien, le prince n'a pas eu un moment de mauvaise humeur, lui, qui est si impressionable, au contraire il a été content de pouvoir éviter cette boucherie, dont il devait porter la responsabilité et tout le temps de la retraite qu'il a dirigé lui-même, ne voulant passer qu'avec le dernier des soldats, qui s'est faite avec un ordre et une exactitude remarquables, il a été plus gai qu'il n'a jamais été. ce qui contribuait beaucoup à sa bonne humeur, c'était l'émigration de près de 7000 familles bulgares, que nous prenons avec pour le souvenir de la férocité des turcs--férocité a laquelle malgré mon incredulité j'ai été obligé de croire. dès que nous avons quitté des différents villages bulgares que nous occupions, les turcs y sont revenus et excepté les femmes assez jeunes pour un harem, ils ont fait main basse sur tout ce qu'il y avait. il y a un village dans lequel je suis allé du camp pour y prendre du lait et des fruits qui a été exterminé de la sorte. alors dès que le prince avait fait savoir aux bulgares que ceux qui voulaient pouvaient avec l'armée passer le danube et devenir sujets russes, tout le pays se soulève et tous avec leurs femmes, enfants, chevaux, bétails arrivent au pont,--mais comme il était impossible de les prendre tous, le prince a été obligé de refuser à ceux qui sont venus les derniers et il fallait voir comme cela le chagrinait. il recevait toutes les députations qui venaient de ces pauvres gens, il causait avec chacun d'eux, tâchait de leur expliquer l'impossibilité de la chose, leur proposait de passer sans leurs chariots et leur bétail et en se chargeant de leurs moyens de subsistence jusqu'à ce qu'ils arrivassent en russie, payant de sa propre bourse des vaisseaux particuliers pour les transporter, en un mot faisant tout son possible pour faire du bien à ces gens. oui, chère tante, je voudrais bien que votre prophétie se réalise. la chose que j'ambitionne le plus, est d'être l'aide de camp d'un homme comme lui que j'aime et que j'estime du plus profond de mon coeur. adieu, chère et bonne tante; je baise vos mains. [16] i am going to tell you of my recollections of silistria. i there saw so much that was interesting, poetic and touching, that the time i passed there will never be effaced from my memory. our camp was on the other side of the danube, _i.e._ on the right bank, on very high ground amid splendid gardens belonging to mustafa pasha, the governor of silistria. the view from that place is not only magnificent, but of the greatest interest to us all. not to speak of the danube, its islets and its banks, some occupied by us, others by the turks, one could see the town, the fortress and the little forts of silistria as on the palm of one's hand. one heard the booming of cannon and musket-shots unceasingly day and night; and with a spy-glass one could distinguish the turkish soldiers. it is true it is a queer sort of pleasure to see people killing one another, yet every evening and every morning i got on to my cart and remained for hours at a time, watching: nor was i the only one who did so. the sight was really fine, especially at night. at night my soldiers usually undertake trench-work, and the turks fling themselves upon them to hinder them; then one should see and hear the fusillade! the first night i passed in camp, this dreadful noise awoke and frightened me: i thought an assault had begun. i very soon had my horse saddled; but those who had been already some time in camp told me that i had only to keep quiet: that this cannonade and fusillade was an ordinary affair, and they jestingly called it 'allah.' then i lay down again; but not being able to sleep, i amused myself, watch in hand, counting the cannon-shots, and i counted 110 reports in a minute. and yet, at close quarters, all this did not look so terrible as might be supposed. at night, when nothing was visible, it was a case of who could burn most powder, and with all these thousands of cannon-shots at most some thirty men were killed on each side.... this then was an ordinary performance we had every day, and one in which i took a share when i was sent to the trenches with orders; but we also had extraordinary performances, such as the one on the eve of the attack, when a mine of 240 poods (8600 lbs.) of gunpowder was exploded under one of the enemy's bastions. on the morning of that day the prince had been to the trenches with all his staff (and as the general i was attached to belong to it, i was there too) to make the final arrangements for next day's assault. the plan--too long for me to explain here--was so well arranged, all was so well foreseen, that no one doubted its success. apropos of this i must tell you further that i am beginning to feel admiration for the prince (for that matter you should hear how the officers and soldiers speak of him: not only have i never heard him spoken ill of, but he is generally adored). that morning i saw him under fire for the first time. you should see his rather absurd tall figure, his hands behind his back, his cap on the back of his head, his spectacles, and his way of speaking like a turkey-cock. one could see that he was so preoccupied with the general trend of affairs that the balls and bullets did not exist as far as he was concerned. he exposes himself to danger so simply that one would say he was unconscious of it, and involuntarily one fears it only for oneself; [the text here is obscure, and the meaning a little doubtful] and then he gives his orders with such clearness and precision, and is at the same time always so affable with everybody. he is a great man, _i.e._ a capable and honest man, as i understand the word: one who has dedicated his whole life to the service of his country, and not from ambition, but for the sake of duty. i will give you a trait of his character connected with the story i had begun to tell you of the assault. after dinner that same day, the mine was sprung, and nearly 600 guns opened fire on the fort we wished to take, and this continued the whole night. it was such a sight and such an emotion as one never forgets. that evening the prince, amid all the commotion, went to sleep in the trenches, that he might personally direct the assault, which was to begin at 3 o'clock the same night. we were all there, and as usual on the eve of a battle, we all made believe not to think of the morrow more than of any other day, and we all, i am sure, at bottom, felt our hearts contract a little (and not a little, but a great deal) at the thought of the assault. as you know, the time before a fight is the most disagreeable: it is only then that one has time to be afraid, and fear is a most disagreeable feeling. towards morning, the nearer the moment came the more the feeling diminished, and towards 3 o'clock when we were all expecting to see a shower of rockets let off, which was the signal for the attack, i was so well inclined for it that i should have been much disappointed if any one had come to tell me that the attack was not to take place. and there! just an hour before the time for the attack, an aide-de-camp comes from the field-marshal [paskévitch, who for a time took over the supreme command of the army of the danube] with orders to raise the siege of silistria! i can say, without fear of making a mistake, that this news was received by all, soldiers, officers, and generals, as a real misfortune, the more so as we knew from the spies--who very often came to us from silistria, and with whom i very often had occasion to speak--that once we had taken this fort (about which none of us felt any doubt) silistria could not have held out for more than 2 or 3 days. is it not true that if this news was calculated to pain any one, it must have been the prince, who having all through this campaign arranged everything for the best, yet saw, in the very middle of the action, the field-marshal override him and spoil the business? having this one chance to repair our reverses by this assault, he received counter-orders from the field-marshal at the moment of commencing! well, the prince was not put out of temper for a moment. he who is so impressionable, was, on the contrary, pleased to be able to avoid that butchery, the responsibility for which he would have had to bear; and during the whole time of the retreat--which he directed personally, not wishing to cross (the danube) before the last of the soldiers--which took place with remarkable order and exactitude, he was gayer than he has ever been. what contributed much to his good humour, was the emigration of nearly 7000 bulgarian families, whom we took with us as a reminder of the ferocity of the turks: a ferocity in which, in spite of my incredulity, i was obliged to believe. as soon as we quitted the different bulgarian villages we had occupied, the turks returned to them, and except women young enough for a harem, they made a clean sweep of all that was in them. there was one village to which i went from the camp for milk and fruit, which had been exterminated in this way. so, as soon as the prince let the bulgarians know that those who wished to, could cross the danube with our army and could become russian subjects, the whole country rose, and with their wives, children, horses and cattle, came to the bridge: but as it was impossible to take them all, the prince was obliged to refuse the last arrivals, and you should have seen how it grieved him to do so. he received all the deputations which came from these poor folk, and spoke with them all: trying to explain the impossibility of the matter, offering to let them cross without their carts and cattle, charging himself with their support till they could reach russia, and out of his own purse paying for private ships to transport them; in a word, doing his very best for the welfare of these people. yes, dear aunt, i should much like your prophecy to come true. what i desire most is to be aide-de-camp to such a man as he, whom i love and esteem from the bottom of my heart. adieu, dear and kind aunt. i kiss your hands. the army retired to bucharest, and here, at an officers' ball, tolstoy seized an opportunity to beg gortchakóf to have him transferred to where service would be most active. the retreat from silistria took place at the end of june, and on 2nd august we find tolstoy starting for russia. on the journey he fell ill and had to lie up in hospital. on 13th november in kishinéf he renewed his application for an appointment in the crimea, and was ordered to sevastopol, which he reached on the 20th of that month.[17] [17] in this chapter the dates, when possible, are given new style (12 days later than the russian style), in order that they may tally with english accounts of the crimean war. 1854 the situation there, at this time, was the following. the allies had landed in the crimea to the north of sevastopol on 14th september, and had defeated the russian army under ménshikof on the 20th at alma. instead of marching straight into the town, which was almost undefended, they had then gone round and encamped on the south side, where they remained inactive till 17th october, by which time todleben, an engineer of rare genius, had thrown up earthworks and mounted guns (many of them taken from the russian ships ménshikof sank at the entrance to the roadstead). ménshikof himself had practically abandoned the town, withdrawing the bulk of his army northward; but the situation was saved by the patriotism of just that section of the russian forces which had been least exposed to the deadening influence of nicholas the first's militarism,--namely by the officers and men of the fleet. inspired by the example of the heroic admiral kornílof (who lost his life during the siege) they rallied to the defence with a courageous devotion seldom paralleled. their example awoke enthusiasm throughout russia and compelled ménshikof to supply reinforcements, which enabled the town to hold out for eleven months, in spite of the great superiority of the allies in rifles, artillery and the modern equipments of war generally. tolstoy reached sevastopol when the defence was already fully organised, and when (in spite of the repulse experienced by the russians at inkerman) the garrison had gained confidence in their powers of resistance, and had settled down to a dogged defence. of the hospitals, in which the wounded saw one another's limbs amputated while waiting their own turn; of the staff officers, who managed to amuse themselves pretty well during the siege; of the commissariat officers, flourishing amid the general havoc; as well as of the line and non-commissioned officers and privates, upon whom the greatest hardships fell, tolstoy gives vivid glimpses in the sketches he wrote during the siege. a fortnight after his arrival he writes, from somewhere outside the town, to his brother sergius, apologising for not having sent him a letter sooner, and adds: so much have i learnt, experienced, and felt this year that i positively do not know what to begin to describe, nor how to describe it as i wish to.... silistria is now ancient history, and we have sevastopol, of which i suppose you all read with beating hearts, and where i was four days ago. well, how can i tell you all i saw there, and where i went and what i did, and what the prisoners and wounded french and english say; and _whether it hurts them and hurts very much_,[18] and what heroes our enemies are, especially the english? i will tell all that later at yásnaya or at pirogóvo; and you will learn much of it from me through the press. how this will happen, i will explain later; but now let me give you an idea of the position of affairs in sevastopol. the town is besieged from one side, the south, where we had no fortifications when the enemy approached it. now we have on that side more than 500 heavy guns, and several lines of earthworks, positively impregnable. i spent a week in the fortress, and to the last day used to lose my way among that labyrinth of batteries, as in a wood. more than three weeks ago the enemy advanced his trenches at one place to within 200 yards, but gets no further. when he makes the smallest advance he is overwhelmed with a hailstorm of shot and shell. [18] this must refer to some family joke, as it occurs in other letters home, apropos of people who were killed. the spirit of the army is beyond all description. in the times of ancient greece there was not such heroism. kornílof, making the round of the troops, instead of greeting them with, 'good health to you, lads!' says: 'if you have to die, lads, will you die?' and the troops shout, 'we'll die, your excellency! hurrah!' and they do not say it for effect. on every face one saw that it was not jest but earnest; and 22,000 men have already fulfilled the promise. a wounded soldier, almost dying, told me they captured the 24th french battery but were not reinforced; and he wept aloud. a company of marines nearly mutinied because they were to be withdrawn from batteries in which they had been exposed to shell-fire for thirty days. the soldiers extract the fuses from the shells. women carry water to the bastions for the soldiers. many are killed and wounded. the priests with their crosses go to the bastions and read prayers under fire. in one brigade, the 24th, more than 160 wounded men would not leave the front. it is a wonderful time! now, however, after the 24th, we have quieted down; it has become splendid in sevastopol. the enemy hardly fires, and all are convinced that he will not take the town; and it is really impossible.... i have not yet succeeded in being in action even once; but thank god that i have seen these people and live in this glorious time. the bombardment of the 5th [17 october, n.s.] remains the most brilliant and glorious feat not only in the history of russia, but in the history of the world. more than 1500 cannon were in action for two days against the town, and not only did not cause it to capitulate, but did not silence one two-hundredth part of our batteries. though, i suppose, this campaign is unfavourably regarded in russia, our descendants will place it above all others; do not forget that we, with equal or even inferior forces, and armed only with bayonets, and with the worst troops in the russian army (such as the 6th corps) are fighting a more numerous enemy aided by a fleet, armed with 3000 cannon, excellently supplied with rifles and with their best troops. i do not even mention the superiority of their generals. only our army could hold its ground and conquer (we shall yet conquer, of that i am convinced) under such circumstances. you should see the french and english prisoners (especially the latter): they are each one better than the other--morally and physically fine fellows. the cossacks say it is even a pity to cut them down, and alongside of them you should see some chasseurs or others of ours: small, lousy, and shrivelled up. now i will tell you how you will get printed news from me of the deeds of these lousy and shrivelled heroes. in our artillery staff, consisting, as i think i wrote you, of very good and worthy men, a project has been started for publishing a military newspaper, in order to maintain a good spirit in the army--a cheap paper (at rs. 3) and popularly written, so that the soldiers may read it. we have drawn up a plan and submitted it to the prince. he likes the idea very much, and has submitted the project and a specimen sheet which we also wrote, for the emperor's sanction. i and stolýpin[19] are advancing the money for the publication. i have been chosen joint editor with a mr. konstantínof, who published _the caucasus_, a man experienced in such work. the paper will publish descriptions of the battles (but not such dry and mendacious ones as other papers) courageous deeds, biographies, and obituaries of good men, especially the unknown; military stories, soldiers' songs, and popular articles on engineering, artillery, etc. this plan pleases me very much: in the first place, i like the work; and secondly, i hope the paper will be useful and not quite bad. it is as yet merely a project, until we know the emperor's reply, about which i confess i have my fears. in the specimen sheet sent to petersburg, we rashly inserted two articles, one by me and one by rostóvtsef, not quite orthodox. for this business i want rs. 1500, which i have asked valeryán to send me. [19] father of the present (1908) premier of russia. i, thank god, am well, and live happily and pleasantly since i returned from turkey. in general, my army service divides up into two periods: beyond the frontier--horrid: i was ill, poor, and lonely. this side of the frontier--i am well and have good friends, though i am still poor: money simply runs away. as to writing, i do not write; but, as aunty teases me by saying, 'i test myself.' one thing disquiets me: this is the fourth year i live without female society; and i may become quite coarse and unsuited for family life, which i so enjoy. a few days later his battery was moved to simferópol, a town lying to the north of sevastopol, beyond the sphere of actual fighting. 1855 on 6th january (o.s.) he wrote to his aunt: [20]on ne se bat plus en rase campagne, à cause de l'hiver qui est extraordinairement rigoureux, surtout à présent; mais le siège dure toujours.... j'avais parlé je crois d'une occupation que j'avais en vue et qui me souriait beaucoup; à présent que la chose est décidée, je puis le dire. j'avais l'idée de fonder un journal militaire. ce projet auquel j'ai travaillé avec le concours de beaucoup de gens très distingués fut approuvé par le prince et envoyé à la décision de sa majesté, mais l'empereur a refusé. cette déconfiture, je vous l'avoue, m'a fait une peine infinie et a beaucoup changé mes plans. si dieu veut que la campagne de crimée finisse bien et si je ne reçois pas une place dont je sois content, et qu'il n'y ait pas de guerre en russie, je quitterai l'armée pour aller à pétersbourg à l'académie militaire. ce plan m'est venu, 1° parce que je voudrais ne pas abandonner la littérature dont il m'est impossible de m'occuper dans cette vie de camp, et 2° parce qu'il me paraît que je commence à devenir ambitieux, pas ambitieux, mais je voudrais faire du bien et pour le faire il faut être plus qu'un sub-lieutenant; 3° parce que je vous verrai tous et tous mes amis. [20] there is no more fighting in the open country on account of the winter, which is extraordinarily rigorous, particularly just now; but the siege still goes on.... i think i have mentioned an occupation i had in view, which promised very well--as i may say, now that it is settled. i had the idea of founding a military newspaper. this project, at which i worked with the co-operation of many very distinguished men, was approved by the prince and submitted to his majesty for his consent, but he has refused. this disappointment has, i confess, distressed me greatly, and has much altered my plans. if god wills that the crimean campaign should end well, and if i do not receive an appointment that satisfies me, and if there is no war in russia, i shall leave the army and go to petersburg to the military academy. i have formed this plan, (1) because i do not want to abandon literature, at which it is impossible to work amid this camp life; (2) because it seems to me that i am becoming ambitious: not ambitious, but i want to do some good, and to do it one must be something more than a sub-lieutenant, and (3) because i shall see you all and all my friends. in may he wrote again to his brother: from kishinéf on 1st november (o.s.), i petitioned to be sent to the crimea, partly in order to see this war, and partly to break away from serzhpoutóvsky's staff, which i did not like, but most of all from patriotism, of which at that time, i confess, i had a bad attack. i did not ask for any special appointment, but left it to those in authority to dispose of my fate. in the crimea i was appointed to a battery in sevastopol itself, where i passed a month very pleasantly amid simple, good companions, who are specially good in time of real war and danger. in december our battery was removed to simferópol, and there i spent 6 weeks in a squire's comfortable house, riding into simferópol to dance and play the piano with young ladies, and in hunting wild goats on the tchatyrdag [the highest point of the chain of mountains running across the southern part of the crimea] in company with officials. in january there was a fresh shuffling of officers, and i was removed to a battery encamped on the banks of the belbék, 7 miles from sevastopol. there i got into hot water: the nastiest set of officers in the battery; a commander who, though good-hearted, was violent and coarse; no comforts, and it was cold in the earth huts. not a single book, nor a single man with whom one could talk; and there i received the rs. 1500 [= about £180 at that time] for the newspaper, sanction for which had already been refused; and there i lost rs. 2500, and thereby proved to all the world that i am still an empty fellow, and though the previous circumstances may be taken into account in mitigation, the case is still a very, very bad one. in march it became warmer, and a good fellow, an excellent man, brenévsky, joined the battery. i began to recover myself; and on 1 april, at the very time of the bombardment, the battery was moved to sevastopol, and i quite recovered myself. there, till 15 may (o.s.) i was in serious danger, _i.e._ for four days at a time, at intervals of eight days, i was in charge of a battery in the 4th bastion; but it was spring and the weather was excellent, there was abundance of impressions and of people, all the comforts of life, and we formed a capital circle of well-bred fellows; so that those six weeks will remain among my pleasantest recollections. on 15 may gortchakóf, or the commander of the artillery, took it into his head to entrust me with the formation and command of a mountain platoon at belbék, 14 miles from sevastopol, with which arrangement i am up to the present extremely well satisfied in many respects. the transfer of tolstoy from sevastopol to belbék was not, as he supposed when he wrote this letter, a whim of gortchakóf's or of the commander of the artillery, but a result of his having written the first of his three sketches of the siege of sevastopol, _sevastopol in december_. the article, though not published in the _contemporary_ till june, had been read in proof by the emperor alexander ii [nicholas had died 2nd march, n.s.], and had caused him to give instructions to 'take care of the life of that young man,' with the result that tolstoy was removed from sevastopol. the dowager empress alexándra fédorovna also read the story and, it is said, wept over it. it was, perhaps, at this time (though i am not sure of the date) that tolstoy found himself obliged to consent to the sale of the large wooden house in which he had been born, for the wretched price of 5000 'assignation roubles' (about £170). the house was taken to pieces, and removed to the estate of the purchaser, where it still stands, though not now in use. apropos of the above letter it should be mentioned that the fourth bastion was the one english writers call 'the flagstaff bastion.' it formed the southernmost point of the fortifications, as a glance at the accompanying map will show, and it was for a long time the point exposed to the fiercest fire. throughout the siege tolstoy was accompanied by alexis, one of the four serfs presented to the young tolstoys when they entered the university. this man (who figures in more than one of tolstoy's works under the name of alyósha) brought him his rations to the bastion, a duty involving considerable danger. what the bastions were like in the first months of the siege, we learn from the following passages in the first part of _sevastopol_: [illustration] ...you want to get quickly to the bastions, especially to that fourth bastion about which you have been told so many and such different tales. when any one says, 'i am going to the fourth bastion,' a slight agitation or a too marked indifference is always noticeable in him; if men are joking they say, 'you should be sent to the fourth bastion.' when you meet some one carried on a stretcher, and ask, 'where from?' the answer usually is, 'from the fourth bastion.'... ...beyond this barricade the houses on both sides of the street are unoccupied: there are no signboards, the doors are boarded up, the windows smashed; here a corner of the walls is knocked down, and there a roof is broken in. the buildings look like old veterans who have borne much sorrow and privation; they even seem to gaze proudly and somewhat contemptuously at you. on the road you stumble over cannon-balls that lie about, and into holes full of water, made in the stony ground by bombs. you meet and overtake detachments of soldiers, cossacks, officers, and occasionally a woman or a child--only it will not be a woman wearing a bonnet, but a sailor's wife wearing an old cloak and soldier's boots. farther along the same street, after you have descended a little slope, you will notice that there are now no houses, but only ruined walls in strange heaps of bricks, boards, clay and beams, and before you, up a steep hill, you see a black untidy space cut up by ditches. this space you are approaching is the fourth bastion.... here you will meet still fewer people and no women at all, the soldiers walk briskly by, traces of blood may be seen on the road, and you are sure to meet four soldiers carrying a stretcher, and on the stretcher probably a pale, yellow face and a blood-stained overcoat.... the whiz of cannon-ball or bomb near by, impresses you unpleasantly as you ascend the hill, and you at once understand the meaning of the sounds very differently from when they reached you in the town.... you have hardly gone a little way up, when bullets begin to whiz past you right and left, and you will perhaps consider whether you had not better walk inside the trench which runs parallel to the road; but the trench is full of such yellow, liquid, stinking mud, more than knee deep, that you are sure to choose the road, especially as _everybody_ keeps to the road. after walking a couple of hundred yards, you come to a muddy place much cut up, surrounded by gabions, cellars, platforms, and dug-outs, and on which large cast-iron cannon are mounted, and cannon-balls lie piled in orderly heaps. all seems placed without any aim, connection, or order. here a group of sailors are sitting in the battery; here, in the middle of the open space, half sunk in mud, lies a shattered cannon; and there a foot-soldier is crossing the battery, drawing his feet with difficulty out of the sticky mud. everywhere, on all sides and all about, you see bomb-fragments, unexploded bombs, cannon-balls, and various traces of an encampment, all sunk in the liquid, sticky mud. you think you hear the thud of a cannon-ball not far off, and you seem to hear the different sounds of bullets all around--some humming like bees, some whistling, and some rapidly flying past with a shrill screech like the string of some instrument. you hear the awful boom of a shot which sends a shock all through you, and seems most dreadful. 'so this is it, the fourth bastion! this is that terrible, truly dreadful spot!' so you think, experiencing a slight feeling of pride and a strong feeling of suppressed fear. but you are mistaken; this is still not the fourth bastion. this is only the yazónovsky redoubt--comparatively a very safe and not at all dreadful place. to get to the fourth bastion you must turn to the right, along that narrow trench, where a foot-soldier, stooping down, has just passed. in this trench you may again meet men with stretchers, and perhaps a sailor or a soldier with spades. you will see the mouths of mines, dug-outs into which only two men can crawl, and there you will see the cossacks of the black sea battalions, changing their boots, eating, smoking their pipes, and, in short, living. and you will see again the same stinking mud, the traces of camp life, and cast-iron refuse of every shape and form. when you have gone some three hundred steps more, you come out at another battery--a flat space with many holes, surrounded with gabions filled with earth, and cannons on platforms, and the whole walled in with earthworks. here you will perhaps see four or five soldiers playing cards under shelter of the breastworks; and a naval officer, noticing that you are a stranger and inquisitive, is pleased to show you his 'household' and everything that can interest you.... he will tell you (but only if you ask) about the bombardment on the 5th of october; will tell you how only one gun in his battery remained usable and only eight gunners were left of the whole crew, and how, all the same, next morning, the 6th, he fired all his guns. he will tell you how a bomb dropped into one of the dug-outs and knocked over eleven sailors; he will show you from an embrasure the enemy's batteries and trenches, which are here not more than seventy-five to eighty-five yards distant. i am afraid, though, that when you lean out of the embrasure to have a look at the enemy, you will, under the influence of the whizzing bullets, not see anything; but if you do see anything, you will be much surprised to find that this whitish stone wall which is so near you, and from which puffs of white smoke keep bursting--that this white wall is the enemy: is _him_, as the soldiers and sailors say. it is even very likely that the naval officer, from vanity, or merely for a little recreation, will wish to show you some firing. 'call the gunner and crew to the cannon'; and fourteen sailors--clattering their hob-nailed boots on the platform, one putting his pipe in his pocket, another still chewing a rusk--quickly and cheerfully man the gun and begin loading. suddenly the most fearful roar strikes not only your ears but your whole being, and makes you shudder all over. it is followed by the whistle of the departing ball, and a thick cloud of powder-smoke envelops you, the platform, and the moving black figures of the sailors. you will hear various comments by the sailors concerning this shot of ours, and you will notice their animation, the evidences of a feeling which you had not perhaps expected: the feeling of animosity and thirst for vengeance which lies hidden in each man's soul. you will hear joyful exclamations: 'it's gone right into the embrasure! it's killed two, i think.... there, they're carrying them off!' 'and now _he's_ riled, and will send one this way,' some one remarks; and really, soon after, you will see before you a flash and some smoke; the sentinel standing on the breastwork will call out 'ca-n-non,' and then a ball will whiz past you and squash into the earth, throwing out a circle of stones and mud. the commander of the battery will be irritated by this shot and will give orders to fire another and another cannon, the enemy will reply in like manner, and you will experience interesting sensations and see interesting sights. the sentinel will again call 'cannon!' and you will have the same sound and shock, and the mud will be splashed round as before. or he will call out 'mortar!' and you will hear the regular and rather pleasant whistle--which it is difficult to connect with the thought of anything dreadful--of a bomb; you will hear this whistle coming nearer and faster towards you, then you will see a black ball, feel the shock as it strikes the ground, and will hear the ringing explosion. the bomb will fly apart into whizzing and shrieking fragments, stones will rattle into the air, and you will be bespattered with mud. at these sounds you will experience a strange feeling of mingled pleasure and fear. at the moment you know the shot is flying towards you, you are sure to imagine that this shot will kill you, but a feeling of pride will support you and no one will know of the knife that is cutting your heart. but when the shot has flown past and has not hit you, you revive, and, though only for a moment, a glad, inexpressibly joyous feeling seizes you, so that you feel some peculiar delight in the danger--in this game of life and death--and wish that bombs and balls would fall nearer and nearer to you. but again the sentinel, in his loud, thick voice, shouts 'mortar!' again a whistle, a fall, an explosion; and mingled with the last you are startled by the groans of a man. you approach the wounded man just as the stretchers are brought. covered with blood and dirt he presents a strange, not human, appearance. part of the sailor's breast has been torn away.... 'that's the way with seven or eight every day,' the naval officer remarks to you, answering the look of horror on your face, and he yawns as he rolls another yellow cigarette. as the siege progressed, things became worse, and in the last part of _sevastopol_ tolstoy, after telling how one of the characters felt satisfied with himself, continues: this feeling, however, was quickly shaken by a sight he came upon in the twilight while looking for the commander of the bastion. four sailors stood by the breastwork holding by its arms and legs the bloody corpse of a man without boots or coat, swinging it before heaving it over. (it was found impossible in some parts to clear away the corpses from the bastions, and they were, therefore, thrown out into the ditch, so as not to be in the way at the batteries.) volódya felt stunned for a moment when he saw the body bump on the top of the breastwork and then roll down into the ditch, but luckily for him the commander of the bastion met him just then and gave him his orders, as well as a guide to show him the way to the battery and to the bomb-proof assigned to his men. we will not speak of all the dangers and disenchantments our hero lived through that evening; how--instead of the firing he was used to, amid conditions of perfect exactitude and order which he had expected to meet with here also,--he found two injured mortars, one with its mouth battered in by a ball, the other standing on the splinters of its shattered platform; how he could not get workmen to mend the platform till the morning; how not a single charge was of the weight specified in the handbook; how two of the men under him were wounded, and how he was twenty times within a hair's-breadth of death. fortunately a gigantic gunner, a seaman who had served with the mortars since the commencement of the siege, had been appointed to assist volódya, and convinced him of the possibility of using the mortars. by the light of a lantern, this gunner showed him all over the battery as he might have shown him over his own kitchen-garden, and undertook to have everything right by the morning. the bomb-proof to which his guide led him was an oblong hole dug in the rocky ground, 25 cubic yards in size and covered with oak beams nearly 2-1/2 feet thick. he and all his soldiers installed themselves in it. it was during one of his sojourns in the fourth bastion, that tolstoy noted down in his diary the following prayer: lord, i thank thee for thy continual protection. how surely thou leadest me to what is good. what an insignificant creature should i be, if thou abandoned me! leave me not, lord; give me what is necessary, not for the satisfaction of my poor aspirations, but that i may attain to the eternal, vast, unknown aim of existence, which lies beyond my ken. it was due to tolstoy's own choice that he was exposed to the rough life of the bastion, for prince gortchakóf, at whose house he was a constant visitor, had offered him an appointment on his staff. this offer, which at silistria he had so ardently desired, tolstoy declined, having come to the conclusion, subsequently expressed in his writings, that the influence exercised by the staff on the conduct of a war is always pernicious! this opinion not only influenced his conduct, and expressed itself in his novels, but fitted into a general view of life he ultimately arrived at, a view the consequences of which must be dealt with in the sequel to this work. for the moment, let it suffice to mention that whereas he shows a keen appreciation of admiral kornílof's achievement in rousing the spirit of the garrison, he nowhere praises todleben's achievement in organising the defence of the town and improvising that 'labyrinth of batteries' in which tolstoy used constantly to lose his way. he says, for instance: now you have seen the defenders of sevastopol.... the principal, joyous thought you have brought away is a conviction of the strength of the russian people; and this conviction you gained, not by looking at all these traverses, breastworks, cunningly interlaced trenches, mines and cannon, one on top of another, of which you could make nothing; but from the eyes, words and actions--in short, from seeing what is called the 'spirit' of the defenders of sevastopol. to everything a man can do off his own bat and by his own effort, tolstoy is keenly alive and sympathetic; but when it comes to a complex, co-ordinated plan, involving the subordination of many parts to one whole, he is suspicious or even hostile. had he remained a subordinate officer, or even a novelist, it would not have been specially necessary to draw attention to this peculiarity; but that we may understand his later teachings, it is important to note all the roots of feeling from which they grew, and this one among the rest. to get on however with our tale. one evening, while tolstoy was sitting with the adjutants of count osten-sáken, commander of the garrison, prince s. s. ouroúsof, a brave officer and first-rate chess player (he took part in the international chess tournament of 1862, in london) and a friend of tolstoy's, entered the room and wished to speak to the general. an adjutant took him to osten-sáken's room, and ten minutes later ouroúsof passed out again, looking very glum. after he had gone, the adjutant explained that ouroúsof had come to suggest that a challenge should be sent to the english to play a game of chess for the foremost trench in front of the fifth bastion: a trench that had changed hands several times and had already cost some hundreds of lives. osten-sáken had naturally refused to issue the challenge. on 16th august tolstoy took part in the battle of the tchérnaya (black river) in which the sardinian contingent, which had arrived in may to reinforce the allies, much distinguished itself. this last attempt to relieve sevastopol failed, as its forerunners had done. three days later tolstoy wrote to his brother saying that he had not been hurt, and that 'i did nothing, as my mountain artillery was not called on to fire.' the end of the siege was now approaching, and on 8th september tolstoy, having volunteered for service in sevastopol, reached the star fort on the north side of the roadstead just in time to witness the capture of the maláhof by the french, as he has described in _sevastopol in august_.[21] [21] the _8th september_, new style, was _24th august_, old style. on the north side of the roadstead, at the star fort, near noon, two sailors stood on the 'telegraph' mound; one of them, an officer, was looking at sevastopol through the fixed telescope. another officer, accompanied by a cossack, had just ridden up to join him at the big signal-post.... along the whole line of fortifications, but especially on the high ground on the left side, appeared, several at a time, with lightnings that at times flashed bright even in the noonday sun, puffs of thick, dense, white smoke, that grew, taking various shapes and appearing darker against the sky. these clouds, showing now here now there, appeared on the hills, on the enemy's batteries, in the town, and high up in the sky. the reports of explosions never ceased, but rolled together and rent the air. towards noon the puffs appeared more and more rarely, and the air vibrated less with the booming. 'i say, the second bastion does not reply at all now!' said the officer on horseback; 'it is quite knocked to pieces. terrible!' 'yes, and the maláhof, too, sends hardly one shot in reply to three of theirs,' said he who was looking through the telescope. 'their silence provokes me! they are shooting straight into the kornílof battery, and it does not reply.' 'but look there! i told you that they always cease the bombardment about noon. it's the same to-day. come, let's go to lunch; they'll be waiting for us already. what's the good of looking?' 'wait a bit!' answered the one who had possession of the telescope, looking very eagerly towards sevastopol. 'what is it? what?' 'a movement in the entrenchments, thick columns advancing.' 'yes! they can be seen even without a glass, marching in columns. the alarm must be given,' said the seaman. 'look! look! they've left the trenches!' and, really, with the naked eye one could see what looked like dark spots moving down the hill from the french batteries across the valley to the bastions. in front of these spots dark stripes were already visibly approaching our line. on the bastions white cloudlets burst in succession as if chasing one another. the wind brought a sound of rapid small-arm firing, like the beating of rain against a window. the dark stripes were moving in the midst of the smoke and came nearer and nearer. the sounds of firing, growing stronger and stronger, mingled in a prolonged, rumbling peal. puffs of smoke rose more and more often, spread rapidly along the line, and at last formed one lilac cloud (dotted here and there with little faint lights and black spots) which kept curling and uncurling; and all the sounds blent into one tremendous clatter. 'an assault!' said the naval officer, turning pale and letting the seaman look through the telescope. cossacks galloped along the road, some officers rode by, the commander-in-chief passed in a carriage with his suite. every face showed painful excitement and expectation. 'it's impossible they can have taken it,' said the mounted officer. 'by god, a standard!... look! look!' said the other, panting, and he walked away from the telescope: 'a french standard on the maláhof!' the point from which the officer in the story, and tolstoy himself in reality, watched the assault through a telescope is the spot marked 'a' on the map on page 112. the loss of the maláhof rendered the further defence of the town impossible, and the following night the russians blew up and destroyed such munitions of war as they could not remove from the bastions. tolstoy was deputed to clear the fifth and sixth bastions before they were abandoned to the allies. when telling me this he added, 'the non-commissioned officers could have done the work just as well without me.' while the destruction was proceeding, the russian forces crossed the roadstead by a pontoon bridge which had been constructed during the siege. the town south of the roadstead was abandoned, and the defenders established themselves on the north side, where they remained till peace was concluded in february 1856. after the retreat, tolstoy was given the task of collating the twenty or more reports of the action from the artillery commanders. this experience of how war is recorded produced in him that supreme contempt for detailed military histories which he so often expressed in later years. he says: i regret that i did not keep a copy of those reports. they were an excellent example of that naïve, inevitable kind of military falsehood, out of which descriptions are compiled. i think many of those comrades of mine who drew up those reports, will laugh on reading these lines, remembering how, by order of their commander, they wrote what they could not know. carrying among other despatches the report he had himself compiled, tolstoy was sent as courier to petersburg; and this terminated his personal experience of war. he was still only sub-lieutenant, his hopes of promotion had come to nothing in consequence of a suspicion that he was the author of some soldiers' songs which were sung throughout the army at this time. no translation can do justice to these slangy, topical satires; but that the reader may have some idea of them, my wife has put into english the following stanzas: in september, the eighth day,[22] from the french we ran away, for our faith and tsar! for our faith and tsar! admiral alexander,[23] he sank our vessels in the sea in the waters deep, in the waters deep. 'luck to all i wish,' he said then. to baktchiseráy[24] he sped then; 'may you all be blowed! 'may you all be blowed!' saint arnaud[25] got out of sight; and in manner most polite, came round to our back, came round to our back. and on tuesday, i'm afraid had no saint come to our aid, he'd have bagged us all, he'd have bagged us all. our liprandi, it is true captured 'trenchments not a few, but to no avail! but to no avail! out of kishinéf a force was expected: foot and horse, and at last they came, and at last they came. dannenberg was in command: strictly told to understand not to spare his men, not to spare his men. * * * * * two grand dukes a visit paid: but the french, quite undismayed, blazed away with shells, blazed away with shells. some ten thousand men were shot: from the tsar _they_ never got any great reward! any great reward! then the prince[26] in anger spoke: 'oh! our men are wretched folk: 'why, they've turned their backs! 'why, they've turned their backs!' and in this great battle's flare heroes only two there were: the two royal dukes! the two royal dukes! george's crosses they were given and to petersburg were driven to be fêted there! to be fêted there! all the priests with heads bent down prayed our god the french to drown, and there came a storm, and there came a storm! there arose a dreadful gale, but the french just shortened sail, and remained afloat! and remained afloat! winter came. sorties we made; many soldiers low were laid, near those bags of sand, near those bags of sand.[27] for re'nforcements ménshik prayed; but the tsar sent to his aid only osten-sáken, only osten-sáken.[28] ménshik, admiral so wise, to the tsar writes and replies: 'oh, dear father tsar, 'oh, dear father tsar. 'sáken is not worth a grain, and your royal youngsters twain[29] they're no good at all! they're no good at all!' royal wrath on ménshik fell, and the tsar felt quite unwell at the next review, at the next review. straight to heaven he did fare (seems they wanted him up there) not a whit too soon, not a whit too soon! as on his deathbed he lay; to his son[30] he this did say: 'now just you look out, 'now just you look out!' and the son to ménshik wrote: 'my dear admiral, please note, you may go to hell, you may go to hell!' 'and in place of you i'll name gortchakóf, you know, the same who fought 'gainst the turks! who fought 'gainst the turks!' 'with few troops he'll go ahead, and a pair of breeches red shall be his reward, shall be his reward!' [22] the battle of alma, fought on 8th september, old style = 20th september, new style. [23] prince alexander ménshikof, who was commander-in-chief in the crimea till replaced by gortchakóf. besides being diplomatist and general, he was also an admiral. in the other verses he is nicknamed 'ménshik.' [24] after the battle of alma, ménshikof retreated northward to baktchiseráy, almost abandoning sevastopol. [25] saint arnaud, the french commander-in-chief. [26] prince alexander ménshikof. [27] bags of sand were used as temporary protection from behind which to fire. [28] count osten-sáken was sent to advise ménshikof and to report to the tsar on his operations. [29] the grand dukes alluded to above. [30] alexander ii, who succeeded nicholas i on 2nd march (n.s.) 1855. as a matter of fact the responsibility for these songs, which gave satirical expression to the discontent then very generally felt, was not entirely tolstoy's. they originated with a group of officers on the staff of kryzhanóvsky, commander of the artillery, and some others (including tolstoy) who used to meet at kryzhanóvsky's rooms almost daily. one of this company used to preside at the piano, while the others stood round and improvised couplets. in such cases some one has usually to pay the piper, and that this one should have been tolstoy, was a natural result both of the fact that he seems to have been the chief culprit, and of the attention his literary work was attracting at this time. another matter which appears to have done tolstoy no good in the eyes of his superiors, was his refusal to fall in with a reprehensible practice which by long usage had become as well established as, for instance, among ourselves, is the purchase of peerages by contributions to party funds. those in command of various divisions of the army, including the commanders of batteries, used to pay for various things, such as shoes for the horses, medicine, office expenses, and certain extras for the soldiers, for which no official allowance was made; and the way the money for this was obtained was by overestimating the cost and quantity of stores, and of the fodder required for the horses. the difference between the actual and estimated cost supplied a revenue which different commanders used in different ways. some spent it all for the good of the service, though in a manner not shown in the accounts; others did not scruple to make private profit of it. tolstoy, during his command of a battery, refused to take a balance of cash which had accumulated, and insisted on showing it in the accounts. he thereby evoked the displeasure of less scrupulous commanders and called down upon himself a rebuke from general kryzhanóvsky, who did not consider that it lay with a sub-lieutenant in temporary command, to attempt to upset so well-established a custom. from his letters and memoirs we get clear indications of tolstoy's feelings towards his brother officers; his distaste for the common run of them, and his preference for those who were gentlemanly. here and there, in memoirs and magazine articles, one finds records of the impression he in his turn produced on his companions. one of them relates: how tolstoy woke us all up in those hard times of war, with his stories and his hastily composed couplets! he was really the soul of our battery. when he was with us we did not notice how time flew, and there was no end to the general gaiety.... when the count was away, when he trotted off to simferópol, we all hung our heads. he would vanish for one, two or three days.... at last he would return--the very picture of a prodigal son! sombre, worn out, and dissatisfied with himself.... then he would take me aside, quite apart, and would begin his confessions. he would tell me all: how he had caroused, gambled, and where he had spent his days and nights; and all the time, if you will believe me, he would condemn himself and suffer as though he were a real criminal. he was so distressed that it was pitiful to see him. that's the sort of man he was. in a word, a queer fellow, and, to tell the truth, one i could not quite understand. he was however a rare comrade, a most honourable fellow, and a man one can never forget! one who entered the battery just after tolstoy left it, says he was remembered there as an excellent rider, first-rate company, and an athlete who, lying on the floor, could let a man weighing thirteen stone be placed on his hands, and could lift him up by straightening his arms. at a tug-of-war (played not with a rope, but with a stick) no one could beat him; and he left behind him the recollection of many witty anecdotes told in that masterly style of which he never lost the knack. his private diary bears witness to the constantly renewed struggle that went on within him, as well as to his profound dissatisfaction with himself. here, for instance, is an estimate entered in his diary at the commencement of the war, while he was still at silistria: i have no modesty. that is my great defect. what am i? one of four sons of a retired lieutenant-colonel, left at seven years of age an orphan under the guardianship of women and strangers; having neither a social nor a scholarly education, and becoming my own master at seventeen; with no large means, no social position, and, above all, without principle; a man who has disorganised his own affairs to the last extremity, and has passed the best years of his life without aim or pleasure; and finally who having banished himself to the caucasus to escape his debts and more especially his bad habits--and having there availed himself of some connection that had existed between his father and the general in command--passed to the army of the danube at twenty-six, as a sub-lieutenant almost without means except his pay (for what means he has he ought to employ to pay what he still owes) without influential friends, ignorant of how to live in society, ignorant of the service, lacking practical capacity, but with immense self-esteem--such is my social position. let us see what i myself am like. i am ugly, awkward, uncleanly, and lack society education. i am irritable, a bore to others, not modest, intolerant, and as shame-faced as a child. i am almost an ignoramus. what i do know, i have learned anyhow, by myself, in snatches, without sequence, without a plan, and it amounts to very little. i am incontinent, undecided, inconstant and stupidly vain and vehement, like all characterless people. i am not brave. i am not methodical in life, and am so lazy that idleness has become an almost unconquerable habit of mine. i am clever, but my cleverness has as yet not been thoroughly tested on anything; i have neither practical nor social nor business ability. i am honest, that is to say, i love goodness, and have formed a habit of loving it, and when i swerve from it i am dissatisfied with myself and return to it gladly; but there is a thing i love more than goodness, and that is fame. i am so ambitious, and so little has this feeling been gratified, that should i have to choose between fame and goodness, i fear i may often choose the former. yes, i am not modest, and therefore i am proud at heart, though shame-faced and shy in society. that is a grossly unfair estimate of himself, but shows just that sort of eager injustice to any one who fails to reach the high standard he sets up, that has always characterised him. his account is inaccurate in details. for instance, he was not seven, but nearly nine when his father died. he had not wrecked his affairs to the extent he suggests. though his studies had been desultory, he had read widely, with a quick understanding and a retentive memory. he was master of the russian, french and german languages, besides having some knowledge of english, latin, arabic, and turco-tartar. (later in life he added a knowledge of italian, greek and hebrew.) as for not yet having tested his cleverness: he had published stories for which the editor of the best russian magazine paid him the rate accorded to the best-known writers; while his awkwardness in society did not depend on ignorance; on the contrary, he had grown up among people who paid much attention to manners, and he was himself gifted with social tact, which became plainly apparent as soon as he attained self-confidence. any defect in his manners must have been merely a result of that nervous shyness natural to highly-strung, sensitive natures, conscious of powers of a kind society recognises but scantily. yet, when all is said, his description gets home: over-emphatic and unfair, like much of his other writing, it still leaves you in no doubt as to what he meant, and hits the real points of weakness in the victim he is flaying. on 5th march 1855 (old style) when he was just recovering from that fit of depression at belbék which, as already mentioned, drove him to gamble, he writes in his diary: a conversation about divinity and faith has suggested to me a great, a stupendous idea, to the realisation of which i feel myself capable of devoting my life. this idea is the founding of a new religion corresponding to the present state of mankind: the religion of christianity, but purged of dogmas and mysticism: a practical religion, not promising future bliss, but giving bliss on earth. i understand that to accomplish this the conscious labour of generations will be needed. one generation will bequeath the idea to the next, and some day fanaticism or reason will accomplish it. _deliberately_ to promote the union of mankind by religion--that is the basic thought which, i hope, will dominate me. in that passage one has, quite clearly stated before he was twenty-seven, the main idea which actuated tolstoy from the age of fifty onwards. already by the literary work he accomplished amid the bustle and excitement of the siege, he was half consciously moving in the direction that allured him. during the three months that elapsed between leaving bucharest and reaching sevastopol, he wrote part of _the wood-felling_; a sketch of an expedition such as he had taken part in the caucasus; and during the siege of sevastopol he wrote the first two parts of _sevastopol_ and began _youth_, a sequel to _childhood_ and _boyhood_. 1855 it was _sevastopol_ that first brought european fame to tolstoy. when, as already mentioned, _sevastopol in december_ appeared in the june _contemporary_, the emperor ordered it to be translated into french. that same month tolstoy completed and despatched _the wood-felling_; in july he sent off _sevastopol in may_. here once again the censor exercised his malignant power, and panáef wrote to tolstoy from petersburg: in my letter delivered to you by stolýpin, i wrote that your article has been passed by the censor with unimportant alterations, and begged you not to be angry with me that i was obliged to add a few words at the end to soften.... 3000 copies of the article had already been printed off, when the censor suddenly demanded it back, stopped the appearance of the number (so that our august number only appeared in petersburg on 18 august) and submitted it to poúshkin, president of the committee of censors. if you know poúshkin, you will be able partly to guess what followed. he flew into a rage, was very angry with the censor, and with me for submitting such an article to the censor, and altered it with his own hand.... on seeing these alterations i was horror-struck, and wished not to print the article at all, but poúshkin explained to me that i must print it in its present shape. there was no help for it, and your mutilated article will appear in the september number, but without your initials--which i could not bear to see attached to it after that.... now a word as to the impression your story produces on all to whom i have read it in its original form. every one thinks it stronger than the first part, in its deep and delicate analysis of the emotions and feelings of people constantly face to face with death, and in the fidelity with which the types of the line-officers are caught, their encounters with the aristocrats, and the mutual relations of the two sets. in short, all is excellent, all is drawn in masterly fashion; but it is all so overspread with bitterness, is so keen, so venomous, so unsparing and so cheerless, that at the present moment when the scene of the story is almost sacred ground, it pains those who are at a distance from it; and the story may even produce a very unpleasant impression. _the wood-felling_, with its dedication to tourgénef, will also appear in september (tourgénef begs me to thank you very, very much for thinking of him and paying him this attention).... in this story also (which passed three censors: the caucasian, the military, and our civil censor) the types of officers have been tampered with, and unfortunately a little has been struck out. tolstoy's dedication of _the wood-felling_ to tourgénef proceeded from his admiration for that writer's _a sportsman's sketches_, which to the present time he continues to value very highly, considering tourgénef's descriptions of nature in that book not merely excellent, but inimitable by any one else. nekrásof wrote to tolstoy in september, about _sevastopol in august_, saying: the revolting mutilation of your article quite upset me. even now i cannot think of it without regret and rage. your work will, of course, not be lost ... it will always remain as proof of a strength able to utter such profound and sober truth under circumstances amid which few men would have retained it. it is just what russian society now needs: the truth--the truth, of which, since gógol's death, so little has remained in russian literature. you are right to value that side of your gifts most of all. truth--in such form as you have introduced it into our literature--is something completely new among us. i do not know another writer of to-day who so compels the reader to love him and sympathise heartily with him, as he to whom i now write; and i only fear lest time, the nastiness of life, and the deafness and dumbness that surround us, should do to you what it has done to most of us, and kill the energy without which there can be no writer--none, at least, such as russia needs. you are young: changes are taking place which, let us hope, may end well, and perhaps a wide field lies before you. you are beginning in a way that compels the most cautious to let their expectations travel far.... _the wood-felling_ has passed the censor pretty fairly, though from it also some valuable touches have disappeared. ...in that sketch there are many astonishingly acute remarks, and it is all _new_, interesting, and to the point. do not neglect such sketches. of the common soldier our literature has as yet not spoken, except frivolously. tourgénef, writing from his estate at spássky to panáef, said: tolstoy's article about sevastopol is wonderful! tears came into my eyes as i read it, and i shouted, hurrah! i am greatly flattered by his wish to dedicate his new tale to me.... here his article has produced a general furore. by the side of these contemporary estimates one may set kropótkin's appreciation written fifty years later: all his powers of observation and war-psychology, all his deep comprehension of the russian soldier, and especially of the plain un-theatrical hero who really wins the battles, and a profound understanding of that inner spirit of an army upon which depend success and failure: everything, in short, which developed into the beauty and the truthfulness of _war and peace_, was already manifested in these sketches, which undoubtedly represented a new departure in war-literature the world over. it is worth while to note the very different conclusions to which kinglake, the historian of this war, and tolstoy, its novelist, arrived. kinglake holds the war to have been unnecessary, and attributes it chiefly to the unscrupulous ambition of napoleon iii; yet he blames the peace party very severely for protesting against it, for had they not done so nicholas, he thinks, would not have dared to act aggressively. kinglake feels that negotiations between rulers and diplomatists are important, and that anything that prevents a government from speaking with authority, makes for confusion and disaster. tolstoy, on the other hand (if i may anticipate and speak of conclusions not definitely expressed by him till much later), regards all war and preparation for war as immoral, and wishes this conviction to become so strong and so general that it will be impossible for any future napoleon to plunge five nations into war to gratify his own ambition. kinglake understands things as they are, and knows how easy it is to do harm with good intentions, but is somewhat blind to the trend of human progress, and as to what the aim before us should be. tolstoy, on the contrary, is chiefly concerned about the ultimate aim, and about the state of mind of the individual. the actual working of our political system and international relations are things he ignores. the english writer sees clearly what is, and cares little about what should be; the russian writer cares immensely about what should be, and rather forgets that it can only be approached by slow and difficult steps, to take which surefootedly, needs an appreciation of things as they are. neither of them manages to say the word which would synthesize their divergent views: namely, that no self-respecting people should support or tolerate as rulers, men who seek to gain national advantages by means not strictly fair, honest and even generous. that is the real key to the world's future peace. kinglake's appeal to us not to hamper the government that represents us, and tolstoy's appeal to us not to spend our lives in preparing to slay our fellow men, can both be met in that way, and, i think, in that way alone. for an ambitious young officer actually engaged in a war, related to the commander-in-chief, and favourably noticed by the emperor, even _partially_ to express disapproval of war, was difficult; and tolstoy has told me that, contending with his desire to tell the truth about things as he saw it, he was at the same time aware of another feeling prompting him to say what was expected of him. he, however, like the child in andersen's story who sees that the king has nothing on, when every one else is in ecstasies over the magnificence of the monarch's robes, had the gift of seeing things with his own eyes, as well as a great gift of truthfulness. these were the qualities which ultimately made him the greatest literary power of his century; and in spite of his own hesitation and the censor's mutilations, we may still read the description he then wrote of the truce in which the french and russian soldiers hobnobbed together in friendship, a description closing with these words: white flags are on the bastions and parallels; the flowery valley is covered with corpses; the beautiful sun is sinking towards the blue sea; and the undulating blue sea glitters in the golden rays of the sun. thousands of people crowd together, look at, speak to, and smile at one another. and these people--christians confessing the one great law of love and self-sacrifice--seeing what they have done, do not at once fall repentant on their knees before him who has given them life and laid in the soul of each a fear of death and a love of goodness and of beauty, and do not embrace like brothers with tears of joy and happiness. the white flags are lowered, again the engines of death and suffering are sounding, again innocent blood flows, and the air is filled with moans and curses. in _sevastopol_, and in tennyson's _charge of the light brigade_ (with its rhymes about 'hundred' and 'thundered,' and its panegyric of those who knew it was not their business to think, and at whom 'all the world wondered'), we have two typical expressions of conflicting views on war: the view of a man who knew it from the classics and was poet laureate, and the view of a man who was in the thick of it, and whose eyes were connected with his brain. thirty-four years later tolstoy wrote a preface to a fellow-officer's _recollections of sevastopol_. it could not pass the censor, but has been used as a preface to his own sketches of war in the english version of _sevastopol_, translated by my wife and myself, and i cannot conclude this chapter better than by quoting a few sentences from it. speaking of the position of a young officer engaged in the crimean war, he says: to the first question that suggests itself to every one, why did he do it? why did he not cease, and go away?--the author does not reply. he does not say, as men said in olden times when they hated their enemies as the jews hated the philistines, that he hated the allies; on the contrary, he here and there shows his sympathy for them as for brother men. nor does he speak of any passionate desire that the keys of the church at jerusalem should be in our hands, or even that our fleet should, or should not, exist. you feel as you read, that to him the life and death of men are not commensurable with questions of politics. and the reader feels that to the question: why did the author act as he did?--there is only one answer; it was because i enlisted while still young, or before the war began, or because owing to inexperience i chanced to slip into a position from which i could not extricate myself without great effort. i was entrapped into that position, and when they obliged me to do the most unnatural actions in the world, to kill my brother men who had done me no harm, i preferred to do this rather than to suffer punishment and disgrace.... one feels that the author knows there is a law of god: love thy neighbour, and therefore do not kill him,--a law which cannot be repealed by any human artifice. the merit of the book consists in that. it is a pity it is only felt, and not plainly and clearly expressed. sufferings and deaths are described; but we are not told what caused them. thirty-five years ago--even that was well, but now something more is needed. we should be told what it is that causes soldiers to suffer and to die,--that we may know, and understand, and destroy these causes. 'war! how terrible,' people say, 'is war, with its wounds, bloodshed, and deaths! we must organise a red cross society to alleviate the wounds, sufferings and pains of death.' but, truly, what is dreadful in war is not the wounds, sufferings and deaths. the human race that has always suffered and died, should by this time be accustomed to suffering and death, and should not be aghast at them. without war people die by famine, by inundations, and by epidemics. it is not suffering and death that are terrible, but it is that which allows people to inflict suffering and death.... it is not the suffering and mutilation and death of man's body that most needs to be diminished,--but it is the mutilation and death of his soul. not the _red_ cross is needed, but the simple cross of christ to destroy falsehood and deception.... i was finishing this preface when a cadet from the military college came to see me. he told me that he was troubled by religious doubts.... he had read nothing of mine. i spoke cautiously to him of how to read the gospels so as to find in them the answers to life's problems. he listened and agreed. towards the end of our conversation i mention wine, and advised him not to drink. he replied: 'but in military service it is sometimes necessary.' i thought he meant necessary for health and strength, and i intended triumphantly to overthrow him by proofs from experience and science, but he continued: 'why, at geok-tepe, for instance, when skóbelef had to massacre the inhabitants, the soldiers did not wish to do it, but he had drink served out and then....' here are all the horrors of war--they are in this lad with his fresh young face, his little shoulder-straps (under which the ends of his hood are so neatly tucked), his well-cleaned boots, his naïve eyes, and with so perverted a conception of life. this is the real horror of war! what millions of red cross workers could heal the wounds that swarm in that remark--the result of a whole system of education! chief authorities for chapter iv birukof. behrs. bitovt. nekrasof's letters to tolstoy, _niva_, february 1898. also, tolstoy's _sevastopol_, and his preface to ershof's _recollections of sevastopol_. kropotkin, _ideals and realities in russian literature_: london, 1905. chapter v petersburg; love affair; drouzhínin petersburg. tourgénef. the _contemporary_. death of his brother demetrius. drouzhínin. the behrs. love affairs. engagement with v.v.a. illness. leaves the army. engagement broken off. correspondence with tourgénef. writings. drouzhínin's criticism of _youth_ and of tolstoy's style. books that influenced him. emancipation of serfs. poúshkin. self-condemnation in his _confession_. a number of distinguished writers have recorded their opinions of the talented young officer who appeared in petersburg before the war was quite over, and immediately entered the fraternity then supporting the _contemporary_. from their memoirs one sees what tolstoy was like at this, perhaps the stormiest and least satisfactory period of his life. the _contemporary_ was a monthly review founded by poúshkin and pletnéf in 1836. it passed in 1847 to panáef and the poet nekrásof, and when tolstoy began to write, was recognised as the leading and most progressive russian literary periodical. its chief contributors formed an intimate group, united by close personal acquaintance, by sympathy with the emancipation movement then making itself felt, and also by a common agreement (not it is true very strictly or very permanently observed) to write exclusively for the _contemporary_. the point to be noticed is that the circle tolstoy entered consisted of a friendly, sociable group of people who considered themselves ardent reformers; and that though tolstoy's talent and his wish to have his works published, threw him and them together, he never appears to have had the least inclination to co-operate on that footing of mutual give-and-take toleration which is so essential in public life. certainly he never became friendly with the more advanced men, tchernyshévsky, miháylof, and the ultra-democratic dobrolúbof, who were intent on spreading democratic and socialistic ideas in russia. it has been suggested that this was due to the fact that he was an aristocrat and that they were democrats; but one has to go deeper than that for the explanation, which lies, to a considerable extent, in the fact that the advanced russian radicals were, for the most part, admirers of governmental jacobinism, whereas tolstoy has from the very start tended to be a no-government man, an anarchist, and has objected to linking himself closely with any group, since such alliance always implies some amount of compromise, and some subordination of one's own opinions. the poet fet, himself a young officer, made tolstoy's acquaintance at this time. a couple of years later he purchased an estate at no very great distance from yásnaya polyána, and became a friend of tolstoy's--one in fact of the very few people, not of his own family, with whom the latter ever formed a close personal friendship. 1855 his first acquaintance with tolstoy was however hardly auspicious. calling on tourgénef in st. petersburg at ten o'clock one morning, he saw an officer's sword hanging in the hall, and asked the man-servant whose it was. 'it's count tolstoy's sword,' replied the man. 'he is sleeping in the drawing-room. iván sergéyevitch [tourgénef] is having breakfast in the study.' during fet's visit of an hour's duration, he and his host had to converse in low tones for fear of waking tolstoy. 'he is like this all the time,' said tourgénef. 'he came back from his sevastopol battery; put up here, and is going the pace. sprees, gipsy-girls and cards all night long--and then he sleeps like a corpse till two in the afternoon. at first i tried to put the break on, but now i've given it up, and let him do as he likes.' fet tells us that as soon as he met tolstoy he noticed his instinctive defiance of all accepted opinions; and at nekrásof's lodgings, the first time he saw tolstoy and tourgénef together, he witnessed the desperation to which the former reduced the latter by his biting retorts. 'i can't admit,' said tolstoy, 'that what you say expresses your convictions. if i stand at the door with a dagger or a sword, and say, "while i am alive no one shall enter here," that shows conviction. but you, here, try to conceal the true inwardness of your thoughts from one another, and call _that_ conviction!' 'why do you come here?' squeaked tourgénef, panting, his voice rising to a falsetto (as always happened when he was disputing). 'your banner is not here! go! go to the salon of princess b----!' 'why should i ask you, where i am to go? besides, empty talk won't become conviction, merely because i am, or am not here,' replied tolstoy. though he cared little for politics, fet's sympathies inclined to the conservative side, and he found himself in accord with tolstoy rather than with tourgénef and the other contemporarians; but fet's stay in petersburg at this time was a short one, and he therefore saw little of tolstoy. d. v. grigoróvitch, the novelist, however, reported to him another scene which also occurred at nekrásof's lodging. you can't imagine what it was like! great heavens! said grigoróvitch. tourgénef squeaked and squeaked, holding his hand to his throat, and with the eyes of a dying gazelle whispered: 'i can stand no more! i have bronchitis!' and began walking to and fro through the three rooms.--'bronchitis is an imaginary illness,' growls tolstoy after him: 'bronchitis is a metal!' of course nekrásof's heart sank: he feared to lose either of these valuable contributors to the _contemporary_. we were all agitated, and at our wits' end to know what to say. tolstoy, in the middle room, lay sulking on the morocco sofa; while tourgénef, spreading the tails of his short coat and with his hands in his pockets, strode to and fro through the three rooms. to avert a catastrophe, i went to the sofa and said, 'tolstoy, old chap, don't get excited! you don't know how he esteems and loves you!' 'i won't allow him to do anything to spite me!' exclaimed tolstoy with dilated nostrils. 'there! now he keeps marching past me on purpose, wagging his democratic haunches!' the rest of the evidence is of much the same nature. of desire to agree, there was hardly a trace in tolstoy, who never doubted his own sincerity and seldom credited that quality to others. the aristocratic influences that surrounded his upbringing never induced him to be lenient to men of his own class, such as tourgénef; but they led him to judge harshly and unsympathetically new men who were pushing their way to the front by their own ability. fet, in his _mémoires_, speaks with regret of the fact that the educated classes ('the intelligents') attracted by liberal ideas which made for the emancipation of the serfs, formed so strong a current of opinion that even the literature produced by the nobility (and he claims that the nobles supplied all the truly artistic literature) advocated changes which struck at the root of the most fundamental privileges of their class. this tendency, he tells us, revolted 'tolstoy's fresh, unwarped instinct.' grigoróvitch, in his _literary memoirs_, tells us that, knowing how out of sympathy tolstoy was with petersburg, and how evident it was that everything in petersburg irritated him, he was surprised to find that the latter took permanent lodgings there. grigoróvitch, himself a contemporarian, had met tolstoy in moscow, and coming across him again in petersburg, and hearing that he was invited to dine with the staff of the _contemporary_, but did not yet know any of the members intimately, agreed to accompany him. on the way i warned him to be on his guard about certain matters, and especially to avoid attacking george sand, whom he much disliked, but who was devoutly worshipped by many contemporarians. the dinner passed off all right, tolstoy being rather quiet at first, but at last he broke out. some one praised george sand's new novel, and he abruptly declared his hatred of her, adding that the heroines of the novels she was then writing, if they really existed, ought to be tied to the hangman's cart and driven through the streets of petersburg. he had, adds grigoróvitch, already then developed that peculiar view of women and of the woman-question, which he afterwards expressed so vividly in _anna karénina_. with all the curious convolutions of tolstoy's character, there is a remarkable tenacity of conviction running through his whole life, and a remark in _resurrection_, written nearly half a century later, throws a flood of light on the fact of his so detesting george sand's emancipated heroines while he was himself living a loose life. in that book, the hero has been attracted as well as repelled first by mariette, the general's wife, and then by a handsome demi-mondaine he passes in the street, and this is his reflection: the animalism of the brute nature in man is disgusting, thought he; but as long as it remains in its naked form we observe it from the height of our spiritual life and despise it; and, _whether one has fallen or resisted_, one remains what one was before. but when that same animalism hides under a cloak of poetry and esthetic feeling, and demands our worship--then we are swallowed up by it completely, and worship animalism, no longer distinguishing good from evil. then it is awful! [illustration: prominent russian writers, (1856): tourgénef, sologoúb, tolstoy, nekrásof, grigóryef, panáef.] grigoróvitch in another place speaks of tolstoy's 'readiness to contradict.' it did not matter what opinion was being expressed; and the more authoritative the speaker appeared to be, the more eager was tolstoy to oppose him and to begin a verbal duel. 'watching how he listened to the speaker and pierced him with his eyes, and noticing how ironically he pressed his lips together, one conjectured that he was preparing not a direct reply, but such an expression of opinion as would perplex his opponent by its unexpectedness.' danílevsky, the novelist, confirms this impression of tolstoy's eagerness to oppose. they met at the house of a well-known sculptor. tolstoy entered the drawing-room while a new work of herzen's was being read aloud, and quietly took up a position behind the reader's chair. when the reading was over, he began, at first gently and with restraint, then hotly and boldly, to attack herzen and the enthusiasm then current for his revolutionary and emancipatory works; and he spoke so convincingly and with such sincerity, that danílevsky says he never afterwards saw one of herzen's publications in that house. tourgénef once said: 'in tolstoy the character which afterwards lay at the base of his whole outlook on life early made itself manifest. he never believed in people's sincerity. every spiritual movement seemed to him false, and he used to pierce those on whom his suspicion fell with his extraordinarily penetrating eyes'; and tourgénef went on to say that personally he had never encountered anything more disconcerting than that inquisitorial look, which, accompanied by two or three biting words, was enough to goad to fury any man who lacked strong self control. the different sides of men's characters do not always advance simultaneously or harmoniously; and it frequently happens that those awakening to a sense of public duty remain self-indulgent in respect to wine or women, while others become abstainers or respectable husbands while remaining oblivious of the political duties they owe to the community. among the reformers whose acquaintance tolstoy made in petersburg, there was unfortunately a great deal of gluttony, drinking, gambling and loose living, and tolstoy--though he was often remorseful and repentant about his own excesses with wine, women, and cards--with his innate propensity for demanding _all or nothing_, bitterly resented this in others. he would no doubt have considered it hypocritical had he himself come forward as a reformer before obtaining mastery over his own appetites, and he judged others by the same standard. the ill success of the crimean war had dealt a blow to the prestige of the tsardom, and a series of wide-reaching reforms were being prepared at this time--among which the most important were the abolition of serfdom, the reform of civil and criminal law, the introduction of trial by jury and of oral proceedings in the law courts, the establishment of a system of local government somewhat resembling our county councils, and some relaxation of the insensate severity of the press censorship. but though tolstoy reached petersburg at a moment when russia was entering on this hopeful and fruitful period of internal reform, neither in his published writings nor in any private utterance we know of, does he express much sympathy with those reforms, or show any perception of the advantage that accrues to a nation whose inhabitants interest themselves in public affairs. he never realised that even if a people make for themselves bad laws, the very fact of being invited to think about large practical matters, and being allowed to test their own conclusions in practice, fosters a habit of not fearing to think and to act in accord with one's thought; and that this habit of applying thought to the guidance of practical affairs, overflows into a nation's commerce and industry and agriculture, and ultimately causes the difference between the comparative material security of our western world and the chronic fear of famine that oppresses many eastern lands. but complex problems of public policy--which are always difficult, and call for patience, tolerant co-operation, and a willingness to accept half-loaves when whole ones are unobtainable--never were to tolstoy's taste. he hankers after simple, clear-cut solutions, such as are obtainable only subjectively, in the mind. a few years later than the time of which we are speaking, tolstoy commenced a novel called _the decembrists_, which begins with a description of these reform years. the passage shows how scornfully he regarded the whole movement for the liberation of the people and the democratisation of their institutions. these are his words: this happened not long ago, in the reign of alexander ii, in our times of civilisation, progress, _problems_, re-birth of russia, etc. etc.; the time when the victorious russian army returned from sevastopol which it had surrendered to the enemy; when all russia was celebrating the destruction of the black sea fleet; and white-walled moscow greeted, and congratulated on that auspicious event, the remainder of the crews of that fleet, offering them a good old russian goblet of vódka, and in the good old russian way bringing them bread and salt and bowing at their feet. this was the time when russia, in the person of her far-sighted virgin politicians, wept over the destruction of her dream of a te deum in the cathedral of st. sophia, and the deep-felt loss to the fatherland of two great men who had perished during the war (one who, carried away by impatience to hear the te deum referred to above, had fallen on the fields of wallachia, not without leaving there two squadrons of hussars; and the other an invaluable man who distributed tea, other people's money, and sheets, to the wounded without stealing any of them); in that time when from all sides, in all departments of human activity in russia, great men sprang up like mushrooms: commanders, administrators, economists, writers, orators, and simply great men without any special calling or aim; in that time when at the jubilee of a moscow actor, public opinion, fortified by a toast, appeared and began to punish all wrongdoers; when stern commissioners galloped from petersburg to the south and captured, exposed, and punished the commissariat rascals; when in all the towns dinners with toasts were given to the heroes of sevastopol, and to those of them whose arms and legs had been torn off, coppers were given by those who met them on the bridges or highways; at that time when oratorical talents were so rapidly developed among the people that one publican everywhere and on all occasions wrote, printed, and repeated by heart at dinners, such powerful speeches that the guardians of order were obliged to undertake repressive measures to subdue his eloquence; when even in the english club in moscow a special room was set apart for the consideration of public affairs; when periodicals appeared under the most varied banners; journals developing european principles on a european basis but with a russian world-conception, and journals on an exclusively russian basis, developing russian principles but with a european world-conception; when suddenly, so many journals appeared that it seemed as if all possible titles had been used up: 'the messenger,' 'the word,' 'the discourse,' 'the eagle,' and many others; when nevertheless fresh titles presented themselves continually; at that time when pleiades of new author-philosophers appeared, proving that science is national and is not national and is international, and so on: and pleiades of writer-artists, who described woods and sun-rises, and thunders, and the love of a russian maiden, and the idleness of one official, and the misconduct of many officials; at that time when from all sides appeared problems (as in the year '56 every concourse of circumstances was called of which nobody could make head or tail); the problem of the cadet schools, the universities, the censor, oral tribunals, finance, the banks, the police, the emancipation, and many others; everybody still tried to discover new questions, and everybody tried to solve them; they wrote, and read, and talked, and drew up projects, and all wished to amend, destroy and alter, and all russians, as one man, were in an indescribable state of enthusiasm. that was a condition which has occurred twice in russia in the nineteenth century: the first time was in the year '12 when we thrashed napoleon i, and the second time was in '56 when napoleon iii thrashed us. great, unforgettable epoch of the re-birth of the russian people! like the frenchman who said that he had not lived at all who had not lived during the great french revolution, so i make bold to say that he who did not live in russia in '56, does not know what life is. the writer of these lines not merely lived at that time, but was one of the workers of that period. not merely did he personally sit for some weeks in one of the casemates of sevastopol, but he wrote a work about the crimean war which brought him great fame, and in which he clearly and minutely described how the soldiers in the bastion fired off their muskets, how in the hospitals people were bound up with bandages, and how in the cemetery they were buried in the earth. having performed these exploits, the writer of these lines arrived at the heart of the empire, at a rocket-station, where he reaped his laurels. he witnessed the enthusiasm of both capitals and of the whole people, and experienced in his own person how russia can reward real service. the great ones of the earth sought his acquaintance, pressed his hands, offered him dinners, persistently invited him to come and see them, and in order to hear from him particulars about the war, narrated to him their own sensations. therefore the writer of these lines knows how to appreciate that great and memorable time. but that is not what i want to tell about. the very day he reached petersburg from sevastopol, in september 1855, tolstoy called on tourgénef, who pressed him to stay with him and introduced him to all that was most interesting in petersburg literary and artistic circles, watching over his interests 'like an old nurse,' as tourgénef himself once expressed it. tourgénef fully appreciated tolstoy's artistic genius, but was strangely blind to the specially tolstoyan side of tolstoy's complex nature. as we have already seen, friction soon arose between the two men, and though they again and again made friends, their friendship was very unstable and easily upset. 1856 early in 1856 tolstoy's third brother, demetrius, died in orél. his history has been told in chapter ii. tolstoy says: 'i was particularly horrid at that time. i went to orél from petersburg, where i frequented society and was filled with conceit. i felt sorry for mítenka, but not very sorry. i paid him a hurried visit, but did not stay at orél, and my brother died a few days after i left.' on 2nd february the news reached leo; but he says: 'i really believe that what hurt me most, was that it prevented my taking part in some private theatricals then being got up at court, and to which i had been invited.' in march the war ended, and tolstoy obtained furlough. on 25th march he wrote to his brother sergius: i want to go abroad for eight months, and if they give me leave i shall do so. i wrote to nikólenka about it, and asked him to come too. if we could all three arrange to go together it would be first-rate. if each of us took rs. 1000, we could do the trip capitally. please write and tell me how you like _the snow storm_. i am dissatisfied with it--seriously. but i now want to write many things, only i positively have no time in this damned petersburg. anyway, whether they let me go abroad or not, i intend to take furlough in april and come to the country. on 13th may he was still in petersburg, and we find him noting in his diary: the powerful means to true happiness in life, is to let flow from oneself on all sides, without any laws, like a spider, a cobweb of love, and to catch in it all that comes to hand: women old or young, children, or policemen. among his literary acquaintances at this time the one for whom he seems to have felt most sympathy and respect was drouzhínin, a critic, writer of stories, and translator of shakespear. before long we find drouzhínin leading a revolt against the _contemporary_ and attracting some of the contributors to the _reading library_, a rival magazine, to which tolstoy contributed an article in december 1856. it was not till the end of may that he got away from petersburg; and on his road home he stopped in moscow and visited the family of dr. behrs, a russian of german origin, who had married miss islényef. the first mention one gets of tolstoy's future wife is a note in his diary relating to this visit to the behrs's country house near moscow. he says: 'the children served us. what dear, merry little girls! little more than six years later, the second of these 'merry little girls' was countess tolstoy! three days later he writes to his brother sergius: 'i spent ten days in moscow ... very pleasantly, without champagne or gipsies, but a little in love--i will tell you later on with whom.' the object of his affection at that time was of course not dr. behrs's twelve-year-old daughter. from yásnaya he made a round of visits to see his married sister and other neighbours; among them tourgénef, at whose house a gathering of the tolstoys took place. special honour was paid to leo, who comically posed as the hero of a triumph. he was being crowned and almost covered with flowers, leaves, grass, and anything that came handy, when the approach of an unwelcome guest--a lady neighbour of tourgénef's--was announced. thereupon the host seized his head in despair; the triumpher, with a howl, began to turn rapid catherine-wheel somersaults through the rooms; and his sister's husband was quickly bandaged up as an invalid, to be used as an excuse and a protection from the unwelcome intruder. the letter to sergius, quoted above, contains an allusion to tolstoy's first serious matrimonial project. he had in childhood been much attached to a certain sónitchka kalóshina. while at the university, he had had a sentimental love affair with a certain z. m., who seems hardly to have been aware of his devotion. then there was the cossack damsel who figures in _the cossacks_, and subsequently he much admired a society lady, madame sch., who may also have been scarcely aware of his feelings, for tolstoy was shy and timid in these matters--which were quite different from his affairs with gipsy girls and other hireable women. the present affair with v. v. a. was more serious than any of its predecessors. it led to a long correspondence, and even to their engagement being announced among relations and friends. the lady was the good-looking daughter of a landowner in the neighbourhood of yásnaya polyána. in august she accompanied her family to moscow for the coronation of alexander ii. at these festivities she enjoyed herself greatly, and described her feelings in a letter which dealt the first blow to tolstoy's admiration. he at once assumed towards her the rôle which more than twenty-five years later he assumed towards mankind in general, and upbraided her with the insignificant and unworthy nature of her interests and enjoyments, besides indulging in scathing sarcasms about the fashionable circles with which she was so enraptured. the young lady did not reply. tolstoy then begged pardon--which was granted. meanwhile he had fallen ill; and early in september he wrote to his brother sergius: only now, at nine o'clock on monday evening, can i give you a satisfactory reply, for till now things went worse and worse. two doctors were sent for, and administered another forty leeches, but only now have i had a good sleep and, on waking up, feel considerably better. all the same, there can be no question of my leaving home for five or six days yet. so _au revoir_; please let me know when you go (shooting) and whether it is true that your farming has been seriously neglected; and do not kill all the game without me. i will send the dogs, perhaps, to-morrow. he recovered. the young lady returned to her family's estate at soudakóva, and his visits being renewed, tolstoy's intimacy with her continued and grew closer. yet to 'test himself,' he started for a visit to petersburg, and as soon as he had got as far as moscow, wrote a letter to the young lady in which he dwelt on the importance of the mutual attraction of the sexes, the serious nature of his and her relation to one another, and the necessity of testing themselves by time and distance. while living in petersburg, he learnt the particulars of a flirtation the young lady had carried on at the time of the coronation with a french music-master, mortier; and he wrote her a letter full of reproaches. instead of posting it, however, he wrote her another--telling her of the one he had written, which he intended to show her when they met. after once breaking off relations with mortier, the young lady allowed them to be again renewed, and what tolstoy learned of the matter caused him seriously to reconsider his position. for some time his feelings evidently wavered. the very day after posting his remonstrance, he wrote another letter in a conciliatory tone, and though no reply came, he assumed that all was well, and continued the correspondence by sending her a detailed plan of the life they might hope to live together: its surroundings, circle of acquaintance, and the arrangement of their time. he also tried to interest her in the most serious problems of life. no answer reaching him for a long time, he became agitated and perplexed. then several letters, delayed in the post, arrived all at once, and cordial intercourse was re-established between the lovers. but though the engagement and correspondence continued, and expressions of affection were interchanged, it gradually became more and more evident that there was something artificial and unsatisfactory in their relation to one another. meanwhile tolstoy was having other difficulties in petersburg. on 10th november 1856 he writes to his brother sergius: forgive me, dear friend seryózha, for only writing two words--i have no time for more. i have been most unlucky since i left home; there is no one here i like. it seems that i have been abused in the _fatherland journal_ for my war stories--i have not yet read the attack; but the worst is that konstantínof [the general under whose command was the battery to which tolstoy was attached] informed me as soon as i got here that the grand duke michael, having learnt that i am supposed to have composed the soldiers' song, is displeased, particularly at my having (as rumour says) taught it to the soldiers. this is abominable. i have had an explanation with the head of the staff. the only satisfactory thing is that my health is good, and that (dr.) schipoulínsky says my lungs are thoroughly sound. on 20th november 1856 tolstoy left the army, in which he had never secured promotion though he had private influence enough to enable him, about this time, to save from trial by court martial the commander of the battery in which he had served in the crimea. early in december he left petersburg for moscow. from there, on 5th december, he writes to aunt tatiána: when i first went away and for a week after, i thought i was 'in love' as it is called; but with an imagination such as mine that was not difficult. now, however, especially since i have set to work diligently, i should like--and very much like--to be able to say that i am in love, or even that i love her; but it is not the case. the only feeling i have for her is gratitude for her love of me, and the thought that of all the girls i have known or know, she would have made me the best wife, as i understand family life. and that is what i should like to have your candid opinion about. am i mistaken or not? i should like to hear your advice because, in the first place, you know both her and me; and chiefly because you love me, and those who love are never wrong. it is true that i have tested myself very badly, for from the time i left home i have led a solitary rather than a dissipated life, and have seen few women; but notwithstanding that, i have had many moments of vexation with myself for having become connected with her, and i have repented of it. all the same, i repeat that if i were convinced that she is of a steadfast nature, and would love me always--even though not as now, yet more than any one else--then i should not hesitate for a moment about marrying her. i am confident that then my love of her would increase more and more and that through that feeling she would become a good woman. [illustration: tolstoy in 1856, the year he left the army.] the young lady in question visited petersburg for part of the winter season, but tolstoy does not appear to have met her there, being himself away in moscow for several weeks. the correspondence was largely didactic on his side, and was so unsatisfactory to the young lady that she finally forbade him to write again. he disobeyed the injunction, asking her pardon, telling her he was going abroad, and begging that she would write to him once more, to an address in paris. he wrote to aunt tatiána from moscow, on 12th january 1857, a letter in which russian and french alternate. [31]chère tante!--j'ai reçu mon passeport pour l'étranger et je suis venu à moscou pour y passer quelques jours avec marie arranger mes affaires et prendre congé de vous. but now i have reconsidered the matter, especially on máshenka's advice, and have decided to remain with her here a week or two and then to go straight through warsaw to paris. you no doubt understand, _chère tante_, why i do not wish and why it is not right for me to come now to yásnaya, or rather to soudakóva. i, it seems, have acted very badly in relation to v., but were i to see her now, i should behave still worse. as i wrote you, i am more than indifferent to her, and feel that i can no longer deceive either her or myself. but were i to come, i might perhaps, from weakness of character, again delude myself. vous rappelez-vous, chère tante, comme vous vous êtes moquée de moi, quand je vous ai dit que je partais pour pétersbourg 'pour m'éprouver,' et cependant c'est à cette idée que je suis redevable de n'avoir pas fait le malheur de la jeune personne et le mien, car ne croyez pas que ce soit de l'inconstance ou de l'infidélité; personne ne m'a plu pendant ces deux mois, mais tout bonnement j'ai vu que je me trompais moi-même; que non seulement jamais je n'ai eu, mais jamais je n'aurais pour v. le moindre sentiment d'amour véritable. la seule chose qui me fait beaucoup de peine c'est que j'ai fait du tort à la demoiselle et que je ne pourrai prendre congé de vous avant de partir.... [31] dear aunt,--i have received my passport for abroad, and i have come to moscow to pass some days with mary, and to take leave of you. (see sentences in english in letter above.) but now i have reconsidered the matter, especially on máshenka's advice, and have decided to remain with her here a week or two and then to go straight through warsaw to paris. you no doubt understand, _chère tante_, why i do not wish and why it is not right for me to come now to yásnaya, or rather to soudakóva. i, it seems, have acted very badly in relation to v., but were i to see her now, i should behave still worse. as i wrote you, i am more than indifferent to her, and feel that i can no longer deceive either her or myself. but were i to come, i might perhaps, from weakness of character, again delude myself. do you remember, dear aunt, how you made fun of me when i told you i was going to petersburg 'to test myself'? yet it is that idea that has saved me from bringing misery on the young lady and on myself; for do not suppose that it is a case of inconstancy or unfaithfulness. no one has taken my fancy during these two months, but simply i have come to see that i was deceiving myself, and that i not only never had, but never shall have, the least feeling of true love for v. v. a. the only things which give me much pain are that i have hurt the young lady, and that i cannot take leave of you before my departure.... after reaching paris (an event belonging properly to the next chapter) he received a last communication from v. v. a. and wrote her a friendly letter in reply, speaking of his love as of something past, thanking her for her friendship, and wishing her every happiness. his aunt tatiána--generally the mildest of critics where he was concerned--appears to have blamed him for his conduct; and the friends of v. v. a., including a french governess, mlle. vergani, did so yet more severely. in one of his letters, which contains indications of an agitation too strong to allow him to complete the construction of the opening sentence, he says: [32]si mlle. v. qui m'a écrit une lettre aussi ridicule, voulait se rappeler toute ma conduite vis-à-vis de v. v. a., comment je tâchais de venir le plus rarement possible, comment c'est elle qui m'engageait à venir plus souvent et à entrer dans des relations plus proches. je comprends qu'elle soit fâchée de ce qu'une chose qu'elle a beaucoup désirée ne s'est pas faite (j'en suis fâché peut-être plus qu'elle) mais ce n'est pas une raison pour dire à un homme qui s'est efforcé d'agir le mieux possible, qui a fait des sacrifices de peur de faire le malheur des autres, de lui dire, qu'il est un _pig_ [this one word is in russian in the original] et de le faire accroire à tout le monde. je suis sûr que toúla [the town nearest his estate] est convaincu que je suis le plus grand des monstres. [32] if mlle. vergani, who has written me so absurd a letter, would remember my whole conduct towards v. v. a., how i tried to come as seldom as possible, and how it was she who induced me to come more frequently and to enter into closer relations. i understand her being vexed that an affair she much desired has not come off (i perhaps am more vexed about it than she) but that is no reason for her to tell a man who has tried to act as well as he could, and who has made sacrifices in order not to make others unhappy, that he is a pig, and to spread that report about. i am sure all toúla is convinced that i am the greatest of monsters.... turning from love to literature and friendship, we have two letters of this period from tourgénef. the first is dated paris, 16th november 1856, and is as follows: dearest tolstoy,--your letter of 15 october took a whole month crawling to me--i received it only yesterday. i have thought carefully about what you write me--and i think you are wrong. it is true i cannot be quite sincere, because i can't be quite frank, with you. i think we got to know each other awkwardly and at a bad time, and when we meet again it will be much easier and smoother. i feel that i love you as a man (as an author it needs no saying); but much in you is trying to me, and ultimately i found it better to keep at a distance from you. when we meet we will again try to go hand in hand--perhaps we shall succeed better; for strange as it may sound, my heart turns to you when at a distance, as to a brother: i even feel tenderly towards you. in a word, i love you--that is certain; perchance from that, in time, all good will follow. i heard of your illness and grieved; but now, i beg you, drive the thought of it out of your head. for you too have your fancies, and are perhaps thinking of consumption--but, god knows, you have nothing of the sort.... you have finished the first part of _youth_--that is capital. how sorry i am to be unable to hear it read! if you do not go astray (which i think there is no reason to anticipate) you will go very far. i wish you good health, activity--and freedom, spiritual freedom. as to my _faust_, i do not think it will please you very much. my things could please you and perhaps have some influence on you, only until you became independent. now you have no need to study me; you see only the difference of our manners, the mistakes and the omissions; what you have to do is to study man, your own heart, and the really great writers. i am a writer of a transition period--and am of use only to men in a transition state. so farewell, and be well. write to me. on 8th december 1856 he writes again: dear tolstoy,--yesterday my good genius led me past the post-office, and it occurred to me to ask if there were any letters for me at the _poste-restante_ (though i think that all my friends ought long ago to have learnt my paris address) and i found your letter, in which you speak of my _faust_. you can well imagine how glad i was to read it. your sympathy gladdened me truly and deeply. yes, and from the whole letter there breathes a mild, clear and friendly peacefulness. it remains for me to hold out my hand across the 'ravine' which has long since become a hardly perceptible crack, about which we will speak no more--it is not worth it. i fear to speak of one thing you mention: it is a delicate matter,--words may blight such things before they are ripe, but when they are ripe a hammer will not break them. god grant that all may turn out favourably and well. it may bring you that spiritual repose which you lacked when i knew you. you have, i see, now become very intimate with drouzhínin--and are under his influence. that is right, only take care not to swallow too much of him. when i was your age, only men of enthusiastic natures influenced me; but you are built differently, and perhaps also the times are changed.... let me know in which numbers of the _contemporary_ your _youth_ will appear; and by the way, let me know the final impression made on you by _lear_, which you probably have read, if only for drouzhínin's sake. about the same time tourgénef wrote to drouzhínin: i hear that you have become very intimate with tolstoy--and he has become very pleasant and serene. i am very glad. when that new wine has finished fermenting, it will yield a drink fit for the gods. what about his _youth_, which was sent for your verdict? the allusion to drouzhínin's translation of _king lear_ is worth noticing because fully fifty years later it was this play that tolstoy selected for hostile analysis in his famous attack on shakespear. one gathers from a letter written by v. p. bótkin, that drouzhínin's rendering impressed tolstoy favourably at the time. before quoting drouzhínin's criticism of _youth_, it will be in place to mention other works by tolstoy, not yet enumerated, which appeared at this period. _memoirs of a billiard marker_, giving a glimpse of temptations tolstoy had experienced, was published in january 1855, while he was in sevastopol. in january 1856 came _sevastopol in august_. in march 1856 appeared _the snow storm_. in may 1856 came a rollicking tale, with flashes of humour like that of charles lever, entitled _two hussars_. it is the only story tolstoy ever wrote in that vein; and in it are introduced gipsy singers such as those of whom repeated mention occurs in his letters. in december, before he went abroad, two more tales were published: one of these, entitled _meeting a moscow acquaintance in the detachment_, containing a scathing portrayal of the cowardice a man, who had passed muster in 'good society,' displayed when circumstances put him to the test. the other story, _a squire's morning_, is closely drawn from tolstoy's own experience when on first leaving the university he settled on his estate and attempted to better the condition of his serfs. their stolidity, their distrust, and the immense difficulty of introducing any changes, are all brought out. in a letter to drouzhínin, tourgénef wrote: i have read his _squire's morning_, which pleased me exceedingly by its sincerity and almost complete freedom of outlook. i say 'almost' because in the way he set himself the task, there still is hidden (without his perhaps being aware of it) a certain amount of prejudice. the chief moral impression produced by the story (leaving the artistic impression aside) is that so long as the state of serfdom exists, there is no possibility of the two sides drawing together, despite the most disinterested and honourable desire to do so; and this impression is good and true. but beside it, like a horse cantering beside a trotter, there is another: namely, that in general to try to enlighten or improve the condition of the peasants leads to nothing; and this impression is unpleasant. but the mastery of language, the way it is told, and his character-drawing, are grand. 1857 in january 1857 appeared _youth_, the continuation of _childhood_ and _boyhood_. how great drouzhínin's influence was with tolstoy at this time, may be judged by the tone of his letter to him, giving an opinion on _youth_. he writes: about _youth_ one ought to write twenty pages. i read it with anger, with yells and with oaths--not on account of its literary quality, but because of the quality of the notebooks in which it is written, and the handwritings. the mixing of two hands, a known and an unknown, diverted my attention and hindered an intelligent perusal. it was as though two voices shouted in my ear and purposely distracted my attention, and i know that this has prevented my receiving an adequate impression. all the same i will say what i can. your task was a terrible one, and you have executed it very well. no other writer of our day could have so seized and sketched the agitated and disorderly period of youth. to those who are developed, your _youth_ will furnish an immense pleasure; and if any one tells you it is inferior to _childhood_ and _boyhood_ you may spit in his physiognomy. there is a world of poetry in it--all the first chapters are admirable; only the introduction is dry till one reaches the description of spring.... in many chapters one scents the poetic charm of old moscow, which no one has yet reproduced properly. some chapters are dry and long: for instance all the stipulations with dmítry nehlúdof.... the conscription of semyónof will not pass the censor. do not fear your reflections, they are all clever and original. but you have an inclination to a super-refinement of analysis which may become a great defect. you are sometimes on the point of saying that so-and-so's thigh indicated that he wished to travel in india. you must restrain this tendency, but do not extinguish it on any account. all your work on your analyses should be of the same kind. each of your defects has its share of strength and beauty, and almost every one of your qualities carries with it the seed of a defect. your style quite accords with that conclusion: you are most ungrammatical, sometimes with the lack of grammar of a reformer and powerful poet reshaping a language his own way and for ever, but sometimes with the lack of grammar of an officer sitting in a casemate and writing to his chum. one can say with assurance that all the pages you have written with love are admirable,--but as soon as you grow cold, your words become entangled, and diabolical forms of speech appear. therefore the parts written coldly should be revised and corrected. i tried to straighten out some bits, but gave it up; it is a work which only you can and must do. above all, avoid long sentences. cut them up into two or three; do not be sparing of full-stops.... do not stand on ceremony with the particles, and strike out by dozens the words: _which_, _who_, and _that_. when in difficulties, take a sentence and imagine that you want to say it to some one in a most conversational way. as a translator i may testify that tolstoy never fully learned the lesson drouzhínin here set him, and that to the very last he continued occasionally to intermingle passages of extraordinary simplicity and force with sentences that defy analysis and abound in redundances. nearly fifty years later tolstoy himself criticised the subject-matter of _childhood_, _boyhood_, and _youth_ as follows: i have re-read them and regret that i wrote them; so ill, artificially and insincerely are they penned. it could not be otherwise: first, because what i aimed at was not to write my own history but that of the friends of my youth, and this produced an awkward mixture of the facts of their and my own childhood; and secondly, because at the time i wrote it i was far from being independent in my way of expressing myself, being strongly influenced by two writers: sterne (his _sentimental journey_) and töpffer (his _bibliothèque de mon oncle_). i am now specially dissatisfied with the two last parts. _boyhood_ and _youth_, in which besides an awkward mixture of truth and invention, there is also insincerity: a desire to put forward as good and important what i did not then consider good and important, namely, my democratic tendency. before concluding this chapter it will be in place to give a list of books tolstoy mentions as having influenced him after he left the university and before his marriage. they were: goethe's _hermann und dorothea_; hugo's _notre dame de paris_; plato's _phaedo_ and _symposium_ (in cousin's french translation); and the _iliad_ and _odyssey_ in russian versions. all these, he says, had a 'very great' influence on him, while the poems of his compatriots, tútchef, kóltsof, and his friend fet, had 'great' influence. he tells us that artistic talent in literature influenced him more than any political or social tendency; and this is quite in accord both with his highly artistic nature and with his general apathy towards public affairs. there was a slavophil theory (built to justify things as they were) which proclaimed it natural for a slavonic people to leave the task of governing to its rulers, while retaining its intellectual freedom to disapprove of what was done amiss; and though tolstoy never joined the slavophils, this has been very much his own attitude on the matter. even in early childhood he had appreciated some of poúshkin's poems, such as _to the sea_ and _to napoleon_, and had learned them by heart and recited them with feeling; but curiously enough it was the perusal of mérimée's french prose translation of poúshkin's _gipsies_ that, after he was grown up, aroused tolstoy's keen admiration of poúshkin's mastery of clear, simple, direct language. later in life tolstoy used to say that poúshkin's prose stories, such as _the captain's daughter_, are his best works; but he never lost his appreciation of poúshkin's power of expression in verse. in his diary (4th january 1857) he wrote: i dined at bótkin's with panáef alone; he read me poúshkin; i went into bótkin's study and wrote a letter to tourgénef, and then i sat down on the sofa and wept causeless but blissful tears. i am positively happy all this time, intoxicated with the rapidity of my moral progress. despite his headstrong outbursts and many vacillations, he seems to have been always a welcome guest in almost any society he cared to frequent, and none of his critics has spoken as harshly of him as he speaks of himself when describing these terrible twenty years of coarse dissipation, the service of ambition, vanity, and above all of lust.... it is true that not all my life was so terribly bad as this twenty-year period from fourteen to thirty-four; and it is true that even that period of my life was not the continuous evil that during a recent illness it appeared to me to be. even during those years, strivings towards goodness awoke in me, though they did not last long, and were soon choked by passions nothing could restrain. in his _confession_, written more than twenty years later, when speaking of his religious beliefs at this time, tolstoy tells us: with all my soul i wished to be good; but i was young, passionate, and alone, completely alone when i sought goodness. every time i tried to express my most sincere desire, namely, to be morally good, i met with contempt and ridicule; but as soon as i yielded to nasty passions i was praised and encouraged. ambition, love of power, covetousness, lasciviousness, pride, anger and revenge--were all respected.... i cannot think of those years without horror, loathing and heartache. i killed men in war, and challenged men to duels in order to kill them; i lost at cards, consumed the labour of the peasants, sentenced them to punishments, lived loosely and deceived people. lying, robbery, adultery of all kinds, drunkenness, violence, murder--there was no crime i did not commit, and people approved of my conduct, and my contemporaries considered and consider me to be a comparatively moral man. so i lived for ten years. during that time i began to write from vanity, covetousness and pride. in my writings i did the same as in my life. to get fame and money, for the sake of which i wrote, it was necessary to hide the good and to show the evil. and i did so. how often in my writings did i contrive to hide under the guise of indifference or even of banter, those strivings of mine towards goodness, which gave meaning to my life! and i succeeded in this, and was praised. at twenty-six years of age[33] i returned to petersburg after the war, and met the writers. they received me as one of themselves and flattered me. and before i had time to look round i had adopted the class views on life of the authors i had come among, and these views completely obliterated all my former strivings to improve. those views furnished a theory which justified the dissoluteness of my life. the view of life of these people, my comrades in authorship, consisted in this: that life in general goes on developing, and in this development we--men of thought--have the chief part; and among men of thought it is we--artists and poets--who have the chief influence. our vocation is to teach mankind. and lest the simple question should suggest itself: what do i know, and what can i teach? it is explained in this theory that this need not be known, and that the artist and poet teach unconsciously. i was considered an admirable artist and poet, and therefore it was very natural for me to adopt this theory. i, artist and poet, wrote and taught, without myself knowing what. for this i was paid money; i had excellent food, lodging, women and society; and i had fame, which showed that what i taught was very good. [33] tolstoy makes a slip here: he was over twenty-seven. this faith in the meaning of poetry and in the development of life, was a religion, and i was one of its priests. to be its priest was very pleasant and profitable. and i lived a considerable time in this faith without doubting its validity. but in the second, and especially in the third year of this life, i began to doubt the infallibility of this religion and to examine it. my first cause of doubt was that i began to notice that the priests of this religion were not all in accord among themselves. some said: we are the best and most useful teachers; we teach what is wanted, but the others teach wrongly. others said: no! we are the real teachers, and you teach wrongly. and they disputed, quarrelled, abused one another, cheated, and tricked one another. there were also many among them who did not care who was right and who was wrong, but were simply bent on attaining their covetous aims by means of this activity of ours. all this obliged me to doubt the validity of our creed. moreover, having begun to doubt the truth of the authors' creed itself, i also began to observe its priests more attentively, and i became convinced that almost all the priests of that religion, the writers, were immoral, and for the most part men of bad, worthless character, much inferior to those whom i had met in my former dissipated and military life; but they were self-confident and self-assured as only those can be who are quite holy or who do not know what holiness is. these people revolted me, and i became revolting to myself, and i realised that that faith is a fraud. but strange to say, though i understood this fraud and renounced it, yet i did not renounce the rank these people gave me: the rank of artist, poet, and teacher. i naïvely imagined that i was a poet and artist and could teach everybody without myself knowing what i was teaching, and i acted on that assumption. from my intimacy with these men i acquired a new vice: abnormally developed pride, and an insane assurance that it was my vocation to teach men, without knowing what. to remember that time, and my own state of mind and that of those men (though there are thousands like them to-day) is sad and terrible and ludicrous, and arouses exactly the feeling one experiences in a lunatic asylum. we were all then convinced that it was necessary for us to speak, write, and print as quickly as possible and as much as possible, and that it was all wanted for the good of humanity. and thousands of us, contradicting and abusing one another, all printed and wrote--teaching others. and without remarking that we knew nothing, and that to the simplest of life's questions: what is good and what is evil? we did not know how to reply, we all, not listening to one another, talked at the same time, sometimes backing and praising one another in order to be backed and praised in turn, sometimes getting angry with one another--just as in a lunatic asylum. thousands of workmen laboured to the extreme limit of their strength day and night setting the type and printing millions of words which the post carried all over russia, and we still went on teaching and could nohow find time to teach enough, and were always angry that sufficient attention was not paid to us. it was terribly strange, but is now quite comprehensible. our real innermost consideration was, that we wanted to get as much money and praise as possible. to gain this end we could do nothing except write books and papers. so we did that. but in order to do such useless work and feel assured that we were very important people, we required a theory justifying our activity. and so among us this theory was devised: 'all that exists develops. and it all develops by means of culture. and culture is measured by the circulation of books and newspapers. and we are paid money and are respected because we write books and newspapers, and therefore we are the most useful and the best of men.' this theory would have been all very well if we had been unanimous, but as every thought expressed by one of us was always met by a diametrically opposed thought expressed by some one else, we ought to have been driven to reflection. but we ignored this; people paid us money, and those on our side praised us; so each one of us considered himself justified. chief authorities for chapter v birukof. behrs. a. fet (shenshin): _moi vospominaniya_, moscow, 1890. these _recollections_ contain much authentic information about tolstoy, as well as a large number of his letters to fet, which i have quoted in subsequent chapters. bitovt. golovatcheva-panaeva, _rousskie pisateli i artisty_: petersburg, 1890. d. v. grigorovitch, _literatourniya vospominaniya_: vol. xii. p. 326. g. p. danilevsky, _istoritcheskii vestnik_: march 1886. p. a. sergeyenko, _tourgenef i tolstoy_: _niva_, no. 6, 1906. tolstoy's _confession_. see also, in tolstoy's works. _the decembrists_, chap. i. chapter vi travels abroad paris. relations with tourgénef. _albert._ an execution. switzerland. _lucerne._ yásnaya again. the _iliad_ and the gospels. moscow: gymnastics. _three deaths._ musical society. aunty tatiána. 'ufanizing.' emancipation. bear-hunting. moscow society of lovers of russian literature. attitude towards art in 1859. tourgénef. farming. fet. drouzhínin. nicholas's illness. goes abroad again. germany. educational studies. auerbach. nicholas dies. life at hyères: children. italy. marseilles. paris. paul de kock. london. herzen. proudhon. _polikoúshka._ auerbach again. returns home. 1857 since he took part in the turkish war in 1854, tolstoy has only twice been out of russia. the first time was at the period we have now reached. on 10th february 1857 (new style) he left moscow by post-chaise for warsaw, from whence a railway already ran westward. he reached paris on 21st february. there he met tourgénef and nekrásof, with the former of whom he was still unable to get on smoothly. tourgénef writes: 'with tolstoy i still cannot become quite intimate; we see things too differently'; and in some moment of anger tolstoy even challenged his fellow-writer to a duel.[34] nekrásof appears to have patched matters up, and in march tolstoy and tourgénef went to dijon together, and spent some days there. during this trip tolstoy commenced his story _albert_, founded on his experience with the talented but drunken musician rudolf, already mentioned in chapter iii. after he had returned to paris, he was present at an execution, and made the following jotting in his diary: [34] see golovátcheva-panáeva's _rousskie pisateli i artisty_. i rose at seven o'clock and drove to see an execution. a stout, white, healthy neck and breast: he kissed the gospels, and then--death. how senseless.... i have not received this strong impression for naught. i am not a man of politics. morals and art i know, love, and can (deal with). the guillotine long prevented my sleeping and obliged me to reflect. tolstoy has a gift of telling the essential truth in few words, and never did he sum himself up better than in the sentences, 'i am not a man of politics. morals and art i know, love, and can.' there is hardly any possible room for doubt about the second sentence, and there is certainly none about the first, as his whole life shows. many years later, he wrote of this event in his _confession_: when i saw the head separate from the body, and how they both thumped into the box at the same moment, i understood, not with my mind but with my whole being, that no theory of the reasonableness of our present progress can justify this deed; and that though everybody from the creation of the world, on whatever theory, had held it to be necessary, i know it to be unnecessary and bad; and therefore the arbiter of what is good and evil is not what people say and do, and is not progress, but is my heart and i. it was probably during this visit to paris that tolstoy witnessed and admired chevet's popularisation of music by an easy system of instruction, of which he says: i have seen hundreds of horny-handed working men sitting on benches (under which lay the tool-bags they brought from their work) singing at sight, and understanding and being interested in the laws of music. this experience he utilised later on in his school at yásnaya. in spring he went to switzerland, and from geneva he wrote to his aunt tatiána: [35]j'ai passé un mois et demi à paris, et si agréablement que tous les jours je me suis dit, que j'ai bien fait de venir à l'étranger. je suis très peu allé ni dans la société, ni dans le monde littéraire, ni dans le monde des cafés et des bals publics, mais malgré cela j'ai trouvé ici tant de choses nouvelles et intéressantes pour moi, que tous les jours, en me couchant, je me dis, quel dommage que la journée est passée si vite; je n'ai même pas eu le temps de travailler, ce que je me proposais de faire. le pauvre turgenef est très malade physiquement et encore plus moralement. sa malheureuse liaison avec madame viardot, et sa fille, le retiennent ici dans un climat qui lui est pernicieux et il fait pitié de voir. je n'aurais jamais cru qu'il put aimer ainsi. [35] i spent a month-and-a-half in paris, and so agreeably that every day i said to myself that i had done well to come abroad. i went very little either into society or into the literary world, or into the world of _cafés_ and public balls; but in spite of that i found so many things that were new and interesting to me, that every day on going to bed i said to myself, 'what a pity the day has passed so quickly.' i have not even had time to work, which i intended to do. poor tourgénef is very ill physically, and still more so morally. his daughter, and especially his unfortunate _liaison_ with madame viardot, keep him here in a climate which is bad for him, and it makes one sad to see him. i should never have believed that he could be so in love. tolstoy's friends drouzhínin and v. p. bótkin visited geneva at this time, and they all three went on a walking tour into piedmont together. after that he settled at clarens on the lake of geneva, from whence he again wrote to aunt tatiána: _18 mai 1857._ [36]je viens de recevoir votre lettre, chère tante, qui m'a trouvée comme vous devez le savoir d'après ma dernière lettre, aux environs de genève à clarens dans ce même village, où a demeuré la julia de rousseau.... je n'essaierai pas de vous depeindre la beauté de ce pays, surtout à présent, quand tout est en feuilles et en fleurs; je vous dirai seulement, qu'à la lettre il est impossible de se détacher de ce lac et de ces rivages et que je passe la plus grande partie de mon temps à regarder et à admirer en me promenant, ou bien en me mettant seulement à la fenêtre de ma chambre. je ne cesse de me féliciter de l'idée que j'ai eu de quitter paris et de venir passer le printemps ici, quoique cela m'ait mérité de votre part le reproche d'inconstance. vraiment, je suis heureux, and begin to feel the advantage of having been born with a caul. il y a ici société charmante de russes: les poúshkins, the karamzíns and the mestchérskys; and they have all, heaven knows why, taken to liking me; i feel it, and the month i have spent here i have been so nice and good and cosy, that i am sad at the thought of leaving. [36] i have just received your letter, dear aunt, which found me, as you must know from my last letter, at clarens, in the neighbourhood of geneva, in the same village where rousseau's julie lived.... i will not try to depict the beauty of this country, especially at present when all is in leaf and flower; i will only say that it is literally impossible to detach oneself from this lake and from these banks, and that i spend most of my time gazing and admiring while i walk, or simply sit at the window of my room. i do not cease congratulating myself on the thought which made me leave paris and come to pass the spring here, though i have thereby deserved your reproach for inconstancy. truly i am happy, and begin to feel the advantage of having been born with a caul. there is some charming russian society here: les poúshkins, the karamzíns and the mestchérskys; and they have all, heaven knows why, taken to liking me; i feel it, and the month i have spent here i have been so nice and good and cosy, that i am sad at the thought of leaving. from clarens he took steamer to montreux, and from there went on foot, taking with him as companion a ten-year-old lad named sásha, the son of some russians whose acquaintance he had made at clarens. they crossed the pass of jamon and, after changing their minds as to the direction they would take, finally made for château d'oex, from whence they proceeded by _diligence_ to thun. from that town tolstoy went on to lucerne, which he reached in july 1857. again and again in his diary and letters tolstoy's vivid delight in nature shows itself in descriptions of the scenery: 'it is wonderful,' he writes, 'but i was at clarens for two months, and every time--when in the morning, and especially after dinner towards evening--i opened the shutters on which the shadows were already falling, and glanced at the lake and the distant blue of the mountains reflected in it, the beauty blinded me and acted on me with the force of a surprise.' but together with this keen appreciation, comes now and then a sort of protest that this grandiose swiss mountain scenery is, after all, not the nature that most appeals to him--a yearning for the vast steppes and forests of his native land. after ascending the pass of jamon and describing the magnificent scenery and the pleasure of the climb, he adds: it was something beautiful, even unusually beautiful, but i do not love what are called magnificent and remarkable views: they are, as it were, cold.... i love nature when, though it surrounds me on all sides and extends unendingly, i am part of it. i love it, when on all sides i am surrounded by hot air, and that same air rolls away to unending distance, and those same sappy leaves of grass which i crush as i sit on them, form the green of the boundless meadows; when those same leaves which, fluttering in the wind, run their shadows across my face, form also the dark blue of the distant forests; while the same air one breathes makes the deep, light blue of the immeasurable sky; when you do not exult and rejoice alone in nature, but when around you myriads of insects buzz and whirl, and beetles, clinging together, creep about, and all around you birds overflow with song. but this is bare, cold, desolate, grey plateau; and somewhere afar there is something beautiful veiled with mist. but that something is so distant that i do not feel the chief delight of nature--do not feel myself a part of that endless and beautiful distance: it is foreign to me. from lucerne he writes: [37]je suis de nouveau tout seul, et je vous avouerai que très souvent la solitude m'est pénible, car les connaissances qu'on fait dans les hôtels et en chemin de fer ne sont pas des ressources; mais cet isolement a du moins le bon côté de me pousser au travail. je travaille un peu, mais cela va mal, comme d'ordinaire en été. [37] i am again all alone, and i confess that very often the solitude is painful to me, for the acquaintanceships one makes in hotels and on the railways are not a resource. but there is at least this much good in this loneliness--it prompts me to work. i am working a little, but it goes badly, as usual in summer. it was here that the incident occurred described in _lucerne_, a sketch published in the september number of the _contemporary_ that same year, and one which in its fierce castigation of the rich is a precursor of much that he wrote thirty years later. especially the conduct of the wealthy english tourists roused his ire. the particular incident the story deals with is this: on 7 july 1857, in lucerne, in front of the schweizerhof hotel, where the richest people stay, an itinerant mendicant-singer sang songs and played his guitar for half-an-hour. about a hundred people listened to him. three times the singer asked them to give him something, but not one of them did so, and many laughed at him. this is not fiction, but a positive fact, which any one who cares may verify by asking the permanent inhabitants of the schweizerhof, and by looking up the newspaper lists of foreign visitors at the schweizerhof on 7 july. it is an event which the historians of our times should inscribe in indelible letters of fire. in the story, prince nehlúdof, indignant at such treatment of a man who was a real artist and whose songs all had enjoyed, brought the singer into the hotel and treated him to a bottle of wine. he goes on to ask himself: which is more a man, and which more a barbarian: the lord who, on seeing the singer's worn-out clothes, angrily left the table, and for his service did not give him a millionth part of his property, and who now sits satiated, in a well-lit, comfortable room, calmly discussing the affairs of china and approving the murders that are being committed there--or the little singer who with a franc in his pocket, risking imprisonment, has tramped over hill and dale for twenty years, harming no one but cheering many by his songs, and whom they insulted to-day and all but turned out, leaving him--weary, hungry and humiliated--to make his bed somewhere on rotting straw? after passing a few weeks at lucerne, tolstoy returned to russia _viâ_ stuttgart, berlin, and stettin, from which port he took steamer to petersburg, and after staying a week there to see nekrásof and meet his colleagues of the _contemporary_, he went through moscow to yásnaya, where he arrived in august. in his diary we find this note: this is how, on my journey, i planned my future occupations: first, literary work; next, family duties; then, estate management. but the estate i must leave as far as possible to the steward, softening him and making improvements, and spending only rs. 2000 a year [then equal to about £270], and using the rest for the serfs. above all, my stumbling-block is liberal vanity. to live for oneself and do a good deed a day, is sufficient. further on he says: 'self-sacrifice does not lie in saying "take what you like from me," but in labouring and thinking, and contriving how to give oneself.' at this time he read (in translation) the _iliad_ and the gospels, which both impressed him greatly. 'i have finished reading the indescribably beautiful end of the _iliad_,' he notes, and expresses his regret that there is no connection between those two wonderful works. in october he first accompanied his brother nicholas and his sister mary to moscow, and then spent a few days in petersburg, where he found that he had been forgotten by a world absorbed in the great measures of public reform then in course of preparation. here is a sentence from his diary: petersburg at first mortified me and then put me right. my reputation has fallen and hardly gives a squeak, and i felt much hurt; but now i am tranquil. i know i have something to say and strength to say it strongly; and the public may then say what it will. but i must work conscientiously, exerting all my powers; then ... let them spit upon the altar. by the end of october (old style) he was back in moscow, established in furnished apartments in the pyátnitsky street, with his sister and his brother nicholas. his friend fet was also in moscow at this time, and in his _recollections_ makes frequent mention of the tolstoys. he tells us that the countess mary (who was an exceedingly accomplished pianist) used to come to his house for music in the evenings, accompanied sometimes by both her brothers and sometimes by nicholas alone, who would say: 'lyóvotchka has again donned his evening clothes and white necktie, and gone to a ball.' tolstoy's elegance in dress was very noticeable at this period. we read of the grey beaver collar of his overcoat, of a fashionable cane he carried, and of the glossy hat he wore placed on one side, as well as of his curly, dark-brown hair. gymnastics were fashionable in moscow in those days, and any one wishing to find tolstoy between one and two o'clock in the afternoon, could do so at the gymnasium on the great dmítrovka street, where, dressed in gymnastic attire, he might be seen intent on springing over the vaulting-horse without upsetting a cone placed on its back. he always was expert at physical exercises: a first-rate horseman, quick at all games and sports, a swimmer, and an excellent skater. among the visitors fet met at tolstoy's house we note the name of saltykóf, who under the pseudonym of stchedrín is known as one of the keenest and most powerful of russia's satirists, and who during the last seven years of the reign of nicholas i had lived in banishment in the far-off town of vyátka. another guest was b. n. tchitchérin, philosopher and jurist, and author of works on _science and religion_, _property and the state_, and other subjects tolstoy dealt with three or four decades later. katkóf, editor of the _moscow gazette_ and monthly _russian messenger_, was another acquaintance; and in his magazine some of tolstoy's chief works appeared. 1858 in january 1858 tolstoy's aunt, who had been a friend of his boyhood, the countess alexandra a. tolstoy, maid of honour to the grand duchess márya nikoláyevna, came to moscow. through this aunt (who lived to a great age, and died only a few years ago) tolstoy used to receive information of what went on at court, and was sometimes able indirectly to exert influence 'in the highest circles.' when she returned to petersburg tolstoy accompanied her as far as the town of klin, on the nicholas railway, and took the opportunity to visit the princess volkónsky (a cousin of his mother's), who had a small estate in those parts. he remained some weeks with this affectionate old lady, who told him much about his mother and her family, and he greatly enjoyed his quiet stay with her. at her house he wrote _three deaths_, which appeared the following january in _the reading library_. it is an admirably written study of the deaths of a rich lady, a poor post-horse driver, and a tree. in february he returned to yásnaya polyána; then again visited moscow, and in march spent a fortnight in petersburg. his love of music reasserted itself strongly at this period; and in conjunction with v. p. bótkin, perfílief, mortier (his late rival in love) and others, he founded the moscow musical society, which ultimately resulted in the formation of the moscow conservatoire of which nicholas rubinstein became director. one of tolstoy's most intimate acquaintances at this period was s. t. aksákof, author of stories and memoirs, lover of hunting and fishing, and father of two famous sons, both prominent slavophil leaders. the invigorating influence of spring shows itself in a letter tolstoy wrote about this time to his aunt, the countess a. a. tolstoy (whom he calls 'grandma'): grandma!--spring! for good people it is excellent to live in the world; and even for such men as me, it is sometimes good. in nature, in the air, in everything, is hope, future--an attractive future.... sometimes one deceives oneself and thinks that happiness and a future await not only nature but oneself also, and then one feels happy. i am now in such a state, and with characteristic egotism hasten to write to you of things that interest only me. when i review things sanely, i know very well that i am an old, frozen little potato, and one already boiled with sauce; but spring so acts on me that i sometimes catch myself in the full blaze of imagining myself a plant which with others has only now blossomed, and which will peacefully, simply and joyfully grow in god's world. the result is that at this time of year, such an internal clearing-out goes on in me, such a cleansing and ordering, as only those who have experienced this feeling can imagine. all the old--away! all worldly conventions, all idleness, all egotism, all vices, all confused indefinite attachments, all regrets, even repentances--away with you all!... make room for the wonderful little flowers whose buds are swelling and growing with the spring!... after much more he concludes: farewell, dear grandma, do not be angry with me for this nonsense, but answer with a word of wisdom, imbued with kindness, christian kindness! i have long wished to say that for you it is pleasanter to write french, and i understand feminine thoughts better in french. in april he was again at yásnaya where, in spite of repeated visits to moscow, he spent most of the summer. there was at this time no railway from moscow southward to toúla; and the serfs' belief concerning the new telegraph posts which stood by the side of the highroad, was that when the wire had been completed, 'freedom' would be sent along it from petersburg. even tatiána alexándrovna érgolsky did not understand these new-fangled things, and, when driving along the road one day, asked tolstoy to explain how letters were written by telegraph. he told her as simply as he could how the telegraphic apparatus works, and received the reply: '_oui, oui, je comprends, mon cher!_' how much she had really understood was however shown half an hour later when, after keeping her eye on the wire all that time, she inquired: 'but how is it, _mon cher léon_, that during a whole half-hour i have not seen a single letter go along the telegraph?' fet and his wife used to stay a day or two at yásnaya when journeying to and from moscow, and fet's account of aunt tatiána accords with tolstoy's own affectionate recollections of that lady. fet says that he and his wife 'made the acquaintance of tolstoy's charming old aunt, tatiána alexándrovna érgolsky, who received us with that old-world affability which puts one at once at one's ease on entering a new house. she did not devote herself to memories of times long past, but lived fully in the present.' speaking of them all by their pet names, she mentioned that 'seryózhenka tolstoy had gone to his home at pirogóvo, but nikólenka would probably stay a bit longer in moscow with máshenka, but lyóvotchka's friend dyákof had recently visited them,' and so on. many years later, tolstoy jotted down his memories of the long autumn and winter evenings spent with aunt tatiána to which, he says, he owed his best thoughts and impulses. he would sit in his arm-chair reading, thinking, and occasionally listening to her kindly and gentle conversation with two of the servants: natálya petróvna (an old woman who lived there not because she was of much use, but because she had nowhere else to live) and a maid doúnetchka. the chief charm of that life lay in the absence of any material care; in good relations with those nearest--relations no one could spoil; and in the leisureliness and the unconsciousness of flying time.... when, after living badly at a neighbour's in toúla, with cards, gipsies, hunting, and stupid vanity, i used to return home and come to her, by old habit we would kiss each other's hand, i her dear energetic hand, and she my dirty, vicious hand; and also by old habit, we greeted one another in french, and i would joke with natálya petróvna, and would sit down in the comfortable arm-chair. she knew well all i had been doing and regretted it, but never reproached me, retaining always the same gentleness and love.... i was once telling her how some one's wife had gone away with another man, and i said the husband ought to be glad to be rid of her. and suddenly my aunt lifted her eyebrows and said, as a thing long decided in her mind, that that would be wrong of the husband, because it would completely ruin the wife. after that she told me of a drama that had occurred among the serfs. then she re-read a letter from my sister máshenka, whom she loved if not more, at least as much as she loved me, and she spoke of másha's husband (her own nephew) not to condemn him, but with grief for the sorrow he inflicted on máshenka.... the chief characteristic of her life, which involuntarily infected me, was her wonderful, general kindliness to every one without exception. i try to recall a single instance of her being angry, or speaking a sharp word, or condemning any one, and i cannot recall one such instance in the course of thirty years. she spoke well of our real aunt, who had bitterly hurt her by taking us away from her.... as to her kindly treatment of the servants--that goes without saying. she had grown up in the idea that there are masters and servants, but she utilised her authority only to serve them.... she never blamed me directly for my evil life, though she suffered on my account. my brother sergéy, too, whom also she loved warmly, she did not reproach even when he took a gipsy girl to live with him. the only shade of disquietude she showed on our account was that, when he was very late in returning home, she would say: 'what has become of our sergius?' only _sergius_ instead of _seryósha_.... she never told us in words how to live, never preached to us. all her moral work was done internally; externally one only saw her deeds--and not even deeds: there were no deeds; but all her life, peaceful, sweet, submissive and loving, not troubled or self-satisfied, but a life of quiet, unobtrusive love.... her affectionateness and tranquillity made her society noticeably attractive and gave a special charm to intimacy with her. i know of no case where she offended any one, and of no one who did not love her. she never spoke of herself, never of religion or of what we ought to believe, or of how she believed or prayed. she believed everything, except that she rejected one dogma--that of eternal torment. '_dieu, qui est la bonté même, ne peut pas vouloir nos souffrances._'[38]... she often called me by my father's name (nicholas) and this pleased me very much, because it showed that her conceptions of me and of my father mingled in her love of us both. [38] god, who is goodness itself, cannot desire our pain. it was not her love for me alone that was joyous. what was joyous was the atmosphere of love to all who were present or absent, alive or dead, and even to animals.... after telling of her goodness and her affection tolstoy says in his memoirs that, though he appreciated his happiness with her, he did not at the time nearly realise its full value; and he adds: she was fond of keeping sweets: figs, gingerbreads and dates, in various jars in her room. i cannot forget, nor remember without a cruel pang of remorse, that i repeatedly refused her money she wanted for such things and how she, sighing sadly, remained silent. it is true i was in need of money, but i cannot now remember without horror that i refused her. again in another place, after mentioning her self-devotion, he says: and it was to her, to her, that i refused the small pleasure of having figs and chocolate (and not so much for herself as to treat me) and of being able to give a trifle to those who begged of her.... dear, dear aunty, forgive me! _si jeunesse savait, si vieillesse pouvait_ [if youth but knew, if age but could], i mean not in the sense of the good lost for oneself in youth, but in the sense of the good not given and the evil done to those who are no more. of leo's life at yásnaya at this time, his brother nicholas gave fet the following humorous account: lyóvotchka is zealously trying to become acquainted with peasant life and with farming, of both of which, like the rest of us, he has till now had but a superficial knowledge. but i am not sure what sort of acquaintance will result from his efforts: lyóvotchka wants to get hold of everything at once, without omitting anything--even his gymnastics. so he has rigged up a bar under his study window. and of course, apart from prejudice, with which he wages such fierce war, he is right: gymnastics do not interfere with farming; but the steward sees things differently and says, 'one comes to the master for orders, and he hangs head downward in a red jacket, holding on by one knee to a perch, and swings himself. his hair hangs down and blows about, the blood comes to his face, and one does not know whether to listen to his orders or to be astonished at him!' lyóvotchka is delighted with the way the serf ufán sticks out his arms when ploughing; and so ufán has become for him an emblem of village strength, like the legendary michael; and he himself, sticking his elbows out wide, takes to the plough and 'ufanizes.' in may 1858 tolstoy wrote to fet: dearest little uncle [as we might say, dear old boy]!--i write two words merely to say that i embrace you with all my might, have received your letter, kiss the hand of márya petróvna [fet's wife] and make obeisance to you all. aunty thanks you very much for your message and bows to you, so also does my sister. what a wonderful spring it has been and is! i, in solitude, have tasted it admirably. brother nicholas must be at nikólsk. catch him and do not let him go. i want to come to see you this month. tourgénef has gone to winzig till august to cure his bladder. devil take him. i am tired of loving him. he deserts us, and won't cure his bladder. now good-bye, dear friend. if you have no poem ready for me by the time i come, i shall proceed to squeeze one out of you.--your count l. tolstoy. another letter to fet runs: ay, old fellow, ahoy! first, you give no sign, though it is spring and you know we are all thinking of you, and that i, like prometheus, am bound to a rock, yet thirst for sight or sound of you. you should either come, or at least send us a proper invitation. secondly, you have retained my brother, and a very good brother, surnamed 'firdusi' [an allusion to nicholas's oriental wisdom]. the chief culprit in this matter, i suspect, is márya petróvna, to whom i humbly bow, requesting her to return us our own brother. jesting apart, he bids me let you know that he will be here next week. drouzhínin will also come, so mind you come too, old fellow. the first record of any participation by tolstoy in political affairs relates to the preparations for the emancipation of the serfs. immediately after the conclusion of the crimean war alexander ii, addressing the marshals of the nobility, in moscow, had said: 'the existing manner of possessing serfs cannot remain unchanged. it is better to abolish serfdom from above than to await the time when it will begin to abolish itself from below. i request you, gentlemen, to consider how this can be done, and to submit my words to the nobility for their consideration.' some time passed without any definite response to this appeal, and meanwhile the polish nobility of the lithuanian provinces, dissatisfied with certain regulations enacted in the previous reign, incautiously asked to have them revised. the government grasped the opportunity, and treating this as the expression of a wish for emancipation, replied that 'the abolition of serfdom must be effected not suddenly, but gradually,' and authorised the nobility to form committees for the preparation of definite projects to that end. four days later the minister of the interior, acting on secret orders from the emperor, sent a circular to all the governors and marshals of the nobility in russia proper, stating that the lithuanian nobles 'had recognised the necessity of liberating the peasants,' and that 'this noble intention' had afforded peculiar satisfaction to his majesty, and explaining the principles to be observed in case the nobles of other provinces should express a similar desire. a few weeks later the emperor publicly expressed a hope that, with the co-operation of his nobles, the work of emancipation would be successfully accomplished. it therefore became quite evident that, whether the nobles liked it or not, emancipation was at hand; since the emperor had, at last, definitely ranged himself on the side of the emancipationists. by accepting the invitation to co-operate in the preparation of the scheme, there appeared to be a chance that the nobles might so shape the measure that their interests would not suffer; and consequently, during 1858, a committee was chosen in almost every province of central russia. among the rest a meeting of the nobility of the government of toúla was fixed for the first of september, to elect deputies to the committee for the improvement of the condition of the peasants. tolstoy attended this meeting, and together with one hundred and four fellow-nobles signed a document stating that 'with the object of improving the condition of the peasants, preserving the property of the landowners, and securing the safety of both the one and the other, we consider it necessary that the peasants should be liberated not otherwise than with an allotment of a certain amount of land in hereditary possession, and that the landowners should receive for the land they give up, full, equitable, pecuniary recompense by means of such financial measures as will not entail any obligatory relations between peasants and proprietors,--relations which the nobility consider it necessary to terminate.' there is no indication that tolstoy took any prominent part in this meeting; and the resolution just quoted, while approving of emancipation, seems to attach at least equal importance to securing full compensation for the landowners. explain it how one may, the fact remains that while the _contemporary_, and all that was progressive in russian literature, was preoccupied with the effort to help to shape the reforms so that they might really attain the ends aimed at, tolstoy almost retired from the scene, and hardly appeared aware of the movement going on around him. the battle for freedom was fought in the press by tchernyshévsky, kosheléf, and n. samárin, by herzen, and by many others, including nekrásof and saltykóf; and tolstoy's indifference helps to explain the fact, already alluded to, that during these years the critics ignored him, though his artistic power continued to increase. his friend fet also took no part in the emancipation movement; being in fact rather opposed to it. on 24th october 1858 tolstoy writes to fet: to write stories is stupid and shameful. to write verses--well, write them; but to love a good man is very pleasant. yet perhaps, against my will and intention, not i, but an unripe story inside me, compels me to love you. it sometimes seems like that. do what one will amid the manure and the mange, one somehow begins to compose. thank heaven, i have not yet allowed myself to write, and will not do so.... thank you exceedingly for your trouble about a veterinary. i have found one in toúla and have begun the cure, but i do not know what will come of it.--and, may the devil take them all,--drouzhínin is appealing to me as a matter of friendship to write a story. i really want to. i will spin such a yarn that there will be no head or tail to it.... but joking apart, how is your hafiz getting on? [fet was translating some poems by hafiz.] turn it which way you will, the height of wisdom and fortitude for me is to enjoy the poetry of others, and not to let my own in ugly garb loose among men, but to consume it myself with my daily bread. but at times one suddenly wishes to be a great man, and it is so annoying that this has not yet come about! one even hurries to get up quicker or to finish dinner in order to begin.... send me a poem, the healthiest of those you have translated from hafiz, _me faire venir l'eau à la bouche_,[39] and i will send you a sample of wheat. hunting has bored me to death. the weather is excellent, but i do not hunt alone. [39] to make my mouth water. in company, tolstoy was however a keen sportsman, and in december 1858 nearly lost his life while out bear-shooting. he has told the story, with some embellishments, in one of the tales for children contained in the volume. _twenty-three tales_.[40] the real facts were these: [40] included in the _world's classics_. tolstoy and his brother nicholas had made the acquaintance of s. s. gromeka, a well-known publicist who shared their fondness for hunting--a sport very different in russia from what it is in england, as readers of tolstoy's descriptions well know. gromeka having heard that a she-bear with two young ones had her lair in the forest near the railway at volotchók, half-way between petersburg and moscow, arranged matters with the peasants of that locality, and invited the tolstoys and other guests to a hunt. the invitation was accepted, and on 21st december leo tolstoy shot a bear. on 22nd the members of the party, each armed with two guns, were placed at the ends of cuttings running through the forest in which the big she-bear had been surrounded. these paths or cuttings divided the wood like the lines of a chess-board. peasants employed as beaters were stationed to prevent the animal escaping except by approaching one or other of the sportsmen. ostáshkof, a famous professional huntsman, supervised the proceedings. the guests were advised to stamp down the snow around them, so as to give themselves room to move freely; but tolstoy (with his usual objection to routine methods) argued that as they were out to shoot the bear and not to box with her, it was useless to tread down the snow. he therefore stood with his two-barrelled gun in his hand, surrounded by snow almost up to his waist. tile bear, roused by the shouts of ostáshkof, rushed down a cutting directly towards one of the other sportsmen; but, perceiving him, she suddenly swerved from her course and took a cross path which brought her out on to the cutting leading straight to tolstoy. he, not expecting her visit, did not fire until the beast was within six yards, and his first shot missed. the bear was only two yards from him when his second shot hit her in the mouth. it failed to stop her rush, and she knocked tolstoy over on to his back in the snow. carried past him at first by her own impetus, the bear soon returned; and the next thing tolstoy knew was that he was being weighed down by something heavy and warm, and he then felt that his face was being drawn into the beast's mouth. he could only offer a passive resistance, by drawing down his head as much as possible between his shoulders and trying to present his cap instead of his face to the bear's teeth. this state of things lasted only a few seconds, yet long enough for the bear, after one or two misses, to get her teeth into the flesh above and below his left eye. at this moment ostáshkof, armed with a small switch, came running up, shouting: 'where are you getting to? where are you getting to?' at which the beast promptly took fright, and rushed off. next day she was followed up and killed. owing to the amount of blood and torn flesh, tolstoy's wound at first appeared serious; but when it had been washed with snow, and he had been taken to the nearest town and had had it sewn up, it turned out to be superficial. he long retained a very noticeable scar however as a memento of the encounter; and the bear's skin may still be seen at yásnaya. _family happiness_, written partly in 1858, was published early in 1859. it grew out of the unsuccessful love affair mentioned in the last chapter, and is tolstoy's imaginative description of what might have been. 1859 the first months of 1859 he spent in moscow, and here on the occasion of joining the moscow society of lovers of russian literature, on 4th february, he for the first time made a public speech: a task for which, he once told me, he had no aptitude, and which he much disliked. he wrote it out, and it was to have appeared in the proceedings of the society, but for some reason never got printed. its subject was 'the supremacy of the artistic element in literature,' and in it he maintained a position almost the opposite of the one he advocated so ardently and with such full conviction in _what is art?_ forty years later. he was answered by the slavophil a. s. homyakóf, who presided at the meeting, and who in the course of his remarks said: allow me to remark that the justice of the opinion you have so skilfully stated is far from destroying the legitimacy of the temporary and exceptional side of literature. that which is always right, that which is always beautiful, that which is as unalterable as the most fundamental laws of the soul, undoubtedly holds, and should hold, the first place in the thoughts, the impulses, and therefore in the speech of man. it, and it alone, will be handed on by generation to generation and by nation to nation as a precious inheritance. but on the other hand, in the nature of man and of society there is continual need for self-indictment. there are moments, moments important in history, when that self-indictment acquires a special and indefeasible right, and manifests itself in literature with great definiteness and keenness.... the rights of literature, the servant of eternal beauty, do not destroy the rights of the literature of indictment, which always accompanies social deficiencies and sometimes appears as the healer of social evils.... of course, art is perfectly free: it finds its justification and its aim in itself. but the freedom of art in the abstract, has nothing to do with the inner life of the artist. an artist is not a theory--a sphere of thought and mental activity--but a man, and always a man of his own times, usually its best representative, completely imbued with its spirit and its defined or nascent aspirations. by the very impressionability of his nature, without which he could not be an artist, he, even more than others, receives all the painful as well as joyous sensations of the society to which he is born.... so the writer, a servant of pure art, sometimes becomes an accuser even unconsciously, and despite his own will. i allow myself, count, to cite you as an example. you consciously follow a definite road faithfully and undeviatingly; but are you really completely alien to the literature of indictment? were it but in the picture of a consumptive post-boy, dying on top of a stove amid a crowd of comrades apparently indifferent to his sufferings [this refers to _three deaths_] have you not indicated some social disease, some evil? when describing that death, is it possible that you did not suffer from the horny indifference of good but unawakened human souls? yes, you too have been and will be an involuntary indicter! this question of the true position of literary art and its relation to the rest of life, was one which occupied tolstoy for many years, and on which before the century closed he expressed himself in a book which must be reckoned with by all who may hereafter deal with the subject. the attitude he maintained at the time he entered the society of lovers of russian literature, was in striking contrast with that of the slavophils, such as homyakóf, and of the great majority of the leading russian writers of that day, who were fired with the hope of emancipation, just as in america at the same time, lowell, emerson, whittier, thoreau, walt whitman, longfellow, channing, lloyd garrison, and others, were stirred by the anti-slavery movement. in april tolstoy went to petersburg and spent ten days very pleasantly with his aunt the countess a. a. tolstoy. by the end of the month he was back at yásnaya. in july, tourgénef, from france, wrote fet a long letter in blank verse, a few lines of which indicate the relation between leo tolstoy and himself at this time: 'kiss nicholas tolstoy on my behalf and to his brother leo make my bow, --as to his sister also. he rightly says in his postscriptum: "there is no cause" for me to write to him, indeed, i know he bears me little love and i love him as little. too differently are mixed those elements of which we're formed.' 1859-1860 during this winter tolstoy devoted much time to an attempt to organise schools on and near his estate. the education of its peasant children was one of the things russia most needed, and most terribly neglected. tolstoy recognised this, and set himself strenuously and eagerly to show how the great need could be met. the work he did at this time was, however, only preliminary to what he undertook after his next visit to western europe, and he was far from being mentally at peace. at the commencement of the new year he noted in his diary: 'the burden of the estate, the burden of bachelor life, and all sorts of doubts and pessimistic feelings agitate my mind.' one mention of the serfs (who were now nearing freedom) occurs in a letter tolstoy wrote to fet on 23rd february 1860, in reply to a note in which the latter had expressed a wish to buy an estate, settle down in the country, and devote himself to farming. tolstoy replies that there is an estate for sale adjoining his own, containing: four hundred desyatíns of good land with, unfortunately, seventy souls of bad serfs. but that does not matter; they will gladly pay quit-rent [in lieu of personal service] as mine do, at the rate of rs. 30 a _tyaglo_ [man and wife with an allotment of land] or rs. 660 for the twenty-two _tyaglos_, and you will get not less than that, if not more, at the emancipation, and will have sufficient unexhausted land and meadow left to yield about rs. 2000 a year, or over rs. 2600 in all. the price asked for the estate is rs. 24,000, besides a mortgage of about rs. 5000.... at any rate it would be a good bargain to buy it for rs. 20,000.... the seller is an old man who is ruined, and wants to sell it quickly in order to get rid of his son-in-law. he has twice sent to offer it me. the above calculation shows what the estate should yield in a couple of years' time if about rs. 5000 be spent on improving it; but even in its present condition one can answer for a return of rs. 1500, which is more than 7 per cent. on the cost. in russia to buy serfs was not then considered more discreditable than it is in england to-day to buy shares in a china or match factory; and in the same letter tolstoy goes on to discuss literature: i have read tourgénef's _on the eve_. this is my opinion: to write novels is undesirable, especially for people who are depressed and do not well know what they want from life. however, _on the eve_ is much better than _a nest of gentlefolk_, and there are in it excellent negative characters: the artist and the father. the rest are not types; even their conception, their position, is not typical, or they are quite insignificant. that however is always tourgénef's mistake. the girl is hopelessly bad: 'ah, how i love thee ... her eyelashes were long.' in general it always surprises me that tourgénef, with his mental powers and poetic sensibility, should even in his methods not be able to refrain from banality. this banality shows itself most of all in his negative methods, which recall gógol. there is no humanity or sympathy for the characters, but the author exhibits monsters whom he scolds and does not pity. this jars painfully with the tone and intention of liberalism in everything else. it was all very well in the days of tsar goroh [a character in a fairy story] or of gógol (though if one does not pity even the most insignificant of one's characters, one should scold them so that the heavens grow hot, or laugh at them so that one's sides split, and not as our splenetic and dyspeptic tourgénef does). on the whole, however, there is now no one else who could write such a novel, though it will not meet with success. ostróvsky's _the storm_ is, in my opinion, a wretched work, but will be successful. not ostróvsky and tourgénef are to blame, but the times.... something else is now needed: not that we should learn and criticise, but that we should teach jack and jill at least a little of what we know. this letter to fet, who was in moscow, ends with requests to procure some books, including a veterinary handbook, a veterinary instrument, and a lancet for use on human beings; to see about procuring six ploughs of a special make, and to find out the price of clover and timothy-grass, of which tolstoy had some to sell. 1860 at this time tolstoy worked at his story _the cossacks_, the plan of which he had sketched out in 1852, but which he did not complete till 1862. one comes across notes in his diary which indicate his state of mind at this period with regard to religion. after reading a book on materialism he notes: i thought of prayer. to what can one pray? what is god, imagined so clearly that one can ask him to communicate with us? if i imagine such an one, he loses all grandeur for me. a god whom one can beseech and whom one can serve--is the expression of mental weakness. he is god, because i cannot grasp his being. indeed, he is not a being, but a law and a force. he was a great puzzle to his friends and acquaintances--always ready to take his own line strenuously, yet sometimes far from sure what that line was. tourgénef wrote to fet: leo tolstoy continues his eccentricities. evidently it was so decreed at his birth. when will he turn his last somersault and stand on his feet? the fact that tolstoy, like his friend fet, was neglecting literature did not fail to call forth many remonstrances, one of the most urgent of which came to him from drouzhínin, who wrote: every writer has his moments of doubt and self-dissatisfaction, and however strong and legitimate this feeling may be, no one on that account has yet ceased his connection with literature; every one goes on writing to the end. but all tendencies, good or bad, cling to you with peculiar obstinacy; so that you, more than others, need to think of this and to consider the whole matter amicably. first of all, remember that after poetry and mental labour all other work seems worthless. _qui a bu, boira_; and at the age of thirty to tear oneself away from authorship means losing half the interest of life. but that is only half the matter; there is something still more important. on all of us lies a responsibility rooted in the immense importance of literature to russian society. an englishman or an american may laugh at the fact that in russia not merely men of thirty, but grey-haired owners of 2000 serfs sweat over stories of a hundred pages, which appear in the magazines, are devoured by everybody, and arouse discussion in society for a whole day. however much artistic quality may have to do with this result, you cannot explain it merely by art. what in other lands is a matter of idle talk and careless dilettantism, with us is quite another affair. among us things have taken such shape that a story--the most frivolous and insignificant form of literature--becomes one of two things: either it is rubbish, or else it is the voice of a leader sounding throughout the empire. for instance, we all know tourgénef's weakness, but a whole ocean divides the most insignificant of his stories from the very best of mrs. eugene tour's, with her half-talent. by some strange instinct the russian public has chosen from among the crowd of writers four or five bell-men whom it values as leaders, refusing to listen to any qualifications or deductions. you--partly by talent, partly by the practical qualities of your soul, and partly owing simply to a concurrence of fortunate circumstances--have stepped into this favourable relation with the public. on that account you must not go away and hide, but must work, even to the exhaustion of your strength and powers. that is one side of the matter; but here is another. you are a member of a literary circle that is honourable (as far as may be), independent, and influential; and which for ten years, amid persecutions and misfortunes, and notwithstanding its members' vices, has firmly upheld the banner of all that is liberal and enlightened, and has borne all this weight of abuse without committing one mean action. in spite of the world's coldness and ignorance and its contempt for literature, this circle is rewarded with honour and moral influence. of course, there are in it insignificant and even stupid homunculi; but even they play a part in the general union, and have not been useless. in that circle you again, though you arrived but recently, have a place and a voice such as ostróvsky for instance does not possess, though he has immense talent and his moral tendency is as worthy as your own. why this has happened it would take too long to analyse, nor is it to the point. if you tear yourself off from the circle of writers and become inactive, you will be dull, and will deprive yourself of an important rôle in society.... at this time the state of health of his brother nicholas--who (like demetrius) had consumptive tendencies--began to disturb leo tolstoy. it was arranged that nicholas should go to germany for a cure. the following letter written by leo tolstoy to fet, after nicholas had started, refers to this and other matters: ... you are a writer and remain a writer, and god speed you. but that, besides this, you wish to find a spot where you can dig like an ant, is an idea which has come to you and which you must carry out, and carry out better than i have done. you must do it because you are both a good man and one who looks at life healthily.... however, it is not for me now to deal out to you approval or disapproval with an air of authority. i am greatly at sixes and sevens with myself. farming on the scale on which it is carried out on my estate, crushes me. to 'ufanize'[41] is a thing i only see afar off. family affairs, nicholas's illness (of which we have as yet no news from abroad) and my sister's departure (she leaves me in three days' time) also crush and occupy me. bachelor life, _i.e._ not having a wife, and the thought that it is getting too late, torments me from a third side. in general, everything is now out of tune with me. on account of my sister's helplessness and my wish to see nicholas, i shall at any rate procure a foreign passport to-morrow, and perhaps i shall accompany my sister abroad; especially if we do not receive news, or receive bad news, from nicholas. how much i would give to see you before leaving, how much i want to tell you and to hear from you; but it is now hardly possible. yet if this letter reaches you quickly, remember that we leave yásnaya on thursday or more probably on friday. [41] to work like a peasant. the origin of this word is given on p. 179. now as to farming: the price they ask of you is not exorbitant, and if the place pleases you, you should buy it. only why do you want so much land? i have learned by three years' experience that with all imaginable diligence it is impossible to grow cereals profitably or pleasantly on more than 60 or 70 desyatíns [160 to 190 acres] that is, on about 15 desyatíns in each of four fields. only in that way can one escape trembling for every omission (for then one ploughs not twice but three or four times) and for every hour a peasant misses, and for every extra rouble-a-month one pays him; for one can bring 15 desyatíns to the point of yielding 30 to 40 per cent. on the fixed and working capital; but with 80 or 100 desyatíns under plough one cannot do so. please do not let this advice slip past your ears; it is not idle talk, but a result of experience i have had to pay for. any one who tells you differently is either lying or ignorant. more than that, even with 15 desyatíns an all-absorbing industry is necessary. but then one can gain a reward--one of the pleasantest life gives; whereas with 90 desyatíns one has to labour like a post-horse, with no possibility of success. i cannot find sufficient words to scold myself for not having written to you sooner--in which case you would surely have come to see us. now farewell. things meanwhile were not going very well with nicholas, who wrote from soden in hesse-nassau: in soden we joined tourgénef, who is alive and well--so well that he himself confesses that he is 'quite' well. he has found some german girl and goes into ecstasies about her. we (this relates to our dearest tourgénef) play chess together, but somehow it does not go as it should: he is thinking of his german girl, and i of my cure.... i shall probably stay in soden for at least six weeks. i do not describe my journey because i was ill all the time. eventually leo tolstoy made up his mind to accompany his sister and her children abroad, and on 3rd july (old style) they took steamer from petersburg for stettin _en route_ for berlin. besides anxiety on his brother's account, tolstoy had another reason for going abroad: he wished to study the european systems of education, in order to know what had been accomplished in the line to which he now intended to devote himself. on reaching berlin he suffered from toothache for four days, and decided to remain there while his sister proceeded to join nicholas at soden. he consulted a doctor, as he was suffering also from headache and hemorrhoidal attacks, and he was ordered to take a cure at kissingen. he only stayed a few days in berlin after getting rid of his toothache, and left on 14th july (old style), having however found time to attend lectures on history by droysen, and on physics and physiology by du bois-reymond, and having also visited some evening classes for artisans at the _handwerksverein_, where he was greatly interested in the popular lectures, and particularly in the system of 'question-boxes.' the method of arousing the interest of the audience by allowing them to propound questions for the lecturer to reply to, was new to him, and he was struck by the life it brought into the classes, and by the freedom of mental contact between scholars and teacher. he noticed the same thing when he was in london a few months later, for he told me that nothing he saw there interested him more than a lecture he attended in south kensington, at which questions were put by working men, and answered by a speaker who was master of his subject and knew how to popularise it. in berlin he visited the moabit prison, in which solitary confinement was practised. tolstoy strongly disapproved of this mechanical attempt to achieve moral reformation. from berlin he went to leipzig, where he spent a day inspecting schools; but he derived little satisfaction from the saxon schools he visited, as is indicated by a remark he jotted down in his diary, 'have been in school--terrible. prayers for the king, blows, everything by rote, frightened, paralysed children....' he then proceeded to dresden, where he called on the novelist auerbach, whose story, _ein neues leben_ (_a new life_), had much influenced him. the chief character in that story is count fulkenberg, who after being an officer in the army, gets into trouble, escapes from prison, buys the passport of a school-master, eugene baumann, and under that name devotes himself to the task of educating peasant children. when auerbach entered the room in which his visitor was waiting, the latter introduced himself with the words: 'i am eugene baumann,' in such solemn tones and with so morose an appearance, that the german writer was taken aback and feared that he was about to be threatened with an action for libel. tolstoy however hastened to add: '--not in name, but in character--' and went on to explain how good an effect auerbach's _schwarzwälder dorfgeschichten_ (_village tales of the black forest_) had had on him. after three days in dresden, he went on to kissingen, which was in those days about five hours' journey from soden, where nicholas was staying. still intent on his educational inquiries, he read _en route_ a history of pedagogics. from kissingen he wrote his aunt tatiána that he thought the cure was doing him good, and added: tell the steward to write me most minutely about the farming, the harvest, the horses and their illness. tell the schoolmaster to write about the school: how many pupils come, and whether they learn well. i shall certainly return in autumn and intend to occupy myself more than ever with the school, so i do not wish its reputation to be lost while i am away, and i want as many pupils as possible from different parts. while in kissingen he read bacon and luther and riehl, and made the acquaintance of julius froebel, author of _the system of social politics_ and nephew of froebel, the founder of the kindergarten system. julius froebel was himself much interested in educational matters, and was a particularly suitable person to explain his uncle's ideas to tolstoy. the latter astonished his new acquaintance, with whom he used to go for walks, by the uncompromising rigidity of his views, which showed a considerable tinge of slavophilism. progress in russia, declared tolstoy, must be based on popular education, which would give better results in russia than in germany, because the russian people were still unperverted, whereas the germans were like children who had for years been subjected to a bad education. popular education should not be compulsory. if it is a blessing, the demand for it should come naturally, as the demand for food comes from hunger. tolstoy visited the country round kissingen, and travelling northward through a part of germany rich both in scenery and in historic interest, reached eisenach and visited the wartburg, where luther was confined after the diet of worms. the personality of the great protestant reformer interested tolstoy greatly, and after seeing the room in which luther commenced his translation of the bible, he noted in his diary: 'luther was great'! twenty years later tolstoy himself attempted to free the minds of men from the yoke of an established church, and he too shaped his chief weapon against the church by translating, not, it is true, like luther, the whole bible, but the gospels. meanwhile nicholas tolstoy's health had been growing worse rather than better. sergius, having been unlucky at roulette, decided to return to russia, and visiting leo at kissingen _en route_, told him of his fears for nicholas. on 9th august sergius left kissingen and nicholas himself arrived there to visit leo, but soon returned to soden. leo then spent a fortnight in the harz mountain district, enjoying nature and reading a great deal. on 26th august he rejoined nicholas, his sister and her children, at soden. the doctors had decided that nicholas must winter in a warmer climate, and the place decided on was hyères near toulon, on the shores of the mediterranean. the first stage of the journey undertaken by the family party was to frankfurt-on-main, where their aunt, the countess a. a. tolstoy, was staying. she tells the following story of leo's visit to her on this occasion: one day prince alexander of hesse and his wife were calling on me, when suddenly the door of the drawing-room opened and leo appeared in the strangest garb, suggestive of a picture of a spanish bandit. i gasped with astonishment. leo apparently was not pleased with my visitors, and soon took his departure. [42]'qui est donc ce singulier personnage?' inquired my visitors in astonishment. 'mais c'est léon tolstoy.' 'ah, mon dieu, pourquoi ne l'avez vous pas nommé? après avoir lu ses admirables écrits, nous mourions d'envie de le voir,' said they, reproachfully. [42] who is that singular person?--inquired my visitors in astonishment. why, it is leo tolstoy! ah, good heavens! why did you not tell us who it was? after reading his admirable writings, we were dying to see him.--said they, reproachfully. from frankfurt the party proceeded to hyères, where nicholas, growing rapidly worse and worse, died on 20th september (new style). few men have been so admired and loved as he was by all who knew him. the only thing recorded against him is the fact that when serving in the caucasus he, like many of his fellow-officers, gave way to some extent to intemperance; but after returning home he recovered his self-control. i have already told of his influence over leo in the early days of the ant-brotherhood, and of the green stick, buried where tolstoy himself wishes his body to lie. such influence he retained all through life, and men and women of most different temperaments make equally enthusiastic mention of his charm and goodness. that leo's judgment of what is good and bad has remained strongly influenced by his love for and memory of nicholas, is plain enough to all who have the facts before them and read his works attentively. tourgénef once said: the humility which leo tolstoy developed theoretically, his brother actually practised in life. he always lived in the most impossible lodgings, almost hovels, somewhere in the out-of-the-way quarters of moscow, and he willingly shared all he had with the poorest outcast. he was a delightful companion and narrator, but writing was to him almost a physical impossibility, the actual process of writing being as difficult for him as for a labourer whose stiff hands will not hold a pen. nicholas did, however, as a matter of fact, contribute some _memoirs of a sportsman_ to the _contemporary_. never was any one's death more sincerely regretted. this is the letter leo wrote to aunt tatiána, the night the event occurred. chère tante!--the black seal will have told you all. what i have been expecting from hour to hour for two weeks occurred at nine o'clock this evening. only since yesterday did he let me help him undress, and to-day for the first time he definitely took to his bed and asked for a nurse. he was conscious all the time, and a quarter-of-an-hour before he died he drank some milk and told me he was comfortable. even to-day he still joked and showed interest in my educational projects. only a few minutes before he died he whispered several times: 'my god, my god!' it seems to me that he felt his position, but deceived himself and us. máshenka, only to-day, some four hours before, had gone three miles out of hyères to where she is living. she did not at all expect it to come so soon. i have just closed his eyes. i shall now soon be back with you and will tell you all personally. i do not intend to transport the body. the funeral will be arranged by the princess golítsin, who has taken it all on herself. farewell, _chère tante_. i cannot console you. it is god's will--that is all. i am not writing to seryózha now. he is probably away hunting, you know where. so let him know, or send him this letter. on the day after the funeral he wrote to sergius: i think you have had news of the death of nicholas. i am sorry for you that you were not here. hard as it is, i am glad it all took place in my presence, and that it acted on me in the right way--not like mítenka's [his third brother, demetrius] death, of which i heard when i was not thinking at all about him. however, this is quite different. with mítenka only memories of childhood and family feeling were bound up; but this was a real man both to you and to me, whom we loved and _respected_ positively more than any one else on earth. you know the selfish feeling which came latterly, that the sooner it was over the better; it is dreadful now to write it and to remember that one thought it. till the last day, with his extraordinary strength of character and power of concentration, he did everything to avoid becoming a burden to me. on the day of his death he dressed and washed himself, and in the morning i found him dressed on his bed. only about nine hours before he died did he give way to his illness and ask to be undressed. it first happened in the closet. i went downstairs, and heard his door open. i returned and did not find him. at first i feared to go to him--he used not to like it; but this time he himself said, 'help me!' and he submitted and became different that day, mild and gentle. he did not groan, did not blame any one, praised everybody, and said to me: 'thank you, _my friend_.' you understand what that meant between us. i told him i had heard how he coughed in the morning, but did not come to him from _fausse honte_ [false shame]. 'needlessly,' said he--'it would have consoled me.' suffering? he suffered; but it was not until a couple of days before his death that he once said: 'how terrible these nights without sleep are! towards morning the cough chokes one, unendingly! and it hurts--god knows how! a couple more such nights--it's terrible!' not once did he say plainly that he felt the approach of death. but he only did not _say_ it. on the day of his death he ordered a dressing-gown, and yet when i remarked that if he did not get better, máshenka and i would not go to switzerland, he replied: 'do you really think i shall be better?' in such a tone that it was evident what he felt but for my sake did not say, and what i for his sake did not show; all the same, from the morning i knew what was coming, and was with him all the time. he died quite without suffering--externally, at all events. he breathed more and more slowly--and it was all over. the next day i went to him and feared to uncover his face. i thought it would show yet more suffering and be more terrible than during his illness; but you cannot imagine what a beautiful face it was, with his best, merry, calm expression. yesterday he was buried here. at one time i thought of transporting him, and of telegraphing for you; but i reconsidered it. it is no use chafing the wound. i am sorry for you that the news will have reached you out hunting, amid distractions, and will not grip you as it does us. it is good for one. i now feel what i have often been told, that when one loses some one who was what he was to us, it becomes much easier to think of one's own death. on 13th october 1860 he notes in his diary: it is nearly a month since nicholas died. that event has torn me terribly from life. again the question: why? already the departure draws near. whither? nowhere. i try to write, i force myself, but do not get on, because i cannot attach enough importance to the work to supply the necessary strength and patience. at the very time of the funeral the thought occurred to me to write a materialist gospel, a life of christ as a materialist. one sees how bit by bit the seeds of the work tolstoy was to do in later years planted themselves in his mind. in early childhood came the enthusiasm for the ant-brotherhood and the influence of his brother, of aunt tatiána, and of the pilgrims; then an acquaintance with the writings of voltaire and other sceptics, undermining belief in the miraculous; then, in sevastopol, the idea of 'founding a new religion: christianity purged of dogmas and mysticism'; then a study of luther's reformation, and now the idea of a rationalist life of christ. [illustration: tolstoy in 1860, the year his brother nicholas died.] on 17th october tolstoy writes to fet: i think you already know what has happened. on 20 september he died, literally in my arms. nothing in my life has so impressed me. it is true, as he said, that nothing is worse than death. and when one reflects well that yet _that_ is the end of all, then there is nothing worse than life. why strive or try, since of what was nicholas tolstoy nothing remains his? he did not say that he felt the approach of death, but i know he watched each step of its approach and knew with certainty how much remained. some moments before his death he drowsed off, but awoke suddenly and whispered with horror: 'what is that?' that was when he saw it--the absorption of himself into nothingness. and if he found nothing to cling to, what can i find? still less! and assuredly neither i nor any one will fight it to the last moment, as he did. two days before, i said to him: 'we ought to put a commode in your room.' 'no,' said he, 'i am weak, but not yet so weak as that; i will struggle on yet awhile.' to the last he did not yield, but did everything for himself, and always tried to be occupied. he wrote, questioned me about my writings, and advised me. but it seemed to me that he did all this not from any inner impulse, but on principle. one thing--his love of nature--remained to the last. the day before, he went into his bedroom and from weakness fell on his bed by the open window. i came to him, and he said with tears in his eyes, 'how i have enjoyed this whole hour.' from earth we come, and to the earth we go. one thing is left--a dim hope that there, in nature, of which we become part in the earth, something will remain and will be found. all who knew and saw his last moments, say: 'how wonderfully calmly, peacefully he died'; but i know with what terrible pain, for not one feeling of his escaped me. a thousand times i say to myself: 'let the dead bury their dead.' one must make some use of the strength which remains to one, but one cannot persuade a stone to fall upwards instead of downwards whither it is drawn. one cannot laugh at a joke one is weary of. one cannot eat when one does not want to. and what is life all for, when to-morrow the torments of death will begin, with all the abomination of falsehood and self-deception, and will end in annihilation for oneself? an amusing thing! be useful, be beneficent, be happy while life lasts,--say people to one another; but you, and happiness, and virtue, and utility, consist of truth. and the truth i have learned in thirty-two years is, that the position in which we are placed is terrible. 'take life as it is; you have put yourselves in that position.' how! i take life as it is. as soon as man reaches the highest degree of development, he sees clearly that it is all nonsense and deception, and that the truth--which he still loves better than all else--is terrible. that when you look at it well and clearly, you wake with a start and say with terror, as my brother did: 'what is that?' of course, so long as the desire to know and speak the truth lasts, one tries to know and speak. that alone remains to me of the moral world; higher than that i cannot place myself. that alone i will do, but not in the form of your art. art is a lie, and i can no longer love a beautiful lie. i shall remain here for the winter because i am here, and it is all the same where one lives. please write to me. i love you as my brother loved you, and he remembered you to his last moment. a month later we find him writing in a different state of mind: a boy of thirteen has died in torment from consumption. what for? the only explanation is given by faith in the compensation of a future life. if that does not exist, there is no justice, and justice is vain, and the demand for justice--a superstition. justice forms the most essential demand of man to man. and man looks for the same in his relation to the universe. without a future life it is lacking. expediency is the sole, the unalterable law of nature, say the naturalists. but in the best manifestations of man's soul: love and poetry--it is absent. this has all existed and has died--often without expressing itself. nature, if her one law be expediency, far o'erstepped her aim when she gave man the need of poetry and love. nearly twenty years later, in his _confession_, tolstoy referred to his brother's death in the words: another event which showed me that the superstitious belief in progress is insufficient as a guide to life, was my brother's death. wise, good, serious, he fell ill while still a young man, suffered for more than a year and died painfully, not understanding why he had lived, and still less why he had to die. no theories could give me, or him, any reply to these questions during his slow and painful dying. any one who has read the works tolstoy wrote during the quarter of a century which succeeded his brother's death, will be aware how long he remained in doubt on this matter of a future life, and how he expressed now one, and now another view. at hyères he continued to study the question of education, and for that purpose made many visits to marseilles. he also wrote: continuing _the cossacks_ and commencing an article on popular education. we get a glimpse of him at this period from his sister, who tells us that they had been invited to an at home at prince doundoukóf-korsákof's; but tolstoy, who was to have been the lion of the occasion, failed to put in an appearance. the company, which included all the 'best' people, were getting dull, despite everything the hostess could devise for their amusement, when at last, very late, count tolstoy was announced. the hostess and her guests immediately brightened up; but what was their astonishment to see him appear in tourist garb and wearing wooden _sabots_! he had been for a long walk, and returning late, had come to the party without calling at his lodgings; and no sooner was he in the room than he began assuring everybody that wooden _sabots_ were the very best and most comfortable of foot-gear, and advising every one to adopt them. even in those days he was a man to whom all things were allowed, and the evening, instead of being spoilt, became all the gayer from his eccentricity. there was a great deal of singing, and it fell to tolstoy's lot to accompany the singers. at hyères, after his brother's death, tolstoy lived with his sister and her three children in a _pension_ where the only other lodgers were a madame pláksin and her delicate nine-year-old son sergéy, whose lungs were thought to be affected, but who lived to become a poet and to publish his recollections of tolstoy. pláksin describes him as having been at that time a strongly built, broad-shouldered man, with a good-natured smile on his face, which was fringed by a thick, dark-brown beard. under a large forehead, still bearing a deep scar from the wound inflicted by the bear two years before, wise, kind eyes shone out of very deep sockets. 'tolstoy,' says pláksin, 'was the soul of our little society, and i never saw him dull; on the contrary, he liked to amuse us with his stories, which were sometimes extremely fantastic.' tolstoy rose early, and while he was at work the children were not allowed to disturb him beyond running in for a moment to say 'good-morning.' being himself an indefatigable walker, tolstoy used to plan out excursions for the company, constantly discovering new places to visit: the salterns on the peninsula of porquerolle; the holy hill where the chapel with the wonder-working image of the madonna stands; or the ruins of the castle called _trou des fées_. they used to have with them on these excursions, a small ass carrying provisions, fruit and wine. on the way tolstoy used to tell us various tales; i remember one about a golden horse and a giant tree, from the top of which all the seas and all towns were visible. knowing that my lungs were delicate, he often took me on his shoulder and continued his tale as he walked along. need i say that we would have laid down our lives for him? at dinner-time tolstoy used to tell the french proprietors of the _pension_ the strangest stories about russia, which they never knew whether or not to believe until the countess or madame pláksin came to their rescue by separating the truth from the fiction. after dinner, either on the terrace or indoors, a performance commenced, opera or ballet, to the sound of the piano: the children 'mercilessly tormenting the ears of the audience' (which consisted of the two ladies, tolstoy, and pláksin's nurse). next came gymnastic exercises, in which tolstoy acted as professor. 'he would lie at full length on the floor, making us do the same, and we had then to get up without using our hands.' he also contrived an apparatus out of rope, which he fixed up in the doorway; and on this he performed somersaults, to the great delight of his juvenile audience. when the latter became too turbulent and the ladies begged tolstoy to subdue the noise, he would set the children round the table, and tell them to bring pens and ink. the following is an example of the sort of occupation he provided: 'listen,' said he one day; 'i am going to give you a lesson.' 'what on?' demanded bright-eyed lisa. disregarding his niece's question, he continued: 'write...' 'but what are we to write, uncle?' persisted lisa. 'listen; i will give you a theme...!' 'what will you give us?' 'a theme!' firmly replied tolstoy. 'in what respect does russia differ from other countries? write it here, in my presence, and don't copy from one another! do you hear?' added he, impressively. in half an hour the 'compositions' were ready. pláksin had to read his own, as his lines were so irregular that no one else could decipher them. in his opinion russia differed from other countries in that, at carnival time, russians eat pancakes and slide down ice-hills, and at easter they colour eggs. 'bravo!' said tolstoy, and proceeded to make out kólya's ms., in which russia was distinguished by its snow, and lisa's, in which 'troikas' (three-horse conveyances) played the chief part. in reward for these evening exercises, tolstoy brought water-colour paints from marseilles and taught the children drawing. he often spent nearly the whole day with the children, teaching them, taking part in their games, and intervening in their disputes, which he analysed, proving to them who was in the right and who in the wrong. there was at this time some mutual attraction between tolstoy and a young russian lady, miss yákovlef, who was staying at hyères; but, like many other similar affairs, it came to nothing. on leaving hyères, tolstoy, his sister, and her children, went to geneva, and from thence he proceeded alone to nice, leghorn, florence, rome, and naples. in italy he says he experienced his first lively impression of antiquity; but very little record remains of this journey, and it is nowhere reflected in his writings. he returned to paris _viâ_ marseilles, the schools and other institutions of which he observed closely, trying to discover how man's intelligence is really best developed. he was very unfavourably impressed by the popular schools of marseilles. the studies, he says, consisted in learning by heart the catechism, sacred and general history, the four rules of arithmetic, french spelling and book-keeping--the latter without sufficient comprehension of the use of arithmetic to enable the children to deal sensibly with the simplest practical problems requiring addition and subtraction, though they could do long multiplication sums quickly and well when only abstract figures were given. similarly, they answered well by rote questions in french history, but, when asked at hazard, they would give such answers as that henry iv was killed by julius cæsar. he observed the instruction given by the churches, and visited the adult schools of the town, as well as its _salles d'asile_, in which, he says: i saw four-year-old children perform like soldiers, evolutions round benches to orders given by whistle, and raise and cross their arms to the word of command, and with strange trembling voices sing hymns of praise to god and their benefactors; and i became convinced that the educational establishments of marseilles were extremely bad. any one seeing them would naturally conclude that the french people must be ignorant, coarse, hypocritical, full of superstition and almost savage. yet one need only come in contact with and chat with any of the common people, to convince oneself that on the contrary the french people are almost what they consider themselves to be: intelligent, clever, sociable, freethinking, and really civilised. take a workman of, say, thirty years of age: he will write a letter without such mistakes as at school, sometimes even quite correctly; he has some idea of politics, and therefore of recent history and geography; he knows some history from novels, knows something of natural history, and he very often draws, and is able to apply mathematical formulae to his trade. where did he get all this? i recently discovered the answer in marseilles, by wandering about the streets, drink-shops, _cafés chantants_, museums, workshops, wharves and book-stalls. the very boy who told me that henry iv was killed by julius cæsar, knew the history of _the three musketeers_ and of _monte cristo_ very well. in marseilles tolstoy found that everybody had read dumas' works, of which there were twenty-eight cheap editions. he estimated that each week, in the _cafés chantants_, at least one-fifth of the population received oral education, as the greeks and romans used to do. comedies and sketches were performed, verses declaimed, and the influence for good or evil of this unconscious education far outweighed that of the compulsory education given in schools. 1861 in january he reached paris, where he spent a large part of his time in omnibuses, amusing himself by observing the people. he declares he never met a passenger who was not represented in one or other of paul de kock's stories. of that writer, as of dumas _père_, he thinks highly. 'don't talk nonsense to me,' he once said, 'about paul de kock's immorality. he is, according to english ideas, somewhat improper. he is more or less what the french call _leste_ and _gaulois_, but never immoral. in everything he says, and despite his rather free jests, his tendency is quite moral. he is a french dickens.... as to dumas, every novelist should know him by heart. his plots are admirable, not to mention the workmanship. i can read and re-read him, though he aims chiefly at plots and intrigue.' in paris he again met tourgénef; and from france he went on to london, where he remained six weeks, not enjoying his visit much as he suffered severely from toothache nearly all the time. it is characteristic of tolstoy that though he has often been a victim to toothache and has also been much tried by digestive troubles, he never appears to have had his teeth properly attended to by a dentist. a dentist's establishment seems to him so unnatural and artificial that it must be wrong. moreover, dentists do not always do their work well; and toothache--if one endures it long enough--cures itself, and in the past the majority of mankind have got along without dentists. so he has been inclined to put up with toothache as one of the ills it is best to bear patiently. during his stay he, and tourgénef who had also come to london, saw a great deal of alexander herzen, who was editing _kólokol_ (_the bell_)--the most influential paper ever published by a russian exile. i have already remarked on the fact that the reform movements of that time left tolstoy curiously cold; and here again it may be noted that though tourgénef contributed to herzen's prohibited paper, tolstoy never wrote anything for it. herzen's little daughter, who had read and greatly enjoyed _childhood_, _boyhood_, and _youth_, hearing that the author was coming to see her father, obtained permission to be present when he called. she ensconced herself in an arm-chair in a corner of the study at the appointed time, and when count tolstoy was announced, awaited his appearance with beating heart; but she was profoundly disillusioned by the entrance of a man of society manners, fashionably dressed in the latest style of english tailoring, who began at once to tell with gusto of the cock-fights and boxing-matches he had already managed to witness in london. not a single word with which she could sympathise did she hear from tolstoy throughout that one and only occasion on which she was privileged to listen to his conversation; and in this she was particularly unlucky, for tolstoy saw herzen very frequently during his stay in london, and the two discussed all sorts of important questions together. one of herzen's closest friends and co-workers during his long exile from russia, was the poet n. p. ogaryóf, who had been his fellow-student at the moscow university. ogaryóf, besides being a man of ability, possessed a very amiable character that greatly endeared him to his friends; but in an essay entitled _the first step_[43] written in 1892, we get a glimpse of what alienated tolstoy's sympathy from the progressive movement these men represented. he there says: [43] in the volume _essays and letters_, included in the _world's classics_. i have just been reading the letters of one of our highly educated and advanced men of the forties, the exile ogaryóf, to another yet more highly educated and gifted man, herzen. in these letters ogaryóf gives expression to his sincere thoughts and highest aspirations, and one cannot fail to see that--as was natural to a young man--he rather shows off before his friend. he talks of self-perfecting, of sacred friendship, love, the service of science, of humanity, and the like. and at the same time he calmly writes that he often irritates the companion of his life by, as he expresses it, 'returning home in an unsober state, or disappearing for many hours with a fallen, but dear creature.'... evidently it never even occurred to this remarkably kind-hearted, talented, and well-educated man that there was anything at all objectionable in the fact that he, a married man, awaiting the confinement of his wife (in his next letter he writes that his wife has given birth to a child) returned home intoxicated, and disappeared with dissolute women. it did not enter his head that until he had commenced the struggle, and had at least to some extent conquered his inclination to drunkenness and fornication, he could not think of friendship and love, and still less of serving any one or any thing. but he not only did not struggle against these vices--he evidently thought there was something very nice in them, and that they did not in the least hinder the struggle for perfection; and therefore instead of hiding them from the friend in whose eyes he wishes to appear in a good light, he exhibits them. thus it was half a century ago. i was contemporary with such men. i knew ogaryóf and herzen themselves and others of that stamp, and men educated in the same traditions. there was a remarkable absence of consistency in the lives of all these men. together with a sincere and ardent wish for good, there was an utter looseness of personal desire, which, they thought, could not hinder the living of a good life, nor the performance of good and even great deeds. they put unkneaded loaves into a cold oven, and believed that bread would be baked. and then, when with advancing years they began to remark that the bread did not bake--_i.e._ that no good came of their lives--they saw in this something peculiarly tragic. this was written twenty years later; but it was latent in his mind at the time, and furnishes a clue to the fact that he never really made friends with these men. of herzen as a writer tolstoy ultimately came to have a very high opinion, and admitted that he exerted a very considerable influence on the mind of educated russia. in england, as elsewhere, tolstoy saw as much as he could of the educational methods in vogue. he also visited the house of commons and heard palmerston speak for three hours; but he told me he could form no opinion of the oration, for 'at that time i knew english with my eyes but not with my ears.' while in london, he received news that he had been nominated arbiter of the peace for his own district, near toúla. the duties of the office were to settle disputes between the serfs and their former proprietors. except a short service on the zémstvo in 1874, this was the only official position in which tolstoy ever took much active part after leaving the army. on 3rd march (new style), the day of alexander ii's famous manifesto emancipating the serfs, tolstoy left london for russia _viâ_ brussels. in that city he made the acquaintance of proudhon (the author of _qu'est-ce que la propriété?_ and a _système des contradictions économiques_) to whom herzen had given him a letter of introduction. proudhon impressed tolstoy as a strong man who had the courage of his opinions; and though proudhon's theories had no immediate effect on tolstoy's life, the social political and economic views expounded by the latter a quarter of a century later, are deeply dyed with proudhonism. both writers consider that property is robbery; interest immoral; peaceful anarchy the desirable culmination of social progress, and that every man should be a law unto himself, restrained solely by reason, conscience and moral suasion. another writer whose acquaintance tolstoy made in brussels was the polish patriot lelewel, who had taken a prominent part in the rebellion of 1830, and had written on polish history and on many other subjects. he was at this time a decrepit old man living in great poverty. while in brussels tolstoy wrote _polikoúshka_, almost the only story of his (besides _a squire's morning_) that implies a condemnation of serfdom. passing through germany, tolstoy stopped at weimar, where he stayed with the russian ambassador, von maltitz, and was introduced to the grand duke carl alexander. tolstoy (who had been reading goethe's _reineke fuchs_ not long before) visited the house in which goethe had lived, but was more interested in a kindergarten conducted by minna schelholm, who had been trained by froebel. from another school he visited, we hear of his collecting and carrying off the essays the pupils had written, explaining to the master that he was much concerned with the problem, 'how to make thought flow more freely.' at jena he made acquaintance with a young mathematician named keller, whom he persuaded to accompany him to yásnaya to help him in his educational activities. he also stopped at dresden, where he again visited auerbach, concerning whom he jots down in his diary: _21 april, dresden_: auerbach is a most charming man. has given me a light.... he spoke of christianity as the spirit of humanity, than which there is nothing higher. he reads verse enchantingly. of music as _pflichtloser genuss_ (dutyless pleasure).... he is 49 years old. straightforward, youthful, believing, not troubled by negation. on another occasion tolstoy expressed surprise at never having seen auerbach's _village tales of the black forest_ in any german peasant's house, and declared that russian peasants would have wept over such stories. from dresden he wrote to his aunt tatiána: [44] je me porte bien et brûle d'envie de retourner en russie. mais une fois en europe et ne sachant quand j'y retournerai, vous comprenez que j'ai voulu profiter, autant que possible, de mon voyage. et je crois l'avoir fait. je rapporte une si grande quantité d'impressions, de connaissances, que je devrai travailler longtemps, avant de pouvoir mettre tout cela en ordre dans ma tête. i am bringing with me a german from the university, to be a teacher and clerk, a very nice, well-educated man, but still very young and unpractical. [44] i am in good health and burn with desire to return to russia. but once in europe and not knowing when i shall return, you understand that i wanted to benefit as much as possible by my travels. and i think i have done so. i am bringing back such a great quantity of impressions and facts, that i must work a long time before i can get it all in order in my head. i am bringing with me a german from the university, to be a teacher and clerk, a very nice, well-educated man, but still very young and unpractical. he adds that he intends to return to yásnaya _viâ_ st. petersburg, as he wants to obtain permission to publish an educational magazine he is projecting. on 22nd april he was already in berlin, where he made the acquaintance of the head of the teachers' seminary, the son of the celebrated pedagogue diesterweg, whom, to his disappointment, he found to be 'a cold, soulless pedant, who thinks he can develop and guide the souls of children by rules and regulations.' on 23rd april (old style) he re-entered russia, after a stay abroad of nearly ten months. he brought with him complete editions of the works of several of the greatest european writers. they were kept at the custom house to be submitted to the censor, and, as tolstoy plaintively remarked nearly half a century later, 'he is still reading them!' chief authorities for chapter vi birukof. bitovt. fet, _moi vospominaniya_: moscow, 1890. tolstoy's _confession_. golovatcheva-panaeva, _rousskie pisateli i artisty_. tourgenef, _letters_. s. plaksin, _graf l. tolstoy sredi detey_. tolstoy's works, vol. iv.: moscow, 1903. r. löwenfeld, _leo n. tolstoj_. r. löwenfeld, _gespräche über und mit tolstoy_. chapter vii at yásnaya again; tourgénef; arbiter; magazine quarrel with tourgénef. attitude towards reforms. arbiter of the peace. educational magazine. after the winter's snow has so far thawed that sleighing is impracticable, there comes a time during which there is still too much snow left, and the roads have become too soft to allow of travelling on wheels, and when transit is practically impossible. tolstoy reached moscow at this transition period, but had not to wait long before the roads were dry enough for carriage traffic. he made the journey southward to toúla in company with mrs. fet, wife of his friend the poet. mrs. fet was travelling in her own carriage, accompanied by her maid, to the estate fet had purchased at some distance from yásnaya. tolstoy had his own conveyance, but for company's sake changed places with the maid and travelled with mrs. fet. in the cool of the evening he borrowed and wrapped himself in a cloak of fet's, declaring that this would be sure to result in his producing a lyric poem. 1861 soon after reaching yásnaya he wrote (in the third week of may) to congratulate fet on having become a landed proprietor: how long it is since we met, and how much has happened to both of us meanwhile! i do not know how to rejoice sufficiently when i hear or think of your activity as a farmer, and i am rather proud to have had at least some hand in the matter.... it is good to have a friend; but he may die or go away, or one may not be able to keep pace with him; but nature, to which one is wedded by a notarial deed, or to which one has been born by inheritance, is still better. it is one's own bit of nature. she is cold, obdurate, disdainful and exacting, but then she is a friend one does not lose till death, and even then one will be absorbed into her. i am however at present less devoted to this friend: i have other affairs that attract me; yet but for the consciousness that she is there, and that if i stumble she is at hand to hold on to--life would be but a sad business. a few days later, having received an invitation from tourgénef, tolstoy paid him a visit the first hours of which passed off to their mutual satisfaction. tourgénef had just finished his favourite novel, _fathers and sons_, and it was arranged that after dinner tolstoy was to read it and give his opinion on it. to do this the more comfortably, tolstoy, left in the drawing-room by himself, lay down on a large sofa. he began to read; but the story seemed to him so artificially constructed and so unimportant in its subject-matter, that he fell fast asleep. 'i awoke,' he narrates, 'with a strange sensation, and when i opened my eyes i saw tourgénef's back just disappearing.' in spite of this occurrence and the unpleasant feeling it occasioned, the two novelists set out next morning to visit fet, who was not expecting them that day. while the visitors rested for a couple of hours, recovering from the fatigue of their journey, mrs. fet saw to it that the dinner assumed 'a more substantial and inviting appearance.' during the meal the whole party began an animated conversation, and tourgénef, always fond of good eating, fully appreciated the efforts fet's excellent man-cook had made. champagne flowed, as was usual at such reunions. after dinner the three friends strolled to a wood a couple of hundred yards from the house, and lying down in the high grass at its outskirts, continued their talk with yet more freedom and animation. next morning at the usual breakfast time, about eight o'clock, the visitors entered the room where mrs. fet presided at the samovár. fet sat at the opposite end of the table, tourgénef at the hostess's right hand, and tolstoy at her left. knowing the importance tourgénef attached to the education of his natural daughter, who was being brought up in france, mrs. fet inquired whether he was satisfied with her english governess. tourgénef praised the latter highly, and mentioned that, with english exactitude, she had requested him to fix the sum his daughter might give away in charity. 'and now,' added tourgénef, 'she requires my daughter to take in hand and mend the tattered clothes of the poor.' to tolstoy, the foreign education tourgénef was giving his daughter, who was quite forgetting her own language, was very distasteful; and his feeling no doubt showed itself in his question: 'and you consider that good?' 'certainly: it places the doer of charity in touch with everyday needs.' 'and i consider that a well-dressed girl with dirty, ill-smelling rags on her lap, is acting an insincere, theatrical farce.' 'i beg you not to say that!' exclaimed tourgénef, with dilated nostrils. 'why should i not say what i am convinced is true?' replied tolstoy. 'then you consider that i educate my daughter badly?' tolstoy replied that his thought corresponded to his speech. before fet could interpose, tourgénef, white with rage, exclaimed: 'if you speak in that way i will punch your head!' and, jumping up from the table and seizing his head in his hands, he rushed into the next room. a second later he returned and, addressing mrs. fet, said: 'for heaven's sake excuse my improper conduct, which i deeply regret!' and again left the room. fet, realising the impossibility of keeping his visitors together after what had happened, was perplexed what to do, for they had both arrived in tourgénef's vehicle, and, newly established in the country, fet, though he had horses, had none accustomed to be driven in the only conveyance he possessed. to get tourgénef off was easy; but it was not without some difficulty and even danger from the restive horses, that tolstoy was conveyed to the nearest post-station at which a hired conveyance could be procured. from novosélok, the first country house tolstoy reached, he wrote tourgénef a letter demanding an apology; and asked for an answer to be sent to the next post-house at bogousláf. tourgénef, not noticing this request, sent his reply to fet's house, in consequence of which it was several hours late in reaching tolstoy--who was so enraged at this (as it seemed to him) fresh act of discourtesy, that from bogousláf he sent a messenger to procure pistols, and wrote a second letter containing a challenge to tourgénef, and stating that he did not wish to fight in a merely formal manner, like literary men who finish up with champagne, but that he was in earnest, and hoped tourgénef would meet him with pistols at the outskirt of the bogousláf woods. that night was a sleepless one for tolstoy. the morning brought tourgénef's reply to his first letter. it commenced in the usual formal manner of polite communications: gracious sir, leo nikoláyevitch!--in reply to your letter, i can only repeat, what i myself considered it my duty to announce to you at fet's: namely, that carried away by a feeling of involuntary enmity, the causes of which need not here be considered, i insulted you without any definite provocation; and i asked your pardon. what happened this morning proved clearly that attempts at intimacy between such opposite natures as yours and mine can lead to no good result; and i the more readily fulfil my duty to you, because the present letter probably terminates our relations with one another. i heartily hope it may satisfy you, and i consent in advance to your making what use you please of it. with perfect respect, i have the honour to remain, gracious sir, your most humble servant, iv. tourgénef. spássky, _27 may 1861_. _p.s._ 10.30 p.m.: iván petróvitch has just brought back my letter, which my servant stupidly sent to novosélok instead of to bogousláf. i humbly beg you to excuse this accidental and regrettable mistake, and i hope my messenger will still find you at bogousláf. tolstoy thereupon wrote to fet: i could not resist opening another letter from mr. tourgénef in reply to mine. i wish you well of your relations with that man, but i despise him. i have written to him, and therewith have terminated all relations, except that i hold myself ready to give him any satisfaction he may desire. notwithstanding all my apparent tranquillity, i was disturbed in spirit and felt i must demand a more explicit apology from mr. tourgénef; i did this in my letter from novosélok. here is his answer, which i accept as satisfactory, merely informing him that my reason for excusing him is not our opposite natures, but one he may himself surmise. in consequence of the delay which occurred, i sent besides this, another letter, harsh enough and containing a challenge, to which i have not received any reply; but should i receive one i shall return it unopened. so there is an end of that sad story, which, if it goes beyond your house, should do so with this addendum. tourgénef's reply to the challenge came to hand later, and ran as follows: your servant says you desire a reply to your letter; but i do not see what i can add to what i have already written; unless it be that i admit your right to demand satisfaction, weapons in hand. you have preferred to accept my spoken and repeated apology. that was as you pleased. i will say without phrases, that i would willingly stand your fire in order to efface my truly insane words. that i should have uttered them is so unlike the habits of my whole life, that i can only attribute my action to irritability evoked by the extreme and constant antagonism of our views. this is not an apology--i mean to say, not a justification--but an explanation. and therefore, at parting from you for ever--for such occurrences are indelible and irrevocable--i consider it my duty to repeat once again that in this affair you were in the right and i in the wrong. i add that what is here in question is not the courage i wish, or do not wish, to show, but an acknowledgment of your right to call me out to fight, in the accepted manner of course (with seconds), as well as your right to pardon me. you have chosen as you pleased, and i have only to submit to your decision. i renew my assurance of my entire respect, iv. tourgénef. the quarrel was not, however, destined to die out so quickly. even good-natured fet got into trouble by trying to reconcile the irascible novelists. here is one of the notes he received from tolstoy: i request you not to write to me again, as i shall return your letters, as well as tourgénef's, unopened. fet remarks: 'so all my attempts to put the matter right ended in a formal rupture of my relations with tolstoy, and i cannot now even remember how friendly intercourse between us was renewed.' before four months had passed, tolstoy repented him of his quarrel. like prince nehlúdof in _resurrection_, he used from time to time to repent of all his sins and all his quarrels, and undertook a sort of springor autumn-cleaning of his soul. it was at such a moment that, on 25th september, he wrote to tourgénef expressing regret that their relations to one another were hostile, and he added: 'if i have insulted you, forgive me; i find it unendurably hard to think i have an enemy.' not knowing tourgénef's address in france, he sent this letter to a bookseller in petersburg (with whom he knew tourgénef corresponded) to be forwarded. the letter took more than three months to reach its destination, nor was this the only thing that went wrong, as is shown by the following portion of a letter, dated 8th november, from tourgénef to fet: apropos, 'one more last remark' about the unfortunate affair with tolstoy. passing through petersburg i learned from certain 'reliable people' (oh, those reliable people!) that copies of tolstoy's last letter to me (the letter in which he 'despises' me) are circulating in moscow, and are said to have been distributed by tolstoy himself. that enraged me, and i sent him a challenge to fight when i return to russia. tolstoy has answered that the circulation of the copies is pure invention, and he encloses another letter in which, recapitulating that, and how, i insulted him, he asks my forgiveness and declines my challenge. of course the matter must end there, and i will only ask you to tell him (for he writes that he will consider any fresh communication from me to him as an insult) that i myself repudiate any duel, etc., and hope the whole matter is buried for ever. his letter (apologising) i have destroyed. another letter, which he says he sent me through the bookseller davídof, i never received. and now as to the whole matter--_de profundis_. tolstoy noted in his diary one day in october: yesterday i received a letter from tourgénef in which he accuses me of saying he is a coward and of circulating copies of my letter. i have written him that it is nonsense, and i have also sent him a letter: 'you call my action dishonourable and you formerly wished to punch my head; but i consider myself guilty, ask pardon, and refuse the challenge.' 1862 even then the matter was not at an end, for on 7th january [new style?] tourgénef writes to fet: and now a plain question: have you seen tolstoy? i have only to-day received the letter he sent me in september through davídof's bookshop (how accurate are our russian merchants!). in this letter he speaks of his intention to insult me, and apologises, etc. and almost at that very time, in consequence of some gossip about which i think i wrote you, i sent him a challenge. from all this one must conclude that our constellations move through space in definitely hostile conjunction, and that therefore we had better, as he himself says, avoid meeting. but you may write or tell him (if you see him) that i (without phrase or joke) _from afar_ love him very much, respect him and watch his fate with sympathetic interest; but that in proximity all takes a different turn. what's to be done? we must live as though we inhabited different planets or different centuries. tolstoy evidently took umbrage at tourgénef's message, and visited his wrath on fet's innocent head. to be profoundly humble and forgiving at his own command, was always, it seems, easier for tolstoy than to let his opponent have an opinion of his own. tolstoy likes things to be quite clear-cut and definite, and it complicates matters to have to reckon with any one else's views. at any rate tourgénef writes: paris, _14 jan. [o.s.?] 1862_. dearest afanásy afanásyevitch! [fet's christian name and patronymic].--first of all i must ask your pardon for the quite unexpected tile (_tuile_, as the french say) that tumbled on your head as a result of my letter. the one thing which somewhat consoles me is that i could not possibly have expected such a freak on tolstoy's part, and thought i was arranging all for the best. it seems it is a wound of a kind better not touched at all. to judge the relations between these two great writers fairly, one must remember that tourgénef was ten years the elder and, until _war and peace_ appeared, ranked higher in popular esteem; yet tolstoy showed him no deference, but on the contrary often attacked him and his views with mordant irony. tourgénef was neither ill-natured nor quarrelsome. if tolstoy had treated him with consideration or had been willing to let him alone, there would have been no question either of insult or of challenge. but the younger man sought the elder's company, and then made himself disagreeable; and this, not of malice prepense, but because it is his nature to demand perfection from great men, and vehemently to attack those who fail to reach the standard he sets up. this conduct was no doubt all the more trying for tourgénef, because tolstoy neither co-operated with the liberal movement then current, nor lived more abstemiously with regard to food, wine, women, and cards than others of his set whom he scolded; or if he did so, he did it so spasmodically and with such serious lapses, as to be little entitled to condemn others with the fervour he frequently displayed. on the occasion of the great quarrel tourgénef was certainly the aggressor, and his prompt apology was not addressed to tolstoy, whom he had chiefly offended, but to mrs. fet. it is, however, plain that he acted, as he said, on the irritable impulse of the moment. tolstoy aggravated matters by sending a challenge before receiving a reply to his first letter, and also by suggesting that he despised tourgénef and pardoned him for reasons 'he may himself surmise.' again, in relation to fet, who merely wished to pour oil on the troubled waters, tolstoy showed a strange irritability. no one however can read the _recollections_ fet wrote thirty years later, without seeing that that poet--who not only witnessed this affair, but had been the confidant of both writers for years--respected tolstoy far more than he respected tourgénef. in this whole story, one may detect traces of the qualities which have made tolstoy so interesting and so perplexing a personality. he cares intensely about everything with which he is occupied. tourgénef, and tourgénef's opinions and conduct, were of tremendous importance to him. so were his own views of how young ladies should be brought up. so was the question whether he ought to challenge his enemy; and, later on, the question whether he ought to forgive him, and whether fet should be allowed to act as mediator. it is this fact--that he cares about things a hundred times more than other people care about them--that makes tolstoy a genius and a great writer. what was admirable in his conduct was not that he acted well (as a matter of fact he acted very badly) but that he _wished_ to act well. the same spirit which made him so intolerant with tourgénef: his strong feeling that 'to whom much is given, of him much shall be required'--had something to do, later in life, with his fierce attacks on governments, on shakespear, on wagner, and on other great institutions and men. at the same time, the incident throws light on that side of tolstoy's character which has brought it about that, despite the very real charm he possesses, and despite the fact that many men and women have been immensely attracted by his writings, he has had very few intimate friends, and has constantly been misunderstood. v. p. bótkin, who was in touch both with tolstoy and tourgénef, wrote to fet after hearing of the quarrel: the scene between him [tourgénef] and tolstoy at your house, produced on me a sad impression. but do you know, i believe that in reality tolstoy has a passionately loving soul; only he wants to love tourgénef ardently, and unfortunately his impulsive feeling encounters merely mild, good-natured indifference. that is what he cannot reconcile himself to. and then (again unfortunately) his mind is in a chaos, _i.e._ i wish to say it has not yet reached any definite outlook on life and the world's affairs. that is why his conviction changes so often, and why he is so apt to run to extremes. his soul burns with unquenchable thirst; i say 'unquenchable,' because what satisfied it yesterday, is to-day broken up by his analysis. but that analysis has no durable and firm reagents, and consequently its results evaporate _ins blaue hinein_. without some firm ground under one's feet it is impossible to write. and that is why at present he _cannot_ write, and this will continue to be the case till his soul finds something on which it can rest. to any one acquainted with the history of russia at that period, but not acquainted with tolstoy's idiosyncrasies, it must indeed seem strange that the story of his life can be told with so little reference to the emancipation or the reform movements of the years 1860-1864, to which allusion has already been made. two passages written by him in 1904 state his relation to those movements with the sincerity which is so prominent and valuable a feature of his character: as to my attitude at that time to the excited condition of our whole society, i must say (and this is a good and bad trait always characteristic of me) that i always involuntarily opposed any external, epidemic pressure; and that if i was excited and happy at that time, this proceeded from my own personal, inner motives: those which drew me to my school work and into touch with the peasants. i recognise in myself now the same feeling of resistance to the excitement at present prevailing; which resembles that which, in a more timid form, was then current. when the emancipation came, the peasants received freedom, and an allotment of land, subject to a special land-tax for sixty years; while their masters retained the rest of the land and received state bonds for the capitalised value of the peasants' land-tax. an expedient resorted to by many a proprietor was, to allot land to the peasants in such a way that the latter were left without any pasture, and (being surrounded by the owner's estate) found themselves obliged to hire pasture land of him on his own terms. there were, till the emancipation, two ways of holding serfs: (1) the primitive way of obliging them to work so many days a week for their master, before they could, on the other days, provide for their own wants; and (2) another way, which left the serf free to work for himself, provided that he paid _obrók_, _i.e._ a certain yearly tribute to his owner. these explanations will render intelligible the second passage referred to above and quoted below: some three or four years before the emancipation, i let my serfs go on _obrók_. when complying with the emancipation decree i arranged, as the law required, to leave the peasants in possession of the land they were cultivating on their own behalf, which amounted to rather less than eight acres per head, and (to my shame be it said) i added nothing thereto. the only thing i did--or the one evil i refrained from doing--was that i abstained from obliging the peasants to exchange land (as i was advised to do) and left them in possession of the pasture they needed. in general, however, i did not show any disinterested feeling in the affair. in the first edition of _tolstoy and his problems_ i erroneously stated that tolstoy, before the decree of emancipation, voluntarily freed his serfs; and though this was corrected in the second edition, it is necessary to repeat the correction here, as the same mistake occurs in the article on tolstoy in the _encyclopædia britannica_. i therefore quote the following passage from a letter he wrote me on the subject: i have received your book and read it with pleasure. the short biography is excellent, except the place where you, quoting the words of sophia andréyevna, say that 'he liberated his peasants before the emancipation.' that is wrong: i placed them on _obrók_ instead of keeping them on _bárstchina_ [_i.e._ the state in which the peasants rendered labour dues]. it would not have been possible to emancipate them.... 1861 tolstoy's curious tendency to underrate the influence of the liberal reformers of that time, may be illustrated by an incident that occurred at a dinner in toúla. the local elections had taken place, and a public banquet was given in honour of those arbiters of the peace who were visiting the town. tolstoy was at this dinner, and when the toast to the health of alexander ii, the 'tsar-liberator,' was proposed, tolstoy remarked to his neighbour: 'i drink this toast with particular pleasure. no others are needed, for in reality we owe the emancipation to the emperor alone.' a yet more curious instance of the same tendency occurs in an article on _progress, and the definition of education_, which he published a year later, and in which, arguing that printing has been of little use to the people, he says that: even taking as an example the abolition of serfdom, i do not see that printing helped the solution of the problem in a progressive sense. had the government not said its decisive word in that affair, the press would, beyond a doubt, have explained matters in quite a different way to what it did. we saw that most of the periodicals would have demanded the emancipation of the peasants without any land, and would have produced arguments apparently just as reasonable, witty and sarcastic [as they actually produced in favour of the more liberal solution ultimately adopted].... if, however, tolstoy did not stand in the ranks of the reformers, he was much less of a partisan of his own class than many of his fellow-nobles desired; and we find the marshal of the nobility of toúla writing to valoúef, minister of home affairs, complaining of tolstoy's appointment as arbiter of the peace on the ground that he was disliked by the neighbouring landowners. in consequence of this complaint valoúef made inquiries, and received a 'confidential' reply from the governor of the province, stating that: knowing count tolstoy personally, as an educated man warmly sympathising with the matter in hand, and in view of a wish expressed to me by some of the proprietors of the district that he should be appointed arbiter, i cannot replace him by some one i do not know. tolstoy tried his best to act fairly between peasants and landowners; but from the start his unsuitability for duties involving methodical care was obvious. the very first 'charter,' regulating the relations between a landlord and his newly-liberated peasants, that he sent up to the government board for peasant affairs, was signed as follows: 'at the request of such-and-such peasants, because of their illiteracy, the house-serf so-and-so has signed this charter for them.' not a single name did the charter contain! as tolstoy had dictated the words, so his servant had written them down, and the charter had been sealed and sent off without being read over. he could at times be wonderfully patient in dealing with the peasants, though they were exasperatingly pertinacious in demanding more than it was possible to grant. an eye-witness tells how tolstoy visited a neighbouring estate on which differences had arisen between the peasants and their former master, as to the land which should be allotted to them. tolstoy received a deputation, consisting of three of the leading peasants of the village, and asked them: 'well, lads, what do you want?' they explained what land they wished to have, and tolstoy replied, 'i am very sorry i can't do what you wish. were i to do so i should cause your landlord a great loss'; and he proceeded to explain to them how the matter stood. 'but you'll manage it for us somehow, _bátushka_' [literally, 'little-father'], said the peasants. 'no, i can't do anything of the kind,' repeated tolstoy. the peasants glanced at one another, scratched their heads, and reiterated their 'but somehow, _bátushka_!' and one of them added, 'if only you want to, _bátushka_, you'll know how to find a way to do it!' at which the other peasants nodded their heads approvingly. tolstoy crossed himself, as orthodox russians are wont to do, and said: 'as god is holy, i swear that i can be of no use at all to you.' but still the peasants repeated: 'you'll take pity on us, and do it somehow, _bátushka_!' tolstoy at last turned vehemently to the steward, who was present, and said: 'one can sooner, like amphion, move the hills and woods, than convince peasants of anything!' the whole conversation, says the steward, lasted more than an hour, and up to the last minute the count retained his patient and friendly manner towards the peasants. their obstinacy did not provoke him to utter a single harsh word. with the landowners tolstoy had even more trouble than with the peasants. he received many threatening letters, plans were formed to have him beaten, he was to have been challenged to a duel; and denunciations against him were sent to those in authority. after some three months of the work, in july 1861, he jotted down in his diary: 'arbitration has given me but little material [for literary work], has brought me into conflict with all the landed-proprietors, and has upset my health.' here is a sample of the cases he had to deal with. a mrs. artukóf complained that a certain mark grigóref (who had been a house-serf, and was therefore not entitled to land) had left her, considering himself to be 'perfectly free.' tolstoy, in his reply to the lady, said: mark, by my order, is at liberty to go immediately, with his wife, where he likes; and i beg you (1) to compensate him for the three-and-a-half months he has been illegally kept at work by you since the decree was published, and (2) for the blows still more illegally inflicted on his wife. if my decision displeases you, you have a right of appeal to the magistrates' sessions and to the government sessions. i shall not enter into further explanations on this subject.--with entire respect i have the honour to remain, your humble servant, c^{t.} l. tolstoy. the lady appealed to the magistrates' sessions, and tolstoy's decision was annulled; but on the case being carried to the government sessions, his view of the case prevailed. before he had been a year in office we find him writing to the government of the toúla board of peasant affairs as follows: as the complaints [here follows a list of several cases] lodged against my decisions have no legal justification, but yet in these and many other cases my decisions have been and are being repealed, so that almost every decision i give is subsequently reversed; and as under such conditions--destructive both of the peasants' and the landowners' confidence in the arbiter--the latter's activity becomes not merely useless but impossible, i humbly request the government board to authorise one of its members to hasten the examination of the above-mentioned appeals, and i have to inform the government board that until such investigations are completed i do not consider it proper that i should exercise the duties of my office, which i have, therefore, handed over to the senior candidate. the following month he resumed official work, but six weeks later, on 30th april 1862, on the score of ill-health, he handed the duties over to a substitute; and on 26th may--about a year after he had first assumed the office--the senate informed the governor of toúla that it 'had decided to discharge the lieutenant of artillery, count leo tolstoy, on the ground of ill-health' from the post of arbiter of the peace. his unsatisfactory experience of administrative work no doubt helps to account for the anti-governmental bias shown in his later works. even at this time, he quite shared the dislike of civil and criminal law expressed by rousseau when he wrote in his _confession_: the justice and the inutility of my appeals left in my mind a germ of indignation against our stupid civil institutions, in which the true welfare of the public, and veritable justice, are always sacrificed to i know not what apparent order, really destructive of all order, and which merely adds the sanction of public authority to the oppression of the weak and the iniquity of the strong. we may at any rate be sure that tiresome, petty administrative work, never quite satisfactory, but at best consisting of compromises and of decisions based on necessity rather than on such principles of abstract justice as are dear to tolstoy's soul, could never be an occupation satisfactory to him. he has not the plodding patience and studious moderation that such work demands; nor could his impulsive genius find scope in it. it has never been easy for him to be checked by others, or to have to reckon with their opinions and wishes. like rousseau, it suits him better to reform the world on paper, or even to alter his own personal habits of life, than to concern himself with the slow social progress, the bit-by-bit amelioration, which alone is possible to those harnessed to the car that carries a whole society of men. tolstoy used at this time to find recreation in hunting, and often went out for days together with his friend and relation prince d. d. obolénsky, who describes him as having been a bold and active hunter, leaping all sorts of obstacles, and a wonderful man to talk to. concurrently with his duties as arbiter, tolstoy had been carrying on an enterprise in which he had to deal with people younger and more easy to mould than the peasants and proprietors whose quarrels he found it so hard to adjust; and during the winter of 1861-1862 he devoted himself with especial fervour to the task of educating the peasant children of yásnaya and the surrounding district. as we have already seen, a chief aim of his travels abroad had been to study the theory and practice of education; and not only did he now personally devote himself to the school at yásnaya, but in the surrounding neighbourhood eleven similar schools were soon started, all more or less inspired by his ideals and encouraged by his co-operation. the monthly magazine, _yásnaya polyána_ (now a bibliographical rarity) which he produced and edited during 1862, aimed at propagating his theories of education and making known the results attained in his school, and it also contained an account of sums voluntarily contributed for its support. from articles published in it (and republished in his collected writings) we get a vivid description of the work carried on in november and december 1861.[45] like many russian magazines, _yásnaya polyána_ always appeared late, and, to begin with, the january number was several weeks behind time. [45] in one edition after another of tolstoy's works, the article referred to above is called 'yásno-polyána school in nov. and dec. 1862,' though the article itself appeared in the first number of _yásnaya polyána_, in february of that year. in small matters of detail of this kind, tolstoy has always been careless. in this educational work, tolstoy showed the qualities and limitations which in later years marked all his propagandist activity. there was the same characteristic selection of a task of great importance; the same readiness to sweep aside and condemn nearly all that civilised humanity had accomplished up to then; the same assurance that he could untie the gordian knot; and the same power of devoted genius enabling him really to achieve much more than one would have supposed possible, though not a tithe of what he set himself to do. in later life tolstoy laid no particular emphasis on what he wrote in these educational articles: in fact, we shall find him sometimes speaking very scornfully of them; but they throw so much light on his then state of mind, and often come so near to the views he strongly advocated twenty or thirty years later, that it will be worth devoting a good deal of attention to them. tolstoy, then, defines education as: _a human activity, aving for its basis a desire for equality, and the constant tendency to advance in knowledge_. this he illustrates by saying that the aim of a teacher of arithmetic should be to enable his pupil to grasp all the laws of mathematical reasoning he himself is master of; the aim of a teacher of french, or chemistry, or philosophy, should be similar; and as soon as that aim is attained, the activity will naturally cease. everywhere and always, teaching which makes the pupil the master's equal, has been considered good. the more nearly and rapidly this is accomplished, the better; the less nearly and more slowly it is accomplished, the worse. similarly in literature (an indirect method of teaching) those books are written best, in which the author succeeds in transmitting his whole message most easily to the reader. by 'the constant tendency to advance in knowledge,' tolstoy meant that the equality aimed at in education can only be obtained on the higher, and not on the lower, level: that is to say, not by the teacher forgetting what he knows, but by the pupil acquiring the teacher's knowledge. much tuition however is based not on the desire to equalise knowledge, but on quite false foundations. these are: (1) first and commonest, the child learns in order not to be punished; (2) the child learns in order to earn a reward; (3) the child learns in order to be better than others; (4) the child, or young man, learns in order to obtain an advantageous position in the world.... with reference to the practice of sending boys to school, not for their natural development, but that they may be moulded into a set form, tolstoy declares that 'education, as a deliberate moulding of people into certain forms, is _sterile, illegitimate, and impossible_.' of examinations he strongly disapproves, as tending to arbitrariness on the side of the examiners, and deception on the side of the pupils. under what circumstances, asks tolstoy, can a pupil acquire knowledge most rapidly? 'a child or a man is receptive only when he is aroused; and therefore to regard a merry spirit in school as an enemy or a hindrance, is the crudest of blunders. the pupil's state of mind is the most important condition of successful education; and to secure good results, freedom is indispensable. no child should be forced to learn what it does not want to, or when it does not wish to. one need only glance at one and the same child at home or in the street, and at school. here you see a vivacious, inquisitive being, with a smile in his eye and on his mouth, seeking information everywhere as a pleasure, and clearly, and often forcibly, expressing his thoughts in his own way; while there you see a weary, shrinking creature repeating, merely with his lips, some one else's thoughts in some one else's words, with an air of fatigue, fear and listlessness: a creature whose soul has retreated like a snail into its shell. one need but glance at these two conditions to see which of them is the more conducive to the child's development. that strange physiological condition which i call the 'school state of mind,' and which unfortunately we all know so well, consists in all the higher capacities: imagination, creative power and reflection, yielding place to a semi-animal capacity to pronounce words without imagination or reflection. when the pupils have been reduced to this 'school state of mind' we encounter those 'not accidental, but often-repeated cases,' of the stupidest boy being at the top of the class, and the cleverest boy at the bottom. in short, a child's mental capacities are really active only when that child is free; and the teacher's chief task lies 'in studying the free child' and discovering how to supply him with knowledge. therefore 'the only method of education is experiment, and its only criterion is _freedom_.' the attempts to enforce obedience and quiet in school-rooms, converts schools into places of torture which have a stupefying effect, well called by the germans _verdummen_. in germany nine-tenths of those who pass through the primary schools leave them possessed of an ability to read and write mechanically, but imbued with so strong a loathing for the experience they have had of the paths of knowledge, that they subsequently never take a book in their hands. let those who doubt what i say, point out to me what books are read by the labourers.... no one who will seriously consider the education of the people, not only in russia but also in the rest of europe, can help coming to the conclusion that the people get their mental development quite independently of a knowledge of reading and writing, and that usually, except in a few cases of exceptional ability, these rudiments remain a quite unapplied art--which is even harmful, since nothing in life can remain indifferent.... * * * * * schools are not so arranged as to make it convenient for children to learn, but so as to make it convenient for teachers to teach. the voices, movements and mirth of the children, which form a necessary condition of their studying successfully, incommode the teachers, and therefore in the prison-like schools of to-day, questions, conversation, and movement are forbidden. schools based on compulsion, supply 'not a shepherd for the flock, but a flock for the shepherd.' * * * * * to deal successfully with any object, it is necessary to study it, and in education the object is a free child; yet the pedagogues wish to teach in their own way--the way that seems good in their own eyes; and when this does not act, they want not to alter their way of teaching but the nature of the child. ...not till experiment becomes the basis of the school, and every school is, so to say, a pedagogic laboratory, will schools cease to lag behind the general level of the world's progress. for boarding-schools tolstoy had scant respect: at home all the comforts of life--water, fires, good food, a well-cooked dinner, the cleanliness and comfort of the rooms--all depended on the work and care of the mother and of the whole family. the more work and care, the greater the comfort; the less work and care, the less comfort. a simple matter this no doubt, but more educational i think, than the french language or a knowledge of alexander the great. in a boarding-school, this constant vital reward for labour is so put out of sight, that not only is the dinner no better or worse, the napkins no cleaner or dirtier, and the floors no brighter or duller, because of the girl's exertion or non-exertion, but she has not even a cell or corner of her own to keep straight or leave untidy at her pleasure, and she has no chance of making a costume for herself out of scraps and ribbons. his general charge against day-schools, boarding-schools and universities alike is that: at the base of them all lies one and the same principle: the right of one man, or of a small group of men, to shape other people as they like. he adds that: it is not enough for school to tear children away from real life for six hours a day during the best years of their life: it wishes to tear three-year-old children from their mother's influence. institutions have been contrived (_kleinkinderbervahranstalten_, infant schools, _salles d'asile_) about which we shall have to speak more in detail later on. it only remains to invent a steam-engine which will replace the nursing mother! all agree that schools are imperfect; i, personally, am convinced that they are noxious. he argues that no man or set of men has any right to force any particular kind of education on any one else. the teacher has no right to do more than offer such knowledge as he possesses, and he should respect the child's right to reject it as indigestible, or as badly served up: on what grounds does the school of to-day teach this and not that, and in this and not that way? where, in our day, can we get such faith in the indubitability of our knowledge as would give us a right to educate people compulsorily? take any medieval school, before or after luther, take the whole scholastic literature of the middle ages, what a strength of belief and what a firm, indubitable knowledge of what was true and what was false, we see in them! it was easy for them to know that a knowledge of greek was the one essential condition of education; for aristotle's works were in greek, and no one doubted the truth of his propositions till centuries later. how could the monks help demanding the study of the holy scriptures, which stood on an immovable foundation? it was well for luther to demand the compulsory study of hebrew, being sure, as he was, that in that language god himself has revealed the truth to man. evidently, as long as man's critical sense was not aroused, the school had to be dogmatic; and it was natural for pupils to learn by heart the truths revealed by god, as well as aristotle's science and the poetic beauties of virgil and cicero. for centuries after, no one could imagine any truer truth, or more beautiful beauty. but what is the position of the schools of our time, which retain these same dogmatic principles, while in the room next the class where the immortality of the soul is taught, it is suggested to the pupils that the nerves common to man and to the frog are what was formerly called 'the soul'; and where after hearing the story of joshua the son of nun read to him without explanations, the pupil learns that the sun never did go round the earth; and when after the beauties of virgil have been explained to him, he finds the beauties of alexandre dumas (whose novels he can buy for sixpence) much greater; when the only belief held by the teacher is that nothing is true, but that whatever exists is reasonable; and that progress is good and backwardness bad, though nobody knows in what this progress, that is so generally believed in, consists? in another article he says: luther insists on teaching the holy scriptures from the originals, and not from the commentaries of the fathers of the church. bacon enjoins the study of nature from nature, and not from the books of aristotle. rousseau wants to teach life from life itself as he understands it, and not from previous experiments. each step forward in the philosophy of pedagogics merely consists in freeing the schools from the idea of teaching the younger generations what the elder generations believed to be science, and in substituting studies that accord with the needs of the younger generations. again, he says it is very usual to read and hear it said that the home conditions, the coarseness of parents, field labour, village games and so forth, are the chief hindrances to school-work. possibly they really interfere with the kind of school-work aimed at by the pedagogues; but it is time we understood that those conditions are the chief bases of all education, and far from being inimical to, or hindrances of the school, are its first and chief motive power.... the wish to know anything whatever, and the very questions to which it is the school's business to reply, arise entirely from these home conditions. all instruction should be simply a reply to questions put by life. but school, far from evoking questions, fails even to answer those which life suggests.... to such questions the child receives no reply; more especially as the police regulations of the school do not allow him to open his mouth, even when he wants to be let out for a minute, but obliges him to make signs in order not to break the silence or disturb the teacher. the great questions, tolstoy says, are: (1) what must i teach? and (2) how must i teach it? he remarks that a couple of centuries ago, neither in russia nor in western europe could these questions have arisen. education was then bound up with religion, and to become a scholar meant to learn the scriptures. in mohammedan countries this union of religion with education still exists in full force. to learn, means to learn the koran, and therefore to learn arabic. but as soon as the criterion of what to learn ceased to be religion, and the school became independent of the church, the question of what to teach was bound to arise. that it did not arise suddenly, was due to the fact that the emancipation of the school from the church took place gradually. but the day has at last come when the question must be faced; and no clear guidance is given us either by philosophy or by any definite consensus of opinion among those concerned with education. in the higher schools some advocate a classical, others a scientific, education; while in the primary schools, if the education is controlled by the priests it is carried on in one way, and if it is controlled by the anti-clericals it is carried on in another. under these circumstances the only possible criterion must be the wish of the pupils or of their parents. tolstoy then goes on to maintain that the demand of the mass of the russian people is for tuition in the russian and ecclesiastico-slavonic languages, and for mathematics. as to _how_ to teach, he contends that this resolves itself into the question, how to establish the best possible relations between those who want to learn and those who want to teach, and he says: no one, probably, will deny that the best relation between a teacher and his pupils is a natural one, and that the opposite to a natural one is a compulsory one. if that be so, then the measure of all scholastic methods consists in the greater or lesser naturalness, and consequently in the less or more compulsion employed. the less the children are compelled, the better is the method; the more they are compelled, the worse is the method. i am glad that it is not necessary for me to prove this obvious truth. all are agreed that it cannot be good for health to employ foods, medicines, or exercises which create disgust or pain; and so also in learning, there can be no need to compel children to grind at anything dull or repugnant to them; and if it seems necessary to use compulsion, that fact can merely prove the imperfection of the methods employed. all who have taught children have probably noticed that the worse the teacher knows the subject he is dealing with and the less he likes it, the more he has to be stern and the more compulsion he has to use; while on the contrary, the better the teacher knows and loves his subject, the more free and natural will be his tuition. if history be closely examined, it will be found that every advance in pedagogics has consisted merely in a diminution of compulsion, a facilitation of study, and a greater and greater approach to naturalness in the relations between teacher and pupil. people have asked, how can we find the degree of freedom to be allowed in school? to which i reply that the limit of that freedom is naturally defined by the teacher, by his knowledge, and by his capacity to manage the school. such freedom cannot be dictated; its measure is merely the result of the greater or lesser knowledge and talent possessed by the master. freedom is not a rule, but it serves as a gauge when comparing one school with another, or when judging of new methods. the school in which there is less compulsion, is better than the one in which there is more. that method is good which, when introduced into a school, does not necessitate any increase of discipline; while that is certainly bad which necessitates greater severity. from his main subject of education, tolstoy digresses in these articles into a discussion of other problems, in a way which reminds one of those wonderful essays he began to pour forth a quarter of a century later. that he had been somewhat influenced by the slavophils is indicated by his readiness to assume that russia may advance along a line of her own, entirely different to that the western nations have travelled. 'progress,' in which like almost all his contemporaries he had believed, he now questions; and he indulges in a sharp attack on macaulay for the third chapter of his _history_, which he says contains no proof that any real progress has been achieved. buckle, similarly, is roughly handled for the assumption of progress that underlies his _history of civilisation_; but most scathing of all is his onslaught upon hegel, who (till darwin appeared) was the rock on which many of the intellectual liberals took their stand. from the time of hegel and his famous aphorism: 'what is historic is reasonable,' a very queer mental hocus-pocus has prevailed in literary and in verbal disputes, especially among us, under the name of 'the historic view.' you say, for instance, that man has a right to freedom, or to be tried on the basis of laws of which he himself approves; but the historic view replies that history evolves a certain historic moment conditioning a certain historic legislation and a people's historic relation thereto. you say you believe in a god; and the historic view replies that history evolves certain historic views and humanity's relation to those views. you say the _iliad_ is the greatest of epic works; and the historic view replies that the _iliad_ is merely the expression of the historic consciousness of a people at a certain historic moment. on this basis, the historic view does not dispute with you as to whether man needs freedom, or whether there is or is not a god, or whether the _iliad_ is good or bad: it does nothing to establish the freedom you desire; to persuade or dissuade you of the existence of a god or of the beauty of the _iliad_; it merely points out to you the place your inner need or your love of truth or beauty, occupy in history. it merely recognises--and recognises not by direct cognition, but by historic ratiocination. say that you love or believe anything, and the historic view tells you: 'love and believe, and your love and faith will find their place in our historic view. ages will pass and we shall find the place you are to occupy in history. know however in advance, that what you love is not absolutely beautiful, and what you believe in is not absolutely true; yet amuse yourselves, children: your love and faith will find their place and application.' it is only necessary to add the word 'historic' to any conception you like, and that conception loses its real vital meaning, in an artificially-formed historic world-conception. of the introduction of telegraphs and railways he remarks that people attribute great importance to these inventions, and boast of the progress that is being made, declaring that: 'man is mastering the forces of nature. thought, with the rapidity of lightning, flies from one end of the world to the other. time is vanquished.' this, says tolstoy, is excellent and touching. but let us see who gains by it. we are speaking of the progress of the electric telegraph. evidently the advantage and use of the telegraph is reserved for the upper, so-called 'educated' class; while the people, nine-tenths of the whole, only hear the droning of the wires and are hampered by the strict laws made for the protection of the telegraph. along the wires flies the thought that the demand for such-and-such an article has increased, and that the price must therefore be raised; or the thought that i, a russian landed proprietress, living in florence, have, thank god, recovered from my nervous prostration, and that i embrace my adored husband and beg him to send me 40,000 francs as quickly as possible. without going into exact statistics of the messages sent, one may be quite sure that they all belong to the kind of correspondence of which the above are samples. no peasant of yásnaya polyána in the government of toúla, or any other russian peasant (and let it not be forgotten that the peasants form the mass of the people whose welfare 'progress' is supposed to secure) ever has sent or received, or for a long time to come will either send or receive, a single telegram. all the messages that fly above his head add no jot to his welfare, because all he needs he gets from his own fields and his own woods, and he is equally indifferent to the cheapness or dearness of sugar or cotton, to the dethronement of king otho, the speeches of palmerston and napoleon iii, or the feelings of the lady in florence. all those thoughts that fly with the rapidity of lightning round the world, do not increase the fertility of his fields nor diminish the strictness of the keepers in the squire's or the crown's forests, nor do they add to his or his family's working power, or supply him with an extra labourer. all these great thoughts may impair his welfare, but cannot secure or further it, and can have but a negative interest for him. to the true-believers in progress, however, the telegraph wires have brought and are bringing immense advantages. i do not deny those advantages: i only wish to prove that one must not think, or persuade others, that what is advantageous for me, is a great blessing to all the world.... in the opinion of the russian people what increases their welfare is an increase of the fertility of the soil, an increase in the herds of cattle, an increase of the quantity of grain and its consequently becoming cheaper, an increase of working power, an increase in woods and pastures, and the absence of town temptations. (i beg the reader to observe that no peasant ever complains of the cheapness of bread; it is only the political economists of western europe who soothe him with the prospect that bread will become dearer and render it more possible for him to purchase manufactured articles, in which he is not interested.) which of these benefits does the railway bring to the peasant? it increases the temptations; it destroys the woods; it draws away labourers; it raises the price of grain.... the real people, that is to say those who themselves work and live productively--nine-tenths of the whole nation--without whom no progress is conceivable, are always hostile to the railway. and so what it comes to is this: that the believers in 'progress,' a small part of society, say that railways increase the welfare of the people; while the larger part of the nation say that the railways decrease it. interesting, stimulating and suggestive as tolstoy's articles were, and valuable as was the experience gained in his school, his magazine had very few subscribers and only existed for one year: the twelfth number was the last. in an article written thirteen years later, he says of his attempts in 1861-2: at that time i met with no sympathy in the educational journals, nor even with any contradiction, but only with the completest indifference to the question i was raising. there were, it is true, some attacks on a few insignificant details, but the question itself evidently interested no one. i was young at that time, and this indifference galled me. i did not understand that i with my question: how do you know what and how to teach? was like a man who, in an assembly of turkish pachas discussing how to collect more taxes from the people, should say to them: gentlemen, before discussing how much to take from each man, we must first consider what right we have to collect taxes at all? obviously, the pachas would continue to discuss the methods of collecting, and would ignore the irrelevant question. before passing on to tell of the actual working of the yásnaya polyána school, there is one matter to be noted, small indeed in itself, but characteristic, and helpful for the understanding of tolstoy's later development. tolstoy's personal honour has never been questioned, and the reader will remember that at sevastopol he flatly refused to touch money which, according to the long-standing regimental custom, was at his disposal. well, in his magazine he printed a story written by one of the boys in the school, and appraised it with enthusiasm. the hero of the story, who had been wretchedly poor, returns from the army with money to spare, and explains the matter to his wife by saying: 'i was a non-commissioned officer and had crown money to pay out to the soldiers, and some remaining over, i kept it.' commenting on this, tolstoy says: it is revealed that the soldier has become rich, and has done so in the simplest and most natural manner, just as almost everybody does who becomes rich--that is, by other people's, the crown's, or somebody's, money remaining in his hands owing to a fortunate accident. some readers have remarked that this incident is immoral, and that the people's conception of the crown as a milch cow should be eradicated and not confirmed. but not to speak of its artistic truth, i particularly value that trait in the story. does not the crown money always stop somewhere? and why should it not, once in a way, stop with a homeless soldier like gordéy? in the views of honesty held by the peasants and the upper class, a complete contrast is often noticeable. the peasants' demands are specially serious and strict with regard to honesty in the nearest relations of life; for instance, in respect to one's family, one's village, or one's commune. in respect to outsiders: the public, the crown, or foreigners, or the treasury especially, the applicability of the rules of honesty seems to them obscure. a peasant who would never tell a lie to his brother peasant, and who would bear all possible hardships for the sake of his family, and not take a farthing from a fellow-villager or neighbour without having fully earned it--will be ready to squeeze a foreigner or a townsman like an orange, and at every second word will lie to a gentleman or an official. if he is a soldier, he will without the slightest twinge of conscience stab a french prisoner, and should crown money come his way, he would consider it a crime to his family not to take it. in the upper class, on the contrary, it is quite the reverse.... i do not say which is better, i only say what i believe to be the case.... to return to the story. the mention of the crown money, which at first seems immoral, in our opinion has a most sweet and touching character. how often a writer of our circle, when wishing to show his hero as an ideal of honesty, naïvely displays to us the dirty and depraved nature of his own imagination! here, on the contrary, the author has to make his hero happy. his return to his family would suffice for that, but it was also necessary to remove the poverty which for so many years had weighed on the family. where was he to take money from? from the impersonal crown! if the author is to give him wealth, it has to be taken from some one, and it could not have been found in a more legitimate or reasonable way. no doubt tolstoy's statement of peasant morality is true enough; but tolstoy's attitude towards the matter is remarkable. he has always had a keen sense of personal morality, but when public morality was in question, his decisions seem to me often to have been at fault. passing from the moral to the economic aspect of the question, to western ears it sounds strange to hear the medieval or oriental conception so boldly announced, that property 'has to be taken from some one' before it can be obtained. in our world, wealth has, during the last five generations, been increased enormously by inventions, by organisation, by division of labour, by the skilful utilisation of the forces of nature, as well as by co-operation and the bringing together into one place of industries and individuals mutually helpful; and it has become impossible for us to believe that the _only_ way to obtain wealth is by depriving some one else of wealth they already possess. authorities for chapter vii birukof. fet. tolstoy's letter to a. maude. tolstoy's educational articles. löwenfeld's _leo n. tolstoj_. p. a. sergeyenko in _niva_, no. 7, 1906. chapter viii the school yásno-polyána school. freedom in class. natural laws. a fight. theft and punishment. a walk and talk on art. peasants' opinion of the school. gymnastics. reading. the bible. penmanship. grammar. history. geography. drawing. singing. composition. a literary genius. art: exclusive or universal? reading useless for lack of what to read. the value of freedom in education. a contrast. as already mentioned, tolstoy's magazine, besides its theoretical articles, contained others describing the work done at the yásno-polyána school, and from these we learn in his own words, how tolstoy and his pupils, and the masters (including the young german, keller, whom he had brought back with him from abroad) were occupied in november and december 1861. the following passages are part of his description of the school: no one brings anything with him, neither books nor copy-books. no homework is set them. not only do they carry nothing in their hands, they have nothing to carry even in their heads. they are not obliged to remember any lesson, nor any of yesterday's work. they are not tormented by the thought of the impending lesson. they bring only themselves, their receptive nature, and an assurance that it will be as jolly in school to-day as it was yesterday. they do not think of their classes till they have begun. no one is ever scolded for being late, and they never are late, except perhaps some of the older boys whose fathers occasionally keep them at home to do some work. in such cases the boy comes to school running fast and panting. until the teacher arrives, some gather at the porch, pushing one another off the steps or sliding on the ice-covered path, and some go into the rooms. when it is cold, while waiting for the master, they read, write, or play about. the girls do not mix with the boys. when the boys take any notice of the girls, they never address any one of them in particular, but always speak to them collectively: 'hey, girls, why don't you come and slide?' or, 'look how frozen the girls are,' or, 'now girls, all of you against me!' suppose that by the time-table the lesson for the youngest class is elementary reading; for the second, advanced reading; and for the third, mathematics. the teacher enters the room, on the floor of which the boys are lying in a heap, shouting, 'the heap is too small!' or, 'boys, you're choking me!' or, 'don't pull my hair!' etc. 'peter miháylovitch!' cries a voice from the bottom of the heap, to the teacher as he enters: 'tell them to stop!'--'good morning, peter miháylovitch!' cry others, continuing their scrimmage. the teacher takes the books and gives them to those who have followed him to the cupboard, while from the heap of boys on the floor, those on top, still sprawling, demand books. the heap gradually diminishes. as soon as most of the boys have taken books, the rest run to the cupboard crying, 'me too! me too!'--'give me yesterday's book!'--'give me kóltsof!' and so forth. if a couple of boys excited by their struggle still remain on the floor, those who have taken books and settled down, shout at them, 'what are you up to? we can't hear anything! stop it!' the excited ones submit, and, panting, take to their books; and only just at first swing their legs with unspent excitement as they sit reading. the spirit of war flies away and the spirit of reading reigns in the room. with the same ardour with which he pulled mítka's hair, he now reads kóltsof's works: with almost clenched teeth, with sparkling eyes, and oblivious of all around him but his book. to tear him from his reading now would need as much effort as formerly to tear him from his wrestling. they sit where they like: on the benches, tables, window-sills, floor, or in the arm-chair. the girls always sit together. friends from the same village, especially the little ones (among whom there is most comradeship) always sit together. as soon as one of them decides that he will sit in a certain corner, all his chums, pushing and diving under the forms, get there too, and sit together looking about them with faces that express as much happiness and satisfaction as though, having settled in that place, they would certainly be happy for the rest of their lives. the large arm-chair (which somehow found its way into the room) is an object coveted by the more independent personalities.... as soon as one of them decides to sit in it, another discerns his intention from his looks, and they collide and squeeze in. one dislodges the other, and curling up, sprawls with his head far below the back, but reads like the rest, quite absorbed in his work. during lessons i have never seen them whispering, pinching, giggling, laughing behind their hands, or complaining of one another to the teacher. the two lower classes sort themselves in one room, the upper class in another. the teacher appears, and in the first class all surround him at the blackboard, or lie on the forms, or sit on the table, near him or near one of the boys who reads. if it is a writing lesson, they place themselves in a more orderly way, but keep getting up to look at one another's exercise books, and to show their own to the teacher. according to the time-table there should be four lessons before dinner; but sometimes in practice these become three or two, and may be on quite other subjects. the teacher may begin with arithmetic and pass on to geometry; or may begin with sacred history and end up with grammar. sometimes teacher and pupils are so carried away, that a lesson lasts three hours instead of one. sometimes the pupils themselves cry: 'go on, go on!' and shout contemptuously to any who are tired: 'if you're tired, go to the little ones!' in my opinion this external disorder is useful and necessary, however strange and inconvenient it may seem to the teacher. of its advantages i shall have frequent occasion to speak; but of its apparent disadvantages i will say: first, this disorder, or free order, only frightens us because we ourselves were educated in, and are accustomed to, something quite different. secondly, in this as in many similar cases, coercion is used only from hastiness or from lack of respect for human nature. we think the disorder is growing greater and greater, and that it has no limit. we think there is no way of stopping it except by force; but one need only wait a little, and the disorder (or animation) calms down of itself, and calms down into a far better and more durable order than any we could devise. in another place he says: our school evolved freely from the principles brought into it by the teachers and pupils. in spite of the predominant influence of the teacher, the pupil always had the right not to go to school; and even when in school, not to listen to the teacher. the teacher had the right not to admit a pupil.... submitting naturally only to laws derived from their own nature, children revolt and rebel when subjected to your premature interference. they do not believe in the validity of your bells and time-tables and rules. how often have i seen children fighting. the teacher rushes to separate them, and the separated enemies look at one another askance, and even in the stern teacher's presence cannot refrain from giving one another a parting blow, yet more painful than its predecessors. how often, any day, do i see some kirúshka, clenching his teeth, fly at taráska, seize his hair, and throw him to the ground, apparently--though it costs him his life--determined to maim his foe; yet not a minute passes before taráska is already laughing under kirúshka. one, and then the other, moderates his blows, and before five minutes have passed they have made friends, and off they go to sit together. the other day, between lessons, two boys were struggling in a corner. the one, a remarkable mathematician about ten years old, is in the second class; the other, a close-cropped lad, the son of a servant, is a clever but vindictive, tiny, black-eyed lad, nicknamed pussy. pussy seized the mathematician's long hair and jammed his head against the wall; the mathematician vainly clutched at pussy's close-cropped bristles. pussy's black eyes gleamed triumphantly. the mathematician, hardly refraining from tears, kept saying: 'well, well, what of it?' but though he tried to keep up appearances, it was plain he was faring badly. this went on for some time, and i was in doubt what to do. 'a fight, a fight!' shouted the boys, and crowded towards the corner. the little ones laughed; but the bigger ones, though they did not interfere, exchanged serious glances, and their silence and these glances did not escape pussy's observation. he understood that he was doing something wrong, and began to smile shamefacedly, and by degrees let go of the mathematician's hair. the mathematician shook himself free, and giving pussy a push that banged the back of the latter's head against the wall, went off satisfied. pussy began to cry, and rushed after his enemy, hitting him as hard as he could on his sheepskin coat, but without hurting him. the mathematician wished to pay him back, but at that moment several disapproving voices were raised. 'there now; he's fighting a little fellow!' cried the onlookers, 'get away, pussy!'--and therewith the affair ended as though it had never occurred, except, i think, that both combatants retained a dim consciousness that fighting is unpleasant, because both get hurt. in this case i seemed to detect a feeling of fairness influencing the crowd; but how often such affairs are settled so that one does not know what law has decided them, and yet both sides are satisfied! how arbitrary and unjust by comparison are all school methods of dealing with such cases. 'you are both to blame: kneel down!' says the teacher; and the teacher is wrong, because one boy is in the wrong, and that one triumphs while on his knees, and chews the cud of his unexpended anger, while the innocent one is doubly punished.... i am convinced that the school should not interfere with that part of education which belongs to the family. the school should not, and has no right to, reward or punish; and the best police and administration of a school consist in giving full freedom to the pupils to learn and get on among themselves as they like. i am convinced of this; and yet the customary school habits are still so strong in us that in the yásno-polyána school we frequently break this rule.... during last summer, while the school-house was being repaired, a leyden jar disappeared from the physical cabinet; pencils disappeared repeatedly, as well as books--and this at a time when neither the carpenters nor the painters were at work. we questioned the boys. the best pupils, those who had been with us longest, old friends of ours, blushed and were so uneasy that any public prosecutor would have thought their confusion a sure proof of their guilt. but i knew them, and could answer for them as for myself. i understood that the very idea of being suspected offended them deeply and painfully. a gifted and tender-hearted boy, whom i will call theodore, turned quite pale, trembled and wept. they promised to tell me, if they found out; but they declined to undertake a search. a few days later the thief was discovered. he was the son of a servant from a distant village. he had led astray, and made an accomplice of, a peasant boy from the same village; and together they had hidden the stolen articles in a box. this discovery produced a strange feeling in the other pupils: a kind of relief and even joy, accompanied by contempt and pity for the thief. we proposed that they should allot the punishment themselves. some demanded that the thief should be flogged, but stipulated that they should do the flogging; others said: 'sew a card on him, with the word _thief_.' this latter punishment, to our shame be it said, had been used by us before, and it was the very boy who a year ago had himself been labelled _liar_, who now most insistently demanded a card for the thief. we consented, and when one of the girls was sewing the card on, all the pupils watched and teased the punished boys with malicious joy. they wanted the punishment increased: 'let them be led through the village; and let them wear cards till the holidays,' said they. the victims cried. the peasant boy who had been led astray by his comrade, a gifted narrator and jester, a plump, white, chubby little chap, wept without restraint and with all his childish might. the other, the chief offender, a hump-nosed boy with a thin-featured, clever face, became pale, his lips quivered, his eyes looked wildly and angrily at his joyous comrades, and occasionally his face was unnaturally distorted by a sob. his cap, with a torn peak, was stuck on the very back of his head; his hair was ruffled, his clothes soiled with chalk. all this now struck me and everybody else as though we saw it for the first time. the unkindly attention of all was directed to him, and he felt it painfully. when, with bent head and without looking round, he started homeward with (as it seemed to me) a peculiar, criminal gait, and when the boys ran after him in a crowd, teasing him in an unnatural and strangely cruel way as though, against their will, they were moved by some evil spirit, something told me that we were not doing right. but things took their course, and the thief wore the card that whole day. from this time he began, as it seemed to me, to learn worse, and one did not see him playing and talking with his fellows out of class. one day i came to a lesson, and the pupils informed me, with a kind of horror, that the boy had again stolen. he had taken twenty copecks (seven pence) in coppers from the teacher's room, and had been caught hiding them under the stairs. we again hung a card on him; and again the same revolting scene recommenced. i began to admonish him, as all masters admonish; and a big boy, fond of talking, who was present, also admonished him--probably repeating words he had heard his father, an innkeeper, use: 'you steal once, and you do it again,' said he distinctly, glibly, and with dignity; 'it becomes a habit, and leads to no good.' i began to get vexed. i glanced at the face of the punished boy, which had become yet paler, more suffering and harder than before; and somehow i thought of convicts, and suddenly i felt so ashamed and disgusted that i tore the stupid card off him, told him to go where he liked, and became convinced--and convinced not by reason, but by my whole nature--that i had no right to torment that unfortunate boy, and that it was not in my power to make of him what i and the innkeeper's son wanted to make of him. i became convinced that there are secrets of the soul, hidden from us, on which life may act, but which precepts and punishments do not reach. it may be said that any department of life could be treated in this way: we have merely to invert an established order founded on the experience of men, and a topsy-turvy millennium is born. it may also be said that in the foregoing pages tolstoy appears as the evangelist of an educational system founded on the free play of youthful instincts which, speaking merely the language of natural animal life, call for sympathetic discipline. but in his _confession_ tolstoy has treated his educational writings with such scant respect that criticism is disarmed; more especially as the actual working of his school was extremely interesting and much more successful than might have been expected. n. v. ouspénsky, the writer, narrates that he visited yásnaya polyána in 1862, and tolstoy, having to leave him alone for awhile, asked him to glance at some of the compositions the boys had written in school. taking up one of these, ouspénsky read: one day, lyóf nikoláyevitch (tolstoy) called savóskin up to the blackboard and ordered him to solve a problem in arithmetic. 'if i give you five rolls, and you eat one of them, how many rolls will you have left?'... savóskin could nohow solve this problem, and the count pulled his hair for it.... when tolstoy returned ouspénsky pointed out to him this essay, and tolstoy, sighing heavily, crossed his hands before him and merely said: 'life in this world is a hard task.' ouspénsky considered that he had unearthed an extraordinary contradiction between theory and practice; but no one who realises the difficulty and novelty of tolstoy's attempt, and how far he is from claiming perfection for himself or for his achievements, should agree with ouspénsky. on the contrary, the essay proves a freedom of relation between teacher and pupil, which would certainly not have existed had the hair-pulling been other than impulsive and exceptional. the school was closed, or nearly so, during the summer, as most of the pupils then helped their parents with field work; obtaining, tolstoy considers, more mental development that way than they could have done in any school. to make up for this, the hours of study in winter were long. the classes generally finish about eight or nine o'clock (unless carpentering keeps the elder boys somewhat later), and the whole band run shouting into the yard, and there, calling to one another, begin to separate, making for different parts of the village. occasionally they arrange to coast down-hill to the village in a large sledge that stands outside the gate. they tie up the shafts, throw themselves into it, and squealing, disappear from sight in a cloud of snow, leaving here and there on their path black patches of children who have tumbled out. in the open air, out of school (for all its freedom) new relations are formed between pupil and teacher: freer, simpler and more trustful--those very relations which seem to us the ideal which school should aim at. not long ago we read gógol's story _viy_ [an earth-spirit] in the highest class. the final scenes affected them strongly, and excited their imagination. some of them played the witch, and kept alluding to the last chapters.... out of doors it was a moonless, winter night, with clouds in the sky, not cold. we stopped at the crossroads. the elder boys, in their third year, stopped near me, asking me to accompany them further. the younger ones looked at us, and rushed off down-hill. they had begun to learn with a new master, and between them and me there is not the same confidence as between the older boys and myself. 'well, let us go to the wood' (a small wood about 120 yards from the house), said one of them. the most insistent was fédka, a boy of ten, with a tender, receptive, poetic yet daring nature. danger seems to form the chief condition of pleasure for him. in summer it always frightened me to see how he, with two other boys, would swim out into the very middle of the pond, which is nearly 120 yards wide, and would now and then disappear in the hot reflection of the summer sun, and swim under water; and how he would then turn on his back, causing fountains of water to rise, and calling with his high-pitched voice to his comrades on the bank to see what a fine fellow he was. he now knew there were wolves in the wood, and so he wanted to go there. all agreed; and the four of us went to the wood. another boy, a lad of twelve, physically and morally strong, whom i will call syómka, went on in front and kept calling and 'ah-ou-ing' with his ringing voice, to some one at a distance. prónka, a sickly, mild and very gifted lad, from a poor family (sickly probably chiefly from lack of food), walked by my side. fédka walked between me and syómka, talking all the time in a particularly gentle voice: now relating how he had herded horses in summer, now saying there was nothing to be afraid of, and now asking, 'suppose one should jump out?' and insisting on my giving some reply. we did not go into the wood: that would have been too dreadful; but even where we were, near the wood, it was darker, and the road was scarcely visible, and the lights of the village were hidden from view. syómka stopped and listened: 'stop, lads! what is that?' said he suddenly. we were silent, and though we heard nothing, things seemed to grow more gruesome. 'what shall we do if it leaps out ... and comes at us?' asked fédka. we began to talk about caucasian robbers. they remembered a caucasian tale i had told them long ago, and i again told them of 'braves,' of cossacks, and of hádji mourát.[46] syómka went on in front, treading boldly in his big boots, his broad back swaying regularly. prónka tried to walk by my side, but fédka pushed him off the path, and prónka--who, probably on account of his poverty, always submitted--only ran up alongside at the most interesting passages, sinking in the snow up to his knees. [46] the daring caucasian leader mentioned by tolstoy in a letter quoted in chapter iii. every one who knows anything of russian peasant children knows that they are not accustomed to, and cannot bear, any caresses, affectionate words, kisses, hand touchings, and so forth. i have seen a lady in a peasant school, wishing to pet a boy, say: 'come, i will give you a kiss, dear!' and actually kiss him; and the boy was ashamed and offended, and could not understand why he had been so treated. boys of five are already above such caresses--they are no longer babies. i was therefore particularly struck when fédka, walking beside me, at the most terrible part of the story suddenly touched me lightly with his sleeve, and then clasped two of my fingers in his hand, and kept hold of them. as soon as i stopped speaking, fédka demanded that i should go on, and did this in such a beseeching and agitated voice that it was impossible not to comply with his wish. 'now then, don't get in the way!' said he once angrily to prónka, who had run in front of us. he was so carried away as even to be cruel; so agitated yet happy was he, holding on to my fingers, that he could let no one dare to interrupt his pleasure. 'some more! some more! it is fine!' said he. we had passed the wood and were approaching the village from the other end. 'let's go on,' said all the boys when the lights became visible. 'let us take another turn!' we went on in silence, sinking here and there in the rotten snow, not hardened by much traffic. a white darkness seemed to sway before our eyes; the clouds hung low, as though something had heaped them upon us. there was no end to that whiteness, amid which we alone crunched along the snow. the wind sounded through the bare tops of the aspens, but where we were, behind the woods, it was calm. i finished my story by telling how a 'brave,' surrounded by his enemies, sang his death-song and threw himself on his dagger. all were silent. 'why did he sing a song when he was surrounded?' asked syómka. 'weren't you told?--he was preparing for death!' replied fédka, aggrieved. 'i think he sang a prayer,' added prónka. all agreed. fédka suddenly stopped. 'how was it, you told us, your aunt had her throat cut?' asked he. (he had not yet had enough horrors.) 'tell us! tell us!' i again told them that terrible story of the murder of the countess tolstoy,[47] and they stood silently about me, watching my face. [47] some details of this crime are given in 'why do men stupefy themselves?' in _essays and letters_, published in the _world's classics_. 'the fellow got caught!' said syómka. 'he was afraid to go away in the night, while she was lying with her throat cut!' said fédka; 'i should have run away!' and he gathered my two fingers yet more closely in his hand. we stopped in the thicket, beyond the threshing-floor at the very end of the village. syómka picked up a dry stick from the snow and began striking it against the frosty trunk of a lime tree. hoar frost fell from the branches on to one's cap, and the noise of the blows resounded in the stillness of the wood. 'lyóf nikoláyevitch,' said fédka to me (i thought he was going again to speak about the countess), 'why does one learn singing? i often think, why, really, does one?' what made him jump from the terror of the murder to this question, heaven only knows; yet by the tone of his voice, the seriousness with which he demanded an answer, and the attentive silence of the other two, one felt that there was some vital and legitimate connection between this question and our preceding talk. whether the connection lay in some response to my suggestion that crime might be explained by lack of education (i had spoken of that) or whether he was testing himself--transferring himself into the mind of the murderer and remembering his own favourite occupation (he has a wonderful voice and immense musical talent) or whether the connection lay in the fact that he felt that now was the time for sincere conversation, and all the problems demanding solution rose in his mind--at any rate his question surprised none of us. 'and what is drawing for? and why write well?' said i, not knowing at all how to explain to him what art is for. 'what is drawing for?' repeated he thoughtfully. he really was asking, what is art for? and i neither dared nor could explain. 'what is drawing for?' said syómka. 'why, you draw anything, and can then make it from the drawing.' 'no, that is designing,' said fédka. 'but why draw figures?' syómka's matter-of-fact mind was not perplexed. 'what is a stick for, and what is a lime tree for?' said he, still striking the tree. 'yes, what is a lime tree for?' said i. 'to make rafters of,' replied syómka. 'but what is it for in summer, when not yet cut down?' 'then, it's no use.' 'no, really,' insisted fédka; 'why does a lime tree grow?' and we began to speak of the fact that not everything exists for use, but that there is also beauty, and that art is beauty; and we understood one another, and fédka quite understood why the lime tree grows and what singing is for. prónka agreed with us, but he thought rather of moral beauty: goodness. syómka understood with his big brain, but did not acknowledge beauty apart from usefulness. he was in doubt (as often happens to men with great reasoning power): feeling art to be a force, but not feeling in his soul the need of that force. he, like them, wished to get at art by his reason, and tried to kindle that fire in himself. 'we'll sing _who hath_ to-morrow. i remember my part,' said he. (he has a correct ear, but no taste or refinement in singing.) fédka, however, fully understood that the lime tree is good when in leaf: good to look at in summer; and that that is enough. prónka understood that it is a pity to cut it down, because it, too, has life: 'why, when we take the sap of a lime, it's like taking blood.' syómka, though he did not say so, evidently thought that there was little use in a lime when it was sappy. it feels strange to repeat what we then said, but it seems to me that we said all that can be said about utility, and plastic and moral beauty. we went on to the village. fédka still clung to my hand; now, it seemed to me, from gratitude. we all were nearer one another that night than we had been for a long time. prónka walked beside us along the broad village street. 'see, there is still a light in mazánof's house,' said he. 'as i was going to school this morning, gavrúka was coming from the pub, as dru-u-nk as could be! his horse all in a lather and he beating it! i am always sorry for such things. really, why should it be beaten?' 'and the other day, coming from toúla, my daddy gave his horse the reins,' said syómka; 'and it took him into a snow-drift and there he slept--quite drunk.' 'and gavrúka kept on beating his horse over the eyes, and i felt so sorry,' repeated prónka again. 'why should he beat it? he got down and just flogged it.' syómka suddenly stopped. 'our folk are already asleep,' said he, looking in at the window of his crooked, dirty hut. 'won't you walk a little longer?' 'no.' 'go-o-od-bye, lyóf nikoláyevitch!' shouted he suddenly, and tearing himself away from us, as it were with an effort, he ran to the house, lifted the latch and disappeared. 'so you will take each of us home? first one and then the other?' said fédka. we went on. there was a light in prónka's hut, and we looked in at the window. his mother, a tall and handsome but toil-worn woman, with black eyebrows and eyes, sat at the table, peeling potatoes. in the middle of the hut hung a cradle. prónka's brother, the mathematician from our second class, was standing at the table, eating potatoes with salt. it was a black, tiny, and dirty hut. 'what a plague you are!' shouted the mother at prónka. 'where have you been?' prónka glanced at the window with a meek, sickly smile. his mother guessed that he had not come alone, and her face immediately assumed a feigned expression that was not nice. only fédka was left. 'the travelling tailors are at our house, that is why there's a light there,' said he in the softened voice that had come to him that evening. 'good-bye, lyóf nikoláyevitch!' added he, softly and tenderly, and he began to knock with the ring attached to the closed door. 'let me in!' his high-pitched voice rang out amid the winter stillness of the village. it was long before they opened the door for him. i looked in at the window. the hut was a large one. the father was playing cards with a tailor, and some copper coins lay on the table. the wife, fédka's stepmother, was sitting near the torch-stand, looking eagerly at the money. the young tailor, a cunning drunkard, was holding his cards on the table, bending them, and looking triumphantly at his opponent. fédka's father, the collar of his shirt unbuttoned, his brow wrinkled with mental exertion and vexation, changed one card for another, and waved his horny hand in perplexity above them. 'let me in!' the woman rose and went to the door. 'good-bye!' repeated fédka, once again. 'let us always have such walks!' thus tolstoy for the second time found himself faced by the question: what is art? which had arisen when he spoke to the society of lovers of russian literature. this time it was put to him by a ten-year-old peasant boy, and it seemed to him that: 'we said all that can be said about utility, and plastic and moral beauty.' twenty years later, after achieving the highest fame as a literary artist, he returned to the subject and tried to write an essay on the connection between life and art, thinking that he would be able to accomplish it at a single effort. it proved, however, as he tells us, 'that my views on the matter were so far from clear, that i could not arrange them in a way that satisfied me. from that time i did not cease to think of the subject, and i recommenced writing on it six or seven times; but each time, after writing a considerable part of it, i found myself unable to bring the work to a satisfactory conclusion, and had to put it aside.' only after another fifteen years' study and reflection did he succeed, in 1898, in producing _what is art?_ which raised such a storm in the esthetic dovecots, and induced the editor of _literature_ to declare that 'there was never any reason for inferring that count tolstoy's opinions on the philosophy of art would be worth the paper on which they were written'; while a. b. walkley was asserting that 'this calmly and cogently reasoned effort to put art on a new basis is a literary event of the first importance.' we have, however, as yet only reached the year 1862, and must not anticipate. at first the peasants were rather afraid of the school, but before long they gained confidence and the report became current among them that: 'at yásno-polyána school they learn everything, including all the sciences, and there are such clever masters that it is dreadful; it is said that they even imitate thunder and lightning. anyway, the lads understand well, and have begun to read and write.' another very general opinion was that: 'they teach the boys everything (like gentlemen's sons) much of it is no use, but still, as they quickly learn to read, it is worth sending the children there.' naturally tolstoy, himself in those days an ardent gymnast, had parallel and horizontal bars put up, and gave the children physical training. to the effects of this on the stomach, the village mothers did not fail to attribute any digestive troubles that befell their children from time to time; especially when the long lenten fast was succeeded by a return to more appetising food, or when, after such luxuries had long been lacking, fresh vegetables again came into use in summer. in his account of the yásno-polyána school, tolstoy tells us there were about forty pupils enrolled, but more than thirty were rarely present at a time; among them were four or five girls, and sometimes three or four male adults who came either for a month or for a whole winter. most of the boys were from seven to ten years old. (tolstoy says that children learn to read most rapidly, easily and well, between the ages of six and eight.) there were four teachers, and generally from five to seven lessons a day. the teachers kept diaries of their work, and discussed matters together on sundays, when they drew up plans for the coming week. these plans were, however, not strictly adhered to, but were constantly modified to meet the demands of the pupils. tolstoy's sister told me of another sunday occupation at yásnaya polyána in those days. tolstoy used to invite all the boys from the neighbouring schools within reach, and used to play games with them; the favourite game being _barre_, which i assume to be a form of 'storm the castle.' tolstoy came to the conclusion that teachers involuntarily strive to find a method of teaching convenient for themselves, and that the more convenient a method is for the teacher, the less convenient it is for the pupil; and only _that_ method is good which satisfies the pupils. his theory of freedom as the basis of success in instruction, was put to a rude test by the fact that for a considerable time his pupils made little or no headway in learning to read. he says: the simple thought that the time had not yet come for good reading and that there was at present no need of it, but that the pupils would themselves find the best method when the need arose, only recently entered my head. after telling how the boys first met the difficulty of mastering the mechanical process of reading, tolstoy goes on to tell how in the upper class progress was suddenly made owing to what seemed an accident. in the class of advanced reading some one book is used, each boy reading in turn, and then all telling its contents together. they had been joined that autumn by an extremely talented lad, t., who had studied for two years with a sacristan, and was therefore ahead of them all in reading. he reads as we do, and so the pupils only understand anything of the advanced reading (and then not very much of it) when he reads; and yet each of them wishes to read. but as soon as a bad reader begins, the others express dissatisfaction, especially when the story is interesting. they laugh, and get cross, and the bad reader feels ashamed, and endless disputes arise. last month one of the boys announced that at any cost he would manage, within a week, to read as well as t.; others made the same announcement, and suddenly mechanical reading became their favourite occupation. for an hour or an hour-and-a-half at a time, they would sit without tearing themselves away from the books, which they did not understand; and they began taking books home with them; and really, within three weeks, they made such progress as could not have been expected. in their case the reverse had happened of what usually occurs with those who learn the rudiments. generally a man learns to read, and finds nothing he cares to read or understand. in this case the pupils were convinced that there is something worth reading and understanding, but felt that they lacked the capacity; and so they set to work to become proficient readers. a difficulty of enormous importance was the absence of books really suitable for simple folk to read. the insoluble problem was that for the education of the people an ability and a desire to read good books is essential. good books are, however, written in a literary language the people don't understand. in order to learn to understand it, one would have to read a great deal; and people won't read willingly unless they understand what they read. connected with this difficulty of finding books suited to the understanding of peasants and of peasant children, was the parallel difficulty of finding literary subjects that interested them. this was first met by reading the old testament stories to them: a knowledge of sacred history was demanded both by the pupils themselves and by their parents. of all the oral subjects i tried during three years, nothing so suited the understanding and mental condition of the boys as the old testament. the same was the case in all the schools that came under my observation. i tried the new testament, i tried russian history and geography, i tried explanations of natural phenomena (so much advocated to-day), but it was all listened to unwillingly and quickly forgotten. but the old testament was remembered and narrated eagerly both in class and at home, and so well remembered that after two months the children wrote scripture tales from memory with very slight omissions. it seems to me that the book of the childhood of the race will always be the best book for the childhood of each man. it seems to me impossible to replace that book. to alter or to abbreviate the bible, as is done in sonntag's and other school primers, appears to me bad. all--every word--in it is right, both as revelation and as art. read about the creation of the world in the bible, and then read it in an abbreviated sacred history, and the alteration of the bible into the sacred history will appear to you quite unintelligible. the latter can only be learnt by heart; while the bible presents the child with a vivid and majestic picture he will never forget. the omissions made in the sacred history are quite unintelligible, and only impair the character and beauty of the scriptures. why, for instance, is the statement omitted in all the sacred histories, that when there was nothing, the spirit of god moved upon the face of the waters, and that after having created, god looked at his creation and saw that it was good, and that then it was the morning and evening of such and such a day? why do they omit that god breathed into adam's nostrils the breath of life, and that having taken one of his ribs he with the flesh closed up the place thereof, and so forth? one must read the bible to unperverted children, to understand how necessary and true it all is. perhaps one ought not to give the bible to perverted young ladies; but when reading it to peasant children i did not alter or omit a single word. none of them giggled behind another's back; but all listened eagerly and with natural reverence. the story of lot and his daughters, and the story of judah's son, evoked horror but not laughter.... how intelligible and clear it all is, especially for a child, and yet how stern and serious! i cannot imagine what instruction would be possible, without that book. yet when one has learnt these stories only in childhood, and has afterwards partly forgotten them, one thinks: what good do they do us? would it not be all the same if one did not know them at all? so it seems till, on beginning to teach, you test on other children the elements that helped to develop you. it seems as if one could teach children to write and read and calculate, and could give them an idea of history, geography, and natural phenomena, without the bible, and before the bible; yet nowhere is this done: everywhere the child first of all gets to know the bible, its stories, or extracts from it. the first relations of the learner to the teacher are founded on that book. such a general fact is not an accident. my very free relations with my pupils at the commencement of the yásno-polyána school helped me to find the explanation of this phenomenon. a child or a man on entering school (i make no distinction between a ten-, thirty-, or seventy-year-old man) brings with him the special view of things he has deduced from life and to which he is attached. in order that a man of any age should begin to learn, it is necessary that he should love learning. that he should love learning, he must recognise the falseness and insufficiency of his own view of things, and must scent afar off that new view of life which learning is to reveal to him. no man or boy would have the strength to learn, if the result of learning presented itself to him merely as a capacity to write, to read, and to reckon. no master could teach if he did not command an outlook on life higher than his pupils possess. that a pupil may surrender himself whole-heartedly to his teacher, one corner must be lifted of the veil which hides from him all the delight of that world of thought, knowledge, and poetry to which learning will admit him. only by being constantly under the spell of that bright light shining ahead of him, will the pupil be able to use his powers in the way we require of him. what means have we of lifting this corner of the veil?... as i have said, i thought as many think, that being myself in the world to which i had to introduce my pupils, it would be easy for me to do this; and i taught the rudiments, explained natural phenomena, and told them, as the primers do, that the fruits of learning are sweet; but the scholars did not believe me, and kept aloof. then i tried reading the bible to them, and quite took possession of them. the corner of the veil was lifted, and they yielded themselves to me completely. they fell in love with the book, and with learning, and with me. it only remained for me to guide them on.... to reveal to the pupil a new world, and to make him, without possessing knowledge, love knowledge, there is no book but the bible. i speak even for those who do not regard the bible as a revelation. there are no other works--at least i know none--which in so compressed and poetic a form contain all those sides of human thought which the bible unites in itself. all the questions raised by natural phenomena are there dealt with. of all the primitive relations of men with one another: the family, the state, and religion, we first become conscious through that book. the generalisations of thought and wisdom, with the charm given by their childlike simplicity of form, seize the pupil's mind for the first time. not only does the lyricism of david's psalms act on the minds of the elder pupils; but more than that, from this book every one becomes conscious for the first time of the whole beauty of the epos in its incomparable simplicity and strength. who has not wept over the story of joseph and his meeting with his brethren? who has not, with bated breath, told the story of the bound and shorn samson, revenging himself on his enemies and perishing under the ruins of the palace he destroys, or received a hundred other impressions on which we were reared as on our mothers' milk? let those who deny the educative value of the bible and say it is out of date, invent a book and stories explaining the phenomena of nature, either from general history or from the imagination, which will be accepted as the bible stories are; and then we will admit that the bible is obsolete.... drawn though it may be from a one-sided experience, i repeat my conviction. the development of a child or a man in our society without the bible, is as inconceivable as that of an ancient greek would have been without homer. the bible is the only book to begin with, for a child's reading. the bible, both in its form and in its contents, should serve as a model for all children's primers and all reading books. a translation of the bible into the language of the common folk, would be the best book for the people. when pupils came from other schools where they had had to learn scripture by heart, or had been inoculated with the abbreviated school-primer versions, tolstoy found that the bible had nothing like as strong an effect as it had on boys who came fresh to it. such pupils do not experience what is felt by fresh pupils, who listen to the bible with beating heart, seizing every word, thinking that now, now at last, all the wisdom of the world is about to be revealed to them. in reading the above passages, it should be borne in mind that in russian usage 'the bible' means the old testament only. besides the bible, the only books the people understand and like, says tolstoy, are those written not for the people but by the people; such as folk-tales and collections of songs, legends, proverbs, verses, and riddles. there was much in his experience which fits in with what mr. cecil sharp and miss neal of the espérance club, have lately been demonstrating by their revivals of english folk songs and dances: namely, that there is an excellent literature and art which children and common folk appreciate and assimilate as eagerly and excellently as any one, and which it is the height of folly for cultured people to despise; and his keen perception of the gap that separates the art and literature accessible to the people from the art that by its artificiality is beyond their reach, led him subsequently to undertake, first a series of school primers, and then the re-telling of a number of folk-tales and legends, which have reached more readers, and perhaps benefited the world more, than anything else he has written. with penmanship it happened at yásno-polyána school, as with reading: the pupils wrote very badly, and a new master introduced writing from copies (another exercise very sedate and easy for the master). the pupils became dull, and we were obliged to abandon calligraphy, and did not know how to devise any way of improving their handwriting. the eldest class discovered the way for itself. having finished writing the bible stories, the elder pupils began to ask for their exercise-books to take home [probably to read to their parents]. these were dirty, crumpled, and badly written. the precise mathematician p. asked for some paper, and set to work to rewrite his stories. this idea pleased the others. 'give me, too, some paper!'-'give me an exercise-book!' and a fashion for calligraphy set in, which still prevails in the upper class. they took an exercise-book, put before them a written alphabet copy from which they imitated each letter, boasting to one another of their performance, and in two weeks' time they had made great progress. grammar turned out to be an unsatisfactory subject, and to have hardly any connection with correct writing or speaking. in our youngest--the third--class, they write what they like. besides that, the youngest write out in the evening, one at a time, sentences they have composed all together. one writes, and the others whisper among themselves, noting his mistakes, and only waiting till he has finished, in order to denounce his misplaced e or his wrongly detached prefix, or sometimes to perpetrate a blunder of their own. to write correctly and to correct mistakes made by others, gives them great pleasure. the elder boys seize every letter they can get hold of, exercising themselves in the correction of mistakes, and trying with all their might to write correctly; but they cannot bear grammar or the analysis of sentences, and in spite of a bias we had for analysis, they only tolerate it to a very limited extent, falling asleep or evading the classes. history on the whole went badly, except such bits of russian history as, when told poetically, aroused patriotic feelings. on one memorable occasion the whole class went wild with excitement and eager interest. that was when tolstoy, with a poet's licence, told of the defeat of napoleon's invasion of russia in 1812. except in this legendary way, the teaching of history to children is, in tolstoy's opinion, useless. the historic sense develops later than the artistic sense: in my experience and practice the first germ of interest in history arises out of contemporary events, sometimes as a result of participation in them, through political interest, political opinions, debates, and the reading of newspapers. consequently the idea of beginning the teaching of history from present times should suggest itself to every intelligent teacher. of geography as a subject for the education of children, tolstoy has an even lower opinion: in von vizin's comedy _the minor_, when mitrofánoushka was being persuaded to learn geography, his mother said: 'why teach him all the countries? the coachman will drive him where he may have to go to.' nothing more to the point has ever been said against geography, and all the learned men in the world put together cannot rebut such an irrefragable argument. i am speaking quite seriously. what need was there for me to know where the river and town of barcelona are situated, when for thirty-three years i have not once had occasion to use the knowledge? not even the most picturesque description of barcelona and its inhabitants could, i imagine, conduce to the development of my mental faculties. in fact, the sweeping conclusion at which tolstoy arrives is that: i not only see no use, but i see great harm, in teaching history or geography before the university is reached. and he leaves it an open question whether even the university should concern itself with such subjects. drawing was a favourite lesson with the boys; but i must confine myself to a single extract on that subject: we drew figures from the blackboard in the following way: i first drew a horizontal or a vertical line, dividing it into parts by dots, and the pupils copied this line. then i drew another or several perpendicular or sloping lines, standing in a certain relation to the first, and similarly divided up. then we joined the dots of these different lines by others (straight or curved), and formed some symmetrical figure which, as it was gradually evolved, was copied by the boys. it seemed to me that this was a good plan: first, because the boy clearly saw the whole process of the formation of the figure, and secondly, because his perception of the co-relation of lines was developed by this drawing from the board, much better than by copying drawings or designs.... it is nearly always useless to hang up a large complete picture or figure, because a beginner is quite at a loss before it, as he would be before an object from nature. but the growth of the figure before his eyes has an important meaning. in this case the pupil sees the backbone and skeleton of the drawing on which the body is subsequently formed. the pupils were always called on to criticise the lines and their relation, as i drew them. i often purposely drew them wrong, to find out in how far their judgment of the co-relation and incorrectness of the lines had been developed. then again, when i was drawing my figure i asked the boys where they thought the next line should be added; and i even made one or other of them invent the shape of the figure himself. in this way i not only aroused a more lively interest, but got the boys to participate freely in the formation and development of the figures; and this prevented the question. why? which boys so naturally put when they are set to draw from copies. the ease or difficulty with which it was understood, and the more or less interest evoked, chiefly influenced the choice of the method of instruction; and i often quite abandoned what i had prepared for the lesson, merely because it was dull or foreign to the boys. in the singing class, tolstoy very soon found that notes written on the staff were not easily grasped by the pupils, and after using the staff for some ten lessons, he once showed the boys the use of numbers instead, and from that day forward they always asked him to use numbers, and they themselves always used numbers in writing music. this method is much more convenient, tolstoy considers, for explaining both the intervals and the changes of key. the pupils who were not musical soon dropped out of the class, and the lessons with those who were, sometimes went on for three or four hours at a stretch. he tried to teach them musical time in the usual manner, but succeeded so badly that he had to take that and melody separately. first he took the sounds without reference to time, and then beat the time without considering the sounds, and finally joined the two processes together. after several lessons he found that the method he had drifted into, combined the chief features (though not some of the minor peculiarities) of chevet's method, which, as already mentioned, he had seen in successful operation in paris. after a very few lessons, two of the boys used to write down the melodies of the songs they knew, and were almost able to read music at sight. from the limited experience he had in teaching music, tolstoy--to quote his own words almost textually--became convinced that: (1) to write sounds by means of figures is the most profitable method; (2) to teach time separately from sound is the most profitable method; (3) for the teaching of music to be willingly and fruitfully received, one must from the start teach the _art_ and not aim merely at dexterity in singing or playing. spoilt young ladies may be taught to play burgmüller's exercises; but it is better not to teach the children of the people at all, than to teach them mechanically; (4) nothing so harms musical instruction as what looks like a knowledge of music: namely the performance of choirs, and performances at examinations, speech-days, or in church; and (5) in teaching music to the people, the thing to be aimed at is to impart our knowledge of the general laws of music, but not the false taste we have developed among us. in one of the most remarkable of his articles, tolstoy tells how he discovered that fédka and syómka possessed literary ability of the highest order. composition lessons had not gone well, until one day tolstoy proposed that the children should write a story of peasant life to illustrate a popular proverb. most of them felt this to be beyond their powers, and went on with their other occupations. one of them, however, bade tolstoy write it himself in competition with them, and he set to work to do so, till fédka, climbing on the back of his chair, interrupted him by reading over his shoulder. tolstoy then began reading out what he had composed, and explaining how he thought of continuing the story. several of the boys became interested, not approving of tolstoy's work, but criticising and amending it, offering suggestions and supplying details. syómka and fédka particularly distinguished themselves, and showed extraordinary imagination, and such judgment, sense of proportion, restraint, and power of clothing their thoughts in words, that tolstoy was carried away by the interest of the work and wrote as hard as he could to their dictation, having constantly to ask them to wait and not forget the details they had suggested. fédka--of whom tolstoy says that 'the chief quality in every art, the sense of proportion, was in him extraordinarily developed: he writhed at every superfluous detail suggested by any of the other boys,'--gradually took control of the work, and ruled so despotically and with such evident right, that the others dropped off and went home, except syómka, who along his own more matter-of-fact line continued to co-operate. we worked from seven in the evening till eleven. they felt neither hunger nor weariness and were even angry with me when i stopped writing; and they set to work to do it themselves turn and turn about, but did not get on well and soon gave it up.... i left the lesson because i was too excited. 'what is the matter with you? why are you so pale: are you ill?' asked my colleague. indeed, only two or three times in my life have i experienced such strong emotion as during that evening.... next day tolstoy could hardly believe the experience of the night before. it seemed incredible that a peasant boy, hardly able to read, should suddenly display such marvellous command of artistic creative power. it seemed to me strange and offensive that i, the author of _childhood_, who had achieved a certain success and was recognised by the educated russian public as possessing artistic talent, should in artistic matters not merely be unable to instruct or help eleven-year-old syómka and fédka, but should hardly be able, except at a happy moment of excitement, to keep up with them and understand them. next day we set to work to continue the story. when i asked fédka if he had thought of a continuation, he only waved his hand and remarked: 'i know, i know!... who will do the writing?'... we resumed the work, and again the boys showed the same enthusiasm, and the same sense of artistic truth and proportion. half-way through the lesson i had to leave them. they wrote two pages without me, as just in feeling and as true to life as the preceding ones. these two pages were rather poorer in detail, some of the details were not quite happily placed, and there were also a couple of repetitions. all this had evidently occurred because the actual writing was a difficulty for them. on the third day we had similar success.... there could no longer be any doubt or thought of its being a mere accident. we had obviously succeeded in finding a more natural and inspiring method than any we had previously tried. this unfinished story was accidentally destroyed. tolstoy was greatly annoyed, and fédka and syómka, though they did not understand his vexation, offered to stay the night at his house and reproduce it. after eight o'clock, when school was over, they came, and (to tolstoy's great pleasure) locked themselves into his study, where at first they were heard laughing but then became very quiet. on listening at the door tolstoy heard their subdued voices discussing the story, and heard also the scratching of a pen. at midnight he knocked and was admitted. syómka was standing at the large table, writing busily; his lines running crookedly across the paper and his pen constantly seeking the inkstand. fédka told tolstoy to 'wait a bit,' and insisted on syómka's adding something more, to his dictation. at last tolstoy took the exercise-book; and the lads, after enjoying a merry supper of potatoes and _kvás_, divested themselves of their sheepskin coats and lay down to sleep under the writing table; their 'charming, healthy, childish, peasant laughter' still ringing through the room. the story just mentioned, and other stories written by the children, were published in the magazine; and tolstoy declares them to be, in their way, superior to anything else in russian literature. it was largely on the model of these peasant children's stories that, years later, he wrote his own famous stories for the people. the rules for encouraging composition which he deduces from his experience are these: (1) to offer as large and varied a choice of themes as possible; not inventing them specially for the children, but offering such as most interest the teacher and seem to him most important. (2) to give children stories written by children to read, and to offer only children's compositions as models; because these are juster, finer and more moral than those written by adults. (3) (specially important.) never, when looking through the compositions, make any remarks to the children about the neatness of the exercise-books, the handwriting, or the spelling; nor, above all, about the construction of the sentences, or about logic. (4) since the difficulty of composition lies not in size nor in subject, nor in correctness of language, but in the mechanism of the work, which consists: (_a_) in choosing one out of the large number of thoughts and images that offer themselves; (_b_) in choosing words wherewith to clothe it; (_c_) in remembering it and finding a fitting place for it; (_d_) in remembering what has already been written, so as not to repeat anything or omit anything, and in finding a way of joining up what has preceded to what succeeds; (_e_) and finally in so managing that while thinking and writing at one and the same time, the one operation shall not hamper the other,--i, having these things in view, proceeded as follows. at first i took upon myself some of these sides of the work, transferring them gradually to the pupils. at first, out of the thoughts and images suggested, i chose for them those which seemed to me best, and i kept these in mind and indicated suitable places to insert them, and i looked over what had been written to avoid repetitions, and i did the writing myself, letting them merely clothe the thoughts and images in words. afterwards i let them select, and then let them look over what had been written, and finally they took on themselves the actual writing.... one of the profoundest convictions impressed on tolstoy's mind by his educational experiments was that the peasants and their children have a large share of artistic capacity, and that art is immensely important because of its humanising effect on them, and because it arouses and trains their faculties. unfortunately the works: literary, poetic, dramatic, pictorial and plastic, now produced, are being produced expressly for people possessed of leisure, wealth, and a special, artificial training, and are therefore useless to the people. this deflection of art from the service of the masses of whom there are millions, to the delectation of the classes of whom there are but thousands, appears to him to be a very great evil. he says with reference to two realms of art which he had loved passionately, and with which he was specially familiar: music and poetry, that he noticed that the demands of the masses were more legitimate than the demands of the classes. terrible to say, i came to the conviction that all that we have done in those two departments has been done along a false and exceptional path, which lacks importance, has no future, and is insignificant in comparison with the demands upon, and even with the samples of, those same arts which we find put forward by the people. i became convinced that such lyrical compositions as, for example, poúshkin's 'i remember the marvellous moment,' and such musical productions as beethoven's last symphony, are not so absolutely and universally good as the song of 'willy the steward' or the melody of 'floating down the river, mother vólga'; and that poúshkin and beethoven please us, not because they are absolutely beautiful, but because we are as spoiled as they, and because they flatter our abnormal irritability and weakness. how common it is to hear the empty and stale paradox, that to understand the beautiful, a preparation is necessary! who said so? why? what proves it? it is only a shift, a loophole, to escape from the hopeless position to which the false direction of our art, produced for one class alone, has led us. why are the beauty of the sun and of the human face, and the beauty of the sounds of a folk-song, and of deeds of love and self-sacrifice, accessible to every one, and why do _they_ demand no preparation? for years i vainly strove to make my pupils feel the poetic beauties of poúshkin and of our whole literature, and a similar attempt is being made by innumerable teachers not in russia alone; and if these teachers notice the results of their efforts, and will be frank about the matter, they will admit that the chief result of this attempt to develop poetic feeling, is to kill it; and that it is just those pupils whose natures are most poetic who show most aversion to such commentaries.... i will try to sum up all that i have said above. in reply to the question: do people need the _beaux arts_? pedagogues usually grow timid and confused (only plato decided the matter boldly in the negative). they say: 'art is needed, but with certain limitations; and to make it possible for all to become artists would be bad for the social structure. certain arts and certain degrees of art can only exist in a certain class of society. the arts must have their special servants, entirely devoted to them,' they say: 'it should be possible for those who are greatly gifted to escape from among the people and devote themselves completely to the service of art.' that is the greatest concession pedagogy makes to the right of each individual to become what he likes. but i consider that to be all wrong. i think that a need to enjoy art and to serve art, is inherent in every human being, to whatever race or class he may belong; and that this need has its right and should be satisfied. taking that position as an axiom, i say that if the enjoyment and production of art by every one, presents inconveniences and inconsistencies, the reason lies in the character and direction art has taken: about which we must be on our guard, lest we foist anything false on the rising generation, and lest we prevent it from producing something new, both as to form and as to matter. tolstoy goes so far as to doubt whether, so long as no suitable literature is produced for the people, it is even worth their while to learn to read. looking closer at the results of the rudiments in the form in which they are supplied to the masses, i think most people will decide that the rudiments do more harm than good, taking into account the prolonged compulsion, the disproportionate development of memory, the false conception of the completeness of science, the aversion to further education, the false vanity, and the habit of meaningless reading acquired in these schools.... 'let us print good books for the people!'... how simple and easy that seems--like all great thoughts! there is only one obstacle, namely that there exist no good books for the people, either here or in europe. to print such books, they must first be produced; and none of our philanthropists think of undertaking _that_ work! before closing this rapid summary of tolstoy's educational writings, let me quote a few more sentences which sum up his essential position: in my articles on education i have given my theoretic reasons for considering that only freedom on the part of the pupils to select what they will learn and how they will learn it, can furnish a sound basis for any instruction. in practice i constantly applied those rules to the schools under my guidance ...and the results were always very good both for the teachers and the pupils, as well as for the evolution of new methods; and this i assert boldly, for hundreds of visitors came to the yásno-polyána school and know how it worked. for the masters, the result of such relations with the pupils was that they did not consider any methods they happened to know, to be the best, but they tried to discover new methods and made acquaintance with other teachers whose ways they could learn. they tested fresh methods, and above all, they themselves were always learning. a master never allowed himself, in cases of failure, to think that it was the pupils' fault: their laziness, naughtiness, stupidity, deafness or stuttering; but he was convinced that the fault was his own, and for every defect on the side of the pupil or pupils, he tried to discover a remedy. for the pupils the results were that they learnt eagerly, always begged to have additional lessons on winter evenings, and were quite free in class--which, in my conviction and experience, is the chief condition of successful teaching. between the teachers and the pupils friendly and natural relations always arose, without which it is not possible for a teacher to know his pupils fully.... with reference to the methods of instruction, the results were that no method was adopted or rejected because it pleased or did not please the teacher, but only because the pupil, without compulsion, accepted or did not accept it. but besides the good results which unfailingly followed the adoption of my method both by myself and by all--more than twenty--other teachers (i say 'unfailingly' because we never had a single pupil who did not master the rudiments)--besides these results, the adoption of the principles of which i have spoken produced this effect, that during fifteen years all the different modifications to which my method has been subjected, have not only not removed it from the demands of the people, but have brought it closer and closer to them.... in my school... every teacher, while bringing his pupils forward, himself feels the need of learning; and this was constantly the case with all the teachers i had. moreover, the very methods of instruction themselves--since they are not fixed once for all but aim at finding the easiest and simplest paths--change and improve according to what the teacher learns from the pupils' relation to his teaching. the children had not to pay anything for attending the school, and the relations between them and tolstoy are illustrated by the account a visitor has given of seeing tolstoy rush through a gate followed by a crowd of merry youngsters who were snow-balling him. tolstoy was intent on making his escape, but on seeing the visitor he changed his mind, acknowledged his defeat, and surrendered to his triumphant pursuers. tolstoy does not stand before the world to-day primarily as a school-master, and even were i competent to deal with the subject, it would exceed the limits of this biography to attempt a detailed criticism of his precepts and practice; but he evidently possessed, as he claims in one of his articles, 'a certain pedagogic tact'; and he is clearly right in his belief that the rigid discipline of schools, the lack of freedom and initiative, the continual demand for silence and obedience, and the refusal to allow pupils to criticise the lessons they receive, have a constantly stupefying effect. all that he allowed at yásnaya polyána was denied to us when i was at christ's hospital, in 1868-1874; and i look back on those six years of mental stultification as the most wretched of my life. at the preparatory school in hertford, so stupefied were the little boys by terror and discipline, that when the head-master (traditionally an incarnation of all the virtues) became grossly harsh and unfair, they could not see what was happening until his insanity was so pronounced that the doctors had to take him in hand: an event that occurred soon after i had left for the upper school in london. there, one of the masters (who evidently did not believe that 'history is experience teaching by example') in intervals between whacking the boys on their backs or hands with a long cane, used, i remember, emphatically to announce that 'dates and names are the most important parts of history.' a latin master, a barrister, who was usually busy at some sort of law work when he should have been teaching us, used to set us to learn by rote rules and illustrations which we did not in the least understand. on one occasion the example given in the grammar was: _opes irritamenta malorum effodiuntur._ riches the incentives of crime are dug out of the earth. the top boy had learnt the rule and illustration by heart (which i never could do); but, departing from his usual routine, the master unexpectedly asked which latin word corresponded to which english. each of the first twenty-four boys in the class in turn got caned and sent to the bottom; so that by the time i, who had been last, had come to the top, and it was my turn to reply, only one possible combination remained untried, and i was able to announce that _effodiuntur_ meant 'are dug out of the earth.' unluckily there was another rule that day, and over this i, in turn, came to grief, and was caned and sent to the bottom. in the drawing class i remember doing the outline of a cube to the master's satisfaction, and being promoted to the shading class. i had no idea how to shade, and the attempt i made was certainly a very bad one; but instead of receiving advice or assistance, my ears were boxed so violently that i should be tempted to attribute to that assault the slight deafness from which i have since suffered, were it not that such treatment was so common at christ's hospital, that none of the victims whose hearing may have been impaired, could be sure to which of the masters they owed that part of their preparation for the battle of life. i feel sure the stultifying effects of such cruel and senseless treatment would have been even more serious, had not the school authorities, by some strange oversight, allowed _one_ really readable and interesting periodical to find a place among the sunday magazines and other sterilised literature obtainable in the school library. this one publication, which i read ardently during my school years, was _chambers's journal_. it contained novels by james payn, and other matter suited to my powers of mental digestion. from smuggled copies of captain marryat's novels i also got a good deal of culture: far more, i am sure, than from any of the lessons we endured. chief authorities for chapter viii tolstoy's educational articles, and n. v. ouspensky, _iz proshlago_. chapter ix marriage the behrs visit yásnaya. proposal by thought-reading. the diary. marriage. ministers on magazine. the school closed and the magazine stopped. family happiness. health. fet's visit. sergius born. children. _the cossacks_ and _polikoúshka_. bees. plays. _confession._ saving the hay. _decembrists._ samára. preparations for _war and peace_. collected edition. translations. dislocates arm. tatiána born. fears of famine. sergius (brother) and tánya behrs. nikólsky. visits borodinó. tolstoy at home and with the children. relations with servants. masquerade. moscow. drawing school. sculpture. ilyá born. pleads at court-martial. dr. zahárin. _smoke._ fet's literary evening. _war and peace._ schopenhauer. pénza. death of v. p. bótkin. the countess and the children's education. english nurse. tolstoy's habits. visitors. fet. tolstoy's ardour. property. untidiness. respect for sleep. newspapers. characteristics. studies the drama. to one who admires tolstoy's educational work, it is somewhat disconcerting to see how scornfully he spoke of it sixteen years later in his _confession_. but that is always his way: the old is useless and worthless and bad; only the new, the unachieved, the fresh ideal, is admirable. for it, he decries all that the past has produced--including himself and his former work. he makes his points broadly and powerfully, but to understand, we must discriminate, and allow for an artistic temperament tempting him to exaggerate. let him however speak for himself, that the reader may judge: on returning from abroad i settled in the country, and happened to occupy myself with peasant schools. this work was particularly to my taste, because in it i had not to face the falsity which had become obvious to me and stared me in the face when i tried to teach people by literary means. here, also, i acted in the name of progress, but i already regarded progress itself critically. i said to myself: 'in some of its developments progress has proceeded wrongly; and with primitive peasant children one must deal in a spirit of perfect freedom, letting them choose what path of progress they please.' in reality i was ever revolving round one and the same insoluble problem, which was: how to teach without knowing what? in the higher spheres of literary activity i had realised that one could not teach without knowing what; for i saw that people all taught differently, and by quarrelling among themselves succeeded only in hiding their ignorance from one another. but here, with peasant children, i thought to evade this difficulty by letting them learn what they liked. it amuses me now, when i remember how i shuffled in trying to fulfil my desire to teach, while in the depth of my soul i knew very well that i could not teach anything needful, for i did not know what was needful. after spending a year at school work, i went abroad a second time, to discover how to teach others while myself knowing nothing. and it seemed to me that i had learnt this abroad, and in the year of the peasants' emancipation i returned to russia armed with all this wisdom; and having become an arbiter, i began to teach both the uneducated peasants in schools, and the educated classes through a magazine i published. things appeared to be going well, but i felt i was not quite sound mentally, and that matters could not long continue in that way. and i should perhaps then have come to the state of despair at which i arrived fifteen years later, had there not been one side of life still unexplored by me, and which promised me happiness: that was marriage. for a year i busied myself with arbitration work, the schools, and the magazine; and i became so worn-out--as a result especially of my mental confusion--and so hard was my struggle as arbiter, so obscure the results of my activity in the schools, so repulsive my shuffling in the magazine (which always amounted to one and the same thing: a desire to teach everybody, and to hide the fact that i did not know what to teach) that i fell ill, mentally rather than physically, and threw up everything, and went away to the bashkírs in the steppes, to breathe fresh air, drink _koumýs_, and live an animal life. 1862 tired of and dissatisfied with his work, and thinking he detected in himself signs of the malady that had carried off two of his brothers, he set off in may 1862 (accompanied by his servant alexis and two of his pupils) to undergo a koumýs (soured and fermented mares' milk) cure in the samára steppes east of the vólga. he went first to moscow, and his friend raévsky has told how tolstoy came up to him in the club there, and mentioned with great indignation and vexation that his brother was playing cards and had lost rs. 7000 in a few hours. 'how can men do such things?' said tolstoy. half-an-hour later raévsky saw leo tolstoy himself playing chinese billiards (a game something like bagatelle, played on a board with wire impediments) and learnt that he had lost rs. 1000 to the stranger with whom he was playing! this was, i believe, the last occasion on which tolstoy played any game for stakes he found it difficult to pay. the occurrence led to the premature publication of his novel _the cossacks_, which he had had in hand for several years, but to which he still intended to add a second part. not having rs. 1000 (then about £150) available, he let katkóf, the well-known publicist, editor of the _moscow gazette_ and of the monthly _russian messenger_, have the story for that sum paid in advance. this 'tale of the year 1852,' as the sub-title runs, is based on tolstoy's caucasian experiences. the circumstances which led to its premature publication made the work repugnant to him, and he never completed it. among those to whom he mentioned the occurrence were the behrs, of whom miss sophie was already so interested in him that she wept at the news. at their home he was always a welcome and intimate guest, and as time went on he saw more and more of that family. from moscow he proceeded to tvér by rail, and thence by steamer down the vólga to samára. at kazán he stopped to visit his relation v. i. úshkof: and from samára he wrote to aunt tatiána: _27 may 1862._ to-day i shall start to drive ninety miles from samára to karalýk.... i have had a beautiful journey; the country pleases me very much; my health is better, _i.e._ i cough less. alexis and the boys are alive and well, as you may tell their relations. please write me about sergéy, or let him do so. greet all my dear comrades [probably the masters in the schools] for me, and request them to write me of what goes on, and of how they are getting on.... in another letter, dated 28th june 1862, he wrote: it is now a month since i had any news of you or from home; please write me about everybody: first, our family; secondly, the (university) students [who acted as masters in the schools] etc. alexis and i have grown fatter, he especially, but we still cough a little, and again he especially. we are living in a tartar tent; the weather is beautiful. i have found my friend stolýpin--now atamán in ourálsk--and have driven over to see him; and have brought back from there a secretary; but i dictate and write little. idleness overcomes one when drinking koumýs. in two weeks' time i intend to leave here, and i expect to be home by st. elijah's day [20 july, old style]. i am tormented in this out-of-the-way place by not knowing what is going on, and also by the thought that i am horribly behind-hand with the publication of the magazine. i kiss your hand.... just when tolstoy was leaving karalýk a most unexpected event was occurring at yásnaya, where his sister mary was staying with aunt tatiána. owing to the denunciation of a police spy who, among other lies, pretended to have discovered a secret door in tolstoy's house, the police authorities decided to search his estate; and one morning--to the immense astonishment of the neighbouring peasants--police, watchmen, officials, and gendarmes, under the command of a colonel, appeared upon the scene! in the school-house a photographic apparatus was found: a thing sufficiently rare in a russian village in those days to evoke the suspicious inquiries of the gendarme officer, to whom one of the student-teachers chaffingly volunteered the information that it was kept to photograph herzen (the celebrated exile, then living in london); but nowhere were any secret doors found. the floors of the stables were broken up with crowbars to see if anything was hidden there. the pond was dragged, but nothing more incriminating than crayfish and carp was found. all the cupboards, drawers, boxes and desks in the house were opened and searched, and the ladies were frightened almost to death. a police-officer from toúla would not even allow tolstoy's sister to leave the library till he had finished reading aloud in her presence and in that of two gendarmes, tolstoy's diary and letters, which contained the most intimate secrets of his life and which he had kept private since he was sixteen years old. finding nothing incriminating at yásnaya, the representatives of law and order next betook themselves to the other schools working in conjunction with tolstoy, and there also they turned tables and cupboards upside down, seized exercise-books and primers, arrested the teachers, and spread the wildest suspicions abroad among the peasants, to whom school education was still a novelty held somewhat in suspicion. on receiving news of this event tolstoy at once wrote to his aunt, the countess a. a. tolstoy, asking her to speak to those who knew him well and had influence, and on whose aid he could rely. said he: i cannot and will not let this affair pass. all the activity in which i found solace and happiness, has been spoilt. aunty is so ill from fright that she will probably not recover. the peasants no longer regard me as an honest man--an opinion i had earned in the course of years--but as a criminal, an incendiary, or a coiner, whose cunning alone has enabled him to escape punishment. 'eh, man, you've been found out! don't talk to us any more about honesty and justice--you've hardly escaped handcuffs yourself!' from the landed proprietors i need not say what a cry of rapture went up. please write to me as soon as possible, after consulting peróvsky [count v. a. p.] and alexéy tolstoy [count a. t., the dramatist and poet] and any one else you like, as to how i am to write to the emperor and how best to present my letter. it is too late to prevent the injury the thing has done, or to extricate myself, and there is no way out except by receiving satisfaction as public as the insult has been; and this i have firmly resolved on. i shall not join herzen; he has his way, i have mine. neither will i hide.... but i will loudly announce that i am selling my estate and mean to leave russia, where one cannot know from moment to moment what awaits one.... at the end of an eight-page letter he mentions that the colonel of gendarmes, on leaving, threatened to renew his search till he discovered 'if anything is hidden'; and tolstoy adds, 'i have loaded pistols in my room, and am waiting to see how this matter will end.' he also remarked: 'i often say to myself, how exceedingly fortunate it was that i was not at home at the time! had i been there, i should certainly now be awaiting my trial for murder!' soon after this, alexander ii spent some time at petróvsky park, near moscow. there tolstoy presented a letter claiming reparation, which an aide-de-camp undertook to give to the emperor; and some weeks later the governor of toúla transmitted to tolstoy the emperor's expression of regret for what had occurred. it is easy to imagine the effect such an outrage as this police-search would have on a man of tolstoy's acute self-esteem, and how it would intensify his hatred of government. after his return from samára, he saw more of the behrs than ever. fet, whom he introduced to them, thus records his impressions of the family: i found the doctor to be an amiable old gentleman of polite manners, and his wife a handsome, majestic brunette who evidently ruled the house. i refrain from describing the three young ladies, of whom the youngest had an admirable contralto voice. they all, notwithstanding the watchful supervision of their mother and their irreproachable modesty, possessed that attractive quality which the french designate by the words _du chien_ [lively, full of go]. the service and the dinner were admirable. madame behrs was on very friendly terms with tolstoy's sister, the countess mary; and before he went abroad tolstoy had frequently, at the house of the latter, played with the children of both families. in 1862 he often visited the behrs at pokróvskoe-glébovo, where they lived in a _dátcha_ (country house) they occupied every summer. he nearly always walked the eight miles from moscow, and often took long rambles with the family besides. the girls had been educated at home, but sophia andréyevna, the second daughter, had passed a university examination entitling her to the diploma qualifying to teach both in private and in state schools. we may judge of tolstoy's state of mind at this time by an entry in his diary, dated 23rd august: 'i am afraid of myself. what if this be only a _desire_ for love and not real love? i try to notice only her weak points, but yet i love.' and again, 'i rose in good health, with a particularly clear head, and wrote easily, though the matter was feeble. then i felt more sad than i have done for a long time. i have no friends at all. i am alone. i had friends when i served mammon, but have none when i serve truth.' on 26th august he notes that sónya (miss sophia behrs) gave him a story to read, written by herself, and her description of the hero as a man of 'unusually unattractive appearance, and changeable convictions' hit him hard; but he was relieved to find that it was not meant for him. on his thirty-fourth birthday, 28th august 1862 (old style) he jotted down in his diary the words: 'ugly mug! do not think of marriage; your calling is of another kind.' about this time the behrs paid a two weeks' visit to madame behrs' father's estate of ívitsa, some thirty miles from yásnaya, and _en route_ they stopped a couple of days at yásnaya to visit the countess mary. the day after their arrival a picnic party was arranged with some neighbours. it was haymaking time, and there was much haystack climbing by the picknickers. the general impression was that tolstoy was in love with lisa, the eldest miss behrs: this opinion being fostered by the idea, then common in russia, that an elder daughter should be disposed of before a younger daughter may be courted. a few days later tolstoy followed the behrs to ívitsa; and here the scene occurred which he has utilised in _anna karénina_ when describing lévin's proposal to kitty--a scene in which something approaching thought-reading takes place. sitting at a card-table with miss sophia behrs, tolstoy wrote the initial letters of the sentence: 'in your family a false opinion exists about me and your sister lisa; you and tánitchka should destroy it.' miss sophia read the letters, understood what words they stood for, and nodded her head. tolstoy then wrote the initial letters of another sentence: 'your youth and need of happiness, to-day remind me too strongly of my age and the impossibility of happiness.' the nature of the russian language (with its inflections instead of particles, and the absence of articles) somewhat diminishes the miracle; but the test was a very severe one, and again the girl guessed the words aright. the two understood one another, and their fate was practically sealed. the behrs returned to pokróvskoe-glébovo in september. tolstoy accompanied them on the carriage-journey back to moscow and visited them every day, bringing music for the young ladies, playing the piano for them, and accompanying the youngest--whom he nicknamed 'madame viardot' after the famous singer. on the 17th of that month (the name's day of sophia) tolstoy handed his future wife a letter containing a proposal of marriage, which she gladly accepted. her father, displeased that the second daughter should be preferred to the eldest, at first refused his assent. but tolstoy was strenuously insistent--i have even heard that he threatened to shoot himself--and the doctor soon yielded to the united persuasion of daughter and suitor. the bridegroom's sense of honour led him to hand his future wife the diary, in which, mingled with hopes, prayers, self-castigations and self-denunciations, the sins and excesses of his bachelorhood were recorded. to the girl, who had looked upon him as a personification of the virtues, this revelation came as a great shock; but after a sleepless night passed in weeping bitterly over it, she returned the diary and forgave the past. to get married it was necessary first to confess and receive the eucharist. tolstoy's own experiences in this matter are narrated in chapter i of part v of _anna karénina_, where they are attributed to lévin. the marriage took place within a week of the proposal, namely on 23rd september 1862, in the court church of the krémlin, the bridegroom being thirty-four and the bride eighteen years of age. when the ceremony was over the couple left moscow in a _dormeuse_ (sleeping carriage), and drove to yásnaya polyána, where tolstoy's brother sergéy and aunt tatiána were awaiting them. [illustration: tolstoy in 1862, the year of his marriage.] fet records the letter in which tolstoy informed him of his marriage: fétoushka [an endearing diminutive of fet] uncle, or simply dear friend afanásy afanásyevitch!--i have been married two weeks and am happy, and am a new, quite a new man. i want to visit you, but cannot manage it. when shall i see you? having come to myself, i feel that i value you very, very much. we have so many unforgettable things in common: nikólenka, and much besides. do drive over and make my acquaintance. i kiss márya petróvna's hand. farewell, dear friend. i embrace you with all my heart. in another letter belonging to the same period he writes: i am writing from the country, and while i write, from upstairs where she is talking to my brother, i hear the voice of my wife, whom i love more than the whole world. i have lived to the age of thirty-four without knowing that it was possible to love, and to be so happy. when i am more tranquil i will write you a long letter. i should not say 'more tranquil,' for i am now more tranquil and clear than i have ever been, but i should say, 'when i am accustomed to it.' at present i have a constant feeling of having stolen an undeserved, illicit, and not-for-me-intended happiness. there ... she is coming! i hear her, and it is so good!... and why do such good people as you, and, most wonderful of all, such a being as my wife, love me? it did not much disturb his happiness, when, before tolstoy had been married a fortnight, an event occurred which might easily have led to very disagreeable consequences. on 3rd october the minister of the interior called the attention of the minister of education to the harmful nature of the _yásnaya polyána_ magazine. this is what he wrote: a careful perusal of the educational magazine, _yásnaya polyána_, edited by count tolstoy, leads to the conviction that that magazine ... frequently propagates ideas which apart from their incorrectness are by their very tendency harmful.... i consider it necessary to direct your excellency's attention to the general tendency and spirit of that magazine, which often infringes the fundamental rules of religion and morality.... i have the honour to inform you, sir, of this, in the expectation that you may be inclined to consider it desirable to direct the special attention of the censor to this publication. fortunately the decision of the matter did not lie with the minister of the interior, but with the minister of education, who on receiving this communication had the magazine in question carefully examined, and, on 24th october, replied that he found nothing harmful or contrary to religion in its tendency. it contained extreme opinions on educational matters, no doubt, but these, he said, should be criticised in educational periodicals rather than prohibited by the censor. 'in general,' added the minister: i must say that count tolstoy's educational activity deserves full respect, and the ministry of education is bound to assist and co-operate with him, though it cannot share all his views, some of which after full consideration he will himself probably reject. other things besides the suspicion in which he was held by the minister of the interior, tended to discourage tolstoy. his magazine had few subscribers and attracted but little attention. the year's issue was causing him a loss of something like rs. 3000 (say about £450)--a larger sum than he could well afford to throw away. so he decided to discontinue it after the twelfth number. the month after his marriage he also closed the school, which was too great a tax on his time and attention. it has often been said that the obstacles placed in his way by the government turned him aside from educational work, but in speaking to me about it tolstoy remarked that really the main factor was his marriage, and his preoccupation with family life. both he and his wife were absorbed by their personal happiness, though from time to time small quarrels and misunderstandings arose between them. so impulsive and strenuous a nature as tolstoy's was sure to have its fluctuations of feeling, but on the whole the ties binding the couple together grew stronger and closer as the months passed into years. the countess's parents used to say: 'we could not have wished for greater happiness for our daughter.' the countess not only loved tolstoy dearly as a husband, but had the deepest admiration for him as a writer. he on his side often said that he found in family life the completest happiness, and in sophia andréyevna not only a loving wife and an excellent mother for his children, but an admirable assistant in his literary work, in which, owing to his careless and unmethodical habits, an intelligent and devoted amanuensis was invaluable. the countess acquired remarkable skill in deciphering his often extremely illegible handwriting, and was sometimes able to guess in a quite extraordinary way the meaning of his hasty jottings and incomplete sentences. one drawback to their almost complete happiness lay in the fact that though active and possessed of great physical strength, tolstoy seldom enjoyed any long periods of uninterrupted good health. in his correspondence we find frequent references to indisposition. in early manhood, he seems to have distended his stomach, and, especially after the hardships he endured during the war of 1854-5, he was subject to digestive troubles for the rest of his days. town life did not attract him. he had never felt at ease in what is called high society; nor were his means large enough to enable him to support a wife and family in a good position in town. still, towards the close of the year of his marriage, he and the countess spent some weeks in moscow. 1863 they were however soon back at yásnaya. in february fet visited them there, and found them overflowing with life and happiness. on 15th may, after the tolstoys and fet had by some chance just missed meeting at the house of a neighbouring proprietor, tolstoy wrote to his friend: we just missed seeing you, and how sorry i am that we did! how much i want to talk over with you. not a day passes without our mentioning you several times. my wife is not at all 'playing with dolls.' don't you insult her. she is my serious helpmate, though now bearing a burden from which she hopes to be free early in july. what won't she do afterwards? we are _ufanizing_[48] little by little. i have made an important discovery, which i hasten to impart to you. clerks and overseers are only a hindrance to the management of an estate. try the experiment of dismissing them all; then sleep ten hours a day, and be assured that everything will get along _not worse_. i have made the experiment and am quite satisfied with its success. [48] this word, when first invented by nicholas tolstoy, meant ploughing, but it had by now come to mean farming in general. how, oh how, are we to see one another? if you go to moscow with márya petróvna and do not come to visit us, it will be dreadful offensive. (my wife, who was reading this letter, prompted that sentence.) i wanted to write much, but time lacks. i embrace you with all my heart; my wife bows profoundly to you, and i to your wife. _business_: when you are in orél, buy me 20 poods [720 lbs.] of various kinds of twine, reins, and shaft-traces, if they cost less than rs. 2.30 per pood including carriage, and send them me by a carter. the money shall be paid at once. fet soon availed himself of the invitation, and after driving past the low towers which mark the entrance to the birch alley leading to the house, he came upon tolstoy eagerly directing the dragging of a lake and taking all possible care that the carp should not escape. the countess, in a white dress, came running down the alley, with a huge bundle of barn-door keys hanging at her waist. after cordially greeting the visitor, she, notwithstanding her 'exceedingly interesting condition,' leapt over the low railing between the alley and the pond. it will however be better to quote fet's own account of his visit: 'sónya, tell nestérka to fetch a sack from the barn, and let us go back to the house,' said tolstoy--who had already greeted me warmly, without losing sight of the carp-capturing operations the while. the countess immediately detached a huge key from her belt and gave it to a boy, who started at a run to fulfil the order. 'there,' remarked the count, 'you have an example of our method. we keep the keys ourselves; and all the estate business is carried on by boys.' at the animated dinner table, the carp we had seen captured made their appearance. we all seemed equally at ease and happy.... that evening was one truly 'filled with hope.' it was a sight to see with what pride and bright hope tatiána alexándrovna, the kindest of aunts, regarded the young people she so loved; and how, turning to me, she said frankly, 'you see, with _mon cher léon_ of course things could not be otherwise.' as to the countess, life to one who in her condition leapt over fences, could not but be lit up with the brightest of hopes. the count himself, who had passed his whole life in an ardent search for novelties, evidently at this period entered a world till then unknown, in the mighty future of which he believed with all the enthusiasm of a young artist. i myself, during that evening, was carried away by the general tone of careless happiness, and did not feel the stone of sisyphus oppressing me. soon after this visit, on 28th june 1863, a son, sergius, was born. during the first eleven years of marriage, the countess bore her husband eight children, and another five during the next fifteen years: making in all, thirteen children in twenty-six years. but we must turn back a few months to mention the stories by tolstoy which appeared during this year. in the january number of the _russian messenger_, katkóf had published _the cossacks_, which tolstoy had kept back to revise, and had only delivered in december. in the february number of the same magazine appeared _polikoúshka_, the story of a serf who, having lost some money belonging to his mistress, hangs himself. these stories are referred to in the following letter from tolstoy to fet, undated, but written in 1863: both your letters were equally important, significant, and agreeable to me, dear afanásy afanásyevitch. i am living in a world so remote from literature and its critics, that on receiving such a letter as yours, my first feeling is one of astonishment. whoever was it wrote _the cossacks_ and _polikoúshka_? and what's the use of talking about them? paper endures anything, and editors pay for and print anything. but that is merely a first impression; afterwards one enters into the meaning of what you say, rummages about in one's head, and finds in some corner of it, among old, forgotten rubbish, something indefinite, labelled _art_; and pondering on what you say, agrees that you are right, and even finds it pleasant to rummage about in that old rubbish, amid the smell one once loved. one even feels a desire to write. of course, you are right. but then there are few readers of your sort. _polikoúshka_ is the chatter of a man who 'wields a pen,' on the first theme that comes to hand; but _the cossacks_ has some matter in it, though poor. i am now writing the story of a pied gelding, which i expect to print in autumn. [it did not appear till 1888!] but how can one write now? invisible efforts--and even visible ones--are now going on; and, moreover, i am again up to my ears in farming. so is sónya. we have no steward; we have assistants for field-work and building; but she, single-handed, attends to the office and the cash. i have the bees, the sheep, a new orchard, and the distillery. it all progresses, little by little, though of course badly compared with our ideal. what do you think of the polish business? [the insurrection of 1863, then breaking out]. it looks bad! shall we--you and i and borísof--not have to take our swords down from their rusty nails?... the bees, which tolstoy here places first among his out-door duties, occupied much of his time, and he often spent hours studying the habits of these interesting creatures. tourgénef, writing to fet, commented on _the cossacks_ as follows: i read _the cossacks_ and went into ecstasies over it; so did bótkin. only the personality of olénin spoils the generally splendid impression. to contrast civilisation with fresh, primeval nature, there was no need again to produce that dull, unhealthy fellow always preoccupied with himself. why does tolstoy not get rid of that nightmare? several months later he wrote: after you left, i read tolstoy's _polikoúshka_ and marvelled at the strength of his huge talent. but he has used up too much material, and it is a pity he drowned the son. it makes it too terrible. but there are pages that are truly wonderful! it made a cold shudder run down even my back, though you know my back has become thick and coarse. he is a master, a master! tolstoy was now fairly launched on the life he was destined to lead for sixteen years: a quiet, country life, occupied with family joys and cares. these years followed one another with so little change that the story of a decade and a half can almost be compressed into a sentence. children came in quick succession, two great novels and an _abc_ book were produced, a large orchard was planted with apple-trees, the yásnaya polyána property was improved, and new estates were purchased east of the vólga. during the year 1863 tolstoy wrote two plays, which have never been published. one, a farcical comedy called _the nihilist_, was privately performed at home with great success. the second, also a comedy, written on a topic of the day, was called _the infected family_. hoping to have it staged, tolstoy took it to moscow early in 1864; but the theatrical season, which in russia ends at the commencement of lent, was already too far advanced; and he never subsequently appears to have troubled himself to have it either published or acted. the countess tolstoy's brother, s. a. behrs (who from 1866 when he was a boy of eleven, till 1878, spent every summer with the tolstoys) in his book, _recollections of count tolstoy_, gives much interesting information about the life at yásnaya. he mentions that it was a proverb about the hard fate of penniless noblemen, that prompted tolstoy to take all possible care to provide for the future of his children; and the passage in the letter quoted above, about the bees, sheep, new orchard and distillery with which he was occupied, shows how this care was applied. in his _confession_, tolstoy says of the years now under review: returning from abroad i married. the new conditions of happy family life completely diverted me from all search for the general meaning of life. my whole life was centred at that time in my family, wife and children, and in care to increase our means of livelihood. my striving after self-perfection and progress, was now again replaced by the effort simply to secure the best possible conditions for myself and my family. so another fifteen years passed. in spite of the fact that i regarded authorship as of no importance, i yet, during those fifteen years, continued to write. i had already tasted the temptation of authorship: the temptation of immense monetary rewards and applause for my insignificant work; and i devoted myself to it as a means of improving my material position, and of stifling in my soul all questions as to the meaning of my own life, or of life in general. again, writing in 1903 of this middle period of his life, tolstoy says: then came a third, an eighteen-year period which may be the least interesting of all (from my marriage to my spiritual re-birth) and which from a worldly point of view may be called moral: that is to say, that during those eighteen years i lived a correct, honest, family life, not indulging myself in any vices condemned by public opinion, but with interests wholly limited to selfish cares for my family, for the increase of our property, the acquisition of literary success, and all kinds of pleasure. (in the one place he speaks of 'fifteen years,' and in the other of 'eighteen years'; but that is his way, and chronological exactitude is not the important matter here.) after the emancipation, in many parts of russia the landlords had more or less serious difficulty with the peasants, among whom stories were rife to the effect that the tsar intended to give them all the land, but had been deceived by the officials into only giving half; and, for a time, riots were not infrequent. there was no serious trouble of this sort on tolstoy's estate; but his sister (whom i met at yásnaya in 1902, long after her husband's death and when she, a nun, had been allowed out of her convent to visit her brother, after his very serious illness) told me that on one occasion the peasants refused to make the hay; and to save it from being lost, tolstoy, his wife, the members of the family, and the masters from eleven neighbouring schools, all set to work with a will, and by their own strenuous exertions saved the crop before the weather changed. on settling down to married life, tolstoy formed the plan of writing a great novel, and the epoch he at first intended to deal with was that of the constitutional conspiracy which came to a head on the accession of nicholas i to the throne in december 1825. that quite premature military plot was quickly snuffed out. so little were things ripe for it, that many even of the soldiers who shouted for a 'constitution' (_konstitútsia_) thought they were demanding allegiance to nicholas's elder brother constantine, who having married a polish lady of the roman catholic faith had renounced his right to the throne. while considering the plan of his work, tolstoy found himself carried back to the scenes amid which his characters had grown up: to the time of the napoleonic wars and the invasion of russia by the french in 1812. here was a splendid background for a novel, and putting aside _the decembrists_ he commenced _war and peace_, a work conceived on a gigantic scale, and that resulted in a splendid success. 1864 his attention, as we have already seen, was however not wholly absorbed by literature, but was divided between that and the management of his property. he had during his stay among the kirghiz in the province of samára, noticed how extremely cheap and how fertile was the land in those parts. he therefore wished to purchase an estate there, and visited the district in the autumn of 1864, probably with that end in view. how long he stayed there i do not know, but from a letter he wrote to fet on 7th october, saying, 'we start for home to-day and do not know how we shall make our way to happy yásnaya,' we know when he returned. in november he again wrote to fet, and mentioned the laborious preparations he was at that time making for _war and peace_: i am in the dumps and am writing nothing, but work painfully. you cannot imagine how hard i find the preliminary work of ploughing deep the field in which i must sow. to consider and reconsider all that may happen to all the future characters in the very large work i am preparing, and to weigh millions of possible combinations in order to select from among them a millionth part, is terribly difficult. and that is what i am doing.... late in that month he wrote again to fet: this autumn i have written a good deal of my novel. _ars longa, vita brevis_ comes to my mind every day. if one could but make time to accomplish a hundredth part of what one understands--but only a thousandth part gets done! nevertheless the consciousness that _i can_ is what brings happiness to men of our sort. you know that feeling, and i experience it with particular force this year. the year 1864 saw the publication of the first collected edition of tolstoy's works, and though they have been already mentioned, it may be as well to give a complete list of those twenty 'trials of the pen' which preceded the appearance of _war and peace_, and had already sufficed to place tolstoy in the front rank of russian writers. the following are their titles, with the years in which they were first published. they suffice to fill four very substantial volumes. 1852 _childhood._ 1853 _the raid: a volunteer's story._ 1854 _boyhood._ 1855 _memoirs of a billiard-marker._ 1855 *_sevastopol in december._ " *_sevastopol in may._ " *_the wood-felling._ 1856 *_sevastopol in august._ " _the snow storm._ " *_two hussars._ " *_meeting a moscow acquaintance in the detachment._ " _a squire's morning._ 1857 _youth._ " _lucerne._ 1858 _albert._ 1859 _three deaths._ " _family happiness._ 1862 educational articles in _yásnaya polyána_. 1863 _the cossacks._ " _polikoúshka._ as i am sometimes asked where satisfactory versions of these stories can be found, i may say that i think the best version of _childhood_, _boyhood_ and _youth_[49] is miss isabel hapgood's, and i make no apology for quoting a letter tolstoy wrote me on 23rd december 1901, concerning the volume, _sevastopol_,[50] translated by my wife and myself, and containing the six stories marked * in the above list. i do this with less hesitation, because his letter illustrates the cordial way in which he encourages those who do any work he can approve of, in connection with his own activity: [49] published by walter scott, ltd., london, and by t. y. crowell and co., new york. [50] published by messrs. a. constable and co., london, and funk and wagnalls co., new york. i think i already wrote you how unusually the volume pleases me. all in it is excellent: the edition and the footnotes, and chiefly the translation, and yet more the conscientiousness with which all this has been done. i happened to open it at _two hussars_ and read on to the end just as if it were something new that had been written in english. one day in october tolstoy went out for a ride on his favourite horse, an english thoroughbred named máshka. his borzoi dogs lúbka and krylát accompanied him. after he had ridden some way, a hare suddenly started up and the dogs rushed after it. tolstoy had not come out with the idea of hunting, but on seeing the dogs chasing the hare he could not restrain himself, and galloped after them, uttering the hunting cry, 'atoú!' the weather was bad, the ground slippery, and the horse stumbled at a narrow ravine and fell, dislocating and breaking its rider's arm. the horse ran away, and tolstoy, who was quite alone and several miles from home, fainted. when he came to, he managed to drag himself a distance of more than half a mile to the highroad, where he lay in great pain. some peasant carts passed by, but at first he could not attract any one's attention. when at last he was noticed, in order not to alarm his wife, he asked to be taken to the hut of an old wife, akoulína, famed as a bone-setter. in spite of all that she and her son iván could do--soaping, pulling, twisting and bandaging the arm--they could not set it, and tolstoy continued to suffer the greatest pain. the countess, who had meanwhile heard of the accident, reached the hut late at night. she at once arranged to have her husband taken home, and sent to toúla for a doctor. the latter arrived about 3 a.m., and after administering chloroform, succeeded, with the aid of two labourers who were called in to assist, in setting the arm. on coming to, tolstoy's profound disbelief in the efficiency of doctors, prompted him to send for another surgeon. after a consultation the two physicians decided that everything had been done properly, and that tolstoy must lie up for six weeks to allow the arm to recover. when that time was up, tolstoy asked for his gun and fired it off to test his arm. no sooner had he done so than he again felt great pain. he thereupon wrote to his father-in-law, dr. behrs, and on his advice went to moscow to consult the specialists. these differed among themselves, but after a week's hesitation a fresh operation was decided upon, and was carried out by two competent surgeons. this time it was quite successful, and in due course the patient completely recovered the use of his arm. meanwhile the countess (now nursing her second child, a daughter named tatiána, who had been born on 4th october) remained at yásnaya, where her eldest child, sergius, was taken dangerously ill with smallpox and diarrhoea. this was the first occasion on which tolstoy and his wife had been separated. while in moscow he concluded an arrangement with katkóf by which he received rs. 500 (£75) per printed sheet of sixteen pages for the serial rights in _war and peace_, which appeared in the _russian messenger_. this was just ten times the amount which, when he wrote his first stories, nekrásof had mentioned as the highest rate paid to any one for the magazine rights in a story. 1865 on 23rd january 1865, when tolstoy had got over his accident, he wrote fet another of those jocular letters which sometimes contain more of the real truth than will bear saying seriously: shall i tell you something surprising about myself? when the horse threw me and broke my arm, and when i came to after fainting, i said to myself: 'i am an author.' and i am an author, but a solitary, on-the-quiet kind of author.... in a few days the first part of 'the year 1805' [so the first part of _war and peace_ was originally called] will appear. please write me your opinion of it in detail. i value your opinion and that of a man whom i dislike the more, the more i grow up--tourgénef. he will understand. all i have printed hitherto i consider but a trial of my pen; what i am now printing, though it pleases me better than my former work, still seems weak--as an introduction must be. but what follows will be--tremendous!!!... write what is said about it in the different places you know, and especially how it goes with the general public. no doubt it will pass unnoticed. i expect and wish it to do so; if only they don't abuse me, for abuse upsets one.... i am glad you like my wife; though i love her less than my novel, still, you know, she is my wife. be sure you come to visit us; for if you and márya petróvna do not stay here on your return from moscow it will really, without a joke, be too stupid! in may 1865 one sees by a letter of tolstoy's to fet that one of the children had been ill and he himself had been in bed for three days and barely escaped a fever. his wife's younger sister, tánya, she of the contralto voice who (with some admixture of his wife) served tolstoy as model for natásha in _war and peace_, was spending the summer at yásnaya, as she had done each year since her sister's marriage. the countess mary and her children were also there. the children, he says, were well, and out all day in the open air. he adds: i continue to write little by little, and am content with my work. the woodcock still attract me, and every evening i shoot _at them_, that is, generally, past them. my farming goes on well, that is to say, it does not disturb me much--which is all i demand of it.... in reply to a suggestion from fet, he goes on to say that he will not write more about the yásno-polyána school, but hopes some day to express the conclusions to which his three years' ardent passion for that work had brought him. then comes a reference to the state of agricultural affairs after the emancipation, and a passing allusion to the question of famine--a subject destined to make great demands on tolstoy's attention in later years: our affairs as agriculturists are now like those of a share-holder whose shares have lost value and are unsaleable on 'change. the case is a bad one. personally i only ask that it should not demand of me so much attention and participation as to deprive me of my tranquillity. latterly i have been content with my private affairs; but the general trend--with the impending misery of famine--torments me more and more every day. it is so strange, and even good and terrible. we have rosy radishes on our table, and yellow butter, and well-baked, soft bread on a clean tablecloth; the garden is green, and our young ladies in muslin dresses are glad it is hot and shady; while _there_ that evil hunger-devil is already at work, covering the fields with goose-weed, chafing the hard heels of the peasants and their wives, and cracking the hoofs of the cattle. our weather, the corn, and the meadows, are really terrible. how are they with you? the letter closes with advice to fet to transfer his chief attention from the land to literature, and a statement that tolstoy himself has done so, and is finding life less difficult. when tolstoy went out hunting hares and foxes with borzoi dogs, miss tatiána behrs (the tánya alluded to above) used often to accompany him. between this lady and count sergius tolstoy (leo's elder brother) an attachment had grown up which caused great distress to them both, for, besides being twenty-two years older than the lady, sergius was living with, and had a family by, the gipsy mentioned in a previous chapter, though he was not legally married. his affection for his family prevented his yielding completely to his love for tánya and asking her to be his wife. the behrs were quite willing that he should do so, and the young lady would have accepted him, and was much pained by the vacillation that resulted from the battle between his love for her and his affection for his family. ultimately he resolved to be faithful to the union he had formed, and, in order to legitimise his children, went through the form of marriage with their mother in 1867. almost at the same time, tánya, having recovered from her disappointment, married a mr. kouzmínsky. here again one gets a slight glimpse of the experience of life which has led tolstoy, contrary to the opinion general among the russian 'intelligents,' to advocate faithfulness at all costs to the woman with whom one has once formed a union. a knowledge of tánya's story adds to the interest with which, in tolstoy's great novel, one reads of natásha róstof's troubles and ultimate happiness. towards the end of may, tolstoy visited the estate of nikólsky (which after the death of his brother nicholas had become his), and had the house there repaired. in june the whole family moved to nikólsky, where they lived very quietly; tolstoy continuing to write _war and peace_. his friend d. a. dyákof's estate was only ten miles away, and tolstoy saw much of him at this time, besides having him at other times as a frequent visitor at yásnaya. dyákof was his chief adviser in agricultural matters, as well as in his efforts to improve the stock of his cattle, pigs and poultry. almost the only other visitors at nikólsky were the fets; and the poet records meeting there the countess's 'charming sister,' tánya, and experiencing violent antipathy for the sour koumýs, about which tolstoy was enthusiastic, and a large tub of which stood near the front door. while living at nikólsky tolstoy was invited for a fortnight by a neighbouring landlord, kiréyevsky, to a grand hunt, in which the huntsmen wore special costumes, and luxurious dinners were served in the woods. what interested tolstoy most in all this was not the hunt, but the opportunity it afforded him of studying types of the old and new aristocracy. at this period of his life one hears of his playing the guitar and singing passionate love-songs. during the autumn of 1865 tolstoy, accompanied by his eleven-year-old brother-in-law, visited the battlefield of borodinó. they left moscow in dr. behrs' carriage, with post-horses. when the time came for them to have something to eat, they found that the lunch basket had been left behind, and they had only a small basket of grapes. thereupon tolstoy remarked to his companion, 'i am sorry, not that we have left the basket of food behind, but because your father will be upset and will be angry with his man.' the journey took only one day, and they stayed at the monastery erected in memory of those who fell in the great fight. for two days tolstoy investigated the scene of the conflict which he was about to describe in his novel, and he then drew the plan of the fight which appears in that work. even in 1865 there were but few survivors of the campaign of 1812 to be found in the neighbourhood. tolstoy used at this time to spend whole days in the roumyántsef museum in moscow, studying books and manuscripts relating to the times of alexander i, and especially to the reformatory and masonic movements which then sprang up in russia, but were subsequently suppressed on political grounds. s. a. behrs tells us that tolstoy was always fond of children, and liked to have them about him. he easily won their confidence, and seemed to have found the key to their hearts. he appeared to have no difficulty in suiting himself to a strange child, and with a single question set it completely at ease, so that it began at once to chat away with perfect freedom. independently of this, he could divine a child's thought with the skill of a trained educationalist. i remember his children sometimes running up to him, and telling him they had a great secret; and when they persisted in refusing to divulge it, he would quietly whisper in their ears what it was. 'ah, what a papa ours is! how did he find it out?' they would cry, in astonishment. he also says: gifted by nature with rare tact and delicacy, he is extremely gentle in his bearing and conduct to others. i never heard him scold a servant. yet they all had the greatest respect for him, were fond of him, and seemed even to fear him. nor, with all his zeal for sport, have i ever seen him whip a dog or beat his horse. a servant who lived with him more than twenty years has said: 'living in the count's house from my childhood, i loved leo nikoláyevitch as though he were my father'; and in another place he remarks: the count had a stern appearance, but treated the servants excellently, and made things easy for all strangers whom he met. he has a very good heart, and when he was cross with me for anything, i, knowing his character, used at once to leave the room, and when next he called me, it was as though nothing unpleasant had happened. speaking of tolstoy's later years the same servant says: leo nikoláyevitch has now become quite a different man. from 1865 to 1870 he was active in managing the estate, and was fond of cows, bred sheep, looked after the property, and, in a word, attended to everything. at that time he was hot-tempered and impulsive. he would order the trap to be brought when he wanted to go hunting. his man, alexis, would bring him his hunting-boots, and the count would shout at him, 'why have you not dried them? you are not worth your salt!' alexis, knowing the count's character, would take the boots away, and bring them back almost directly. 'there! now they're all right,' the count would say, and would brighten up instantly. his love of the country and his dislike of towns sprang partly from his keen appreciation of the charm and loveliness of nature. he saw fresh beauty every day, and often exclaimed: 'what wealth god has! he gives each day something to distinguish it from all the rest.' sportsman and agriculturist himself, he maintains that sportsmen and agriculturists alone know nature. to quote behrs again: no bad weather was allowed to interfere with his daily walk. he could put up with loss of appetite, from which he occasionally suffered, but he could never go a day without a sharp walk in the open air. in general, he was fond of active movement, riding, gymnastics, but particularly walking. if his literary work chanced to go badly, or if he wished to throw off the effects of any unpleasantness, a long walk was his sovereign remedy. he could walk the whole day without fatigue; and we have frequently ridden together for ten or twelve hours. in his study he kept a pair of dumb-bells, and sometimes had gymnastic apparatus erected there. all luxury was distasteful to him; and much that ordinary people regard as common comforts, seemed to him harmful indulgences, bad for the souls and bodies of men. nothing could well be more simple than the arrangement of his house at yásnaya, substantial and solidly built as it was, with its double windows, and the dutch stoves so necessary to warm a russian house. he was not at all particular about what he ate, but objected to a soft bed or spring mattress, and at one time he used to sleep on a leather-covered sofa. he dressed very simply, and when at home never wore starched shirts or tailor-made clothes, but adapted to his own requirements the ordinary russian blouse, having it made of woollen stuff for winter, and of linen for summer. his out-door winter dress was also an adaptation of the sheepskin _shoúba_ and peasants' _caftán_, made of the plainest material; and these afforded such good protection from the weather that they were often borrowed by members of the household as well as by visitors. during the writing of _war and peace_ tolstoy generally enjoyed good spirits, and on days when his work had gone well, he would gleefully announce that he had left 'a bit of my life in the inkstand.' one of his chief recreations was to go out hare-hunting with borzoi dogs, and this he often did in company with a neighbouring landed proprietor, bíbikof. from october 1865 he ceased to keep his diary, and did not renew it during the period covered by this volume. 1866 on twelfth night a grand masquerade was held at yásnaya, and the festivities were kept up till past two in the morning, and were followed by a troika drive next day. that same january the family moved to moscow, where they hired a six-roomed apartment for rs. 155 a month (say about £23); and there they remained for six weeks while the second part of _war and peace_ was being printed for the _russian messenger_. among the friends tolstoy saw most of at this time were aksákof and prince obolénsky. he also attended the moscow drawing school, and he tried his hand at sculpture--modelling a bust of his wife. it does not appear, however, that he continued this occupation long. in may 1866 a second son, ilyá, was born, and an english nurse introduced into the family. during this summer an infantry regiment was stationed near yásnaya, in which a young sub-lieutenant named kolokóltsef was serving, whom the countess tolstoy had known in moscow. he visited the tolstoys, and introduced to them his colonel únosha, and his fellow-officer ensign stasulévitch (brother of the liberal editor of the monthly magazine, _the messenger of europe_), who had been degraded to the ranks because, while he was on prison-duty, a prisoner had escaped. ensign stasulévitch was middle-aged, but he had only recently regained his rank as officer and joined the regiment commanded by his former comrade, colonel únosha. one day stasulévitch and kolokóltsef called on tolstoy and told him that a soldier, serving as secretary in one of the companies of the regiment, had struck his company commander, and was to be tried by court-martial. they asked tolstoy to undertake the man's defence, and he, having always regarded capital punishment with abhorrence, readily agreed to do so. the circumstances of the case were these. the soldier, shiboúnin, was a man of very limited intelligence, whose chief occupation was writing out reports. when he had any money he spent it on solitary drinking. the captain in command of his company, a pole, apparently disliked him, and frequently found fault with his reports and made him rewrite them. this treatment shiboúnin bitterly resented; and one day, when he had been drinking, on being told to rewrite a document he had prepared, he insulted and struck the captain. by law the penalty for a private who strikes his officer is death. tolstoy nevertheless hoped to save the man's life, and obtained permission to plead on his behalf. the trial took place on 6th june, and the members of the court-martial were colonel únosha, stasulévitch, and kolokóltsef; the latter being merely a light-headed youngster. tolstoy, when telling me of the incident, remarked that of the four occasions on which he has spoken in public, this was the time that he did so with most assurance and satisfaction to himself. he had written out his speech; the main point of which was that shiboúnin was not responsible for his actions, being abnormal, and having from the combined effect of intemperance and the monotony of his occupation, become idiotic and obsessed by an idea that his company commander did not understand report writing, and unfairly rejected work faultlessly done. the law decrees a mitigation of sentence for crimes committed by those who are not in the full possession of their senses; and as this contradicts the paragraph allotting death as the sole punishment for a soldier who strikes his officer, tolstoy argued that mercy should be extended to the prisoner. the court adjourned to consider its verdict, and (as tolstoy subsequently learnt) stasulévitch was in favour of mercy. the colonel, who was more of a military machine than a human being, demanded the death sentence, and the decision therefore rested with the boyish sub-lieutenant, who (submitting to his colonel) voted for death. tolstoy wished to appeal (through his aunt, the countess a. a. tolstoy) to alexander ii for a pardon; but with characteristic disregard of details, he omitted to mention the name of the regiment in which the affair had occurred, and this enabled the minister of war, milútin, to delay the presentation of the petition until shiboúnin had been shot; which occurred on 9th august. tolstoy's appeal never, therefore, reached the emperor. in contrast with the action of the colonel and the minister, was that of the peasants of the district, who flocked in crowds to see the prisoner; bringing him milk, eggs, home-made linen and all the gifts their poverty could afford. when the day of execution arrived, shiboúnin went quite impassively to his death; to all appearance incapable of understanding what was happening. the people thronged around the post to which he was to be tied--the women weeping and some of them fainting. they fetched a priest to perform masses at his grave, and paid for the service to be repeated all day. at night contributions of copper money, linen, and candles such as are burnt in russian churches, were laid upon his grave. next day the masses were recommenced, and were continued until the local police forbade any more religious services, and levelled the grave that the people might not continue to visit it. the knowledge of such a difference between the spirit of the governors and the governed, helps us once again to understand tolstoy's ultimate conviction that government and the administration of law are essentially evil things, always tending to make the world worse and not better. in later life we may be sure he would not have been content to base his plea for mercy on merely legal grounds. from time to time he continued to be troubled with ill-health; for instance, in july 1866 he writes that he is confined to the house with pains in the stomach which make it impossible for him to turn quickly. in november--contrary to what he had often said in the past and was to return to in later life--he expresses his sense of the importance of authorship. fet, criticising something in _war and peace_, had quoted the words, _irritabilis poetarum gens_, and tolstoy, replying 'not i,' welcomes the criticism, begs for more, and goes on to say: what have you been doing? not on the zémstvo [county council] or in farming (all that is compulsory activity such as we do elementally and with as little will of our own as the ants who make an ant-hill; in that sphere there is nothing good or bad), but what are you doing in thought, with the mainspring of your being, which alone has been, and is, and will endure in the world? is that spring still alive? does it wish to manifest itself? how does it express its wish? or has it forgotten how to express itself? that is the chief thing. by the autumn of this year the railway southwards from moscow to koursk had been constructed as far as toúla, making it easier to get from yásnaya to moscow, and to the rest of europe. yet tolstoy comparatively seldom felt tempted to leave his much-loved, tranquil, busy, country life, in which alone he found himself able to work with the maximum of efficiency. about this time he undertook the planting of a birch wood, which has since grown up and become valuable. 1867 during the summer of 1867 tolstoy, despite the dislike and distrust of doctors--which he shares with rousseau, and which he has again and again expressed in his works--was induced by the state of his health and by his wife's persuasion, to consult the most famous moscow doctor of the time, professor zahárin, on whose advice he drank mineral water during several weeks. writing to fet he says: if i wrote to you, dear friend, every time i think of you, you would receive two letters a day from me. but one cannot get everything said, and sometimes one is lazy and sometimes too busy, as is the case at present. i have recently returned from moscow and have begun a strict cure under the direction of zahárin; and most important of all, i am printing my novel at ris's, and have to prepare and send off mss. and proofs every day under threat of a fine and of delayed publication. that is both pleasant and also hard, as you know. he goes on to criticise tourgénef's novel, _dym_ (_smoke_), which had appeared that year: about _smoke_ i meant to write long ago, and, of course, just what you have now written. that is why we love one another--because we think alike with the 'wisdom of the heart' as you call it. (thank you very much for that letter also: 'the wisdom of the heart' and 'the wisdom of the mind' explain much to me.) about _smoke_, i think that the strength of poetry lies in love; and the direction of that strength depends on character. without strength of love there is no poetry; but strength falsely directed--the result of the poet's having an unpleasant, weak character--creates dislike. in _smoke_ there is hardly any love of anything, and very little poetry. there is only love of light and playful adultery, and therefore the poetry of that novel is repulsive. that, as you see, is just what you write about it. only i fear to express this opinion because i cannot look soberly at the author, whose personality i do not like; but i fancy my impression is the general one. one more writer played out! in november 1867 we find the whole family again established for a while in a lodging in moscow, where they seem to have remained for a large part of the winter. here fet visited tolstoy and announced to him that he had decided to arrange a literary evening for the benefit of the famine-stricken peasants of mtsensk, the district in which fet's estate lay. tolstoy met the suggestion with irony, maintaining that fet had invented the famine; and in reply to a request that he would ensure the success of the evening by reading something, flatly refused to do so, declaring that he never had and never could do such a thing as read in public. still, he lent fet the chapter of _war and peace_ containing the wonderful description of the retreat of the russian army from smolénsk in fearful drought. this as yet existed only in proof, not having been published. (it forms chapter v of part x of volume ii in mrs. constance garnett's version: the best english rendering of that novel.) read by prince kougoúshef, the poet and dramatist, it evoked thunders of applause. 1868 on 12th april 1868 tourgénef, writing to fet, said: i have just finished the fourth volume of _war and peace_. there are things in it that are unbearable, and things that are wonderful; and the wonderful things (they predominate) are so magnificently good that we have never had anything better written by anybody; and it is doubtful whether anything as good has been written. about the same time v. p. bótkin wrote from petersburg: 'tolstoy's novel is having a really remarkable success; every one here is reading it, and they not merely read it but become enthusiastic about it.' 1869 the epilogue was not completed till late in 1869. on 30th august tolstoy writes: 'part vi [_i.e._ part ii of the epilogue] which i expected to have finished a month ago, is not ready'; and then in the next sentence, he goes into ecstasies over schopenhauer: do you know what this summer has been for me? an unceasing ecstasy over schopenhauer, and a series of mental enjoyments such as i never experienced before. i have bought all his works, and have read and am reading them (as well as kant's). and assuredly no student in his course has learnt so much and discovered so much as i have during this summer. i do not know whether i shall ever change my opinion, but at present i am confident that schopenhauer is the greatest genius among men. you said he had written something or other on philosophic subjects. what do you mean by 'something or other'? it is the whole world in an extraordinarily vivid and beautiful reflection. i have begun translating him. won't you take up that work? we would publish it together. after reading him i cannot conceive how his name can remain unknown. the only explanation is the one he so often repeats, that except idiots there is scarcely any one else in the world.... he goes on to say that he was starting next day for the government of pénza to look at an estate he meant to buy 'in those out-of-the-way parts.' the servant who accompanied tolstoy has told how they travelled third class from moscow to nízhni, and how tolstoy chatted with his fellow-travellers, so that many of them took him 'for a common man.' the idea of buying the estate in pénza was ultimately abandoned. he had by then completed the last part of _war and peace_, which was to appear complete in book form in november. two volumes had been published in 1866, three more in 1868, and the sixth was not ready till this year, 1869. (in subsequent editions the book was rearranged, first into five and then into four volumes.) though he had so completely conquered the laziness of which he accused himself in early manhood as to have become a regular, indefatigable and extremely hard worker, yet after the completion of so gigantic a task he felt the need of recuperation and in summer wrote to fet: 'it is now my deadest time: i neither write nor think, but feel happily stupid,' and he adds that he goes out shooting woodcock and has killed eight at an outing. that at this time he already felt something of the strong repugnance he so strenuously expressed in later years for luxury and profuse expenditure, is indicated by his comment on the death of his acquaintance, the author v. p. bótkin, which took place in 1869. the latter, a member of a wealthy family of tea-merchants, having lived with economy till he knew his death was approaching, then hired a splendid lodging in petersburg, fitted it up with all possible comfort and luxury, engaged a _chef_ from the kitchen of the tsarévitch, paid daily attention to the dinner _menu_, and engaged famous musicians to perform quartets at his lodgings. to the magnificent feasts he gave every day (at which, owing to the state of his health, he himself participated chiefly as a spectator) he gathered a select circle of those friends whose conversation interested him. he told his brother that these arrangements for the close of his life gave him the keenest pleasure, and that 'birds of paradise are singing in my soul.' on 4th october a quartet and a banquet had been arranged as usual, and many guests were expected--but v. p. bótkin lay dead in his bed. tolstoy, hearing of this, wrote to fet: i was terribly shocked by the character of v. p. bótkin's death. if what is told of it is true, it is terrible. how is it that among his friends not one was found to give to that supreme moment of life the character suitable to it? before _war and peace_ was finished, the countess had borne four children, the fourth being a boy, born on 20th may 1869, and christened leo--nursing them all herself, as she did her subsequent children, with two exceptions mentioned later on. her willingness to do her duty in this respect was exceptional among women of her class, for the employment of wet-nurses was extremely common in russia. up to the age of ten, the children were taught russian and music by the countess, and she even found time to make their clothes herself till they reached that age. besides managing the household, her brother tells us that during the composition of _war and peace_ she found time to copy it out no less than seven times, a statement not to be taken literally: for greatly as tolstoy believes in the proverb that 'gold is got by sifting,' and indefatigably as he revises his work, not all the chapters of _war and peace_ will have been altered that number of times. with tolstoy the children learnt arithmetic; and they learnt to read french out of illustrated volumes of jules verne. in all that concerned the education of the children, his wife at this time willingly constituted herself the executant of her husband's decisions, which were based largely on j. j. rousseau's _émile_, and were relaxed only in so far as the countess was unable to carry them out, and as tolstoy found himself too much occupied with other affairs to attempt to do so. later on there was less accord between the parents. with the first child they tried to do without a nurse, but the attempt was unsuccessful, and subsequently russian nurses and foreign _bonnes_ were employed. toys were not allowed in the nursery, but much liberty was given to the children. no violent or severe punishments were inflicted on them, and none but their parents might award the punishments that were administered. they aimed at gaining their children's confidence by timely petting and kindly treatment. if one of the children told a falsehood, this was treated as a serious matter, and the punishment usually consisted in the parents treating the child coldly. as soon, however, as it showed that it was really sorry, the punishment ceased; but a child was never persuaded to say it was sorry or to promise not to repeat its fault. all the grown-up people in the house were expected to remember that children are apt to copy and imitate all that they see and hear; and the children were not kept away from the adults, except at lesson time. consequently when eight o'clock came and the children went to bed, tolstoy would often remark: 'now, we are freer!' partly that they might learn english, partly because tolstoy believed that education was freer in england than elsewhere, young english governesses were engaged to take charge of his children from the age of three to nine. he was extremely fortunate in his first choice, for the young lady remained with the tolstoys for six years, and after her marriage continued in most friendly relations with the whole family. he aimed at acquainting the children with nature, and developing their love of it, of animals, and of insects. he liked to let them realise their impotence and their complete dependence on their elders, but he always did this with kindly consideration. the children were not allowed to order the servants about, but had to _ask_ them for anything they wanted; and that a good example might be set, every one in the house was expected to do the same. this was the more important, because the peasant servants in russia, even after the emancipation, were scarcely regarded as belonging to the same race of human beings as their masters, and a famous russian author could say without any exaggeration, 'the balcony was rotten. only servants went there; the family did not go there.' but, to avoid giving a wrong impression, i must here make a reservation. just because there was no idea of the two classes overlapping, and because so wide a gap existed between them that they dressed quite differently (the peasants having their own costume and style of garments) very cordial and sincere good feeling often grew up between master and man, or between proprietress and servant, and real human interest, such as is shown in tolstoy's descriptions of the servants in _childhood_, and in his other stories. it was, and is, not at all unusual for russian servants to intervene in the conversation of the family or visitors; and the whole relation between employers and employed was quite different to what it is in england, where on sundays the maid might be mistaken for her mistress, except that she often looks more attractive than the latter. the plan adopted in the yásno-polyána school, where no child was obliged to learn anything it did not care to learn, had to be abandoned in the family; but some scope was allowed to the children to reject what they had no capacity for, and they were never punished for neglecting to prepare lessons, though they were rewarded when they learnt well. to illustrate tolstoy's way of developing the minds of those about him, behrs tells of his own case when, as a youth, he stayed at yásnaya: regardless of my youth at the time, i remember that tolstoy discussed quite seriously with me all the scientific and philosophic questions it came into my head to put to him. he always answered simply and clearly, and never hesitated to admit the fact if he himself did not understand this or that matter. often my talk with him took the form of a dispute, on which i embarked in spite of my consciousness of his immense superiority. the children were always eager to go for walks with their father, to answer his call to practise swedish gymnastics, and to be on his side in any game he taught them. in winter they skated a good deal; but clearing the snow off the pond under his leadership was an even greater pleasure than the skating itself. before breakfast he would go for a walk with his brother-in-law, or they would ride down to bathe in the river that flows by one side of the estate. at morning coffee the whole family assembled, and it was generally a very merry meal, tolstoy being up to all sorts of jokes, till he rose with the words, 'one must get to work,' and went off to his study, taking with him a tumbler full of tea. while at work in his room not even his wife was allowed to disturb him; though at one time his second child and eldest daughter, tatiána, while still quite a little girl, was privileged to break this rule. the rare days (generally in summer) when he relaxed, were very welcome to the children, for their father's presence always brought life and animation with it. generally after dinner, before resuming work, he would read a book not directly connected with the task he had in hand. it was often an english novel; and we hear of his reading anthony trollope with approval, mrs. henry wood, who, he says, made a great impression on him, and miss braddon. his dislike of george sand remained unshaken, and he considered _consuelo_ to be a mixture of the pretentious and the spurious. goethe (especially _faust_) he admired; while molière's plays and hugo's _les misérables_ appealed to him very strongly indeed. in the evening he was fond of playing duets with his sister. he used to find it hard to keep up with her in playing long pieces with which he was not quite familiar, and when in difficulties he would say something to make her laugh, and cause her to play slower. if he did not succeed by means of this ruse, he would sometimes stop and solemnly take off one of his boots, as though that must infallibly help him out of the difficulty; and he would then recommence, with the remark, 'now, it will go all right!' during the early years of his married life few visitors came to yásnaya, except the numerous members of the tolstoy-behrs families, who stayed there chiefly in summer. the poet a. a. fet, d. a. dyákof, whom he had known from boyhood and had described in _youth_, n. n. stráhof, the philosopher and critic, for whose judgment he had great respect and whom he frequently consulted throughout his literary career, and prince l. d. ouroúsof, a cousin of the prince ouroúsof he had known during the siege of sevastopol, seem to have been almost the only friends who visited him in the years first following his marriage; and this suited tolstoy very well, for to entertain many visitors would have seriously interrupted the absorbing work in which he was continually engaged. fet has so often been mentioned in this volume that it is time to devote a few lines to describing a man who has come in for much abuse on account of the anti-emancipationist sympathies expressed in some of his writings. like tolstoy, he had grown up with no idea that it is incumbent on men of education and capacity to organise the society of which they are members, or by political action to remedy such abuses as inevitably arise among human beings who do not keep the task of systematic social organisation constantly in view. of the impression fet's political opinions made on the liberals, one may judge by a remark tourgénef addressed to him in a letter written in 1874: 'twenty years ago, at the height of nicholas i's _régime_, you dumbfounded me by announcing your opinion that the mind of man could devise nothing superior to the position of the russian aristocracy of that day, nor anything nobler or more admirable.' the liberals saw in fet a political reactionary--and so he was; but any one who reads his _recollections_ may also see how large a measure of personal worth can be combined with political indifferentism--a quality many russians of his generation were brought up to regard as a virtue. in private life he was a really worthy man, and tolstoy once very truly remarked to him: there are some people whose talk is far above their actual morality; but there are also some whose talk is below that level. you are one who is so afraid of his sermon being above his practice, that you intentionally talk far below your actual practice. while still a young cavalry officer fet began to write poetry, for which he had real talent; and after leaving the army he continued his literary career as an art-for-art's-sake-ist, producing verse translations of virgil, horace, ovid, juvenal, catullus, tibullus, propertius, and persius, besides original works of his own in prose and verse, and (after tolstoy's suggestion, already recorded) translations from the german of schopenhauer's _the world as will and idea_, and goethe's _faust_. in his dislike, or perhaps one should say ignorance, of politics, commerce, and that great industrial revolution of the western world that has been the most conspicuous achievement of the last one hundred and fifty years, as well as in his love of pure art, chiefly literary, he had much in common with tolstoy. they could talk with profound sympathy of all that related to art, and they were alike in their love of country life and in their relation to agriculture, as well as in the fact that the great problems of life centred for them round their own personality rather than around the community to which they belonged. patriotic by instinct, it was no part of their philosophy to be so; at least they never dreamed of that newer patriotism which seeks to manage the production and distribution of the national wealth so that every member of the community may have an opportunity to live in decent conditions. they had therefore at this period much in common; and one sees by tolstoy's letters how greatly they enjoyed each other's society, though a time was coming when their friendship would wane. tolstoy had a strong dislike of leaving home even for a few days. when it was absolutely necessary for him to go to moscow he would grumble at his hard fate, and behrs, when he accompanied him, noticed how town life depressed tolstoy, making him fidgety and even irritable. when returning from a journey, or a hunting expedition, he would express his anxiety by exclaiming, 'if only all's well at home!' after he had been away from yásnaya, tolstoy never failed to give the home party full and amusing accounts of what he had seen and heard. a distinguishing feature of tolstoy, already remarked upon, but so strongly marked that it can hardly be insisted on too much, was the ardent and whole-hearted way in which he threw himself into whatever occupation he took up. on this point prince d. d. obolénsky says: 'i have seen count l. n. tolstoy in all phases of his creative activity.... whatever his occupation, he did it with conviction, firmly believing in the value of what he was doing, and always fully absorbed by it. i remember him as a man of the world, and have met him at balls, and i remember a remark he once made, "see what poetry there is in women's ball-dresses, what elegance, how much thought, how much charm even in the flowers pinned to the dresses!" i remember him as an ardent sportsman, as a beekeeper, as a gardener; i remember his enthusiasm for farming, for tree planting, fruit culture, horse breeding, and much else.' a housekeeper who was with him for nine years, said of him: the count himself looked after everything, and demanded extreme cleanliness in the cowhouse and in the pig-styes and in the sheep-cot. in particular he delighted in his pigs, of which he had as many as 300, paired off in separate styes.... there the count would not allow the least dirt. every day i and my assistants had to wash them all, and wipe the floor and walls of the styes; then the count, on passing through the piggery of a morning, would be very pleased, and would remark aloud: 'what management!... what good management!' but god have mercy on us if he noticed the least dirt! that at once made him shout out angrily.... the count was very hasty, and a doctor who used to come to yásnaya said to him more than once in my presence: 'you must not get so angry, count, it is very bad for your health....' 'i can't help it,' he would reply. 'i want to restrain myself, but can't do it. that, it seems, is the way i am made!'... his farming gave the count a good revenue in those days. besides the pigs and their litters, he had 80 cows, 500 good sheep, and very many fowls. we used to make excellent butter, which we sold in moscow at 60 copecks [about 19 pence] a lb. his management of property was characteristically personal. he never took shares in any joint-stock company, but he bought land, bred cattle and horses of good quality, planted a large apple-orchard, as well as a quantity of other trees, and in general he acquired property he could manage himself, or (for he entrusted the management of his samára estates to stewards) over which he had full control. he has always been more alive to the dangers and evils of commercial companies and large engineering and industrial undertakings, than to the good they have achieved by irrigating arid lands, uniting distant realms, and lightening man's toil by making iron bear some of his burdens for him. tolstoy furnishes an example of the well-known fact that men of artistic temperament are often untidy. though he acknowledges the advantages of neatness in general, he often remarked that it is a quality most frequently found in shallow natures. he himself simply could not, and therefore did not try to, keep his things in order. when he undressed he let his clothes or boots drop where he stood; and if he happened to be moving from place to place, his garments remained strewn about the room, and sometimes on the floor. behrs remarks. i noticed that to pack his things for a journey cost him great effort, and when i accompanied him i used very willingly to do it for him, and thereby pleased him very much. i remember that once, for some reason, i did not at all wish to pack for him. he noticed this, and with characteristic delicacy did not ask me to, but put his things into his portmanteau himself; and i can assert positively that no one else, were they to try, could have got them into such fearful disorder as they were in, in that portmanteau. it was a peculiarity of tolstoy's that he not only liked to have his own sleep out without being disturbed, but that he never could or would wake any one from sleep, and in cases of absolute necessity would ask some one else to relieve him of that disagreeable task. behrs recounts that when they sat up late, the man-servant sometimes fell asleep in his chair and omitted to serve up the cold supper. tolstoy would never allow him to be disturbed on these occasions, but would himself go to the pantry to fetch the supper, and would do this stealthily, and with the greatest caution, so that it became a kind of amusing game. he would get quite cross with behrs if the latter accidentally let the plates clatter or made any other noise. many years later, alluding in my presence to this peculiarity of his, tolstoy remarked, 'while a man is asleep he is at any rate not sinning.' 1870 on 4th february 1870 tolstoy wrote to fet: i received your letter, dear afanásy afanásyevitch, on 1st february, but even had i received it somewhat sooner i could not have come. you write, 'i am _alone, alone_!' and when i read it i thought, what a lucky fellow--_alone_! i have a wife, three children, and a fourth at the breast, two old aunts, a nurse, and two housemaids. and they are all ill together: fever, high temperature, weakness, headaches, and coughs. in that state your letter found me. they are now beginning to get better, but out of ten people, i and my old aunt alone turn up at the dinner table. and since yesterday i myself am ill with my chest and side. there is much, very much, i want to tell you about. i have been reading a lot of shakespear, goethe, poúshkin, gógol, and molière, and about all of them there is much i want to say to you. i do not take in a single magazine or newspaper this year, and i consider it very useful not to. s. a. behrs tells us that tolstoy 'never read newspapers, and considered them useless, and when they contain false news, even harmful. in his humorous way he would sometimes parody a newspaper style when speaking of domestic affairs.' his attitude towards journalists and critics (except his friend stráhof) was rather scornful, and he was indignant when any one classed them even with third-rate authors. he considered that it is a misuse of the printing-press to publish so much that is unnecessary, uninteresting, and worst of all, inartistic. he seldom read criticisms of his own work. 'his feeling towards periodicals in general had its source in his intense dislike of the exploitation of works of art. he would smile contemptuously at hearing it suggested that a real artist produces his works for the sake of money.' having said this much about his characteristics and peculiarities, let us note the extent to which his life and mode of thought at this time approximated to his later teaching. his humane relations towards the peasants, his condemnation of many of the manifestations of modern civilisation, his simplicity in household matters and dress, his exemplary family life, humane educational ideals, deep love of sincerity and of industry (including physical labour), his ardent search for truth and for self-improvement, his gradually increasing accessibility to and regard for others, his undoubted love of family and his hatred of violence--indicate that the ideals of his later life were not very far from him, even before the commencement of the conversion told of in his _confession_. on 17th february tolstoy writes to fet: i hoped to visit you the night of the 14th, but could not do so. as i wrote you, we were all ill,--i last. i went out yesterday for the first time. what stopped me was pain in the eyes, which is increased by wind and sleeplessness. i now, to my great regret, have to postpone my visit to you till lent. i must go to moscow to take my aunt to my sister's, and to see an oculist about my eyes. it is a pity that one can only get to your place after passing a sleepless, cigarette-smoky, stuffy, railway-carriage, conversational night. you want to read me a story of cavalry life.... and i don't want to read you anything, because i am not writing anything; but i very much want to talk about shakespear and goethe and the drama in general. this whole winter i am occupied only with the drama; and it happens to me, as it usually happens to people who till they are forty have not thought of a certain subject or formed any conception of it, and then suddenly with forty-year-old clearness turn their attention to this new untasted subject--it seems to them that they discern in it much that is new. all winter i have enjoyed myself lying down, drowsing, playing bézique, going on snowshoes, skating, and most of all lying in bed (ill) while characters from a drama or comedy have performed for me. and they perform very well. it is about that i want to talk to you. in that, as in everything, you are a classic, and understand the essence of the matter very deeply. i should like also to read sophocles and euripides. there we see tolstoy, as always, ardently devoting his attention to some great subject--which happens, this time, to be dramatic art. so keen is he, that his mind is full of it whatever else he may be doing; and so vivid is his imagination that the characters of the plays perform for him whether he is standing up or lying down. how real a grip he obtained of the subject with very little theatre-going, was shown seventeen years later, when he wrote one of the most powerful dramas ever produced, and followed it up by an excellent comedy: both pieces being so good that they are constantly revived in russian theatres, besides having achieved success in other countries. at the point we have reached there was no break in the manner of tolstoy's life. he continued to live quietly at yásnaya, and to concern himself chiefly with literature, and also with the management of his estates and the welfare of his family. children continued to be born in rapid succession, and with the increasing family his means also increased. but we have come to the middle of that tranquil period of sixteen years which succeeded his marriage, and here, while--as one would say of another man--he was indefatigably studying the drama; or while--as one is inclined to say of him--he was resting and recuperating before undertaking his next great work, it is convenient to close this chapter. chief authorities for chapter ix birukof. fet. behrs. bitovt. _yasnaya polyana_, p. a. sergeyenko: _niva_, no. 34, 1908. _l. n. tolstoy_; _monografiya andreevitcha_: petersburg, 1905. for much information in this chapter as well as elsewhere i am indebted to tolstoy himself, to the countess s. a. tolstoy, to his sister, and particularly to his daughter, mary lvovna, princess obolensky. information concerning the execution of the soldier is given in _pravo_ for 1903. prince d. d. obolensky's _vospominaniya_ appeared in _roussky arhiv_, 1896. see also, _graf l. n. tolstoy_, _vospominaniya s. p. arbouzova_: moscow, 1908. arbouzof was in tolstoy's service twenty-two years. he gives his master an excellent character; and though very inaccurate, his naive chatter is readable, and throws light on tolstoy's character. chapter x nearing the crisis fet's poem. franco-prussian war. studies greek. effect on health. railways. koumýs cure in samára. mouhamet-dzhan. an expedition. 'milk-loving scythians.' buys estate. molokáns. tourgénef's interest. _abc_ book. house enlarged. on future life. re-starts school. preparation of _abc_ book. astronomy. _a prisoner in the caucasus._ _god sees the truth._ ceremonial rites. stráhof and the _abc_ book. samára. bull kills keeper. teachers' congress at yásnaya. a letter in verse. peter the great. a suicide. _anna karénina._ mouhamed shah. samára famine. kramskóy's portrait. death of son, peter. addresses moscow society of literacy. a practical demonstration. test schools. _the fatherland journal: on the education of the people._ mihaylóvsky. 'a university in bark shoes.' toúla zémstvo education committee. tourgénef translates tolstoy. birth of a son. death of aunt tatiána. _abc_ book approved. wife's health. _anna karénina._ death of a son. tourgénef on tolstoy's writings. samára. primitive agriculture. fête and horse races. bashkír life. education of his children. exercises and playfulness. croquet. 'numidian cavalry.' birth and death of a daughter. aunt p. i. úshkof dies. letters to fet. nirvana and sansara. _anna karénina._ 'summer condition.' horse-breeding. loss of gouneba. music. p. i. tschaikóvsky. at the conservatoire. folk-songs. beethoven. tolstoy on art. approach of war. rupture with katkóf. the evangelicals. an epitaph. professor boutleróf. the deity. óptin monastery. a folk-story teller. turkish prisoners. son, andrew, born. ill-health. _the decembrists._ 'martha is troubled.' reconciliation with tourgénef. samára. tourgénef at yásnaya. their relations still not cordial. pilgrims. n. tchaykóvsky. mihaylóvsky's forecast. v. i. alexéyef. 1870 as he grew older tolstoy's love of outdoor exercise tended more towards activity serving a useful productive purpose, and one finds a hint of this in the following letter to fet, dated 11th may 1870: i received your letter, dear friend, when returning perspiring home from work, with axe and spade, and when therefore i was a thousand miles from things artistic in general, and from our business in particular. on opening the letter i first read the poem and felt a sensation in my nose. on coming home to my wife i tried to read it to her, but could not do so for tears of emotion. the poem is one of those rare ones in which not a word could be added or subtracted or altered: it is a live thing, and admirable.... i have just served for a week as juryman, and found it very interesting and instructive. the next letter refers to the fact that tolstoy did his best literary work in winter, when he often spent almost the whole day, and sometimes part of the night, at it; that was the time when his 'sap flowed': _2 oct. 1870._ it is long since we met, and in my winter condition, which i am now entering, i am specially glad to see you. i have been shooting; but the sap is beginning to flow, and i am collecting it as it drips. whether it be good or bad sap, it is pleasant to let it flow in these long wonderful autumn evenings.... a grief has befallen me; the mare is ill. the veterinary says her wind has been broken, but i cannot have broken it. the franco-prussian war, which commenced at this time, interested tolstoy keenly. he had come into contact with the french, in the crimea, before the napoleonic autocracy had long held sway; and he had visited france in 1857 and 1860, before the effect of that putrescent influence had become fully apparent. neither the idea of german national unity, nor bismarck's and moltke's ideal of efficient organisation and discipline, were things that much appealed to tolstoy. so it happened that not only were all his sympathies on the side of the french, but he also felt assured of their triumph. his friend prince ouroúsof used to write letters to katkóf's _moscow gazette_ demonstrating by analogies with games of chess, that the french were continually drawing the german armies into more and more desperate positions in which they must soon be quite destroyed. when, on the contrary, the french were utterly defeated, it came to him as a complete surprise; which all tends to illustrate the fact that men of great intellectual power, living isolated on their country estates, may at times go very considerably wrong in their estimate of the trend of some of the forces that influence the world. on 12 february 1871 a daughter was born, who was christened mary. in later life she, of all his children, was the one most deeply influenced by her father's teaching. the countess, who, as already mentioned, made a point of nursing her own children, owing to the neglect of an attendant, became unable to do so in this instance before the child was many weeks old, and a wet-nurse was engaged; but as soon as the mother saw her child at a stranger's breast she burst into a flood of jealous tears, dismissed the nurse on the spot, and ordered the child to be fed with a bottle. tolstoy, when he heard what had happened, declared that his wife had only shown the jealous affection natural to a true mother. 1870-71 during that winter tolstoy devoted himself strenuously to the study of greek. on hearing of this, fet felt so sure that tolstoy would not succeed, that he announced his readiness to devote his own skin for parchment for tolstoy's diploma of proficiency when the latter should have qualified himself to receive it. accordingly, in december, tolstoy wrote him as follows: i received your letter a week ago, but have not answered because from morning to night i am learning greek. i am writing nothing, only learning; and to judge by information reaching me through borísof, your skin (to be used as parchment for my diploma in greek) is in some danger. improbable and astounding as it may seem, i have read xenophon, and can now read him at sight. for homer, a dictionary and some effort is still necessary. i eagerly await a chance of showing this new trick to some one. but how glad i am that god sent this folly upon me! in the first place i enjoy it; and secondly, i have become convinced that of all that human language has produced truly beautiful and simply beautiful, i knew nothing (like all the others who know but do not understand); and thirdly, because i have ceased to write, and never more will write, wordy rubbish. i am guilty of having done so; but by god i won't do it any more! explain to me, for heaven's sake, why no one knows esop's fables, or even delightful xenophon, not to mention plato and homer, whom i still have before me? in so far as i can as yet judge, our translations, made on german models, only spoil homer. to use a banal but involuntary comparison: they are like boiled and distilled water, while he is like water fresh from the spring, striking the teeth with its sun-lit sparkle: even its specks only making it seem still clearer and fresher.... you may triumph: without a knowledge of greek, there is no education. but what kind of knowledge? how is it to be got? what is the use of it? to this i have replies clear as daylight. 1871 s. a. behrs tells us, 'i know for a fact that he learnt the language and read herodotus in three months.' while in moscow that winter, he visited leóntief, then professor of greek at the katkóf lyceum, to talk about greek literature. leóntief did not wish to believe in the possibility of his having learnt greek so rapidly, and proposed that they should read something at sight. it happened that they differed as to the meaning of three passages; but after a little discussion the professor admitted that the count's interpretations were right. tolstoy felt the charm of the literary art of the ancient world, and so keen was his power of entering into the minds of those of whom he read, and so different to his own was the greek outlook upon life, that the contradiction produced in him a feeling of melancholy and apathy profound enough to affect his health. what clash of ideals it was that produced this result we may guess when we consider how from his earliest years he had been attracted by the christian ideal of meekness, humility, and self-sacrifice, and how little this accords with the outlook on life of the ancient greeks. in a book written nearly forty years later, tolstoy tells us that 'if, as was the case among the greeks, religion places the meaning of life in earthly happiness, in beauty and in strength, then art successfully transmitting the joy and energy of life, would be considered good art' [good, that is, in its subject-matter of feeling conveyed] but art transmitting the opposite feelings would be bad art.[51] again in the same work he says that the esthetic theory he is combating, seeks to make it appear 'that the very best that can be done by the art of nations after 1900 years of christian teaching, is to choose as the ideal of life the ideal held by a small, semi-savage, slave-holding people who lived 2000 years ago, imitated the nude human body extremely well, and erected buildings pleasant to look at.'[52] [51] _what is art?_ p. 54: constable, london, and funk and wagnalls co., new york. [52] _ibid._, p. 65. to wean him from his absorption in greek literature, his wife at first urged him to take up some fresh literary work; and finally, becoming seriously alarmed for his health, induced him to go eastward for a koumýs cure. he wrote to fet at this time: _10 june 1871._ dear friend,--i have long not written to you, nor been to see you, because i was, and still am, ill. i don't myself know what is the matter with me, but it seems like something bad or good, according to the name we give to our exit. loss of strength, and a feeling that one needs nothing and wants nothing but quiet, which one has not got. my wife is sending me to samára or sarátof for two months for a koumýs cure. i leave for moscow to-day, and shall there learn where i am to go to. in moscow it was decided that he should go to the part of samára he had visited before. railways have always been an affliction to tolstoy. civilisation has forced them on him without his wish, and, as he argued in his educational articles, to the detriment of the peasant population. personally, he complained of disagreeable sensations he experienced when travelling by rail, and compared these discomforts with the pleasure of riding on horseback. he objected both to the officious politeness of the conductors and to the way in which the passengers suspiciously shun one another. (this latter complaint is not one a westerner would bring against russians, for they appear to us the most friendly and sociable of fellow-travellers.) he used to insist on his wife always travelling first class. he himself went either first or third, but seldom second. to travel third is a more serious matter in russia than in england; and he used purposely to choose a car in which there were peasants, and talked to all whom he met. on this outward journey he went third class, by rail to nízhni nóvgorod and by steamer down the vólga to the town of samára. on the boat he took the opportunity to study the manners and customs of his fellow-passengers, natives of the vólga district, and displayed his remarkable gift of making friends with people of all kinds. before he had been two days on the boat he was on the friendliest terms with everybody, including the sailors, among whom he slept each night in the fore part of the vessel. even when he met reserved or surly characters, it was not long before he drew them out of their shells, and set them chatting at their ease. one secret of this success was the unaffected interest he took in learning about other people's lives and affairs. from samára tolstoy went eastward for eighty miles on horseback, following the banks of the river karalýk till he reached the village of that name. he had lived there in 1862, and was welcomed as an old acquaintance and friend by the bashkírs, who always spoke of him as 'the count.' the reader will remember that at the university tolstoy had studied oriental languages. his knowledge of tartar no doubt increased his popularity with the bashkírs. he had with him a man-servant, and his brother-in-law, stepán andréyevitch behrs, then a lad of about sixteen, who subsequently in his _recollections_ gave many particulars about this outing. they lived, not in the 'winter village' of karalýk, but about one-and-a-half miles away, in a _kotchévka_ on the open steppe. a _kotchévka_ is a conical tent, made of a collapsible wooden frame covered with large sheets of felt. it has a small painted door, and is usually carpeted with soft feather grass. the one in which tolstoy's party lived, was a very large one which he hired from the mullah (priest). it had formerly been used as a mosque, but had the practical disadvantage of not being rain-proof. there were four _kotchévki_ in the neighbourhood, one of which was occupied by the mullah. on first arriving at karalýk, tolstoy for some days felt very depressed and unwell. he complained that he lacked capacity to feel either mental or physical pleasure, and looked at everything 'as though he were a corpse': a characteristic usually most foreign to him, and which in other people always evoked his dislike. it was, however, not long before he recovered his spirits and energy. there were other visitors at karalýk, who had also come to benefit by a koumýs cure. they neither associated with the bashkír nomads, nor adopted their customs; but tolstoy was extremely fond of the bashkírs, associated much with them, and strictly followed their diet: avoiding all vegetable foods and restricting himself to meat and animal products. dinner every day consisted chiefly of mutton eaten with the fingers out of wooden bowls. some of the russian visitors lived in one of the _kotchévki_, but most of them lodged in the 'winter village.' tolstoy soon made friends with them all, and thanks to his genial influence the whole place grew gay and lively. a professor of greek from a seminary for the education of priests might be seen trying a skipping-rope match with him; a procureur's assistant discussed legal and other questions, and there was a young samára farmer who became his devoted follower. among those who specially interested tolstoy was mouhamet-dzhan, the bashkír elder, whom the russian peasants called michael ivánovitch. this man was very nimble and active, full of humour, fond of a joke, and a very strong player at draughts. accompanied by behrs and two of their new acquaintances, and taking a supply of guns and presents, tolstoy went for a four days' drive through the neighbouring villages. the party had splendid duck-shooting by the lakes they passed; and they were entertained and treated to koumýs by the bashkírs at the _kotchévkas_ in which they rested. as opportunity presented itself, they made suitable acknowledgment for their entertainment by giving presents to their hosts. one serious drawback to the hospitality they enjoyed was the fact that their hosts insisted on feeding them with mutton and fat with their own hands, without the intermediacy of fork or spoon, and it was out of the question to insult them by refusing such well-meant though quite undesired attentions. on one occasion tolstoy happened to admire a horse that had separated from its herd, and remarked to behrs, 'see what a beautiful specimen of milking mare that is.' when, an hour later, they were taking leave, their host tied this animal to their conveyance, thus presenting it to his visitor. of course, on the return journey, tolstoy had to make an equivalent present in return. another incident of this stay in the government of samára, was a visit to the petróvsky fair, which is held once a year at bouzouloúk, a small town some fifty miles from karalýk. here russians, bashkírs, oural cossacks, and kirghiz mingled with one another; and tolstoy was soon on a friendly footing with them all. he would chat and laugh with them even when they were drunk; but when one in that condition took it into his head to embrace the count, tolstoy's look was so stern and impressive that the fellow drew back his hands and let them fall, saying, 'no, never mind, it's all right!' the following letter of 18th july 1871, to fet, relates to tolstoy's experience of the nomadic bashkírs: thank you for your letter, dear friend! it seems that my wife gave a false alarm when she packed me off for a koumýs cure and persuaded me that i was ill. at any rate now, after four weeks, i seem to have quite recovered. and as is proper when one is taking a koumýs cure, i am drunk and sweat from morn to night, and find pleasure in it. it is very good here, and were it not for family home-sickness, i should be quite happy. were i to begin describing, i should fill a hundred pages with this country and my own occupations. i am reading herodotus, who describes in detail and with great accuracy these same galactophagous [gluttonous-for-milk] scythians among whom i am living. i began this letter yesterday, and wrote that i was well. to-day my side aches again. i do not myself know in how far i am ill, but it is bad that i am obliged to think--and cannot help thinking--about my side and my chest. this is the third day that the heat has been terrible. in the _kibítka_ [tent] it is as hot as on the shelf of a russian bath, but i like it. the country here is beautiful--in its age just emerging from virginity, in its richness, its health, and especially in its simplicity and its unperverted population. here as everywhere i am looking round for an estate to buy. this affords me an occupation, and is the best excuse for getting to know the real condition of the district. after a six weeks' stay tolstoy returned to yásnaya, travelling first class on the return journey. his search for an estate had been successful, and after persuading his wife that the investment was a sound one, he purchased two thousand acres on his return to moscow. the change of scene, or some other influence, weakened tolstoy's absorption in greek literature; and a huge dictionary he had taken with him, was used by his brother-in-law to press a collection of local wildflowers. during his wanderings on the steppe, tolstoy met many molokáns, members of a kind of bible-christian peasant sect. they base their faith on the bible, reject the greek church with its traditions, priesthood, dogmas, ritual, sacraments, and icons. the name molokán, or milk-drinker, probably arose from the fact that, not observing the russian fasts, these people do not scruple to drink milk in lent. they are said to be distinguished by an honesty and industry not found among their orthodox neighbours; and they abstain from all intoxicants. it interested tolstoy to mix with these people, and he liked to discuss their beliefs, especially with a venerable leader of theirs, named aggéy. it so happened that in the neighbouring village of pátrovka there was a very worthy young russian priest, who was eager to convert the molokáns, and occasionally arranged debates with them on religious subjects. tolstoy sometimes attended these debates: his object being not so much to convert the molokáns, as to understand the points on which they differed from the russo-greek church. he also took an interest in the mohammedan faith of his bashkír friends, and on his return to yásnaya read through a french translation of the koran. a few years later tolstoy associated much with the representatives of various sects and faiths, being then profoundly interested in their beliefs; but at this time, his interest in such matters was only beginning to make itself felt. a letter of tourgénef's written at this period, indicates how little he allowed his quarrel with tolstoy the man, to warp his appreciation of tolstoy the artist. writing to fet on 2nd july 1871, he says: your letter again grieves me--i refer to what you write about l. tolstoy. i have great fears on his account, for two of his brothers died of consumption, and i am very glad he is taking a koumýs cure, in the reality and efficacy of which i have faith. l. tolstoy is the only hope of our orphaned literature; he cannot and must not vanish from the face of the earth as prematurely as his predecessors: poúshkin, lérmontof and gógol. again in november, writing from paris, he says: i am very glad that tolstoy's health is now satisfactory and that he is at work. whatever he does will be good, if only he does not himself mutilate his own handiwork. philosophy, which he hates, has revenged herself on him in a strange way: she has infected him, and the enemy of rationalising has plunged head over ears into rationalisation! but perhaps all _that_ has fallen away from him by now, and left only the pure and powerful artist. on returning home from samára improved in health, tolstoy turned his thoughts once more to matters educational: especially to the crying want of good primers for those beginning to read. we have seen how strongly, in 1862, he had felt the need of well-written books simple enough for beginners and peasant readers, and how he resented the monopolisation of knowledge by the cultured classes entrenched behind barriers of pedantry. we have seen, too, how under the influence of homer he swore he would no more write 'wordy rubbish'; and the time had now come for this feeling to bear fruit. the task to which he devoted his powers at their zenith, was the production of an _abc_ book for beginners, which was to be as simple, sincere and perfect in form and in subject-matter as possible. we know from the writings of the american consul, mr. eugene schuyler, who visited tolstoy in 1868, and at his request obtained for him a collection of american school primers, that tolstoy was even then meditating a work of the kind to which he now devoted himself ardently for a whole year. by september he was hard at work, the countess as usual acting as his amanuensis. of her we hear that in an impulsive, kind-hearted way, she often rendered assistance to the poor, not merely among the yásnaya polyána peasants, but to others from a distance as well; and that the neighbouring peasants thought well of her. the increase in the tolstoy family was met this year by a considerable enlargement of their domicile. by way of a house-warming to celebrate the completion of the building, a masquerade was arranged at christmas, at which tolstoy evoked great enthusiasm by appearing as a goat. about this time, at the age of sixteen, behrs and a school friend of his became sorely troubled as to the state of their souls, and thought of entering a monastery. this is what he tells us of tolstoy's relation to the matter: his attitude towards my inclination was a most cautious one. i often went to him with my doubts and questions, but he always managed to avoid expressing his opinion, knowing how very great an influence it would have with me. he left it to me to work out my own convictions. once, however, he spoke out with sufficient plainness. we were riding past the village church where his parents lie buried. two horses were grazing in the churchyard. we had been talking over the only subject that then interested me. 'how can a man live in peace,' i asked, 'so long as he has not solved the question of a future life?' 'you see those two horses grazing there,' he answered; 'are they not laying up for a future life?' 'but i am speaking of our spiritual, not our earthly life.' 'indeed? well, about that, i neither know nor can know anything.' 1872 immediately after new year he re-started his school; and the children (who often numbered thirty to thirty-five) met, not as formerly in another building, but in the hall of the tolstoys' enlarged house. in the mornings the countess taught her own children, and in the afternoon she, her husband, and even seven-year-old tánya and eight-year-old sergius, taught the peasant children, who came only then, but yet made satisfactory progress, being stimulated by the personal interest the tolstoys took in them, by the pedagogic genius of the count, and by a perception that education is a rare and valuable luxury, which seldom comes within the reach of russian peasants. in the _abc_ book tolstoy gives several autobiographical stories of how he learned to ride, and of his dogs milton and boúlka. easy as these are, they are admirably written, and combine brevity and simplicity with sincerity; though their sincerity lies not in telling the facts just as they occurred, but in the truth of the feeling conveyed to the reader. besides these and other stories, popular historical sketches, and a number of translations and adaptations from _esop's fables_ and from indian, hebrew and arabic sources, the work contains some popular ballads or folk-stories in verse. to get these poems as perfect as possible, he studied and collated all the versions of them he could collect. the section on arithmetic gave him an immense amount of work, for he would not content himself with the usual explanations of the various operations, but devised explanations of his own. the book contains some elementary natural science, and for the preparation of this, tolstoy, besides examining all sorts of text-books, consulted specialists on the various subjects, and himself carefully performed most of the experiments he described. to select the readings in the church-slavonic language, he perused the monkish chronicles and the lives of the saints. intending to include some readings on astronomy, he took up that study himself, and became so interested in it that he sometimes sat up all night examining the stars. when the news spread that tolstoy was writing stories for his _abc_ book, the magazine editors besieged him with demands, and the first bits of the book to see the light were _a prisoner in the caucasus_, which appeared in one of the monthlies in february, and _god sees the truth_, which came out in another monthly in march. owing to some mismanagement, tolstoy received nothing for the periodical rights of either of these stories, which in _what is art?_ he names as the best of all his works. they (as well as _the bear hunt_, also from the _abc_ book) are given in english in _twenty-three tales_, previously referred to. in rendering them, i did my best to retain the brief simplicity of the originals; but where russian customs were alluded to, some of that simplicity was inevitably lost. with what pleasure tolstoy looks back to this part of his life's work, was indicated by a remark he made to me in 1902. speaking of the popularity of _a prisoner in the caucasus_ for public readings to the peasants, he added with evident satisfaction, that when _a prisoner in the caucasus_ is now mentioned, it is always taken for granted that it is his little story, and not poúshkin's famous poem of the same name, that is referred to. since their first appearance, these two stories have sold by hundreds of thousands in separate editions at three to ten copecks (about a penny or twopence) each, besides appearing in the _readers_ and among tolstoy's collected works. in the following letter to fet we get a vivid glimpse of the thoughts on life's deepest problems, which were before long to fill tolstoy's mind completely. _30 jan. 1872._ it is some days since i received your kind but sad letter, and not till to-day do i settle down to answer it. it is a sad letter, for you write that tútchef is dying, and that there is a rumour that tourgénef is dead; and about yourself you say the machine is wearing out and you want quietly to think of nirvana. please let me know quickly whether this is a false alarm. i hope it is, and that, in the absence of márya petróvna, you have taken slight symptoms for a return of your terrible illness. in nirvana there is nothing to laugh at; still less is there cause for anger. we all (i, at least) feel that it is much more interesting than life; but i agree that however much i may think about it, i can think of nothing else than that nirvana is nothingness. i only stand up for one thing: religious reverence--awe of that nirvana. there is, at any rate, nothing more important than it. what do i mean by religious reverence? i mean this: i lately went to see my brother, and a child of his had died and was being buried. the priests were there, and a small pink coffin, and everything as it should be. my brother and i involuntarily confessed to one another that we felt something like repulsion towards ceremonial rites. but afterwards i thought, 'well, but what should my brother do to remove the putrefying body of the child from the house? how is one to finish the matter decently?' there is no better way (at least, i could devise none) than to do it with a requiem and incense. how is it to be when we grow weak and die? is nature to take her course, are we to ... and nothing else? that would not be well. one wishes fully to express the gravity and importance, the solemnity and religious awe of that occurrence, the most important in every man's life. and i also can devise nothing more seemly for people of all ages and all degrees of development, than a religious observance. for me at least those slavonic words evoke quite the same metaphysical ecstasy as one experiences when one thinks of nirvana. religion is wonderful, in that she has for so many ages rendered to so many millions of people these same services--the greatest anything human can render in this matter. with such a task, how can she be logical? yes--there is something in her. only to you do i allow myself to write such letters; but i wished to write, and i feel sad, especially after your letter. please write soon about your health.--your leo tolstoy. i am terribly dispirited. the work i have begun is fearfully hard, there is no end to the preparatory study necessary. the plan of the work is ever increasing, and my strength, i feel, grows less and less. one day i am well, and three days i am ill. the work here referred to as 'fearfully hard' was a study of the reign of peter the great, in preparation for a novel treating of that period. on 20th february he again wrote to fet: i may not correspond with my friends for years at a time, but when my friend is in trouble, it is terribly shameful and painful not to know of it.... now, being in moscow, i wished to call on the bótkins to hear about you, but i fell ill myself, took to my bed, and it was all i could do to get home. now i am better. at home all is well; but you will not recognise our house: we have been using the new extension all winter. another novelty is that i have again started a school. my wife and children and i all teach and are all contented. i have finished my _abc_ book and am printing it.... the next letter shows that his hope that he had finished the _abc_ book was premature: _16 march 1872._ how i wish to see you; but i cannot come, i am still ill.... my _abc_ book gives me no peace for any other occupation. the printing advances on the feet of a tortoise, and the deuce knows when it will be finished, and i am still adding and omitting and altering. what will come of it i know not; but i have put my whole soul into it. in may 1872 the countess gave birth to another boy, who was christened peter. the moscow firm who were printing the book for tolstoy were not able to give him satisfaction. not only was the printing a matter of difficulty owing to the variety of type required for a school-book of this kind, but tolstoy, in accord with his invariable practice, revised the work time after time while it was going through the press. at last, in may, he wrote to his trusty friend and admirer, n. stráhof, saying that after four months' labour the printing was 'not only not finished, but had not even begun,' and begging stráhof to have the book printed in petersburg, and to take on himself for ample payment the whole task of revising the proofs. after some correspondence matters were arranged, though stráhof declined to accept any payment for the help he rendered. tolstoy explained to his friend that he wanted to make a profit on the book if possible. as a rule, all tolstoy's later teaching seems to grow out of his experience of life; but it would be hard for any one to work more conscientiously than tolstoy laboured over this book, and yet in later life he speaks as though any admixture of mercenary motives is sure to be fatal to good literary work. we here seem, therefore, to come upon an exception to that rule. stráhof's assistance enabled tolstoy (though he continued to give most careful instructions with regard to the treatment of the various sections of the book) to get a much needed change; and after having as usual worked during the winter and spring up to the very limit of his strength, he went for a short visit to his samára estate, where he arranged about building, and about breaking up the virgin soil. a peasant from yásnaya village was appointed steward of the new estate, and was instructed to see to the building of the house there. being far away from home tolstoy was anxious about his _abc_ book; so he cut short his stay, and returned to yásnaya before the end of july. there he learned that a fine young bull of his had gored its keeper to death. the unpleasantness of such an occurrence and of the legal investigation consequent on the man's death, was greatly increased by the fact that the investigating magistrate, an incompetent and arrogant young official, wrongly held tolstoy responsible for 'careless holding of cattle,' and, besides commencing criminal proceedings against him, obliged him to give a written undertaking not to leave yásnaya. prince d. d. obolénsky tells how tolstoy arrived one day at a meet at the prince's estate of schahovskóy (some thirty miles from yásnaya) late and much upset, and told of an examination he had that morning undergone at the hands of the investigating magistrate, whose duties included those of coroner. 'being an excitable man,' says obolénsky, 'tolstoy was extremely indignant at the magistrate's conduct, and told how the latter had kept a yásno-polyána peasant in prison for a year-and-a-half on suspicion of having stolen a cow, which then turned out to have been stolen by some one else. "he will confine me for a year," added tolstoy. "it is absurd, and shows how utterly arbitrary these gentlemen are. i shall sell all i have in russia and go to england, where every man's person is respected. here every police-officer, if one does not grovel at his feet, can play one the dirtiest tricks!"' p. f. samárin, who had also come to the hunt, opposed tolstoy with animation, arguing that the death or even the mutilation of a man, was so serious a matter that it could not be left without judicial investigation. after long argument samárin more or less convinced tolstoy, and the latter before retiring to rest remarked to obolénsky, 'what a wonderful power of calming people samárin has!' the judicial proceedings dragged on for more than a month, and it was not till late in september that tolstoy was again free to take a journey to moscow. the proceedings, first against him and then against his steward, were abandoned; but not before the newspapers had taken the matter up and made a fuss about it. at last, in november, the _abc_ book was published. it sold slowly, and was attacked by some of the papers. tolstoy however was not discouraged, but held to his belief that (as he expressed it to stráhof) he had 'erected a monument'--a conviction amply justified by the ultimate success of the work. he had indeed produced a reading-book far superior to anything that had previously existed in russia, and that is probably unmatched in any language. with certain modifications to be mentioned later on, it continues to circulate throughout russia to the present day. in connection with his other efforts to popularise his system of instruction, tolstoy, in october 1872, invited a dozen teachers from neighbouring schools to visit him for a week at yásnaya. they were accommodated in his second house (called, as is customary in russian when speaking of a subsidiary residence, 'the wing'); and a number of illiterate boys were collected from villages within reach, to be taught on tolstoy's lines. he also formed a project of establishing a 'university in bark shoes' [the country peasants wear bark shoes] or in other words, a training college in which peasants could become teachers without ceasing to be peasants. this plan occupied his attention, off and on, for some years; but (owing to causes which will be related later) never came to fruition. in december tourgénef writes from paris, to fet: i got a copy of l. tolstoy's abc, but except the beautiful story, _a prisoner in the caucasus_, i did not find anything interesting in it. and the price is absurdly dear for a work of that kind. the price of the first edition of 3000 copies of the _abc_ was rs. 2 (about 5s. 6d.). tourgénef probably had no idea of the immense labour, or of the typographical difficulties, involved in its production. the subsequent editions were much cheaper. about this time fet sent tolstoy a letter in rhyme, to which the latter replied as follows: _12 november 1872._ the causeless shame felt by the onion before the sweetly-scented rose, my dearest fet, i should be feeling, were i to answer you in prose. and yet in maiden verse replying, by sad misgivings i'm beset: the when and where, yourself please settle- but come and visit us, dear fet. tho' drought may parch the rye and barley. yet still i shall not feel upset if i but spend a day enjoying your conversation, dearest fet! too apt we often are to worry; o'er future ills let us not fret: sufficient for the day, its evil- it's best to think so, dearest fet! joking apart, write quickly and let me know when to send horses to the station to meet you. i want to see you terribly. having at last got his _abc_ off his hands, tolstoy resumed his preliminary labours for a large novel, which was to deal with the period of peter the great. on 19th november 1872 the countess wrote to her brother: our life just now is very, very serious. all day we are occupied. leo sits surrounded by a pile of portraits, pictures and books, engrossed in reading, marking passages and taking notes. in the evening, when the children have gone to bed, he tells me his plans, and what he means to write. at times he is quite discouraged, falls into despair, and thinks nothing will ever come of it. at other times he is on the point of setting ardently to work; but as yet i cannot say he has actually written anything, he is still preparing. a month later she wrote: as usual we are all of us very busy. the winter is the working time for us proprietors, just as much as summer is for the peasants. leo is still reading historical books of the time of peter the great, and is much interested in them. he notes down the characters of various people, their traits, as well as the way of life of the boyars and the peasants, and peter's activity. he does not yet know what will come of it all, but it seems to me we shall have another prose poem like _war and peace_; but of the time of peter the great. 1873 a few months later he definitely abandoned the project. his opinion of peter the great ran directly counter to the popular one, and he felt out of sympathy with the whole epoch. he declared there was nothing great about the personality or activity of peter, whose qualities were all bad. his so-called reforms, far from aiming at the welfare of the people, aimed simply at his own personal advantage. he founded petersburg because the boyars, who were influential and consequently dangerous to him, disapproved of the changes he made, and because he wished to be free to follow an immoral mode of life. the changes and reforms he introduced were borrowed from saxony, where the laws were most cruel, and the morals most dissolute--all of which particularly pleased him. this, tolstoy holds, explains peter's friendship with the elector of saxony, who was among the most immoral of rulers. he also considers that peter's intimacy with the pieman ménshikof and with the swiss deserter lefort, is explained by the contempt in which peter was held by all the boyars, among whom he could not find men willing to share his dissolute life. most of all, tolstoy was revolted by the murder of peter's son alexis, in which crime tolstoy's own ancestor had played a very prominent part. almost simultaneously with the abandonment of the project to which he had devoted so much time and attention, tolstoy, without any special preparation, began to write his second great novel, _anna karénina_. the year before, a lady named anna who lived with bíbikof, a neighbouring squire mentioned on a previous page, had committed suicide by throwing herself under a train, out of jealousy of bíbikof's attentions to their governess. tolstoy knew all the details of the affair, and had been present at the post-mortem. this supplied him with a theme; but it was not till march 1873, and then as it were by accident, that he actually began to write the book. one day a volume of poúshkin happened to be lying open at the commencement of _a fragment_, which begins with the words, 'the guests had arrived at the country house.' tolstoy, noticing this, remarked to those present that these words, plunging at once into the midst of things, are a model of how a story should begin. some one then laughingly suggested that he should begin a novel in that way; and tolstoy at once started on _anna karénina_, the second sentence, and first narrative sentence, of which is, 'all was in confusion in the oblónskys' house.' in may tolstoy and his whole family went for a three months' visit to samára, where he had recently purchased some more land. this summer he hired a bashkír named mouhamed shah, who owned and brought with him a herd of milking mares. this mouhamed shah, or románovitch as he was called in russian, was polite, punctual, and dignified. he had a workman to drive the herd, and a wife (who retired behind a curtain in his _kotchévka_ when visitors came to see him) to wait upon him. in subsequent years this worthy man repeatedly resumed his engagement with the tolstoys. this was the first year the whole estate had been ploughed up and sown. it was fortunate for the district that some one who had the ear of the public, happened to be there; for the crops in the whole neighbourhood failed utterly, and a famine ensued. so out-of-the-world were the people and so cut off from civilisation, that they might have suffered and died without the rest of russia hearing anything about it, had not tolstoy been at hand to make their plight known in good time by an appeal for help, which the countess prompted him to draw up, and which appeared on 17th august, in katkóf's paper, the _moscow gazette_. in this article on the samára famine, tolstoy describes how the complete failure of the harvest, following as it did on two previous poor harvests, had brought nearly nine-tenths of the population to destitution and hunger. to ascertain the real state of things tolstoy took an inventory at every tenth house in the village of gavrílovka--the one nearest his estate; and of the twenty-three families so examined, all but one were found to be in debt, and none of them knew how they were to get through the winter. most of the men had left home to look for work, but the harvest being bad everywhere, and so many people being in search of work, the price of labour had fallen to one-eighth of what it had previously been. tolstoy visited several villages and found a similar state of things everywhere. together with his article, he sent rs. 100 (then equal to about £14) as a first subscription to a famine fund. this was only a small part of what he spent in relief of the impoverished peasants, for when prougávin (well known for his valuable descriptions of russian sects) visited the district in 1881, many of the inhabitants spoke to him of tolstoy's personal kindness to the afflicted, and of his gifts of corn and money during the famine. the subscription proved a success. tolstoy's aunt, the countess a. a. tolstoy (who had charge of the education of marie alexándrovna, subsequently duchess of edinburgh), mentioned the matter to the empress, who was one of the first to contribute. her example was largely followed, and altogether, in money and in kind, something like rs. 2,000,000, or about £270,000, was contributed during 1873-4. within a year or two, good harvests again completely changed the whole appearance of the district. this was the first, but neither the last nor the worst, of the famines in which tolstoy rendered help. before the end of august 1873 he was back at yásnaya, and wrote to fet: on the 22nd we arrived safely from samára.... in spite of the drought, the losses and the inconvenience, we all, even my wife, are satisfied with our visit, and yet more satisfied to be back in the old frame of our life; and we are now taking up our respective labours.... a month later he writes again, referring to kramskóy's portrait of himself, a photogravure of which forms the frontispiece of this volume, and shows the blouse which even in those days, before his conversion, he wore when at home, instead of a tailor-made coat: _25 september 1873._ i am beginning to write.... the children are learning; my wife is busy and teaches. every day for a week kramskóy has been painting my portrait for tretyakóf's gallery, and i sit and chat with him, and try to convert him from the petersburg faith to the faith of the baptized. i agreed to this, because kramskóy came personally, and offered to paint a second portrait for us very cheaply, and because my wife persuaded me. up to this time tolstoy, sensitive about his personal appearance, and instinctively disliking any personal advertisement, had always had an objection to having his portrait painted; and if he ever allowed himself to be photographed, was careful to have the negative destroyed that copies might not be multiplied. this prejudice he abandoned in later life; and after kramskóy had broken the ice, portraits and photographs of tolstoy became more and more common. kramskóy's acquaintance with the tolstoys came about in this way. he was commissioned to paint a portrait of the great novelist, for the collection of famous russians in tretyakóf's picture gallery in moscow; but sought in vain in that town for his photograph, and was too modest to ask tolstoy (who, he knew, was living a secluded life at yásnaya) to give him sittings. he therefore hired a _dátcha_, some three miles from yásnaya, with the intention of painting tolstoy, who often rode past on horseback. his intention, however, became known, and the tolstoys at once sent him a friendly invitation to visit them. of the two very similar portraits of tolstoy which kramskóy painted, one has remained at yásnaya. before tolstoy's next letter to fet, the angel of death had crossed the threshold of his house for the first time in his married life. on 11th november he wrote: we are in trouble: peter, our youngest, fell ill with croup and died in two days. it is the first death in our family in eleven years, and my wife feels it very deeply. one may console oneself by saying that if one had to choose one of our eight, this loss is lighter than any other would have been; but the heart, especially the mother's heart--that wonderful and highest manifestation of divinity on earth--does not reason, and my wife grieves. 1874 during the whole of 1874 tolstoy made strenuous efforts to get his system of education more generally adopted. on 15th january, overcoming his dislike of speaking in public, he addressed the moscow society of literacy on the subject of the best way to teach children to read. the details of his argument need not here detain us, as it will fall to the lot of few of my readers to teach russian children to read russian; but briefly, the german _lautiermethode_ had been adopted by russian pedagogues in a way that tolstoy considered arbitrary and pedantic, and his appeal, which in the main has not carried conviction to the educationalists, was against that method. the large hall in which the meeting took place was crowded. the president of the society, mr. shatílof, invited tolstoy to open the debate, but tolstoy preferred to reply to what questions and remarks the other speakers might put. in the course of the animated proceedings, in which several men well known in the russian educational world took part, the discussion widened out till it covered the question of the whole direction of elementary education; and tolstoy, from the standpoint of his belief that it is harmful to force upon the people a culture they do not demand and are not prepared for--and much of which, though considered by us to be science, may yet turn out to be no better than the alchemy and astrology of the middle ages--denounced the education forced upon the children in elementary schools, and declared that this should be confined in the first place to teaching the russian language and arithmetic, leaving natural science and history alone. to prove the advantage of his way of teaching reading, tolstoy offered to give a practical demonstration in one of the schools attached to some of the moscow mills. accordingly it was arranged that this should take place the next day and the day after, at the mills owned by mr. ganéshin, on the devítche pólye just outside moscow. on the morrow tolstoy was unwell, and did not appear; but he gave his demonstration on the evening of the following day, with the result that, on the suggestion of mr. shatílof, the society of literacy decided to start two temporary schools for the express purpose of testing the rival methods during a period of seven weeks. the one school was taught by mr. m. e. protopópof, an expert in the _lautiermethode_, while in the other school tolstoy's method was taught by mr. p. v. morózof. after seven weeks the children were examined by a committee, which had to report to the society at a meeting held on 13th april. the members of the committee however could not agree, and handed in separate and contradictory reports. at the meeting of the society there was again a great divergence of opinion; and tolstoy, who considered that the test had not been made under proper conditions (most of the pupils being too young, and the continual presence of visitors preventing the teacher from holding the children's attention), but that nevertheless his method had shown its superiority, decided to appeal to a wider public, and did so in the form of a letter addressed to mr. shatílof. a full account of what happened from the time the dispute passed into the press, has been given by that powerful and popular critic and essayest, n. k. mihaylóvsky, who was at this time a colleague of nekrásof. in 1866 the _contemporary_ had been prohibited, as a punishment for its too liberal tendencies. in 1868 nekrásof and saltykóf (stchedrín) had taken over the management of the _fatherland journal_. tolstoy, who had long dropped out of touch with nekrásof, now addressed to him a request that the _fatherland journal_ should take a hand in his fight with the pedagogic specialists, and should interest a wider public in his educational reforms. as an inducement, he held out a prospect (never fulfilled) that he would contribute some of his works of fiction to their magazine. the outcome of his correspondence with nekrásof was, that though the whole question of elementary education was somewhat foreign to a literary magazine such as the _fatherland journal_, a long article by tolstoy (his letter to shatílof) appeared in the september number, under the title of _on the education of the people_. tolstoy's educational articles in 1862, when he issued them in his own magazine, had fallen quite flat and attracted no attention, but this article, by the author of _war and peace_, in a leading petersburg magazine, though expressing very similar views, received very much attention, and was criticised, favourably or adversely, in a large number of other publications. though his views were only adopted to a small extent, yet the severe shock which he administered to the professional pedagogues who looked on school-children as 'a flock existing for the sake of its shepherds,' had a most healthy influence, and that it did not pass without some immediate practical effect is indicated by the rejection from the moscow teachers' seminary of one of the text-books tolstoy attacked most fiercely. following on the storm raised in the press by tolstoy's article, mihaylóvsky, in the _fatherland journal_ for january 1875, published a long article entitled _an outsider's notes_, in which he took tolstoy's part against the pedagogues, and said: 'though i am one of the profane in philosophy and pedagogics, and am writing simply a _feuilleton_, i nevertheless advise my readers to peruse this _feuilleton_ with great attention, not for my sake, but for tolstoy's, and for the sake of those fine shades of thought on which i do but comment.' before this, however, tolstoy had made another attempt to improve the state of elementary education, by promoting the establishment of that 'university in bark shoes' to which i have already alluded. he had found some of the boys in the yásno-polyána school anxious to continue their studies after finishing the school course; and an experiment in teaching these lads algebra had been highly successful. in his last article on education, tolstoy had pointed out that a great obstacle to the spread of efficient elementary instruction lay in the fact that the peasants could not afford the salaries (extremely modest as these sound to western ears) demanded by russian teachers of the non-peasant classes. it was therefore quite natural that he should now devise a scheme for preparing teachers from among the peasants themselves; and he drew up a project for a training college to be established at yásnaya, under his own direction and control. in the summer of this year tolstoy paid a brief visit to his samára estate to look after its management; and he took his son sergius with him. on 20th november 1874 the countess wrote to her brother: our usual serious winter work is now in full swing. leo is quite taken up with popular education, schools, and colleges for teachers, where teachers for the peasants' schools are to be trained. all this keeps him busy from morning till night. i have my doubts about all this. i am sorry his strength should be spent on these things instead of on writing a novel; and i don't know in how far it will be of use, since all this activity will extend only to one small corner of russia. p. f. samárin, the marshal of the nobility of toúla government, backed tolstoy cordially, and pointed out that the zémstvo (county council) had a sum of rs. 30,000 available for educational purposes, and that this might be devoted to starting a teachers' training college. to attain this end tolstoy, who heretofore had always refused to stand for election, consented to enter the zémstvo, and after being returned to that body, was unanimously chosen to serve on its education committee. he presented a report in the sense indicated above, which was at first favourably discussed; but unfortunately one of the oldest members rose, and alluding to the fact that a collection was being made all over russia for a monument to catherine the great, and that it was the centenary of the decree by which she had created the government of toúla, proposed that the money should be devoted to the monument of their benefactress. this loyal sentiment met with approval, and though tolstoy did not at once abandon his plan, the means to carry it out were never forthcoming, and we do not hear much more of it. if one did not know how stupidly reactionary the governing classes of russia were at this period, it would seem extraordinary that the central and the local authorities alike should have so constantly balked and hindered tolstoy's disinterested projects: forbidding the publication of his newspaper for soldiers, mutilating his stories, sending gendarmes to search his schools, looking askance at his school magazine, and defeating his project for a training college. can it be wondered at, that he came more and more to identify government with all that is most opposed to enlightenment? we know that similar causes were, at that very time, driving men and women of a younger generation to undertake dangerous propaganda work, in more or less definite opposition to the existing order of society, among factory workmen and country peasants. his devotion to educational matters did not entirely supersede, though no doubt it delayed, his activity as a novelist. in the spring of 1874 he had taken the commencement of _anna karénina_ to moscow, but for some reason none of it appeared that year. tourgénef, in collaboration with madame viardot, was at this time translating some of tolstoy's best stories into french. writing to fet in march 1874, he says: the season is now almost over, but all the same i will try to place his [tolstoy's] _three deaths_ in the _revue des deux mondes_ or in the _temps_, and in autumn i will without fail get out _the cossacks_. the more often i read that story, the more convinced i am that it is the _chef d'oeuvre_ of tolstoy and of all russian narrative literature. meanwhile life and death pursued their course. in april a son was born and christened nicholas; and before long, death, having a few months previously taken the youngest, returned to claim the oldest members of the household. the first of them to go was his dearly-loved aunty tatiána alexándrovna, to whose good influence through life he owed so much. she died on 20th june, and next year his other aunt followed her. tolstoy never refers to his aunt tatiána without letting us see how he cherishes her memory. here for instance are one or two of his notes relating to her: when already beginning to grow feeble, having waited her opportunity, one day when i was in her room she said to us, turning away (i saw that she was ready to cry), 'look here, _mes chers amis_, my room is a good one and you will want it. if i die in it,' and her voice trembled, 'the recollection will be unpleasant to you; so move me somewhere else, that i may not die here.' such she always was, from my earliest childhood, before i was able to understand her goodness. again referring to her death, and to the love for his father which had played so large a part in her life, he adds: she died peacefully, gradually falling asleep; and died as she desired, not in the room that had been hers, lest it should be spoilt for us. she died recognising hardly any one. but me she always recognised, smiling and brightening up as an electric lamp does when one touches the knob, and sometimes she moved her lips trying to pronounce the name nicholas: thus in death completely and inseparably uniting me with him she had loved all her life. the opinion the peasants had of her, was shown by the fact that when her coffin was carried through the village, there was not one hut out of the sixty in yásnaya polyána, from which the people did not come out asking to have the procession stopped and a requiem sung for her soul. 'she was a kind lady and did nobody any harm,' said they. tolstoy adds: on that account they loved her, and loved her very much. lao-tsze says things are valuable for what is not in them. so it is with a life. it is most valuable if there is nothing bad in it; and in the life of tatiána alexándrovna there was nothing bad. except in the case of his brother nicholas, tolstoy has usually not been greatly upset even by the deaths of those near and dear to him. the following letter to fet shows how he took tatiána's death: _24 june 1874._ two days ago we buried aunt tatiána alexándrovna. she died slowly and gradually, and i had grown accustomed to the process; yet her death was, as the death of a near and dear one always is, a quite new, isolated and unexpectedly-stirring event. the others are well, and our house is full. the delightful heat, the bathing and the fruit have brought me to the state of mental laziness i love, with only enough mental life remaining to enable me to remember my friends and think of them. the next letter, dated the 22nd october, tells its own tale: dear afanásy afanásyevitch,--i have planned to buy, and must buy, some land at nikólsky, and for that purpose must borrow rs. 10,000 for one year on mortgage. it may be that you have money you want to place. if so, write to iván ivánovitch orlóf, nikólsky village, and he will arrange the affair with you independently of our relations to one another.... how gladly would i come to see you, were i not so overwhelmed with the school, family and estate business, that i have not even time to go out shooting.... i hope to be free when winter comes. 1875 a small second edition of tolstoy's _abc_ book, in twelve paper-bound parts, was printed this year; but he did not yet feel quite satisfied with that work, and towards the close of the year he revised it, abbreviating, omitting the arithmetic, and introducing graduated reading exercises. as soon as the pupil has mastered a few of the most necessary letters and can put these together, tolstoy contrives out of the very simplest syllables to construct sentences that have a meaning and an interest. the _new abc_ book, apart from the more advanced _readers_, and consisting of ninety-two pages of elementary matter, was issued in 1875, at the low price of 14 copecks (about 4d.). since tolstoy's efforts have seldom been favoured by the government, it is worth noting that this edition was 'approved and recommended by the scholarly committee of the ministry of popular education.' between one and two million copies of it have since been sold. the reading matter from his first _abc_ book was subsequently graded into four cheap _readers_ costing 3d. to 4d. each, and though not honoured by the ministry of education, they have from that time to this circulated in increasing quantities, being printed of late years in edition after edition of 50,000 at a time. the countess has in general enjoyed good health and worn her years and the cares of her large family very lightly; but during the winter of 1874-5 her condition gave her husband much concern. in january he was able to write to fet: 'i have ceased to fear for my wife's health'; but in fact for some time longer she continued to be ailing. the commencement of _anna karénina_, appeared in the first four monthly numbers of the _russian messenger_ for 1875. by far the best english version of that novel (as also of _war and peace_) is mrs. constance garnett's, though i do not like her alteration of the title of the book to _anna karénin_, nor am i quite satisfied with her treatment of some of the conversations in it; but unquestionably we have much to thank her for. in february the baby, nicholas, died of inflammation of the brain, and on 4th march 1875[53] tolstoy wrote to fet: [53] this letter evidently relates to the year 1875, though in fet's _vospominániya_ it is given as belonging to 1874. we have one grief after another; you and márya petróvna will certainly be sorry for us, especially for sónya. our youngest son, ten months old, fell ill three weeks ago with the dreadful illness called 'water on the brain,' and after three weeks' terrible torture died three days ago, and we have buried him to-day. i feel it hard through my wife; but for her, who was nursing him herself, it is very hard. in the same letter he mentions _anna karénina_, and immediately afterwards he makes an allusion to the first idea of his _confession_, which was not actually written till 1879: it pleases me very much that you praise _karénina_ and i hear that she gets praised; but assuredly never was writer so indifferent to his success as i am! on the one hand what preoccupies me are the school affairs, and on the other, strange to say, the subject of a new work, which took possession of me just at the worst time of the boy's illness,--and that illness itself and death.... from tourgénef i have received the translation, printed in the _temps_, of my _two hussars_, and a letter written in the third person asking to be informed that i have received it, and saying that other stories are being translated by madame viardot and tourgénef,--both of which were unnecessary. [tolstoy means that they need neither have sent him the translation, nor informed him of what they were doing.] the commencement of _anna karénina_ did not find favour with tourgénef, who on 14th march wrote from paris to a. s. souvórin, the novelist and proprietor of the _nóvoye vrémya_ (_new times_): his [tolstoy's] talent is quite extraordinary, but in _anna karénina_ he, as one says here, _a fait fausse route_; one feels the influence of moscow, slavophil nobility, orthodox old maids, his own isolation, and the absence of real artistic freedom. part ii is simply dull and shallow--that's what's the matter. and writing in similar strains to polónsky the poet, tourgénef said: _anna karénina_ does not please me, though there are some truly splendid pages (the steeplechase, the mowing, and the hunt). but it is all sour: smells of moscow, holy oil, old maidishness, slavophilism, and the aristocracy, etc. the cordiality of tourgénef's appreciation of tolstoy's writings in general, is sufficient guarantee that it was no personal prejudice that led him to speak in this way of a book which is one of tolstoy's three most important novels, and which many people hold to be the best of them all. what really caused his harsh judgment, is a matter i will deal with later on. this summer the whole tolstoy family went to the samára estates, which had already been considerably increased by the last purchase, and which ultimately exceeded 16,000 acres. mouhamed shah with his herd of mares and his _kotchévka_--which tolstoy called 'our saloon'--again appeared on the scene. a second _kotchévka_ was set up for the use of the tolstoys themselves, and was so much in favour that all the members of the family were eager to occupy it. the novelty and the peculiarities of steppe farming interested tolstoy, and he, as well as other members of his household, took an active part in harvesting and winnowing. how primitive were the samára methods of agriculture may be shown by mentioning their manner of threshing. a ring of horses was formed, tied head to tail. in the centre of the ring stood a driver with a long lash, and the horses were set trotting round a corresponding circle of sheaves, out of which they trod the grain. the virgin soil was ploughed up by five or even six pair of oxen, wearing round their necks deep-toned bells, sounding in a minor key. these things, together with the pipes of the boys who watched the herds, the sultry days, and the marvellously clear moonlit nights, had a wonderful charm for the whole party, and this charm was increased by tolstoy's capacity to notice and direct attention to whatever was interesting or beautiful. the whole family became interested, behrs tells us, in their new farming, and some of them went with tolstoy as far afield as orenbourg to purchase cattle and horses. he bought about a hundred bashkír mares and crossed them with an english trotter and with horses of other breeds, hoping to obtain a good new type. one evening his whole herd, and mouhamed shah's as well, were very nearly driven off by some kirghiz nomads who were passing. the invaders were, however, pursued and driven off by two mounted bashkír labourers. tolstoy declared farming in samára to be a game of chance. it cost nearly three times as much to plough up the land, sow it, and gather in a harvest, as it did to purchase the freehold of the estate; and if during may and june there was not at least one good fall of rain, everything perished; whereas if it rained several times, the harvest yielded thirty to forty-fold. one day, at harvest time, a poor wandering tartar, drawing two little children in a tiny cart, came up to the balcony on which the tolstoys were sitting, and asked to be hired as a labourer. he was allowed to set up his wigwam in a field close by, and the tolstoy children used to go there every day to feed the little tartars. in the neighbouring village lived several well-to-do russian peasants with whom tolstoy was on very good terms. either because they were economically independent and lived in a province where serfdom had not prevailed, or as a result of tolstoy's tact and ability to set people at their ease, these peasants always behaved with dignity and self-respect. they shook hands when they said 'how do you do?' and seemed quite at home with the count. he used to notice with pleasure the good relations and complete religious toleration that existed in those parts between the orthodox peasants and their mohammedan neighbours; and he was also delighted that the priest at pátrovka was on friendly terms with the molokáns he was trying to convert. one rainy night, after staying late at this priest's house, tolstoy and his brother-in-law completely lost their way. it was so dark that they could not see their horses' heads. behrs was riding an old working horse, which kept pulling to the left. tolstoy, on hearing this, told him to let the horse follow its bent. behrs therefore tied his reins so that they hung loose, and wrapping himself in his cloak from the drenching rain, allowed the horse to go where it liked. carefully avoiding the ploughed land, it soon brought them out on to the road, and, curiously enough, to just the one part of it which was distinguishable from the extraordinary sameness of the rest, so that the riders knew just where they were. the most striking event of this year's stay in samára was a horse race, arranged by tolstoy. mouhamed shah was authorised to announce to the peasants and neighbours that races would be held on the count's estate; and invitations were sent to all likely to take part. bashkírs and kirghiz assembled, bringing with them tents, portable copper boilers, plenty of koumýs, and even sheep. oural cossacks and russian peasants also came from the whole surrounding neighbourhood. in preparation for the race, says behrs: we ourselves chose a level place, measured out a huge circle three miles in circumference, marked it by running a plough round, and set up posts. sheep and even one horse were prepared with which to regale visitors. by the appointed day some thousands of people had collected. on the wild steppe, covered with feather grass, a row of tents appeared, and soon a motley crowd enlivened it. on the conical hillocks (locally called 'cones') felt and other carpets were spread, on which the bashkírs sat in circles, their legs tucked under them. in the centre of the circle, out of a large _toursouk_ [a leather bottle made of an animal's leg] a young bashkír poured koumýs, handing the cup to each of the company in turn. their songs, and the tunes played on their pipes and reeds, sounded somewhat dreary to a european ear. wrestling, at which the bashkírs are particularly skilful, could be seen here and there. thirty trained horses were entered for the chief race. the riders were boys of about ten years, who rode without saddles. this race was for thirty-three miles, and it took exactly an hour and forty minutes; consequently it was run at the rate of three minutes a mile. of the thirty horses, ten ran the whole distance, the others giving up. the principal prizes were a horse, an ox, a gun, a clock, and a dressing-gown. the festival lasted two days, and passed off in perfect order and very gaily. to tolstoy's delight no police were present. the guests all politely thanked their host and departed highly satisfied. 'even in the crowd,' says behrs, 'it seemed to me that leo nikoláyevitch knew how to evoke _entrain_ combined with respect for good order.' tolstoy visited the petróvsky fair, as was his yearly custom, and stayed at the bouzouloúk monastery, where a hermit resided who was 'saving his soul' by a solitary and ascetic life. this man lived in an underground catacomb. when he came out he walked about the garden and showed his visitors an apple-tree he had planted forty years before, under which it was his custom to sit when receiving pilgrims. he spoke to tolstoy about the scriptures, and showed him his catacomb-home, the coffin in which he slept, and the large crucifix before which he prayed. tolstoy considered that the respect paid to this man by pilgrims and other visitors, was the outcome of genuine religious feeling, and proved that the hermit, by giving the example of a pure, unworldly life, supplied a real want. readers of tolstoy's short stories will be aware of the use to which he subsequently put his knowledge of the bashkírs and of the hermit. on 26th august, after reaching yásnaya, he wrote to fet: two days ago we arrived home safely.... we have had an average harvest, but the price of labour has been enormous, so that finally ends only just meet. for two months i have not soiled my hands with ink nor my heart with thoughts. now i am settling down again to dull, common-place _anna karénina_ with the sole desire to clear a space quickly, and obtain leisure for other occupations--only not for the educational work i love but wish to abandon. it takes too much time. his samára experiences confirmed in him the feeling that not the civilisation and progress and political struggles of the western world and of the small westernised section of russians, were really important, but the great primitive struggle of plain people to obtain a subsistence in healthy natural conditions; and he adds in the same letter: why fate took me there [to samára] i do not know; but i know that i have listened to speeches in the english parliament, which is considered very important, and it seemed to me dull and insignificant; but there, are flies, dirt, and bashkír peasants, and i, watching them with intense respect and anxiety, became absorbed in listening to them and watching them, and felt it all to be very important. one must live as we lived, in a healthy out-of-the-way part of samára, and see the struggle going on before one's eyes of the nomadic life (of millions of people on an immense territory) with the primitive agricultural life, in order to realise all the importance of that struggle. after their return from the government of samára, all the children got hooping-cough. the countess caught it from them, and, being in the sixth month of pregnancy, was very ill. this resulted in the premature birth of a girl, varvára, who lived less than two hours. tolstoy's eldest son, sergius, had now reached the age of twelve. besides their english governess and a swiss lady, the children had at different times a swiss, a frenchman, and a german as tutors for modern languages. tutors and students who acted as tutors, also lodged at yásnaya and taught other subjects. a music master came over from toúla. the eldest boy had considerable musical talent, and the family as a whole were musical. as soon as they had mastered their finger exercises, the count insisted on their at once being allowed to learn serious pieces. every effort was made to awaken and foster the talent for drawing and painting which some of the children, and especially the eldest daughter, tatiána, possessed; but lessons in these subjects were only given to those who showed real capacity for them. much as tolstoy disliked the curriculum of the grammar schools ('gymnasiums,' as they are called in russia), he did, not wish to make it impossible for his sons to enter the university, and they followed the usual classical course. sergius passed his examinations each year in toúla gymnasium, being carefully coached at home. in his _recollections_ behrs tells us of tolstoy's enlivening influence in the family: i cannot sufficiently describe the joyous and happy frame of mind that usually reigned at yásnaya polyána. its source was always leo nikoláyevitch. in conversation about abstract questions, about the education of children, about outside matters--his opinion was always most interesting. when playing croquet, or during our walks, he enlivened us all by his humour and his participation, taking a real part in the game or the walk. with me, he liked to mow, or use the rake; to do gymnastics, to race, and occasionally to play leap-frog or _gorodkí_ [a game in which a stick is thrown at some other shorter sticks placed in a pattern], etc. though far inferior to him in strength, for he could lift 180 lbs. with one hand, i could easily match him in a race, but seldom passed him, for i was always laughing. that mood accompanied all our exercises. whenever we happened to pass where mowers were at work, he would go up to them and borrow a scythe from the one who seemed most tired. i of course imitated his example. he would then ask me, why we, with well-developed muscles, cannot mow six days on end, though a peasant does it on rye-bread, and sleeping on damp earth? 'you just try to do it under such conditions,' he would add in conclusion. when leaving the meadow, he would take a handful of hay from the haycock and sniff it, keenly enjoying its smell. children and grown-ups alike played croquet at yásnaya. the game generally began after dinner in the evening, and only finished by candlelight. behrs says that, having played it with tolstoy, he considers croquet to be a game of chance. tolstoy's commendation of a good shot always pleased the player and aroused the emulation of his opponents. the kindly irony of his comments on a miss, also acted as a spur. a simple word from him, uttered just at the right moment and in the right tone, produced that _entrain_ which makes any occupation interesting and infects all who come under its influence. the sincerity of tolstoy's nature showed itself in the frank expression of his passing mood. if, when driving to the station, he saw that they had missed the train, he would exclaim, 'ach! we've missed it!' with such intensity that every one within earshot would first feel as though a calamity had occurred, and would then join in the hearty laughter which his own vehement exclamation evoked in tolstoy. it was the same when he made a bad miss at croquet; and also if, when sitting at home, he suddenly remembered some engagement he had forgotten to keep. if, as sometimes happened, his exclamation alarmed his wife, he would half-jokingly add, like a scolded child, 'i'll never do it again!' his laughter, which began on a high note, had something wonderfully infectious about it. his head would hang over on one side, and his whole body would shake. his good-natured irony constantly acted as a stimulant to those about him. if, for instance, some one was in the dumps about the weather, tolstoy would say: 'is your weather behaving badly?' or when behrs was sitting comfortably listening to a conversation, he would say to him: 'as you are on the move, you might please bring me so-and-so.' when he felt it wise to reject an extra cigar or a second helping of some favourite dish, he would remark to those present: 'wait till i am grown up, and then i will have two helpings,' or 'two cigars,' as the case might be. if, says behrs, 'he noticed any of the children making a wry or affected face, he generally called out, "now then, no grimacing; you'll only spoil your phiz."' behrs also tells us that. what he called 'the numidian cavalry' evoked our noisiest applause. he would unexpectedly spring up from his place and, raising one arm in the air with its hand hanging quite loose from the wrist, he would run lightly through the rooms. all the children, and sometimes the grown-ups also, would follow his example with the same suddenness. tolstoy read aloud very well, and would often read to the family or to visitors. his contempt for doctors and medicine is plainly indicated both in _war and peace_ and _anna karénina_. like rousseau he considered that the practice of medicine should be general and not confined to one profession; and this opinion inclined him to approve of the folk-remedies used by the peasants. but he did not go the length of refusing to call in a doctor when one of the family was seriously ill. before the year closed, tolstoy's aunt, pelagéya ilýnishna úshkof, with whom he had lived in his young days in kazán, also passed away. she had been separated from her husband before his death in 1869, and had long not even seen him, though they remained quite friendly towards one another. she was very religious in an orthodox church way, and after her husband's death retired to the óptin nunnery. subsequently she moved to the toúla nunnery, but arranged to spend much of her time at yásnaya; where in her eightieth year she fell ill and died. she was in general a good-tempered though not clever woman, and all her life long strictly observed the ceremonies of the church and thought that she firmly believed its teaching about redemption and resurrection; yet she was so afraid of death that on her death-bed she was reluctant to receive the eucharist, because it brought home to her mind the fact that she was dying; and as a consequence of the sufferings caused by the fear of death, she became irritable with all about her. a servant who lived in the house at the time, tells that while at yásnaya she used, on the first of each month, to send for a priest. as soon as he arrived, and began the usual ceremony of blessing with holy water, tolstoy would escape and hide himself. not till the gardener, semyón--whom he used to send into the conservatory to reconnoitre--brought him word that the priest had gone, would tolstoy reappear in the house. about that time, however, his attitude towards church ceremonies altered. his man-servant sergéy arboúzof (who saw only the external signs of the complex inner struggle going on in tolstoy) tells us: suddenly a wonderful change came over him, of which i was a witness. in 1875 a priest, vasíly ivánovitch, from the toúla seminary, used to come to teach theology to tolstoy's children. at first, leo nikoláyevitch hardly ever talked to him, but it once happened that a snow-storm obliged vasíly ivánovitch to stop the night at our house. the count began a conversation with him, and they did not go to bed till daylight. they talked the whole night. from that day leo nikoláyevitch became very thoughtful, and always talked with vasíly ivánovitch. when lent came round, the count got up one morning and said, 'i am going to do my devotions, and prepare to receive communion. you can go back to bed, but first tell the coachman not to get up. i will saddle kalmýk (his favourite horse at that time) myself. forgive me, sergéy, if i have ever offended you!' and he went off to church. from that day for a couple of years he always went to church, seldom missing a sunday. the whole village was surprised, and asked, 'what has the priest told the count, that has suddenly made him so fond of church-going?' it used to happen that the count would come into my hut when i was teaching my little boy religion. 'what are you teaching him?' he would ask. and i used to say, 'to pray.' 'ah!' said he, 'that is right. a man who does not pray to god is not a real man.' 1876 the publication of _anna karénina_ was renewed in the first four numbers of the _russian messenger_ for 1876. on 1st march tolstoy writes to fet: things are still not all right with us. my wife does not get over her last illness, coughs, gets thin, and has first fever and then headaches. and therefore the house lacks well-being, and i lack mental tranquillity, which i now particularly need for my work. the end of winter and beginning of spring is always my chief time for work, and i must finish my novel, which now wearies me.... i always hope a tooth will come loose in your jaw, or in your thrashing machine, and cause you to go to moscow. then i shall spin a cobweb at kozlóvka [the nearest station to yásnaya] and catch you. in april fet wrote to tolstoy to say that he had been seriously ill, had thought he was dying, and 'wished to call you to see how i departed.' on 29th april tolstoy replies in a letter notable because it gives us a glimpse of the progress he had made in the fierce five-year inner struggle with doubt which preceded the production of his _confession_: i am grateful to you for thinking of calling me to see your departure, when you supposed it was near. i will do the same when i get ready to go _thither_, if i am able to think. no one will be so necessary to me at that moment as you and my brother. when death draws near, intercourse with people who in this life look beyond its bounds, is precious and cheering; and you and those rare _real_ people i have met in life, always stand on the very verge and see clearly, just because they look now at nirvana--the illimitable, the unknown--and now at sansara; and that glance at nirvana strengthens their sight. but worldly people, however much they may talk about god, are unpleasant to you and me, and must be a torment when one is dying, for they do not see what we see, namely the god who 'is more indefinite and distant, but loftier and more indubitable,' as was said in that article. you are ill and think of death, and i am alive and do not cease thinking of and preparing for the same thing.... much that i have thought, i have tried to express in the last chapter of the april number of the _russian messenger_ [_anna karénina_, part i, chap. xx]. the passage referred to, telling of the death of lévin's brother, is evidently based on the death of tolstoy's own brother demetrius; and it may here be mentioned that many characters in _anna karénina_ are drawn more or less closely from life. for instance, agáfya miháylovna, the servant, was a real person, and that was her real name. she died at yásnaya only a few years ago. yásnaya polyána itself, in many of its details, is also described in the novel. on 12th may tolstoy again writes to fet: it is already five days since i received the horse, and every day i prepare but never make time to write to you. here the spring and summer life has begun, and our house is full of guests and of bustle. this summer life seems to me like a dream: it contains some slight remains of my real, winter life, but consists chiefly of visions, now pleasant and now unpleasant, from some absurd world not ruled by sane sense. among these visions came your beautiful stallion. i am very much obliged to you for it. where am i to send the money to?... an event which occupies me very much at present is sergey's examinations, which begin on the 27th.... what a terrible summer! here it is dreadful and mournful to look at the wood, especially at the young trees. they have all perished. on 18th may he wrote again: i have been slow in answering your long and cordial letter because i have been unwell and dispirited, as i still am, but i will write at least a few lines. our house is full of people: my niece nagórnaya with two children, the kouzmínskys with four children; and sónya [the countess] is still poorly, and i dejected and dull-minded. our one hope was for good weather, and that we have not got. as you and i resemble one another, you must know the condition in which one feels oneself to be, now a god from whom nothing is hid, and now stupider than a horse. in that state i am at present. so do not be exacting. till next letter, yours, l. tolstoy. the kouzmínskys referred to above were tánya, her husband, and their family. they spent every summer at yásnaya, in the 'wing' house. when discussing any excursion or other undertaking with mr. kouzmínsky, tolstoy would often say, 'but we must hear what the authorities have to say about it,' the authorities being their wives. passing into his 'summer condition,' tolstoy's attention to _anna karénina_ slackened; but before the end of the year he set energetically to work to finish it. the interest aroused by the book was extreme, and the story goes that moscow ladies used to send to the establishment where the novel was being printed, to try to find out what the continuation would be. on 21st july tolstoy writes inviting fet's brother, peter afánasyevitch, a great lover of horses, to accompany him to samára; and in the same letter he makes an allusion to the troubles of the slavs in turkey, where fighting had already been going on for a twelvemonth with the herzegovinians. peter afanásyevitch had gone as a volunteer, and had returned after the failure of the insurrection. _21 july 1876._ i am very much to blame, dear afanásy afanásyevitch, for having been so slow in writing to you. i prepare to write every day, but cannot find time because i am doing nothing.... stráhof was here a week ago, and we philosophised to the point of weariness.... i press the hand of peter afanásyevitch. i should like to hear his stories about herzegovina, in the existence of which i do not believe! i am arranging to go to samára in september. if peter afanásyevitch has no plans for september, will not he go with me to see the kirghiz and their horses? how jolly it would be! mention has already been made of the fact that tolstoy, who understood horses very well, was at this time interested in horse-breeding as a source of revenue. to buy them he visited orenbourg, where he met general kryzhanóvsky, a friend who had been one of his superior officers in sevastopol and was now governor-general of this northern province. they spent the time together very pleasantly recalling their past experiences. to his wife, who had found it hard to consent to his absence, he wrote in september: i know that it is hard for you, and that you are afraid; but i saw the effort you made to control yourself and not to hinder me and, were it possible, i loved you yet more on that account. if only god grants you to spend the time well, healthily, energetically and usefully!... lord have mercy on me and on thee! in a letter of 13th november tolstoy writes to fet: pity me for two things: (1) a good-for-nothing coachman took the stallions to samára and, wishing to take a short cut, drowned gouneba in a bog within ten miles of the estate; (2) i sleep and cannot write; i despise myself for laziness and do not allow myself to take up any other work. twenty-eight years after the loss of gouneba, the countess, in speaking to me of her husband's qualities as a man of affairs, remarked that his schemes were very good, but that he generally spoilt them by lack of care in details. 'for instance,' she remarked, 'it was quite a good idea of his to send a very fine stallion which cost rs. 2000 [about £260] to our estate in samára. there were no such horses in the district; but he must needs entrust it to a drunken tartar who made away with it and said he had lost it.' on 7th december 1876 tolstoy wrote to fet acknowledging a poem, 'among the stars,' which the latter had sent him: that poem is not only worthy of you, but is specially, specially good, with that philosophic-poetic character which i expect from you. it is excellent that it is said by the stars.... it is also good, as my wife remarked, that on the same sheet on which the poem is written, you pour out your grief that the price of kerosene has risen to 12 copecks. that is an indirect but sure sign of a poet. the reader is by this time well aware of tolstoy's devotion to music. though it was at times crowded out of his life by other interests, he always returned to it with ardour when opportunity offered. behrs tells us that tolstoy generally, when playing, chose serious music. he often sat down to the piano before beginning to work.... he always accompanied my youngest sister [tánya] and enjoyed her singing very much. i noticed that the sensation music evoked in him expressed itself by a slight pallor and a scarcely perceptible grimace, suggestive of something like terror. hardly a day passed in summer without my sister singing and without the piano being played. occasionally we all sang together, and he always played the accompaniments. as tolstoy's spiritual crisis approached, the attraction of music for him seemed to increase, and it was about this period, that is to say in december 1876, that he made acquaintance with the composer p. i. tschaikóvsky, who had held the post of director of the moscow conservatoire, the first seeds of which tolstoy had helped to plant nearly twenty years before. tschaikóvsky had from his youth up been a devoted admirer of tolstoy, whose skill in reading the human heart appeared to him almost superhuman. he was therefore highly gratified when tolstoy of his own accord sought his acquaintance. at first their personal intercourse did not appear to lessen the composer's reverence for the author, for on 23rd december 1876 he wrote to a friend: count l. n. tolstoy spent some time here recently. he visited me several times and spent two whole evenings with me. i am tremendously flattered, and proud of the interest i have inspired in him, and for my part am completely enchanted by his ideal personality. tschaikóvsky induced nicholas rubinstein, then director of the moscow conservatoire, to arrange a musical evening solely for tolstoy, and at this concert, rubinstein, fitzenhagen, and adolph bródsky, who is now principal of the manchester college of music, were among the chief performers. one of the pieces performed by a quartet was tschaikóvsky's 'andante in d major,' which so affected tolstoy that he wept. 'never, perhaps, in my life,' says tschaikóvsky, 'was i so flattered, or my vanity as a composer so touched, as when leo nikoláyevitch, sitting next to me and listening to the quartet performing my andante, burst into tears.' after tolstoy had returned to yásnaya he wrote to tschaikóvsky, sending him a collection of folk-songs, and saying: i send you the songs, dear peter ilyítch. i have again looked them through. they will be a wonderful treasure in your hands. but for god's sake work them up and use them in a mozart-haydn style, and not in a beethoven-schumann-berlioz, artificial way, seeking the unexpected. how much i left unsaid to you. i really said nothing of what i wanted to say. there was no time. i was enjoying myself. this last stay of mine in moscow will remain one of the best of my reminiscences. never have i received so precious a reward for my literary labours as on that wonderful evening. tschaikóvsky replied: count, i am sincerely grateful to you for sending the songs. i must tell you candidly that they have been taken down by an unskilful hand, and bear only traces of their pristine beauty. the chief defect is that they have been artificially squeezed and forced into a regular, measured form. only russian dance music has a rhythm and a regular and equally accentuated beat; but folk-ballads have of course nothing in common with dance songs. moreover, most of these songs are, arbitrarily it seems, written in a solemn d major, which again does not suit a real russian song, which almost always has an indefinite tonality approximating nearest of all to ancient church music. in general, the songs you have sent me cannot be worked up in a regular and systematic way: that is to say, one cannot make a collection of them, because for that they would have to be taken down as nearly as possible in the way in which the people perform them. that is an extremely difficult matter, demanding fine musical feeling and great historico-musical erudition. except balakíref, and to some extent prokoúnin, i do not know any one competent for the task. but as material for symphonic treatment, your songs can be of use, and are even very good material, which i certainly will avail myself of in one way or other. it is rather disappointing to find that the intercourse between these two men, each so great in his own way, and each such an admirer of the other's genius, was not continued. tschaikóvsky's expectations had been pitched too high, and he felt a certain disappointment that his 'demigod' was, after all, but human. he had dreaded to meet the novelist lest the latter should penetrate the secret recesses of his soul; but, says tschaikóvsky: he who in his writings was the deepest of heart-seers, proved in personal contact to be a man of simple, whole, and frank nature, showing very little of the omniscience i had feared.... it was plain he did not at all regard me as a subject for his observation, but simply wanted to chat about music, in which he was then interested. he took a pleasure in denying beethoven, and plainly expressed doubts of his genius. this was a trait not at all worthy of a great man. to pull down a universally acknowledged genius to the level of one's own intelligence, is characteristic of small people. feeling thus, tschaikóvsky purposely avoided meeting tolstoy again, and even took a temporary aversion to _anna karénina_, though eventually he returned to his former admiration of tolstoy's novels. tschaikóvsky was not aware of the reasons tolstoy had for the unorthodox position he held on art generally and music in particular: reasons which it will be more in place to deal with later on, and which i have in fact already treated of at some length in a previous work, _tolstoy and his problems_. here let it suffice to say that there is plenty of evidence to show that tolstoy can enjoy beethoven, and enjoy even the works of beethoven's last period, which are the ones he criticises. there is, for instance, the episode with mlle. oberlender, which will be recounted later on, and we have his own statement in _what is art?_: i should mention that whatever other people understand of the productions of beethoven's later period, i, being very susceptible to music, equally understand. for a long time i used to attune myself so as to delight in those shapeless improvisations which form the subject-matter of the works of beethoven's later period; but i had only to consider the question of art seriously, and to compare the impression i received from beethoven's later works with those pleasant, clear, and strong musical impressions which are transmitted, for instance, by the melodies of bach (his arias), haydn, mozart, chopin (when his melodies are not overloaded with complications and ornamentation), and of beethoven himself in his earlier period, and above all, with the impressions produced by folk-songs,--italian, norwegian, or russian,--by the hungarian _tzardas_, and other such simple, clear, and powerful music, and the obscure, almost unhealthy excitement from beethoven's later pieces that i had artificially evoked in myself was destroyed. his work among peasant children has convinced him that the normal human being possesses capacities for the enjoyment of art; and that in most unexpected places the capacity to produce admirable art is now lying latent. that is why he sets up brevity, simplicity, and sincerity as the criterions of art, and why he believes that folk-tales and folk-songs and folk-dances, the gospel parables, such old testament stories as the history of joseph, the arabian nights and the christmas carol; and music such as the _tzardas_, the _swanee river_, the _old hundredth_, and bach's arias, are infinitely more important to the life and well-being of humanity than _king lear_ or the _ninth symphony_. tolstoy--who had boasted of not reading newspapers, and who had lived so detached from politics and the events of contemporary history--began at this time to feel keenly interested in a question closely connected with russia's foreign policy. following the insurrection in herzegovina, another had broken out in bulgaria in may 1876, but had been quickly suppressed by the turks, who burnt some sixty-five villages; the bashi-bazouks committing unspeakable atrocities on the defenceless inhabitants. at the commencement of july, servia and montenegro declared war against turkey; but, in spite of help rendered by numerous russian volunteers, they were soon crushed by the turks, and would have been completely at their mercy had not russia, on 31st october, issued an ultimatum demanding an armistice, which turkey conceded. on 10th november alexander ii made a speech in the moscow krémlin, in which he declared that he would act independently of the other powers unless satisfactory guarantees of reform were obtained forthwith from the sultan. these events gradually led to the war which broke out between russia and turkey in april 1877. before this, however, in the letter of 13th november 1876, already quoted, tolstoy wrote to fet: i went to moscow to hear about the war. this whole affair agitates me greatly. it is well for those to whom it is clear; but i am frightened when i begin to reflect on all the complexity of the conditions amid which history is made, and how some madame a.--with her vanity--becomes an indispensable cog in the whole machine! the russo-turkish imbroglio led, early in 1877, to a split between tolstoy and katkóf. tolstoy, at bottom and in his own original way, was certainly a reformer; and his alliance with katkóf, who was quite reactionary, had always been rather like the yoking of an ox with an ass. at this time katkóf was ardent for the liberation of the slavs from turkish tyranny, laudatory of those who volunteered for the war, and eager for the aggrandisement of russia. tolstoy, with his knowledge of the realities of war and his insight into the motives that actuate the men who fight, had his doubts about the heroic and self-sacrificing character of the volunteers and the purity of the patriotism of the press; and he expressed these doubts very plainly in some of the concluding chapters of _anna karénina_: as, for instance, where he makes lévin say of 'the unanimity of the press': 'that's been explained to me: as soon as there's a war their incomes are doubled. so how can they help believing in the destinies of the people and the slavonic races ... and all the rest of it?' the result was that when the final chapters of the novel were appearing in the _russian messenger_ during the first months of 1877, katkóf returned some of the ms. to tolstoy with numerous corrections and a letter saying that he could not print it unless his corrections were accepted. tolstoy was furious that a journalist should dare to alter a single word in his book, and in reply sent a sharp letter to katkóf, which resulted in a rupture. tolstoy issued the last part of _anna karénina_ separately in book form and not in the magazine, besides, of course, issuing the whole work in book form, as usual; and, in the may number of his _russian messenger_, katkóf had to wind up the story as best he could, by giving a brief summary of the concluding part. these events throw light on the following letter to fet: _23 march 1877._ you can't imagine how glad i am to have your approval of my writings, dear afanásy afanásyevitch, and in general to receive your letter. you write that the _russian messenger_ has printed some one else's poem, while your _temptation_ lies waiting. it is the dullest and deadest editorial office in existence. they have become terribly repulsive to me, not on my own account, but for the sake of others.... my head is now better, but as it gets better it has to work that much harder. march and the beginning of april are the months when i work most, and i still continue to be under the delusion that what i am writing is very important, though i know that in a month's time i shall be ashamed to remember that i thought so. have you noticed that a new line has now been started, and that everybody is writing poetry: very bad poetry, but they all do it. some five new poets have introduced themselves to me lately. the dislike tolstoy felt of the artificially stimulated war fever (though, to do katkóf and his friends justice, one must admit that no european power during the last fifty years has had more justification for war than russia had for intervening in defence of the slav population of turkey) was connected with the religious impulse that was beginning to reshape his whole life; but it does not appear that he actually disapproved of the war after russia had officially commenced it. what he primarily objected to was, that private individuals should push the government into a war. an influence which has left its traces in the latter part of _anna karénina_ (particularly part vii, chap. 21) was tolstoy's intercourse, about this time, with some of the most prominent followers of lord radstock, who frequently visited russia and obtained considerable influence with a number of people in certain aristocratic petersburg circles. one of these people, count a. p. bóbrinsky, who had been minister of ways of communication, made tolstoy's acquaintance and had animated religious discussions with him. both bóbrinsky and colonel páshkof (another very prominent radstockite) for a while cherished hopes of winning tolstoy over to evangelical christianity, and making him the spokesman of their cause. tolstoy, as the event proved, was quite capable of throwing himself whole-heartedly into a religious movement; but he needed a faith much more clear-cut than the scheme of redemption by the blood of jesus: one that faced the facts of life, dealt explicitly with the bread-and-butter problem, and told men how to regard the fact that some people have to overtax their strength without ever reaching an assured maintenance, while others have a superabundance provided for them from their birth without ever needing to do a stroke of work. his profound contempt for evangelical doctrines flashed out twenty years later, in the 17th chapter of book ii of _resurrection_. it was a little before this that fet told tolstoy the following story. sauntering in a churchyard, he had come upon an inscription which touched him more than any epitaph he had ever read. the tombstone was in the form of an obelisk of plain grey sandstone. on one of its four sides were deeply cut the words: _here is buried the body of the peasant girl mary_; on another side: _here also is buried an infant of the female sex_. on the side opposite the name of the deceased stood these words ill-spelt: _this, my dear, is the last adornment i can give thee_; and below stood the name of _retired non-commissioned officer so-and-so_. in his next letter tolstoy writes: _18 october 1876._ _this, my dear, is the last adornment i can give thee_ is charming! i have told it twice, and each time my voice has broken with tears. 1877 in tolstoy's next letter to fet, dated 11th january, we get a glimpse of one of the reasons that led this strenuous worker to prefer a country life: dear afanásy afanásyevitch,--one does not strike or cut off the head that owns its fault! i confess that i am quite at fault towards you. but truly, in moscow i am in a condition of irresponsibility; my nerves are out of order, the hours turn to minutes, and as though on purpose, the people i do not want turn up and prevent my seeing those whom i do want. among the people whom in his search for truth tolstoy did want to know, were some of the leading scientists of that day--a day when many men thought that darwin had opened the gateway to a knowledge which would gradually solve the mysteries of life and death, the here and the hereafter. the great literary fame tolstoy now enjoyed made it an easy matter to make such acquaintances. one of the scientists he got to know, was a celebrated professor of chemistry, a. m. boutleróf, whom to his amazement he found to be much concerned with table-turning and spiritualism; occupations tolstoy held in contempt. a letter to fet, dated 14th april, gives some inkling of what was going on in tolstoy's mind at this time: i value every letter of yours, especially such as this last! you would hardly believe how pleased i am at what you write 'on the existence of the deity.' i agree with it all, and should like to say much about it, but cannot in a letter, and am too busy. it is the first time you have spoken to me about the deity--god. and i have long been thinking unceasingly about that chief problem. do not say that one cannot think about it! one not only can, but must! in all ages the best, the real people, have thought about it. and if we cannot think of it as they did, we must find out _how_. have you read _pensées de pascal_--_i.e._ have you read it recently with a mature head-piece? when (which god grant) you come to see me, we will talk of many things, and i will give you that book. were i free from my novel--of which the end is already in type and i am correcting the proofs--i would at once on receipt of your letter have come to you. in the middle of this summer tolstoy, bringing with him n. stráhof, paid fet an unexpected visit. the latter had at this time engaged as governess a mlle. oberlender, an excellent pianist, and in his _recollections_ he tells us that on this visit: the count, a sensitive esthete by nature, was greatly taken by the piano playing of mlle. oberlender. he sat down to play duets with her, and they played through almost the whole of beethoven. fet quotes tolstoy's comment on the lady's performance: 'when we were young, such pianists travelled across europe giving concerts. she reads any piece of music as you read poetry, finding just the suitable expression for each note.' towards the end of july, tolstoy, accompanied by n. stráhof, visited for the first time the monastery of óptin, which is situated in the kaloúga government, and is about 135 miles to the west of yásnaya. a very prominent figure in the monastic world at that time was the _staretz_ father ambrose, with whom tolstoy had some long conversations. among others whose acquaintance tolstoy made there, was a monk who had formerly been an officer in the horse guards. one of the most important of the works tolstoy left for publication after his death, is a remarkable novel called _father sergius_, the hero of which is a man of the world who becomes a monk, acquires a reputation for sanctity, and then yields to temptation and ends as an outcast. his visits to the óptin monastery, which were repeated three times, supplied tolstoy with material which many years later he utilised in that work. at óptin, tolstoy had met his friend prince obolénsky, to whom on his return journey he paid a visit at the latter's estate of beryósino. here he renewed acquaintance with n. rubinstein, who was staying with obolénsky, and whose pianoforte playing he enjoyed intensely. a visit which much interested tolstoy was paid him about this time by an itinerant story-teller, expert in folk-lore, wielding beautifully the simple language of the people, such as tolstoy loves and has utilised in his stories. he took down in writing some of this traveller's tales, and from them subsequently worked up into literary form _what men live by_, _the three hermits_ (included in _twenty-three tales_), and some others. the root idea of _what men live by_ is that of an angel sent by god to do penance on earth for a well-intentioned act of disobedience. it seems that it is one of the most widely disseminated of the world's legends, appearing and reappearing in the literature of many countries through many centuries. in the latter part of 1877 a number of turkish prisoners of war were located in an abandoned sugar-factory between toúla and yásnaya. tolstoy visited them there, and found that they were fairly well treated. being himself greatly concerned about religion, he naturally talked to them on that subject, and was much impressed when he found that each of them had a copy of the koran in his kit. on 6th december another son, andrew (andréy), was born. all through this year, amid bustle and activity of various kinds, spiritual problems continued to torment tolstoy, and his physical health began to show signs of the strain. here is a note to fet, dated 2nd september: just now i am constantly out hunting and am busy arranging how to place our educational staff for the winter. i have been to moscow looking for a teacher and a tutor. to-day i feel quite ill. 1878 nor did matters improve as the months went on, for on 27th january he again writes: most unfortunately your suppositions, dear afanásy afanásyevitch, are wrong. not only am i not at work, but the reason i failed to answer you was because i have been ill all this time. lately i have even been in bed for some days. a chill in various forms: teeth and side, and the result is that time goes by--my best time--and i do no work. then follows a touch showing how, in many matters, his wife's mind was still attuned to his own, though she was not sharing his spiritual struggles, and in the matter of the education of the children there was already some disagreement between them: on reading it i said to my wife, 'fet's poem is charming, but there is one word that is wrong.' she was nursing and bustling about at the time; but at tea, having quieted down, she took up the poem to read, and at once pointed out the words 'as the gods'--which i considered bad. on 25th march 1878 he writes to fet: last week, after seventeen years' absence, i went to petersburg to purchase some land in samára from general b.... there i met a pair of orlóf generals who made me shudder: it was just as though one were standing between two sets of rails with goods trains passing. to enter into the minds of these generals, i had to recall the rare days of drunkenness i have experienced, or the days of my very earliest childhood. after completing _anna karénina_ tolstoy again took up _the decembrists_, which he had put aside in favour of _war and peace_ fourteen years before. as already mentioned, a second cousin of tolstoy's mother, prince s. g. volkónsky, had been a prominent decembrist; and tolstoy had at his disposal a number of family diaries and journals throwing much light on the subject of that conspiracy. while in petersburg he made personal acquaintance with some of the survivors of the movement, and also applied to the commandant of the petropávlof fortress--who happened to be an officer under whom he had served in the crimea--for permission to see the alexis dungeons, in which the decembrists had been confined. the commandant received him very politely, allowed him to see over other parts of the fortress, but told him that, though any one could enter the dungeons, only three persons in the whole empire--the emperor, the commandant, and the chief of the gendarmes--having once entered them, could again leave them. finally, after writing three fragments of it, tolstoy abandoned this novel, to which he had devoted much time. the subject was one he could hardly have dealt with frankly without getting into trouble with the censor; and he had been refused permission to study the state archives; but in the following passage behrs gives another, and a curiously characteristic, reason for tolstoy's decision: he affirmed that the decembrist insurrection was a result of the influence of french nobles, a large number of whom had emigrated to russia after the french revolution. as tutors in aristocratic families, they educated the whole russian nobility, which explains the fact that many of the decembrists were catholics. the belief that the movement was due to foreign influence, and was not a purely national one, sufficed to prevent tolstoy from sympathising with it. another letter to fet again shows the direction in which tolstoy's mind was working: _6 april 1878._ i have received your delightful and long letter, dear afanásy afanásyevitch. do not praise me. really you see in me too much good, and in others too much bad. one thing in me is good: that i understand you and therefore love you. but though i love you as you are, i am always angry with you for this, that 'martha is anxious about many things; but one thing is needful.' and in you that one thing is very strong, but somehow you disdain it and are more concerned about arranging a billiard room. don't suppose that i refer to poems: though i expect them to come too! but it is not of them i speak; they will come in spite of the billiards; i am speaking of a conception of the world which would make it unnecessary to be angry at the stupidity of mortals. were you and i to be pounded together in a mortar and moulded into two people, we should make a capital pair. but at present you are so attached to the things of this life, that should they some day fail you, it will go hard with you; while i am so indifferent to them, that life becomes uninteresting, and i depress others by an eternal pouring 'from void into vacuum'! do not suppose that i have gone mad; i am merely out of sorts, but hope you will love me though i be black. the prolonged mental struggle through which tolstoy passed with great suffering during the years 1874-78, was quite evident to those about him, at least from 1876 onward. not merely did he go regularly to church, and shut himself up in his study morning and evening to pray, but his former high spirits subsided, and his desire to become meek and humble was plainly noticeable. one result of his altered attitude was, that he felt keenly that it was wrong to have an enemy. accordingly he wrote tourgénef to that effect, and held out to him the right hand of friendship. to this tourgénef replied: paris, _8 may 1878_. dear leo nikoláyevitch,--i only to-day received your letter, addressed _poste-restante_. it gladdened and touched me very much. with the greatest readiness will i renew our former friendship, and i warmly press the hand you hold out to me. you are quite right in supposing me to have no hostile feelings towards you. if ever they existed they have long since disappeared, and the recollection of you only remains as of a man to whom i am sincerely attached, and of a writer whose first steps it was my good fortune to be the first to hail, and each new work from whom has always aroused in me the liveliest interest. i am heartily glad of the cessation of the misunderstandings that arose between us. i hope this summer to be in the government of orlóf, and in that case we shall of course see one another. till then, i wish you all that is good, and once more press your hand in friendship. on 13th june, on the point of starting for samára with the elder children and their tutor, tolstoy writes to fet: i have seldom so enjoyed a summer as this year, but a week ago i caught cold and fell ill, and only to-day have i come to life again. somewhat later in the summer the countess, with the younger children, joined her husband in samára. hardly were the tolstoys back from samára before tourgénef wrote from moscow that he would be in toúla on the following monday, 7th august. tolstoy, accompanied by his brother-in-law, drove thither to meet him, and brought him to yásnaya, where he passed a couple of days. both writers were delighted to feel that their seventeen-year disagreement was ended; and the countess, who when a girl had known tourgénef well, was equally pleased to welcome him to the house. a lady who was there at the time, tells us that the two writers spent much of their time in philosophic and religious conversation in tolstoy's study, but: when they came out into the sitting-room their conversation became general and took a different turn. tourgénef told with pleasure of the villa bougival which he had just bought near paris, and of its comfort and arrangements, saying, 'we have built a charming conservatory, costing ten thousand francs,' and 'we' did so-and-so and so-and-so, meaning by 'we,' the viardot family and himself. 'of an evening we often play _vint_ [a game similar to bridge]--do you?' he asked tolstoy. 'no, we never play cards,' replied the count, and turned the conversation to another topic. knowing that he was fond of chess, the countess tolstoy asked him to play a game with her eldest son, a lad of fifteen, saying, 'he will all his life remember having played with tourgénef.' tourgénef condescendingly agreed, and began a game, while continuing to talk to us. 'in paris i often used to play chess and was considered a good player. they called me _le chevalier de pion_. i am fond of pawns.... do you know the new phrase now in fashion among the french--_vieux jeu_? whatever you say, a frenchman replies, "_vieux jeu!_"' 'eh! but one must not joke with you,' he exclaimed suddenly, turning to his youthful opponent. 'you have all but done for me.' and he began to play carefully, and only won the game with difficulty, for young tolstoy really played chess excellently. at evening tea tourgénef told how he had played the part of a satyr at m^{me} viardot's private theatricals, and how some of the audience had gazed at him with amazement. we knew that he had himself written the piece (a sort of operetta) for those theatricals, and knew also that russians, both abroad and at home, disapproved of his playing the fool for m^{me} viardot's amusement; and we all felt uncomfortable. in telling it he seemed to be trying to justify himself, but he soon passed on to another theme, and we breathed more freely. he had the gift of words and spoke readily and smoothly, but seemed to prefer narrating to conversing. he told us of his confinement in the hauptwerk of the spássky police-station in petersburg, for his article on the death of gógol, and he described how dull it was.... tolstoy also narrated, and i liked his stories better: they were more strongly sketched, often humorous, and always original. in them much was simple, unexpected and touching.... i. s. aksákof used to say, with reference to tolstoy's gigantic power, that he had 'a bear-like talent,' but i will add that his soul is as meek 'as a dove,' and as enthusiastic as a youth; and that the union of those two qualities explains the new direction he has since taken, a direction which so distressed tourgénef. an hour before midnight tourgénef rose. 'it is time for me to go to the station,' said he. we all rose. the railway station was one-and-a-half miles away, and count leo nikoláyevitch drove with him, to see him off. behrs also writes of the same visit: at dinner tourgénef told many stories, and to the delight of the younger folk mimicked not only persons, but animals also. thus, placing one hand under the other, he depicted a fowl waddling in the soup, and then imitated a hunting dog at a loss. as i listened to him and watched his tricks i couldn't help thinking that he evidently inherited something of the talent for which one of his ancestors under peter the great enjoyed no little fame. this was the last summer behrs, now a young man of twenty-three, passed with tolstoy before taking up official work in the caucasus. his evidence fully supports that of others who have seen tolstoy in contact with children, peasants or native races: to all of these tolstoy extends his charm of comprehension, consideration, and sympathy. whenever tolstoy went out with his gun and his dogs, behrs used to accompany him; and together they would ride twenty-four miles from yásnaya to visit count sergius tolstoy at pirogóvo. leo tolstoy took his brother-in-law on these visits, behrs says, 'for my sake, if not for his own, since he knew what pleasure it gave me to be with him.' the remark he made when he heard that behrs had obtained an official appointment in the caucasus is characteristic: 'you are too late for the caucasus. the whole country already stinks of officials.' characteristic too of the feeling tolstoy inspires among those who know him most intimately, is behrs's concluding remark: 'i at least am aware of nothing in his life that needs to be concealed.' at the beginning of september tourgénef, on his return from his estate, again visited yásnaya, but he arrived at an unfortunate time, when there was illness in the house, and he paid but a short visit. one sees by a letter to fet on 5th september that tolstoy still found himself unable to be quite intimate with his fellow novelist: tourgénef on his return journey came to see us and was glad to receive your letter. he is still the same, and we know the degree of nearness possible between us. i have a terrible desire to write something, but feel a depressing doubt whether this is a false or a true appetite. the last sentence must refer to the _confession_, most of which was not written till the next year. in october he again wrote to fet: i do not know how or in what spirit to begin to write to you, dear afanásy afanásyevitch; any way, there are no words for it but, 'i am to blame, i am to blame, and i am altogether to blame!' though it is always superfluous for apologisers to explain their reasons, i will yet write mine because they are true and explain my condition. for a month past, if not more, i have been living amid the fumes not of external occurrences (on the contrary we are by ourselves, living quietly) but of what is going on inside: something i know not how to name. i go out shooting, read, reply to questions put to me, eat, and sleep, but can do nothing, not even write a letter, a score of which have collected. apparently while in bad spirits, he wrote to tourgénef asking him not to refer to his (tolstoy's) writings--for the latter replies on 15th october, saying: 'i am glad you are all physically well, and hope the "mental sickness" of which you write has now passed.' he then continues: although you ask me not to speak of your writings, i must still remark that it has never happened to me to laugh at you 'even a little.' some of your things pleased me very much; others did not please me at all; while others again, such as _the cossacks_ for instance, afforded me great pleasure and excited my wonder. but what ground was there for laughter? i thought you had long since got rid of such 'reflexive' feelings. why are they current only among authors, and not among musicians, painters, and other artists? probably because in literary work more of that part of the soul is exposed, which it is not quite convenient to show. but at our (already mature) age as authors, it is time we were accustomed to it. this displeased tolstoy, who in his next letter to fet expressed his vexation with tourgénef who, i imagine, had not intended to give offence: _22 november 1878._ dear afanásy afanásyevitch,--i will go to moscow and have 'i am to blame' printed on my notepaper. but i don't think i am to blame for not replying to the letter in which you promised to come and see us. i remember my joy at that news, and that i replied immediately. if not, still please don't punish me, but come.... yesterday i received a letter from tourgénef; and do you know, i have decided that it will be better to 'keep further away from him and from sin' [a common russian saying]. he is an unpleasant sort of quarrel-maker. my congratulations to you on your birthday. i will not in future omit to congratulate you on the 23rd, and hope not to forget it for the next dozen times. that will be enough for either of us. _au revoir!_ fet was destined to live four years beyond the span tolstoy allotted him, and tolstoy himself is still with us, though more than thirty years have passed since that letter was written; and what strenuous years they have been! how he has wrestled with life's greatest problems one after another, and how he has flung down before the world his opinions (right, wrong, or motley) on dogmatic theology, christ's christianity, religion in general, economic and social problems, famine, the employment of violence, war, conscription, government, patriotism, the sex problem, art, science, food-reform and the use of stimulants and narcotics, besides producing a series of simple stories for the people, as well as more complex ones for the rest of society, three plays, one great novel, and a stream of weighty and interesting essays and letters which have poured forth from yásnaya in an increasing stream as the years went by; not to mention works kept back for posthumous publication, at the mention of which the literary world pricks up its ears! on 1st october 1878 tourgénef wrote to fet from bougival, again saying that he intended to translate _the cossacks_ into french, and adding, 'it will give me great pleasure to assist in acquainting the french public with the best story that has been written in our language.' in another letter from bougival in december, he remarked: i was very glad to come together with tolstoy, and i spent three pleasant days with him; his whole family are very sympathetic, and his wife is charming. he has grown very quiet and has matured. his name begins to gain european celebrity: we russians have long known that he has no rivals. the course of the story has swept me a little past tolstoy's fiftieth birthday--the point at which i intended to close this first part of my work. besides giving some brief survey of his writings during his first twenty-five years of authorship, all that now remains is to give a summary of that remarkable work, his _confession_, which shows us vividly, though with some amount of involuntary artistic heightening, what had been going on in his mind and soul from 1874 to 1879, the year in which it was written. by way of brief preface to his _confession_, it will be in place to say a few words about two different tendencies which, each in its own way, influenced tolstoy. on the one hand there was the religious life of the people, with all its medieval traditions. tolstoy had only to go a short walk from his house to reach the highroad, on which pilgrims going afoot to the shrines of the saints could always be met; and he had many a conversation with these pilgrims at the rest-house they frequented. among them there were many to whom the things of this world were certainly less precious than obedience to the will of god as they understood it; and tolstoy's stories show us how closely he observed these people, and how near some of them came to his soul. on the other hand he was influenced by the quite modern and very remarkable movement that was at this time beginning to make itself felt in russia; a movement having its roots in conditions of life which greatly disturbed tolstoy's own mind, and which took as one of its watchwords the motto 'towards the people'--a sentiment quite in harmony with his own attitude. in 1875 public attention was aroused by the trial of the dolgoúshin group of propagandists; and the trial of 'the moscow 50,' in march 1877, revealed the fact that a number of girls of wealthy families were voluntarily leading the life of factory hands working fourteen hours a day in over-crowded factories, that they might come into touch with working people, to teach them, and to carry on a social and political propaganda among them. then followed the historic trial of 'the 193' in 1878. these and many other indications showed that in spite of the repressive measures of the government, a steadily increasing number of russians felt (what tolstoy also felt strongly) that the existing order of society results in the mass of the people having to live in conditions of blighting ignorance and grinding poverty; while the parasitic minority who live in plenty and sometimes in extravagant superfluity, render no service at all equivalent to the cost of their maintenance. the mere statement that those who had received an education thanks to the work of the masses, owe service to the masses in return, sufficed to rouse to action some of the young men and women of that day. they left their wealthy homes, lived the simplest lives, ran fearful risks, and according to their lights--sometimes not very clear ones--devoted themselves to the service of the people. while this was going on around him, a man with such a temperament as tolstoy's, could not be at rest. already in 1875 mihaylóvsky had published a remarkable series of articles on _the right and left hand of count tolstoy_, in which he pointed out that that author's works reveal the clash of contrary ideals and tendencies in the writer's soul, and that especially his educational articles contain ideas quite in conflict with certain tendencies noticeable in _war and peace_. with remarkable prevision mihaylóvsky predicted an inevitable crisis in tolstoy's life, and added: one asks oneself what such a man is to do, and how he is to live?... i think an ordinary man in such a position would end by suicide or drunkenness; but a man of worth will seek for other issues--and of these there are several. one of these he suggested would be, to write for the people (tolstoy's _readers_ had already been published) or to write so as to remind 'society' that its pleasures and amusements are not those of the mass of mankind, and thus to arouse the latent feelings of justice in some who now forget the debt they owe to their fellows. in fact, the trial of 'the 193' or the movement from which it arose, had a vital, though indirect, influence on tolstoy, who at this time had engaged v. i. alexéyef, a graduate of petersburg university, as mathematical master for his son. alexéyef had been a member of the tchaykóvsky group which carried on an educational propaganda in elementary socialism in the early '70's. the activities of this group were so restricted, and they were so hampered by the police, that some of its members, feeling a need of freer activity, migrated to kansas, where for two years they carried on an agricultural colony. dissensions arose among them, and their experiment failed. alexéyef returned to russia; tchaykóvsky settled in england, where he spent many years, and only returned to russia after the amnesty of 1905, to be again arrested and to spend more than a year in prison awaiting a trial which ended in his acquittal. tolstoy noticed that alexéyef was a man who shaped his life in accord with his beliefs, and he respected him accordingly, and through him made acquaintance with some of the best representatives of the immature socialist movement then brewing in russia. we have here a remarkable example of the indirect way in which thoughts influence the world. auguste comte wrote a philosophy. having filtered through the minds of g. h. lewes and j. s. mill, it reached nicholas tchaykóvsky when he was a schoolboy of fourteen in the seventh gymnasium in petersburg. 'it fascinated me to such an extent,' says he in the reminiscences contributed to g. h. perris's interesting book, _russia in revolution_, 'that, while sitting in school, i longed to get back to our lodgings and to my chosen reading. the more i progressed, the more i was absorbed. this study powerfully affected my mind and systematised my ideas.' a few years later tchaykóvsky, having read much meanwhile, formed his group, which sowed the seeds of changes yet to come. progress, however, was very slow, and he felt 'the ineffectiveness of ordinary political and socialistic propaganda among a deeply religious peasantry, still hopeful of benefits from above.' this forced him to reconsider the whole situation. 'i met,' adds he, 'some friends with whom i began to work upon the rather utopian idea of formulating a new religion, and, for the sake of more effective experiment, we were soon compelled to transfer ourselves with this stupendous mission, to the steppes of kansas.' wishing to transform society, tchaykóvsky had seen the need of some systematic outlook on life--'a new religion,' in fact. dissatisfied with his own outlook on life, tolstoy was seeking a new religion, and when he found it, it led him to demand great changes in society. the mature novelist and the young propagandist, who have never met in the flesh, had therefore much in common; though tolstoy dislikes the works of comte and mill, which had done so much for tchaykóvsky, and can hardly speak of them with tolerance (except mill's _autobiography_, which interests him). detesting the methods of violence to which those who succeeded tchaykóvsky felt themselves driven, tolstoy could still not doubt the sincerity of the faith that actuated most of them; for they had all to lose and nothing to gain by joining the revolutionary movement. sophie peróvsky, one of 'the 193' (subsequently hanged in petersburg for taking part in the assassination of alexander ii), was the daughter of the governor-general of that city, and was a niece of the minister of education. demetrius lisogoúb, a landowner, devoted his whole fortune of some £40,000 to the movement; and was hanged in odessa. prince peter kropótkin risked his all to give lessons to workmen; and escaped abroad, having lost position, fortune, and the right to live in his native land. tolstoy, an older man, with a strong character and definite views of his own on many points, could not join the socialist movement, but that he was influenced by it is beyond doubt. the state of russian life was indeed such that men of sensitive consciences could not be at rest (as, indeed, when and where in the wide world can they?), and the work tolstoy had already done, marked him out as one in whose soul the struggle which was moving others, would assuredly be fought out strenuously. no one however, and certainly not he himself, as yet knew what effect that crisis would have upon him, or what his course of life would be in the years that were to come. chief authorities for chapter x besides books mentioned in last chapter, information relating to this period is contained in a number of magazines and newspaper articles, of which the following are the most important. on the education dispute see: _moskov. eparhial. ved._, october 1874. _rousskiya vedomosti_, 1894, no. 31. n. k. mihaylovsky's _zapiski profana_, and e. schuyler in _rousskaya starina_, october 1870, and in _scribner's magazine_, may and june, 1889. about samara famine, etc., see: a. s. prougavin in _obrazovaniye_, nov. 1902. on tourgenef's visit to yasnaya see: _tobolskiya goubern. vedomosti_, 1893, no. 26. the _rousskoye obozreniye_, 1896, contains a letter from tolstoy to fet. the _vestnik evropy_, june 1904, contains m. zaharina's _vospominaniya gr. a. a. tolstaya_. _zhisn p. i. tschaikovskavo._ _pervoe sobranie pisem tourgeneva, 1840-1883_; petersburg, 1884. p. a. sergeyenko in _niva_, no. 8, 1906. chapter xi confession what is the meaning of life? thoughts of suicide. the traveller in the well. schopenhauer and solomon. four ways of meeting the problem. the peasants' answer. the finite linked to the infinite. faith essential. faiths that obscure. why life seemed meaningless. the search for god. the infallibility of the church. rites and prayers. communion. the lives of the saints. the orthodox and the sectarians. war. the need to unravel truth from error. this chapter is a summary of tolstoy's _confession_,[54] or 'introduction to a criticism of dogmatic theology and to an investigation of the christian teachings,' as the russian title ran, from the first pages of which i have already quoted freely in the preceding chapters. i have kept as much to tolstoy's words as possible, but having to condense, i have not only omitted much, but have also paraphrased some passages to avoid repetition. the plan i have adopted, since this is a _life_ and not a theological treatise, has been to cut down to a mere skeleton the abstract argument of tolstoy's _confession_, while giving almost in full what he says about his own experience. [54] it is strange that tolstoy's _confession_ has not yet been put into english at all reproducing the vigorous simplicity of the original. there is, i think, nothing better than the threepenny edition issued by the _free age press_ under the title, _how i came to believe_; and on looking at that to see if i could quote from it, i find that it is not good enough. many men, at the age of puberty, or at any rate while their minds were still maturing, have experienced the change known as 'conversion.' that is to say, they have more or less suddenly turned round and looked at life from a fresh point of view: what in their nature had been latent or secondary has become dominant and primary, and things temporal and material have become subordinate to things spiritual and eternal. what is unusual about the story of tolstoy's conversion is that it came so late in life and so gradually, and that the intellect played so large a part in it. some men take to religion at the prompting of the heart, others at the prompting of the brain; and tolstoy belongs to the latter category, not from lack of heart, but because strong as are his emotions, his intellectual power is stronger still. his _confession_ was written in 1879, and in it he says: five years ago something very strange began to happen to me: at first i experienced moments of perplexity and arrest of life, as though i did not know how to live or what to do; and i felt lost and became dejected. but this passed, and i went on living as before. then these moments of perplexity began to recur oftener and oftener, and always in the same form. they were always expressed by the questions: what's it for? what does it lead to? at first it seemed to me that these were aimless and irrelevant questions. i thought that it was all well known, and that if i should ever wish to deal with the solution, it would not cost me much effort; just at present i had no time for it, but when i wanted to i should be able to find the answer. the questions, however, began to repeat themselves frequently, and more and more insistently to demand replies; and like drops of ink always falling on one place, they ran together into one black blot. that occurred which happens to every one sickening with a mortal internal disease. at first trivial signs of indisposition appear, to which the sick man pays no attention; then these signs reappear more and more often, and merge into one uninterrupted period of suffering. the suffering increases, and before the sick man can look round, what he took for a mere indisposition has already become more important to him than anything else in the world--it is death! that was what happened to me. i understood that it was no casual indisposition, but something very important, and that if these questions constantly repeated themselves, it would be necessary to answer them. and i tried to do so. the questions seemed such stupid simple childish questions; but as soon as i touched them and tried to solve them, i at once became convinced (1) that they are not childish and stupid, but the most important and the deepest of life's questions; and (2) that, try as i would, i could not solve them. before occupying myself with my samára estate, the education of my son, or the writing of a book, i had to know _why_ i was doing it. as long as i did not know why, i could do nothing, and could not live. amid the thoughts of estate management which greatly occupied me at that time, the question would suddenly occur to me: 'well, you will have 16,000 acres of land in samára government and 300 horses, and what next?'... and i was quite disconcerted, and did not know what to think. or, when considering my plans for the education of my children, i would say to myself: what for? or when considering how the peasants might be prosperous, i suddenly said to myself, 'but what business is it of mine?' or when thinking of the fame my works would bring me, i said to myself, 'very well: you will be more famous than gógol or poúshkin or shakespear or molière, or than all the writers in the world--and what will it lead to?' and i could find no reply at all. the questions would not wait, they had to be answered at once, and if i did not answer them, it was impossible to live. but there was no answer. i felt that what i had been standing on had broken down, and that i had nothing left under my feet. what i had lived on, no longer existed; and i had nothing left to live on. my life came to a standstill. i could breathe, eat, drink and sleep, and i could not help doing these things; but there was no life, for there were no wishes the fulfilment of which i could consider reasonable.... had a fairy come and offered to fulfil my desires, i should not have known what to ask.... if in moments of intoxication i felt something which i cannot call a wish, but a habit left by former wishes, in sober moments i knew this to be a delusion, and that there is really nothing to wish for. i could not even wish to know the truth, for i guessed in what it consisted. the truth was that life is meaningless. i had, as it were, lived, lived, and walked, walked, till i had come to a precipice and saw clearly that there was nothing ahead of me but destruction. it was impossible to stop, impossible to go back, and impossible to close my eyes or avoid seeing that there was nothing ahead but suffering and real death--complete annihilation. it had come to this, that i, a healthy, fortunate man, felt i could no longer live: some irresistible power impelled me to rid myself one way or other of life. i cannot say i _wished_ to kill myself. the power which drew me away from life was stronger, fuller, and more widespread than any mere wish. the thought of self-destruction now came to me as naturally as thoughts of how to improve my life had come formerly. and it was so seductive that i had to be wily with myself, lest i should carry it out too hastily: 'if i cannot unravel matters, there will always be time.' and it was then that i, a man favoured by fortune, hid a cord from myself, lest i should hang myself from the crosspiece of the partition in my room, where i undressed alone every evening; and i ceased to go out shooting with a gun, lest i should be tempted by so easy a way of ending my life. i did not myself know what i wanted: i feared life, desired to escape from it; yet still hoped something of it. [illustration: tolstoy's library. (formerly his study and dressing-room.) showing the wooden cross-piece from which he wished to hang himself.] and all this befell me at a time when all around me i had what is considered complete good fortune. i was not yet fifty; i had a good wife who loved me and whom i loved; good children, and a large estate which without much effort on my part improved and increased. i was respected by my relations and acquaintances more than at any previous time. i was praised by others, and without much self-deception could consider that my name was famous. and far from being insane or mentally unwell,--on the contrary i enjoyed a strength of mind and body such as i have seldom met with among men of my kind: physically i could keep up with the peasants at mowing, and mentally i could work for eight to ten hours at a stretch without experiencing any ill results from such exertion.... my mental condition presented itself to me in this way: my life is a stupid and spiteful joke some one has played on me. though i did not acknowledge a 'some one' who created me, yet that form of representation--that some one had played an evil and stupid joke on me by placing me in the world--was the form of expression that suggested itself most naturally to me. involuntarily it appeared to me that there, somewhere, is some one who amuses himself by watching how i live for thirty or forty years: learning, developing, maturing in body and mind, and how--having now with matured mental powers reached the summit of life, from which it all lies before me, i stand on that summit--like an arch-fool--seeing clearly that there is nothing in life, and that there has been and will be nothing. and he is amused.... but whether that 'some one' laughing at me existed or not, i was none the better off. i could give no reasonable meaning to any single action, or to my whole life. i was only surprised that i could have avoided understanding this from the very beginning--it has been so long known to all. to-day or to-morrow sickness and death will come (they have come already) to those i love or to me; nothing will remain but stench and worms. sooner or later my deeds, whatever they may have been, will be forgotten, and i shall not exist. then why go on making any effort?... how can man fail to see this? and how go on living? that is what is surprising! one can only live when one is intoxicated with life; as soon as one is sober it is impossible not to see that it is all a mere fraud and a stupid fraud! that is precisely what it is: there is nothing either amusing or witty about it; it is simply cruel and stupid. there is an eastern fable, told long ago, of a traveller overtaken on a plain by an enraged beast. escaping from the beast he leaps into a dry well, but sees at the bottom of the well a dragon that has opened its jaws to swallow him. and the unfortunate man, not daring to climb out lest he should be destroyed by the enraged beast, and not daring to leap to the bottom of the well lest he should be eaten by the dragon, seizes a twig growing in a crack in the well and clings to it. his hands are growing weaker, and he feels he will soon have to resign himself to the destruction that awaits him above or below; but still he clings on; and he sees that two mice, a black and a white one, go regularly round and round the stem of the twig to which he is clinging, and gnaw at it. and soon the twig itself will snap and he will fall into the dragon's jaws. the traveller sees this and knows that he will inevitably perish; but while still hanging he looks around and finds some drops of honey on the leaves of the twig and reaches them with his tongue and licks them. so i too clung to the twig of life, knowing that the dragon of death was inevitably awaiting me, ready to tear me to pieces; and i could not understand why i had fallen into such torment. i tried to lick the honey which formerly consoled me; but the honey no longer gave me pleasure, and the white and black mice of day and night gnawed at the branch by which i hung. i saw the dragon clearly, and the honey no longer tasted sweet. and this is not a fable, but the real unanswerable truth intelligible to all. the deception of the joys of life which formerly allayed my terror of the dragon, now no longer deceives me. no matter how much i may be told: 'you cannot understand the meaning of life, so do not think about it, but live,' i can no longer do it: i have already done it too long. i cannot now help seeing day and night going round and bringing me to death. that is all i see, for that alone is true. all else is false. the two drops of honey which diverted my eyes from the cruel truth longer than the rest: my love of family, and of writing--art as i called it--were no longer sweet to me. family ... said i to myself. but my family: wife and children--are also human. they too are placed as i am: they must either live in a lie, or see the terrible truth. why should they live? why should i love them, guard them, bring them up, or watch them? that they may come to the despair that i feel, or else be stupid? loving them, i cannot hide the truth from them: each step in knowledge leads them to that truth. and the truth is death. 'art, poetry?'... under the influence of success and the praise of men, i had long assured myself that this was a thing one could do though death was drawing near--death which destroys all things, including my work and its remembrance; but i soon saw that that too was a fraud. it was plain to me that art is an adornment to life, an allurement to life. but life had lost its attraction for me; so how could i attract others? as long as i was not living my own life, but was borne on the waves of some other life--as long as i believed that life had a meaning, though one i could not express--the reflection of life in poetry and art of all kinds, afforded me pleasure: it was pleasant to look at life in the mirror of art. but when i began to seek the meaning of life, and felt the necessity of living on my own account, that mirror became for me unnecessary, superfluous, ridiculous, or painful. i could no longer soothe myself with what i saw in the mirror, for what i saw was, that my position was stupid and desperate. it was all very well to enjoy the sight when in the depth of my soul i believed that my life had a meaning. then the play of lights--comic, tragic, touching, beautiful and terrible--in life, amused me. but when i knew life to be meaningless and terrible, the play in the mirror could no longer amuse me. no sweetness of honey could be sweet to me when i saw the dragon, and saw the mice gnawing away my support. nor was that all. had i simply understood that life has no meaning, i could have borne it quietly, knowing that that was my lot. but i could not satisfy myself with that. had i been like a man living in a wood from which he knows there is no exit, i could have lived; but i was like one lost in a wood who, horrified at having lost his way, rushes about, wishing to find the road, yet knows that each step he takes confuses him more and more; and still cannot help rushing about. it was indeed terrible. and to rid myself of the terror, i wished to kill myself. i experienced terror at what awaited me--knew that that terror was even worse than the position i was in; but still i could not patiently await the end. however convincing the argument might be that, in any case, some vessel in my heart would give way, or something would burst and all would be over, i could not patiently await that end. the horror of darkness was too great, and i wished to free myself from it as quickly as possible by noose or bullet. that was the feeling which drew me most strongly towards suicide. * * * * * 'but perhaps i have overlooked something, or misunderstood something? it cannot be that this condition of despair is natural to man!' thought i, and as a perishing man seeks safety, i sought some way of escape. i sought everywhere; and thanks to a life spent in learning, and thanks also to the relations i had with the scholarly world, i had access to scientists and scholars in all branches of knowledge, and they readily showed me all their knowledge, not only in books, but also in conversation, so that i had at my disposal all that knowledge has to say on this question of life.... the question which at the age of fifty brought me to the verge of suicide, was the simplest of questions lying in the soul of every man, from the foolish child to the wisest elder: it was a question without answering which one cannot live, as i had found by experience. it was, what will come of what i am doing to-day or shall do to-morrow--what will come of my whole life? differently expressed, the question is: why should i live, why wish for anything, or do anything? it can also be expressed thus: is there any meaning in life, that the inevitable death awaiting one, does not destroy? all human knowledge i found divided into two kinds. one kind, such as chemistry and mathematics and the exact sciences, did not deal with my question. they were interesting, attractive, and wonderfully definite, but made no attempt to solve the question; while on the other hand the speculative sciences, culminating in metaphysics, dealt with the question, but supplied no satisfactory answer. where philosophy does not lose sight of the essential question, its answer is always one and the same: an answer given by socrates, schopenhauer, solomon and buddha. 'we approach truth only inasmuch as we depart from life,' said socrates when preparing for death. 'for what do we who love truth, strive after in life? to free ourselves from the body, and from all the evil that is caused by the body! if so, then how can we fail to be glad when death comes to us?' 'the wise man seeks death all his life, and therefore does not fear death.' and schopenhauer also says that life is an evil; and solomon (or whoever wrote the works attributed to him) says: 'vanity of vanities, all is vanity. what profit hath man of all his labour under the sun?... there is no remembrance of former things, neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come, with those that shall come after.... 'therefore i hated life, because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous to me; for all is vanity and vexation of spirit.' and sakya muni when he learnt what age and sickness and death are, could find no consolation in life, and decided that life is the greatest of evils; and he devoted all the strength of his soul to free himself from it, and to free others; and to do this so that even after death life shall not be renewed any more, but be completely destroyed at its very roots. so speaks all the wisdom of india. these then are the direct replies that human wisdom gives, when it replies to the question of life: 'the life of the body is an evil and a lie. therefore the destruction of the life of the body is a blessing, and we should desire it,' says socrates. 'life is that which should not be--an evil; and the passage into nothingness is the only good in life,' says schopenhauer. 'all that is in the world: folly and wisdom and riches and poverty and mirth and grief--are vanity and emptiness. man dies and nothing is left of him. and that is stupid,' says solomon. 'to live in the consciousness of the inevitability of suffering, of becoming enfeebled, of old age and of death, is impossible--we must free ourselves from life, from all possible life,' says buddha. and what these strong minds said, has been said and thought and felt by millions upon millions of people like them. and i have thought it and felt it. one cannot deceive oneself. it is all--vanity! happy is he who has not been born: death is better than life, and one must free oneself from life. then i began to consider the lives of the men of my own kind; and i found that they met the problem in one or other of four ways. the first way was that of ignorance. some people--mostly women, or very young or very dull people--have not yet understood the question of life; but i, having understood it, could not again shut my eyes. the second way was that of the epicureans, expressed by solomon when he said: 'then i commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry.' that is the way in which the majority of people of our circle make life possible for themselves. their circumstances furnish them with more of welfare than of hardship, and their moral dullness makes it possible for them to forget that the advantage of their position is an accidental advantage, and that not every one can have a thousand wives and a thousand palaces like solomon, and that for every man with a thousand wives there are a thousand without wives, and that for each palace there are a thousand people who have to build it in the sweat of their brows; and that the accident that has to-day made me a solomon, may to-morrow make me solomon's slave. the dullness of these people's imaginations enables them to forget what gave no peace to buddha--the inevitability of sickness, age and death, which to-day or to-morrow will destroy all these pleasures. i could not imitate these people: i had not their dullness of imagination, and i could not artificially produce it in myself. the third escape is that of strength and energy. it consists in understanding that life is an evil and an absurdity, and in destroying it. it is a way adopted by a few exceptionally strong and consistent people. i saw that it was the worthiest way of escape, and i wished to adopt it. the fourth escape is that of weakness. it consists in seeing the truth of the situation, and yet clinging to life as though one still hoped something from it; and i found myself in that category. to live like solomon and schopenhauer, knowing that life is a stupid joke played upon us, and still to go on living: washing oneself, dressing, dining, talking and even writing books, was to me repulsive and tormenting, but i remained in that position. i now see that if i did not kill myself, it was due to some dim consciousness of the invalidity of my thoughts. and i began to feel, rather than argue, in this way: 'i, my reason, has acknowledged life to be unreasonable. if there be no higher reason (and there is not: nothing can prove that there is) then reason is the creator of life for me. if reason did not exist, there would be for me no life. how can reason deny life, when it is the creator of life? or to put it the other way: were there no life, my reason would not exist; therefore reason is life's son. life is all. reason is its fruit, yet reason denies life itself!' i felt that there was something wrong here. nothing prevents our denying life by suicide. well then, kill yourself, and cease discussing. if life displeases you, kill yourself! you live, and cannot understand the meaning of life--then finish it; and do not fool about in life, saying and writing that you do not understand it. you have come into good company, where people are contented and like what they are doing: if you find it dull and repulsive--go away! indeed, what are we who are convinced of the necessity of suicide yet do not decide to commit it, but the weakest, most inconsistent, and to put it plainly, the stupidest of men, fussing about with our own stupidity as a fool fusses about with a painted hussy? 'there is something wrong,' said i to myself; but what was wrong, i could in no way make out. it was long before the fog began to clear, and i began to be able to restate my position. it had seemed to me that the narrow circle of rich learned and leisured people to whom i belonged, formed the whole of humanity, and that the milliards of others who have lived and are living, were cattle of some sort--not real people.... and it was long before it dawned upon me to ask: 'but what meaning is, and has been, given to their lives by all the milliards of common folk who live and have lived in the world?' i long lived in this state of lunacy, which in fact if not in words is particularly characteristic of us liberal and learned people. but whether the strange physical affection i have for the real labouring people compelled me to understand them and to see that they are not so stupid as we suppose; or whether it was due to the sincerity of my conviction that i could know nothing beyond the fact that the best i could do was to hang myself, at any rate i instinctively felt that if i wished to live and understand the meaning of life, i must seek this meaning not among those who have lost it and wish to kill themselves, but among those milliards of the past and the present who know it, and who support the burden of their own lives and of ours also. and on examining the matter i saw that the milliards of mankind always have had and still have a knowledge of the meaning of life, but _that_ knowledge is their faith, which i could not but reject. 'it is god, one and three, the creation in six days, the devils and angels, and all the rest that i cannot accept as long as i retain my reason,' said i to myself. my position was terrible. i knew i could find nothing along the path of reasonable knowledge, except a denial of life; and in faith i could find nothing but a denial of reason, still more impossible to me than a denial of life. finally i saw that my mistake lay in ever expecting an examination of finite things to supply a meaning to life. the finite has no ultimate meaning apart from the infinite. the two must be linked together before an answer to life's problems can be reached. it had only appeared to me that knowledge gave a definite answer--schopenhauer's answer: that life has no meaning, and is an evil. on examining the matter further, i understood that the reply is not positive: it was only my feeling that made it seem so. the reply, strictly expressed as the brahmins and solomon and schopenhauer express it, amounts only to an indefinite answer, like the reply given in mathematics when instead of solving an equation we find we have solved an identity: x = x, or 0 = 0. the answer is, that life is nothing. so that philosophic knowledge merely asserts that it cannot solve the question, and the solution remains, as far as it is concerned, indefinite. and i understood, further, that however unreasonable and monstrous might be the replies given by faith, they had this advantage, that they introduce into each reply a relation between the finite and the infinite, without which relation no reply is possible. whichever way i put the question, that relation appeared in the answer. how am i to live?--according to the law of god. what real result will come of my life?--eternal torment or eternal bliss. what meaning has life, that death does not destroy?--union with the eternal god: heaven. faith still remained to me as irrational as it was before, but i could not but admit that it alone gives mankind a reply to the questions of life; and that consequently it makes life possible. where there is life, there, since man began, faith has made life possible for him; and the chief outline of that faith is everywhere and always one and the same. faith does not consist in agreeing with what some one has said, as is usually supposed; faith is a knowledge of the meaning of human life in consequence of which man does not destroy himself, but lives. faith is the strength of life. if a man lives he believes in something. if he does not see and recognise the visionary nature of the finite, then he believes in the finite; if he understands the visionary nature of the finite, he must believe in the infinite. without faith he cannot live. * * * * * what am i?--a part of the infinite. in those few words lies the whole problem. i began dimly to understand that in the replies given by faith, is stored up the deepest human wisdom. i understood this; but it made matters no better for me. i was now ready to accept any faith, if only it did not demand of me a direct denial of reason--which would be a falsehood. and i studied buddhism and mohammedanism from books, and most of all, i studied christianity both from books and from living people. naturally i first of all turned to the orthodox of my circle, to people who were learned: to church theologians, the monks, to the theologians of the newest shade, and even to the evangelicals[55] who profess salvation by belief in the redemption. and i seized on these believers and questioned them as to their beliefs, and their understanding of the meaning of life. [55] readers of _resurrection_ (book ii, chap. 17) will remember the vivid description of the evangelical meeting addressed by kiesewetter, who spoke in english. the original from whom tolstoy drew kiesewetter was baedeker, a well-known evangelical preacher who lived in england, but visited russia frequently. but in spite of my readiness to make all possible concessions, i saw that what they gave out as their faith did not explain the meaning of life, but obscured it. i remember the painful feeling of fear of being thrown back into my former state of despair, after the hope i often and often experienced in my intercourse with these people. the more fully they explained to me their doctrines, the more clearly did i see their error.... it was not that in their doctrines they mixed many unnecessary and unreasonable things with the christian truths that had always been near to me: that was not what repelled me. i was repelled by the fact that these people's lives were like my own, with only this difference--that such a life did not correspond to the principles they expounded in their teachings. no arguments could convince me of the truth of their faith. only deeds which showed that they saw a meaning in life, which made what was so dreadful to me--poverty sickness and death--not dreadful to them, could convince me. and such deeds i did not see among the various bodies of believers in our circle. on the contrary, i saw such deeds done by people of our circle who were the most unbelieving, but never by the so-called believers of our circle.[56] [56] this passage is the more noteworthy because it is almost the only reference (and even this is indirect) made by tolstoy at this period to the revolutionary or 'to-the-people' movement in which so many young men and women were risking and sacrificing home, property, freedom, and life itself, from motives which had much in common with his own perception that the upper layers of 'society' are parasitic, and prey on the vitals of the people who support them. and i understood that the belief of these people was not the faith i sought, and that their faith is not a real faith, but an epicurean consolation in life. and i began to draw near to the believers among the poor simple unlettered folk: pilgrims, monks, sectarians and peasants. among them, too, i found a great deal of superstition mixed with the christian truths; but their superstitions seemed a necessary and natural part of their lives.... and i began to look well into the life and faith of these people, and the more i considered it, the more i became convinced that they have a real faith, which is a necessity to them and alone gives their life a meaning and makes it possible for them to live.... in contrast with what i had seen in our circle, where the whole of life is passed in idleness and amusements and dissatisfaction, i saw that the whole life of these people was passed in heavy labour, and that they were content with life.... while we think it terrible that we have to suffer and die, these folk live and suffer, and approach death with tranquillity, and in most cases gladly. and i learnt to love these people. the more i came to know their life the more i loved them, and the easier it became for me to live. so i went on for about two years, and a change took place in me which had long been preparing, and the promise of which had always been in me. the life of our circle, the rich and learned, not merely became distasteful to me but lost all meaning for me; while the life of the whole labouring people, the whole of mankind who produce life, appeared to me in its true light. i understood that _that_ is life itself, and that the meaning given to that life is true; and i accepted it. i then understood that my answer to the question, 'what is life?' when i said that life is 'evil,' was quite correct. the only mistake was, that that answer referred to _my_ life, but not to life in general. my life, a life of indulgence and desires, was meaningless and evil.... and i understood the truth, which i afterwards found in the gospels, that men love darkness rather than the light because their deeds are evil; and that to see things as they are, one must think and speak of the life of humanity, and not of the life of the minority who are parasites on life. and indeed, the bird lives so that it must fly, collect food and build its nest; and when i see the bird doing that, i joy in its joy. the goat, hare and wolf live so that they must feed themselves, and propagate and feed their families, and when they do so, i feel firmly assured that they are happy and that their life is a reasonable one. and what does man do? he should earn a living as the beasts do, but with this difference--that he would perish if he did it alone; he has to procure it not for himself but for all. when he does _that_, i have a firm assurance that he is happy and that his life is reasonable. and what had i done during the whole thirty years of my conscious life? i had not only not been earning a living for all, i had not even earned my own living. i had lived as a parasite, and when i asked myself what use my life was, i found that my life was useless. if the meaning of human life lies in supporting it, how could i, who for thirty years had occupied myself not with supporting life but with destroying it in myself and in others--how could i obtain any other reply than that my life was senseless and an evil? it was both senseless and evil. the conviction that a knowledge of life can only be found by living, led me to doubt the goodness of my own life.... during that whole year, when i was asking myself almost every moment, whether i should not end matters with a noose or a bullet--all that time, alongside the course of thought and observation about which i have spoken, my heart was oppressed with a painful feeling which i can only describe as a search for god. i went over in my mind the arguments of kant and schopenhauer showing the impossibility of proving the existence of a god, and i began to refute them. cause, said i to myself, is not a category such as are time and space. if i exist, there must be some cause for it, and a cause of causes. and that first cause of all, is what men have called 'god.' and as soon as i acknowledged that there is a force in whose power i am, i at once felt that i could live. but i asked myself: what is that cause, that force? how am i to think of it? what are my relations to that which i call 'god'? and only the familiar replies occurred to me: 'he is the creator and preserver.' this reply did not satisfy me, and i felt i was losing within me what i needed for my life. i became terrified and began to pray to him whom i sought, that he should help me. but the more i prayed the more apparent it became to me that he did not hear me, and that there was no one to whom to address myself. and with despair in my heart that there is no god at all, i said: 'lord, have mercy, save me! lord, teach me!' but no one had mercy on me, and i felt that my life was coming to a standstill. but again and again i returned to the same admission that i could not have come into the world without any cause or reason or meaning; i could not be such a fledgling fallen from its nest as i felt myself to be. or, granting that i be such, lying on my back in the high grass, even then i cry because i know that a mother has borne me within her, has hatched me, warmed me, fed me and loved me. where is she--that mother? if she has deserted me, who is it that has done so? i cannot hide from myself that some one bore me, loving me. who was that some one? again 'god'? 'he exists,' said i to myself. and i had only for an instant to admit that, and at once life rose within me, and i felt the possibility and joy of being. but again, from the admission of the existence of a god i went on to seek my relations with him; and again i imagined _that_ god--our creator in three persons who sent his son, the saviour--and again _that_ god, detached from the world and from me, melts like a block of ice, melts before my eyes, and again nothing remains, and again the spring of life dries up within me, and i despair, and feel that i have nothing to do but to kill myself. and the worst of all is, that i feel i cannot do it. not twice or three times, but tens and hundreds of times, i reached those conditions first of joy and animation, and then of despair and consciousness of the impossibility of living. i remember that it was in early spring: i was alone in the wood listening to its sounds. i listened and thought ever of the same thing, as i had constantly done during those last three years. i was again seeking god. 'very well, there is no god,' said i to myself; 'there is no one who is not my imagination but a reality like my whole life. he does not exist, and no miracles can prove his existence, because the miracles would be my perceptions, besides being irrational.' 'but my _perception_ of god, of him whom i seek,' asked i of myself, 'where has that perception come from?' and again at this thought the glad waves of life rose within me. all that was around me came to life, and received a meaning. but my joy did not last long. my mind continued its work. 'the conception of god, is not god,' said i to myself. 'the conception, is what takes place within me. the conception of god, is something i can evoke or can refrain from evoking in myself. that is not what i seek. i seek that, without which there can be no life.' and again all around me and within me began to die, and again i wished to kill myself. but then i turned my gaze upon myself, on what went on within me, and i remembered that i only lived at those times when i believed in god. as it was before, so it was now; i need only be aware of god to live; i need only forget him, or disbelieve in him, and i die.... 'what more do you seek?' exclaimed a voice within me. 'this is he. he is that without which one cannot live. to know god and to live is one and the same thing. god is life. live seeking god, and then you will not live without god.' and more than ever before, all within me and around me lit up, and the light did not again abandon me. and i was saved from suicide.... and strange to say, the strength of life which returned to me was not new, but quite old--the same that had borne me along in my earliest days. i quite returned to what belonged to my earliest childhood and youth. i returned to the belief in that will which produced me, and desires something of me. i returned to the belief that the chief and only aim of my life is to be better, _i.e._ to live in accord with that will. and i returned to the belief that i can find the expression of that will, in what humanity, in the distant past hidden from me, has produced for its guidance: that is to say, i returned to a belief in god, in moral perfecting, and in a tradition transmitting the meaning of life.... i turned from the life of our circle: acknowledging that theirs is not life but only a simulacrum of life, and that the conditions of superfluity in which we live deprive us of the possibility of understanding life.... the simple labouring people around me were the russian people, and i turned to them and to the meaning which they give to life. that meaning, if one can put it into words, was the following. every man has come into this world by the will of god. and god has so made man that every man can destroy his soul or save it. the aim of man in life is to save his soul; and to save his soul he must live 'godly,' and to live 'godly' he must renounce all the pleasures of life, must labour, humble himself, suffer and be merciful.... the meaning of this was clear and near to my heart. but together with this meaning of the popular faith of our non-sectarian folk among whom i live, much was inseparably bound up that revolted me and seemed to me inexplicable: sacraments, church services, fasts, and the adoration of relics and icons. the people cannot separate the one from the other, nor could i. and strange as much of it was to me, i accepted everything; and attended the services, knelt morning and evening in prayer, fasted, and prepared to receive the eucharist; and at first my reason did not resist anything. what had formerly seemed to me impossible, did not now evoke in me any resistance.... i told myself that the essence of every faith consists in its giving life a meaning which death does not destroy. naturally, for a faith to be able to reply to the questions of a king dying in luxury, of an old slave tormented by overwork, and of all sorts of people, young and old, wise and foolish,--its answers must be expressed in all sorts of different ways.... but this argument, justifying in my eyes the queerness of much on the ritual side of religion, did not suffice to allow me, in the one great affair of life--religion--to do things which seemed to me questionable. with all my soul i wished to be in a position to mingle with the people, fulfilling the ritual side of their religion; but i could not do it. i felt that i should lie to myself, and mock at what was sacred to me, were i to do so. at this point, however, our new russian theological writers came to my rescue. according to the explanation these theologians gave, the fundamental dogma of our faith is the infallibility of the church. from the admission of that dogma follows inevitably the truth of all that is professed by the church. the church as an assembly of true-believers united by love, and therefore possessed of true knowledge, became the basis of my belief. i told myself that divine truth cannot be accessible to a separate individual; it is revealed only to the whole assembly of people united by love. to attain truth one must not separate; and not to separate, one must love and must endure things one may not agree with. truth reveals itself to love, and if you do not submit to the rites of the church, you transgress against love; and by transgressing against love you deprive yourself of the possibility of recognising the truth. i did not then see the sophistry contained in this argument. i did not see that union in love may give the greatest love, but certainly cannot give us divine truth expressed in the definite words of the nicene creed. i also did not perceive that love cannot make a certain expression of truth an obligatory condition of union. i did not then see these mistakes in the argument, and thanks to it, was able to accept and perform all the rites of the orthodox church without understanding most of them. when fulfilling the rites of the church i humbled my reason, submitted to tradition, united myself with my forefathers: the father, mother and grandparents i loved, and with all those millions of the common people whom i respected. when rising before dawn for the early church services, i knew i was doing well, if only because i was sacrificing my bodily ease to humble my mental pride, and for the sake of finding the meaning of life. however insignificant these sacrifices might be, i made them for the sake of something good. i fasted, prepared for communion, and observed the fixed hours of prayer at home and in church. during church service i attended to every word, and gave them a meaning whenever i could. but this reading of meanings into the rites had its limits.... if i explained to myself the frequent repetition of prayers for the tsar and his relatives, by the fact that they are more exposed to temptation than other people and therefore more in need of being prayed for, the prayers about subduing enemies and foes under his feet (even though one tried to say that sin was the foe prayed against) and many other unintelligible prayers--nearly two-thirds of the whole service--either remained quite incomprehensible or, when i forced an explanation into them, made me feel that i was lying, and thereby quite destroying my relation to god and losing all possibility of believing.... never shall i forget the painful feeling i experienced the day i received the eucharist for the first time after many years. the service, confession and prayers were quite intelligible and produced in me a glad consciousness that the meaning of life was being revealed to me. the communion itself i explained as an act performed in remembrance of christ, and indicating a purification from sin and the full acceptance of christ's teaching. if that explanation was artificial i did not notice its artificiality: so happy was i at humbling and abasing myself before the priest--a simple timid country clergyman--turning all the dirt out of my soul and confessing my vices, so glad was i to merge in thought with the humility of the fathers who wrote the prayers of the office, so glad was i of union with all who have believed and now believe, that i did not notice the artificiality of my explanation. but when i approached the altar gates, and the priest made me say that i believed that what i was about to swallow was truly flesh and blood, i felt a pain in my heart: it was not merely a false note, it was a cruel demand made by some one or other who evidently had never known what faith is. i now permit myself to say that it was a cruel demand, but i did not then think so: only it was indescribably painful to me. at the time, i found in my soul a feeling which helped me to endure it. this was the feeling of self-abasement and humility. i humbled myself, swallowed that flesh and blood without any blasphemous feelings, and with a wish to believe. but the blow had been struck, and knowing what awaited me, i could not go a second time. i continued to fulfil the rites of the church and still believed that the doctrine i was following contained the truth, when something happened to me which i now understand but which then seemed strange. i was listening to the conversation of an illiterate peasant, a pilgrim, about god, faith, life and salvation, when a knowledge of faith revealed itself to me. i drew near to the people, listening to their opinions on life and faith, and i understood the truth. so also was it when i read the lives of the saints, which became my favourite books. putting aside the miracles, and regarding them as fables illustrating thoughts, this reading revealed to me life's meaning. there were the lives of makarius the great, of the tsarévitch joasafa (the story of buddha) and there were the stories of the traveller in the well, and the monk who found some gold. there were stories of the martyrs, all announcing that death does not exclude life; and there were the stories of ignorant, stupid men, and such as knew nothing of the teaching of the church, but who yet were saved. but as soon as i met learned believers, or took up their books, doubt of myself, dissatisfaction, and exasperated disputation, were roused within me, and i felt that the more i entered into the meaning of these men's speech, the more i went astray from truth and approached an abyss. how often i envied the peasants their illiteracy and lack of learning! those statements in the creeds, which to me were evident absurdities, for them contained nothing false. only to me, unhappy man, was it clear that with truth falsehood was interwoven by finest threads, and that i could not accept it in that form. so i lived for about three years. at first, when i did not understand something, i said, 'it is my fault, i am sinful'; but the more i fathomed the truth, the clearer became the line between what i do not understand because i am not able to understand it, and what cannot be understood except by lying to oneself. in spite of my doubts and sufferings, i still clung to the orthodox church. but questions of life arose which had to be decided; and the decision of these questions by the church, contrary to the very bases of the belief by which i lived, obliged me at last to own that communion with orthodoxy is impossible. these questions were: first the relation of the orthodox eastern church to other churches--to the catholics and to the so-called sectarians. at that time, in consequence of my interest in religion, i came into touch with believers of various faiths: catholics, protestants, old-believers, molokáns and others. and i met many men of lofty morals who were truly religious. i wished to be a brother to them. and what happened? that teaching which promised to unite all in one faith and love--that very teaching, in the person of its best representatives, told me that these men were all living a lie; that what gave them their power of life, is a temptation of the devil; and that we alone possess the only possible truth. and i saw that all who do not profess an identical faith with themselves, are considered by the orthodox to be heretics; just as the catholics and others consider the orthodox to be heretics. and i saw that the orthodox (though they try to hide this) regard with hostility all who do not express their faith by the same external symbols and words as themselves; and this is naturally so: first, because the assertion that you are in falsehood and i am in truth, is the most cruel thing one man can say to another; and secondly, because a man loving his children and brothers cannot help being hostile to those who wish to pervert his children and brothers to a false belief.... and to me, who considered that truth lay in union by love, it became self-evident that the faith was itself destroying what it ought to produce. as people of many different religions behave to one another in this same contemptuous, self-assured manner--the error of such conduct was obvious; and i thought on the matter and read all i could about it, and consulted all whom i could. and no one gave me any explanation except the one which causes the soúmsky hussars to consider the soúmsky hussars the best regiment in the world, and the yellow uhlans to consider that the best regiment in the world is the yellow uhlans.... i went to archimandrites, archbishops, elders, monks of the strictest orders, and asked them; but none of them made any attempt to explain the matter to me, except one man, who explained it all, and explained it so that i never asked any one any more about it. i asked him why we should not unite on those main points on which we could agree, and leave the rest for each to decide as he pleases. my collocutor agreed with my thoughts, but told me that such concessions would bring reproach on the spiritual authorities for deserting the faith of our forefathers, and this would produce a split; and the vocation of the spiritual authorities is to safeguard in all its purity the greco-russian orthodox faith inherited from our forefathers. and i understood it all. i am seeking a faith, the power of life; and they are seeking the best way to fulfil before men certain human obligations.... and i noticed what is done in the name of religion, and was horrified; and i almost entirely abjured orthodoxy. the second relation of the church to a question of life, was with regard to war and executions. at that time russia was at war. and russians, in the name of christian love, began to kill their fellow-men. it was impossible not to think about this, and not to see that killing is an evil, repugnant to the first principles of any faith. yet they prayed in the churches for the success of our arms, and the teachers of the faith acknowledged killing to be an act resulting from the faith. and besides the murders during the war, i saw during the disturbances which followed the war, church dignitaries and teachers and monks of the lesser and stricter orders, who approved the killing of helpless erring youths. and i took note of all that is done by men who profess christianity, and i was horrified. and i ceased to doubt, and became fully convinced that not all was true in the religion i had joined. formerly i should have said that it was all false; but i could not say so now, for i had felt its truth and had lived by it. but i no longer doubted that there is in it much that is false. and though among the peasants there was less admixture of what repelled me, still i saw that in their belief also, falsehood was mixed with the truth. but where did the truth and where did the falsehood come from? both the falsehood and the truth were contained in the so-called holy tradition and scriptures. both the falsehood and the truth had been handed down by what is called the church. and whether i liked to or not, i was brought to the study and investigation of these writings and traditions--which till now i had been so afraid to investigate. and i turned to the examination of that same theology which i had once rejected with such contempt.... on it religious doctrine rests, or at least with it the only knowledge of the meaning of life that i have found, is inseparably connected.... i shall not seek the explanation of everything. i know that the explanation of everything, like the commencement of everything, must be concealed in infinity. but i wish to understand in a way which will bring me to what is inevitably inexplicable. i wish to recognise anything that is inexplicable, as being so, not because the demands of my reason are wrong (they are right, and apart from them i can understand nothing), but because i recognise the limits of my intellect. i wish to understand in such a way that everything that is inexplicable shall present itself to me as being necessarily inexplicable, and not as being something i am under an arbitrary obligation to believe. i must find what is true and what is false, and must disentangle the one from the other. i am setting to work upon this task. what of falsehood i find in the teaching, and what i find of truth, and to what conclusions i come, will form the following parts of this work, which if it be worth it, and if any one wants it, will probably some day be printed somewhere. * * * * * these closing words in which tolstoy expresses the hope that his work 'will probably some day be printed somewhere,' are a reminder of the difficulties and dangers that had to be encountered in russia by any man who set out to challenge the authority of the orthodox church, whose affairs were managed by the holy synod, presided over by a procurator able to call on the secular powers to enforce his decisions. authority for chapter xi tolstoy's _ispoved_: christchurch, 1901. tolstoy's _confession_ being prohibited in russia, had to be printed abroad. the edition mentioned above is a reliable one. chapter xii works: 1852-1878 tolstoy's first nineteen stories. stands in a line of succession. quality as writer. _war and peace._ 'great' men. napoleon. the battles of schöngraben and borodinó. tolstoy's influence on war-correspondence. serfdom. the organisation of society. characters in _war and peace_. its range. _anna karénina_: matthew arnold's essay. translations. the tendency of the book. kropótkin's criticism. the volunteers. tolstoy's attitude towards government. w. d. howells's appreciation. tolstoy's last three decades of work: the magnitude and nature of his effort. tolstoy's writings during the first twenty-five years of his literary career divide up into six sections. first came a series of seventeen stories and sketches, beginning with _childhood_ and ending with _family happiness_. next came his series of educational articles in the _yásnaya polyána_ magazine. third came _the cossacks_ (the finest story he had yet written) and _polikoúshka_. fourth, came _war and peace_. fifth, came the _abc_ book, the _readers_, and another article on education; and sixth, came _anna karénina_. leaving the educational works out of account, the list can be reduced to nineteen stories and sketches, followed by two great novels. the nineteen sketches and stories, 'trials of the pen,' as tolstoy called them, covered a wide range of subjects, from charmingly realistic sketches of childhood to vigorous depictions of cossack life, and showed their writer to be an amazingly accurate observer of physical facts and qualities, manners, tones and gestures, besides being possessed of a yet more wonderful knowledge of the hearts and minds of all sorts and conditions of men, from the shame-faced child to the officer dying on the field of battle. he is so concerned with the interest and importance of life, that he can hold his reader's attention without having to tell his stories so that they must be guessed like riddles, and he never makes use of elaborate plots. he needs no tricks of that sort. nor does he strive after effect by the use of pornographic details, the introduction of extraordinary events, or the piling up of many horrible details. his stories are as straightforward as everyday life. his great novels bear out all the promise of his short stories, with the added power of maturity. though highly original and of strong individuality, he stands none the less in the line of succession of great writers which began with poúshkin, whose genius for simple sincere and direct narrative gave an invaluable direction to russian literature, was continued by gógol whose biting irony and remorseless exposure of shams and hypocrisies completed the emancipation from romanticism, and was carried on by tourgénef, whose art, conscious of and not indifferent to the trend of thought and feeling in the society it describes, reached an extraordinary pitch of artistic perfection. tolstoy's works have from the first interested russia, and now interest the world, because in greater measure than any of his predecessors he possesses the capacity to feel intensely, note accurately, and think deeply. the combination which makes tolstoy the most interesting of writers, is the scientific accuracy of his observation (which never allows him to take liberties with his characters or events in order to make out a case for the side he sympathises with) and the fact that he is mightily in earnest. life to him is important, and art is the handmaid of life. he wants to know what is good and what is bad; to help the former and to resist the latter. his work tends to evolve order out of life's chaos; and as that is the most important thing a man can do, his books are among the most interesting and important books of our time. he makes no pretence of standing aloof, cutting off his art from his life, or concealing his desire that kindness should prevail over cruelty. life interests him, and therefore the reflection of life interests him, and the problems of art are the problems of life: love and passion and death and the desire to do right. the chief subject reappearing again and again throughout the stories he wrote before _war and peace_, is the mental striving of a young russian nobleman to free himself from the artificial futilities of the society in which he was born, and to see and do what is right. the search is only partially successful. the indictment of society is often convincing, but the heroes' failures and perplexities are frankly admitted. sometimes there is no hero. in _sevastopol_, for instance, he exclaims: 'where in this tale is the evil shown that should be avoided? where is the good that should be imitated? who is the villain, who the hero of the story? all are good and all are bad'; and in _lucerne_ he says: 'who will define for me what is freedom, what despotism, what civilisation and what barbarism? or tell me where are the limits of the one or the other? who has in his soul so immovable a _standard of good and evil_ that by it he can measure the passing facts of life?' this searching for what is good and rejecting what is false--resulting in a strong distrust and dislike of the predatory masterful domineering types of humanity, and in general of what has usually been regarded as the heroic type, and also in a friendly compassion for all that is humble simple forbearing and sincere--is the keynote of tolstoy's early tales. they are studies of life, so truthful that the characters seem to have an independent life of their own. they speak for themselves, and at times, like balaam, bless what they were apparently expected to curse. for instance, when prince nehlúdof insists on bringing the wandering musician into the schweizerhof hotel in _lucerne_, we feel how uncomfortable he thereby makes the poor singer, though that is evidently not what tolstoy originally set out to make us feel. _war and peace_, besides being maturer than the preceding tales, was composed during the early years of tolstoy's married life, when he felt more content with himself and with life in general, and when his attitude towards existing things was more tolerant and sympathetic than it had been, or than it became in later years. he told me that in _war and peace_ and _anna karénina_ his aim was simply to amuse his readers. i am bound to accept his statement; but one has only to read either of those books to see that through them tolstoy's ardent nature found vent, with all its likes and dislikes, strivings, yearnings, hopes and fears. i asked tolstoy why in _what is art?_ he relegates these great novels to the realm of 'bad art'; and his answer showed, as i expected it would, that he does not really consider them at all bad, but condemns them merely as being too long, and written in a way chiefly adapted to please the leisured well-to-do classes, who have time for reading novels in several volumes, because other people do their rough work for them. of _war and peace_ he said, 'it is, one would think, harmless enough, but one never knows how things will affect people,' and he went on to mention, with regret, that one of professor zahárin's daughters had told him that from his novels she had acquired a love of balls and parties; things of which, at the time of our conversation, he heartily disapproved. in form, _war and peace_ is unlike any english novel, but it resembles poúshkin's _the captain's daughter_ (though the latter is a much shorter story) in that both works are chronicles of russian families, round whom the stories centre. in _war and peace_ there are two families, the rostófs and the bolkónskys. the mighty drama of the napoleonic advance from 1805 to 1812 comes into the novel, in so far as it affects the members of those two families. but tolstoy is not content merely to tell us of historic events. he introduces a whole philosophy of history, which is sound at bottom though no doubt he somewhat overstates his case, as is his habit. the theory is that the 'great' men of history count for very little. they are the figureheads of forces that are beyond their control. they do most good and least harm when, like koutoúzof, they are aware of the true direction of the great human forces and adapt themselves to them; but then they are modest, and the world does not esteem them great. the typical case of the impotent 'great' man is napoleon in 1812, at the time of his invasion of russia. he posed before the world as a man of destiny whose will and intellect decided the fate of empires. yet from first to last, during that campaign, he never in the least knew what was about to happen. the result was decided by the spirit of the russian nation, and by its steadfast endurance. every common russian soldier who understood that the russian people dreaded and detested the thought of a foreign yoke, and who therefore co-operated with the natural course of events, did more to further the result than napoleon, that 'most insignificant tool of history,' as tolstoy calls him, who even in st. helena was never able to understand what had caused his overthrow. the main theme of the novel, if it be permissible to select a main theme out of the many latent in the story, is tolstoy's favourite thesis. he tacitly asks: what is good and what is bad? with what must we sympathise and what must we reject? and the reply is that the predatory, artificial and insincere types, exemplified historically by the invading french, as well as by such characters among the russians as ellen, anatole and dólohof, are repugnant to him, while he loves the humble, the meek and the sincere: marie and platon karatáef, natásha (so impulsive and charming in her youth, so absorbed in her family later on), and pierre (who is often humble and always sincere, and loves ideas and ideals). it is impossible to do justice to this wonderful book in any brief summary. it is not a work to be summed up in a few pages. it has many characters, all of them so distinctly drawn that we know them better than we know our personal acquaintances. it treats of life's deepest experiences from the cradle to the grave; and to read it with the care it deserves is to know life better and see it more sanely and seriously than one ever did before. some foolish people think that reading novels is a waste of time; but there are hardly any books--at any rate hardly any big books--that are better worth reading than tolstoy's novels. he is probably justified in claiming that his history is truer than the historians' history of the battles of schöngraben, austerlitz, and borodinó. the historians, from mendacious military reports drawn up after the action, try to discover what the commanders-in-chief meant to do; and to tell their story within moderate limits they have to systematise what was really a huge disorder; thereby giving their readers a completely wrong impression of what a battle is like. n. n. mouravyóf, a commander-in-chief who distinguished himself in more than one war, declared he had never read a better description of a battle than tolstoy's account of schöngraben; and added that he was convinced from his own experience that during a battle it is impossible to carry out a commander-in-chief's orders. tolstoy, when he wrote the book, was convinced that war is inevitable. the idea that it is man's duty to resist war and to refuse to take part in it, came to him later. in an article entitled 'some words about _war and peace_,' which he wrote in 1868 for one of the periodicals, he says: 'why did millions of people kill one another, when since the foundation of the world it has been known that this is both physically and morally bad? 'because it was so inevitably necessary, that when doing it they fulfilled the elemental zoological law bees fulfil when they kill one another in autumn, and male animals fulfil when they destroy one another. no other reply can be given to that dreadful question.' yet his inveterate truthfulness, and his personal knowledge of war, caused him to describe it so exactly, that the result is tantamount to a condemnation. as kropótkin says, _war and peace_ is a powerful indictment of war. the effect which the great writer has exercised in this direction upon his generation can be actually seen in russia. it was already apparent during the russo-turkish war of 1877-8, when it was impossible to find in russia a correspondent who would have described how '_we_ peppered the enemy with grape-shot,' or how 'we knocked them down like ninepins.' if any one could have been found to use in his letters such survivals of barbarism, no paper would have dared to print them. the general character of the russian war-correspondent had totally changed; and during that war there appeared gárshin the novelist, and verestchágin the painter, 'with whom to combat war became a life work.' it has been charged against _war and peace_ that it neglects to show the evil side of serfdom: the brutality, the cruelty, the immurement of women, the flogging of grown-up sons, the torture of serf girls by their mistresses, etc. but tolstoy studied the period closely from letters, diaries and traditions, especially from the records of his own grandparents, the tolstoys and the volkónskys; and he says he did not find horrors worse than are to be found now, or at any other period. people then loved and envied, and sought for truth and virtue, and were swayed by passions, as now. their mental and moral life was just as complex, and in the upper circles it was sometimes even more refined than now.... no doubt the greater remoteness of the higher circle from the other classes gave a special character to the period, but not the character of brutal violence. tolstoy is in sympathy with that time, sees the poetry of it, and knows how much of goodness, courage, kindliness and high aspiration existed among those politically unenfranchised serf-owners. with our modern, western desire to _organise society efficiently_, he never has sympathised. the state of a man's mind has always been to him more important than the conditions of his life, and it seems to him as though there were some antithesis between the two: as though, if you organised your society, it would cease to think truly or feel deeply. we in the west are beginning to believe the opposite, and to suspect that to leave society unorganised or disorganised has an inevitable tendency to blunt our minds and souls. but not the less is it valuable to have so wonderful a picture of russia as it was at the commencement of the nineteenth century, painted by one who sees it as the best russians of that period saw it themselves. of the history part of the book, it should be noted that tolstoy says: 'wherever in my novel historic characters speak or act, i have not invented, but have made use of materials which during my work have accumulated till they form a whole library.' he told me he considered the defect of the book, besides its size, to be the intrusion of a long philosophic argument into the story. he still holds the opinions he held when he wrote it, as to the influence or impotence of 'great' men, as well as all that he then said about destiny and free will; but he now realises that his novel would have been a better novel without these abstract disquisitions. the characters in the book are not strictly copied from life, but in the main tolstoy's father's family are represented by the rostófs and his mother's by the bolkónskys. in the magazine article already referred to, tolstoy says that only two minor characters are taken from life, and 'all the other characters are entirely invented, and i have not even for them any definite prototypes in tradition or in reality.' but when he said that, he was defending himself from the charge of having copied actual people who had played a part in the society of the time, and he clearly overstates his case, for to a considerable extent the characters in the novel correspond to the people mentioned in the following list: characters in _war and_ members of the tolstoy _peace_: or volkónsky families: the old prince n. bolkónsky = tolstoy's grandfather, prince n. volkónsky. his daughter, princess marie = tolstoy's mother, the princess n. bolkónsky marie n. volkónsky. the old count ilyá a. rostóf = tolstoy's grandfather, count ilyá a. tolstoy. count nicholas i. rostóf = tolstoy's father. count nicholas i. tolstoy. countess natálya rostóf = tatiána behrs, tolstoy's youngest sister-in-law. sónya = tatiána a. érgolsky. dólohof is made up of a combination of count theodore tolstoy, a famous traveller, with r. i. dórohof, a notorious dare-devil of alexander i.'s days. many even of the minor characters, such as mlle. bourienne, and ivánushka the woman pilgrim in man's clothes, are copied more or less closely from people connected with the volkónskys' home at yásnaya polyána. tolstoy's sympathies and antipathies in this novel: his appreciation of affection, kindliness, simplicity and truthfulness, and his dislike of what is cruel, pompous, complicated or false, are the same as in his earlier stories, but mellowed and wiser; they are also the same as in his later didactic writings, though there they are formulated, dogmatic and rigid. the novel covers nearly the whole range of tolstoy's experience of life: in it we have the aristocracy and the peasants; town life and country life; the commanders, officers and privates of the army, in action and out of action; the diplomatists and courtiers; flirtation, love, balls, hunting, and a reform movement which is all talk. what tolstoy does not show, is what he did not know--the middle-class world: the world of merchants, manufacturers, engineers and men of business. of course these in russia a hundred years ago, played a comparatively small part; and there was practically no political activity such as that of our county councils, borough councils and parliament. but that all this was absent from tolstoy's mind, and that his outlook on life was confined to the aristocracy which consumed and the peasantry which produced, will, in the sequel, help us to understand the social teaching to which he ultimately came. his brother-in-law tells us that leo tolstoy 'has in my presence confessed to being both proud and vain. he was a rampant aristocrat, and though he always loved the country folk, he loved the aristocracy still more. to the middle class he was antipathetic. when, after his failures in early life, he became widely famous as a writer, he used to admit that it gave him great pleasure and intense happiness. in his own words, he was pleased to feel that he was both a writer and a noble.' 'when he heard of any of his former comrades or acquaintances receiving important appointments, his comments reminded one of those of souvórof [a field-marshal of catherine the great's time], who always maintained that at court one receives promotion for cringing and flattery, but never for good work. sometimes he would ironically remark that, though he had himself not earned a generalship in the artillery, he had at any rate won his generalship in literature.' a simple world of nobles and peasants, with little organisation, and that of a poor kind: a world the evils of which were mitigated by much kindliness and good intention, and in which, on the whole, the less the government interfered with anybody or anything, the better--was old russia as it existed under alexander i and as it still existed when tolstoy was young. he has described it with extraordinary vividness, and has made it possible for us to picture to ourselves a country and an age not our own. what effect the limitation of his outlook, referred to above, had on the subsequent development of his opinions, need not here be considered. it does not spoil the novel, for no novel can show us the whole of life; but it had a very serious effect on the formulation of his later philosophy of life. of certain important types of humanity he has hardly any conception. of the george stephenson type, for instance, which masters the brute forces of nature and harnesses them to the service of man--doing this primarily from love of efficient work--he knows nothing; nor does he know any thing of the sidney webb type, which sets itself the yet more difficult task of evolving social order out of the partial chaos of modern civilisation; or of the best type of organisers in our great industrial undertakings: the men whose hearts are set on getting much work well done, with little friction and little waste, and to whom the successful accomplishment of a difficult project gives more satisfaction than any effortless acquisition of wealth would do. tolstoy over-simplifies life's problems. he makes a sharp contrast between the predatory and the humble types; and there is a measure of truth in his presentation. he is right that life is supported by the humble, and is rendered hard by the predatory types; but he has omitted from his scheme of things the man of organising mind: the man who knows how to get his way, and generally gets it (or a good deal of it) but does this mainly from worthy motives; the man who is not perfect, and may take more than is good for him, and may have some of the tendencies of the predatory type, but who still, on the whole, is worth, and more than worth, his salt, and but for whom there would be more of chaos and less of order in the world. tolstoy has said in one of his later writings that the cause of the russian famines is the greek church; and he is right. all that stupefies, all that impedes thought, tends to make men inefficient even in their agricultural operations. but by parity of reasoning he should see that the introduction of thought into methods of production, distribution and exchange, which has, during the last hundred and fifty years, so revolutionised our western world, should not be condemned as bad in itself, however ugly many of its manifestations may be; and however often we may see the organising and the predatory types exemplified in one and the same person. outside russia, _anna karénina_ is perhaps more popular than _war and peace_. the former is a long novel, but not nearly as long as the latter; and though it contains philosophic disquisitions, these fit better into the story and are shorter and clearer than the philosophic chapters in _war and peace_. in arrangement, again, _anna karénina_ is more like the novels we are accustomed to, though instead of one hero and heroine it has two pairs of lovers, living quite different lives, and not very closely connected. it deals with the passionate love of a beautiful and attractive woman; and it has a further interest in the fact that lévin, to a greater degree than any of the author's other characters, represents tolstoy himself; though tolstoy made lévin a very simple fellow in order to get a more effective contrast between him and the representatives of high life in moscow and petersburg. _anna karénina_ had the advantage of being introduced to the english reading public by matthew arnold in an essay which is one of the very best any one has ever written about tolstoy. it is so good, and still carries so much weight, that i may be excused for mentioning three points on which it seems to me misleading. first, arnold's ground for preferring _anna karénina_ to _war and peace_ is ill chosen. he says: 'one prefers, i think, to have the novelist dealing with the life which he knows from having lived it, rather than with the life which he knows from books or hearsay. if one has to choose a representative work of thackeray, it is _vanity fair_ which one would take rather than _the virginians_.' this surely is misleading. war in russia in 1812 was very similar to war in russia in 1854, and the son who had fought in the latter war, describing the war in which his father had fought, was not at all in the position of thackeray describing the life of the virginians. tolstoy depicting the homes of his parents and grandparents, which he in part remembered, and which he at any rate knew well from those who had formed part of them, was as close to first-hand experience as he was when describing the life of karénin the pedantic petersburg statesman, who belonged to a world which was essentially foreign to tolstoy, though he had occasionally glanced at it. but the sentence in arnold's essay which has done most harm, is that in which he speaks about translations: 'i use the french translation; in general, as i long ago said, work of this kind is better done in france than in england, and _anna karénina_ is perhaps also a novel which goes better into french than into english.' it is true enough that the first english translations of tolstoy were very poor, and it is also true that the french versions, so long as tourgénef attended to them, were really good. but arnold was wrong in supposing that _anna karénina_ would naturally go better into french than into english. had he been able to read the original, or had he been acquainted with russian life, he would have seen that in tolstoy's novels there are two sets of people: a court, petersburg set, who continually speak french and are frenchified; and a plain, homely, straightforward russian (i had almost said, english) set who do not use french phrases, and who are sharply contrasted with the others. this contrast can be made quite clear in an english version, but it is difficult to make it clear in a version where even the most russian characters have to speak french. the case is worse than that, however: arnold did not say, as he fairly might have said, that up to his time the french versions were better than the english; he speaks as though it were in the nature of things that any translation into french must be better than any possible translation into english. a prejudice of that kind tends to divert attention from the fact that some french translations are bad, and some english translations are good. as a matter of fact, since arnold's time the position has been largely reversed. when staying at yásnaya polyána in 1902, i heard tolstoy express considerable dissatisfaction with the new collected french edition of his works, the first volumes of which had then recently appeared, while he commended some recent english versions, including work done by mrs. garnett and by my wife. a grave error, again, is made by arnold in speaking of tolstoy's later life, where he says that he 'earns his bread by the labour of his own hands.' tolstoy never did that, and never claimed to have done it; though it is extraordinary how often and how confidently the statement has been repeated. it is a matter however which need not detain us, for it does not relate to the period with which this volume deals. arnold's summary of the story of the novel is excellent, but i can here only quote one more passage from his essay. 'we have,' he says, 'been in a world which misconducts itself nearly as much as the world of a french novel all palpitating with "modernity." but there are two things in which the russian novel--count tolstoi's novel at any rate--is very advantageously distinguished from the type of novel now so much in request in france. in the first place, there is no fine sentiment, at once tiresome and false. we are not told to believe, for example, that anna is wonderfully exalted and ennobled by her passion for vrónsky. the english reader is thus saved from many a groan of impatience. the other thing is yet more important. our russian novelist deals abundantly with criminal passion and with adultery, but he does not seem to feel himself owing any service to the goddess lubricity, or bound to put in touches at this goddess's dictation. much in _anna karénina_ is painful, much is unpleasant, but nothing is of a nature to trouble the senses, or to please those who wish their senses troubled. this taint is wholly absent.' w. d. howells, who has stood sponsor for tolstoy in america as matthew arnold has done in england, similarly says: 'it is tolstoy's humanity which is the grace beyond the reach of art in his imaginative work. it does not reach merely the poor and the suffering; it extends to the prosperous and the proud, and does not deny itself to the guilty. there had been many stories of adultery before _anna karénina_, nearly all the great novels outside of english are framed upon that argument, but in _anna karénina_, for the first time the whole truth was told about it. tolstoy has said of the fiction of maupassant that the whole truth can never be immoral; and in his own work i have felt that it could never be anything but moral.' tolstoy never fears to deal with the real problems of life, and never fears to call a spade a spade; but he also never panders to the animal passions. in a letter relating to _resurrection_ he remarked: 'when i read a book, what chiefly interests me is the _weltanschauung des autors_: what he likes and what he hates. and i hope that any one who reads my book with that in view will find out what the author likes and dislikes, and will be influenced by the author's feelings.' what is important is not the subject treated of, but the feeling the author imparts when dealing with it. arnold, it is true, is rather shocked that anna should yield so quickly and easily to the persuasions of vrónsky. he is quite sure that she ought to have resisted. but here we come to a matter on which many russians disapprove of tolstoy on quite the opposite ground. kropótkin in his interesting work _ideals and realities in russian literature_, has stated their case very clearly, and this is the substance of what he says: _anna karénina_ produced in russia an impression which brought tolstoy congratulations from the reactionary camp and a very cool reception from the advanced portion of society. the fact is that the question of marriage and of the separation of husband and wife, had been most earnestly debated in russia by the best men and women, both in literature and in life. levity towards marriage such as is continually unveiled in the divorce courts, was decidedly condemned, as also was any form of deceit such as supplies the subject for countless french novels and plays. but after levity and deceit had been condemned, the right of a new love--appearing perhaps after years of happy married life--was seriously considered, tchernyshévsky's novel, _what is to be done?_ may be taken as the best expression of the opinions on marriage which became current among the better portion of the young generation. once married, it was said, don't take lightly to love affairs or flirtation. not every fit of passion deserves the name of a new love; and what is called love is often merely temporary desire. even if it be real, before it has grown deep there is generally time to reflect on the consequences that would result were it allowed to grow. but when all is said and done, there are cases when a new love does come, and comes almost inevitably: as for instance when a girl has been married almost against her will under the continued insistence of her lover, or when the two have married without properly understanding one another, or when one of the two has continued to progress towards an ideal, while the other, after having worn the mask of idealism, falls back into the philistine happiness of warmed slippers. in such cases separation not only becomes inevitable, but is often to the interest of both. it would be better for both to live through the suffering a separation involves (honest natures are improved by such suffering) than to spoil the entire subsequent life of one--or both in most cases--and to face the evil consequences which living together under such circumstances would be sure to produce on the children. that at any rate was the conclusion to which, both in literature and in life, the best portion of russian society came. and into the society kropótkin describes in the above statement, comes tolstoy with _anna karénina_. the epigraph of the book is 'vengeance is mine, i will repay,' and death by suicide is the fate of poor anna, who was married young to an old and unattractive man, and who had never known love till she met vrónsky. deceit was not in her nature. to maintain a conventional marriage would not have made her husband or child happier. separation and a new life with vrónsky, who seriously loved her, was the only possible outcome. at any rate, continues kropótkin, if the story of _anna karénina_ had to end in tragedy, it was not in consequence of an act of supreme justice. the artistic genius of tolstoy, honest here as everywhere, itself indicated the real cause, in the inconsistency of vrónsky and anna. after leaving her husband and defying public opinion--that is, as tolstoy shows, the opinion of women not honest enough to have a right to a voice in the matter--neither she nor vrónsky had the courage to break right away from that society, the futility of which tolstoy describes so exquisitely. instead of that, when anna returns with vrónsky to petersburg, their chief preoccupation is, how betsy and other such women will receive her if she reappears among them? 'and it was the opinion of the betsies--surely not superhuman justice--which brought anna to suicide.' whether matthew arnold's view or kropótkin's view be accepted, tolstoy at any rate does full justice to anna's charm: 'her large, fresh, rich, generous, delightful nature which keeps our sympathy' and even our respect; there is no nonsense about her being a degraded or vile person. and after all, tolstoy's view of marriage sanctity is a very old and a very widely held one; and it is surely good to have that side of the case put so artistically, so persuasively, so well, as he puts it. if ultimately the idea that two uncongenial people ought to live out their lives together because they have married, has to be abandoned, let it not be abandoned without the very best advocates being heard on its behalf. _anna karénina_ contains passages: the ball, the officers' steeplechase, the mowing, the death of lévin's brother, and others, which for artistic beauty are unsurpassed and, one is tempted to add, unsurpassable. it also, towards the end, contains in admirably concise form much of what tolstoy has told in his _confession_, of his quest after the meaning of life, his thoughts of suicide, and how he learnt from a talk with a peasant that man should live for his soul and for god. his treatment in this novel of the russian volunteers who went to fight for servia, was as bold a slap in the face to the russian jingoes, who were having things all their own way at that time, as campbell bannerman's 'methods of barbarism' speech, or sir e. clarke's declaration that the reassertion of england's claim to suzerainty in the internal affairs of the transvaal, was 'a breach of national faith,' was to our jingoes at the time of the boer war; but it is curious to note the precise position that (speaking through the mouth of lévin) tolstoy took up. he did not say that russia ought not to fight to free the christian populations of turkey; he merely said that no individual russian had any business to volunteer for the servian or bulgarian army, or to take any action to urge the russian government towards war. of lévin we are told: 'he, like miháylitch and the peasants, whose feelings are expressed in the legendary story of the invitation sent to the varyági by the early inhabitants of russia, said: "come and be princes and rule over us. _we gladly promise complete submission._ all labour, all humiliations, all sacrifices we take on ourselves, but _we do not judge or decide_."' and lévin goes on to repudiate the idea that the russian people have 'now renounced this privilege [the privilege, that is, of not taking any part in government] bought at so costly a price.' the connection between the roots of tolstoy's opinions--manifested in these writings of his first fifty years--and his opinions in their ultimate rigid and dogmatic form, as expressed during the last three decades, is in general so close, the dogmas of the later period grew so naturally out of the sympathies and experiences of the earlier time, that this point--at which there is a clean line of cleavage (the difference between obeying government and disobeying it)--is worthy of particular note. when finishing _anna karénina_ tolstoy had not yet reached the conclusion that all governments employing force are immoral; but his later teachings are dominated by that view. apart from the special points i have referred to, the general effect and influence of tolstoy's fiction can hardly be summed up better than they have been summed up by w. d. howells, who says: 'up to his time fiction had been a part of the pride of life, and had been governed by the criterions of the world which it amused. but tolstoy replaced the artistic conscience by the human conscience. great as my wonder was at the truth in his work, my wonder at the love in it was greater yet. here, for the first time, i found the most faithful picture of life set in the light of that human conscience which i had falsely taught myself was to be ignored in questions of art, as something inadequate and inappropriate. in the august presence of the masterpieces, i had been afraid and ashamed of the highest interests of my nature as something philistine and provincial. but here i stood in the presence of a master, who told me not to be ashamed of them, but to judge his work by them, since he had himself wrought in honour of them. i found the tests of conduct which i had used in secret with myself, applied as the rules of universal justice, condemning and acquitting in motive and action, and admitting none of those lawyer's pleas which baffle our own consciousness of right and wrong. often in tolstoy's ethics i feel a hardness, almost an arrogance (the word says too much); but in his esthetics i have never felt this. he has transmuted the atmosphere of a realm hitherto supposed unmoral into the very air of heaven. i found nowhere in his work those base and cruel lies which cheat us into the belief that wrong may sometimes be right through passion, or genius, or heroism. there was everywhere the grave noble face of the truth that had looked me in the eyes all my life, and that i knew i must confront when i came to die. but there was something more than this, infinitely more. there was that love which is before even the truth, without which there is no truth, and which if there is any last day, must appear the divine justice.... 'as i have already more than once said, his ethics and esthetics are inseparably at one; and that is what gives a vital warmth to all his art. it is never that heartless skill which exists for its own sake, and is content to dazzle with the brilliancy of its triumphs. it seeks always the truth, in the love to which alone the truth unveils itself. if tolstoy is the greatest imaginative writer who ever lived, it is because, beyond all others, he has written in the spirit of kindness, and not denied his own personal complicity with his art. 'as for the scope of his work, it would not be easy to measure it, for it seems to include all motives and actions, in good and bad, in high and low, and not to leave life untouched at any point as it shows itself in his vast russian world. its chief themes are the old themes of art always,--they are love, passion, death, but they are treated with such a sincerity, such a simplicity, that they seem almost new to art, and as effectively his as if they had not been touched before.... 'passion, we have to learn from the great master, who here as everywhere humbles himself to the truth, has in it life and death; but of itself it is something, only as a condition precedent to these; without it neither can be; but it is lost in their importance, and is strictly subordinate to their laws. it has never been more charmingly and reverently studied in its beautiful and noble phases than it is in tolstoy's fiction; though he has always dealt with it so sincerely, so seriously. as to its obscure and ugly and selfish phases, he is so far above all others who have written of it, that he alone seems truly to have divined it, or portrayed it as experience knows it. he never tries to lift it out of nature in either case, but leaves it more visibly and palpably a part of the lowest as well as the highest humanity.... 'he comes nearer unriddling life for us than any other writer. he persuades us that it cannot possibly give us any personal happiness; that there is no room for the selfish joy of any one except as it displaces the joy of some other, but that for unselfish joy there is infinite place and occasion. with the same key he unlocks the mystery of death; and he imagines so strenuously that death is neither more nor less than a transport of self-surrender that he convinces the reason where there can be no proof. the reader will not have forgotten how in those last moments of earth which he has depicted, it is this utter giving up which is made to appear the first moment of heaven. nothing in his mastery is so wonderful as his power upon us in the scenes of the borderland where his vision seems to pierce the confines of another world.' * * * * * tolstoy of the later phase, the last three decades, with which the second volume of this work will deal, differed from the tolstoy of the first fifty years; but the later tolstoy grew out of the earlier, as the branches of a tree grow from its roots. the difference lay chiefly in this: that from about the year 1878 tolstoy became sure of himself, succeeded in formulating his outlook on life, and proceeded to examine and pass judgment on all the main phases of human thought and activity. his work was sometimes hasty and often harsh; he painted in black and white, subjects really composed of many shades of colours; but what other man has even attempted so to examine, to portray, and to tell the frank truth about all the greatest problems of life and death? no one really concerned to leave the world better than he found it--be his line of work what it may--can afford to ignore what tolstoy has said on his subject. no such combination of intellectual and artistic force has in our times provoked the attention of mankind. no one has so stimulated thought, or so successfully challenged established opinions. tolstoy has altered the outlook on life of many men in many lands, and has caused some to alter not their ideas merely, but the settled habits and customs of their lives. only those who neither know nor understand him at all, ever question his sincerity. those who have spoken scornfully of him are those who have not taken the trouble to understand him. on the other hand, the small minority who swallow his opinions whole, do so under the hypnotic influence of his force, fervour and genius. to analyse his opinions, and disentangle what in them is true from what is false, is a task no one has yet adequately performed, but for which the time is ripe, and which, bold as the undertaking may be, i mean to attempt. tolstoy's marvellous artistic power, his sincerity, and the love that is so strong a feature of his work, have often been dwelt upon; but what really gives him his supreme importance as a literary force is the _union_ of all these things: artistic capacity, sincerity and love, with a quite extraordinary power of intellect. it is not given to any man to solve all the problems of life; but no one has made so bold and interesting an attempt to do so as tolstoy, or has striven so hard to make his solutions plain to every child of man. chief authorities for chapter xii the literature that has grown up both in russia and elsewhere round tolstoy's earlier writings is so voluminous, that i can merely indicate a few of the best known works. in english we have: matthew arnold's essay: _count leo tolstoi_ in _essays in criticism, second series_: macmillan and co., london. w. d. howells has written several very readable and excellent essays on tolstoy. i have unfortunately mislaid my note of them. if any american admirer of w. d. howells will supply me with a list, i shall be glad to include it in any future edition of this work. p. kropotkin's _ideals and realities in russian literature_ gives a very good idea of tolstoy's general influence and relation to russian life and literature generally. in russian: mihaylovsky's articles in his collected works are interesting. n. strahof's _krititcheskiya statyi o tourgeneve i tolstom_, petersburg, 1895, is excellent. v. zelinsky's _rousskaya krititcheskaya literatoura o proizvedeniyakh l. n. tolstovo_ (7 vols.) reprints a large collection of russian criticisms on tolstoy's works. d. s. merezhkovsky's _zhizn i tvortchestvo l. n. tolstovo i dostoyevskavo_ contains some acute literary criticism, but for all that relates to tolstoy as a man, it is worse than useless. merezhkovsky did not know tolstoy personally when he wrote about him. he relied on the works of behrs and anna seuron, and even that scrappy information he used unfairly. his talk about scents and fine linen, and in general his whole characterisation of tolstoy, is spiteful, and to those who know the man attacked, it is merely ridiculous. chronology _as in the text, dates are given old style, except those relating to the crimean war and to tolstoy's travels abroad._ 1645 peter tolstoy born. 1725 peter tolstoy made a count. 1727 exiled. 1729 died. 1814 count nicholas tolstoy captured by french. 1822 marriage of tolstoy's parents. 1828 (28 aug. o.s.) =birth of leo tolstoy.= 1830 death of leo tolstoy's mother. 1837 death of father and grandmother. return to yásnaya polyána. 1840 famine year. 1841 death of the countess osten-sáken. move to kazán. 1844 =matriculates at kazán university.= 1847 leaves the university. 1848 passes two examinations at petersburg university. 1849 starts peasant children's school at yásnaya. 1851 20 april =leaves yásnaya for caucasus.= " aug. goes on expedition from starogládovsk. " nov. at tiflis; writing _childhood_. " dec. (end) =appointed junker.= 1852 jan. sádo's friendship. " feb. goes on expedition. " 2 july =finishes _childhood_.= " 28 aug. receives letter from nekrásof accepting _childhood_. 1852 nov. =_childhood_ appears in _contemporary_.= " 24 dec. _the raid_ finished. 1853 jan. serves against shámyl. " 18 feb. nearly killed by grenade. " march _the raid_ appears in _contemporary_. " 13 june chased by tartars. " july to oct. stays at pyatigórsk. " oct. war between russia and turkey. 1854 jan. =receives his commission.= " 2 feb. revisits yásnaya polyána. " end of feb. starts for bucharest. " march war: england and france against russia. " " tolstoy reaches bucharest. " june (end) siege of silistria abandoned. " aug. tolstoy leaves bucharest for russia. " 14 sept. allies land in crimea. " oct. _boyhood_ appears in _contemporary_. " 17 oct. bombardment of sevastopol. " nov. (end) =tolstoy reaches sevastopol.= " dec. stationed at simferópol. 1855 jan. _memoirs of a billiard marker_ published. " 13 april to 27 may =serves in sevastopol, in fourth bastion.= " june _sevastopol in december_ published. " aug. _sevastopol in may_ published. " 16 aug. in battle of tchérnaya. " sept. _the wood-felling_ published. " 8 sept. maláhof captured by french. sevastopol abandoned by russians. " sept. tolstoy returns to petersburg. 1856 jan. _sevastopol in august_ published. " jan. (end) death of demetrius tolstoy. " march russia concludes peace with england, france, and turkey. 1856 march _the snow storm_ published. " may _two hussars_ published. " summer engagement with v. v. a. " nov. grand duke michael displeased about soldiers' song. " 26 nov. =tolstoy leaves the army.= " dec. _meeting a moscow acquaintance in the detachment_ published. " dec. _a squire's morning_ published. 1857 jan. _youth_ published. " 10 feb. (n.s.) leaves moscow for paris. " april visits switzerland. " july stays at lucerne. " aug. returns to yásnaya polyána. " sept. _lucerne_ published. 1858 jan. writes _three deaths_. " march visits petersburg. helps to found moscow musical society. " aug. _albert_ published. " sept. signs resolution of nobles concerning emancipation. " 22 dec. nearly killed by bear. 1859 jan. _three deaths_ published. " 4 feb. speaks on art to society of lovers of russian literature. " april _family happiness_ published. " winter =organises school at yásnaya.= 1860 15 july leaves petersburg for berlin. " " visits auerbach in dresden. " july and aug. at kissingen for his health. " 20 sept. =nicholas tolstoy dies= at hyères. " winter visits florence, rome, naples, marseilles. 1861 jan. revisits paris. " feb. visits london. " 5 may re-enters russia. 1861 26 may =challenges tourgénef.= " commences work as =arbiter of the peace=. 1861-2 winter =occupied with his school.= 1862 feb. =_yásnaya polyána_ magazine appears.= " may discharged from office of arbiter of the peace 'on ground of ill-health.' " may and takes koumýs cure in samára government. june " =police raid on yásnaya polyána.= " 17 sept. proposes to miss s. a. behrs. " 23 " =marries.= " 3 oct. minister of interior disapprove of _yásnaya polyána_ magazine. " 15 " school abandoned. 1863 jan. =_the cossacks_ published.= " feb. _polikoúshka_ published. " 28 june eldest son, sergius, born. 1864 _war and peace_ commenced. " sept. dislocates arm while hunting. " " collected edition of tolstoy's works published. " 4 oct. birth of daughter, tatiána. 1865 jan. and feb. =first part of _war and peace_ published.= " autumn visits battlefield of borodinó. 1866 may second son, ilyá, born. " june =defends soldier at court-martial.= 1867 summer treated by zahárin for indigestion. 1868 publication of _war and peace_ continued. 1869 20 may third son leo, born. " nov. =_war and peace_ completed.= 1869-70 studies the drama. 1870-1 winter studies greek. 1871 works at _abc_ book. " 12 feb. birth of daughter, mary. " june-july koumýs cure in samára. 1872 jan. re-starts school. =_a prisoner in the caucasus_ published.= " feb. _god sees the truth_ published. " 13 june son, peter, born. " sept. confined to yásnaya by investigating magistrate. " nov. =_abc_ book published.= 1872-3 winter prepares to write novel of peter the great's time. 1873 may goes with family to samára. " 17 aug. =samára famine; tolstoy's appeal.= " sept. kramskóy paints his portrait. " 9 nov. death of son, peter. 1874 15 jan. =speaks on learning to read.= " 22 april son, nicholas, born. " 20 june death of aunt tatiána. " sept. publishes article, _on popular education_. 1875 20 feb. death of son, nicholas. " _new abc_ book published. " jan.-april =first installment of _anna karénina_ published.= " summer horse races at samára. " 1 nov. baby daughter, varvára, born and died. " dec. death of pelagéya i. úshkof. 1876 jan.-april further instalments of _anna karénina_. and dec. " observes church rites and fasts. " sept. visit to samára and orenbourg. 1877 jan.-april =final installments of _anna karénina_ published.= " rupture with katkóf. 1877 6 dec. son, andrew, born. 1878 march visits petropávlof fortress. " abandons _the decembrists_. " may =reconciliation with tourgénef.= " 7 aug. tourgénef at yásnaya polyána. index _abc_ book, 339, 341, 342, 344-348, 359, 360. ----tourgénef's comment on, 347. active service, military, 86, 99, 110, 119. aim when writing novels, 430. aksákof, s. t., 175, 310. _albert_, 52, 166. alexander ii, tsar, 180, 287, 379. alexándra fédorovna, empress, 111. alexéyef, v. g., 395, 396. alexis, tolstoy's servant, 32, 111, 284, 285. ----tsarévitch, 2, 349. algebra, 355. ambrose, father, 384. anarchism, peaceful, 58, 139. ancestry, 1-7, 14. animals, kindness to, 28, 307. _anna karénina_, 289, 349, 357, 360, 361, 371, 372, 381, 438-445. ----characters in, 289, 349. ----impression produced in russia by, 441. ----matthew arnold's comments on, 438-440. ----w. d. howells' comments on, 440, 441, 445-447. ----kropótkin's comments on, 441-443. ----tourgénef's comments on, 361. ant brotherhood, 18, 19. appearance, personal, 7, 26, 64. arbiter of the peace, 211, 226-229, 283. arboúzof's _recollections_, 370. arithmetic in _abc_ book, 341, 359. arm dislocated, 302, 303. army, enters the, 65, 76. ----leaves, 152. ----becomes an officer in, 91. arnold, matthew: comments on _anna karénina_, 438-440. art, talk with peasant boys about, 257, 258. ----thoughts on, 186, 275-277, 296, 333, 377, 405. ----what is it? 260. artistic capacity of peasants, 275. ----element in literature, speech on the, 185. artists, tolstoy's criticism of, 163, 164. astronomy, studies, 341. auerbach, b., 194, 212. aunt tatiána. see _tatiána_. austria's pressure on russia, 97. authors, tolstoy's criticism of the, 162-165. autobiographical, 10, 14, 17, 18, 20, 21, 24, 26, 28, 31, 34, 39-50, 53, 54, 59-77, 81-84, 89, 90, 95-104, 106-111, 128, 130, 148, 150, 152, 153-155, 160, 161, 162, 167-173, 175, 177-180, 182, 189, 192, 198, 200, 202, 212, 214, 224, 228, 252, 254, 263, 269, 272, 282-284, 286, 288, 291, 293, 294, 296, 298, 300, 303, 304, 325-327, 333, 337, 359, 365, 383, _and whole of chap._ xi. bædeker, preacher, 413. _bárstchina_ explained, 225. baryatínsky, general, 65. bashkírs, tolstoy and the, 335-337. bastion, the fourth, 110, 113, 114, 117. bastions, clears fifth and sixth, 121. see also _sevastopol_. _bear hunt_, the, 342. bear-hunt, a, 183-185. bee-keeping, 296. beethoven, comment on, 276, 377-378. behrs family, the, 149, 284, 288, 290. ----miss s. a. see _tolstoy, countess s. a._ ----s. a. (_brother-in-law_), 297, 332, 335, 390. ----comments on tolstoy by, 324, 387, 390, 436. ----tánya (tánitchka; _sister-in-law_), 305. belbék, transferred to, 110, 111. beliefs, religious, 38-39, 162, chap. xi. berlin, in, 193, 194. bible, the, 263-267. billiards, chinese, 284. birth, tolstoy's, 9. boarding schools condemned, 235. bolkónskys, the (_war and peace_), 434, 435. books for the people, 263, 267, 277, 339. ----that influenced tolstoy, 31, 44, 45, 160. borodinó, visit to battlefield of, 306. bótkin, v. p., 161, 168, 174, 316. ----'s comment on _war and peace_, 315. ----'s criticism of tolstoy, 223. boúlka (dog), 88, 89. boutleróf, a. m., professor, 383. _boyhood_, 31, 91. ----tolstoy's criticism of, 160. bravery, 64. bucharest, in, 95, 96. buckle, criticism of, 240. buddha, on life, 407, 409. buddhism, study of, 412. bulgarian insurrection, 379. bull kills keeper, 345. _captain's daughter, the_, 161, 430. cards. see _gambling_. caucasus, in the (see chap. iii.). ----descriptions of the, 61-63. ----fighting in the, 61, 87. censor, the, 86, 131, 132. charity, 216. chastity, advocacy of, 13. chess, 77, 119, 193, 389. chevet's system of music, 167, 271. _childhood_, 22, 26, 65, 83, 86. ----tolstoy's criticism of, 160. children, tolstoy's, 295, 303, 310, 317, 320, 331, 340, 344, 352, 357, 360, 363, 366, 385. ----education of, 317-320, 366, 385. ----governesses, 318, 366. ----punishments of, 318, 319. ----and the servants, 318. ----taught music, 366. ----painting, 366. ----teach in peasant schools, 340. ----tolstoy's tact with, 204, 205, 206, 307. ----toys, 318. christian and greek ideals, 332, 333. christianity, study of, 412. christ's hospital, education at, 279. church, the orthodox, 39, 40, 413, 419, 420, 424, 437. church ceremonial, 343, 369. clarens, at, 168, 170. coat of arms, 2. collates artillery commanders' reports, 121. colony, agricultural, in kansas, 396. communion, tolstoy takes, 290, 421. composition, how to teach, 272, 275. comte, 396, 397. _confession_, tolstoy's, 24, 39, 40, 53, 162-165, 167, 202, 203, 282-284, 298, 391, 394. (see also chap. xi.) consumptive tendencies, 156, 284. _contemporary, the_, 83, 138, 148, 182, 354. ----contributors to, 138, 139, 142. contradict, readiness to, 143. conversion, 394, 398. _copperfield, david_, 44, 45, 90. corporal punishment, 13, 14, 26. _cossacks, the_, 78, 79, 189, 284, 295, 296. _cossacks, the_, tourgénef's comment on, 296, 393. cossacks, 78-80. count, origin of tolstoy's title, 2. country life, love of, 308. courier to petersburg, 122. court-martial, 310-312. crimean war, chap. iv. ----cause of, 94. daily routine, 320. dates, russian, 9. death, thoughts on, 342. ----first experience of, 23, 24. death of baby girl, 366. ----baby nicholas, 360. ----bótkin, v. p., 316. ----demetrius tolstoy, 44, 147. ----father and grandmother, 23, 24. ----keeper by bull, 345. ----nicholas tolstoy, 197-203. ----peter, baby, 352. ----tatiána a. ergolsky, 358-359. see also _tatiána_. ----p. i. úshkof, 369. see also _úshkof_. debts, 48, 49, 53, 55, 71, 72, 284. _decembrists, the_, 145, 299, 386. decembrists, the, 14, 386. defiance of accepted opinions, 140. demetrius tolstoy. see _tolstoy, demetrius_. democratic government, advantages of, 144. democratic institutions, scorn for, 145. dentists, 208. _diary_, 37, 53, 81, 83, 148, 161, 167, 172, 173, 187, 189, 200, 212, 220, 228, 285, 286, 288, 289, 290, 309. dickens's influence on tolstoy, 46. diesterweg, educationalist, 213. digestive troubles, 293. dijon, at, 166. dissipation, 52, 92, 97, 127, 140, 161, 162. divorce question, the, 441-443. doctors, dislike of, 313, 369. documents, carelessness with, 51, 65, 85. dogs, his, 88. dostoyévsky, s. a., 84. drama, tolstoy and the, 297, 326, 327. drawing, 310. ----lessons, 269, 270. dresden, in, 194. dress, elegance in, 35, 173. ----simplicity, 309. drouzhínin, a. v., 148, 156, 157, 158, 168. ----criticises tolstoy's style, 159. ----criticises _youth_, 158. ----letter from, 190. duel, a. see _tourgénef_. dumas _père_, as novelist, 208. ----educational influence, 207. dyákof, d. a., 37, 306, 321. education, 230-239. see also _school_. ----at christ's hospital, 279. ----criticism of, 232, 233. ----definition of, 231. ----evening lectures, 194. ----false bases of, 232. ----speech on, 353. ----tolstoy's, 28. ----children's, 317-320, 366, 385. ----tolstoy's method of, 278, 353. ----the right to reject, 235. ----zémstvo committee of, 356. educational systems, tolstoy studies: ----in england, 194, 210. ----kissingen, 195. ----marseilles, 206, 207. ----saxony, 194. ----weimar, 212. ----system in germany, criticised, 233. ----work, tolstoy on his own, 282, 283. emancipation of the serfs, 180-182, 226, 299. ----tolstoy's attitude towards, 223-225. engagement with v. v. a., 150-155. epicureans and life, 408. epitaph, an, 382. érgolsky, t. a. see _tatiána, aunt_. estate buying, 300, 337, 359. ----management, 306, 323, 345. ----searched, 285-288. eucharist, tolstoy receives the, 290, 419. eugene baumann, 194. evangelicals, the, 413. examinations, tolstoy's, 33, 34, 35, 49, 50, 65. execution, an, 167, 312. executions, the church and, 424. exercise, physical, 84, 128, 173, 308, 367. see also _gymnastics_. fable, an eastern, 404. fame, thoughts on, 129, 183, 401. _family happiness_, 185. famines caused by the church, 437. famine fund, samára, 350, 351. famines, 30, 304, 350. farming, 179, 192, 294, 296, 304. fasts, tolstoy, 419. _fatherland journal, the_, 152, 354, 355. _father sergius_, 384. _faust_ (tourgénef's), 156. fédka, literary genius of, 272-274. ----walk with, a, 254-260. fet, a. a., 139, 141, 176, 215, 219, 222, 304, 312, 321, 322, 330. ----letters to, from tolstoy, 179, 180, 182, 188, 192, 200, 214, 217, 291, 293, 300, 303, 312, 315, 325, 326, 330, 331, 333, 337, 342, 344, 351, 352, 359, 360, 361, 365, 366, 371, 372, 373, 374, 380, 381, 382, 383, 385, 386, 387, 388, 391, 392. ----in rhyme to, 347. ----literary evening in aid of famine fund, 314. ----'s poems, tolstoy's admiration of, 374. ----tolstoy's criticism of, 322, 387, 391. ----visits tolstoy, 293-295, 314. fet, peter a., 373. _first step, the_, 209. 'flock for the shepherd, a,' 234. fly, attempts to, 25. folk-songs and tales, 376-378, 384. fort grózny, at, 86. fourth bastion, in the, 110-117. franco-prussian war, 330, 331. freedom of russian nobles, 55. french language, the, 176. ----people, the, 207, 331. froebel, julius, 195. future life, thoughts on, 202, 340. gambling, 53, 54, 68, 69, 110, 140, 284. ----reflections on, 81. garnett, mrs. c., 360, 440. 'generalship in literature,' his, 436. geneva, in, 168. geniality and good humour, 204, 334, 336, 367. '_gens comme il faut_,' preference for, 41, 60, 97. geography, 33, 269. georgia, 61. gipsy girl singers, 52, 55, 59, 140, 178. god, 'there is no,' 24. ----thoughts on, 73, 189, 190, 371, 416-418. _god sees the truth, but waits_, 342. gógol, 428. gortchakóf, prince m. d., 90, 95, 100, 104, 118. gouneba (stallion), 374. government approves tolstoy's schemes, 292, 360. ----tolstoy's dislike of, 43, 229, 288, 312, 357. grammar in schools, 268. ----schools, 367. grebénsky cossacks, 78. greek and christian ideals contrasted, 332, 333. greek, tolstoy learns, 331-333. ----church. see _church_. grigoróvitch, d. v., 140, 141. gymnasiums, russian, 367. gymnastics, 173, 179, 205, 261, 308. hádji mourát, 66. _handwerksverein, der_, 194. hapgood, miss i., 301. happiness, plans for future, 74, 75, 76. ----thoughts on, 79, 80, 83, 447. hay saved by personal exertions, 299. hegel, criticism of, 239. heresy, on, 423. hermit, visit to a, 365. herodotus, 332, 337. herzegovina, 373. herzen, alexander, 143, 208, 209. historian, tolstoy as, 432. history, criticism of, 36, 268. ----how to teach, 268, 269. home, love of, 323. homer, 332. homyakóf, a. s., 185. honesty, 126, 127. ----of peasants, 243, 244. horse-breeding, 362, 373. horse-race at samára, 364. house of commons, 211. ----sale of, 111. 'hundred and ninety-three, the,' trial of 394, 395, 397. hunting, 66, 90, 183-185, 230, 302, 305, 309. see also _shooting_. ----accident, 184, 185, 302, 303. _hussars, two_, 149, 157, 361. hyères, at, 197, 203. _ideals and realities in russian literature_ (kropótkin), 441. _iliad_, appreciation of the, 172. incarcerated, 35. inconsistency, 50. infant schools condemned, 235. _infected family, the_, 297. _introduction to a criticism of dogmatic theology._ see _confession_. irritability, 140, 141. junker, becomes a, 65. ----'s life in the caucasus, a, 79, 80. jury, serves on, 330. kansas, agricultural colony, 396. kant, 416. karalýk, at, 285, 335-337. katkóf, m. n., 174, 284. kazán, life in, 32-35. ----university, 32, 33. keller, 212. kiesewetter (_resurrection_), 413. kinglake, historian of the crimean war, 133, 134. _king lear_, drouzhínin and, 157. kissingen, at, 195. _knyaz_, meaning of, 3. kock, paul de, 208. _kólokol_, 208. koran, 338, 385. kornílof, admiral, 105, 106, 118. _kotchévka_, 335. _koumýs_ cure, 284, 306, 333. _kounák_, 69. kramskóy paints portrait of tolstoy, 351, 352. kropótkin, p., 397, 441-443. ----comments on _anna karénina_, 434, 436. ----_sevastopol_, 133. ----_ideals and realities in russian literature_, 441. kryzhanóvsky, general, 127, 373. land, the, 188, 215. languages, 129, 331. ----oriental, studies, 33. lao-tsze, 358. _lautiermethode_, 353. law, studies, 135. lelewel, polish author, 211. leóntief, professor, 332. lévin (_anna karénina_), 289, 444. life in danger, tolstoy's, 86, 87, 110. lisogoúb, d., 397. literature as an occupation, 65, 82, 109, 305. ----'a general in,' 436. ----its importance in russia, 190. literacy, moscow society of, speech to the, 353, 354. lives of the saints, the, 422. london, in, 194, 208. love affairs, 26, 79, 149-155, 288-290. _lucerne_, 171, 429. lucerne, in, 170, 171. luther, martin, 196. luxury, dislike of, 309, 317. macaulay criticised, 239. magazine, tolstoy's. see _yásnaya polyána_. maláhof, capture of the, 119-121. mariána, 79, 91. marie (másha or mary) tolstoy (_sister_). see _tolstoy_. ----tolstoy (_daughter_). see _tolstoy_. ----volkónsky, princess, (_mother_). see _tolstoy_. marriage, 290. marriage question, the, 441-443. marryat's novels, 281. marseilles, in, 206. márya gerásimovna, 9, 22. masquerades, 309, 340. _master and man_, 91. matriculates, 33. maude, a., letter to, 301. _meeting a moscow acquaintance_, 157. _memoirs of a billiard marker_, 91, 157. ménshikof, prince, 2, 3. ----alexander, 105, 122-124. metaphysics, 407. michael, grand duke, 152. middle-classes, tolstoy's ignorance of, 436, 437. middle period of tolstoy's life, 298. mihaylóvsky, n. k., 354, 355, 395. military newspaper projected, 108, 109. mill, j. s., 396, 397. mineral waters, a course of, 81, 313. miracles, 417. moabit prison, visit to, 194. mohammedanism, studies, 412. molokáns, 338, 423. _moscow gazette, the_, 350. moscow conservatoire, the, 175, 375. ----fifty, trial of the, 394. ----society of lovers of russian literature, 185. _mother vólga_ (song), 276. mouhamed shah, 350, 362. mouravyóf, n. n., 432. mowing, 367. murder of countess tolstoy, 256. music, chevet's method of teaching, 167, 271. ----his children learn, 366. ----love of, 51, 52, 175, 306, 320, 374-376. ----method of teaching, 271. musical notation, 271. napoleon i, 431. ----iii, 95, 133. nature, delight in, 86, 169, 170, 175, 308. nekrásof, n. a., 83, 132, 138, 141, 166, 172. ----comments on _the wood-felling_ and _sevastopol_, 132, 133. _neues leben, ein_ (auerbach), 194. _new abc_ book, 360. new religion, would found a, 130. newspaper, projected military, 108, 109. newspapers, dislike of, 325, 379. nicholas, baby, 357. nicholas i, 94. nicholas tolstoy. see _tolstoy_. _nihilist, the_, 297. 'not born to be like everybody else,' 81. novel writing, 65, 188. 'numidian cavalry,' the, 369. obolénsky, prince d. d., 310, 323, 345, 384. _obrók_, 224, 225. officers, relations with, 63, 82, 127. ogaryóf, n. p., 209, 210. old style calendar, 9. old testament, the, 263-267. oltenítza, in, 96. _on the eve_ (tourgénef), 188. óptin's hermitage, 30, 384. orenbourg, at, 362, 373. oriental languages, studies, 33. originality, 27. osten-saken, count, 5. ----countess a. i. (_aunt_), 29, 30. ostróvsky, a. n., 189. ouroúsof, prince l. d., 321, 331. ouspénsky, n. v., 253. palmerston, lord, 211. panáef, v. i., 84, 138, 161. ----comments on _sevastopol in may_, 131. paris, in, 166, 167, 207, 208. parliament, 211. pascal, b., _pensées_, 383. páshenka, 29. patriotism, 322. peasants' artistic capacity, 275, 378. pedagogic tact, 279. penmanship, 267, 268. _pensées_, by pascal, 383. peróvsky, sophie, 397. petersburg, in, 48, 50, 138, 139, 151, 173, 386. peter, baby, 344, 352. ----the great, 2, 348. ----proposed novel of period of, 344, 348. ----study of period of, 344, 348. ----tolstoy. see _tolstoy_. petropávlof fortress, visits, 386. petróvsky fair, 336, 365. physical exercises, expertness in, 84, 128, 173, 309, 367. piano-playing, 52, 290, 320, 375. pilgrims and saints, 9, 22, 29, 394. pláksin, sergéy, 204. _plays_, 297, 327. police search at yásnaya polyána, 285-288. _polikoúshka_, 211, 295, 296. ----tourgénef's comment on, 297. polish insurrection (1863), 296. portrait by kramskóy, 351, 352. posthumous publications, 66, 384. poúshkin, 131, 138, 161, 428. prayer, 39, 64, 71, 91, 117, 370, 420. prayer, answer to, 68, 72. prince, the russian title, 3. printing, questions the utility of, 226. _prisoner in the caucasus, a_, 86, 341, 342. ----tourgénef's comment on, 347. prisoners, turkish, a visit to, 385. prisons, visits to: the moabit, 194. ----petropávlof fortress, 386. progress, thoughts on, 226, 239-245, 283. promotion, slow, 85. propaganda, social and political, 397. proposal by initials, to miss s. a. behrs, 289. ----formal, 290. proudhon, visit to, 211. public speeches by tolstoy, 185, 311, 353. punishment of his children, 318. pyatigórsk, in, 81, 88. question-boxes, 194. races on samára estate, 364. _raid, the_, 77, 85, 86. railways, aversion to, 241-242, 334. raven (horse), 27, 28. read, is it worth learning to? 277. _readers_, slavonic and russian, 339, 341, 359, 427. reading lessons, 262. ----practical demonstration of teaching, 354. _reading library, the_, 148. _recollections of count tolstoy_ (behrs), 297, 367. reforms in russia, 144. ----want of sympathy with, 144, 225, 230. religion, on, 130, 338, 343. ----wishes to found a, 130. religious beliefs, 38, 39, 162. reports, collates military, 121. review, a military, 84. revolutionary movement, 394-397. riding lesson, first, 27. _right and left hand of count tolstoy, the_, 395. rousseau, j. j., 46, 229. rubinstein, nicholas, 175, 375, 384. rudolph, musician, 52, 167. rules of conduct, 38, 39, 88. russo-turkish wars, the, 91, 95, 373. see also _crimean war_. sádo, 69-73, 87. st. george's cross, 76, 77. sakya muni, 407. sale of house, 111. saltykóf, m. e., (stchedrín), 174, 354. samára, buys estates in, 300, 337, 359. ----famine in, 350, 351. ----in, 284, 285, 334, 345, 350, 356, 362, 388. samárin, p. f., 346, 356. sand, george, hostility to, 142, 320. school, the yásno-polyána, 52, 187, 230, 246-254, 261, 278, 292, 340. ----external disorder in, 248. ----a fight in, 249. ----punishment, 251, 252. ----theft, a, 251, 252. schools, 230-239, 283. ----boarding, 234. ----infant, 235. ----tolstoy inspects, 194, 206. see also _education_. schopenhauer, on, 315, 416. ----on life, 407, 411, 416. _schwarzwälder dorfgeschichten_, 195, 212. sculptor, tolstoy as, 310. scythians, 337. search of estate by police, 285-288. self-depreciation, 162, 298. ----perfecting, 37, 38, 47, 48, 49, 52, 88. sensuality, thoughts on, 81. sequel, the, 447. serfdom, 211, 224, 433. serfs, emancipation of the. see _emancipation_. ----relations with the, 21, 43, 47, 158, 188, 227. sergius tolstoy (_brother_). see _tolstoy_. servants, relations with, 308, 318, 323. _sevastopol_ 112, 116, 130, 429. ----the censor and, 131. ----comments on, by kropótkin, 133. ----tourgénef, 133. ----english edition of, 135, 301. _sevastopol in august_, 119, 157. _sevastopol in december_, 111, 131. _sevastopol in may_, 130, 131. sevastopol, map of, 112. ----fourth bastion, in, 110-117. ----siege of, 106-109, 112-117. ----situation in, 105. ----star fort, the, 119. ----tolstoy reaches, 104. ----truce, a, 134. shámyl, 61, 66, 86. shooting, tolstoy goes, 84, 85, 90, 304-305, 336. shyness, 129, 130. _si jeunesse savait_, 179. silistria, recollections of siege, 97-104. simplicity, 84. sincerity, disbelief in others', 143. ----his own, 51, 448. singer at lucerne, 171. singing lessons, 167, 270, 271. slavophilism, 160, 161. sleep, respect for, 325. _smoke_, comments on, 313. _snow storm, the_, 91, 157. socialism, 395-397. social tact, 129. society, organisation of, 434. socrates on life, 407-409. sokólniki, at, 59. soldier, pleads for life of, 311. ----popular sympathy for, 312. soldiers' song, 122-126, 152. solomon, 407, 409, 411. south kensington, at, 194. spiritualism, 82. sportsman, tolstoy, the, 66, 84, 85, 90, 183-185, 230, 302, 304-305, 306-309, 336. sports, organises, 364. spring, influence of, 175. _squire's morning, a_, 47, 158. ----tourgénef's comment on, 158. staff-officers, disapproval of, 118. stallion (gouneba), 374. star fort, the, 119. starogládovsk, in, 61, 64, 76, 78. stáry urt, 68. state service, 43. stchedrín, 174, 354. stendhal, 93. stolýpin, 108, 285. story-teller, an itinerant, 384. stráhof, n. n., 321, 326, 344, 383, 384. strength, great physical, 367, 369, 403. strenuousness, 323. style, drouzhínin criticises tolstoy's, 159. suicide, thoughts of, 402, 406, 410, 418. ----in _anna karénina_, 349. syómka and fédka, literary genius of, 272, 274. ----walk with, 254-260. 'take care of that young man,' 111. tartar warfare, 77. tatiána, aunt, 13, 17, 29, 31, 52, 59, 154, 176-179, 295, 358, 359. ----letters to, 59, 61, 65, 66, 73, 76, 82, 84, 95, 96, 98, 109, 152, 153, 168, 195, 198, 212, 285. ----peasants' opinion of, 358. tchaykóvsky, n., 396, 397. tchérnaya, battle of the, 119. tchitchérin, b. n., 174. teach, what must i? 163, 235-238. ----how must i? 238-239, 263-271. telegraph, peasants and the, 176. ----tolstoy's criticism of, 240-242. temeshóf, doúnetchka, 20, 21. 'temple of science,' the, 36. tennyson, 135. 'tests' himself, 151, 154. theodore ivánitch (rössel), 12, 17, 18. thought reading, 289, 290. _three deaths_, 174, 186, 357. _three hermits, the_, 384. titles of nobility, russian, 3. todleben, 105, 118. tolstoy, alexandra a. (_aunt_), 174, 175, 196, 286, 351. ----letter to, 175. ----alexis, 4. ----andrew (_son_), 385. ----dmítry (_cousin_), 4. ----demetrius (dmítry or mítenka; _brother_), 20, 28, 41, 42, 43, 148. ----relations with serfs, 43. ----elias (_grandfather_), 3, 4, 5. ----ilyá, 64. ----(_son_), 310. ----leo (_son_), 317. ----marie (_mother_), 5, 9. ----mary (_daughter_), 331. ----(marie or másha; _sister_), 9, 75, 82, 83, 84, 153, 173, 177, 285, 288, 289, 304. ----nicholas, i (_father_), 4, 5, 6, 21, 23. ----(nikólenka; _brother_), 18, 42, 55, 60, 61, 191-193, 196-203. ----letter to, 98. ----(_son_), 357, 360. ----peter, 1, 2, 3. ----(_son_), 344, 352. ----s. a. (_wife_), 149, 289-296, 302-303, 317, 340, 344, 348, 368, 385. ----letters from, to s. a. behrs, 348, 356. ----sergius (sergéy or seryózha; _brother_), 19, 20, 28, 41, 42, 196, 305. ----letters to, 48, 89, 90, 106, 110, 148, 150, 152, 198. ----l. (_son_), 295, 303, 340, 366, 389. ----tatiána l. (_daughter_), 303, 320, 340, 366. ----family and servants, the, 21, 22, 318. ----name, the, 1, 9. ----spelling of, 9. tourgénef, 84, 133, 139-141, 149, 166, 168, 189, 190, 193, 214-223, 303, 338, 339, 357, 388, 389-393, 428. ----challenged by tolstoy, 166, 217. ----challenges tolstoy, 219. ----comments on _abc_ book, 347. ----_anna karénina_, 361. ----_cossacks, the_, 296, 393. ----_polikoúshka_, 297. ----_sevastopol_, 133. tourgénef, comments on _squire's morning, a_, 158. ----_war and peace_, 314. ----letters to fet, 190, 220, 221, 296, 338, 339, 357. ----in verse, 187. ----tolstoy, 155, 156, 217, 218, 388. ----on tolstoy, 338, 339, 392, 393. ----reconciliation with tolstoy, 388-391. ----'s faust, 156. ----'s _on the eve_, tolstoy's criticism of, 188. ----'s _smoke_, tolstoy's criticism of, 313. ----tolstoy's quarrel with, 216-223. ----translations with mme. viardot. see _viardot_. 'towards the people' movement, the, 394. training college for teachers, a, 347, 355, 356. translations, 301, 440. traveller in the well, the, 404. tree-planting, 313. 'trials of the pen,' 300, 303. trollope, a., 320. troubetskóy, princess catherine (_grandmother_), 6. 'tsar-liberator,' the, 225. tsar, prayers for the, 420. tschaikóvsky, p. i., 375-377. ----letter to, 376. turkey, war with, 379. turkish prisoners in tóula, 385. turks, ferocity of, 103. _twenty-three tales_, 342, 384. _two hussars_, 157, 361. ufanizing. see _farming_. universities, dislike of, 36, 235. university degree, failure to take, 37, 51. '----in bark shoes,' a, 347, 355, 356. ----studies at kazán, 32-37. ----at petersburg, 48, 50. unmethodical habits, 51, 65, 85. úshkof, p. i. (_aunt_), 31, 369. ----v. i., 4, 31. vanity, thoughts on, 81. varvára engelhardt, 6, 7. viardot, madame, 357, 361. vólga, journey down the, 285, 334. _vólga, mother_ (song), 276. volkónsky, prince nicholas (_grandfather_), 6, 7. ----s. g., 386. ----princess (_mother's cousin_), 174. ----marie (_mother_), 5. voltaire, influence of, 47. v. v. a., love affair with, 150-155. walking, love of, 204, 308, 309. ----tour, 168-170. _war and peace_, 303, 304, 309, 314, 317, 395, 430. ----characters in, 304, 435, 436. ----preparations for, 300. ----tolstoy's comment on, 303. ----bótkin's comment on, 315. ----tourgénef's comment on, 314, 315. war, active service in, 86, 99, 110, 119. ----the church and, 424. ----horror of, 78, 137. ----thoughts on, 133, 135, 136, 432. wealth, 243, 244. weimar, in, 211, 212. _what is art?_ 260, 342, 378, 430. _what men live by_, 384. wife. see _tolstoy, s. a._ wine, on, 137. 'wishes to be great,' 183. women, relations with, 40, 44, 52. _wood-felling, the_, 77, 130, 131, 132. wood, mrs. henry, 320. works, first collected edition of, 300. ----list of, 427. ----published before _war and peace_, list of, 301. writer, tolstoy the, 441, 445-447. writers, criticism, of the, 162-165. writing lessons, 268. _yásnaya polyána_, magazine, 231, 242, 246, 291, 292. yásnaya polyána, house and estate, 16, 111, 309. yásno-polyána school, chap. viii. see also _school_. _youth_, 130, 156, 158, 160. ----criticised by drouzhínin, 158, 159. ----by tolstoy, 160. zahárin, professor, 313. zémstvo, elected to the, 251. printed by t. and a. constable, printers to his majesty at the edinburgh university press * * * * * * transcriber's note: variations in spelling and hyphenation have been left as in the original. 