COBBLER AND APOSTLE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 972, 12 November 1910, Page 9

COBBLER AND APOSTLE.

■A: Knssian professor,' calling once at the Moscow house of Count Leo; Tolstoy, found him making a pair of boots. The great writer pointed to a pile of ■American newspapers that, had, just: arrived. "Have a look at them," lie said, "while I finish this job and wash, my hands;" The professor tore off' a .wrapper, ~ unfolded the. "Sandusky Times, ' and . discovered a full report of a sermon preached in the cathedral church of Sandusky. The sermon and a leading article based upon it hailed Tolstoy in -extravagant language as a thirteenth apostle, wliose teaching was as important as that of the other twelve, and should be studied by everybody. "The contrast between the enthusiastic description. of '.Tolstoy's greatness in the, American, paper," says the professor, "and the . humble .figure of the apostle himself who, with sleeves turned up,, was sitting, in the next room, wearing an apron and diligently, and peacefully sew-ing 'a boot, was so great that I burst into loud,''almost hysterical, laughter." The Professor told Tolstoy why he laughed,'and Tolstoy laughed too, quite naturally and'inerrily. Then he remembered, "Well, that's. ! Teally quite American." He gravely .finished ; hi9 work, went to wash, his/hands,'and came, back and\ talked of many things,. without. giving the "Sandusky'Times",, so much as a glance. That is one of the stories told in the. latest and perhaps the best'and most important English book, about Tolstoy. It is the : second half of , the "Life,' by Mr. Aylmer Maude, arid its sub-title is "Later Years." Mr. Maude has kindly oaused Messrs. Constable and' Company (who publish it at 103. 6d.- net), to send me a copy. It is a fine piece of biography—well arranged, well written, lucid, picturesque, conscientious. The Countess Tolstoy has verified the facts, and Tolstoy .himself has read and approved the exposition of- his religious views. Yet it achieves a degree'of frankness whioh is not always found, even in .biographies Of' the great dead, and _ is scarcely'ever expected when the subject is a living celebrity.

"TheTe are few great men," says Mr. Maude, "whose lives it would be possible to" lay bare before the public, with such full assurance that by perfect frankness one will not diminish the respect and • affection in which they are held by mankind." '

Here '.Tolstoy is shown, in his family, among ■ those' he accounted his teachers, 6urrounded by those who owned themselves . his' disciples, "quarrelling, forgiving and being forgiven, working with the peasants, playing with his children, going on pilgrimage, writing his books, sitting .for his portrait,- and investigating poverty in the dirtiest lodging-houses of Moscow. The record connects his writings, and especially his great didactic works, with the. events of his life, and shows that, with all his startling originality, and even in his most characteristic utterances, he was the voice of 'a mass of beliefs and opinions, some of which though widely held in Russia might not otherwise have reached the consciousness of the world at large. Mr. Maude, in fact, enables us, to take the historical view, in which Tolstoy, like other great men, is seen' to be not an isolated phenomenon but a type ajd an expression of some of the great • spiritual and intellectual forces, of his time and country.. That view Tolstoy himself could never take. The principles which he proclaimed, sometimes with such glowing art, and sometimes with such pitiless directness, and to which he strove so earnestly to adjust his .own life, were to him not true merely in relation to time and place, but true absolutely and forever.

•Mr.'- Maude, formerly a disciple and still a personal ' friend of Tolstoy, is. pow a Socialist' of tho school of Mr. Bernard Shaw. In this book ho presents Tolstoy's theories as clearly, and cogently, as if they were his own, and after each of these expositions (which come in- their proper places in the narrative), he proceeds to. show exactly where, in his opinion, Tolstoy, is mistaken. The reader, stirred up in this way, is bound to show himself where Mr. Maude is wrong. Surely no other biography offers such a feast of reason. To some minds it would be a surfeit. I do not find it so, but, for the present, at any rate, I prefer the stories and the personal touches.

'When Tolstoy had written "Ivan the Fool," he read it to a meeting of peasants. Then he asked one of them, who had appeared moved by the story, to tell it over again. The man did so, fluently, but with variations. Tolstoy took notes, and beamed with enthusiasm at every vivid phrase or happy turn of words. The tale was published in the form the peasant gave it. "1 always do that," said Tolstoy. "I learn how to write from them, and I test my work on them. "That is tho only way to produce Btories for the people,"

Anna Seuron, the Austrian governess, thought it "a most amazing, time," that period in the 'eighties when Tolstoy ivas trying, to live like a peasant. "When making tea, the Count would almost count each. leaf, yet he was losing thousands by bad management of his estates. For a time he was absurdly dirty. and untidy." He announced that to bo clean was a luxury—and, therefore, not for him. "Yet at the same time," says the governess again, "he was goodnatured, and often merry. He would play croquet, run races with his sons, play the piano, and of an evening draw devils on scraps of paper. He laughed at things that seemed serious to. other people, sewed new boots and mended old ones, rejoiced in his frugal economies, and played with the little children; in a word, he was a simple, kindly, good family man, who did not know how to count beyond three, and would never stir up the mnd in any stream." . . . . And here is an- impression of a different kind. Nicolav Gay, a celebrated Russian painter—described by .the Countess Tolstoy as " a dear, naive man, charming! . • • fifty, bald, with clear, light blue 'eves and a kindly look, read what ToHtoy had written about the Moscow ccnsus'. "As a spark kindles inflammablo material, so that word set me aflame. * • , X went to Moscow to embrace that

great man, and work for him. I arrived; bought canvas and paints, and dro'vo to his house. ... I saw him, embraced him and kissed him, 'Leo Nikolaycvitch.l have come to do anything you like. Shall I paint your daughter?' "No, in that case, bettor paint my wife.' l

did so. But from that moment I understood all. • I loved that man unboundedly; he had revealed everything to'ine." Mr. Maude remarks that the Countess once told him that the beginning and the end of her married life had been happy, but tho middlo had been unhappy. The pathetic story of how Her husband's renunciations became her burdens has often been told in part, and has been much misunderstood. Mr. Maude's narrative proves her to_ bo a woman of -great ability, and heroic character, devoted to her husband and family. For their sakes, sho took over and managed the landed estates which the Count wanted to give away. Sho also set up in business as his nublisher, and for many .years controlled his literary property. -She is now writing her reminiscences of life with Tolstoy. . .

Throughout the book one is impressed by Tolstoy's wonderful vigour, both physical and mental. At ,G6 he took to bicycling with "almost boyish ardour." Cyclists lind to take out licenses, and Tolstoy demonstrated his proficiency to tho police by, performing easily tho necessary horse-shoo aud a figure of eight. While Mr. Maude was writing his closing chapters, he heard that Tolstoy had ■given up riding on horseback, not because he was more than 80 years old, but because he was still arguing with himself the right and wrong of indulgence in anything that could be called a luxury. However, he took to riding again, and "whether Delire (his favourite- horse) will follow alcohol, meat, tobacco, and so many other things into the domain of desires' Tolstoy has. conquered, remains yet to be seen." . '

When there \yas talk of celebrating Tolstoy's eightieth birthday, a friend suggested jokingly that the best way would be to send him to prison -as the author of works for which others wpre being punished. The idea pleased_ him, "as a course which would really satisfy all those to whom my writings and their circulation is unpleasant, and would at tho same time afford me in my old age, before death comes, true happiness 'and satisfaction,' while releasing me entirely from the threatened burdens of the forthcoming jubilee." .It -has always been tho practice'of the Government to persecute Tolstoy's adherents and leave him alone. During the last three. or. four years, he has repeatedly aslccd the authorities to recognise him as the chief culprit, and deal with him accordingly. In 1908 he begged—or challenged, it is hard to say which—the Government to hang him. A great deal of, hanging was being done then, for political offences, but, of course, Tolstoy was not eyen arrested.

• The.Orthodox Greek Church did indeed cxcommunicate him a few years ago, but tho ' Russian" Government knows better than to.make a martyr of the most wide-ly-read of living, writers and best-beloved of men;—J.Q.X.