Count Leo N. Tolstoi.

Evening Post, Volume XXXVII, Issue 112, 13 May 1889, Page 3

Count Leo N. Tolstoi.

+ . The death of this eminont Bnsaian writer and reformer, whioh oocurrod on the 7th of this month, onprht not to pa»a nnnoticed. Matthew Arnold, whoso fine critical aoumen entitled him to a respectful hearing, pronounced Tolstoi' the foremost novelist of our day. When we remember the high rank of exoellonoe attained by English and American aatliora of fiotion, this m&y Yvell Beom to bo extravagant praise, but the fame and influence of Tolstoi's works warrant it. The loading ovents of his life may easily be dotailed. Ho was born at Yasnaya Poliana, in the Russian Frovinco of Tula, in 1828, and was therefore 61 years old when he died. His mother wav the Princess Marie Volkonsky. Both his parents died while he was yet young. At tho age of 16 he matriculated at the University of Kasan. Ho beoamo an officor of artillery at 23, and for a while led a lifo of self-indulgent luxury. In 1855 he was engaged in military sorvice in the Crimea and was present at the storming of Sebastopol. He wrote war sketches, in whioh he gave the impressions he gained during that great campaign, and this, his first literary venture, lifted him into popularity. In 1856 he published "Childhood and Youth," a, work noteworthy for its delineation of tho growth of idoas and emotions in the minds of children, "of tho hearthsido poetry of domestic life," and of the beauties and bounties of nature. He now beoamo, like Carlyle, " a maker of books," and produced in rapid succession "The Snowstorm," "The Two Hussars," "Youth," " Family Happiness," " Poliekonshka," a-d other works. In 1860 ho issued his greatest work, entitled " War and Peace, " a historical romance, whioh treats of tho invasion of Eusaia by Napoleon in 1812. Of this book one oritio says:— "The stage is immense, and the aotors aro innumerable; among them three Emperors, with thoir ministers, their marshals, and their generals, and then a countless retinue of minor officers, soldiers, nobles, and peasants. We are transported by turns from tho salons of St. Petersburg to the camps of war, from Mosoow to the country. And all those diverse and varied sconeß aro joined together with a controlling purpose that brings everything into harmony. Eiioh one of the prolonged sories of constantly changing tableaux is of remarkaWo beauty and palpitating with life." Up to this time he had writton from pride and a love of gain. He says of himself — " I received an enormous poonniary reward and great applause for valueless work." He then ceased to write fiction, and produced instead moral stories and pampnlets on social, political, and religious questions. He desoribes the ohange in his oonviotions and conduct in these words:— "l am five and fifty years old, and, with the exception of the fonrtoen or fifteon years of my childhood, I have been until recently a Nihilist in tho proper signification of that term. I hivo not been a Socialist or a Revolutionist, but a Nihilist in tho sense of being without faith. Five years ago I began to beliovo in tho dootrine of Christ, and in consequence a great change- has been wrought in me. I now no longer care for the things which I had prized, and I have begun to desiro things concerning which I had formorly beon indifferent. Like a man who, going out on business, on hia way suddenly becomes convinood of tho futility of that business and turns baok ; and all that stood to tho rfght now stands to the left, and all that was to the left is now to the right ; his wish to bo as far from home as possible is changed to the desire of being as near homo as possible. So I may Fay tbe whole aim and purpose of my life has been changed ; my desires are no more what thoy have been ; for me good and ovil have changed places. This experience came through my apprehending tho dootrino of Christ in an altogether difforont way, and seeing it in a quite new light." These sentences appeared in tho introduction to "My Religion," wbioh was published at Moscow in 1884. In that work ho maintains that the charter of Christianity is tho Sermon on the Monnt, and that the central clause in the ohartor is tho verse, "Kesistnotovil." Hebreaksawayfrom tho teaching of the Greok Church, fettered as it is by formalism and traditionalism, and insists that tho Gospel of Christ is a social Gospel chiefly intendod, as a rule, for the present life. He will have nothing to do with the doorines of Christianity, but highly values its ethics. For himself he acted literally on the prooepts of Christ. Although a wealthy noble and a talented author, he lived in his latter years with the simplicity of a peasant, arrayed in peasant dress, and treating tho humblest of his dependants as friends. Georgo Kennan visited him in June, 1886, and gives an interesting account of his interview in the Century Illustrated Magazine, for Juno, 1887. Ho found him living and labouring in tho homeliest fashion. After speaking of the barbarities of the Russian convict system, Kennan asked him whether ho did Dot consider resistance to auoh oppression justifiable. He replied, That depends upon what you mean by resistauoo ; if you mean persuasion, argument, protest, I answer yes; if you moan violence— no. I do not believe that violent resistance to ovil in ever justifiable under any oironmstanoes." Later on he said, "It is by those who have suffored not by those who have infliotedsuffering that the world has been advanced. ' ' Konnar belioved him to be nnfeignodly sinoere in his beliefs and praotices, and says— "His theories of life seemed to me wholly, generously, and heroically wrong, but for the man himself I bad and could have only the warmest respect and esteem." Few men have had larger influence throughout during recent years than the late Count. His books and pamphlets have been widely circulated by a great number of the Russian peasantry. There are many in that vast empire (whioh is so dimly understood by most of us) who are opposed to the violence of the Nihilists, although as wishful as they for reformed and milder government. Wo trust the paoifio opinions of the

dccoaaod roformor will quiotly spread nntil EuHHia, ho long- ruled by tho iron hand of an Autocrat, bLuII tako lior rightful ]>laco in tJio comity of freo and onlightcned nations.