STORIES OF TOLSTOI.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14984, 4 May 1912, Page 5 (Supplement)

STORIES OF TOLSTOI.

•' HIS WORK AS SCHOOLMASTER. '?:■ V; 1 ? j.' ''-I In* the course of many . a long debate, wandering on horse .or afoot ; through the familiar country about his home, or in the bare room which felt- for . such a length of, years the throb, mental and physical, of his prodigious energy, on© was often apt to wonder if any modern apostle of manners 'differed from so many people who agreed with him, or agreed with so ; many people who differed from him . as : Tolstoi. Once, when the point was* put to him, his face lightened in its delightful fashion, its quick-conceived' perplexity fading before his smile "Ah!" he sighed, "if you did but know, how I differ from myself!"' We , did know it ; . knew it to our cost, says Mr. H. F. Prevost Battersby, writing in > tho World's' Work! Not once nor twice, following feebly to support him, we had found him, with front changed, fighting as pernicious heresies the principles he had espoused. .It was exciting, and, S yes, in' a sense, inspiring. What a tribute it was to' the teacher's search for truth, this Constant readiness to proclaim as false the witness he had borne it. And, in this matter .of schoolmastering, it must be admitted that his early activities found ! no favour in his enlightened eyes. That, however, is no reason why his experiments should not bo of interest to those not yet grown contemptuous of what we. call education. ; :'<Y ••

( Those experiments were . not the mere outcome of a code discontent. Before ho mado them he travelled over a great part of Europe, studying systems,: inspecting schools, and making acquaintance with distinguished ' pedagogues. - But - ho, returned to Russia, after close; on ' a year's absence, no. more conscious of educational wisdom than , when he left. it.

But a sense of his own insufficiency never stopped Tolstoi'—it; spurred him ' rather. More than one of ' his stories wan written to make clear :to himself ' the ' argument with which it dealt. >.; tSo he opened a school in order ;to learn -b<rvKio- teach children ; not to put .theories< into practice, but by . practice to acquire them. Such a standpoint has j- in':pedagogy".; a i particular ,value ; it is .rare, and it brings to the study of "education' a* mind more open than the ordinary 'pedagogue- can permit > himself 'to" play with. . ' s - ■" >,i ; ( - Tolstoi played with his. At that hour all work was play to„ him, and' schoolmastering the beat play of all, because* it put the heaviest strain on his faculties. As a young man he used to turn somersaults round the -' room while discussing with his steward ; the management of the estate, and teaching supplied him with a series of . intellectual "somersaults' to diversify the progress of his literary career. '■ But he f took it seriously. It was not for him a clever man's amusement. His whole life went to solve the insoluble problem of education ; he spent over the books he wrote for his scholars more time and pains than - any other work had cost him ; and only left the field to others when increasing effort had broken • down his health.