LITERATURE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16675, 22 April 1916, Page 2

LITERATURE.

THE RESURRECTION 0E RUSSIA.* AN EASTER MEDITATION. Br Constant Reader. When, at tho age of seventy years, Loo Tolstoy published nis preat novel "Resurrection " he builded wiser than he knew. In the persons of Nehl-udof and Maelova tho novelist represented that resurrection to a new purpose and a new lifo to-day so typical of the Russian nation. The very title " Resurrection" moans muc'h. to a peoplo who greet one another at Easter time with tho words " Christ is Risen! Christ is Risen." In " What I Saw in Russia" tho Hon. Maurice Baring has an instructive account of Palm Sunday and Easter at Moscow. He insists that Russia is quite different from all other countries, and mentions an incident which in a moment brought that difference forcibly under liis notice. It happened on the evening of Palm Sunday:— When driving home through tho empty streets at 11 p.m. I passed a church 'is the clock struck. I heard a voice speaking loud quite close to me. I turned and saw a policeman standing on the pavement, having faced about towards the church. He was saying his prayers in a loud sing-song. His wliolo body was swaying as he repeatedly crossed himself. In his aims he carried a twig of budding willow, which is the symbol of tho palm branches of to-day's festival. These l branches yesterday and to-day have been sold and carried about all over Russia. Palm Sunday here is called the Feast of the Willow Branches. When I saw this policeman saying his prayers I experienced that "peculiar twinge of recognition which made me say '"This is Russia." When in that nightmare, "The Man Who was Thursday," Mr G. K. Chesterton doscribed tho formation of "a special corps of policemen, policemen who are also philosophers," people smiled at the quaint conceit, and promptly forgot all about it. In his introduction to Maxim Gorki's "Creatures That Once Were Men," Mr Chesterton made the profound remark that " through all runs tho curious Russian sense that every man is only a man, which, if tho Russians ever are a democracy, will make them the most democratic democracy that the world has ever seen." It is just because of the Russian sense that, after all, whatever his [position, every man is only a man, a praying policeman is possible in the streets erf Moscow late at night, whereas in England even a philosophical policeman seems an absurdity. Throughout Russia, indeed, the praying policeman is the protper accompaniment of the Easter festival; if he did not pray he would be out of harmony with his surroundings. To quote again from "What I Saw in Russia":— Easter, as is well known, is the most important feast of tho yoar_ in Russia, the season of festivity and . holiday-making in' a greater degree than Christmas or New Year's Day. Easter, which is kept with equal solemnity all over Russia, is especially interesting in Moscow, because Moscow is . the stronghold of old traditions and the l city of churches. There •is a church almost in every street, and the Kremlin is a citadel of cathedrals. During Holy Week, towards the end of which the evidences of tho fasting season grow more and more obvious by the closing of restaurants and the impossibility*of buying any wine and spirits, there are, of oourse, services every day. I went to the morning service in the Cathedral of the Assumption on Monday and Thursday. "It's long, but it's very, very beautiful." The church is crowded to suffocation. Everybody is standing up, as there would be no room to kneel. The church is lit *1. " The Way of Martha and the Way of Mary." By Stephen Graham. London: Macmil»an and Co. (7s 6d net.) .' "Dead Souls." By Nikolai Gogol; with an introduction by Stephen GraJiam. London: ,T. Fisher TJnwin. (3a Gd.) 3. " The Brothers Karamazot." By Fyoder Dostoevsky; from the Russian by Constance Garnefct. London: W. Heinemamn. (3s Gd.) 4. "An Outline of Russian Literature." By Hon. Maurice Baring. London: Williams and Norgate. (Is net.) 5. " Contemporary Eussdan Novelists." By Serge Persty. London: P. and 0. Palmer. (3s 6d net.) 6. " What X Saw in Itassia." By Hon. Maurice Baring. London: T. Nelson and Sons. (Is net.) 7. " Europe's Debt to Russia.-" By Charles Sarolea. London: W. Heinemann. (3s net.) • 8. " Obioiiioif." By Ivan Gonaharov. London: George Allen and XJnwin. (3s 6<L)

Special Reviews, and Gleanings from Various Sources.

with countless small -wax tapers. Tho priests aro clothed in whito and silver. Tho singing of tho noWo plain chant without any accompaniment elite and flows in perfectly disciplined harmonics; tho bass voiccs aro unequalled in the world. Every class of tho population ia represented in the church. Thero aro no scats, no pews, no precedence nor privilege. There is a smoll of inccnso, and a still stronger smell of poor people, without which, someone said, a church is not a church. On Good Friday there 1 is tho service of the Holy Shroud, and, besides this, a later service in which tho Gospel is road out in fourteen different languages, and finally a servioe, beginning at 1 o'clock in the morning and ending at 4, which commemorates tho Burial of Our Lord. How the priests enduro tho strain of these many and exceedingly long services is a thing to bo wondered at; for the fact, which is strictly kept during all this period, precludes butter, eggs, and milk, in addition to all tho moro solid forms of nourishment, and the services aro about six times as long- as those of the Catholic or other churches. Tho most solemn service of the year takes placo at midnight on Saturday. . . Thero are two services—tho service which begins at midnight, and which lasts about half an hour, and Mass, which follows immediately after it, lasting till about 3 in the morning. At tho end of the first service, when " Christ Is Risen " is sung, the priest kisses tho congregation thro© times, and then the congregation kiss each other, cm© person saying "Christ is risen," and the other answering "Ho is risen, indeed." The colonel kisses the sergeant, the sergeant kisses all the men one after another. The innate religiousness of tho Russian people is one of the points stressed by Mr Stephen Graham in that most fascinating volume, "The Way of Martha and of Mary," the reason for the curious title being expounded in th© preface:— Tho quotation " Martha, Martha, thou art cumbered about with many things; but one thing is needful; and Mary has chosen that good part which shall not bo taken away from her" is as common in Russia as " faith without works is dead " is common here. Speaking roughly, Eastern Christianity is associated with Mary's good part, and Western Christianity with tho way of Martha and scrThe two aspects seem to be irreconcilable, but they are not; and I have called my book " The Way of Martha and the Way of Mary" because the ways of the sisters are as touchstones for Christianity, and in their reconciliation is a great beauty. If you would know what a nation is, you must ask what is the religion of tho people. Without a national religion a nation is not a nation, but a collection of people. It is a truism to say that what is best in a nation springs front its religion, from some central idealism to which everyone in the nation has access — tho idea of the nation. There is a "British idea," an " American idea.," a " German idea," a "Russian idea." This is profoundly truo of Russia; for all that is beautiful in her life, art, and culture springs from the particular and characteristic Christian idea in the depths of her. She is essentially a. great and wonderful unity. It is of that essential unity that I write, and in writing hope to show on tlie one plane Russia and on another tho splendour of the true Christian idea. In another place in tho same volume Mr Graham strikingly_ says:—"Russia and England are akin, if it were only in the bond of Ghristanity. We have certain spiritual affinities. We could know ourselves much nearer to one another, though that depends on us hither than on Russia. She. has much more to _ teach us than we have to teach her. It ia only kindness to our politicians and progressive workers that could over suggest that Russia was a blank sheet on whioh they might write what they chose. Russia, alas! may learn wrong things of us, and go wrong—Dostoieffskys "Nightmare." In "The Brothers Karamazov," Dostoievsky's best and, in many respect, his greatest work, this "nightmare" is discussed in the great trial scene at the end of tho book. It forms part of the speech of tho Crown prosecutor, Ippolit Kirillovitch, when Dimitri Karamazoy is charged with the murdesr of his father: — Whatever you may hear from the talented and celebrated counsel for the defence, whatever eloquent and touching appeals may be made to your sensibilities, remember that at this moment you are in a temple of justice. Remember that you are the champion of our justice, the champion of our holy Russia, of her principles, her family, everything that she holds sacred! Yes, you represent Russia here at this moment, and your verdict will be heard, not in this hall only, but will reecho throughout tho wholo of Russia, and all Russia will hear you as her champions and her judges, and she will be encouraged or disheartened by your verdict. Do not disappoint Russia and her expectations. Our fatal troika dashes on her headlong flight, perhaps to destruction, and in all Russia for 16W past men have stretched out imploring hands, and called a halt to its furious, reckless course. And if other nations stand aside from that jkroSca that may bo, not from respect, as the poet would fain believe, but simply from horror. From horror, perhaps from disgust. And well it is that they stand aside, but may bo they will cease one day to do so, and will form a firm wall confronting the hurrying apparition, and will check the frenzied rush of oyr lawlessness for, the sake of their own safety, enlightenment, and oivilisation. Already we have heard voices of alarm from Europe, they already begin to sound. Do not tempt them ! Do not heap up-their growing hatred by a sentence justifying the murder of a father, by his son ! It was this sense of horror and disgust, so accurately foretold by Dostoieffsky, that impelled Swinburne in 1890 _to write "Russia: an Ode," _vehement lines whoso unsparing denunciation of " The Muscovite" reads strangely to-day. But a quarof a century &go " the fatal troika ■was taking a cause in defiance of humanity and civilisation. To understand this reference it is necessary to refer to the_ masterpiece of Gogol, concerning which Mr Graham, introducing a reprint of a franslation of this great novel, writes: Dead Souls' is Russia herself. The characters have become national types. The sayings of Gogol have become proverbs. The ideas set forth by him have become national idea©." One of the most famous passages in Russian literature is to be found in "Dead Souls," andi it has become famous because it takes the troika as a symbol of ■national life in Russia. * i The troika, explains Mr Graham ' is a sledge or cart drawn by three galloping horses.—ono horse between the shafts, the other ones on each side of him; tho side horses are the wings of the chariot in Gogol's figure. The troika is characteristic of the wild, .hearty type of tho Russian people, their prodigality, recklessness, and generosity." _ _ ; Gogol' 6 famous " troika " passage—it will bo found at the -md of Chapter _XI of " Dead Souls "—is worth _ quoting in full; it seems in a sense to depict tho part which Russia is clcstined to play in tho great war, and, read carefully, may be regarded as prophetic:

Ah, the troika —the bird troika! Who invented thee? Of course, thou could'st only have had thy birth among a dashing' race—in that land which has extended smoothly, glidingly, over half the earth, and whero one may count the verst pillars until one's eyes swim. Thou art not a complicated vehicle, friend troika. Tbou, art not put together with wire spikes; a clever moujik of Yaroslavl, with axo and chisel only, has made thee with despatch. Thy driver wears no German cavalry boots; ho has a beard and mittens; they are all he needs. The deuce only knows what he sits upon; but, see, ho has risen, and ho waves his arms and strikes up a song. The horses dash on like a whirlwind; the spokes of the ■wheels have become merged into one smooth circle; the road quakes, and the foot-traveller halts and cries aloud in alarm—while yet the troika flies on, on, on 1 Audi behind it is already visible afar, rfl-isittg a cloud of dust, and piercing the air, till at last it vanishes from vierw. ! Is it not thus, like the bold troika which cannot be overtaken, that thou art dashing along, 0 Russia, my oountry? T"-o roads smoke beneath thee, the bridges thunder; all is left, all will bo left behind theo. The spectator stops, short astounded, as at a marvel of God. Is this the lightning which has descended from heaven? ho asks. What does this awe-inspiring movement betoken? And what uncanny power is possessed bv these horses, so strange to the world? Ah! horses, horses, Russian horses! _ What horses you are! Doth the whirlwind sit upon your manes? Doth _ your sensitive ears prick with every tingle in your veins? But !o! you have heard a familiar song from on high; simultaneously, in friendly wise, you have bent your brazen breasts to the task;

and hardly letting your hoofs touch the earth, you advaaoQ in ono tightlystretched lino, flying through the air. Yea, oti tho troika fliee, inspired of Godl 0 Russia, -.vhithcr art thou dashing? Reply! But she replies not; tho horses' belts broak into a wondrous sound; tho shattered air becomes a tempest, and the thunder growls. llwssia flics past everytiling clso upon earth; and otiiar peoples, kingdoms, and empires gaze askance as they stand aside to mako way for her. To understand tho Russian people rightly some acq nam tan co with tiioir literature is essential. Fortunately since the war, tho numlmr of translations of tho works of their foremost writers ia on the increase. Certainly Mr Maurice Baring, in his useful little " Outline of Russian Literature," laments tho fact that thero ie in English no coroploto translation of Pushkin, which " is much tho satno as though there woro in Russia no complete translation of Shakespeare or Milton." Five or six years ago Mr Aylrnor Maude, in his " Life of Tolstoy," gave expression to a similar lament anent the prophet of Yasnaya Polyana, that no complete and reliable translation of his works was available. If, however, Dr Charles Sarolea is to be believed, all this will be speedily altered. In that remarkably informative book " Europe's Debt to Russia," tho man who in " The Anglo-Gorman Problem 5 ' faithfully forecasted the war three years before the actual outbreak of hostilities, commits himself to this startling prophecy:— If tho coming generation wants to dorivo tho fullest advantage of intellectual and moral intercourse with what promises to bo tho most original culture which the world has ever seen since tho .Renaissance, Europe will have to mako the study of Russian a compulsory branch of tho humanities. Pedants continue to wrangle whether thoy should preservo Latin or Greek, or both, in tho education of the young. I am convinoed tliat the near future will force upon us an unexpected solution of the " Battle of Tongues." Although to the pedagogue of to-day it may appear ae the wildest of visions, I confidently prophesy that, before the schoolboy of to-day will have attained to mature age, the study of Russian will take tho place of Greek in the schools of Europe; the study of Vladimir Solovyov will takes the place of his master Plato; Karamzin and Pushkine will replace Livy and VirgiL Before the first half of the century has run its course, Slav culture will -at last come into its inheritance, and will tako its revenge for the unjust neglect of the West. Dr Sarolea cherishes the hope that under the stimulus which the modern universities, " tho ■ coming generation will sooner or later awaken to the existence of a language which provided as valuable a mental discipline and gymnastic as any classical language, which possesses as creative and as original a literature as the Greek, and a much richer oho than the Latin, and which has this further claim on our attention that it is the language of an Imperial people which will sooner or later dominate the political world." Dr Sarolea points out as additional argument that " already Russia is the dominant language of 175,000,000 people. In 10 years it will be spoken by 200,000,000 people. In 1950 it will be spoken by 300,000,000.. Nor must we forget the important fact that Russia is the to a dozen other Slavonic languages, which itself is destined to become one day the language of an imperial federation, extending from Dalmatia to Croatia in the West, to tho Iron Gates in the North, and Salonika in the South. Finally it lias to be kept in mind that tho Slavonic or ecclcsiastical Russian is the common sacred language of all the Greek Orthodox Slav nations." It should most emphatically bo stated that Russian literature : is worthy of the Russian language, but with this important qualification that -whereas the Russian language is one 'of the most ancient of European languages, Russian literature is one of the newest of literatures, as it virtually begins with the Nineteenth Century. Yet, as Serge Persky declares in his most useful study of "Contemporary Russian Novelists," in order to get a clear idea of modern Russian literature, a knowledge of its past is indispensable. Persky notes three distinctive traits in Russian literature —first, it 3 critical and satiric spirit in regard to social and political life; secondly, its tendency towards realism; and, thirdly, its democratic spirit. With a literature at once so large and volumincrus, it is not easy to find a proper starting point. For _ myself, many years ago I commenced with Tolstoy, but probably I should have done better to have begun with Goncharoff, since he helps to explain, Tolstoy. Goncharoff waa not a prolific writer. He has left only three novels, "A Common Story," " Oblomoff," and "Tho Precipice"—all now available in English translation—and of these "Oblomoff" ranks with TurguenefFs " Fathers 'and Sons" and Tolstoy's " War and Peace" and " Resurrection" as amongst the profoundest productions of the latter half of tho last century. Prince Kropotkin in his "Ideals and Realities in Russian Literature " —a book which, more than ten years ago, makes stimulating reading at tho present time—pens a fine sketch of Goncharoff and his novels, from which 1 take the following:— Oblomoff is very well educated, wellbred, he has a refined taste, and in mat ters of art he is a fine judge. Everything that is vulgar is repulsive to him. He never will commit any dishonest act; he cannot. Jrio also shares the highest and noblest aspirations of his contemporaries. Gondharoff depicts the state of inactivity into which Oblomoff aad fallen at the age of about thirty-five. It' ia the supreme poetry of laziness —a laziness created by a whole life of old-time landlordism^ The impression which this, novel produced in Russia, on its appearance in 1859, wa? indescribable. It was a far greater event than the appearance of a neiw work by Turgueneff. All educated Russia read Oblomoff and discussed "Oblomoffdom." Everyone recognised something of himself in Oblomoff, felt tho disease of Oblomoff in his own veins. At the time of the appearance of this novel "Oblomoffdom" became a current word to designate the state of Russia, -ill Russian life, all Russian history bear traces of this malady—that laziness of mind and heart, that right to laziness proclaimed as a virtue, that conservatism and inertia, that contempt of feverish aotivity, which characterised Oblomoff,aoid were so much cultivated, in serfdom times, even amongßt the best men in Russia—and even among the maloontents. " A sad result of serfdom "—it was said then. But as we live further away from serfdom times, we begin to realise that Oblomoff is not dead amongst us; that serfdom is not the only thing which 1 creates this type of men, but that the very conditions of wealthy life, tho routine of civilised life, contribute to maintain it. Tho whole of Tolstoy's life and work may be regarded as a revolt against the " Gblcmoffdom" into which he was born. and within 'which his environment and domestic influences conspired to imprison him. But his close encounter with the sordid poverty and wretchedness in the low lodging houses of Moscow shocked him in J o an active resolution which lasted' all his life through, the tragic finale of which has passed into history. Following hard on the steps of Tolstoy came Maxim Gorki vrith his realistic sketches of the type of " Creatures that Once Were Men,", which revealed to the world the depths of misery and degradation in which it was possible for human beings to wallow. These revelations showed that democratic instinct latent in tho Russian nature, a.nd for a remedy the _ people harked 'back to the gospel according to Dostoievsky, which proclaimed that Gethsomane and Calvary are the preparation for tho Resurrection. It is because Russia and the Russian people have shown, themselves willing to accept this teaching that tho future of oivilisation promises to be committed to their keepng. 1 had hoped to develop this theme with reference to _ " Dostoievsky, His Life and Literary Activity," by Evgenii Soloviev, recently translated and published; and also to the work of a later and less known Russian novelist, "Tho Duel," by Alexander Kupvin; but I must leave consideration of these two books for the present. This Meditation may fittingly conclude with yet another extract from " Tho Way of Martha and tho Way of Mary" a book especially suited as manual for this Eastertide :— Dostoieffsky voiced the religion of suffering for Russia, he suffered himself, and in his personal suffering discovered tho national prssion. He sanctified Siberia, redeeming the notion of it from that of a foul prison and placo of punishment to a place of redemption and find- , ing ono's own soul. He did not find Siberia an evil place, but on the contrary, found it holy ground. There men oamo face to face with reality who ha.' lived till then in an atmosphere of unreality. The roads of Sliberia were roads of pilgrimage. Dostoieffsky 6ent successively his two most interesting heroes to tread these rcads—llaskolskof and Dmitri ICaxamazof. Tolstoy develops and materialises tho idoa in the story of Katya and Neludof. Then in his novels Destoicffsky generally shows the suffering ones, never suggesting .the idea thai, the suffering should bo removed. He Naa no irien*=» in tho

non-suffering normal person. He prefers a man who is true, whose soul is disclosed and bare. « Ho feels that such a man knows more and that his life can show more of the true pathos of man's destiny. Such people think,, dream, pray, hope, they are infinitely lovable, thoy are clearly mortal. Hence a pre-occupation with suffering, a saying "Yes" to suffering when the obvious answer seems to be "No," and "Let this cup pass from me." It is perhaps because the West has taken it for granted that suffering is an evil thing, and has set itself unconsciously the .task of eliminating suffering from the world that the East has emphasised its acceptance of suffering. Neitzsche noted what he called the watchword of Western Europe—"Wo wish that then; many be nothing more to fear." Ho despised that wish. , The East does not despise the wish, but finds it necessary to affirm its own belief more vigorously. It accepts many things which the Weet considers wrong in themselves— War, Disease, Pain, Death.