Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1889-08-14
BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

any man feels able to answer Count Tolls
tois arguments point for point, lot him do
so, but II seems to me that Wo who have
been content not to ask ourselves the ques-
ton "what to dof" much less answer II,
must stand silent before this master mind
which has asked and answered when he
knew the answer for himself meant sacri-
flee. For himself he has solved the prob
lem even AZ Father Damien has solved his
and rs Abou Ben Alden asked to bc regis
tered in the book of gold. 'as one that loves
his fellow men"
Even IN reading Count Tolstoi's answer,
written as it is in his plain, forcible style
that n child might comprehend, we may
not be able TO accept all of his creed of
Democracy and socialism, divine as IL
seems, but tho first clause we would do
well TO adopt for ourselves. 1--WE must
neither deceive other men nor ourselves
| that we must not be afraid of the truth
whatever the result may be-"
! \ good great man (thc two adjectives
cannot always be used in coniunctionl il
always humble IN his estimate of himself
| Count Tolstoi il no exception to this rule;
! in fact his Judgment of himself is almost
morbid. Perhaps in some degree we have
all had feelings similar To the following.
| III NI"dklHB sl iittllnE "a NfetCJlct
man to whom he had given money,
| he says. con seeing him suddenly felt
! horribly ashamed, and made haste to leave.
And with n sense of having committed
some crime, | returned home There en-
tered along the carpeted steps into the rug
covered hall, and having taken of my fur
coat, sat down 10 meal OF five courses,
served by two footmen in livery with
| uli q ti,y and ,yhitp fylnypg a u,.n.
| of tho U3rt oame suddenly before me.
Thirty years ago saw a mans head cut oil
under the guiiotine in Paris before a
crowd of thousands of spectators. l was
aware that the man had been great crimi-
nal ; | was acquainted with all of the argu-
ments in Justification of capital punish
mont for such otlenses. ! saw this oxecu-
ton carried ont deliberately, but at the
moment that the head and body were
severed from each other by the keen
blade, | Easpcd, aud realized in
every fibre of my being, that all the argu-
monts which had hitherto heard upon
capital punishment were wiCkedly false {:
that, no matter how many might agree as
TO its being lawful act 1t was literally
murder whatever other little men might
give it they thus had virtually committed
murder, that worst Of all crimes. And
there was both by my silence and my
non interference, an alder, abetter and
particpator in the sin. lie compares his
sudden conviction on that occasion 10 his
conviction when in going to these
wroichcd lodging houses and seeing the
misery of hundreds of his fellow men
he realizes he has IA supcrtluity of all that
they need. lie goes on to say the differ
cnce between the two eases was only that
IN the first all he could have done
would have been to shout out
to the cNccu,ioner that he was
committing murder of course knowing
his interference was vain, whereas, in the
second he feels for himself at least, the
remedy is in his own hands, he can give
away all superiuties and no longer I've q
partakor in the crime.
How plainly he shows us at times tn,
poWerlessness of money. He was unable
to help the lonely old man with typhus
fever, but the poor widow with the little
girl nursed him. II was Dickens whc
said What the poor are to the poor IL
little known, excepting to Themselves and
God"
Gamma karanina" finds warm defender
in Professor Ladd, who calls it a great
work of the very highest rank He saws
Like every really great artistic product
its effect upon the intelligent and right
minded observer and critic is acsthoticaIIy
aud ethicallN eleNating and purifying. So
rerverso does the criticism which Mr.
Maurice Thompson and others have, in the
name of morality, bestowed upon this book
appear to me as II professional student Of
the human mind, that | find great difficulty
even III comprehending the grounds on
which it is alleged to rest"
Poctess Jean lngClUw has been hard al
3 work of late ON 4 novelette, and on sketches
/ of her childhood. 1t is hoped that tn,
| latter at least will not be profoundly
melancholy.
, \ small volume of pore's essay on man
sold the other day for Sl60 because OF
) certain marginal notes in the poets hand.
writing.
The century for September Will have
letters from men who sailed with Napoleon
to II. Helena.
Miss Topper says this of her father.
famous proverbial philosophy: Papa fell
III love with his cousin Isabelle, and thcr
he thought he would, when he married
? her, translate his notions in the manner o
Solomon's Proverbs"
: CROOKED PATH, 10y Mrs. AleNander
p author of " The Wooing OF" "Iier Dear
p est Foe etc, Henry Holt ~ Co., publish
ers, New York
In Crooked Path Mrs. Alexander ha,
attempted To combine in the character O
Katherine Siddell charitable. lovely an,
winning girl with dishonorahle. mn
: srrupulous woman. In her desire To heh
% her mother Katherine becomes the com
ptnion of miser uncle. Left alone in In,
house at the time OF the old mans dcatI
: she suppIeSses his will, which left hi
| whole fortune 10 man by the name O
I ! Errington. Does she send him the will?
I In the most remarkable manner sh,
eases her conscience, with the thought tina
II had been her uuclc's intention To pro
vide for her and that Erringtou was al
5 ready man of enormous wealth. Onl,
: when the man whom she had wronget
loses his fortune does she feel the leas
sense of shame Docs she send him Tn,
VIII and invent some elaborate lie of how
II came into her possession No. She goes