The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1890-09-16

Saviour, who insists that he viii not resist
evil, who sells what he has and gives to the
poor. who deserts bis wife and children
for the love Of God, is regarded as insane.
in accord with the Founder Of Christian
ity, with the Apostles. with the writer's Of
the New Testament, and with the fathers
OF the church; and yet Christian teacher
of Sabbath-school decides. in the capacity
of postmaster general. that 'sThe Kreutxer
Sonata" is unfit to be carried in the mails.
Although disagree with nearly every
sentence in this book, regard the story Is
brutal and absurd, the view of life pre-
sented as cruel. vile and false, yet recog-
nize the right Of Count Tolstoi to express
his opinions ON all subjects, and the right
OF the men and women of America to read
for themselves.
Tolstoi IS Z soldier in what he be.
lieves TO be sacred cause. and he has the
courage Of his convictions. He is endea-
voring TO organize society in accordance
with the most radical utterances that
have been attributed to Jesus
Christ The philosophy of Palestine is
not adapted to an industrial and COM
mercial age. Christianity was born
when the nation that produced il was
dying. 1t was requiem-a declaration that
life was failure, that the world was about
to end. and that the hopes of mankind
should be lifted to another sphere. Tolstoi
stands with his back to the sunrise and
looks mournfuily upon the shadow. He has
uttered many tender. noble and inspiring
words. There are many passages in his
works that must have been written when
his eyes were filed with tears. He has
fixed his gaze so intently on the miseries
and agonies of life that be has been driven to
the conclusion that nothing could be bet
ter than the placement of the human race.
Some men, looking only at the faults
and tyrannies of government, have said:
Anarchy is better" Others, looking
at the misfortunes, the poverty.
the crimes of men, have, in
. kind of plying despair, reached
These are the opinions of those who have
dweIt in gioom-of the self-imprisoned.
Bycomparing long periods of time. we see
that on the whole, the race is advancing:
that the world is growing steadily, and
surely, better; that each generation enjoys
more and suffers less than its predecessor.
We find that our institutions have the
faults of individuals. Nations must be
composed of men and women; and as they
have their faults, nations cannot be per-
feet. The institution of marriage is o
failure to the extent, and only to
the extent, that the human race is
failure Undoubtedly it is the best
and most important institution that has
been established by the civilized world.
If there is unhappiness in the relation, il
there is tyranny upon one side and misery
upon the other, it is not the fault of mar
riage. Take homes from the world and
only wild beasts are left.
We cannot cure the evils of our day and
time by return to savagery. 1t is not me-
cessary to become ignorant to increase our
happiness. The highway of civilization
leads to the light. The time will come when
the human race will be truly enlightened,
when labor will receive its due reward,
when the last institution begotten of ignor-
ance and savagery will disappear. The
time will come when the whole world will
say that the love of man for woman, of
woman for man, of mother for child, is the
highest. the modest, the purest of which
the heart is capable.
Love. human love, love of men and
women, love of mothers. fathers and babes
is the perpetual and beneficentforce Not she
love OF phantoms, the love that builds ca
thedrals and dungeons, that trembles and
prays, that kneels and curses; but the real
love, the love that felled the forests. navi-
gated the SEAS subdued the earth, explored
continents, built countless homes and
founded nations-that lovafhat kindled the
creative flame and wrought the miracles of
art that gave US all there Is Of music, from
the cradIe-song that gives 70 infancy its
smiling sleep, to the great symphony that
bears the soul away with wings Of fre-the
real love, mother of every virtue and Of
every low