The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1898-10-16

After this evocation of the past con-
temporaneous society was called 10 the
witness stand in it's turn. Anna Rare
nina" brought ii before the Judge-ah
apt expression, when one looks at Iol-
stoi in the presence of the men whom
he questions. OF the two grand ro-
mances which take In all the RUSSIAN
life the second contains fewer ideas ana
deeds than the first; 1t probes deeper
the wounds of the heart; 1t descrles
the troubles of passion and the philo-
sophie problems of the Russian con-
science during the turmoil OF SOUS
which characterized the reign OF Alex
ander II. Commenced about 1900, the
publication of the work suffered long
delays. Tolstoi abandoned 1t and then
took it up again, and only finished some
last chapters in 1877.
1t is then at the moment When the
success of Anna Karenina" fixed DEN
nitely the supremacy of the author IN
his own country, on the eve or the DAY
when his influence and his fame were
beginning to spread to- other LANDS, tnat
the capricious comet wheeled IN the
heavens. plunged into the night ana
lost itself in the nebulae. Leon Nlko-
laievitch bid an irrevocable adleu TO ms
art, upon which he heaped anatneInds.
During a period of twenty years since
then he has taken up his pen only 10
write against that art, against the
civilization of which it was part
against love, war, science and the eS-
tablished church. Theological, national
istic treatises followed each other WITH
out delay MY Confession" My he
ligion" and Commentaries on the Cos
pei"
This fettered slave to thought, whose
| chains he wished TO throw Off, stroVe
| to reach out and understand his lie IN
order to simplify it. He turned laoorl-
ously in circle of complications, al
. INe.c mot
he wished, but he wished it ardently,
and above all, he wished nothing that
| already existed. He frequently gave
! illustrations of his doctrine with short
parallels and moral tales for the pene-
| fit of the people. Art is a demon which
| one does not easily exercise. Some or
these tales are masterpieces of new
kind, as Master and Slave" For Why
| Do Men Live" or as that moving and
| forbidding drama, THE Powers Oh
| Darkness"
The instructive method of the great
realist triumphs and subjugates US IN
! the discussion of his subject, whether
he unveils the misdeeds of love IN the
| "Kreutzer Sonata" or denounces the
| charlatanism of art in his last enter
! prise of demolition.
| What is art ?" A method whose eS-
sence is TO strip the real fact of the ira
ditional verbiage, under which 1t ap-
peared TO us, ana TO snow II SlAlple'
| naked and living This direct view
gives an incompatible force to the crit
ical premises of this demolisher We
yield ourselves to the evidence and
agree with him as to the poor nothing
ness which one finds under appear
ances, but we recoil by instinct and a
horror of a void from his conclusions
which lead us TO the absurd to the
naught.
The Indifferent old man-if one in
deed can be so to universal admiration
merits the homage which comes to
him now from so many hearts con-
soled by the simple lessons of life in
his pen pictures, from so many souls
enlightened by the rays which he has
projected to the depths of our thoughts
His influence remains, and doubtless
will remain a long time, the most potent
of all those which AT this time are eX-
ercised in the Tpirltual world.