New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-10-30

larges upon the wisdom of his principles. But
we find Mrs. Craigie more interesting in her
references TO another supreme psychologist"
Count Tolstoy. Approaching the lessons to be
learned from his career, she says:
Tolstoy. as st. Ignatius. was the son of
nobleman. He went into the army; he showed
great courage; he moved in what is called the
highest society; he inherited fortune; he made
a love match and he had a family OF fifteen
children. As a soldier he was distinguished;
as a novelist he met with great success. and
as a reformer he is one Of the most important
figures in the world to-day. TolStOy. in fact, has
had exceptional opportunities of becoming dis
gusted with the pleasures of life and the re-
wards Of fame. Few men have led more eX-
citing existence. he may be said to have trled
everything. Few of those to whom he addresses
his eloquent and burning pamphlets can have
had two-hundredth part of his experience OF
life and men under variety of extraordinary
conditions. What does he tell to do? He
entreats the minister of state, the man Of learn
ing, the doctor, the lawyer the professor, the
artist, the clerk not to think, not TO argue, not
TO analyZe, but TO dig in the fields. There, he
says, You viii find peace. Simplify your lives.
earn your actual bread by the sweat of your
brow. The life Of man, he says is a striving
after happiness, but individual happiness there
cannot be. He finds nothing but imperfection
in our social orga nizations and immortality in
our very conception OF life. Money, he says, is
such evil that it is too bad to give away;
il must be destroyed. suppressed altogether.
Work must be paid for by other work. He in
ssts that ii is merely the animal in US which
suffers pain or which wants happiness The one
thing may do is to Ave. But whom?" asked
one of his followers. There may be no one to
love. Il is not worth while to love my neighbor
for time and to love forever is impossible.
One changes neiEhbors" Then Tolstoy explained
that he not thinking of sentimentality, that
violence Of preference for some people over
others. our partialities in fact, which we mac
curately call our affection. That brings the
greatest evil TO the world. You must renounce
your preferences. This seems to approach the
teaching Of st. lgnatius. who urges us to treat
a a
stoy does not accept the orthodox picture of
future life but he believes that every man
lives before he is born and after he is dead
that life has no beginning and no end. As for
enjoymentS. they are purchased by the suffer
ings OF other beings: man is reared on suffer-
ing. and the more he endeaVors 20 unite his life
with the life OF the world. the more anguish he
WIZ have TO endure. These, we must all
acknowledge, are paralyZing ideas. II Tolstoy
had felt in his youth as he thinks in his old age
he would have accomplished very little. There
is another Russian, younger man, peasant
by birth-Maxim Gorky-who presents a terrible
picture Of agricultural districts, and he on his
SIDE seems anxious TO escape from that life of
toll Tolstoy is to get into it
II may be impossible for delicate and impress
sionable natures-and all artists delicate and
in1pressiona bleto feel satisfied with life as they
see il. A lively scene and joyful company are
embittering to . mourning or distressed soul,
whereas a bleak coast and rough hills, by offer
ing no contrast, make sadness more bearable.
On the other hand. one is often assailed in a
beautiful scene with charming companions, by
the thought that such things cannot last. How
often warned in the midst Of laughter
that so much hilarity is quickly followed by
tears. How often do hear friends say
I dare not be too happy" and we all know the
Apostolic injunction. Rejoice with trembling"
Such moods We have all experienced in more
less degree But this is a matter of egoism.
No viii deny the equality Of each mans i'm
portance TO himself but there is no real equality
in fates, and we must not confuse our personal
moods with the general condition of mankind at
large. Tolstoy does not make sufficient allow
ance for the divergence Of gifts, temperaments
adj is ha ed on hP h
esis that everybody who does not dig is Tiser-
able. Everybody is sometimes wretched no
doubt but that discomfort is the perpetual state
of mind Of most men cannot be maintained for
a instant. That s. why reformers Of great gifts
become discouraged when their views of exist
ence are not Immediately bounced on and ac-
cepted by \ grateful multitude. That fact is
that the multitude have not a great deal of time
for meditation. but they have instead certain
instincts which preserve them from many Of the
exaggeTations Of the leisurely and emotional
and, must say, the ogoistic.
Mrs Craigie admits that Tolstoy wished to
make humanity better. an aim with which she
fully synpathizes. Admirers of the Russian
writer are quite able to follow his statements,
she adds so long as they concern his own life
and his own contentment But when he at
ternpts TO make these private and intimate
victions-which are the result Of his private and
intimate experience-laws Of universal applca-
ton We are obliged TO become less sympathetic.
This is the instructive protest Of common sense
against the exaggeration Of the disillusioned'
And Mrs Craigle thinks that Tolstoy is a dis
nlusioned man. that there is disillusion in every
line of his mastery" novels, and that il is dis
illusion which even the saddest Of cannot al
ways accept. She protests against his quar-
rellinE with the whole scheme Of the universe,
his failure TO find anything more satisfactory for
men TO do than to dig and. comparing him with
Shakespeare and Goethe, points out that while
they We're no less profoundly moved than he has
BEEN by humanity's difficulties. they never
once forgot the blessing Of humor, the animal
joy in living. and the divine and undying part of
man" She asks for more friendly attitude
toward the realities Of life. and in regard TO
them uses these suggestive words:
crude, and IN the of the word realism as a
term OF reDroach. the word reality whe1 we
wish 10 signify something unpleasant, if not
sqJalid are, without knowing il, confessing
the first article in the creed of pessimism We
are Dessimistic as SchopenhaueT or Tolstoy
though we may not be aware of il. Ruskin,
who possessed nature Of exquisite. all but
painful senslbility, has insisted on the beauty
OF many things which are carelessly called com
mon and the sham refinement OF those who
SILVER az the least pleasing features OF human
existence This squeamishness is modern and
morbid; II is not romantic for. whereas so-called
romance IS now worn very thin and touches no