New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-07-09
TOLSTOY'S IRENICON.

We are not quite sure whether Count Tolstoy's
article in The London Tines of which we re-
print the salient portions elsewhere in this
mornings Tribune, would better be called an
irenicOn or a pOlemic. Its purpose is peaceful.
lis tone is beigerent In that contrast lies its
weakness. OF its authors nobility OF aim. OF
bis moral and spiritual elevation. there can be
no doubt. That fact is attested by the very cir
cumstances of this extraordinary publication;
for Count Tolsoy calls the Gar an ''unfortu-
nate entangled young man. continually de-
"ceived and compelled to contradict himself,
4" who IS travelling about Russia for
"the purpose of hypnOtzing the men who are
being sent to murder" II is simply inconeeiy
able that any other person in Russia would be
permitted to say that without promptly being
scnt 10 Siberia or to the Petropavlovsk fortress.
But this man says ii, and is not molested. That
immunity from arrest is an index OF the
Cendancy which he has acquired over the
minds and souls of Russians; an ascendancy
which could scarcely be won without deserts.
Yet the world we'll knows through more than
enc mouTnfu example, that nobility of aim and
moral and spiritual elevation not alone ali
sufficient. The wisdom of the serpent must be
coupled with the harmlessness of the dove.
1t is not wise to be so furiOusly vehement as
Count Tolstoy is in his appeal to elemental pas
sions, because such extreme utterances might
readily provoke the very thing which they nomi-
nally deprecate. This article will not be pub
lished in Russia. The censor will not permit it.
Perhaps il is we'll for the domestic peace OF
Russia that il is TO be suppressed and excluded.
We can imagine scarcely anything better cal
culated to stir up strife and to cause a violent
uprising against the government of the Gar
We cannot suppose Count Tolst0y wishes such
q thing TO occur. But surely in raging so in
temperately against the Gar, the Ministers, the
army and all who in authority, he is incit-
ing a disregard for them and even q hatred for
! them which might easily take violent form
To his own mind highly cultivated and schOoled
IN a mystical philosophy which regards things
figurativey and spiritually, It may be safe 10
call men murderers, since he can 90 on loving
them all the same. But what might not be the
effect upon the undisclplined and elemental
mind of calling the sovereign a murderer and
of calling him so with the voice of one whom
such minds in Russia have come to regard as
scarcely less infallible than God? 1t is a fault
or a misfortune of Count Tolstoy's that while
he addresses himself largely TO the common
people and uses the plain language which they
understand, he yet expresses to them in such
speech thoughts and theories which only a
mind as cultivated and disciplined as his own
can rightly appreciate. In such a propaganda
there are almost illmitable possibilities of mis-
chief.
For the rest. We must concede that much that
Count Tolstoy says of the horrors of war is MS
true as 1t is not new. 1t may be we'll to repeat
that war is hell" but we may at least cues
ton the need of taking ten columns of '"The
London Times" TO say it In. We must also hold
that in his attempted application of New Tesla
ment principles and teachings TO modern gov
ernmental and social problems he falls into the
too common error of dwelling upon the texts
that suit his purpose and ignoring those which
run contrary thereto He explicitly declares 1t
TO be the duty OF every man to refuse to fight.
whether not only Port Arthur be taken. but ST
Petersburg and Moscow" The individual and
the state may be ruined, destroyed. 1t does not
matter what evils befal them All that he aims
al is to refrain from this one evil There is no
thought Of rendering unto Caesar the things
That are C1saTs-of recognizing that is TO
say, the institution and the organization of I'M
man government In PauIs place Count Toll
stoy would not have appealed to Caesar, for he
/ would nAt baye recognized CAESARS authority.