Los Angeles herald., 1909-11-01

bids us pause and consider welL Toll
stoy is himself the best example OF
what the spirit of nonresistance may
accomplish. Had Jesus not been
nonresistant the world would never
have heard of him. his life would have
been snuffed out and he would have
disappeared forever; but because ne
appealed to something that was en-
tirely beyond the range of that great
combination of force, the Roman en-
pire. his name and Influence increased
as the power of that empire waned.
80 it is with Tolstoy today. Had
Tolstoy not been a nonreslstant his
bones would long ago have been
bleaching on the steDpes of Siberia
and he would have been one OF that
long list of. unidentified martyrs who
went down before this relentless au-
tocracy: but he met the Russian au-
tocracy, the most powerful organiza-
ton of physical force on earth, with
the only weapon she is powerless to
cope with, just as Jesus met the Ro-,
man power in ancient times.
Based on Brute Force
"The three legs OF the tripod on
which the Russian autocracy STANDS
are the Greek church, which holds the
people in subsection by superstiuous
fear. the army, which keeps item IN
subsection by direct force, and fhe no
bility, which imposes upon their Gu
pidity. All these are based on brute
force.
There not page in Tolstoy's writ4
ings that does not attack all three on
these at the most vulnerable point
And yet he is the only man in the en-
pire on whom they dare not lay D
hand. Tolstoy exercises power
greater than all three of these conf
bined and sounds the doom of the Rus
sian system and is able to do 1t all
through his faith in nonresistance.
"The last quarter of a century the
world has had before 1t the sublime
and matchless spectacle of one lone
man, peaceful. nonresistant, defying
and making good his defiance of the
strongest, most INSCRIPTIONS, most
merciless and most selhshly sensitive
combination Of brute force the world
has ever seen, while subjecting It to
the criticism and denunciation that is
bound to destroy it. He was able to
do this because the thing on which he
relied was more powerful than any
thing that could be brought against 1T.
We have lived right through this and
have rot seen ii because we We're too
narrow yisioneG to comprehend II. Fu-
ture centuries will look back and see
this wonderful spectacle and be awed
and enraptured by it and wish they
might have lived in such a glorious
day, but we pass 1t by, because HAVING
ewes we see not, but throw our hats
on high at sight of battleships and
military pageantry, which Is something
within the pale of our feeble, sensuous
comprehension. The name of Toistoy
will continue to grow in splendor long
after all our guns and battleships have
been consigned to the junk heap of
oblivion.
"Toystoy gained Immortality because
he dared the mpossible-dared to fail.
We all believe in the impossible and
reverence the man who stands for it.
Down ydeep Ia our hearts we all have
a GOSPEL we dare not try to follow.
"THe things he wanted SO much to
put lin tangible substance refuse to
take form, and what he has accom-
pliShed seems like dry husks or a mere
skeleton void of the breath of life. 1t
would certainly be difficult to find a
more elusive and impossible character
from the point of a biographer than
Count Tolstoy. This peasant prince,
whether right or wrong, from his cob
bler's bench in far away Russia has
attracted more intelligent eyes to him
self and held them there for a longer
time during his own. lifetime than any
crowned head eminent scholar or
statesman in the world Probably not
until long after his death, when men
look back at him through the clarity
ing tense of time, will any adequate
biography of him or any real under-
standing of him be possible"
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