Arizona republican., 1910-11-21
PHOENIX, ARIZONA, NOV. 81, 1910
TOI STOI.


age has been leveled and a figure
unique in all history has been re-
moved. He was more than the great
est author of his time and more than
the greatest teacher of his own or
any other generation.
He was nihilist and more than
nihilist. He believed in nothingness
in order that there might be q place
for the building of somethingness. He
came TO oppose all human institu-
tons, the state, the church, the
judiciary. the army, and also mar
riage His treatment of the ills of
society in general went only SO far
as the diagnosis. He sought only the
alienation of the ills of the poorer
class, of which he became one in his
search for regeneration" as he wan
dered away from home shortly before
his death in the hope of attaining per-
sonal perfection.
OF the noblest of Russian families
and surrounded by the wealth which
attaches to Russian mobiles, he close
the simple life of the peasant. for he
found in it a life study. He was
already familiar with the excuses OF
the aristocracy and the hypocrisy of
the church.
His first expression of his disap
pointment with society is found in
From the Memoirs of Prince Nekhly
udoff." the result of his observations
in the course of his travels abroad.
Prince Nekhlyudoff," by the way, is
the central figure in the perhaps
greatest of Tolstoi's novels, "Resurrec-
ton"
Under the attacks of Tolstoi St Pc
tersburg and the Greek church at last
began to rock and the author was
threatened for a generation with ex-
communication. which was finally is
sued in 1901, provoked no doubt by
the terrible arraignment which APP
pears in Resurrection"
The incongruity Of the position he
CToporofO occupied was this: 1t was
his duty to keep up and to defend by
external measures, not excluding Vio-
lence, that church, which by its own
declaration, was established by God
himself and could not be shaken by
the gates of hell or anything human.
This divine and immUtable God-estab-
lished institution had TO be sustained
and defended by a human institution
the Holy Synod, managed by ToporOff
and his officials Toporoff did not see
this contradiction, nor did he wish to
see it, and he was therefore much
concerned lest some Romish priest,
some pastor or some scctarian should
destroy that Church which the gates
of hell could not conquer.
"Toporoff, like all those who are
quite destitute of the fundamental
religious feeling that recognizes the
equality and brotherhood of men, was
fully convinced that the common peO-
pie were creatures entirely different
from himself, and that the people
needed what he-could yer! we'll 40
without, for at the bottom OF his heart
he believed in nothing, and found such
a state very convenient and pleasant.
Yet he feared lest the people should
come TO such Il state, AMI looked upon |
it as his sacred duty, rs he called it. |
Ia save the people therefrom.
"A certain cookery book declares |
that some crabs like TO be- boiled |
alive In the same way he thought |
and spoke as If rhe people liked being |
kept in superstition, only he meant |
this in a literal sease, whereas the |
cookery book did not mean its words /
literally.
His feelings toward the religion he
was keeping up were the same as
those of the poultry-keeper toward
the carrion he fed his fowls on. Car
rion was very disgusting, but the
fowls liked it.; therefore it was right
10 feed the fowls on carrion.
Thus thought Toporoff, not consider
ing that the people only liked supersti-
ton because there always have been
and still are men like himself who,
being enlightened, instead of using
their light to help others to struggle
out Of their dark ignorance, use il
Ia plunge them still deeper into it,"
A further eXcoriation of the church
in the Corpse" brought upon the
author the long impending vengeance.
The church suffered more from the
accommodation of Tolstoi than did
Tolstoi himself. who had already with
drawn from its hypocrisies. Shortly
after he had been cast out efforts
were made by the holy synod for a
reconsideration and he was pursued
by appeals from AntOnius, the Net
ropolitan. to his very deathbed
His general anathematization of
society did not stop short of himself.
His own great literary achievements
were denounced as a product of a T,
human craving for human applause. h
There was unrest in Russian before
Tolstoi. He gave it intelligent direc-
ton and accelerated it's motion, but T,