The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1910-11-21
THE roLsToI CONFESSIONAL.

q The passing OF Leo Tolstoi forces from the
world retrospect OF life which might be said II
be almost the pattern Of evolution of the human
heart The poetry OF Che Book OF Ecclesiasles
J h. lived. In him made powerfully and per
aoualfy animate all the everyday philosophy, all
the hoiuely teachings Of experience that are so
clear that they never are needed, Under the
,sshings Of his passionate self-exalnination he
g fta much toward making possible seif'eonfession.
misunderstanding In lay, ing bare his life to the
. world In explaining and examining the logical
tendelaey of SUCH life, In hiding nothing aud
evD0enlning everything about himself perhaps
4 lies the secret Of his genius and the measure OF
his sersies to humanity. Tostoi won over him
4 seff. he yielded out he never surrendered: he
i afforded pathetic picture of spirit tethered
with acst -~of flesh worn out, regenerated Ia
d spsrit.
n Magnificent as was bis art, think that II is
4 ~ the means by which he expounded his own life
that 1t will be finally judged. lie wrote always
AAef Tostoi-Tostois folies. intustices. immoral
@akies. Tols.ois regeneratIons, mental struggles.
ESilures The pictures long life, painted
h brilliant but varying eolors, flashing like gold,
"a with ambition, pang into soft greys of sor-
I'm and of unfathomable melancholy He re
Sarded himself Us wonderful in all things, We.
n all things he the average man except IN
sSkan power of portrayal 1t is this intimate sym"
&Ssthy and understanding with the universal heart
&aEaxr beg IA ;,t1
w read and to contemplate. With Tolstoi that
became an act. which TO another is a eagrant
Nthought He met life with his brain and with
5hls body He yielded 10 its environment not al
NaiI for himself. doggedly for others Aud al
why's he protested against the life that swallowed
Ekhe man. always he preached the man controlling
Nlife.
Tolstoi was vivid III all his periodicals. child
hood, his reckless, dissolute youth his cynical
&nnd successful early manhood, his ardenty re
1entfui maturity, his calm and sternly thought
4u1 age. These are the things which the world
Skas In his seIfiumnating books-thngs the
sMhAdow Of which every man has felt, principles
NM justice which cannot be denied, but which APP
1aMr strange In their practical denial almost %
SsWho throughout many years forgot and through
Rnut many others piumbed the deepest secrets
1T hi own soul As result We have Series
Iolstoi portraits unparalleled perhaps. in the
nee Of any other public man or artist. AS a
zoult. to those who have not followed him in his
9erent phases, he has appeared AN enigma
0W = virile novelist, again a set upon revo
Hon. now christ-like figure preaching non
Instance -roae soldier. aseetic, philosopher
- of the world, anchorite. flashing different
III from hundred facets. but always. in the
- Of his progressive and developing nature
ratstent and true.
Rarest of ali forms Of literally expression is
~ autobiography The secrets of self those
1et dif1culf Of extraction. The attempt to con,
~D II the cause mos prolific al deception
It Tolstoi confessed. He told the whole story
1nDlctels unshrnkingly In the faith of an
nonse egotism he preached Il great lesson and
ut to the world valuable. If sometimes ap
n4i1ingiy candid mirror for it's determination