New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-07-21

which W0uld 90 ltS NclS pOo' " SiiN"
80 ~ Muscovy's most beloved en-
r.-ors in a remorseful, pusillanimous,
y Zach. so touching" light. We've
noticed that manner before. Still. it
.e.ms pity that some English scrib-
hing scribe. possessed Of ever so faint
learning concerning the countries
living broadcast aslant the globe, as also
IN inconsiderable gift for tongues,
,bould not attempt TO disentangle, as
FAR as it can be done, the maze OF In
ouirv. controversy, doubt and belief
which the few posthumous pages Of
Leo Tolstoy seem TO have aroused here
and in England.
ALEXANDER AND THE HERMIT.
The English Contemporary Monthly
Review" Of June gives us a most in
teresting article entitled Tho Legend
Of Alexander I and the Hermit Theo-
dor Kou2mitch," a concise, well con-
,eived and executed piece Of work,
lacking but one infnitesimal detail to
make il absolutely complete. This ar
,lcle deals at first with the wonderful
book published some five years ago by
Grand Duke Nicholas MichailOvitch on
Empress Elizabeth. wife Of Car Alex
ander 7. and also touches upon the his
lorical reports of the celebrated his
torian. y. X. Schiller, on this question.
But without entering into such deep
matters at any great length it may be
possible. perhaps, to cast stray beam
amid the darkness surrounding the
death--or disappearance, az it is called
thereof Alexander |.
The figure of The Ever Blessed
Gar" as lie is still named in Russia
Is 50 poctical, so entlcing to watch
glide back and forth or the horizon OF
the past. svelte, handsome, melancholy,
and also oycrshadOwcd by n doom he
could not escape, that the task OF pre-
venting legends from forming and re-
forming about him throughout the
Great White Empire is as impossible
AZ that Of uprooting mountains single
handed.
That in his case this species OF post
norton alteration which creates saints
and martyrs should have crystallizcd,
as years came and years went, into the
shape of a silver bearded, monk-cOwled
holy man, treading with bare feet the
bitter Siberian SHOWS, so as to punish
himself for long past crime OF omis-
slon-though not of commission-docs
not particularly change tho first cause
q ali that has already been said and
written on the subject.
SERIES OF DRAMATIC EVENTS.
Tho life OF Aleksander Pavlovizc
night be presented In a mere series OF
tableaus, for that 1t was q succession
of startling events, OF ultra-dramatic
moments and almost unbelievable stu
atoms no one who has glanced at the
pages Of Muscovite record can deny.
First, for instance. one sees Alex
snder as youth not yet twenty, an
ldealist, very nearly a Utopian, who,
brought up between his grandmother,
Empress Catherine. and his mother,
The exquisitely lovely Dorothea Of
Wurtemberg, second wife of Emperor
Paul, stood I'm such terror Of his father
that his really brilliant mind was III q
complete muddle. Thanks, moreover,
o the teachings of his Swiss ultra
radical tutor. Frederic Cesar Laherpe,
ne imbibed tho so-called principles
OF Rousseau-his gospel OF humanity,
80 nicely demonstrated by his putting
his own children into founding asy-
lums-bccame inclined to free think
ing and 10 all sorts OF ideas which were
dangerous enough 10 have led 10 that
abomination called the Terror.
Uncertain Of his own confidence in
mmself--a terrible defect-he was when
even younger, q mere boy, already
afraid OF ever ascending the throne.
entirely certain that he could do moth
ing to help his country, his future peo-
PIC. his future realm, 10 accomplish his
future duties. All this weighed dis
proportionately upon him, because his
slght had been thrown out OF focus by
what we're certainly very new prin-
eipleS,' as contrssted with the tyranny
Vi bis father. whose insanity was as
yet latent
TIC latter. who has been denounced
Jar and wide as a monster of cruelty,
oarbarism, Of ferocity. and other
epitnets Of the same Roman Imperial
Hpe' was, we're the truth but known,
simply victim Of a faulty bringing
up aud uniformed brain.
his mother. 1t is stated hated him
Sio desired TO destroy him in his
eraos This is pure nonsense. for
'a'herine, whatever her other faults
we're, and nobody denies that these