The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1917-08-16
Tolstoy's Prophecy.

In the autumn of 1910, shortly be-
fore his death, Count Leo Tolstoy had
vision of the future. This article
was published in the Kansas City
Star August 81, 1914, and by request
was republished this summer:
This is a revelation OF events OF
a universe, which must shortly come
to pass. Their spiritual outlines are
now before my eyes; l see floating
fate the huge silhouette of nude
woman. She is-with her beauty,
her poise, her smile, her jewels-a
super Venus. Nations rush madly af-
ter her, each OF them eager to attract
her especially. But she, like an eter-
nal courtesan, flirts with them all.
In her hair. ornaments of diamonds
"Commercialism AS alluring and
bewitching as she seems, much de-
struction and agony follows in her
wake. Her breath reeking with sor-
did transactions her voice of a metal
tic character like gold, and her look
of greed are so much poison, to the
nations who fall victims to her
charms.
and behold, she has three gigan-
tic arms and three torches of univer-
sal destruction in her hand. The first
torch represents the flame of war,
that beautiful courtesan carries from
city to city and from country to coun-
try. Patriotism answers with flashes
|of honest flame, but the end is the
roar of guns and musketry.
The second torch bears the flame
OF bigOtry and Hypocrisy. 1t lights
the lamps only in temples and on the
altar of sacred institutions. 1t car
ries the seed of falsity and fanati-
cism. 1t kindles the minds that are
CT i'm 1,n 1,n
to their graves.
that dangerous foundation of all I'M
authentic tradition, which first does
its fatal work. in the family, then
sweeps through the large worlds Of
literature, art and craftsmanship.
The great conflagration will start
first arm in the countries of south
eastern Europe. 1t will develop into
a destructive calamity in 1918. In
that year | see all Europe in flames
and bleeding. l hear the lamenta-
tons of huge battle fields. But about
the year, 1915 strange. figure from
the stage of the bloody drama He is
man Of little militaristic training, a
writer or journalist, but in his grip
most of Europe will remain until |
925. The end of the great calamity
Will mark new political era for the |
Old World. There will be left no en-
will form a federation of the United
States of Nations. There will remain
only four great giants-the Anglo
Saxons, the Latins, the Slav, and the
Mongolians.
After the year 1925 see a
change in the religious sentiments. |
The second torch has brought the fall |
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almost vanished. Humanity is with
out a moral feeling. But, then,
great reformer arises. He will clear
the world Of the relics of monotheism |
and lay the corner stone of the tenn
pie Of pantheism. God, soul, spirit |
and Immortality will be moulten in a
new furnace. and see the peaceful
determined for this mission is q
Monaghan Slav. He is already walk
ing the earth-a man of active af- !
fairs. He himself does not now
realize the mission assigned to him |
by superior r, power:
to destroy our family relations, our
standards of art and morals. The |
relation between man and woman is |
accepted as a prOsaic partnership Of |
the sexes. Art has become realistic |
degencracy. Political and religious |
disturbances have shaken the spiritu-
al foundations of all nations. The |
race wars in Africa have strangled |
progress for half century But, |
then, in the middle of this century, |
| see a hero OF literature and art |
rising from the ranks of the Latins,
and purging the world Of the tedious
stuff Of the obvious. 1t is the light
of symbolism that shall outshine the
light Of the torch Of commercialism.
In place of the poiygamy and monog~
amy today there will come a poetog-
amy-a relation Of sexes based fun
damentally upon Ioetical conceptions
of life.
And l see the nations growing
wiser and realizing that the alluring
woman of their destinies is after ali
but an illusion. There will
be a time when the world will have
no need Of armies, hypocIitical relig-
ions and degenerate art Life is evo-
luton and evolution is development
from the simple to the more compli-
Gated forms of the mind and body. |
see the passing show of the world
drama in its present FORM how it
fades like the glow of evening upon
the mountains. One motion of the
hand Of commercialsm and a new
history begins"
II Out of Every 10 Safe in World