Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-01-12

"YGu don't mean to say thai RUSSIA
has troEen down." said owen. o"c |
has entered on "a new and alb lndant |
lie. You might almost say that SIC
las been reborn in the travail OF war |
She has dethroned the Car and Is
setting up n democratic government !
through which the people will come |
into their own."
"Yes, I know all that" admitted the |
doctor. but the people do not seem
20 be coming into their own just yet. |
The men who control the Government, |
such as it Is, are being used by the
Prussians for their own purposes, ana
those purposes are neither Russian nor
democratic. There was splendid
opportunity for the nation, which
ousted its autocrat because he and
his advisors were suspected, If not
proved, of completely with the Ger
mans, to make good the military fail.
ures of the monarchy and put new life
into the armies and fight German au-
tocracy as II had fought its native
tyranny. But it has failed to measure
UP to its opportunities. II may re.
,rieve itself, but It has not yet done
So
do you know Why" ! asked. NO?
Well, I have a theory which may or
may not be correct, but | have the
same kind of fondness for it that every
mother has for her child. II is
that the trouble with Russia is that
there are too many Russians there"
you don't want lot OF them killed
Off" and Doctor McFabrc looked the
horror that he felt
"Oh, no." said /. 81 only mean that
there is something wrong with the
Russian intellect. You will discover
what / mean if you read Russian lit
erature. The Russian is melancholy,
sentimental, introspective dreamer
The best type of the race OF whom !
know anything is Tolstoy. You know
his novels-they are great-and YOU
know his religious and philosophical
. writings. The common impression Is
that his life was divided into two
parts. and that in the second part he
turned his back on everything that
lie had believed and done in the first
part But if you read his diaries, two
volumes of which are now available
in English translations. You Will dis
cover that the young Tolstoy and the
old Tolstoy were the same man. one
volume Of his diaries covers the period
from 1s47 to 1852. 1t is the first vol
ume in an edition of his complete
works that is to be published under
the direction of the Tolstoy Society
, of England and is an authorized trans
lation, The other volume covers the
period from 1895 to 1899, and is an
unauthorized translation. Yet its publ
! cation in this way would please Tol-
stoy for the reason that he wanted no
publisher to have any monopoly of
anything of his.
"Now, the first volume shows that
in his youth he thought deeply on
religious and philosophical subjects.
He prayed continually for strength to
| resist temptations to n dissolute life.
! Yet in his early years he was most
dissolute. He was given to drunken
ness and other vices when he was
only sixteen and seventeen years old
That seems to have been the custom
of the youths OF the aristocracy Ia
which he belonged. But, as l said, he
was continually thinking of moral
problems. He writes in 1852, when he
was entering his twenty-fourth year
that one of the chief aspirations of
his life had always been to be firmly
and immutably convinced of things
A few weeks later he writes that he
is tortured with a hunger for acquir
ing great influence in the direction oi
the happiness and benefit of humanity
There, to my mind, is the key TO his
life. He wanted to influence society
and in order TO do it he must be sure
that what he believed was right. lie
wanted no doubt about 1t. He was IN
this mood for years until he reached
his well.known conclusions about re
ligion and economics. He was Rus
sian and consequently was a melan
cboly idealist. Therefore he accepted
literally what he regarded as the
teachings Of the New Testament. Ills
view Of those teachings differed from
the view of the Orthodox Greer
Church. Yet he found not only II
Russia but in other parts of the worle
thousands of persons who accepted
him as a new prophet. They were hi
intellectual kinsmen, suffering iron
the Same weaknesses. You will fine
what his fundamental weakness wa
IL YOU read the later volume Of hi
diary, for there lie says that God doe
not know when the awakening of pee
ple will take place and that M,
awakening consisted in this, that
doubted the reality, of the nlateria
world. 1t lost all meaning to me
This man, for whom the materia
world had lost all meaning, formulate
a moral and political and economic phi
losophy which took no account Of
material world and attempted to appl
IL In a world of matter. He wante
no Government. He despised none
and property and wanted every ind
yidual to live as IL he were olsen
bodied soul. This may be an eXtrem
"a III. ,1a,tin,, b,,t ~ io =