New-York tribune., 1919-08-02
Tolstoy S Philosophy
Ideals of Great Russian
Shown in Posthumous Work

TEACHING LOVE AND WISDOM. BY Leo
Tostoy Translated by Archibald \.
Wolfe In two p Volumes Published by the
New York.
Tolstoy's whole philosophy Of life
is admirably summed up in this post
humous work. The spiritual ideals
that color and dominate all his literary
productions, ideals which are COM
pounded out of Oriental fatalism,
mediaval asceticsm and primitive
Christian love and humility, are set
forth in long series of reflections,
partly original and partly culled from
the works of other thinkers The Cos
pels. the Hindu books of wisdom and
the writings of such ancient phloso-
piers as Socrates and Marcus Aurelius
are among Tolstoy's favoritc sources
of quotation.
Absolute and uncompromsing oppo-
sition to the use of force for any end
and under any condition is a cardinal
point in Tolstoy's philosophy He does
not justify either the soldier who
fights in defence of his country or the
revolutionist who hurls bomb at the
most infamous tyrant. The use of
force, even in righteous cause, be-
gets more force and thereby defeats
its own end. Bad as the existing or
der may be, it can be changed only by
love and reason, not by violence. Fol
lowing out the same line of thought,
Tolstoy deprecates the use of punish
ment. No man is fit to judge another;
the sinner is best left to the reflections
of his own conscience. The philo-
sophical anarchism that is inherent in
the unconditional acceptance of these
understandable attitude of mind in a
country where the power of the state
has so long been prosttuted to the
ends Of tyranny and injustice
Like Thorcau, whom he quotes in
this connection, Tolstoy is firmly con-
vinced of the essential dignity of man
ual labor. In reading the following
paragraph one is irresstibly reminded
OF the famous scene in Anna Kare-
Nina" where Levin soothes his mental
worries by going out to work with the
peasants:
Manual labor. and particularly till
ing the soil, is good not only for the
body but also for the soul. Men who
do not labor with their hands cannot
have sound idea of things Such men
are forever thinking, speaking. listen
ing or reading. Their mind has no
ASSe, ID eAClleu ana easily WanQCrS.
Agricultural labor, on the other hand
is useful to man because, in addition
to resting him, it enables him to re-
allze simply, clearly and reasonably
the place of man in life"
In his view Of sex relations Tolstov
is medieval ascetic. He shares the
monastic theory of the inherent sin
fulness of the body and its desires.
Absolute chastity, even in marriage, is
his ideal of human perfection. To the
objection that the realization Of this
ideal would mean the extinction of the
human race he replies that the human
race will come to an end some dav
under any ondition, and that the
date of its extinction is an immaterial
question.
Tolstoys attitude toward religion is
that of an intense believer. Against
skeptlcs and intidels he marshals the
arguments of Pascal and other great
orthodox thinkers. Moreover, he em-
phasizes the pragmatic viewpoint that
without religion the higher values OF
life cease to exist. Reversing the
familiar Biblical observation he con
tends that without the love of God
there can be no genuine love of ones
neighbor. The last section of the worl
is devoted to quotations from the New
Testament, the book which must be
considered the real cornerstone OF
Tolstoy's own spiritual Interpretation
of life. W. II. c.