TOLSTOY. 334 TOLSTOY. ignorance in modern society. He settled on his estate at Vasnaya Polj-ana and devoted himself to school work among the peasants. A second visit abroad to study the (jermau methods of education served only to iutensify his disappoint- ment, and his own methods, as embodied in prac- tice and in his pedagogical publication. Yasnaya Polyanu, were an attack on all existing standards, and called forth a heated discussion in pedagogi- cal circles. About this time work on a long novel, The Dccemlrists (of which only three chapters appeared ) , led Tolstoy to the study of the reign of Alexander 1. and his interest gradually was centred on the great Napoleonic campaign. Thus he came to write his IVar and Peace (lS6-t- 69) — a colossal prose epic, embracing the whole of Russia at the beginning of the nineteenth cen- tury, from the Emperor down through all stages of societ}'. Again the eJemental forces of the common peoidc are lovingly dwelt upon in contrast with the artificiality of the upper classes. With the artistic exposition is intertwined a new phi- losophy of history, which in the last analysis is but old fatalism in a new guise. After this, peda- gogical pursuits absorbed Tolstoy's energies, until in 1875-76 Anna Karenina appeared in The Itus- sian ]Iesscnger. This great work deals with the unlawful relations of the social lion, Yronski, and Anna, wife of Karenin, the bureaucratic machine. The great qiiestions of human life which centre around marriage are treated here with unap- proachable mastery, force, and directness. The novel has a second plot — the life of the rationalist pro-iuietor. Konstantin Levin, and his wife, Kitty. Amid perfect home surroiuuliugs, he is discon- tented, and even thinks of suicide, until he is 'regenerated' through contact with the common people, and finds new strength in manual labor. According to later statements of the author this work contained mxich autobiographical material. After this, philosophical and social questions took complete hold of Tolstoy, and for more than a decade he gave to the world a series of re- ligious, social, and philosophical treatises, like Commentary on the Gospel; Letter on the Census <1683); Confession: My Religion: What Shall We Then Dof a few short stories written for the people. The Death of Ivan llyitch { 1SS5 ) . and the dramas The Poirer of Darkness and Fruits of Cnlturc. Works of literary art were also pro- duced at this period. The Ereut::er Sonata (1688). denouncing marriage, raised a storm of indignation on both sides of the Atlantic. What Is Art? (1898), a great philippic against art as commonly understood, although leaving the ques- tion unanswered for many, was a brilliajit con- tribution to the literature of the subject. It con- tains ideas of great depth and breadth, inter- spersed with paradoxes, and is interesting as a proof of the thoroughness with which Tolstoy goes into his work. It is the result of a minute study of every writer of any consequence on the subject. In 1899 a new work of fiction. Resur- rection, appeared. The central figure. Nekhlyu- doff. while acting as a juror, recognizes in the culprit the woman whom he had betrayed in his youth. Torn by remorse, he finally comes to the conclusion that he is the real caxise of the •woman's guilt and downfall, and wishes to expiate his former wrong-doing by accompanying her to Siberia and sharing with her all hardships of the exile. All the bitterness that had been collecting in the heart of the author seems to have found free utterance, and the work is a powerful ar- raignment of all existing institutions. In 1900 a drama, The Corpse, appeared. In March, 1901, the Holy Synod issued the excommunication with which lie had been tlireatened for nearly thirty years. Tolstoy has the same power of psychological analysis that characterized Dostoyevski (q.v.), but excels liim in range and variety. Dostoyevski does not get beyond the magic circle of the middle classes, while Tolstoy is equally at home in all walks of life. He draws, with the same firm hand and correctness, the rulers of men's fates, coui'- tiers, generals, petty officers, common soldiers, great noblemen, peasants, prisoners in the dun- geons and on the great road to Siberia, meui women, children — everywhere he strikes the very bottom of human character. There is none of Dostoyevski's nerve-harassing for the sake of sat- isfying the author's own 'cruel talent' — the great reformer is actuated by nothing but the desire to get at truth, and his conscience will not rest until he arrives at it. Hence Tolstoy's works, although they depict the rise and evolution of controlling passions with a master hand, and con- tain scenes that are entrancing in beauty, still possess none of those elements of piquancy that attract the many to read works of the realistic school. He came to know his peasants tlirough his pedagogical work among them, and became a great believer in the salutary influence of labor. The philanthropic work during the famines of 1873 and 1891 gave him an impulse for the "Simplification of Life" which filled the foreign periodicals with sensational pictures and descrip- tions of Tolstoy in a cheap shirt-blouse, girded Avith a rope, with his hands on a plow, tilling his estate at Yasnaya Polyana. Gradually he came to defy all unnecessary comforts of life, did cobbling and all manual labor for himself, preach- ing Karnta and the doctrines of Lao-Tse. The principle of simplification was carried into his religious beliefs: all teaching not coming from Christ Himself was ruthlessly discarded, and a ncAv gospel reconstructed from the old. The doctrine of evangelic hiunility was carried to the extreme of his famous doctrine of non-resistance — especially remarkable side by side with indi- vidualism of an extreme kind. All human in- stitutions — kingly power. State, Church, judici- ary, jury. army, even marriage — were in turn anathematized as standing in the way of the nat- ural development of the powers of an individual. Always carrying his logic to its inexorable limits, Tolstoy had to denormce his own literary achieve- ments along witl all products of civilization. a3 begotten of idle fancy and human craving for the plaudits of the world. This double indi- viduality of Tolstoy the artist and Tolstoy the man is perhaps the mo^t striking case in the annals of literature. In 1862 Tolstoy married Sophie Andreyevna Behrs of Moscow, by whom he had eight children. One son. Ltoff Ltovitch. who inherits his fath- er's literary inclinations, has attracted consider- able attention by his sketches in periodical pub- lications. Tolstoy's collected works were published at Moscow in 14 volumes in 1889-9.5 (8th edition). An English translation bv N. H. Dole of the com-
