shield themselves under it. Unless the commandment of work is fulfilled, that of love cannot be carried out, and all preaching of love without labour appears hypocrisy.
All these ideas were developed by Bondaref in his book, “Diligence, or the Triumph of Agriculturists,” the manuscript of which was sent to Tolstoy. Finding that Bondaref had many views in common with himself, Tolstoy exchanged with him several friendly letters. He decided to publish Bondaref’s work, which was written in a powerful, original style. He corrected it, and wrote an introduction. At first the censor prohibited the publication, but now the book is issued by the Posrednik.
Tolstoy’s views began to penetrate into Russian intellectual circles. After the assassination of Alexander II. the number of young people with revolutionary tendencies considerably diminished. Ideals and projects for a reconstruction of society were sought in another direction, and the new thoughts of Tolstoy were much more sympathetic with the state of mind of those young people. Amongst them began to develop a serious moral and religious movement combined with the desire for radical political reforms. Owing to this movement, several agricultural colonies of intellectual
