,transcriber's ,notes3      ,every     
effort has been made to replicate this  
text as faithfully     as possible1     
including inconsistencies in spelling   
and hyphenation4     ,some corrections  
of spelling have been made4 ,they are   
listed at the     end of the text4      
,italic text has been marked with       
underscores4          ,,prophets ,,of   
,,dissent       ,,books ,,by ,,otto     
,,heller    ,,henrik ,,ibsen3 ,,plays   
,,and ,,problems    ,,studies ,,in      
,,modern ,,german ,,literature          
,,lessing',s ,,minna ,,von ,,barnhelm   
in ,english       ,prophets of ,dissent3
 ,essays   on ,maeterlinck1 ,strindberg1
   ,nietzsche and ,tolstoy    by   ,otto
 ,heller    ,professor of ,modern       
,european ,literature   in ,washington  
,university 7,st4 ,louis7     ,is there 
a thing in this world that can be       
separated from   the inconceivable8     
,maeterlinck1 ,our ,eternity     ,new   
,york   ,mcmxviii   ,alfred ,a ,knopf   
,,copyright1 #aiah1 ,,by   ,,alfred ,a4 

,,knopf    ,,printed ,,in ,,united      
,,states ,,of ,,america       ,to       
,,hellen ,,sears   staunchest of friends
     ,preface   ,the collocation of     
authors so widely at variance in their  
moral and artistic aims as are those    
assembled in this little book may be    
defended by the safe and simple argument
 that all of these authors have exerted1
 each in his own way1 an influence of   
singular range and potency4 ,by fairly  
general consent they are the foremost   
literary expositors of important modern 
tendencies4 ,it is1 therefore1 of no    
consequence whether or not their ways of
 thinking fit into our particular frame 
of mind2 what really matters is that in 
this small group of writers more clearly
 perhaps than in any other similarly    
restricted group the basic issues of the
 modern struggle for social             
transformation appear to be clearly and 
sharply joined4 ,that in viewing them as
 indicators of contrarious ideal        
currents due allowance must be made for 

peculiarities of temperament1 both      
individual and racial1 and1             
correspondingly1 for the purely personal
 equation in their spiritual attitudes1 
does not detract to any material degree 
from their generic significance4  ,in   
any case1 there are those of us who in  
the vortical change of the social order 
through which we are whirling1 feel a   
desire to orient ourselves through an   
objective interest in letters among the 
embattled purposes and policies which   
are now gripped in a final test of      
strength4 ,in a crisis that makes the   
very foundations of civilization quake1 
and at a moment when the salvation of   
human liberty seems to depend upon the  
success of a united stand of all the    
modern forces of life against the       
destructive impact of the most primitive
 and savage of all the instincts1 would 
it not be absurdly pedantic for a       
critical student of literature to resort
 to any artificial selection and        
co-ordination of his material in order  

to please the prudes and the pedagogues8
 ,and is it not natural to seek that    
material among the largest literary     
apparitions of the age8  ,it is my      
opinion1 then1 that the four great      
authors discussed in the following pages
 stand1 respectively1 for the           
determining strains in a great upsetting
 movement1 and that in the aggregate    
they bring to view the composite mental 
and moral impulsion of the times4       
,through such forceful articulations of 
current movements the more percipient   
class of readers have for a long time   
been enabled to foresense1 in a manner1 
the colossal reconstruction of society  
which needs must follow this monstrous1 
but presumably final1 clash between the 
irreconcilable elements in the          
contrasted principles of right and      
might1 the masses and the monarchs4     
,however1 the gathering together of     
,maeterlinck1 ,nietzsche1 ,strindberg1  
and ,tolstoy under the hospitality of a 
common book-cover permits of a          

supplementary explanation on the ground 
of a certain fundamental likeness far   
stronger than their only too obvious    
diversities4 ,they are1 one and all1    
radicals in thought1 and1 with differing
 strength of intention1 reformers of    
society1 inasmuch as their speculations 
and aspirations are relevant to         
practical problems of living4 ,and yet  
what gives them such a durable hold on  
our attention is not their particular   
apostolate1 but the fact that their     
artistic impulses ascend from the       
subliminal regions of the inner life1   
and that their work somehow brings one  
into touch with the hidden springs of   
human action and human fate4 ,this      
means1 in effect1 that all of them are  
mystics by original cast of mind and    
that notwithstanding any difference1    
however apparently violent1 of views and
 theories1 they follow the same         
introspective path towards the          
recognition and interpretation of the   
law of life4 ,from widely separated     

ethical premises they thus arrive at an 
essentially uniform appraisal of        
personal happiness as a function of     
living4  ,to those readers who are not  
disposed to grant the validity of the   
explanations ,i have offered1 perhaps   
equality of rank in artistic importance 
may seem a sufficient criterion for the 
association of authors1 and1 apart from 
all sociologic and philosophic          
considerations1 they may be willing to  
accept my somewhat arbitrary selection  
on this single count4      ,o4 ,h4      
,april1 #aiah4     ,,contents           
,,page      ,i ,maurice ,maeterlinck3 a 
study in ,mysticism         #c     ,,ii 
,august ,strindberg3 a study in         
,eccentricity       #ga    ,,iii        
,friedrich ,nietzsche3 a study in       
,exaltation      #aji     ,,iv ,leo     
,tolstoy3 a study in ,revivalism        
#afa     ,i  ,,the ,,mysticism ,,of     
,,maurice ,,maeterlinck   ,under the    
terrific atmospheric pressure that has  
been torturing the civilization of the  

entire world since the outbreak of the  
greatest of wars1 contemporary          
literature of the major cast appears to 
have gone into decline4 ,even the       
comparatively few writers recognized as 
possessing talents of the first         
magnitude have given way to that        
pressure and have shrunk to minor size1 
so that it may be seriously questioned1 
to say the least1 whether during the    
past forty months or so a single        
literary work of outstanding and        
sustained grandeur has been achieved    
anywhere4 ,that the effect of the       
universal embattlement upon the art of  
letters should be1 in the main1         
extremely depressing1 is quite natural2 
but the conspicuous loss of breadth and 
poise in writers of the first order     
seems less in accordance with           
necessity1--at least one might expect a 
very superior author to rise above that 
necessity4 ,in any case it is very      
surprising that it should be a ,belgian 
whose literary personality is almost    

unique in having remained exempt from   
the general abridgment of spiritual     
stature4  ,it is true that ,maurice     
,maeterlinck1 the most eminent literary 
figure in his sadly stricken country and
 of unsurpassed standing among the      
contemporary masters of ,french letters1
 has1 since the great catastrophe1 won  
no new laurels as a dramatist2 and that 
in the other field cultivated by him1   
that of the essay1 his productiveness   
has been anything but prolific4 ,but in 
his case one is inclined to interpret   
reticence as an eloquent proof of a     
singularly heroic firmness of character 
at a time when on both sides of the     
great divide which now separates the    
peoples1 the cosmopolitan trend of human
 advance has come to a temporary halt1  
and the nations have relapsed from their
 laboriously attained degree of         
world-citizenship into the homelier1 but
 more immediately virtuous1 state of    
traditional patriotism4  ,it is a       
military necessity as well as a         

birthright of human nature that at a    
time like the present the patriot is    
excused from any pharisaical profession 
of loving his enemy4 ,before the war1   
,maeterlinck's writings were animated by
 humanitarian sympathies of the broadest
 catholicity4 ,he even had a peculiar   
affection for the ,germans1 because     
doubtless he perceived the existence of 
a strong kinship between certain        
essential traits in his spiritual       
composition and the fundamental         
tendencies of ,german philosophy and    
art4 ,but when ,belgium was lawlessly   
invaded1 her ancient towns heinously    
destroyed1 her soil laid waste and      
drenched with the blood of her people1  
,maeterlinck1 as a son of ,belgium1     
learned to hate the ,germans to the     
utmost of a wise and temperate man's    
capacity for hatred1 and in his war     
papers collected in ,les ,dbris de la   
,guerre1 7#aiaf717a7 which ring with the
 passionate impulse of the patriot1 his 
outraged sense of justice prevails over 

the disciplined self-command of the     
stoic4    7#a7 ,the ,wrack of the       
,storm1 #aiaf4  ,he refuses to acquiesce
 in the lenient discrimination between  
the guilty ,government of ,germany and  
her innocent population3 ,it is not true
 that in this gigantic crime there are  
innocent and guilty1 or degrees of      
guilt4 ,they stand on one level1 all    
those who have taken part in it4444 ,it 
is1 very simply1 the ,german1 from one  
end of his country to the other1 who    
stands revealed as a beast of prey which
 the firm will of our planet finally    
repudiates4 ,we have here no wretched   
slaves dragged along by a tyrant king   
who alone is responsible4 ,nations have 
the government which they deserve1 or   
rather1 the government which they have  
is truly no more than the magnified and 
public projection of the private        
morality and mentality of the nation4444
 ,no nation can be deceived that does   
not wish to be deceived2 and it is not  
intelligence that ,germany lacks4444 ,no

 nation permits herself to be coerced to
 the one crime that man cannot pardon4  
,it is of her own accord that she       
hastens towards it2 her chief has no    
need to persuade1 it is she who urges   
him on47#b7    7#b7 ,the ,wrack of the  
,storm1 pp4 #af-ah4  ,such a            
condemnatory tirade against the         
despoilers of his fair homeland was     
normally to be expected from a man of   
,maeterlinck's depth of feeling4 ,the   
unexpected thing that happened not long 
after was that the impulsive promptings 
of justice and patriotism put themselves
 into harmony with the guiding          
principles of his entire moral          
evolution4 ,the integrity of his        
philosophy of life1 the sterling honesty
 of his teachings1 were thus loyally    
sealed with the very blood of his       
heart4--,before closing this book1 he   
says in the ,epilogue17#c7 ,i wish to   
weigh for the last time in my conscience
 the words of hatred and malediction    
which it has made me speak in spite of  

myself4 ,and then1 true prophet that he 
is1 he speaks forth as a voice from the 
future1 admonishing men to prepare for  
the time when the war is over4 ,what    
saner advice could at this critical time
 be given the stay-at-homes than that   
they should follow the example of the   
men who return from the trenches8 ,they 
detest the enemy1 says he1 but they do  
not hate the man4 ,they recognize in him
 a brother in misfortune who1 like      
themselves1 is submitting to duties and 
laws which1 like themselves1 he too     
believes lofty and necessary4 ,on the   
other hand1 too1 not many have sensed as
 deeply as has ,maeterlinck the grandeur
 to which humanity has risen through the
 immeasurable pathos of the war4        
,setting aside the unpardonable         
aggression and the inexpiable violation 
of the treaties1 this war1 despite its  
insanity1 has come near to being a      
bloody but magnificent proof of         
greatness1 heroism1 and the spirit of   
sacrifice4 ,and from his profound       

anguish over the fate of his beloved    
,belgium this consolation is wrung3 ,if 
it be true1 as ,i believe1 that humanity
 is worth just as much as the sum total 
of latent heroism which it contains1    
then we may declare that humanity was   
never stronger nor more exemplary than  
now and that it is at this moment       
reaching one of its highest points and  
capable of braving everything and hoping
 everything4 ,and it is for this reason 
that1 despite our present sadness1 we   
are entitled to congratulate ourselves  
and to rejoice4 ,altogether1            
,maeterlinck's thoughts and actions     
throughout this yet unfinished mighty   
fate-drama of history challenge the     
highest respect for the clarity of his  
intellect and the profoundness of his   
humanity4    7#c7 ,in the ,english      
translation this is the chapter         
preceding the last   one and is headed  
,when the ,war ,is ,over1 p4 #bic ff42  
it is separately   published in ,the    
,forum for ,july1 #aiaf4  ,the appalling

 disaster that has befallen the ,belgian
 people is sure to stamp their national 
character with indelible marks2 so that 
it is safe to predict that never again  
will the type of civilization which     
before the war reigned in the basins of 
the ,meuse and the ,scheldt restablish  
itself in its full peculiarity and      
distinctiveness which was the result of 
a unique coagency of ,germanic and      
,romanic ingredients of culture4 ,yet in
 the amalgam of the two heterogeneous   
elements a certain competitive          
antithesis had survived1 and manifested 
itself1 in the individual as in the     
national life at large1 in a number of  
unreconciled temperamental contrasts1   
and in the fundamental unlikeness       
exhibited in the material and the       
spiritual activities4 ,witness the      
contrast between the bustling           
aggressiveness in the province of       
practical affairs and the metaphysical  
drift of modern ,flemish art4 ,to any   
one familiar with the visible           

materialism of the population in its    
external mode of living it may have     
seemed strange to notice how sedulously 
a numerous set among the younger artists
 of the land were facing away from their
 concrete environment1 as though to     
their over-sensitive nervous system it  
were irremediably offensive4 ,the       
vigorous solidity of ,constantin        
,meunier1 the great plastic interpreter 
of the ,black ,country of ,belgium1     
found but few wholehearted imitators    
among the sculptors1 while among the    
painters that robust terrestrialism of  
which the work of a ,rubens or ,teniers 
and their countless disciples was the   
artistic upshot1 was almost totally     
relinquished1 and linear firmness and   
colorful vitality yielded the day to    
pallid1 discarnately decorative artistry
 even1 in a measure1 in the applied art 
products of a ,henri van de ,velde4  ,it
 is in the field of literature1         
naturally enough1 that the contrast is  
resolved and integrated into a          

characteristic unity4 ,very recently    
,professor ,a4 ,j4 ,carnoy has          
definitely pointed out7#d7 the striking 
commixture of the realistic and         
imaginative elements in the work of the 
,flemish symbolists4 ,the vision of the 
,flemings--quoting from his own prcis of
 his paper--is very concrete1 very exact
 in all details and gives a durable1    
real1 and almost corporeal presence to  
the creations of the imagination4 ,all  
these traits are exhibited in the       
reveries of the ,flemish mystics1       
ancient and modern4 ,one finds them also
 no less plainly in the poetic work of  
,belgian writers of the last generation3
 ,maeterlinck1 ,verhaeren1 ,rodenbach1  
,van ,lerberghe1 ,le ,roy1 ,elskamp1    
etc4    7#d7 ,in a paper read by title  
before the ,modern ,language            
,association of   ,america at ,yale     
,university1 ,december #bi1 #aiag4  ,if 
we take into account this composite     
attitude of the ,flemish mind we shall  
be less surprised at the remarkable     

evolution of a poet-philosopher whose   
creations seem at first blush to bear no
 resemblance to the outward complexion  
of his own age2 who seems as far removed
 temperamentally from his locality and  
time as were his lineal spiritual       
ancestors3 the ,dutchman ,ruysbroeck1   
the ,scandinavian ,swedenborg1 the      
,german ,novalis1 and the ,american     
,emerson--and who in the zenith of his  
career stands forth as an ardent        
advocate of practical action while at   
the same time a firm believer in the    
transcendental4  ,maeterlinck's romantic
 antipathy towards the main drift of the
 age was a phenomenon which at the dawn 
of our century could be observed in a   
great number of superior intelligences4 
,those fugitives from the dun and sordid
 materialism of the day were likely to  
choose between two avenues of escape1   
according to their greater or lesser    
inner ruggedness4 ,the more aggressive  
type would engage in multiform warfare  
for the reconstruction of life on       

sounder principles2 whereas the more    
meditative professed a real or affected 
indifference to practical things and    
eschewed any participation in the       
world's struggle for progress4 ,and of  
the quiescent rather than the insurgent 
variety of the romantic temper ,maurice 
,maeterlinck was the foremost exponent4 
,the romantic longing seems to have come
 into the world in the company of the   
,christian religion with which it shares
 its partly outspoken1 partly implied   
repugnance for the battle of life4      
,romantic periods occur in the history  
of civilization whenever a sufficiently 
influential set of artistically minded  
persons have persuaded themselves that1 
in quite a literal sense of the         
colloquial phrase1 they have no use for 
the world2 a discovery which would still
 be true were it stated obversely4 ,the 
romantic world-view1 thus fundamentally 
oriented by world-contempt1 entails1 at 
least in theory1 the repudiation of all 
earthly joys--notably the joy of        

working--and the renouncement of all    
worldly ambition2 it scorns the         
cooperative1 social disposition1 invites
 the soul to a progressive withdrawal   
into the inner ego1 and ends in complete
 surrender to one sole aspiration3 the  
search of the higher vision1 the vision1
 that is1 of things beyond their        
tangible reality4 ,to such mystical     
constructions of the inner eye a certain
 group of ,german writers who flourished
 in the beginning of the nineteenth     
century and were known as the           
,romantics1 darkly groped their way out 
of the confining realities of their own 
time4 ,the most modern spell of         
romanticism1 the one through which our  
own generation was but yesterday        
passing1 measures its difference from   
any previous romantic era by the        
difference between earlier states of    
culture and our own4 ,life with us is   
conspicuously more assertive and        
aggressive in its social than in its    
individual expressions1 which was by no 

means always so1 and unless the romantic
 predisposition adapted itself to this  
important change it could not relate    
itself at all intimately to our         
interests4 ,our study of ,maeterlinck   
should help us1 therefore1 to discover  
possibly in the new romantic tendency   
some practical and vital bearings4  ,we 
find that in the new romanticism        
esthetic and philosophical impulses are 
inextricably mixed4 ,hence the new      
movement is also playing an             
indispensable rle in the modern         
re-foundation of art4 ,for while acting 
as a wholesome offset to the so-called  
naturalism1 in its firm refusal to limit
 inner life to the superficial          
realities1 it at the same time combines 
with naturalism into a complete         
recoiling1 both of the intellect and the
 emotions1 from any commonplace1 or     
pusillanimous1 or mechanical practices  
of artistry4 ,this latter-day           
romanticism1 moreover1 notwithstanding  
its sky-aspiring outstretch1 is akin to 

naturalism in that1 after all1 it keeps 
its roots firmly grounded in the earth2 
that is to say1 it seeks for its        
ulterior sanctions not in realms high   
beyond the self2 rather it looks within 
for the blue flower of contentedness4   
,already to the romantics of old the    
mystic road to happiness was not        
unknown4 ,it is1 for instance1 pointed  
by ,novalis3 ,inward leads the          
mysterious way4 ,within us or nowhere   
lies eternity with its worlds2 within us
 or nowhere are the past and the future4
 ,viewed separately from other elements 
of romanticism1 this passion for        
retreating within the central ego is    
commonly referred to as mysticism2 it   
has a strong hold on many among the     
moderns1 and ,maurice ,maeterlinck to be
 properly understood has to be          
understood as the poet par excellence of
 modern mysticism4 ,by virtue of this   
special office he deals mainly in       
concepts of the transcendental1 which   
puzzles the ordinary person accustomed  

to perceive only material and ephemeral 
realities4 ,maeterlinck holds that      
nothing matters that is not eternal and 
that what keeps us from enjoying the    
treasures of the universe is the        
hereditary resignation with which we    
tarry in the gloomy prison of our       
senses4 ,in reality1 we live only from  
soul to soul1 and we are gods who do not
 know each other47#e7 ,it follows from  
this metaphysical foundation of his art 
that instead of the grosser terminology 
suitable to plain realities1            
,maeterlinck must depend upon a code of 
subtle messages in order to establish   
between himself and his audience a line 
of spiritual communication4 ,this makes 
it somewhat difficult for people of     
cruder endowment to appreciate his      
meaning1 a grievance from which in the  
beginning many of them sought redress in
 facile scoffing4 ,obtuse minds are     
prone to claim a right to fathom the    
profound meanings of genius with the    
same ease with which they expect to     

catch the meaning of a bill of fare or  
the daily stock market report4    7#e7  
,maeterlinck1 ,on ,emerson4             
99       99       99       99       99  
,it must be confessed1 however1 that    
even those to whom ,maeterlinck's sphere
 of thought is not so utterly sealed1   
enter it with a sense of mixed          
perplexity and apprehension4 ,they feel 
themselves helplessly conducted through 
a world situated beyond the confines of 
their normal consciousness1 and in this 
strange world everything that comes to  
pass appears at first extremely         
impracticable and unreal4 ,the action   
seems wholly dissevered from common     
sense and ordinary uses2 the figures    
behave otherwise than humans2 the       
dialogue is poised on the edge of a     
precipice of bathos4 ,it is clear that  
works so far out of the common have to  
be approached from the poet's own point 
of view4 ,let the reader move his       
standpoint one inch nearer the popular  
standpoint1 thus we are warned by ,mr4  

,g4 ,k4 ,chesterton1 and his attitude   
towards the poet will be harsh1 hostile1
 unconquerable mirth4 ,there are some   
works that can be appreciated for their 
good story1 even if we fail to realize  
the author's moral attitude1 let alone  
to grasp the deeper content of his work4
 ,but if we take a play by ,maeterlinck 
we shall find that unless we grasp the  
particular fairy thread of thought the  
poet rather lazily flings to us1 we     
cannot grasp anything whatever4 ,except 
from one extreme poetic point of view1  
the thing is not a play2 it is not a bad
 play1 it is a mass of clotted nonsense4
 ,one whole act describes the lovers    
going to look for a ring in a distant   
cave when they both know they have      
dropped it down the well4 ,seen from    
some secret window on some special side 
of the soul's turret1 this might convey 
a sense of faerie futility in our human 
life4 ,but it is quite obvious that     
unless it called forth that one kind of 
sympathy1 it would call forth nothing   

but laughter4 ,in the same play1 the    
husband chases his wife with a drawn    
sword1 the wife remarking at intervals1 
',i am not gay4' ,now there may really  
be an idea in this2 the idea of human   
misfortune coming most cruelly upon the 
opportunism of innocence2 that the      
lonely human heart says1 like a child at
 a party1 ',i am not enjoying myself as 
,i thought ,i should4' ,but it is plain 
that unless one thinks of this idea1 and
 of this idea only1 the expression is   
not in the least unsuccessful           
pathos1--it is very broad and highly    
successful farce6  ,and so the          
atmosphere of ,maeterlinck's plays is   
impregnated throughout with oppressive  
mysteries1 and until the key of these   
mysteries is found there is very little 
meaning to the plays4 ,moreover1 these  
mysteries1 be they never so stern and   
awe-inspiring1 are irresistibly         
alluring4 ,the reason is1 they are our  
own mysteries that have somehow escaped 
our grasp1 and that we fain would       

recapture1 because there dwells in every
 human breast a vague assent to the     
immortal truth of ,goethe's assertion3  
,the thrill of awe is man's best        
heritage47#f7    7#f7 ,das ,schaudern   
ist der ,menschheit bestes ,teil4  ,the 
imaginative equipment of ,maeterlinck's 
dramaturgy is rather limited and1 on its
 face value1 trite4 ,in particular are  
his dramatis personae creatures by no   
means calculated to overawe by some     
extraordinary weirdness or power4 ,and  
yet we feel ourselves touched by an     
elemental dread and by an overwhelming  
sense of our human impotence in the     
presence of these figures who1 without  
seeming supernatural1 are certainly not 
of common flesh and blood2 they impress 
us as surpassingly strange mainly       
because somehow they are instinct with a
 life fundamentally more real than the  
superficial reality we know4 ,for they  
are the mediums and oracles of the      
fateful powers that stir human beings   
into action4  ,the poet of mysticism1   

then1 delves into the mystic sources of 
our deeds1 and makes us stand reverent  
with him before the unknowable forces by
 which we are controlled4 ,naturally he 
is obliged to shape his visions in dim  
outline4 ,his aim is to shadow forth    
that which no naked eye can see1 and it 
may be said in passing that he attains  
this aim with a mastery and completeness
 incomparably beyond the dubious skill  
displayed more recently by the grotesque
 gropings of the so-called futurist     
school4 ,perhaps one true secret of the 
perturbing strangeness of ,maeterlinck's
 figures lies in the fact that the basic
 principle of their life1 the one       
thoroughly vital element in them1 if it 
does not sound too paradoxical to say   
so1 is the idea of death4 ,maeterlinck's
 mood and temper are fully in keeping   
with the religious dogma that life is   
but a short dream--with ,goethe he      
believes that all things transitory but 
as symbols are sent1 and apparently     
concurs in the creed voiced by one of   

,arthur ,schnitzler's characters1--that 
death is the only subject in life worthy
 of being pondered by the serious mind4 
,from our death onwards1 so he puts it  
somewhere1 the adventure of the universe
 becomes our own adventure4             
99       99       99       99       99  
,it will be useful to have a bit of     
personal information concerning our     
author4 ,he started his active career as
 a barrister2 not by any means          
auspiciously1 it seems1 for already in  
his twenty-seventh year he laid the toga
 aside4 ,experience had convinced him   
that in the forum there were no laurels 
for him to pluck4 ,the specific         
qualities that make for success at the  
bar were conspicuously lacking in his   
make-up4 ,far from being eloquent1 he   
has at all times been noted for an      
unparalleled proficiency in the art of  
self-defensive silence4 ,he shuns banal 
conversation and the sterile            
distractions of promiscuous social      
intercourse1 dreads the hubbub of the   

city1 and has an intense dislike for    
travel1 to which he resorts only as a   
last means of escape from interviewers1 
reporters1 and admirers4 ,maeterlinck1  
it is seen1 is anything but multorum vir
 hominum4 ,in order to preserve intact  
his love of humanity1 he finds it       
expedient to live for the most part by  
himself1 away from the throng whose very
 plaudits give the heart a pang2 his    
fame has always been a source of        
annoyance to him4 ,the only company he  
covets is that of the contemplative     
thinkers of bygone days1--the mystics1  
gnostics1 cabalists1 neo-,platonists4   
,swedenborg and ,plotinus are perhaps   
his greatest favorites4 ,that the war   
has produced a mighty agitation in the  
habitual calm of the great ,belgian     
poet-philosopher goes without saying4   
,his love of justice no less than his   
love of his country aroused every red   
corpuscle in his virile personality to  
violent resentment against the invader4 
,since the war broke out1 however1 he   

has published nothing besides a number  
of ringingly eloquent and singularly    
pathetic articles and appeals1--so that 
the character portrait derived from the 
body of his work has not at this time   
lost its application to his personality4
  ,in cast of mind1 ,maeterlinck is     
sombrously meditative1 and he has been  
wise in framing his outer existence so  
that it would accord with his habitual  
detachment4 ,the greater part of his    
time used to be divided between his     
charming retreat at ,quatre ,chemins1   
near ,grasse1 and the grand old abbey of
 ,st4 ,wandrille in ,normandy1 which he 
managed to snatch in the very nick of   
time from the tightening clutch of a    
manufacturing concern4 ,with the        
temperament of a hermit1 he has been1   
nevertheless1 a keen observer of life1  
though one preferring to watch the      
motley spectacle from the aristocratic  
privacy of his box1 sheltered1 as it    
were1 from prying curiosity4 ,well on in
 middle age1 he is still an enthusiastic

 out-of-doors man1--gardener1           
naturalist1 pedestrian1 wheelman1 and   
motorist1 and commands an extraordinary 
amount of special knowledge in a variety
 of sports and sciences4 ,in ,the       
,double ,garden he discusses the        
automobile with the authority of an     
expert watt-man and mechanician4 ,in one
 of his other books he evinces an       
extraordinary erudition in all matters  
pertaining to the higher education of   
dogs2 and his work on ,the ,life of the 
,bee passes him beyond question with    
high rank among thirty-third degree     
apiculturists4  ,one of the             
characteristics that seem to separate   
his books1 especially those of the      
earlier period1 from the literary       
tendencies of his age1 is their         
surprising inattention to present social
 struggles4 ,his metaphysical bias makes
 him dwell almost exclusively1 and with 
great moral and logical consistency1 on 
aspects of life that are slightly       
considered by the majority of men yet   

which he regards as ulteriorly of sole  
importance4  ,when men like ,maeterlinck
 are encountered in the world of        
practical affairs1 they are bound to    
impress us as odd1 because of this      
inversion of the ordinary policies of   
behavior4 ,but before classing them as  
cranks1 we might well ask ourselves     
whether their appraisal of the component
 values of life does not1 after all1    
correspond better to their true         
relativity than does our own habitual   
evaluation4 ,with the average social    
being1 the transcendental bearing of a  
proposition is synonymous with its      
practical unimportance4 ,but in his     
essay on ,the ,invisible ,goodness      
,maeterlinck quite properly raises the  
question3 ,is visible life alone of     
consequence1 and are we made up only of 
things that can be grasped and handled  
like pebbles in the road8  ,throughout  
his career ,maeterlinck reveals himself 
in the double aspect of poet and        
philosopher4 ,in the first period his   

philosophy1 as has already been amply   
hinted1 is characterized chiefly by     
aversion from the externalities of life1
 and by that tense introversion of the  
mind which forms the mystic's main      
avenue to the goal of knowledge4 ,but   
if1 in order to find the key to his     
tragedies and puppet plays1 we go to the
 thirteen essays representing the       
earlier trend of his philosophy and     
issued in #ahif under the collective    
title1 ,the ,treasure of the ,humble1 we
 discover easily that his cast of       
mysticism is very different from that of
 his philosophic predecessors and       
teachers in the fourteenth and          
nineteenth centuries1 in particular from
 the devotional mysticism of the        
,admirable ,john ,ruysbroeck1 and       
,friedrich von ,hardenberg-,novalis4    
,maeterlinck does not strive after the  
so-called spiritual espousals1 expounded
 by the doctor ecstaticus1 ,ruysbroeck1 
in his celebrated treatise where ,christ
 is symbolized as the divine groom and  

,human ,nature as the bride glowing with
 desire for union with ,god4            
,maeterlinck feels too modernly to make 
use of that ancient sensuous imagery4   
,the main thesis of his mystical belief 
is that there are divine forces dormant 
in human nature2 how to arouse and      
release them1 constitutes the paramount 
problem of human life4 ,his doctrine is 
that a life not thus energized by its   
own latent divineness is1 and must      
remain1 humdrum and worthless4 ,it will 
at once be noticed that such a doctrine 
harmonizes thoroughly with the romantic 
aspiration4 ,both mystic and romantic   
teach that1 in the last resort1 the     
battlefield of our fate lies not out in 
the wide world but that it is enclosed  
in the inner self1 within the unknown   
quantity which we designate as our soul4
 ,the visible life1 according to this   
modern prophet of mysticism1 obeys the  
invisible2 happiness and unhappiness    
flow exclusively from the inner sources4
  ,maeterlinck's speculations1 despite  

their medieval provenience1 have a      
practical orientation4 ,he firmly       
believes that it is within the ability  
of mankind to raise some of the veils   
that cover life's central secret4 ,in   
unison with some other charitable       
students of society1 he holds to the    
faith that a more highly spiritualized  
era is dawning1 and from the observed   
indications he prognosticates a wider   
awakening of the sleepbound soul of man4
 ,and certainly some of the social      
manifestations that appeared with       
cumulative force during the constructive
 period before the war were calculated  
to justify that faith4 ,the revival of  
interest in the metaphysical powers of  
man which expressed itself almost       
epidemically through such widely        
divergent cults as ,theosophy and       
,christian ,science1 was indubitable    
proof of spiritual yearnings in the     
broader masses of the people4 ,and it   
had a practical counterpart in civic    
tendencies and reforms that evidenced a 

great agitation of the social           
conscience4 ,and even to-day1 when the  
great majority feel that the universal  
embroilment has caused civilized man to 
fall from his laboriously achieved      
level1 this sage in his lofty solitude  
feels the redeeming spiritual           
connotation of our great calamity4      
,humanity was ready to rise above       
itself1 to surpass all that it had      
hitherto accomplished4 ,it has surpassed
 it4444 ,never before had nations been  
seen that were able as a whole to       
understand that the happiness of each of
 those who live in this time of trial is
 of no consequence compared with the    
honor of those who live no more or the  
happiness of those who are not yet      
alive4 ,we stand on heights that had not
 been attained before4  ,but even for   
those many who find themselves unable to
 build very large hopes on the spiritual
 uplift of mankind through disaster1    
,maeterlinck's philosophy is a wholesome
 tonic4 ,in the essay on ,the ,life     

,profound in ,the ,treasure of the      
,humble1 we are told3 ,every man must   
find for himself in the low and         
unavoidable reality of common life his  
special possibility of a higher         
existence4 ,the injunction1 trite though
 it sound1 articulates a moral very far 
from philistine4 ,for it urges the      
pursuit of the transcendental self      
through those feelings which another    
very great idealist1 ,friedrich         
,schiller1 describes in magnificent     
metaphor as      444 der dunklen ,gefhle
 ,gewalt1     die im ,herzen wunderbar  
schliefen4  ,in the labyrinth of the    
subliminal consciousness there lurks1   
however1 a great danger for the seeker  
after the hidden treasures3 the         
paralyzing effect of fatalism upon the  
normal energies4 ,maeterlinck was       
seriously threatened by this danger     
during his earlier period4 ,how he      
eventually contrived his liberation from
 the clutch of fatalism is not made     
entirely clear by the progress of his   

thought4 ,at all events1 an era of      
greater intellectual freedom1 which     
ultimately was to create him the        
undisputed captain of his soul and      
master of his fate1 was soon to arrive  
for him4 ,it is heralded by another book
 of essays3 ,wisdom and ,destiny4 ,but1 
as has been stated1 we may in his case  
hardly hope to trace the precise route  
traveled by the mind between the points 
of departure and arrival4               
99       99       99       99       99  
,so closely are the vital convictions in
 this truthful writer linked with the   
artistic traits of his work that without
 some grasp of his metaphysics even the 
technical peculiarities of his plays    
cannot be fully appreciated4 ,to the    
mystic temper of mind1 all life is      
secretly pregnant with great meaning1 so
 that none of its phenomena can be      
deemed inconsequential4 ,thus1 while    
,maeterlinck is a poet greatly          
preoccupied with spiritual matters yet  
nothing to him is more wonderful and    

worthy of attention than the bare facts 
and processes of living4 ,real life1    
just like the theatre which purports to 
represent it1 manipulates a multiform   
assortment of stage effects1 now coarse 
and obvious and claptrap1 now refined   
and esoteric1 to suit the diversified   
taste and capacity of the patrons4 ,to  
the cultured esthetic sense the tragical
 tendency carries more meaning than the 
catastrophic finale2 our author         
accordingly scorns1 and perhaps         
inordinately1 whatsoever may appear as  
merely adventitious in the action of    
plays4 ,what can be told1 he exclaims1  
by beings who are possessed of a fixed  
idea and have no time to live because   
they have to kill off a rival or a      
mistress8 ,the internalized action in   
his plays is all of one piece with the  
profound philosophical conviction that  
the inner life alone matters2 that      
consequently the small and unnoticed    
events are more worthy of attention than
 the sensational1 cataclysmic moments4  

,why wait ye1 he asks in that wonderful 
rhapsody on ,silence7#g7 for ,heaven to 
open at the strike of the thunderbolt8  
,ye should attend upon the blessed hours
 when it silently opens--and it is      
incessantly opening4    7#g7 ,the       
,treasure of the ,humble4  ,his purpose1
 then1 is to reveal the working of      
hidden forces in their intricate and    
inseparable connection with external    
events2 and in order that the vie       
intrieure might have the right of way1  
drama in his practice emancipates itself
 very far from the traditional realistic
 methods4 ,poetry1 he maintains1 has no 
other purpose than to keep open the     
great roads that lead from the visible  
to the invisible4 ,to be sure1 this     
definition postulates1 rather           
audaciously1 a widespread spiritual     
susceptibility4 ,but in ,maeterlinck's  
optimistic anthropology no human being  
is spiritually so deadened as to be     
forever out of all communication with   
the things that are divine and infinite4

 ,he fully realizes1 withal1 that for   
the great mass of men there exists no   
intellectual approach to the truly      
significant problems of life4 ,it is    
rather through our emotional capacity   
that our spiritual experience brings us 
into touch with the final verities4     
,anyway1 the poet of mysticism appeals  
from the impasse of pure reasoning to   
the voice of the inner oracles4 ,but how
 to detect in the deepest recesses of   
the soul the echoes of universal life   
and give outward resonance to their     
faint reverberations8 ,that is the      
artistic1 and largely technical1 side of
 the problem4  ,obvious it is that if   
the beholder's collaboration in the     
difficult enterprise is to be secured1  
his imagination has to be stirred to a  
super-normal degree4 ,once a dramatist  
has succeeded in stimulating the        
imaginative activity1 he can dispense   
with a mass of descriptive detail4 ,but 
he must comply with two irremissible    
technical demands4 ,in the first place1 

the vie intrieure calls forth a dialogue
 intrieur2 an esoteric language1 ,i     
would say1 contrived predominantly for  
the expressional functions of speech1 as
 differenced from its impressional      
purposes4 ,under ,swedenborg's fanciful 
theory of correspondences the literal   
meaning of a word is merely a sort of   
protective husk for its secret spiritual
 kernel4 ,it is this inner1 essential   
meaning that ,maeterlinck's dialogue    
attempts to set free4 ,by a fairly      
simple and consistent code of           
intimations the underlying meaning of   
the colloquy is laid bare and a basis   
created for a more fundamental          
understanding of the dramatic           
transactions4 ,maeterlinck going1 at    
first1 to undue lengths in this         
endeavor1 exposed the diction of his    
dramas to much cheap ridicule4 ,the     
extravagant use of repetition1 in       
particular1 made him a mark for facile  
burlesque4 ,the words of the ,queen in  
,princesse ,maleine3 ,mais ne rpetez pas

 toujours ce que l'on dit1 were         
sarcastically turned against the poet   
himself4  ,as a result of the extreme   
simplicity of his dialogue1 ,maeterlinck
 was reproached with having invented the
 monosyllabic theatre1 the theatre      
without words1 and with having          
perpetrated a surrogate sort of drama1 a
 hybrid between libretto and pantomime4 
,the fact1 however1 is1 his characters  
speak a language which1 far from being  
absurd1 as it was at first thought to be
 by many of his readers1 is instinct    
with life and quite true to life--to    
life1 that is1 as made articulate in the
 intense privacy of dreams1 or          
hallucinations1 or moments of excessive 
emotional perturbation4  ,the other     
principal requisite for the attainment  
of the inner dramatic vitalness in drama
 is a pervasive atmospheric mood1 a     
sustained ,stimmung4 ,this1 in the case 
of ,maeterlinck1 is brought about by the
 combined employment of familiar and    
original artistic devices4  ,the grave  

and melancholy mood that so deeply      
impregnates the work of ,maeterlinck is 
tinged in the earlier stage1 as has been
 pointed out1 with the sombre coloring  
of fatalism4 ,in the first few books1 in
 particular1 there hovers a brooding    
sense of terror and an undefinable      
feeling of desolation4 ,through ,serres 
,chaudes 7,hot ,houses71 his first      
published book1 7#ahhi71 there runs a   
tenor of weariness1 of ideal yearnings  
overshadowed by the hopelessness of     
circumstances4 ,even in this collection 
of poems1 where so much less necessity  
exists for a unity of mood than in the  
plays1 ,maeterlinck's predilection for  
scenic effects suggestive of weirdness  
and superstitious fear became apparent  
in the recurrent choice of sombre scenic
 motifs3 oppressive nocturnal           
silence1--a stagnant sheet of           
water1--moonlight filtered through green
 windows1 etc4 ,the diction1 too1       
through the incessant use of terms like 
morne1 las1 ple1 dsire1 ennui1 tide1    

indolent1 malade1 exhales as it were a  
lazy resignation4 ,temporarily1 then1   
the fatalistic strain is uppermost both 
in the philosophy and the poetry of the 
rising young author2 and to make matters
 worse1 his is the fatalism of          
pessimistic despair3 ,fate is forsworn  
against man4 ,the objective point of    
life is death4 ,we constantly receive   
warnings from within1 but the voices are
 not unequivocal and emphatic enough to 
save us from ourselves4  ,probing the   
abysses of his subliminal self1 the     
mystic may sense1 along with the diviner
 promptings of the heart1 the lurking   
demons that undermine happiness1--the   
malignant powers1--again quoting        
,schiller--whom no man's craft can make 
familiar--that element in human nature  
which in truth makes man his own worst  
enemy4 ,it is a search which at this    
stage of his development ,maeterlinck1  
as a mystic1 cannot bring himself to    
relinquish1 even though1                
pessimistically1 he anticipates that    

which he most dreads to find2 in this   
way1 fatalism and pessimism act as      
insuperable barriers against his        
artistic self-assertion4 ,his fixed     
frame of mind confines him to the       
representation of but one elemental     
instinct1 namely1 that of fear4 ,the    
rustic in the ,german fairy tale who    
sallied forth to learn how to           
shudder1--gruseln1--would have mastered 
the art to his complete satisfaction if 
favored with a performance or two of    
such plays as ,princess ,maleine1 ,the  
,intruder1 or ,the ,sightless4 ,perhaps 
no other dramatist has ever commanded a 
similarly well-equipped arsenal of      
thrills and terrible foreshadowings4    
,the commonest objects are fraught with 
ominous forebodings3 a white gown lying 
on a prie-dieu1 a curtain suddenly set  
swaying by a puff of air1 the melancholy
 soughing of a clump of trees1--the     
simplest articles of daily use are      
converted into awful symbols that make  
us shiver by their whisperings of       

impending doom4  ,nor in the earlier    
products of ,maeterlinck are the cruder 
practices of melodrama scorned or       
spared1--the crash and flash of thunder 
and lightning1 the clang of bells and   
clatter of chains1 the livid light and  
ghastly shadows1 the howling hurricane1 
the ominous croaking of ravens amid     
nocturnal solitude1 trees illumined by  
the fiery eyes of owls1 bats whirring   
portentously through the gloom1--so many
 harbingers of dread and death4 ,and the
 prophetic import of these tokens and   
their sort is reinforced by repeated    
assertions from the persons in the      
action that never before has anything   
like this been known to occur4 ,to such 
a fearsome state are we wrought up by   
all this uncanny apparatus that at the  
critical moment a well calculated knock 
at the door is sufficient to make our   
flesh creep and our hair stand on end4  
,thus1 the vie intrieure would seem to  
prerequire for its externalization a    
completely furnished chamber of horrors4

 ,and when it is added that the scene of
 the action is by preference a lonely   
churchyard or a haunted old mansion1 a  
crypt1 a cavern1 a silent forest or a   
solitary tower1 it is easy to understand
 why plays like ,princess ,maleine could
 be classed by superficial and          
unfriendly critics with the gruesome    
ebullitions of that fantastic           
quasi-literary occupation to which we   
owe a well known variety of water-front 
drama and1 in fiction1 the shilling     
shocker4 ,their immeasurably greater    
psychological refinement could not save 
them later on from condemnation at the  
hands of their own maker4 ,and yet they 
are not without very great artistic     
merits4 ,octave ,mirbeau1 in his        
habitual enthusiasm for the             
out-of-the-ordinary1 hailed             
,maeterlinck1 on the strength of        
,princess ,maleine1 as the ,belgian     
,shakespeare1 evidently because         
,maeterlinck derived some of his motifs 
from ,hamlet3 mainly the churchyard     

scene1 and ,prince ,hjalmar's defiance  
of the queen1 as well as his general    
want of decision4 ,as a matter of fact1 
,maeterlinck has profoundly studied1 not
 ,shakespeare alone1 but the minor      
,elizabethans as well4 ,he has made an  
admirable translation of ,macbeth4      
,early in his career he even translated 
one of ,john ,ford's ,plays1 ',tis ,pity
 ,she's a ,whore1 one of the coarsest   
works ever written for the stage1 but to
 which he was attracted by the intrinsic
 human interest that far outweighs its  
offensiveness4 ,as for any real kinship 
of ,maeterlinck with ,shakespeare1 the  
resemblance between the two is slight4  
,they differ philosophically in the     
fundamental frame of mind1 ethically in 
the outlook upon life1 dramaturgically  
in the value attached to external       
action1 and humanly1--much to the       
disadvantage of the ,belgian1--in their 
sense of humor4 ,for unfortunately it   
has to be confessed that this supreme   
gift of the gods has been very sparingly

 dispensed to ,maeterlinck4 ,altogether1
 whether or no he is to be counted among
 the disciples of ,shakespeare1 his     
works show no great dependence on the   
master4 ,with far better reason might he
 be called a debtor to ,germanic        
folklore1 especially in its fantastic   
elements4  ,a ,german fairy world it is 
to which we are transported by          
,maeterlinck's first dramatic attempt1  
,princess ,maleine1 7#ahhi71 a play     
refashioned after ,grimm's tale of the  
,maid ,maleen2 only that in the play all
 the principals come to a harrowing end 
and that in it an esoteric meaning lies 
concealed underneath the primitive plot4
 ,the action1 symbolically interpreted1 
illustrates the fatalist's doctrine that
 man is nothing but a toy in the hands  
of dark and dangerous powers4 ,practical
 wisdom does not help us to discern the 
working of these powers until it is too 
late4 ,neither can we divine their      
presence1 for the prophetic apprehension
 of the future resides not in the expert

 and proficient1 but rather in the      
helpless or decrepit1--the blind1 the   
feeble-minded1 and the stricken in      
years1 or again in young children and in
 dumb animals4 ,take the scene in       
,princess ,maleine where the murderers1 
having invaded the chamber1 lie there in
 wait1 with bated breath4 ,in the       
corridor outside1 people are            
unconcernedly passing to and fro1 while 
the only creatures who1 intuitively1    
sense the danger1 are the little ,prince
 and a dog that keeps anxiously scraping
 at the door4  ,in ,l',intruse 7,the    
,intruder71 7#ahij71 a one-act play on a
 theme which is collaterally developed  
later on in ,les ,aveugles 7,the        
,sightless71 and in ,l',intrieur        
7,home71 the arriving disaster that     
cannot be shut out by bolts or bars     
announces itself only to the clairvoyant
 sense of a blind old man4 ,the         
household gathered around the table is  
placidly waiting for the doctor4 ,only  
the blind grandfather is anxious and    

heavy-laden because he alone knows that 
,death is entering the house1 he alone  
can feel his daughter's life withering  
away under the breath of the ,king of   
,terror3 the sightless have a keener    
sensitiveness than the seeing for what  
is screened from the physical eye4  ,it 
would hardly be possible to name within 
the whole range of dramatic literature  
another work so thoroughly pervaded with
 the chilling horror of approaching     
calamity4 ,the talk at the table is of  
the most commonplace1--that the door    
will not shut properly1 and they must   
send for the carpenter to-morrow4 ,but  
from the mechanism of the environment   
there comes cumulative and incremental  
warning that something extraordinary and
 fatal is about to happen4 ,the wind    
rises1 the trees shiver1 the            
nightingales break off their singing1   
the fishes in the pond grow restive1 the
 dogs cower in fear1--an unseen         
,presence walks through the garden4     
,then the clanging of a scythe is heard4

 ,a cold current of air rushes into the 
room4 ,nearer and nearer come the steps4
 ,the grandfather insists that a        
stranger has seated himself in the midst
 of the family4 ,the lamp goes out4 ,the
 bell strikes midnight4 ,the old man is 
sure that somebody is rising from the   
table4 ,then suddenly the baby whose    
voice has never been heard starts       
crying4 ,through an inner door steps a  
deaconess silently crossing herself3 the
 mother of the house is dead4  ,these   
incidents in themselves are not         
necessarily miraculous4 ,there are none 
of them but might be accounted for on   
perfectly natural grounds4 ,in fact1    
very plausible explanations do offer    
themselves for the weirdest things that 
come to pass4 ,so1 especially1 it was a 
real1 ordinary mower that chanced to    
whet his scythe2 yet the apparition of  
the ,old ,reaper in person could not    
cause the chilling consternation        
produced by this trivial circumstance   
coming as it does as the climax of a    

succession of commonplace happenings    
exaggerated and distorted by a          
fear-haunted imagination4 ,to produce an
 effect like that upon an audience whose
 credulity refuses to be put to any     
undue strain is a victorious proof of   
prime artistic ability4  ,les ,aveugles 
7,the ,sightless71 7#ahia71 is pitched  
in the same psychological key4 ,the     
atmosphere is surcharged with unearthly 
apprehension4 ,a dreary twilight--in the
 midst of a thick forest--on a lonely   
island2 twelve blind people fretting    
about the absence of their guardian4 ,he
 is gone to find a way out of the       
woods--what can have become of him8     
,from moment to moment the deserted1    
helpless band grows more fearstricken4  
,the slightest sound becomes the carrier
 of evil forebodings3 the rustling of   
the foliage1 the flapping of a bird's   
wings1 the swelling roar of the nearby  
sea in its dash against the shore4 ,the 
bell strikes twelve--they wonder is it  
noon or night8 ,then questions1 eager   

and calamitous1 pass in whispers among  
them3 ,has the leader lost his way8     
,will he never come back8 ,has the dam  
burst apart and will they all be        
swallowed by the ocean8 ,the pathos is  
greatly heightened by an extremely      
delicate yet sure individuation of the  
figures1 as when at the mention of      
,heaven those not sightless from birth  
raise their countenance to the sky4 ,and
 where in the meanwhile is the lost     
leader8 ,he is seated right in their    
midst1 but smitten by death4 ,they learn
 it at last through the actions of the  
dog2 besides whom--in striking parallel 
to ,princess ,maleine--the only other   
creature able to see is a little child4 
,the horror-stricken unfortunates       
realize that they can never get home1   
and that they must perish in the woods4 
,in ,les ,sept ,princesses 7,the ,seven 
,princesses71 7#ahia71 although it is   
one of ,maeterlinck's minor             
achievements1 some of the qualities that
 are common to all his work become      

peculiarly manifest4 ,this is           
particularly true of the skill shown in 
conveying the feeling of the story by   
means of suitable scenic devices4 ,most 
of his plays depend to a considerable   
degree for their dark and heavy nimbus  
of unreality upon a studied combination 
of paraphernalia in themselves neither  
numerous nor far-sought4 ,in fact1 the  
resulting scenic repertory1 too1 is     
markedly limited3 a weird forest1 a     
deserted castle with marble staircase   
and dreamy moonlit terrace1 a tower with
 vaulted dungeons1 a dismal corridor    
flanked by impenetrable chambers1 a     
lighted interior viewed from the garden1
 a landscape bodefully crped with       
twilight--the list nearly exhausts his  
store of sets4  ,the works mentioned so 
far are hardly more than able exercises 
preparatory for the ampler and more     
finished products which were to succeed 
them4 ,yet they represent signal steps  
in the evolution of a new dramatic      
style1 designed1 as has already been    

intimated1 to give palpable form to     
emotional data descried in moments      
anterior not only to articulation but   
even to consciousness itself2 and for   
this reason1 the plane of the dramatic  
action lies deep below the surface of   
life1 down in the inner tabernacle where
 the mystic looks for the hidden        
destinies4 ,in his style1 ,maeterlinck  
had gradually developed an unprecedented
 capacity for bringing to light the     
secret agencies of fate4 ,a portion of  
the instructed public had already       
learned to listen in his writings for   
the finer reverberations that swing in  
the wake of the uttered phrase1 to heed 
the slightest hints and allusions in the
 text1 to overlook no glance or gesture 
that might betray the mind of the acting
 characters4 ,it is true that art to be 
great must be plain1 but that does not  
mean that the sole test of great art is 
the response of the simple and          
apathetic4  ,in ,maeterlinck's first    
masterpiece1 ,pllas et ,mlisande1       

7#ahib71 the motives again are drawn up 
from the lower regions of consciousness2
 once more the plot is born of a gloomy 
fancy1 and the darkling mood hovering   
over scene and action attests the       
persistence of fatalism in the poet4    
,the theory of old ,king ,arkel1 the    
spokesman of the author's personal      
philosophy1 is that one should not seek 
to be active2 one should ever wait on   
the threshold of ,fate4 ,even the       
younger people in the play are infected 
by the morbid doctrine of an inevitable 
necessity for all things that happen to 
them3 ,we do not go where we would go4  
,we do not do that which we would do4   
,perhaps1 however1 these beliefs are    
here enounced for the last time with the
 author's assent or acquiescence4  ,in  
artistic merit ,pllas and ,mlisande     
marks a nearer approach to mastery1 once
 the integral peculiarities of the form 
and method have been granted4 ,despite a
 noticeable lack of force1 directness1  
and plasticity in the characterization1 

the vie intrieure is most convincingly  
expressed4 ,in one of the finest scenes 
of the play we see the principals at    
night gazing out upon a measureless     
expanse of water dotted with scattered  
lights4 ,the atmosphere is permeated    
with a reticent yearning of love4 ,the  
two young creatures1 gentle1 shy1 their 
souls tinged with melancholy1 are drawn 
towards one another by an ineluctable   
mutual attraction4 ,yet1 though their   
hearts are filled to overflowing1 not a 
word of affection is uttered4 ,their    
love reveals itself to us even as to    
themselves1 without a loud and jarring  
declaration1 through its very           
speechlessness1 as it were4 ,the        
situation well bears out the roi sage in
 ,alladine et ,palomides3 ,there is a   
moment when souls touch one another and 
know everything without a need of our   
opening the lips4 ,there are still other
 scenes in this play so tense with      
emotion that words would be intrusive   
and dissonant4 ,there is that lovely    

picture of ,mlisande at the window2     
,pllas cannot reach up to her hand1 but 
is satisfied to feel her loosened hair  
about his face4 ,it is a question       
whether even that immortal love duet in 
,romeo and ,juliet casts a poetic spell 
more enchanting than this4 ,at another  
moment in the drama1 we behold the      
lovers in ,maeterlinck's beloved        
half-light1 softly weeping as they stare
 with speechless rapture into the       
flames4 ,and not until the final parting
 does any word of love pass their lips4 
,in another part of the play ,goland1   
,mlisande's aging husband1 who suspects 
his young stepbrother1 ,pllas1 of loving
 ,mlisande1 conducts him to an          
underground chamber4 ,we are not told   
why he has brought him there1 and why he
 has led him to the brink of the pitfall
 from which there mounts a smell of     
death4 ,if it be a heinous deed he is   
brooding1 why does he pause in its      
execution8 ,his terrible struggle does  
not reveal itself through speech1 yet it

 is eloquently expressed in the wildness
 of his looks1 the trembling of his     
voice1 and the sudden anguished outcry3 
,pllas6 ,pllas6  ,evidently ,maeterlinck
 completely achieves the very purpose to
 which the so-called ,futurists think   
they must sacrifice all traditional     
conceptions of ,art2 and achieves it    
without any brutal stripping and        
skinning of the poetic subject1 without 
the hideous exhibition of its disjecta  
membra1 and above all1 without that     
implied disqualification for the higher 
artistic mission which alone could      
induce a man to limit his service to the
 dishing-up of chunks and collops1 cubic
 or amorphous4  ,in recognition of a    
certain tendency towards mannerism that 
lay in his technique1 ,maeterlinck1 in a
 spirit of self-persiflage1 labeled the 
book of one-act plays which he next     
published1 7#ahid71 ,trois ,petits      
,drames pour ,marionettes 7,three       
,little ,puppet ,plays74 ,they are      
entitled1 severally3 ,alladine et       

,palomides1 ,intrieur1 and ,la ,mort de 
,tintagiles4 ,while in motifs and       
materials as well as in the principal   
points of style these playlets present a
 sort of epitome of his artistic        
progression up to date1 they also       
display some new and significant        
qualities4 ,of the three the first named
 is most replete with suggestive        
symbolism and at the same time most     
remindful of the older plays1 especially
 of ,pllas and ,mlisande4 ,king         
,ablamore is in character and demeanor  
clearly a counterpart of ,king ,arkel4  
,to be sure he makes a temporary stand  
against the might of ,fate1 but his     
resistance is meek and futile1 and his  
wisdom culminates in the same old       
fatalistic formula3 ,je sais qu'on ne   
fait pas ce que l'on voudrait faire4    
,l',intrieur 7,home7 handles a theme    
almost identical with that of           
,l',intruse3 ,life and ,death separated 
only by a thin pane of glass1--the      
sudden advent of affliction from a      

cloudless sky4 ,in this little tragedy a
 family scene1 enacted in dumb show1 is 
watched from the outside4 ,the play is  
without suspense in the customary use of
 the term1 since after the first        
whispered conversation between the      
bringers of the fateful tidings the     
audience is fully aware of the whole    
story3--the daughter of the house1 for  
whose return the little group is        
waiting1 has been found dead in the     
river4 ,the quiescent mood is sustained 
to the end2 no great outburst of        
lamentation2 the curtain drops the      
instant the news has been conveyed4 ,but
 the poignancy of the tragic strain is  
only enhanced by the repression of an   
exciting climax4  ,the ,death of        
,tintagiles repeats in a still more     
harrowing form the fearful predicament  
of a helpless child treated with so much
 dramatic tension in ,maeterlinck's     
first tragedy4 ,again1 as in ,princess  
,maleine1 the action of this dramolet   
attains its high point in a scene where 

murderous treachery is about to spring  
the trap set for an innocent young      
prince4 ,intuitively he senses the      
approach of death1 and in vain beats his
 little fists against the door that     
imprisons him4 ,the situation is        
rendered more piteous even than in the  
earlier treatment of the motif1 because 
the door which bars his escape also     
prevents his faithful sister ,ygraine   
from coming to the rescue4  ,we have    
observed in all the plays so far a      
marked simplicity of construction4      
,aglavaine et ,selysette1 7#ahif71      
denotes a still further simplification4 
,here the scenic apparatus is reduced to
 the very minimum1 and the psychological
 premises are correspondingly plain4    
,the story presents a triangular love   
entanglement strangely free from the    
sensual ingredient2 two women dream of  
sharing1 in all purity1 one lover--and  
the dream ends for one of them in heroic
 self-sacrifice brought to secure the   
happiness of the rival4 ,however1 more  

noteworthy than the structure of the    
plot is the fact that the philosophic   
current flowing through it has          
perceptibly altered its habitual        
direction4 ,the spiritual tendency is   
felt to be turning in its course1 and   
even though fatalism still holds the    
rule1 with slowly relaxing grip1 yet a  
changed ethical outlook is manifest4    
,also1 this play for the first time     
proclaims1 though in no vociferous      
manner1 the duty of the individual      
toward himself1 the duty so emphatically
 proclaimed by two of ,maeterlinck's    
greatest teachers1 ,ralph ,waldo        
,emerson and ,henrik ,ibsen4            
99       99       99       99       99  
,the inner philosophic conflict was but 
of short duration4 ,in #ahih ,la        
,sagesse et ,la ,destine 7,wisdom and   
,destiny7 saw the light4 ,the metaphor  
might be taken in a meaning higher and  
more precise than the customary1 for1   
coming to this book from those that     
preceded is indeed like emerging from   

some dark and dismal cave into the warm 
and cheering light of the sun4 ,wisdom  
and ,destiny is a collection of essays  
and aphorisms which stands to this      
second phase of ,maeterlinck's          
dramaturgy in a relation closely        
analogous to that existing between ,the 
,treasure of the ,humble and the works  
heretofore surveyed4 ,without amounting 
to a wholesale recantation of the idea  
that is central in the earlier set of   
essays1 the message of the newer set is 
of a very different kind4 ,the author of
 ,wisdom and ,destiny has not changed   
his view touching the superiority of the
 intuitional function over the          
intellectual4 ,the significant          
difference between the old belief and   
the new consists simply in this3 the    
latent force of life is no longer       
imagined as an antagonistic agency2     
rather it is conceived as a benign      
energy that makes for a serene          
acceptance of the world that is4 ,of    
this turn in the outlook1 the           

philosophic affirmation of life and the 
consent of the will to subserve the     
business of living are the salutary     
concomitants4 ,wisdom1 in expanding1 has
 burst the prison of fatalism and given 
freedom to vision4 ,the world1 beheld in
 the light of this emancipation1 is not 
to be shunned by the wise man4 ,let     
,fortune bring what she will1 he can    
strip his afflictions of their terrors  
by transmuting them into higher         
knowledge4 ,therefore1 pain and         
suffering need not be feared and        
shirked2 they may even be hailed with   
satisfaction1 for1 as is paradoxically  
suggested in ,aglavaine et ,selysette1  
they help man tre heureux en devenant   
plus triste1--to be happy in becoming   
sadder4 ,the poet1 who till now had     
clung to the conviction that there can  
be no happy fate1 that all our destinies
 are guided by unlucky stars1 now on the
 contrary persuades us to consider how  
even calamity may be refined in the     
medium of wisdom in such fashion as to  

become an asset of life1 and warns us   
against recoiling in spirit from any    
reverse of our fortunes4 ,he holds that 
blows and sorrows cannot undo the sage4 
,fate has no weapons save those we      
supply1 and wise is he for whom even the
 evil must feed the pyre of love4 ,in   
fine1 ,fate obeys him who dares to      
command it4 ,after all1 then1 man has a 
right to appoint himself the captain of 
his soul1 the master of his fate4  ,yet1
 for all that1 the author of ,wisdom and
 ,destiny should not be regarded as the 
partizan and apologist of sadness for   
the sake of wisdom4 ,if sorrow be a rich
 mine of satisfaction1 joy is by far the
 richer mine4 ,this new outlook becomes 
more and more optimistic because of the 
increasing faculty of such a philosophy 
to extract from the mixed offerings of  
life a more near-at-hand happiness than 
sufferings can possibly afford2 not     
perchance that perpetual grinning       
merriment over the comicality of the    
passing spectacle which with so many    

passes for a sense of humor1 but rather 
a calm and serious realization of what  
is lastingly beautiful1 good1 and true4 
,a person's attainment of this beatitude
 imposes on him the clear duty of       
helping others to rise to a similar     
exalted level of existence4 ,and this   
duty ,maeterlinck seeks to discharge by 
proclaiming in jubilant accents the     
concrete reality of happiness4          
,l',oiseau ,bleu 7,the ,blue ,bird71    
above all other works1 illustrates the  
fact that human lives suffer not so much
 for the lack of happiness as for the   
want of being clearly conscious of the  
happiness they possess4 ,it is seen that
 the seed of optimism in ,the ,treasure 
of the ,humble has sprouted and spread  
out1 and at last triumphantly shot forth
 through the overlaying fatalism4 ,the  
newly converted1 hence all the more     
thoroughgoing1 optimist1 believing that 
counsel and consolation can come only   
from those who trust in the regenerative
 power of hope1 throws himself into a   

mental attitude akin to that of the     
,christian ,scientist1 and confidently  
proceeds to cure the ills of human kind 
by a categorical denial of their        
existence4 ,or perhaps it would be more 
just to say of ,maeterlinck's latter-day
 outlook1 the serenity of which even the
 frightful experience of the present    
time has failed to destroy1 that instead
 of peremptorily negating evil1 he      
merely denies its supremacy4 ,all about 
him he perceives in the midst of the    
worst wrongs and evils many fertile     
germs of righteousness2 vice itself     
seems to distil its own antitoxin4      
,together with ,maeterlinck's optimistic
 strain1 his individualism gains an     
unexpected emphasis4 ,before one exists 
for others1 one must exist for one's    
self4 ,the egoism of a strong and       
clear-sighted soul is of a more         
beneficent effect than all the devotion 
of a blind and feeble soul4 ,here we    
have a promulgation identical in gist   
with ,emerson's unqualified declaration 

of moral independence when he says3     
,whoso would be a man must be a         
nonconformist4 ,he who would gather     
immortal palms must not be hindered by  
the name of goodness1 but must explore  
if it be goodness4 ,nothing is at last  
sacred but the integrity of your own    
mind4 ,no law can be sacred to me but   
that of my nature47#h7    7#h7          
,self-,reliance4  ,his attitude of      
countenancing the positive joys of      
living causes ,maeterlinck in his later 
career to reverse his former judgment1  
and to inveigh1 much in the manner of   
,nietzsche1 against the parasitical     
virtues4 ,certain notions about         
resignation and self-sacrifice sap the  
finest moral forces of mankind more     
thoroughly than do great vices and even 
crimes4 ,the alleged triumphs over the  
flesh are in most cases only complete   
defeats of life4 ,when to such          
rebellious sentiments is joined an      
explicit warning against the seductions 
and intimidations held out by the       

official religions--their sugar plums   
and dog whips1 as ,maeterlinck puts     
it--one can only wonder how his writings
 escaped as long as they did the        
attention of the authorities that swing 
the power of imprimatur and anathema4   
,maeterlinck may not be classed         
unreservedly as a radical individualist4
 ,for whereas a philosophy like that of 
,nietzsche takes no account of the      
much-too-many1 who according to that    
great fantasist do not interest anybody 
except the statistician and the devil1  
,maeterlinck realizes the supreme       
importance of the great mass as the     
ordained transmitters of civilization4  
,the gulf between aristocratic          
subjectivism1 devoted single-mindedly to
 the ruthless enforcement of            
self-interest1 and1 on the other hand1 a
 self-forgetful social enthusiasm1 is   
bridged in ,maeterlinck by an extremely 
strong instinct for justice and1        
moreover1 by his firm belief--at least  
for the time being--that the same strong

 instinct exists universally as a       
specific trait of human nature4 ,by such
 a philosophy ,justice1 then1 is        
discerned not as a supra-natural        
function1 but as a function of human    
nature as distinguished from nature at  
large4 ,the restriction is made         
necessary by our knowledge of the       
observable operations of nature4 ,in    
particular would the principle of       
heredity seem to argue against the reign
 of justice in the administration of    
human destinies1 inasmuch as we find    
ourselves quite unable to recognize in  
the apportionment of pleasure and pain  
anything like a due ratio of merit4 ,and
 yet ,maeterlinck realizes that perhaps 
nature measures life with a larger      
standard than the individual's short    
span of existence1 and warns us in his  
essay on ,justice not to indulge our    
self-conceit in a specious emulation of 
ways that are utterly beyond our        
comprehension4 ,after all1 then1 our    
poet-philosopher succeeds foro          

conscienti in reconciling his cult of   
self with devotion to the common        
interest4 ,morality1 in that essay1 is  
defined as the co-ordination of personal
 desire to the task assigned by nature  
to the race4 ,and is it not true that a 
contrary1 that is1 ascetic concept of   
morality reduces itself to absurdity    
through its antagonism to that primal   
human instinct that makes for the       
continuity of life8                     
99       99       99       99       99  
,from the compromise effected between   
two fairly opposite ethical principles1 
there emerges in the works of this      
period something akin to a socialistic  
tendency4 ,it is organically related to 
the mystical prepossession of the       
author's manner of thinking4            
,maeterlinck gratefully acknowledges    
that by the search-light of science the 
uppermost layers of darkness have been  
dispelled2 but realizes also that the   
deep-seated central enigma still remains
 in darkness3 as much as ever are the   

primordial causes sealed against a      
glimpse of finite knowledge4 ,we have   
changed the names1 not the problems4    
,instead of ,god1 ,providence1 or ,fate1
 we say ,nature1 ,selection1 and        
,heredity4 ,but in reality do we know   
more concerning ,life than did our      
ancestors8  ,what1 then1 questions the  
persevering pursuer of the final        
verities1 shall we do in order that we  
may press nearer to ,truth8 ,may we not 
perchance steep our souls in light that 
flows from another source than science8 
,and what purer light is there to       
illumine us than the halo surrounding a 
contented worker performing his task1   
not under coercion1 but from a          
voluntary1 or it may be instinctive1    
submission to the law of life8 ,if such 
subordination of self constitutes the   
basis of rational living1 we shall do   
well to study its workings on a lowlier 
and less complicated plane than the     
human2 for instance1 in the behavior of 
the creature that is proverbial for its 

unflagging industry4 ,for this industry 
is not motivated by immediate or selfish
 wants2 it springs from instinctive     
self-dedication to the common cause4    
,some people expected from ,la ,vie des 
,abeilles 7,the ,life of the ,bee71     
7#aija71 much brand-new information     
about matters of apiculture4 ,but in    
spite of his twenty-five years'         
experience1 ,maeterlinck had no         
startling discoveries to convey to his  
fellow-hivers4 ,his book on bees is not 
primarily the result of a specialist's  
investigations but a poetical record of 
the observations made by a mind at once 
romantic and philosophical and strongly 
attracted to the study of this          
particular form of community life1      
because by its organization on a        
miniature scale it spreads before the   
student of society a synoptic view of   
human affairs4  ,of the great change    
that had by now taken place in his      
conception of life1 ,maeterlinck was    
fully cognizant1 and made no concealment

 of it4 ,in the essay on ,justice he    
says1 with reference to his earlier     
dramas3 ,the motive of these little     
plays was the fear of the ,unknown by   
which we are constantly surrounded1 and 
passes on to describe his religious     
temper as a sort of compound of the     
,christian idea of ,god with the antique
 idea of ,fate1 immersed in the profound
 gloom of hopeless mystery4 ,the        
,unknown took chiefly the aspect of a   
power1 itself but blindly groping in the
 dark1 yet disposing with inexorable    
unfeelingness of the fates of men4      
,evidently those same plays are passed  
once more in self-critical review in    
,ardiane et ,barbe-,bleue 7,ardiane and 
,blue-,beard71 7#ahii71 notwithstanding 
the fact that the author disclaims any  
philosophic purpose and presents his    
work as a mere libretto4 ,we cannot     
regard it as purely accidental that of  
,blue-,beard's terror-stricken wives1   
four1--,selysette1 ,mlisande1 ,ygraine1 
,alladine1--bear the names of earlier   

heroines1 and1 besides1 that each of    
these retains with the name also the    
character of her namesake4 ,the         
symbolism is too transparent4 ,the      
child-wives of the cruel knight1 forever
 in a state of trembling fear1 are too  
passive to extricate themselves from    
their fate1 whereas ,ardiane succeeds   
instantly in breaking her captivity1    
because she has the spirit and strength 
to shatter the window and let in the    
light and air4 ,the contrast between her
 resolute personality and those five    
inert bundles of misery undoubtedly     
connotes the difference between the     
author's paralyzing fatalism in the past
 and his present dynamic optimism4  ,a  
like contrast between dejection and     
resilience would be brought to light by 
a comparison of the twelve lyric poems1 
,douze ,chansons1 7#ahig71 with the     
,serres ,chaudes4 ,the mood is still    
greatly subdued2 the new poetry is by no
 means free from sadness and a strain of
 resignation4 ,but the half-stifled     

despair that cries out from the older   
book returns no dissonant echo in the   
new4  ,even his dramatic technique comes
 under the sway of ,maeterlinck's       
altered view of the world4 ,the far     
freer use of exciting and eventful      
action testifies to increased elasticity
 and force4 ,this is a marked feature of
 ,soeur ,beatrice 7,sister ,beatrice71  
7#aijj71 a miracle play founded on the  
old story about the recreant nun who1   
broken from sin and misery1 returns to  
the cloister and finds that during the  
many years of her absence her part and  
person have been carried out by the     
,holy ,virgin herself4  ,equally1 the   
three other dramas of this              
epoch--,aglavaine et ,selysette1 ,monna 
,vanna1 and ,joyzelle--are highly       
available for scenic enactment4 ,of the 
three1 ,monna ,vanna1 7#aijb71 in       
particular is conspicuous for a wholly  
unexpected aptitude of characterization1
 and for the unsurpassed intensity of   
its situations1 which in this isolated  

case are not cast in a single mood as in
 the other plays1 but are individually  
distinct and full of dramatic progress1 
whereas everywhere else the action moves
 rather sluggishly4  ,monna ,vanna is   
one of the most brilliantly actable     
plays of modern times1 despite its      
improbability4 ,a certain incongruity   
between the realistic and the romantic  
aspects in the behavior of the          
principals is saved from offensiveness  
by a disposition on the part of the     
spectator to refer it1 unhistorically1  
to the provenience of the story4 ,but as
 a matter of fact the actors are not    
fifteenth century ,renaissance men and  
women at all1 but mystics1 modern       
mystics at that1 both in their reasoning
 and their morality4 ,it is under a     
cryptical soul-compulsion that ,giovanna
 goes forth to the unknown condottiere  
prepared to lay down her honor for the  
salvation of her people1 and that her   
husband at last conquers his repugnance 
to her going4 ,prinzivalle1 ,guido1     

,marco1 are mystics even to a higher    
degree than ,vanna4  ,the poignant      
actualism of ,monna ,vanna lies1        
however1 in the author's frank sympathy 
with a distinctively modern zest for    
freedom4 ,the situation between husband 
and wife is reminiscent of ,a ,doll's   
,house in the greedily possessive       
quality of ,guido's affection1 with     
which quality his tyrannous unbelief in 
,prinzivalle's magnanimity fully        
accords4 ,but ,maeterlinck here goes a  
step beyond ,ibsen4 ,in her married life
 with ,guido1 ,vanna was meekly         
contented1 at least as happy as one can 
be when one has renounced the vague and 
extravagant dreams which seem beyond    
human life4 ,when the crisis arrives she
 realizes that it is never too late for 
one who has found a love that can fill a
 life4 ,her final rebellion is          
sanctioned by the author1 who           
unmistakably endorses the venerable     
,marco's profession of faith that life  
is always in the right4  ,joyzelle1     

7#aijc71 inferior to ,monna ,vanna      
dramaturgically1 and in form the most   
distinctly fantastic of all             
,maeterlinck's productions1 is still    
farther removed from the fatalistic     
atmosphere4 ,this play sounds1 as the   
author himself has stated1 the triumph  
of will and love over destiny or        
fatality1 as against the converse lesson
 of ,monna ,vanna4 ,the idea is         
symbolically expressed in the           
temptations of ,lanceor and in the      
liberation of ,joyzelle and her lover   
from the power of ,merlin and his       
familiar1 ,arielle1 who impersonates the
 secret forces of the heart4  ,aglavaine
 et ,selysette1 ,monna ,vanna1 and      
,joyzelle mark by still another sign the
 advent of a new phase in ,maeterlinck's
 evolution2 namely1 by the              
characterization of the heroines4       
,previously1 the women in his plays were
 hardly individualized and none of them 
can be said to possess a physiognomy    
strictly her own4 ,maeterlinck had      

returned with great partiality again and
 again to the same type of woman3       
languid and listless1 without stamina   
and strength1 yet at the same time full 
of deep feeling1 and capable of unending
 devotion--pathetic incorporeal figures 
feeling their way along without the     
light of self-consciousness1 like some  
pre-raphaelite species of somnambulists4
 ,in the new plays1 on the contrary1    
women of a courageous and venturesome   
spirit and with a self-possessive       
assurance are portrayed by preference   
and with unmistakable approval4  ,as the
 technique in the more recent creations 
of ,maeterlinck1 so the diction1 too1   
accommodates itself to altered          
tendencies4 ,whereas formerly the       
colloquy was abrupt and fragmentary1 it 
is now couched in cadenced1 flowing     
language1 which1 nevertheless1 preserves
 the old-time simplicity4 ,the poet     
himself has criticized his former       
dialogue4 ,he said it made those figures
 seem like deaf people walking in their 

sleep1 whom somebody is endeavoring to  
arouse from a heavy dream4              
99       99       99       99       99  
,for the limited purpose of this sketch 
it is not needful to enter into a       
detailed discussion of ,maeterlinck's   
latest productions1 since such lines as 
they add to his philosophical and       
artistic physiognomy have been traced   
beforehand4 ,his literary output for the
 last dozen years or so is embodied in  
six or seven volumes3 about two years to
 a book seems to be his normal ratio of 
achievement1 the same as was so         
regularly observed by ,henrik ,ibsen1   
and one that seems rather suitable for  
an author whose reserve1 dictated by a  
profound artistic and moral conscience1 
like his actual performance1 calls for  
admiration and gratitude4 ,during the   
war he has written1 or at least         
published1 very little4 ,it is fairly   
safe to assume that the emotional       
experience of this harrowing period will
 control his future philosophy as its   

most potent factor2 equally safe is it  
to predict1 on the strength of his      
published utterances1 that his          
comprehensive humanity1 that has been   
put to such a severe test1 will pass    
unscathed through the ordeal4  ,of the  
last group of ,maeterlinck's works only 
two are dramas1 namely1 ,the ,blue      
,bird1 7#aiji71 and ,mary ,magdalene1   
7#aiaj74 ,the baffling symbolism of ,the
 ,blue ,bird has not stood in the way of
 a tremendous international stage       
success2 the fact is due much less to   
the simple line of thought that runs    
through the puzzle than to the exuberant
 fancy that gave rise to it and its     
splendid scenical elaboration4 ,probably
 ,mr4 ,henry ,rose is right1 in his     
helpful analysis of ,the ,blue ,bird1 in
 venturing the assertion that by those  
who are familiar with ,swedenborg's     
teaching ',the ,blue ,bird' must be     
recognized as to a very large extent    
written on lines which are in accordance
 with what is known as the ,science of  

,correspondences--a very important part 
of ,swedenborg's teachings4 ,but the    
understanding of this symbolism in its  
fullness offers very great difficulties4
 ,that a definite and consistent meaning
 underlies all its features will be     
rather felt than comprehended by the    
great majority who surely cannot be     
expected to go to the trouble first of  
familiarizing themselves with           
,maeterlinck's alleged code of symbols  
and then of applying it meticulously to 
the interpretation of his plays4  ,mary 
,magdalene1 judged from the dramatic    
point of view1 is a quite impressive    
tragedy1 yet a full and sufficient      
treatment of the very suggestive        
scriptural legend it is not4 ,the       
converted courtezan is characterized too
 abstractly4 ,instead of presenting     
herself as a woman consumed with blazing
 sensuality but in whom the erotic fire 
is transmuted into religious passion1   
she affects us like an enacted          
commentary upon such a most             

extraordinary experience4  ,finally1    
there are several volumes of essays1 to 
some of which reference has already been
 made47#i7 ,le ,temple ,enseveli 7,the  
,buried ,temple71 7#aijb71 consists of  
six disquisitions1 all dealing with     
metaphysical subjects3 ,justice1 ,the   
,evolution of ,mystery1 ,the ,reign of  
,matter1 ,the ,past1 ,chance1 ,the      
,future4 ,le ,double ,jardin 7,the      
,double ,garden71 7#aijd71 is much more 
miscellaneous in its makeup4 ,these are 
its heterogeneous subjects3 ,the ,death 
of a ,little ,dog1 ,monte ,carlo1 ,a    
,ride in a ,motor ,car1 ,dueling1 ,the  
,angry ,temper of the ,bees1 ,universal 
,suffrage1 ,the ,modern ,drama1 ,the    
,sources of ,spring1 ,death and the     
,crown 7a discussion upon the fatal     
illness of ,edward ,,vii71 a ,view of   
,rome1 ,field ,flowers1 ,chrysanthemums1
 ,old-fashioned ,flowers1 ,sincerity1   
,the ,portrait of ,woman1 and ,olive    
,branches 7a survey of certain now1     
alas1 obsolete ethical movements of that

 day74 ,l',intelligence des ,fleurs 7in 
the translation it is named ,life and   
,flowers1 in an enlarged issue ,the     
,measure of the ,hours1 both #aijg71    
takes up1 besides the theme of the      
general caption1 the manufacture of     
perfumes1 the various instruments for   
measuring time1 the psychology of       
accident1 social duty1 war1             
prize-fighting1 and ,king ,lear4 ,in    
#aiab1 three essays on ,emerson1        
,novalis1 and ,ruysbroeck appeared      
collectively1 in ,english1 under the    
title ,on ,emerson and ,other ,essays4  
,these originally prefaced certain works
 of those writers translated by         
,maeterlinck in his earlier years4      
7#i7 ,considerable liberty has been     
taken by ,maeterlinck in the grouping   
and naming of his essay upon their      
republication in the several            
collections4 ,the confusion caused      
thereby is greatly increased by the     
deviation of some of the translated     
editions from the original volumes   as 

to the sequence of articles1 the        
individual and collective titles1   and 
even the contents themselves4           
,maeterlinck's most recent publications 
are ,la ,mort 7published in ,english in 
a considerably extended collection under
 the title ,our ,eternity71 7#aiac71    
,the ,unknown ,guest1 7#aiad71 and ,les 
,dbris de la ,guerre 7,the ,wrack of the
 ,storm71 7#aiaf747aj7 ,the two first   
named1 having for their central subject 
,death and the great concomitant problem
 of the life beyond1 show that the      
author has become greatly interested in 
psychical research2 he even goes so far 
as to affirm his belief in precognition4
 ,in these essays1 ,theosophy and       
,spiritism and kindred occult theories  
are carefully analyzed1 yet ingenious as
 are the author's speculations1 they    
leave anything like a solution of the   
perplexing riddles far afield4 ,on the  
whole he inclines to a telepathic       
explanation of the psychical phenomena1 
yet thinks they may be due to the       

strivings of the cosmic intelligence    
after fresh outlets1 and believes that a
 careful and persistent investigation of
 these phenomena may open up hitherto   
undreamt of realms of reality4 ,in      
general1 we find him on many points less
 assertive than he was in the beginning 
and inclined to a general retrenchment  
of the dogmatic element in his          
philosophic attitude4 ,a significant    
passage in ,the ,buried ,treasure       
teaches us not to deplore the loss of   
fixed beliefs4 ,one should never look   
back with regret to those hours when a  
great belief abandons us4 ,a faith that 
becomes extinct1 a means that fails1 a  
dominant idea that no longer dominates  
us because we think it is our turn to   
dominate it--these things prove that we 
are living1 that we are progressing1    
that we are using up a great many things
 because we are not standing still4 ,of 
the gloomy fatalism of his literary     
beginnings hardly a trace is to be found
 in the ,maeterlinck of to-day4 ,his    

war-book1 ,the ,wrack of the ,storm1    
breathes a calm optimism in the face of 
untold disaster4 ,the will of man is put
 above the power of fate4 ,is it        
possible that fatality--by which ,i mean
 what perhaps for a moment was the      
unacknowledged desire of the            
planet--shall not regain the upper hand8
 ,at the stage which man has reached1 ,i
 hope and believe so4444 ,everything    
seems to tell us that man is approaching
 the day whereon1 seizing the most      
glorious opportunity that has ever      
presented itself since he acquired a    
consciousness1 he will at last learn    
that he is able1 when he pleases1 to    
control his whole fate in this          
world47#aa7 ,his faith in humanity is   
built on the heroic virtues displayed in
 this war4 ,to-day1 not only do we know 
that these virtues exist3 we have taught
 the world that they are always         
triumphant1 that nothing is lost while  
faith is left1 while honor is intact1   
while love continues1 while the soul    

does not surrender4 444 ,death itself is
 now threatened with extinction by our  
heroic race3 ,the more it exercises its 
ravages1 the more it increases the      
intensity of that which it cannot touch2
 the more it pursues its phantom        
victories1 the better does it prove to  
us that man will end by conquering      
death4    7#aj7 ,the ,light ,beyond     
7#aiag7 is not a new work at all1 but   
merely a   combination of parts from    
,our ,eternity and ,the ,wrack of the   
,storm4    7#aa7 ,the ,wrack of the     
,storm1 p4 #add f4  ,in the concluding  
chapter of ,our ,eternity1 the romantic 
modification of ,maeterlinck's mysticism
 is made patent in his confession       
regarding the problem of ,knowledge3 ,i 
have added nothing to what was already  
known4 ,i have simply tried to separate 
what may be true from that which is     
assuredly not true4444 ,perhaps through 
our quest for that undiscoverable ,truth
 we shall have accustomed our eyes to   
pierce the terror of the last hour by   

looking it full in the face4444 ,we need
 have no hope that any one will utter on
 this earth the word that shall put an  
end to our uncertainties4 ,it is very   
probable1 on the contrary1 that no one  
in this world1 nor perhaps in the next1 
will discover the great secret of the   
universe4 ,and 444 it is most fortunate 
that it should be so4 ,we have not only 
to resign ourselves to living in the    
incomprehensible1 but to rejoice that we
 cannot get out of it4 ,if there were no
 more insoluble questions 444 infinity  
would not be infinite2 and then we      
should have forever to curse the fate   
that placed us in a universe            
proportionate to our intelligence4 ,the 
unknown and the unknowable are necessary
 and will perhaps always be necessary to
 our happiness4 ,in any case1 ,i would  
not wish my worst enemy1 were his       
understanding a thousandfold loftier and
 a thousandfold mightier than mine1 to  
be condemned eternally to inhabit a     
world of which he had surprised an      

essential secret44447#ab7    7#ab7      
,quoted from the excellent translation  
by ,a4 ,t4 de ,mattos4  ,so the final   
word of ,maeterlinck's philosophy1 after
 a lifetime of ardent search1 clears up 
none of the tantalizing secrets of our  
existence4 ,and yet somehow it bears a  
message that is full of consolation4    
,the value of human life lies in the    
perpetual movement towards a receding   
goal4 ,whoever can identify himself with
 such a philosophy and accept its great 
practical lesson1 that we shall never   
reach ,knowledge but acquire wisdom in  
the pursuit1 should be able to envisage 
the veiled countenance of ,truth without
 despair1 and even to face with some    
courage the eternal problem of our      
being1 its reason and its destination4  
,,ii  ,,the ,,eccentricity ,,of ,,august
 ,,strindberg   ,one cannot speak of    
,august ,strindberg with much gusto4    
,the most broadminded critic will find  
himself under necessity to disapprove of
 him as a man and to condemn so many    

features of his production that almost  
one might question his fitness as a     
subject of literary discussion4         
,nevertheless1 his importance is beyond 
dispute and quite above the             
consideration of personal like or       
dislike1 whether we view him in his     
creative capacity1--as an intellectual  
and ethical spokesman of his time1--or  
in his human character1--as a typical   
case of certain mental and moral        
maladies which somehow during his time  
were more or less epidemic throughout   
the lettered world4 ,we have it on      
excellent authority that at his dbut in 
the literary theatre he made the stage  
quake with the elemental power of his   
personality4 ,gigantic rebels like      
,ibsen1 ,bjoernson1 ,nietzsche1 and     
,tolstoy1 we are told1 dwindled to      
normal proportions beside his titanic   
stature4 ,he aimed to conquer and       
convert the whole world by his fanatical
 protest against the rotten civilization
 of his time4 ,the attempt proved an    

utter failure4 ,he never could grow into
 a world-figure1 because he lacked the  
courage as well as the cosmopolitan     
adaptability needed for intellectual    
expatriation4 ,hence1 in great contrast 
to ,ibsen1 he remained to ,europe at    
large the uncouth ,scandinavian1 while  
in the eyes of ,scandinavia he was      
specifically the ,swede2 and his        
country-men1 even though they           
acknowledged him their premier poet1    
treated him1 because of his             
eccentricity1 as a national gazing-stock
 rather than as a genuine national      
asset4 ,yet for all that1 he ranks as   
the foremost writer of his country and  
one of the representative men of the    
age4 ,his poetic genius is admitted by  
practically all the critics1 while the  
greatest among them1 ,george ,brandes1  
pronounces him in addition an           
unsurpassed master in the command of his
 mother tongue4 ,but his position as a  
writer is by no means limited to his own
 little country4 ,for his works have    

been translated into all civilized      
languages1 and if the circulation of    
literary products is a safe indication  
of their influence1 then several of     
,strindberg's books at least must be    
credited with having done something     
toward shaping the thought of our time  
upon some of its leading issues4 ,in any
 case1 the large and durable interest   
shown his productions marks ,strindberg 
as a literary phenomenon of sufficient  
consequence to deserve some study4      
,readers of ,strindberg who seek to     
discover the reason why criticism should
 have devoted so much attention to an   
author regarded almost universally with 
strong disapproval and aversion1 will   
find that reason most probably in the   
extreme subjectiveness that dominates   
everything he has written2 personal     
confession1 novels1 stories1 and plays  
alike share this equality1 and even in  
his historical dramas the figures1      
despite the minute accuracy of their    
delineation1 are moved by the author's  

passion1 not their own4 ,rarely1 if     
ever1 has a writer of eminence          
demonstrated a similar incapacity to    
reproduce the thoughts and feelings of  
other people4 ,it has been rightly      
declared that all his leading characters
 are merely the outward projections of  
his own sentiments and ideas1--that at  
bottom he1 ,august ,strindberg1 is the  
sole protagonist in all his dramaturgy  
and fiction4  ,strindberg was a man with
 an omnivorous intellectual curiosity1  
and he commanded a vast store of        
knowledge in the fields of history1     
science1 and languages4 ,his ,history of
 the ,swedish ,people is recognized by  
competent judges as a very brilliant and
 scholarly performance4 ,before he was  
launched in his literary career1 and    
while still obscurely employed as minor 
assistant at a library1 he earned       
distinction as a student of the ,chinese
 language1 and one product of his       
research work in that field was even    
deemed worthy of being read before the  

,acadmie des ,inscriptions et ,belles   
,lettres4 ,in ,geology1 ,chemistry1     
,botany1 he was equally productive4 ,but
 the taint of eccentricity in his mental
 fibre prevented his imposing scientific
 accomplishments from maintaining him in
 a state of intellectual equilibrium4   
,he laid as much store by things of     
which he had a mere smattering as by    
those on which he was an authority1 and 
his resultant unsteadiness caused him to
 oscillate between opposite scientific  
enthusiasms even as his                 
self-contradictory personal character   
involved him in abrupt changes of       
position1 and made him jump from one    
extreme of behavior to the other4       
99       99       99       99       99  
,strindberg first attracted public      
notice by the appearance in #ahgi of a  
novel named ,the ,red ,room4 ,its effect
 upon a country characterized by so keen
 an observer as ,george ,brandes as     
perhaps the most conservative in ,europe
 resembled the excitement caused by     

,schiller's ,the ,robbers almost        
precisely one hundred years before4 ,it 
stirred up enough dust to change1 though
 not to cleanse1 the musty atmosphere of
 ,philistia4 ,for here was instantly    
recognized the challenge of a radical   
spirit uprisen in full and ruthless     
rebellion against each and every        
time-hallowed usage and tradition4 ,the 
recollection of that hot-spur agitator  
bent with every particle of his strength
 to rouse the world up from its lethargy
 by his stentorian ,j'accuse and to pass
 sentence upon it by sheer tremendous   
vociferation1 is almost entirely        
obliterated to-day by the remembrance of
 quite another ,strindberg3--the        
erstwhile stormy idealist changed into a
 leering cynic2 a repulsive embodiment  
of negation1 a grimacing ,mephistopheles
 who denies life and light or anything  
that he cannot comprehend1 and to whom  
the face of the earth appears forever   
covered with darkness and filth and     
death and corruption4 ,indeed this final

 depictment of ,august ,strindberg1     
whether or no it be accurately true to  
life1 is a terrible example of what life
 can make of a man1 or a man of his     
life1 if he is neither light enough to  
be borne by the current of his time1 nor
 strong enough to set his face against  
the tide and breast it4  ,the question  
is1 naturally1 was ,strindberg sincere  
in the fanatical insurgency of his      
earlier period1 or was his attitude     
merely a theatrical pose and his social 
enthusiasm a ranting declamation8 ,in   
either case1 there opens up this other  
question3 ,have we reason to doubt the  
sincerity of the mental changes that    
were yet to follow1--the genuineness of 
his pessimism1 occultism1 and1 in the   
final stage1 of his religious           
conversion8 ,his unexampled hardihood in
 reversing his opinions and going dead  
against his convictions could be        
illustrated in nearly every sphere of   
thought4 ,at one time a glowing admirer 
of ,rousseau and loudly professing his  

gospel of nature1 he forsook this       
allegiance1 and chose as his new idol   
,rousseau's very antipode1 ,voltaire4   
,for many years he was a democrat of the
 purest water1 identified himself with  
the proletarian cause1 and acted as the 
fiery champion of the poor labor-driven 
masses against their oppressors2 but one
 fine day1 no matter whether it came    
about directly through his contact with 
,nietzsche or otherwise1 he repudiated  
socialism1 scornfully denouncing it as a
 tattered remnant of his cast-off       
,christianity1 and arrayed himself on   
the side of the elect1 or self-elect1   
against the common herd1 the            
much-too-many4 ,license for the best to 
govern the rest1 became temporarily his 
battle-cry2 and his political ideal     
suggested nothing less completely absurd
 than a republic presided over by an    
oligarchy of autocrats4 ,his unsurpassed
 reputation as an anti-feminist would   
hardly prepare us to find his earlier   
works fairly aglow with sympathy for the

 woman cause4 ,he held at one time1 as  
did ,tolstoy1 that art and poetry have a
 detrimental effect upon the natural    
character2 for which reason the peasant 
is a more normal being than the lettered
 man4 ,especially was he set against the
 drama1 on the ground that it throws the
 public mind into confusion by its      
failure to differentiate sharply between
 the author's own opinions and those of 
the characters4 ,literature1 he held1   
should pattern itself after a serious   
newspaper3 it should seek to influence1 
not entertain4 ,not only did he drop    
this pedantic restriction of literature 
in the end1 but in his own practice he  
had always defied it1 because1 despite  
his fierce campaign against art1 he     
could not overcome the force of his     
artistic impulses4 ,and so in other     
provinces of thought1 too1 he reversed  
his judgment with a temerity and        
swiftness that greatly offended the     
feelings and perplexed the intelligence 
of his followers for the time being and 

justified the question whether          
,strindberg had any principles at all4  
,in politics he was by quick turns      
,anarchist and ,socialist1 ,radical and 
,conservative1 ,republican and          
,aristocrat1 ,communist and ,egoist2 in 
religion1 ,pietist1 ,protestant1 ,deist1
 ,atheist1 ,occultist1 and ,roman       
,catholic4 ,and yet unquestionably he   
was honest4 ,to blame him merely because
 he changed his views1 and be it never  
so radically1 would be blaming a man for
 exercising his right to develop4 ,in   
any man of influence1 an unalterable    
permanency of opinion would be even more
 objectionable than a frequent shift of 
his point of view4 ,in recent times the 
presumable length of a person's         
intellectual usefulness has been a live 
subject of discussion which has resulted
 in some legislation of very            
questionable wisdom1 for instance the   
setting of an arbitrary age limit for   
the active service of high-grade        
teachers4 ,in actual experience men are 

too old to teach1 or through any other  
function to move the minds of younger   
people in a forward direction1 whenever 
they have lost the ability to change    
their own mind4 ,yet at all events1 an  
eminent author's right of self-reversal 
must not be exercised at random2 he     
should refrain from the propagation of  
new opinions that have not ripened      
within himself4 ,which is the same as   
saying that he should stick to his old  
opinions until he finds himself inwardly
 compelled to abandon them4 ,but as a   
matter of fact1 a man like ,strindberg1 
propelled by an unbridled imagination1  
alert with romantic tendencies1         
nervously overstrung1 kept constantly   
under a strain by his morbidly sensitive
 temperament1--and whose brain is       
consequently a seething chaos of        
conflicting ideas1 is never put to the  
necessity of changing his mind2 his mind
 keeps changing itself4  ,it must be as 
difficult for the literary historian to 
do ,strindberg full justice as it was   

for the great eccentric himself2 when in
 taking stock1 as it were1 of his mental
 equipment1 during one of his protracted
 periods of despondency1 he summed      
himself up in the following picturesque 
simile3 ,a monstrous conglomeration1    
changing its forms according to the     
observer's point of view and possessing 
no more reality than the rainbow that is
 visible to the eyes and yet does not   
exist4 ,his evolution may be tracked1   
however1 in the detailed autobiography  
in which he undertook1 by a rigorous    
application of ,hippolyte ,taine's      
well-known theory and method1 to account
 for his temperamental peculiarities on 
the basis of heredity and the milieu and
 to describe the gradual transformation 
of his character through education and  
the external pressure of contemporary   
intellectual movements4 ,this remarkable
 work is like a picture book of ideals  
undermined1 hollowed1 and shattered2 a  
perverse compound of cynicism and       
passion1 it is unspeakably loathsome to 

the sense of beauty and yet1 in the last
 artistic reckoning1 not without great  
beauty of its own4 ,it divides the story
 of ,strindberg's life into these       
consecutive parts3 ,the ,son of the     
,servant2 ,the ,author2 ,the ,evolution 
of a ,soul2 ,the ,confession of a ,fool2
 ,inferno2 ,legends2 ,the ,rupture2     
,alone4 ,the very titles signalize the  
brutal frankness1 or1 shall we say1     
terrible sincerity of a tale that       
rummages without piety among the most   
sacred privacies1 and drags forth from  
intimate nooks and corners sorrow and   
squalor and shame enough to have wrecked
 a dozen average existences4 ,there is  
no mistaking or evading the challenge   
hurled by this story3 ,see me as ,i am1 
stripped of conventional lies and       
pretensions6 ,look upon my naked soul1  
covered with scars and open sores4      
,behold me in my spasms of love and     
hate1 now in demoniacal transports1 now 
prostrate with anguish6 ,and if you want
 to know how ,i came to be what ,i am1  

consider my ancestry1 my bringing up1 my
 social environment1 and be sure also to
 pocket your own due share of the blame 
for my destruction6--,certainly         
,strindberg's autobiography is not to be
 recommended as a graduation gift for   
convent-bred young ladies1 or as a      
soothing diversion for convalescents1   
but if accepted in a proper sense1 it   
will be found absorbing1 informative1   
and even helpful4  ,strindberg never    
forgave his father for having married   
below his station4 ,he felt that the    
good blood of the                       
,strindbergs1--respectable merchants and
 ministers and country gentlemen1--was  
worsened by the proletarian strain      
imported into it through a working girl 
named ,eleonore ,ulrike ,norling1 the   
mother of ,august ,strindberg and his   
eleven brothers and sisters4 ,during    
,august's childhood the family lived in 
extremely straitened circumstances4     
,when a dozen people live cooped up in  
three rooms1 some of them are more than 

likely to have the joy of youth crushed 
out of them and crowded from the        
premises4 ,here was the first evil that 
darkened ,strindberg's life3 he simply  
was cheated out of his childhood4       
,school was no happier place for him    
than home4 ,his inordinate pride1 only  
sharpened by the consciousness of his   
parents' poverty which bordered on      
pauperism1 threw him into a state of    
perpetual rebellion against comrades and
 teachers4 ,and all this time his inner 
life was tossed hither and thither by a 
general intellectual and emotional      
restlessness due to an insatiable       
craving for knowledge4 ,at fifteen years
 of age he had reached a full conviction
 on the irredeemable evilness of life2  
and concluded1 in a moment of religious 
exaltation1 to dedicate his own earthly 
existence to the vicarious expiation of 
universal sin through the mortification 
of the flesh4 ,then1 of a sudden1 he    
became a voracious reader of            
rationalistic literature1 and turned    

atheist with almost inconceivable       
dispatch1 but soon was forced back by   
remorse into the pietistic frame of     
mind1--only to pass through another     
reaction immediately after4 ,at this    
time he claims that earthly life is a   
punishment or a probation2 but that it  
lies in man's power to make it endurable
 by freeing himself from the social     
restraints4 ,he has become a convert to 
the fantastic doctrine of ,jean ,jacques
 ,rousseau1 that man is good by nature  
but has been depraved by civilization4  
,now in his earliest twenties1 he       
embraces communism with all its         
implications1--free love1 state         
parenthood1 public ownership of         
utilities1 equal division of the fruits 
of labor1 and so forth1--as the sole and
 sure means of salvation for humanity4  
,in the ,swiss ,stories1 subtitled      
,utopias in ,reality17#ac7 ,strindberg  
demonstrated to his own satisfaction the
 smooth and practical workings of that  
doctrine4 ,it was difficult for him to  

understand why the major part of the    
world seemed so hesitant about adopting 
so tempting and equitable a scheme of   
living4 ,yet1 for his own person1 too1  
he soon disavowed socialism1 because    
under a socialistic rgime the individual
 would be liable to have his ideas put  
into uniform1 and the remotest threat of
 interference with his freedom of       
thought was something this fanatical    
apostle of liberty could not brook4     
7#ac7 ,the stories deal among other     
things with the harmonious communal     
life in ,godin's ,phalanstre4           
,strindberg wrote two descriptions of   
it1 one before1 the other after visiting
 the colony4  ,in the preface to the    
,utopias1 he had referred to himself as 
a convinced socialist1 like all sensible
 people2 whereas now he writes3         
,idealism and ,socialism are two        
maladies born of laziness4 ,having thus 
scientifically diagnosed the disease and
 prescribed the one true specific for   
it1 namely--how simple6--the total      

abolition of the industries1 he resumes 
the preaching of ,rousseauism in its    
simon-pure form1 orders every man to be 
his maid-of-all-work and                
jack-of-all-trades1 puts the world on a 
vegetarian diet1 and then wonders why   
the socialists denounce and revile him  
as a turncoat and an apostate4          
99       99       99       99       99  
,the biography throws an especially     
vivid light on ,strindberg's relation to
 one of the most important factors of   
socialism1 to wit1 the question of      
woman's rights4 ,his position on this   
issue is merely a phase of that extreme 
and practically isolated position in    
regard to woman in general that has more
 than any other single element          
determined the feeling of the public    
towards him and by consequence fixed his
 place in contemporary literature4 ,that
 this should be so is hardly unfair1    
because no other element has entered so 
deeply into the structure and fibre of  
his thought and feeling4  ,strindberg1  

as has been stated1 was not from the    
outset1 or perchance constitutionally1  
an anti-feminist4 ,in ,the ,red ,room he
 preaches equality of the sexes even in 
marriage4 ,the thesis of the book is    
that man and woman are not antagonistic 
phenomena of life1 rather they are      
modifications of the same phenomenon1   
made for mutual completion2 hence1 they 
can only fulfill their natural destiny  
through close coperative comradeship4   
,but there were two facts that prevented
 ,strindberg from proceeding farther    
along this line of thought4 ,one was his
 incorrigible propensity to             
contradiction1 the other his excessive  
subjectiveness which kept him busy      
building up theories on the basis of    
personal experience4 ,the prodigious    
feminist movement launched in           
,scandinavia by ,ibsen and ,bjoernson   
was very repugnant to him1 because he   
felt1 not without some just reason1 that
 the movement was for a great many      
people little more than a fad4 ,so long 

as art and literature are influenced by 
fashion1 so long there will be and      
should be revolts against the vogue4    
,moreover1 ,strindberg felt that the    
movement was being carried too far4 ,he 
was prepared to accompany ,ibsen some   
distance on the way of reform1 but      
refused to subscribe to his verdict that
 the whole blame for our crying social  
maladjustments rests with the           
unwillingness of men to allot any rights
 whatsoever to women4  ,strindberg's    
play1 ,sir ,bengt's ,wife1 printed in   
#ahhb1 but of much earlier origin1 is   
interpreted by ,brandes as a symbolical 
portrayal of feminine life in           
,scandinavia during the author's early  
manhood4 ,the leading feminine figure1 a
 creature wholly incapable of           
understanding or appreciating the nobler
 traits in man1 is nevertheless treated 
with sympathy1 on the whole4 ,she is    
represented1--like ,selma ,bratsberg in 
,ibsen's ,the ,league of ,youth1 and    
,nora ,helmer1 in ,a ,doll's ,house1--as

 the typical and normal victim of a     
partial and unfair training4 ,her faults
 of judgment and errors of temper are   
due to the fact so forcefully descanted 
upon by ,selma1 that women are not      
permitted to share the interests and    
anxieties of their husbands4 ,we are    
expressly informed by ,strindberg that  
this drama was intended1 in the first   
place1 as an attack upon the romantic   
proclivities of feminine education2 in  
the second1 as an illustration of the   
power of love to subdue the will2 in the
 third1 as a defense of the thesis that 
woman's love is of a higher quality than
 man's2 and lastly1 as a vindication of 
the right of woman to be her own master4
 ,again1 in ,married he answers the     
query1 ,shall women vote8 distinctly in 
the affirmative1 although here the fixed
 idea about the congenital discordance  
between the sexes1 and the              
identification of love with a struggle  
for supremacy1 has already seized hold  
of him4  ,to repeat1 there was at first 

nothing absolutely preposterous about   
,strindberg's position in regard to the 
woman movement4 ,on the contrary1 his   
view might have been endorsed as a not  
altogether unwholesome corrective for   
the ruling fashion of dealing with the  
issue by the advocacy of extremes4 ,but 
by force of his supervening personal    
grievance against the sex1 ,strindberg's
 anti-feminism became in the long run   
the fixed pole about which gravitated   
his entire system of social and ethical 
thought4 ,his campaign against feminism1
 which otherwise could have served a    
good purpose by curbing wild militancy1 
was defeated by its own exaggerations4  
,granting that feminists had gone too   
far in the denunciation of male         
brutality and despotism1 ,strindberg    
went still farther in the opposite      
direction1 when he deliberately set out 
to lay bare the character of woman by   
dissecting some of her most diabolical  
incarnations4 ,as has already been said1
 he was utterly incapable of objective  

thinking1 and under the sting of his    
miseries in love and marriage1 dislike  
of woman turned into hatred and hatred  
into frenzy4 ,henceforth1 the entire    
spectacle of life presented itself to   
his distorted vision as a perpetual     
state of war between the sexes3 on the  
one side he saw the male1 strong of mind
 and heart1 but in the generosity of    
strength guileless and over-trustful2 on
 the other side1 the female1 weak of    
body and intellect1 but shrewd enough to
 exploit her frailness by linking       
iniquity to impotence and contriving by 
her treacherous cunning to enslave her  
natural superior3--it is the story of   
,samson and ,delilah made universal in  
its application4 ,love is shown up as   
the trap in which man is caught to be   
shorn of his power4 ,the case against   
woman is classically drawn up in ,the   
,father1 one of the strangest and at the
 same time most powerful tragedies of   
,strindberg4 ,the principals of the plot
 stand for the typical character        

difference between the sexes as         
,strindberg sees it2 the man being      
kind-hearted1 good-natured1 and         
aspiring1 whereas the woman1 setting an 
example for all his succeeding portraits
 of women1 is cunning1 though           
unintelligent and coarse-grained1       
soulless1 yet insanely ambitious and    
covetous of power4 ,in glaring contrast 
to the situation made so familiar by    
,ibsen1 we here see the man struggling  
away from the clutches of a woman who   
declares frankly that she has never     
looked at a man without feeling         
conscious of her superiority over him4  
,in this play the man1 a person of      
ideals and real ability1 who is none    
other than ,strindberg himself in one of
 his matrimonial predicaments1 fails to 
extricate himself from the snare1 and   
ends--both literally and                
figuratively--by being put into the     
straitjacket4  ,without classing        
,strindberg as one of the great world   
dramatists1 it would be narrow-minded1  

after experiencing the gripping effect  
of some of his plays1 to deny them due  
recognition1 for indeed they would be   
remarkable for their perspicacity and   
penetration1 even if they were devoid of
 any value besides4 ,they contain the   
keenest analyses ever made of the       
vicious side of feminine character1     
obtained by specializing1 as it were1 on
 the more particularly feminine traits  
of human depravity4 ,assuredly the      
procedure is onesided1 but the          
delineation of a single side of life is 
beyond peradventure a legitimate        
artistic enterprise as long as it is not
 palmed upon us as an accurate and      
complete picture4 ,unfortunately1       
,strindberg's abnormal vision falsifies 
the things he looks at1 and1 being      
steeped in his insuperable prejudice1   
his pictures of life1 in spite of the   
partial veracity they possess1 never    
rise above the level of caricatures4    
,he was incompetent to pass judgment    
upon an individual woman separately2 to 

him all women were alike1 and that      
means1 all unmitigatedly bad6 ,to the   
objection raised by one of the          
characters in ,the ,father3 ,oh1 there  
are so many kinds of women1 the author's
 mouthpiece makes this clinching answer3
 ,modern investigation has pronounced   
that there is only one kind4  ,the      
autobiography of ,strindberg is largely 
inspired by his unreasoning hatred of   
women2 the result1 in the main1 of his  
three unfortunate ventures into the     
uncongenial field of matrimony4 ,in its 
first part1 the account of his life is  
not without some traces of healthy      
humor1 but as the story progresses1 his 
entire philosophy of life becomes more  
and more aberrant under the increasing  
pressure of that obsession4 ,he gets    
beside himself at the mere mention of   
anything feminine1 and blindly hits     
away1 let his bludgeon land where it    
will2 logic1 common sense1 and common   
decency go to the floor before his      
vehement and brutal assault4 ,every     

woman is a born liar and traitor4 ,her  
sole aim in life is to thrive           
parasitically upon the revenue of her   
favors4 ,since marriage and prostitution
 cannot provide a living for all1 the   
oversupply now clamor for admission to  
the work-mart2 but they are incompetent 
and lazy1 and inveterate shirkers of    
responsibility4 ,with triumphant malice 
he points to the perfidious readiness of
 woman to perform her tasks by proxy1   
that is1 to delegate them to hired      
substitutes3 her children are tended and
 taught by governesses and teachers2 her
 garments are made by dressmakers and   
seamstresses2 the duties of her         
household she unloads on servants1--and 
from selfish considerations of vanity1  
comfort1 and love of pleasure1 she      
withdraws even from the primary maternal
 obligation and lets her young be       
nourished at the breast of a stranger4  
,strindberg in his rage never stops to  
think that the deputies in these        
cases1--cooks and housemaids and nurses 

and so forth1--themselves belong to the 
female sex1 by which fact the           
impeachment is in large part            
invalidated4  ,the play bearing the     
satirical title ,comrades makes a       
special application of the theory about 
the pre-established antagonism of the   
sexes4 ,in a situation similar to that  
in ,the ,father1 husband and wife are   
shown in a yet sharper antithesis of    
character3 a man of sterling character  
and ability foiled by a woman in all    
respects his inferior1 yet imperiously  
determined to dominate him4 ,at first   
she seems to succeed in her ambition1   
and in the same measure as she assumes a
 more and more mannish demeanor1 the    
husband's behavior grows more and more  
effeminate4 ,but the contest leads to   
results opposite to those in ,the       
,father4 ,here1 the man1 once he is     
brought to a full realization of his    
plight1 arouses himself from his apathy1
 reasserts his manhood1 and1 in the     
ensuing fight for supremacy1 routs the  

usurper and comes into his own4 ,the    
steps by which he passes through revolt 
from subjection to self-liberation1 are 
cleverly signaled by his outward        
transformation1 as he abandons the      
womanish style of dressing imposed on   
him by his wife's whim and indignantly  
flings into a corner the feminine       
costume which she would make him wear at
 the ball4                     99       
99       99       99       99  ,leaving 
aside1 then1 all question as to their   
artistic value1 ,strindberg's dramas are
 deserving of attention as experiments  
in a fairly unexplored field of analytic
 psychology4 ,they are the first        
literary creations of any great         
importance begotten by such bitter      
hatred of woman4 ,the anti-feminism of  
,strindberg's predecessors1 not         
excepting that arch-misogynist1 ,arthur 
,schopenhauer himself1 sprang from      
contempt1 not from abhorrence and abject
 fear4 ,in ,strindberg1 misogyny turns  
into downright gynophobia4 ,to him1     

woman is not an object of disdain1 but  
the cruel and merciless persecutor of   
man4 ,in order to disclose the most     
dangerous traits of the feminine soul1  
,strindberg dissects it by a method that
 corresponds closely to ,ibsen's        
astonishing demonstration of masculine  
viciousness4 ,the wide-spread dislike   
for ,strindberg's dramas is due1 in     
equal parts1 to the detestableness of   
his male characters1 and to the         
optimistic disbelief of the general     
public in the reality of womanhood as he
 represents it4 ,strindberg's           
portraiture of the sex appears as a     
monstrous slander1 principally because  
no other painter has ever placed the    
model into the same disadvantageous     
light1 and the authenticity of his      
pictures is rendered suspicious by their
 abnormal family resemblance4 ,he was   
obsessed with the petrifying vision of a
 uniform cruel selfishness staring out  
of every woman's face3 countess1        
courtezan1 or kitchen maid1 all are cast

 in the same gorgon mold4  ,strindberg's
 aversion towards women was probably    
kindled into action1 as has already been
 intimated1 by his disgust at the sudden
 irruption of woman worship into        
literature2 but1 as has also been made  
clear1 only the disillusionments and    
grievances of his private experience    
hardened that aversion into implacable  
hatred4 ,at first he simply declined to 
ally himself with the feminist cult1    
because the women he knew seemed        
unworthy of being worshipped1--little   
vain dolls1 frivolous coquettes1 and    
pedants given to domestic tyranny1 of   
such the bulk was made up4 ,under the   
maddening spur of his personal          
misfortunes1 his feeling passed from    
weariness to detestation1 from          
detestation to a bitter mixture of fear 
and furious hate4 ,he conceived it as   
his supreme mission and central purpose 
in life to unmask the demon with the    
angel's face1 to tear the drapings from 
the idol and expose to view the hideous 

ogress that feeds on the souls of men4  
,woman1 in ,strindberg's works1 is a    
bogy1 constructed out of the vilest     
ingredients that enter into the         
composition of human nature1 with a kind
 of convulsive life infused by a remnant
 of great artistic power4 ,and this     
grewsome fabric of a diseased           
imagination1 like ,frankenstein's       
monster1 wreaks vengeance on its maker4 
,his own mordant desire for her is the  
lash that drives him irresistibly to his
 destruction4  ,it requires no profound 
psychologic insight to divine in this   
odious chimera the deplorable abortion  
of a fine ideal4 ,the distortion of     
truth emanates in ,strindberg's work1 as
 it does in any significant satire or   
caricature1 from indignation over the   
contrast between a lofty conception and 
a disappointing reality4 ,what1 after   
all1 can be the mission of this         
hard-featured gallery of                
females1--peevish1 sullen1 impudent1    
grasping1 violent1 lecherous1 malignant1

 and vindictive1--if it is not to mark  
pravity and debasement with a stigma in 
the name of a pure and noble womanhood8 
99       99       99       99       99  
,it should not be left unmentioned that 
we owe to ,august ,strindberg some works
 of great perfection fairly free from   
the black obsession and with a          
constructive and consistently idealistic
 tendency3 splendid descriptions of a   
quaint people and their habitat1 tinged 
with a fine sense of humor1 as in ,the  
,hemsoe-,dwellers2 charming studies of  
landscape and of floral and animal life1
 in the ,portraits of ,flowers and      
,animals2 the colossal work on the      
,swedish ,people1 once before referred  
to1 a history conceived and executed in 
a thoroughly modern scientific spirit2  
two volumes of ,swedish ,fortunes and   
,adventures2 most of his historic dramas
 also are of superior order4 ,but these 
works lie outside the scope of the more 
specific discussion of ,strindberg as a 
mystic and an eccentric to which this   

sketch is devoted4 ,we may conclude by  
briefly considering the final phases of 
,strindberg's checkered intellectual    
career1 and by summing up his general   
significance for the age4  ,it will be  
recalled that during the middle period  
of his life1 7in #ahhh71 ,strindberg    
came into personal touch with           
,nietzsche4 ,the effect of the latter's 
sensational philosophy is clearly       
perceptible in the works of that period1
 notably in ,tschandala and ,by the     
,open ,sea4 ,evidently1 ,nietzsche1 at  
first1 was very congenial to him4 ,for  
both men were extremely aristocratic in 
their instincts4 ,for a while1          
,strindberg endorsed unqualifiedly the  
heterodox ethics of the towering        
paranoiac4 ,for one thing1 that         
philosophy supplied fresh food and fuel 
to his burning rage against womankind1  
and that was enough to bribe him into   
swallowing1 for the time being1 the     
entire substance of ,nietzsche's        
fantastic doctrine4 ,he took the same   

ground as ,nietzsche1 that the race had 
deteriorated in consequence of its      
sentimentality1 namely through the      
systematic protection of physical and   
mental inferiority and unchecked        
procreation of weaklings4 ,he seconded  
,nietzsche's motion that society should 
exterminate its parasites1 instead of   
pampering them4 ,mankind can only be    
reinvigorated if the strong and healthy 
are helped to come into their own4 ,the 
dreams of the pacifists are fatal to the
 pragmatic virtues and to the virility  
of the race4 ,the greatest need is an   
aggressive campaign for the moral and   
intellectual sanitation of the world4   
,so let the brain rule over the         
heart1--and so forth in the same strain4
  ,very soon1 however1 ,strindberg      
passed out of the sphere of ,nietzsche's
 influence4 ,the alienation was due as  
much to his general instability as to   
the disparity between his pessimistic   
temper and the joyous exaltation of     
,zarathustra-ism4 ,his striking         

reversion to orthodoxy was by no means  
illogical4 ,between pessimism and faith 
there exists a relation that is not very
 far to seek4 ,when a person has        
forfeited his peace of soul and cannot  
find grace before his own conscience1 he
 might clutch as a last hope the promise
 of vicarious redemption4 ,extending the
 significance of his own personal       
experience to everything within his     
horizon1 and erecting a dogmatic system 
upon this tenuous generalisation1       
,strindberg reached the conviction that 
the purpose of living is to suffer1 a   
conviction that threw his philosophy    
well into line with the religious and   
ethical ideas of the middle age4 ,yet   
even at this juncture his cynicism did  
not desert him1 as witness this comment 
of his3 ,religion must be a punishment1 
because nobody gets religion who does   
not have a bad conscience4 ,this avowal 
preceded his saltatory approach to      
,roman ,catholicism4  ,in the later     
volumes of his autobiography he minutely

 describes the successive crises through
 which he passed in his agonizing search
 for certitude and salvation before his 
spirit found rest in the idea of        
,destiny which formerly to him was      
synonymous with ,fate and now became    
synonymous with ,providence4 ,inferno   
pictures his existence as a protracted  
and unbroken nightmare4 ,he turned      
determinist1 then fatalist1 then mystic4
 ,the most trifling incidents of his    
daily life were spelt out according to  
,swedenborg's ,science of               
,correspondences and thereby assumed a  
deep and terrifying significance4 ,in   
the most trivial events1 such as the    
opening or shutting of a door1 or the   
curve etched by a raindrop on a dusty   
pane of glass1 he perceived intimations 
from the occult power that directed his 
life4 ,into the most ordinary occurrence
 of the day he read a divine order1 or  
threat1 or chastisement4 ,he was        
tormented by terrible dreams and        
visions2 in the guise of ferocious      

beasts1 his own sins agonized his flesh4
 ,and in the midst of all these tortures
 he studied and practised the occult    
arts3 magic1 astrology1 necromancy1     
alchemy2 he concocted gold by hermetical
 science6 ,to all appearances utterly   
deranged1 he was still lucid enough at  
intervals to carry on chemical1         
botanical1 and physiological experiments
 of legitimate worth4 ,then his reason  
cleared up once again and put a sudden  
end to an episode which he has described
 in these words3 ,to go in quest of ,god
 and to find the devil1--that is what   
happened to me4  ,he took leave of      
,swedenborg as he had taken leave of    
,nietzsche1 yet retained much gratitude 
for him2 the great ,scandinavian seer   
had brought him back to ,god1 so he     
averred1 even though the conversion was 
effected by picturings of horror4       
,legends1 the further continuation of   
his self-history1 shows him vividly at  
his closest contact with the ,catholic  
,church4 ,but the most satisfactory     

portion of the autobiography from a     
human point of view1 and from a literary
 point perhaps altogether the best thing
 ,strindberg has done1 is the closing   
book of the series1 entitled ,alone4 ,he
 wrote it at the age of fifty1 during a 
period of comparative tranquillity of   
mind1 and that fact is manifested by the
 composure and moderation of its style4 
,now at last his storm-tossed soul seems
 to have found a haven4 ,he accepts his 
destiny1 and resigns himself to         
believing1 since knowledge is barred4   
,but even this state of serenity        
harbored no permanent peace2 it         
signified merely a temporary suspension 
of those terrific internal combats4  ,in
 ,strindberg's case1 religious          
conversion is not an edifying1 but on   
the contrary a morbid and saddening     
spectacle2 it is equal to a declaration 
of complete spiritual bankruptcy4 ,he   
turns to the church after finding all   
other pathways to ,god blocked4 ,his    
type of ,christianity does not hang     

together with the labors and struggles  
of his secular life4 ,a break with his  
past can be denied to no man2 least of  
all to a leader of men4 ,only1 if he has
 deserted the old road1 he should be    
able to lead in the new2 he must have a 
new message if he sees fit to cancel the
 old4 ,strindberg1 however1 has nothing 
to offer at the end4 ,he stands before  
us timorous and shrinking1 the accuser  
of his fellows turned self-accuser1 a   
beggar stretching forth empty1 trembling
 hands imploring forgiveness of his sins
 and the salvation of his soul through  
gracious mediation4 ,his moral          
asseverations are either blank truisms1 
or intellectual aberrations4 ,strindberg
 has added nothing to the stock of human
 understanding4 ,a preacher1 of course1 
is not in duty bound to generate        
original thought4 ,indeed if such were  
to be exacted1 our pulpits would soon be
 as sparsely peopled as already are the 
pews4 ,ministers who are wondering hard 
why so many people stay away from church

 might well stop to consider whether the
 reason is not that a large portion of  
mankind has already secured1            
theoretically1 a religious or ethical   
basis of life more or less identical    
with the one which churches content     
themselves with offering4 ,the greatest 
religious teacher of modern times1 ,leo 
,tolstoy1 was not by any means a bringer
 of new truths4 ,the true secret of the 
tremendous power which nevertheless he  
wielded over the souls of men was that  
he extended the practical application of
 what he believed4 ,if1 therefore1 we   
look for a lesson in ,strindberg's life 
as recited by himself1 we shall not find
 it in his religious conversion4        
99       99       99       99       99  
,taken in its entirety1 his voluminous  
yet fragmentary life history is one of  
the most painful human documents on     
record4 ,one can hardly peruse it       
without asking3 ,was ,strindberg insane8
 ,it is a question which he often put to
 himself when remorse and self-reproach 

gnawed at his conscience and when he    
fancied himself scorned and persecuted  
by all his former friends4 ,why are you 
so hated8 he asks himself in one of his 
dialogues1 and this is his answer3 ,i   
could not endure to see mankind suffer1 
and so ,i said and wrote3 ',free        
yourselves1 ,i shall help4' ,and so ,i  
said to the poor3 ',do not let the rich 
suck your blood4' ,and to woman3 ',do   
not let man oppress you4' ,and to the   
children3 ',do not obey your parents if 
they are unjust4' ,the                  
consequences1--well1 they are quite     
incomprehensible2 for of a sudden ,i had
 both sides against me1 rich and poor1  
men and women1 parents and children2 add
 to that sickness and poverty1          
disgraceful pauperism1 my divorce1      
lawsuits1 exile1 loneliness1 and now1 to
 top the climax1--do you believe that ,i
 am insane8 ,from his ultra-subjective  
point of view1 the explanation here     
given of the total collapse of his      
fortunes is fairly accurate1 at least in

 the essential aspects4 ,still1 many    
great men have been pursued by a similar
 conflux of calamities4 ,overwhelming   
misfortunes are the surest test of      
manhood4 ,how high a person bears up his
 head under the blows of fate is the    
best gage of his stature4 ,but          
,strindberg1 in spite of his colossal   
physique1 was not cast in the heroic    
mold4 ,the breakdown of his fortunes    
caused him to turn traitor to himself1  
to recant and destroy his intellectual  
past4  ,whether he was actually insane  
is a question for psychiaters to settle2
 normal he certainly was not4 ,in       
medical opinion his modes of reacting to
 the obstructions and difficulties of   
the daily life were conclusively        
symptomatic of neurasthenia4 ,certain   
obsessive ideas and idiosyncracies of   
his1 closely bordering upon phobia1     
would seem to indicate grave psychic    
disorder4 ,his temper and his world-view
 were indicative of hypochondria3 he    
perceived only the hostile1 never the   

friendly1 aspects of events1 people1 and
 phenomena4 ,dejectedly he declares3    
,there is falseness even in the calm air
 and the sunshine1 and ,i feel that     
happiness has no place in my lot4       
,destiny had assembled within him all   
the doubts and pangs of the modern soul1
 but had neglected to counterpoise them 
with positive and constructive          
convictions2 so that when his small     
store of hopes and prospects was        
exhausted1 he broke down from sheer     
hollowness of heart4 ,he died a recluse1
 a penitent1 and a renegade to all his  
past ideas and persuasions4  ,evidently1
 with his large assortment of defects   
both of character and of intellect1     
,strindberg could not be classed as one 
of the great constructive minds of our  
period4 ,viewed in his social           
importance1 he will interest future     
students of morals chiefly as an        
agitator1 a polemist1 and in a fashion1 
too1 as a prophet2 by his uniquely      
aggressive veracity1 he rendered a      

measure of valuable service to his time4
  ,but viewed as a creative writer1 both
 of drama and fiction1 he has an        
incontestable claim to our lasting      
attention4 ,his work shows artistic     
ability1 even though it rarely attains  
to greatness and is frequently marred by
 the bizarre qualities of his style4    
,presumably his will be a permanent     
place in the history of literature1     
principally because of the extraordinary
 subjective animation of his work4 ,and 
perhaps in times less depressed than    
ours its gloominess may act as a        
valuable antidote upon the popular      
prejudice against being serious4 ,his   
artistic profession of faith certainly  
should save him from wholesale          
condemnation4 ,he says in one of his    
prefaces3 ,some people have accused my  
tragedy of being too sad1 as though one 
desired a merry tragedy4 ,people clamor 
for ,enjoyment as though ,enjoyment     
consisted in being foolish4 ,i find     
enjoyment in the powerful and terrible  

struggles of life2 and the capability of
 experiencing something1 of learning    
something1 gives me pleasure4  ,the     
keynote to his literary productions is  
the cry of the agony of being4 ,every   
line of his works is written in the     
shadow of the sorrow of living4 ,in     
them1 all that is most dismal and       
terrifying and therefore most tragical1 
becomes articulate4 ,they are propelled 
by an abysmal pessimism1 and because of 
this fact1 since pessimism is one of the
 mightiest inspiring forces in          
literature1 ,august ,strindberg1 its    
foremost spokesman1 deserves to be read 
and understood4     ,,iii  ,,the        
,,exaltation ,,of ,,friedrich           
,,nietzsche   ,in these embattled times 
it is perfectly natural to expect from  
any discourse on ,nietzsche's philosophy
 first of all a statement concerning the
 relation of that troublesome genius to 
the origins of the war2 and this demand 
prompts a few candid words on that      
aspect of the subject at the start4     

,for more than three years the public   
has been persistently taught by the     
press to think of ,friedrich ,nietzsche 
mainly as the powerful promoter of a    
systematic national movement of the     
,german people for the conquest of the  
world4 ,but there is strong and definite
 internal evidence in the writings of   
,nietzsche against the assumption that  
he intentionally aroused a spirit of war
 or aimed in any way at the world-wide  
preponderance of ,germany's type of     
civilization4 ,nietzsche had a          
temperamental loathing for everything   
that is brutal1 a loathing which was    
greatly intensified by his personal     
contact with the horrors of war while   
serving as a military nurse in the      
campaign of #ahgj4 ,if there were still 
any one senseless enough to plead the   
erstwhile popular cause of              
,pan-,germanism1 he would be likely to  
find more support for his argument in   
the writings of the de-gallicized       
,frenchman1 ,count ,joseph ,arthur      

,gobineau1 or of the germanized         
,englishman1 ,houston ,stewart          
,chamberlain1 than in those of the      
hermit of ,maria-,sils1 who does not    
even suggest1 let alone advocate1       
,german world-predominance in a single  
line of all his writings4 ,to couple    
,friedrich ,nietzsche with ,heinrich von
 ,treitschke as the latter's fellow     
herald of ,german ascendancy is truly   
preposterous4 ,treitschke himself was   
bitterly and irreconcilably set against 
the creator of ,zarathustra17#ad7 in    
whom ever since ,unzeitgemsse           
,betrachtungen he had divined the good  
,european1--which to the author of the  
,deutsche ,geschichte meant the bad     
,prussian1 and by consequence the bad   
,german4    7#ad7 ,as is convincingly   
pointed out in a footnote of ,j4 ,a4    
,cramb's   ,germany and ,england4  ,as a
 consummate individualist and by the    
same token a cosmopolite to the full1   
,nietzsche was the last remove from     
national1 or strictly speaking even from

 racial1 jingoism4 ,even the imputation 
of ordinary patriotic sentiments would  
have been resented by him as an insult1 
for such sentiments were to him a sure  
symptom of that gregarious disposition  
which was so utterly abhorrent to his   
feelings4 ,in his ,german citizenhood he
 took no pride whatsoever4 ,on every    
occasion that offered he vented in      
mordant terms his contempt for the      
country of his birth1 boastfully        
proclaiming his own derivation from     
alien stock4 ,he bemoaned his fate of   
having to write for ,germans2 averring  
that people who drank beer and smoked   
pipes were hopelessly incapable of      
understanding him4 ,of this extravagance
 in denouncing his countrymen the       
following account by one of his keenest 
,american interpreters gives a fair     
idea4 ,no epithet was too outrageous1 no
 charge was too farfetched1 no          
manipulation or interpretation of       
evidence was too daring to enter into   
his ferocious indictment4 ,he accused   

the ,germans of stupidity1              
superstitiousness1 and silliness2 of a  
chronic weakness of dodging issues1 a   
fatuous 'barn-yard' and 'green-pasture' 
contentment1 of yielding supinely to the
 commands and exactions of a clumsy and 
unintelligent government2 of degrading  
education to the low level of mere      
cramming and examination passing2 of a  
congenital inability to understand and  
absorb the culture of other peoples1 and
 particularly the culture of the        
,french2 of a boorish bumptiousness1 and
 an ignorant1 ostrichlike complacency2  
of a systematic hostility to men of     
genius1 whether in art1 science1 or     
philosophy2 of a slavish devotion to the
 two great ,european narcotics1 alcohol 
and ,christianity2 of a profound        
beeriness1 a spiritual dyspepsia1 a     
puerile mysticism1 an old-womanish      
pettiness1 and an ineradicable liking   
for the obscure1 evolving1 crepuscular1 
damp1 and shrouded47#ae7 ,it certainly  
requires a violent twist of logic to    

hold this catalogue of invectives       
responsible for the transformation of a 
sluggish and indolent bourgeoisie into a
 ,volk in ,waffen unified by an         
indomitable and truculent rapacity4     
7#ae7 ,h4 ,l4 ,mencken1 ,the ,mailed    
,fist and ,its ,prophet4 ,atlantic      
,monthly1 ,november1 #aiad4  ,neither   
should ,nietzsche's general condemnation
 of mild and tender forbearance--on the 
ground that it blocks the purpose of    
nature--be interpreted as a call to     
universal militancy4 ,by his ruling it  
is only supermen that are privileged to 
carry their will through4 ,but          
undeniably he does teach that the world 
belongs to the strong4 ,they may grab it
 at any temporary loss to the common run
 of humanity and1 if need be1 with      
sanguinary force1 since their will is1  
ulteriorly1 identical with the cosmic   
purpose4  ,of course this is preaching  
war of some sort1 but ,nietzsche was not
 in favor of war on ethnic or ethical   
grounds1 like that fanatical militarist1

 ,general von ,bernhardi1 whom the great
 mass of his countrymen in the time     
before the war would have bluntly       
rejected as their spokesman4 ,anyway1   
,nietzsche did not mean to encourage    
,germany to subjugate the rest of the   
world4 ,he even deprecated her victory  
in the bloody contest of #ahgj1 because 
he thought that it had brought on a form
 of material prosperity of which        
internal decay and the collapse of      
intellectual and spiritual ideals were  
the unfortunate concomitants4 ,at the   
same time1 the universal decrepitude    
prevented the despiser of his own people
 from conceiving a decided preference   
for some other country4 ,he held that   
all ,european nations were progressing  
in the wrong direction1--the deadweight 
of exaggerated and misshapen materialism
 dragged them back and down4 ,english   
life he deemed almost irredeemably      
clogged by utilitarianism4 ,even        
,france1 the only modern commonwealth   
credited by ,nietzsche with an          

indigenous culture1 was governed by what
 he stigmatizes as the life philosophy  
of the shopkeeper4 ,nietzsche is        
destitute of national ideals4 ,in fact  
he never thinks in terms of politics4   
,he aims to be a good ,european1 not a  
good ,german4 ,in his aversion to the   
extant order of society he never for a  
moment advocates1 like ,rousseau or     
,tolstoy1 a breach with civilization4   
,cataclysmic changes through anarchy1   
revolution1 and war were repugnant to   
his ideals of culture4 ,for two thousand
 years the races of ,europe had toiled  
to humanize themselves1 school their    
character1 equip their minds1 refine    
their tastes4 ,could any sane reformer  
have calmly contemplated the possible   
engulfment in another ,saturnian age of 
the gains purchased by that enormous    
expenditure of human labor8 ,according  
to ,nietzsche's conviction1 the new     
dispensation could not be entered in a  
book of blank pages4 ,a higher          
civilization could only be reared upon a

 lower4 ,so it seems that he is quite   
wrongly accused of having been an       
accessory before the deed1 in any       
literal or legal sense1 to the          
stupendous international struggle       
witnessed to-day4 ,and we may pass on to
 consider in what other way he was a    
vital factor of modern social           
development4 ,for whatever we may think 
of the political value of his teachings1
 it is impossible to deny their arousing
 and inspiriting effect upon the        
intellectual1 moral1 and artistic       
faculties of his epoch and ours4        
99       99       99       99       99  
,it should be clearly understood that   
the significance of ,nietzsche for our  
age is not to be explained by any       
weighty discovery in the realm of       
knowledge4 ,nietzsche's merit consists  
not in any unriddling of the universe by
 a metaphysical key to its secrets1 but 
rather in the diffusion of a new        
intellectual light elucidating human    
consciousness in regard to the purpose  

and the end of existence4 ,nietzsche has
 no objective truths to teach1 indeed he
 acknowledges no truth other than       
subjective4 ,nor does he put any faith  
in bare logic1 but on the contrary      
pronounces it one of mankind's greatest 
misfortunes4 ,his argumentation is not  
sustained and progressive1 but          
desultory1 impressionistic1 and freely  
repetitional2 slashing aphorism is its  
most effective tool4 ,and so1 in the    
sense of the schools1 he is not a       
philosopher at all2 quite the contrary1 
an implacable enemy of the mtier4 ,and  
yet the formative and directive         
influence of his vaticinations1         
enunciated with tremendous spiritual    
heat and lofty gesture1 has been very   
great4 ,his conception of life has acted
 upon the generation as a moral         
intoxicant of truly incalculable        
strength4  ,withal his published work1  
amounting to eighteen volumes1 though   
flagrantly irrational1 yet does contain 
a perfectly coherent doctrine4 ,only1 it

 is a doctrine to whose core mere       
peripheric groping will never negotiate 
the approach4 ,its essence must be      
caught by flashlike seizure and cannot  
be conveyed except to minds of more than
 the average imaginative sensibility4   
,for its central ideas relate to the    
remotest ultimates1 and its dominant    
prepossession1 the ,overman1 is1 in the 
final reckoning1 the creature of a      
,utopian fancy4 ,to be more precise1    
,nietzsche extorts from the ,darwinian  
theory of selection a set of amazing    
connotations by means of the            
simultaneous shift from the biological  
to the poetic sphere of thought and from
 the averagely socialized to an         
uncompromisingly self-centred attitude  
of mind4 ,this doubly eccentric position
 is rendered feasible for him by a      
whole-souled indifference to exact      
science and an intense contempt for the 
practical adjustments of life4 ,he is1  
first and last1 an imaginative schemer1 
whose visions are engendered by inner   

exuberance2 the propelling power of his 
philosophy being an intense             
temperamental enthusiasm at one and the 
same time lyrically sensitive and       
dramatically impassioned4 ,it is these  
qualities of soul that made his         
utterance ring with the force of a high 
moral challenge4 ,all the same1 he was  
not any more original in his ethics than
 in his theory of knowledge4 ,in this   
field also his receptive mind threw     
itself wide open to the flow of older   
influences which it encountered4 ,the   
religion of personal advantage had had  
many a prophet before ,nietzsche4 ,among
 the older writers1 ,machiavelli was its
 weightiest champion4 ,in ,germany1     
,nietzsche's immediate predecessor was  
,max ,stirner17#af7 and as regards      
foreign thinkers1 ,nietzsche declared as
 late as #ahhh that to no other writer  
of his own century did he feel himself  
so closely allied by the ties of        
congeniality as to ,ralph ,waldo        
,emerson4    7#af7 ,his real name was   

,kaspar ,schmidt2 he lived from         
#ahjf-ahef4  ,the most superficial      
acquaintance with these writers shows   
that ,nietzsche is held responsible for 
certain revolutionary notions of which  
he by no means was the originator4 ,of  
the connection of his doctrine with the 
maxims of ,the ,prince and of ,the ,ego 
and ,his ,own 7,der ,einzige und sein   
,eigentum77#ag7 nothing further need be 
said than that to them ,nietzsche owes1 
directly or indirectly1 the principle of
 non-morality4 ,however1 he does not    
employ the same strictly intellectual   
methods4 ,they were logicians rather    
than moralists1 and their ruler-man is  
in the main a construction of cold      
reasoning1 while the ruler-man of       
,nietzsche is the vision of a genius    
whose eye looks down a much longer      
perspective than is accorded to ordinary
 mortals4 ,that a far greater affinity  
of temper should have existed between   
,nietzsche and ,emerson than between him
 and the two classic non-moralists1 must

 bring surprise to the many who have    
never recognized the ,concord ,sage as  
an exponent of unfettered individualism4
 ,yet in fact ,emerson goes to such an  
extreme of individualism that the only  
thing that has saved his memory from    
anathema is that he has not many readers
 in his after-times1 and these few do   
not always venture to understand him4   
,and ,emerson1 though in a different way
 from ,nietzsche's1 was also a          
rhapsodist4 ,in his poetry1 where he    
articulates his meaning with far greater
 unrestraint than in his prose1 we find 
without any difficulty full             
corroboration of his spiritual kinship  
with ,nietzsche4 ,for instance1 where   
may we turn in the works of the latter  
for a stronger statement of the case of 
,power versus ,pity than is contained in
 ,the ,world ,soul8      ,he serveth the
 servant1      ,the brave he loves      
amain1      ,he kills the cripple and   
the sick1      ,and straight begins     
again2      ,for gods delight in gods1  

,and thrust the weak aside1--      ,to  
him who scorns their charities          
,their arms fly open wide4  ,from such a
 world-view what moral could proceed    
more logically than that of             
,zarathustra3 ,and him whom ye do not   
teach to fly1 teach--how to fall        
quicker8    7#ag7 ,by ,machiavelli and  
,stirner1 respectively4  ,but after all1
 the intellectual origin of ,nietzsche's
 ideas matters but little4 ,wheresoever 
they were derived from1 he made them    
strikingly his own by raising them to   
the splendid elevation of his thought4  
,and if nevertheless he has failed to   
take high rank and standing among the   
sages of the schools1 this shortage in  
his professional prestige is more than  
counterbalanced by the wide reach of his
 influence among the laity4 ,what might 
the re-classification1 or perchance even
 the re-interpretation1 of known facts  
about life have signified beside        
,nietzsche's lofty apprehension of the  
sacredness of life itself8 ,for whatever

 may be the social menace of his        
reasoning1 his commanding proclamation  
to an expectant age of the doctrine that
 ,progress means infinite growth towards
 ideals of perfection has resulted in a 
singular reanimation of the individual  
sense of dignity1 served as a potent    
remedy of social dry-rot1 and furthered 
our gradual emergence from the          
impenetrable darkness of ancestral      
traditions4  ,in seeking an adequate    
explanation of his power over modern    
minds we readily surmise that his       
philosophy draws much of its vitality   
from the system of science that         
underlies it4 ,and yet while it is true 
enough that ,nietzsche's fundamental    
thesis is an offshoot of the ,darwinian 
theory1 the violent individualism which 
is the driving principle of his entire  
philosophy is rather opposed to the     
general orientation of ,darwinism1 since
 that is social4 ,not to the author of  
the ,descent of ,man directly is the    
modern ethical glorification of egoism  

indebted for its measure of scientific  
sanction1 but to one of his heterodox   
disciples1 namely to the bio-philosopher
 ,w4 ,h4 ,rolph1 who in a volume named  
,biologic ,problems1 with the subtitle1 
,an ,essay in ,rational ,ethics17#ah7   
deals definitely with the problem of    
evolution in its dynamical bearings4    
,the question is raised1 ,why do the    
extant types of life ascend toward      
higher goals1 and1 on reaching them1    
progress toward still higher goals1 to  
the end of time8 ,under the reason as   
explained by ,darwin1 should not        
evolution stop at a definite stage1     
namely1 when the object of the          
competitive struggle for existence has  
been fully attained8 ,self-preservation 
naturally ceases to act as an incentive 
to further progress1 so soon as the     
weaker contestants are beaten off the   
field and the survival of the fittest is
 abundantly secured4 ,from there on we  
have to look farther for an adequate    
causation of the ascent of species4     

,unless we assume the existence of an   
absolutistic teleological tendency to   
perfection1 we are logically bound to   
connect upward development with         
favorable external conditions4 ,by      
substituting for the ,darwinian struggle
 for existence a new formula3 struggle  
for surplus1 ,rolph advances a new      
fruitful hypothesis4 ,in all creatures  
the acquisitive cravings exceed the     
limit of actual necessity4 ,under       
,darwin's interpretation of nature1 the 
struggle between individuals of the same
 species would give way to pacific      
equilibrium as soon as the bare         
subsistence were no longer in question4 
,yet we know that the struggle is       
unending4 ,the creature appetites are   
not appeased by a normal sufficiency2 on
 the contrary1 l'appetit vient en       
mangeant2 the possessive instinct1 if   
not quite insatiable1 is at least       
coextensive with its opportunities for  
gratification4 ,whether or not it be    
true--as ,carlyle claims--that1 after   

all1 the fundamental question between   
any two human beings is1 ,can ,i kill   
thee1 or canst thou kill me8--at any    
rate in civilized human society the     
contest is not waged merely for the     
naked existence1 but mainly for life's  
increments in the form of comforts1     
pleasures1 luxuries1 and the            
accumulation of power and influence2 and
 the excess of acquisition over         
immediate need goes as a residuum into  
the structure of civilization4 ,in plain
 words1 then1 social progress is pushed 
on by individual greed and ambition4 ,at
 this point ,rolph rests the case1      
without entering into the moral         
implicates of the subject1 which would  
seem to obtrude themselves upon the     
attention4    7#ah7 ,biologische        
,probleme1 zugleich als ,versuch einer  
rationellen   ,ethik4 ,leipzig1 #ahhb4  
,now to a believer in progressive       
evolution with a strong ethical bent    
such a theory brings home man's ulterior
 responsibility for the betterment of   

life1 and therefore acts as a call to   
his supreme duty of preparing the ground
 for the arrival of a higher order of   
beings4 ,the argument seems simple and  
clinching4 ,living nature through a long
 file of species and genera has at last 
worked up to the homo sapiens who as yet
 does not even approach the perfection  
of his own type4 ,is it a legitimate    
ambition of the race to mark time on the
 stand which it has reached and to      
entrench itself impregnably in its      
present mediocrity8 ,nietzsche did not  
shrink from any of the inferential      
conclusions logically to be drawn from  
the biologic argument4 ,if growth is in 
the purpose of nature1 then once we have
 accepted our chief office in life1 it  
becomes our task to pave the way for a  
higher genus of man4 ,and the only force
 that makes with directness for that    
object is the ,will to ,power4 ,to      
foreshadow the resultant human type1    
,nietzsche resurrected from ,goethe's   
vocabulary the convenient word          

bermensch--,overman4                    
99       99       99       99       99  
,any one regarding existence in the     
light of a stern and perpetual combat is
 of necessity driven at last to the     
alternative between making the best of  
life and making an end of it2 he must   
either seek lasting deliverance from the
 evil of living or endeavor to wrest    
from the world by any means at his      
command the greatest sum of its         
gratifications4 ,it is serviceable to   
describe the two frames of mind         
respectively as the optimistic and the  
pessimistic4 ,but it would perhaps be   
hasty to conclude that the first of     
these attitudes necessarily betokens the
 greater strength of character4         
,friedrich ,nietzsche's philosophy      
sprang from pessimism1 yet issued in an 
optimism of unheard-of exaltation2      
carrying1 however1 to the end its       
plainly visible birthmarks4 ,he started 
out as an enthusiastic disciple of      
,arthur ,schopenhauer2 unquestionably   

the adherence was fixed by his own      
deep-seated contempt for the complacency
 of the plebs4 ,but he was bound soon to
 part company with the grandmaster of   
pessimism1 because he discovered the    
root of the philosophy of renunciation  
in that same detestable debility of the 
will which he deemed responsible for the
 bovine lassitude of the masses2 both   
pessimism and philistinism came from a  
lack of vitality1 and were symptoms of  
racial degeneracy4 ,but before          
,nietzsche finally rejected             
,schopenhauer and gave his shocking     
counterblast to the undermining action  
of pessimism1 he succumbed temporarily  
to the spell of another gigantic        
personality4 ,we are not concerned with 
,richard ,wagner's musical influence    
upon ,nietzsche1 who was himself a      
musician of no mean ability2 what is to 
the point here is the prime principle of
 ,wagner's art theory4 ,the key to the  
,wagnerian theory is found1 also1 in    
,schopenhauer's philosophy4 ,wagner     

starts from the pessimistic thesis that 
at the bottom of the well of life lies  
nothing but suffering1--hence living is 
utterly undesirable4 ,in one of his     
letters to ,franz ,liszt he names as the
 duplex root of his creative genius the 
longing for love and the yearning for   
death4 ,on another occasion1 he         
confesses his own emotional nihilism in 
the following summary of ,tristan und   
,isolde3 ,sehnsucht1 ,sehnsucht1        
unstillbares1 ewig neu sich gebrendes   
,verlangen--,schmachten und ,dursten2   
einzige ,erlsung3 ,tod1 ,sterben1       
,untergehen1--,nichtmehrerwachen47#ai7  
,but from the boundless ocean of sorrow 
there is a refuge4 ,it was ,wagner's    
fundamental dogma that through the      
illusions of art the individual is      
enabled to rise above the hopelessness  
of the realities into a new cosmos      
replete with supreme satisfactions4     
,man's mundane salvation therefore      
depends upon the ministrations of art   
and his own artistic sensitiveness4 ,the

 glorification of genius is a natural   
corollary of such a belief4    7#ai7    
,longing1 longing1 unquenchable desire1 
reproducing itself   forever            
anew--thirst and drought2 sole          
deliverance3 death1   dissolution1      
extinction1--and no awaking4  ,nietzsche
 in one of his earliest works examines  
,wagner's theory and amplifies it by a  
rather casuistic interpretation of the  
evolution of art4 ,after raising the    
question1 ,how did the ,greeks contrive 
to dignify and ennoble their national   
existence8 he points1 by way of an      
illustrative answer1 not perchance to   
the ,periclean era1 but to a far more   
primitive epoch of ,hellenic culture1   
when a total oblivion of the actual     
world and a transport into the realm of 
imagination was universally possible4   
,he explains the trance as the effect of
 intoxication1--primarily in the current
 literal sense of the word4 ,such was   
the significance of the cult of         
,dionysos4 ,through singing and dancing1

 claims ,nietzsche1 man manifests       
himself as member of a higher community4
 ,walking and talking he has unlearned1 
and is in a fair way to dance up into   
the air4 ,that this supposititious      
,dionysiac phase of ,hellenic culture   
was in turn succeeded by more rational  
stages1 in which the impulsive flow of  
life was curbed and dammed in by        
operations of the intellect1 is not     
permitted by ,nietzsche to invalidate   
the argument4 ,by his arbitrary reading 
of ancient history he was1 at first1    
disposed to look to the forthcoming     
,universal-,kunstwerk7#bj7 as the       
complete expression of a new religious  
spirit and as the adequate lever of a   
general uplift of mankind to a state of 
bliss4 ,but the typical disparity       
between ,wagner and ,nietzsche was bound
 to alienate them4 ,wagner1 despite all 
appearance to the contrary1 is          
inherently democratic in his            
convictions1--his earlier political     
vicissitudes amply confirm this         

view1--and fastens his hope for the     
elevation of humanity through art upon  
the sort of genius in whom latent       
popular forces might combine to a new   
summit4 ,nietzsche on the other hand    
represents the extreme aristocratic     
type1 both in respect of thought and of 
sentiment4 ,i do not wish to be         
confounded with and mistaken for these  
preachers of equality1 says he4 ,for    
within me justice saith3 men are not    
equal4 ,his ideal is a hero of coercive 
personality1 dwelling aloft in solitude1
 despotically bending the gregarious    
instincts of the common crowd to his own
 higher purposes by the dominating force
 of his ,will to ,might4    7#bj7 ,work 
of all arts4  ,the concept of the       
,overman rests1 as has been shown1 upon 
a fairly solid substructure of          
plausibility1 since at the bottom of the
 author's reasoning lies the notion that
 mankind is destined to outgrow its     
current status2 the thought of a        
humanity risen to new and wondrous      

heights of power over nature is not     
necessarily unscientific for being      
supremely imaginative4 ,the ,overman1   
however1 cannot be produced ready made1 
by any instantaneous process2 he must be
 slowly and persistently willed into    
being1 through love of the new ideal    
which he is to embody3 ,all great ,love1
 speaketh ,zarathustra1 seeketh to      
create what it loveth4 ,myself ,i       
sacrifice into my love1 and my neighbor 
as myself1 thus runneth the speech of   
all creators4 ,only the fixed conjoint  
purpose of many generations of aspiring 
men will be able to create the ,overman4
 ,could you create a ,god8--,then be    
silent concerning all gods6 ,but ye     
could very well create ,beyond-man4 ,not
 yourselves perhaps1 my brethren6 ,but  
ye could create yourselves into fathers 
and fore-fathers of ,beyond-man2 and let
 this be your best creating4 ,but all   
creators are hard4  ,nietzsche's        
startlingly heterodox code of ethics    
coheres organically with the ,overman   

hypothesis1 and so understood is certain
 to lose some of its aspect of          
absurdity4 ,the racial will1 as we have 
seen1 must be taught to aim at the      
,overman4 ,but the volitional faculty of
 the generation1 according to           
,nietzsche1 is so debilitated as to be  
utterly inadequate to its office4       
,hence1 advisedly to stimulate and      
strengthen the enfeebled will power of  
his fellow men is the most imperative   
and immediate task of the radical       
reformer4 ,once the power of willing1 as
 such1 shall have been1--regardless of  
the worthiness of its object1--brought  
back to active life1 it will be feasible
 to give the ,will to ,might a direction
 towards objects of the highest moral   
grandeur4  ,unfortunately for the race  
as a whole1 the throng is ineligible for
 partnership in the auspicious scheme of
 co-operative procreation3 which fact   
necessitates a segregative method of    
breeding4 ,the ,overman can only be     
evolved by an ancestry of master-men1   

who must be secured to the race by a    
rigid application of eugenic standards1 
particularly in the matter of mating4   
,of marriage1 ,nietzsche has this       
definition3 ,marriage1 so call ,i the   
will of two to create one who is more   
than they who created him4 ,for the     
bracing of the weakened will-force of   
the human breed it is absolutely        
essential that master-men1 the potential
 progenitors of the superman1 be left   
unhampered to the impulse of living     
themselves out 7sich auszuleben71--an   
opportunity of which under the regnant  
code of morals they are inconsiderately 
deprived4 ,since1 then1 existing        
dictates and conventions are a serious  
hindrance to the requisite autonomy of  
the master-man1 their abolishment might 
be well4 ,yet on the other hand1 it is  
convenient that the ,vielzuviele1 the   
much-too-many1 i4 e4 the despised       
generality of people1 should continue to
 be governed and controlled by strict   
rules and regulations1 so that the will 

of the master-folk might the more       
expeditiously be wrought4 ,would it not1
 then1 be an efficacious compromise to  
keep the canon of morality in force for 
the general run1 but suspend it for the 
special benefit of master-men1          
prospective or full-fledged8 ,from the  
history of the race ,nietzsche draws a  
warrant for the distinction4 ,his       
contention is that masters and slaves   
have never lived up to a single code of 
conduct4 ,have not civilizations risen  
and fallen according as they were shaped
 by this or that class of nations8      
,history also teaches what disastrous   
consequences follow the loss of caste4  
,in the case of the ,jewish people1 the 
domineering type or morals gave way to  
the servile as a result of the          
,babylonian captivity4 ,so long as the  
,jews were strong1 they extolled all    
manifestations of strength and energy4  
,the collapse of their own strength     
turned them into apologists of the      
so-called virtues of humility1          

long-suffering1 forgiveness1--until1    
according to the ,judo-,christian code  
of ethics1 being good came to mean being
 weak4 ,so races may justly be          
classified into masters and slaves1 and 
history proves that to the strong goes  
the empire4 ,the ambitions of a nation  
are a sure criterion of its worth4      
,i walk through these folk and keep mine
 eyes open4 ,they have become           
smaller and are becoming ever smaller4  
,and the reason of that is     their    
doctrine of happiness and virtue4       
,for they are modest even in their      
virtue2 for they are desirous of        
ease4 ,but with ease only modest virtue 
is compatible4      ,true1 in their     
fashion they learn how to stride and to 
stride     forward4 ,that ,i call their 
hobbling4 ,thereby they become an       
offense unto every one who is in a      
hurry4      ,and many a one strideth on 
and in doing so looketh backward1 with a
     stiffened neck4 ,i rejoice to run  
against the stomachs of such4      ,foot

 and eyes shall not lie1 nor reproach   
each other for lying4 ,but     there is 
much lying among small folk4      ,some 
of them will1 but most of them are      
willed merely4 ,some of     them are    
genuine1 but most of them are bad       
actors4      ,there are unconscious     
actors among them1 and involuntary      
actors4 ,the     genuine are always     
rare1 especially genuine actors4        
,here is little of man2 therefore women 
try to make themselves manly4     ,for  
only he who is enough of a man will save
 the woman in woman4      ,and this     
hypocrisy ,i found to be worst among    
them1 that even those     who command   
feign the virtues of those who serve4   
',i serve1 thou servest1 we serve4'     
,thus the hypocrisy of the rulers       
prayeth4 ,and1 alas1 if the highest lord
 be merely the highest     servant6     
,alas6 the curiosity of mine eye strayed
 even unto their hypocrisies1     and   
well ,i divined all their fly-happiness 
and their humming round     window panes

 in the sunshine4      ,so much         
kindness1 so much weakness see ,i4 ,so  
much justice and     sympathy1 so much  
weakness4      ,round1 honest1 and kind 
are they towards each other1 as grains  
of     sand are round1 honest1 and kind 
unto grains of sand4      ,modestly to  
embrace a small happiness--they call    
'submission'6 ,and     therewith they   
modestly look sideways after a new small
 happiness4      ,at bottom they desire 
plainly one thing most of all3 to be    
hurt by     nobody4 ,thus they oblige   
all and do well unto them4      ,but    
this is cowardice2 although it be called
 'virtue4'      ,and if once they speak 
harshly1 these small folk1--,i hear     
therein     merely their hoarseness4    
,for every draught of air maketh them   
hoarse4      ,prudent are they2 their   
virtues have prudent fingers4 ,but they 
are     lacking in clenched fists2 their
 fingers know not how to hide           
themselves behind fists4      ,for them 
virtue is what maketh modest and tame4  

,thereby they have     made the wolf a  
dog and man himself man's best domestic 
animal4      ',we put our chair in the  
midst'--thus saith their simpering unto 
me--'exactly as far from dying          
gladiators as from happy swine4'        
,this is mediocrity2 although it be     
called moderation47#ba7    7#ba7 ,thus  
,spake ,zarathustra1 pp4 #bdc-bde4  ,the
 only law acknowledged by him who would 
be a master is the bidding of his own   
will4 ,he makes short work of every     
other law4 ,whatever clogs the flight of
 his indomitable ambition must be       
ruthlessly swept aside4 ,obviously1 the 
enactment of this law that would render 
the individual supreme and absolute     
would strike the death-knell for all    
established forms and institutions of   
the social body4 ,but such is quite     
within ,nietzsche's intention4 ,they are
 noxious agencies1 ingeniously devised  
for the enslavement of the will1 and the
 most pernicious among them is the      
,christian religion1 because of the     

alleged divine sanction conferred by it 
upon subserviency4 ,christianity would  
thwart the supreme will of nature by    
curbing that lust for domination which  
the laws of nature as revealed by       
science sanction1 nay prescribe4        
,nietzsche's ideas on this subject are  
loudly and over-loudly voiced in ,der   
,antichrist 7,the ,anti-,christ71       
written in ,september #ahhh as the first
 part of a planned treatise in four     
instalments1 entitled ,der ,wille zur   
,macht4 ,versuch einer ,umwertung aller 
,werte4 7,the ,will to ,power4 ,an      
,attempted ,transvaluation of ,all      
,values47                     99        
99       99       99       99  ,the     
master-man's will1 then1 is his only    
law4 ,that is the essence of            
,herrenmoral4 ,and so the question      
arises1 ,whence shall the conscience of 
the ruler-man derive its distinctions   
between the ,right and the ,wrong8 ,the 
arch-iconoclast brusquely stifles this  
nave query beforehand by assuring us    

that such distinctions in their accepted
 sense do not exist for personages of   
that grander stamp4 ,heedless of the    
time-hallowed concepts that all men     
share in common1 he enjoins mastermen to
 take their position uncompromisingly   
outside the confining area of           
conventions1 in the moral independence  
that dwells beyond good and evil4 ,good 
and ,evil are mere denotations1 devoid  
of any real significance4 ,right and    
,wrong are not ideals immutable through 
the ages1 nor even the same at any time 
in all states of society4 ,they are     
vague and general notions1 varying more 
or less with the practical exigencies   
under which they were conceived4 ,what  
was right for my great-grandfather is   
not ipso facto right for myself4 ,hence1
 the older and better established a law1
 the more inapposite is it apt to be to 
the living demands4 ,why should the     
ruler-man bow down to outworn statutes  
or stultify his self-dependent moral    
sense before the artificial and stupidly

 uniform moral relics of the dead past8 
,good is whatever conduces to the       
increase of my power1--evil is whatever 
tends to diminish it6 ,only the weakling
 and the hypocrite will disagree4       
,unmistakably this is a straightout     
application of the pragmatic criterion  
of truth4 ,nietzsche's unconfessed and  
cautious imitators1 who call themselves 
pragmatists1 are not bold enough to     
follow their own logic from the         
cognitive sphere to the moral4 ,they    
stop short of the natural conclusion to 
which their own premises lead4 ,morality
 is necessarily predicated upon specific
 notions of truth4 ,so if ,truth is an  
alterable and shifting concept1 must not
 morality likewise be variable8 ,the    
pragmatist might just as well come out  
at once into the broad light and frankly
 say3 ,laws do not interest me in the   
abstract1 or for the sake of their      
general beneficence2 they interest me   
only in so far as they affect me4       
,therefore ,i will make1 interpret1 and 

abolish them to suit myself4  ,to       
,nietzsche the quest of truth is a      
palpable evasion4 ,truth is merely a    
means for the enhancement of my         
subjective satisfaction4 ,it makes not a
 whit of difference whether an opinion  
or a judgment satisfies this or that    
scholastic definition4 ,i call true and 
good that which furthers my welfare and 
intensifies my joy in living2 and1--to  
vindicate my self-gratification as a    
form1 indeed the highest1 of social     
service1--the desirable thing is that   
which matters for the improvement of the
 human stock and thereby speeds the     
advent of the ,superman4 ,oh1 exclaims  
,zarathustra1 that ye would understand  
my word3 ,be sure to do whatever ye     
like1--but first of all be such as can  
will6 ,be sure to love your neighbor as 
yourself1--but first of all be such as  
love themselves1--as love themselves    
with great love1 with contempt4 ,thus   
speaketh ,zarathustra1 the ungodly4  ,by
 way of throwing some light upon this   

phase of ,nietzsche's moral philosophy1 
it may be added that ever since #ahgf he
 was an assiduous student of ,herbert   
,spencer1 with whose theory of social   
evolution he was first made acquainted  
by his friend1 ,paul ,re1 who in two    
works of his own1 ,psychologic          
,observations1 7#ahge71 and ,on the     
,origin of ,moral ,sentiments1 7#ahgg71 
had elaborated upon the ,spencerian     
theory about the genealogy of morals4   
,the best known among all of            
,nietzsche's works1 ,also ,sprach       
,zarathustra 7,thus ,spake              
,zarathustra71 is the ,magna ,charta of 
the new moral emancipation4 ,it was     
composed during a sojourn in southern   
climes between #ahhc and #ahhe1 during  
the convalescence from a nervous        
collapse1 when after a long and critical
 depression his spirit was recovering   
its accustomed resilience4 ,nietzsche   
wrote his magnum opus in solitude1 in   
the mountains and by the sea4 ,his mind 
always was at its best in settings of   

vast proportions1 and in this particular
 work there breathes an exaltation that 
has scarcely its equal in the world's   
literature4 ,style and diction in their 
supreme elation suit the lofty fervor of
 the sentiment4 ,from the feelings1 as a
 fact1 this great rhapsody flows1 and to
 the feelings it makes its appeal2 its  
extreme fascination must be lost upon   
those who only know how to listen to    
reason4 ,the wondrous plastic beauty of 
the language1 along with the high       
emotional pitch of its message1 render  
,zarathustra a priceless poetic         
monument2 indeed its practical effect in
 chastening and rejuvenating ,german    
literary diction can hardly be          
overestimated4 ,its value as a          
philosophic document is much slighter4  
,it is not even organized on severely   
logical lines4 ,on the contrary1 the    
four component parts are but brilliant  
variations upon a single generic theme1 
each in a different clef1 but           
harmoniously united by the incremental  

ecstasy of the movement4 ,the           
composition is free from monotony1 for  
down to each separate aphorism every    
part of it has its special lyric nuance4
 ,the whole purports to convey in the   
form of discourse the prophetic message 
of ,zarathustra1 the hermit sage1 an    
idealized self-portrayal of the author4 
,in the first book the tone is calm and 
temperate4 ,zarathustra exhorts and     
instructs his disciples1 rails at his   
adversaries1 and discloses his          
superiority over them4 ,in the          
soliloquies and dialogues of the second 
book he reveals himself more fully and  
freely as the ,superman4 ,the third book
 contains the meditations and rhapsodies
 of ,zarathustra now dwelling wholly    
apart from men1 his mind solely occupied
 with thought about the ,eternal ,return
 of the ,present4 ,in the fourth book he
 is found in the company of a few chosen
 spirits whom he seeks to imbue with his
 perfected doctrine4 ,in this final     
section of the work the deep lyric      

current is already on the ebb2 it is    
largely supplanted by irony1 satire1    
sarcasm1 even buffoonery1 all of which  
are resorted to for the pitiless        
excoriation of our type of humanity1    
deemed decrepit by the ,sage4 ,the      
author's intention to present in a      
concluding fifth division the dying     
,zarathustra pronouncing his            
benedictions upon life in the act of    
quitting it was not to bear fruit4      
,zarathustra--,nietzsche's terrific     
assault upon the fortifications of our  
social structure--is too easily mistaken
 by facile cavilers for the ravings of  
an unsound and desperate mind4 ,to a    
narrow and superficial reading1 it      
exhibits itself as a wholesale          
repudiation of all moral responsibility 
and a maniacal attempt to subvert human 
civilization for the exclusive benefit  
of the glorious blonde brute1 rampant   
with greed for victory and spoil4 ,yet  
those who care to look more deeply will 
detect beneath this chimerical contempt 

of conventional regulations no want of a
 highminded philanthropic purpose1      
provided they have the vision necessary 
to comprehend a love of man oriented by 
such extremely distant perspectives4 ,at
 all events they will discover that in  
this rebellious propaganda an advancing 
line of life is firmly traced out4 ,the 
indolent and thoughtless may indeed be  
horrified by the appalling dangers of   
the gospel according to ,zarathustra4   
,but in reality there is no great cause 
for alarm4 ,society may amply rely upon 
its agencies1 even in these stupendous  
times of universal war1 for protection  
from any disastrous organic dislocations
 incited by the teachings of            
,zarathustra1 at least so far as the    
immediate future is concerned--in which 
alone society appears to be interested4 
,moreover1 our apprehensions are        
appeased by the sober reflection that by
 its plain unfeasibleness the whole     
supersocial scheme of ,nietzsche is     
reduced to colossal absurdity4 ,its     

limitless audacity defeats any          
formulation of its war aims4 ,for what  
compels an ambitious imagination to     
arrest itself at the goal of the        
superman8 ,why should it not run on     
beyond that first terminal8 ,in one of  
,mr4 ,g4 ,k4 ,chesterton's labored      
extravaganzas a grotesque sort of       
super-overman in spe succeeds in going  
beyond unreason when he contrives this  
lucid self-definition3 ,i have gone     
where ,god has never dared to go4 ,i am 
above the silly supermen as they are    
above mere men4 ,where ,i walk in the   
,heavens1 no man has walked before me1  
and ,i am alone in a garden4 ,it is     
enough to make one gasp and then perhaps
 luckily recall ,goethe's consoling     
thought that under the care of          
,providence the trees will not grow into
 the heavens4 7,es ist dafr gesorgt1    
dass die ,bume nicht in den ,himmel     
wachsen47 ,as matter of fact1 the ideas 
promulgated in ,also ,sprach            
,zarathustra need inspire no fear of    

their winning the human race from its   
venerable idols1 despite the fact that  
the pull of natural laws and of         
elemental appetites seems to be on their
 side4 ,the only effect to be expected  
of such a philosophy is that it will act
 as an antidote for moral inertia which 
inevitably goes with the flock-instinct 
and the lazy reliance on the accustomed 
order of things4  ,nietzsche's ethics   
are not easy to valuate1 since none of  
their standards are derived from the    
orthodox canon4 ,his being a truly      
personalized form of morality1 his      
principles are strictly cognate to his  
temperament4 ,to his professed ideals   
there attaches a definite theory of     
society4 ,and since his philosophy is   
consistent in its sincerity1 its message
 is withheld from the man-in-the-street1
 deemed unworthy of notice1 and         
delivered only to the lite that shall   
beget the superman4 ,to ,nietzsche the  
good of the greatest number is no valid 
consideration4 ,the great stupid mass   

exists only for the sake of an oligarchy
 by whom it is duly exploited under     
nature's decree that the strong shall   
prey upon the weak4 ,let1 then1 this    
favored set further the design of nature
 by systematically encouraging the      
elevation of their own type4            
99       99       99       99       99  
,we have sought to dispel the fiction   
about the shaping influence of          
,nietzsche upon the thought and conduct 
of his nation1 and have accounted for   
the miscarriage of his ethics by their  
fantastic impracticability4 ,yet it has 
been shown also that he fostered in an  
unmistakable fashion the                
class-consciousness of the aristocrat1  
born or self-appointed4 ,to that extent 
his influence was certainly malign4 ,yet
 doubtless he did perform a service to  
our age4 ,the specific nature of this   
service1 stated in the fewest words1 is 
that to his great divinatory gift are we
 indebted for an unprecedented          
strengthening of our hold upon reality4 

,in order to make this point clear we   
have to revert once more to ,nietzsche's
 transient intellectual relation to     
pessimism4  ,we have seen that the      
illusionism of ,schopenhauer and more   
particularly of ,wagner exerted a strong
 attraction on his high-strung artistic 
temperament4  ,nevertheless a certain   
realistic counter-drift to the          
ultra-romantic tendency of ,wagner's    
theory caused him in the long run to    
reject the faith in the power of ,art to
 save man from evil4 ,almost abruptly1  
his personal affection for the ,master1 
to whom in his eventual mental eclipse  
he still referred tenderly at lucid     
moments1 changed to bitter hostility4   
,henceforth he classes the glorification
 of ,art as one of the three most       
despicable attitudes of life3           
,philistinism1 ,pietism1 and            
,estheticism1 all of which have their   
origin in cowardice1 represent three    
branches of the ignominious road of     
escape from the terrors of living4 ,in  

three extended diatribes ,nietzsche     
denounces ,wagner as the archetype of   
modern decadence2 the most violent      
attack of all is delivered against the  
point of juncture in which ,wagner's art
 gospel and the ,christian religion     
culminate3 the promise of redemption    
through pity4 ,to ,nietzsche's way of   
thinking pity is merely the coward's    
acknowledgment of his weakness4 ,for    
only insomuch as a man is devoid of     
fortitude in bearing his own sufferings 
is he unable to contemplate with        
equanimity the sufferings of his fellow 
creatures4 ,since religion enjoins      
compassion with all forms of human      
misery1 we should make war upon         
religion4 ,and for the reason that      
,wagner's crowning achievement1 his     
,parsifal1 is a veritable sublimation of
 ,mercy1 there can be no truce between  
its creator and the giver of the        
counsel3 ,be hard6 ,perhaps this        
notorious advice is after all not as    
ominous as it sounds4 ,it merely        

expresses rather abruptly ,nietzsche's  
confidence in the value of self-control 
as a means of discipline4 ,if you have  
learned calmly to see others suffer1 you
 are yourself able to endure distress   
with manful composure4 ,therefore ,i    
wash the hand which helped the sufferer2
 therefore ,i even wipe my soul4 ,but1  
unfortunately1 such is the frailty of   
human nature that it is only one step   
from indifference about the sufferings  
of others to an inclination to exploit  
them or even to inflict pain upon one's 
neighbors for the sake of personal gain 
of one sort or another4      ,why so    
hard8 said once the charcoal unto the   
diamond1 are we not     near relations8 
,why so soft8 ,o my brethren1 thus ,i   
ask you4 ,are ye not my brethren8       
,why so soft1 so unresisting1 and       
yielding8 ,why is there so much         
disavowal and abnegation in your hearts8
 ,why is there so little fate     in    
your looks8      ,and if ye are not     
willing to be fates1 and inexorable1 how

 could ye     conquer with me someday8  
,and if your hardness would not glance1 
and cut1 and chip into     pieces--how  
could ye create with me some day8       
,for all creators are hard4 ,and it must
 seem blessedness unto you to     press 
your hand upon millenniums as upon      
wax1--      ,blessedness to write upon  
the will of millenniums as upon         
brass1--harder than brass1 nobler than  
brass4 ,the noblest only is             
perfectly hard4      ,this new table1 ,o
 my brethren1 ,i put over you3 ,become  
hard67#bb7    7#bb7 ,thus ,spake        
,zarathustra1 p4 #cii1 sec4 #bi4  ,the  
repudiation of ,wagner leaves a         
tremendous void in ,nietzsche's soul by 
depriving his enthusiasm of its foremost
 concrete object4 ,he loses his faith in
 idealism4 ,when illusions can bring a  
man like ,wagner to such an odious      
outlook upon life1 they must be         
obnoxious in themselves2 and so1 after  
being subjected to pitiless analysis1   
they are disowned and turned into       

ridicule4 ,and now1 the pendulum of his 
zeal having swung from one emotional    
extreme to the other1 the great         
rhapsodist finds himself temporarily    
destitute of an adequate theme4         
,however1 his fervor does not long      
remain in abeyance1 and soon it is      
absorbed in a new object4 ,great as is  
the move it is logical enough4 ,since   
illusions are only a hindrance to the   
fuller grasp of life which behooves all 
free spirits1 ,nietzsche energetically  
turns from self-deception to its        
opposite1 self-realization4 ,in this new
 spiritual endeavor he relies far more  
on intuition than on scientific and     
metaphysical speculation4 ,from his own 
stand he is certainly justified in doing
 this4 ,experimentation and             
ratiocination at the best are apt to    
disassociate individual realities from  
their complex setting and then proceed  
to palm them off as illustrations of    
life1 when in truth they are lifeless1  
artificially preserved specimens4       

,encheiresin naturae nennt's die        
,chemie1      ,spottet ihrer selbst und 
weiss nicht wie47#bc7  ,nietzsche's     
realism1 by contrast1 goes to the very  
quick of nature1 grasps all the gifts of
 life1 and from the continuous flood of 
phenomena extracts a rich1 full-flavored
 essence4 ,it is from a sense of        
gratitude for this boon that he becomes 
an idolatrous worshiper of experience1  
der grosse ,jasager1--the great sayer of
 ,yes1--and the most stimulating        
optimist of all ages4 ,to ,nietzsche    
reality is alive as perhaps never to man
 before4 ,he plunges down to the very   
heart of things1 absorbs their vital    
qualities and meanings1 and having      
himself learned to draw supreme         
satisfaction from the most ordinary     
facts and events1 he makes the common   
marvelous to others1 which1 as was said 
by ,james ,russell ,lowell1 is a true   
test of genius4 ,no wonder that         
deification of reality becomes the      
dominant motif in his philosophy4 ,but  

again that onesided aristocratic strain 
perverts his ethics4 ,to drain the      
intoxicating cup at the feast of life1  
such is the divine privilege not of the 
common run of mortals but only of the   
elect4 ,they must not let this or that  
petty and artificial convention1 nor yet
 this or that moral command or          
prohibition1 restrain them from the     
exercise of that higher sense of living1
 but must fully abandon themselves to   
its joys4 ,since man came into existence
 he hath had too little joy4 ,that      
alone1 my brethren1 is our original     
sin47#bd7 ,the much-too-many are doomed 
to inanity by their lack of appetite at 
the banquet of life3      ,such folk sit
 down unto dinner and bring nothing with
 them1 not even     a good hunger4 ,and 
now they backbite3 ,all is vanity6      
,but to eat well and drink well1 ,o my  
brethren1 is1 verily1 no vain     art6  
,break1 break the tables of those who   
are never joyful67#be7    7#bc7         
,goethe's ,faust1 ,,ii1 ll4 #aidj-a4    

,bayard ,taylor translates3             
,encheiresin naturae1 this ,chemistry   
names1 nor knows how herself she        
banters and blames6    7#bd7 ,thus      
,spake ,zarathustra1 p4 #abj4    7#be7  
,ibid41 p4 #bif1 sec4 #ac4  ,the ,will  
to ,live holds man's one chance of      
this-worldly bliss1 and supersedes any  
care for the remote felicities of any   
problematic future state4 ,yet the      
,nietzschean cult of life is not to be  
understood by any means as a banal      
devotion to the pleasurable side of life
 alone4 ,the true disciple finds in     
every event1 be it happy or adverse1    
exalting or crushing1 the factors of    
supreme spiritual satisfaction3 joy and 
pain are equally implied in experience1 
the ,will to ,live encompasses jointly  
the capacity to enjoy and to suffer4 ,it
 may even be paradoxically said that    
since man owes some of his greatest and 
most beautiful achievements to sorrow1  
it must be a joy and a blessing to      
suffer4 ,the unmistakable sign of       

heroism is amor fati1 a fierce delight  
in one's destiny1 hold what it may4     
,consequently1 the precursor of the     
superman will be possessed1 along with  
his great sensibility to pleasure1 of a 
capacious aptitude for suffering4 ,ye   
would perchance abolish suffering1      
exclaims ,nietzsche1 and we1--it seems  
that we would rather have it even       
greater and worse than it has ever been4
 ,the discipline of suffering1--tragical
 suffering1--know ye not that only this 
discipline has heretofore brought about 
every elevation of man8 ,spirit is that 
life which cutteth into life4 ,by one's 
own pain one's own knowledge            
increaseth2--knew ye that before8 ,and  
the happiness of the spirit is this3 to 
be anointed and consecrated by tears as 
a sacrificial animal2--knew ye that     
before8 ,and if1 then1 the tragical pain
 inherent in life be no argument against
 ,joyfulness1 the zest of living can be 
obscured by nothing save the fear of    
total extinction4 ,to the disciple of   

,nietzsche1 by whom every moment of his 
existence is realized as a priceless    
gift1 the thought of his irrevocable    
separation from all things is           
unbearable4 ',was this life8' ,i shall  
say to ,death4 ',well1 then1 once more6'
 ,and--to paraphrase ,nietzsche's own   
simile--the insatiable witness of the   
great tragi-comedy1 spectator and       
participant at once1 being loath to     
leave the theatre1 and eager for a      
repetition of the performance1 shouts   
his endless encore1 praying fervently   
that in the constant repetition of the  
performance not a single detail of the  
action be omitted4 ,the yearning for the
 endlessness not of life at large1 not  
of life on any terms1 but of this my    
life with its ineffable wealth of       
rapturous moments1 works up the extreme 
optimism of ,nietzsche to its stupendous
 a priori notion of infinity1 expressed 
in the name die ewige ,wiederkehr       
7,eternal ,recurrence74 ,it is a        
staggeringly imaginative concept1 formed

 apart from any evidential grounds1 and 
yet fortified with a fair amount of     
logical armament4 ,the universe is      
imagined as endless in time1 although   
its material contents are not equally   
conceived as limitless4 ,since1         
consequently1 there must be a limit to  
the possible variety in the arrangement 
and sequence of the sum total of data1  
even as in the case of a kaleidoscope1  
the possibility of variegations is not  
infinite4 ,the particular co-ordination 
of things in the universe1 say at this  
particular moment1 is bound to recur    
again and again in the passing of the   
eons4 ,but under the nexus of cause and 
effect the resurgence of the past from  
the ocean of time is not accidental nor 
is the configuration of things          
haphazard1 as is true in the case of the
 kaleidoscope2 rather1 history1 in the  
most inclusive acceptation of the term1 
is predestined to repeat itself2 this   
happens through the perpetual           
progressive resurrection of its         

particles4 ,it is then to be assumed    
that any aspect which the world has ever
 presented must have existed innumerable
 millions of times before1 and must     
recur with eternal periodicity4 ,that   
the deterministic strain in this        
tremendous ,vorstellung of a cyclic     
rhythm throbbing in the universe        
entangles its author's fanatical belief 
in evolution in a rather serious        
self-contradiction1 does not detract    
from its spiritual lure1 nor from its   
wide suggestiveness1 however incapable  
it may be of scientific demonstration4  
,from unfathomed depths of feeling wells
 up the pan of the prophet of the life  
intense4      ,o ,mensch6 ,gib ,acht6   
,was spricht die tiefe ,mitternacht8    
,ich schlief1 ich schlief--1     ,aus   
tiefem ,traum bin ich erwacht3--        
,die ,welt ist tief1     ,und tiefer als
 der ,tag gedacht4     ,tief ist ihr    
,weh--1     ,lust--tiefer noch als      
,herzeleid3     ,weh spricht3 ,vergeh6  
,doch alle ,lust will ,ewigkeit--       

,will tiefe1 tiefe ,ewigkeit67#bf7      
7#bf7        ,o man6 ,lose not sight6   
,what saith the deep midnight8       ,i 
lay in sleep1 in sleep2       ,from deep
 dream ,i woke to light4       ,the     
world is deep1       ,and deeper than   
ever day though6 it might4       ,deep  
is its woe1--       ,and deeper still   
than woe--delight4       ,saith woe3    
,pass1 go6       ,eternity's sought by  
all delight1--       ,eternity deep--by 
all delight4    ,thus ,spake            
,zarathustra1 ,the ,drunken ,song1 p4   
#agd4--,the translation   but faintly   
suggests the poetic appeal of the       
original4  ,a timid heart may indeed    
recoil from the iron necessity of       
reliving ad infinitum its woeful        
terrestrial fate4 ,but the prospect can 
hold no terror for the heroic soul by   
whose fiat all items of experience have 
assumed important meanings and values4  
,he who has cast in his lot with        
,destiny in spontaneous submission to   
all its designs1 cannot but revere and  

cherish his own fate as an integral part
 of the grand unalterable fatality of   
things4                     99       99 
99       99       99  ,if this crude    
presentment of ,friedrich ,nietzsche's  
doctrine has not entirely failed of its 
purpose1 the leitmotifs of that doctrine
 will have been readily referred by the 
reader to their origin2 they can be     
subsumed under that temperamental       
category which is more or less          
accurately defined as the romantic4     
,glorification of violent               
passion1--quest of innermost            
mysteries1--boundless expansion of      
self-consciousness1--visions of a future
 of transcendent magnificence1 and      
notwithstanding an ardent worship of    
reality a quixotically impracticable    
detachment from the concrete basis of   
civic life1--these outstanding          
characteristics of the ,nietzschean     
philosophy give unmistakable proof of a 
central1 driving1 romantic inspiration3 
,nietzsche shifts the essence and       

principle of being to a new center of   
gravity1 by substituting the ,future for
 the ,present and relying on the        
untrammeled expansion of spontaneous    
forces which upon closer examination are
 found to be without definite aim or    
practical goal4  ,for this reason1      
critically to animadvert upon ,nietzsche
 as a social reformer would be utterly  
out of place2 he is simply too much of a
 poet to be taken seriously as a        
statesman or politician4 ,the weakness  
of his philosophy before the forum of   
,logic has been referred to before4     
,nothing can be easier than to prove the
 incompatibility of some of his         
theorems4 ,how1 for instance1 can the   
absolute determinism of the belief in   
,cyclic ,recurrence be reconciled with  
the power vested in superman to deflect 
by his autonomous will the straight     
course of history8 ,or1 to touch upon a 
more practical social aspect of his     
teaching1--if in the order of nature all
 men are unequal1 how can we ever bring 

about the right selection of leaders1   
how indeed can we expect to secure the  
due ascendancy of character and         
intellect over the gregarious grossness 
of the demos8  ,again1 it is easy enough
 to controvert ,nietzsche almost at any 
pass by demonstrating his unphilosophic 
onesidedness4 ,were ,nietzsche not      
stubbornly onesided1 he would surely    
have conceded--as any sane-minded person
 must concede in these times of         
suffering and sacrifice--that charity1  
self-abnegation1 and self-immolation    
might be viewed1 not as conclusive      
proofs of degeneracy1 but on the        
contrary as signs of growth towards     
perfection4 ,besides1 philosophers of   
the mtier are sure to object to the     
haziness of ,nietzsche's idea of        
,vitality which in truth is oriented1 as
 is his philosophy in general1 less by  
thought than by sentiment4              
,notwithstanding his obvious connection 
with significant contemporaneous        
currents1 the author of ,zarathustra is 

altogether too much sui generis to be   
amenable to any crude and rigid         
classification4 ,he may plausibly be    
labelled an anarchist1 yet no definition
 of anarchism will wholly take him in4  
,anarchism stands for the demolition of 
the extant social apparatus of          
restraint4 ,its battle is for the free  
determination of personal happiness4    
,nietzsche's prime concern1 contrarily1 
is with internal self-liberation from   
the obsessive desire for personal       
happiness in any accepted connotation of
 the term2 such happiness to him does   
not constitute the chief object of life4
  ,the cardinal point of ,nietzsche's   
doctrine is missed by those who1 arguing
 retrospectively1 expound the gist of   
his philosophy as an incitation to      
barbarism4 ,nothing can be more remote  
from his intentions than the            
transformation of society into a horde  
of ferocious brutes4 ,his impeachment of
 mercy1 notwithstanding an appearance of
 reckless impiety1 is in the last       

analysis no more and no less than an    
expedient in the truly romantic pursuit 
of a new ideal of ,love4 ,compassion1 in
 his opinion1 hampers the progress      
towards forms of living that shall be   
pregnant with a new and superior type of
 perfection4 ,and in justice to         
,nietzsche it should be borne in mind   
that among the various manifestations of
 that human failing there is none he    
scorns so deeply as cowardly and petty  
commiseration of self4 ,it also deserves
 to be emphasized that he nowhere       
endorses selfishness when exercised for 
small or sordid objects4 ,i love the    
brave4 ,but it is not enough to be a    
swordsman1 one must also know against   
whom to use the sword4 ,and often there 
is more bravery in one's keeping quiet  
and going past1 in order to spare one's 
self for a worthier enemy3 ,ye shall    
have only enemies who are to be hated1  
but not enemies who are to be           
despised47#bg7 ,despotism must justify  
itself by great and worthy ends4 ,and no

 man must be permitted to be hard       
towards others who lacks the strength of
 being even harder towards himself4     
7#bg7 ,thus ,spake ,zarathustra1 p4     
#cjd4  ,at all events it must serve a   
better purpose to appraise the practical
 importance of ,nietzsche's speculations
 than blankly to denounce their         
immoralism4 ,nietzsche1 it has to be    
repeated1 was not on the whole a creator
 of new ideas4 ,his extraordinary       
influence in the recent past is not due 
to any supreme originality or fertility 
of mind2 it is predominantly due to his 
eagle-winged imagination4 ,in him the   
emotional urge of utterance was1        
accordingly1 incomparably more potent   
than the purely intellectual force of   
opinion3 in fact the texture of his     
philosophy is woven of sensations rather
 than of ideas1 hence its decidedly     
ethical trend4  ,the latent value of    
,nietzsche's ethics in their application
 to specific social problems it would be
 extremely difficult to determine4      

,their successful application to general
 world problems1 if it were possible1   
would mean the ruin of the only form of 
civilization that signifies to us4 ,his 
philosophy1 if swallowed in the whole1  
poisons2 in large potations1            
intoxicates2 but in reasonable doses1   
strengthens and stimulates4 ,such danger
 as it harbors has no relation to       
grossness4 ,his call to the ,joy of     
,living and ,doing is no encouragement  
of vulgar hedonism1 but a challenge to  
persevering effort4 ,he urges the       
supreme importance of vigor of body and 
mind and force of will4 ,o my brethren1 
,i consecrate you to be1 and show unto  
you the way unto a new nobility4 ,ye    
shall become procreators and breeders   
and sowers of the future4--,not whence  
ye come be your honor in future1 but    
whither ye go6 ,your will1 and your foot
 that longeth to get beyond yourselves1 
be that your new honor67#bh7    7#bh7   
,thus ,spake ,zarathustra1 p4 #bid4  ,it
 would be a withering mistake to        

advocate the translation of ,nietzsche's
 poetic dreams into the prose of        
reality4 ,unquestionably his ,utopia if 
it were to be carried into practice     
would doom to utter extinction the world
 it is devised to regenerate4 ,but it is
 generally acknowledged that prophets   
have a right to be unreasonable1 and so1
 if we would square ourselves with      
,friedrich ,nietzsche in a spirit of    
fairness1 we ought not to forget that   
the daring champion of reckless         
unrestraint is likewise the inspired    
apostle of action1 power1 enthusiasm1   
and aspiration1 in fine1 a prophet of   
,vitality and a messenger of ,hope4     
,,iv  ,,the ,,revivalism ,,of ,,leo     
,,tolstoy   ,in the intellectual record 
of our times it is one of the oddest    
events that the most impressive preacher
 who has taken the ear of civilized     
mankind in this generation raised up his
 voice in a region which in respect of  
its political1 religious1 and economic  
status was until recently1 by fairly    

common consent1 ruled off the map of    
,europe4 ,the greatest humanitarian of  
his century sprang up in a land chiefly 
characterized in the general judgment of
 the outside world by the reactionism of
 its government and the stolid ignorance
 of its populace4 ,a country still      
teeming with analphabeticians and       
proverbial for its dense medievalism    
gave to the world a writer who by the   
great quality of his art and the lofty  
spiritualism of his teaching was able   
not only to obtain a wide hearing       
throughout all civilized countries1 but 
to become a distinct factor in the moral
 evolution of the age4 ,the stupefying  
events that have recently revolutionized
 the ,russian state have given the world
 an inkling of the secrets of the       
,slavic type of temperament1 so         
mystifying in its commixture of         
simplicity and strength on the one hand 
with grossness and stupidity1 and on the
 other hand with the highest            
spirituality and idealism4 ,for such    

people as in these infuriated times     
still keep up some objective and        
judicious interest in products of the   
literary art1 the volcanic upheaval in  
the social life of ,russia has probably 
thrown some of ,tolstoy's less palpable 
figures into a greater plastic relief4  
,tolstoy's own character1 too1 has      
become more tangible in its curious     
composition4 ,the close analogy between 
his personal theories and the dominant  
impulses of his race has now been made  
patent4 ,we are better able to          
understand the people of whom he wrote  
because we have come to know better the 
people for whom he wrote4  ,the emphasis
 of ,tolstoy's popular appeal was       
unquestionably enhanced by certain      
eccentricities of his doctrine1 and     
still more by his picturesque efforts to
 conform his mode of life1 by way of    
necessary example1 to his professed     
theory of social elevation4 ,the        
personality of ,tolstoy1 like the       
character of the ,russian people1 is    

many-sided1 and since its aspects are   
not marked off by convenient lines of   
division1 but are1 rather1 commingled in
 the great and varied mass of his       
literary achievements1 it is not easy to
 make a definitive forecast of his      
historic position4 ,tentatively1        
however1 the current critical estimate  
may be summed up in this3 as a creative 
writer1 in particular of novels and     
short stories1 he stood matchless among 
the realists1 and the verdict pronounced
 at one time by ,william ,dean ,howells 
when he referred to ,tolstoy as the only
 living writer of perfect fiction is not
 likely to be overruled by posterity4   
,nor will competent judges gainsay his  
supreme importance as a critic and moral
 revivalist of society1 even though they
 may be seriously disposed to question  
whether his principles of conduct       
constitute in their aggregate a canon of
 much practical worth for the needs of  
the western world4 ,as a philosopher or 
an original thinker1 however1 he will   

hardly maintain the place accorded him  
by the less discerning among his        
multitudinous followers1 for in his     
persistent attempt to find a new way of 
understanding life he must be said to   
have signally failed4 ,wisdom in him was
 hampered by ,utopian fancies2 his      
dogmas derive from idiosyncrasies and   
lead into absurdities4 ,then1 too1 most 
of his tenets are easily traced to their
 sources3 in his vagaries as well as in 
his noblest and soundest aspirations he 
was merely continuing work which others 
had prepared4                     99    
99       99       99       99  ,an      
objective survey of ,tolstoy's work in  
realistic fiction1 in which he ranked   
supreme1 should start with the admission
 that he was by no means the first      
arrival among the ,russians in that     
field4 ,nicholas ,gogol1 ,fedor         
,dostoievsky1 and ,ivan ,turgenieff had 
the priority by a small margin4 ,of     
these three powerful novelists1         
,dostoievsky 7#ahba-ahha7 has probably  

had an even stronger influence upon     
modern letters than has ,tolstoy        
himself4 ,he was one of the earliest    
writers of romance to show the younger  
generation how to found fiction upon    
deeper psychologic knowledge4 ,his      
greatest proficiency lay1 as is apt to  
be the case with writers of a realistic 
bent1 in dealing with the darkest side  
of life4 ,the wretched and outcast      
portion of humanity yielded to his skill
 its most congenial material4 ,his      
novels--,poor ,folk1 7#ahdf71 ,memoirs  
from a ,dead ,house1 7#ahfb71           
,raskolnikoff1 7#ahff71 ,the ,idiot1    
7#ahfh71 ,the ,karamasoffs1             
7#ahgi7--take the reader into company   
such as had heretofore not gained open  
entrance to polite literature3          
criminals1 defectives1 paupers1 and     
prostitutes4 ,yet he did not dwell upon 
the wretchedness of that submerged      
section of humanity from any perverse   
delight in what is hideous or for the   
satisfaction of readers afflicted with  

morbid curiosity1 but from a compelling 
sense of pity and brotherly love4 ,his  
works are an appeal to charity4 ,in     
them1 the imperdible grace of the soul  
shines through the ugliest outward      
disguise to win a glance from the       
habitual indifference of fortune's      
enfants gts4 ,dostoievsky preceded      
,tolstoy in frankly enlisting his       
talents in the service of his outcast   
brethren4 ,with the same ideal of the   
writer's mission held in steady view1   
,tolstoy turned his attention from the  
start1 and then more and more as his    
work advanced1 to the pitiable condition
 of the lower orders of society4 ,it    
must not be forgotten in this connection
 that his career was synchronous with   
the growth of a social revolution which1
 having reached its full force in these 
days1 is making ,russia over for better 
or for worse1 and whose wellsprings     
,tolstoy helps us to fathom4            
99       99       99       99       99  
,for the general grouping of his        

writings it is convenient to follow     
,tolstoy's own division of his life4    
,his dreamy poetical childhood was      
succeeded by three clearly distinct     
stages3 first1 a score of years filled  
up with self-indulgent worldliness2     
next1 a nearly equal length of time     
devoted to artistic ambition1 earnest   
meditation1 and helpful social work2    
last1 by a more gradual transition1 the 
ascetic period1 covering a long stretch 
of years given up to religious          
illumination and to the strenuous       
advocacy of the ,simple ,life4  ,the    
remarkable spiritual evolution of this  
great man was apparently governed far   
more by inborn tendencies than by the   
workings of experience4 ,of ,tolstoy in 
his childhood1 youth1 middle age1 and   
senescence we gain trustworthy          
impressions from numerous               
autobiographical documents1 but here we 
shall have to forego anything more than 
a passing reference to the essential    
facts of his career4 ,he was descended  

from an aristocratic family of ,german  
stock but domiciled in ,russia since the
 fourteenth century4 ,the year of his   
birth was #ahbh1 the same as ,ibsen's4  
,in youth he was bashful1 eccentric1 and
 amazingly ill-favored4 ,the last-named 
of these handicaps he outgrew but late  
in life1 still later did he get over his
 bashfulness1 and his eccentricity never
 left him4 ,his penchant for the        
infraction of custom nearly put a       
premature stop to his career when in his
 urchin days he once threw himself from 
a window in an improvised experiment in 
aerial navigation4 ,at the age of       
fourteen he was much taken up with      
subtile speculations about the most     
ancient and vexing of human problems3   
the future life1 and the immortality of 
the soul4 ,entering the university at   
fifteen1 he devoted himself in the      
beginning to the study of oriental      
languages1 but later on his interest    
shifted to the law4 ,at sixteen he was  
already imbued with the doctrines of    

,jean ,jacques ,rousseau that were to   
play such an important rle in guiding   
his conduct4 ,in #ahdf he passed out of 
the university without a degree1        
carrying away nothing but a lasting     
regret over his wasted time4 ,he went   
directly to his ancestral estates1 with 
the idealistic intention to make the    
most of the opportunity afforded him by 
the patriarchal relationship that       
existed in ,russia between the          
landholder and the adscripti glebae and 
to improve the condition of his seven   
hundred dependents4 ,his efforts1       
however1 were foredoomed to failure1    
partly through his lack of experience1  
partly also through a certain want of   
sincerity or tenacity of purpose4 ,the  
experiment in social education having   
abruptly come to its end1 the           
disillusionized reformer threw himself  
headlong into the diversions and        
dissipations of the capital city4 ,in   
his ,confession he refers to that       
chapter of his existence as made up     

wholly of sensuality and worldliness4   
,he was inordinately proud of his noble 
birth1--at college his inchoate         
apostleship of the universal brotherhood
 of man did not shield him from a       
general dislike on account of his       
arrogance1--and he cultivated the most  
exclusive social circles of ,moscow4 ,he
 freely indulged the love of sports that
 was to cling through life and keep him 
strong and supple even in very old age4 
7,up to a short time before his death he
 still rode horseback and perhaps none  
of the renunciations exacted by his     
principles came so hard as that of      
giving up his favorite pastime of       
hunting47 ,but he also fell into the    
evil ways of gilded youth1 soon         
achieving notoriety as a toper1 gambler1
 and courreur des femmes4 ,after a while
 his brother1 who was a person of       
steadier habits and who had great       
influence over him1 persuaded him to    
quit his profligate mode of living and  
to join him at his military post4 ,under

 the bracing effect of the change1 the  
young man's moral energies quickly      
revived4 ,in the wilds of the ,caucasus 
he at once grew freer and cleaner2 his  
deep affection for the half-civilized   
land endeared him both to the ,cossack  
natives and the ,russian soldiers4 ,he  
entered the army at twenty-three1 and   
from ,november1 #ahec1 up to the fall of
 ,sebastopol in the summer of #ahee1    
served in the ,crimean campaign4 ,he    
entered the famous fortress in          
,november1 #ahed1 and was among the last
 of its defenders4 ,the indelible       
impressions made upon his mind by the   
heroism of his comrades1 the awful      
scenes and the appalling suffering he   
had to witness1 were responsible then   
and later for descriptions as harrowing 
and as stirring as any that the war     
literature of our own day has produced4 
,in the ,crimea he made his dbut as a   
writer4 ,among the tales of his martial 
period the most popular and perhaps the 
most excellent is the one called ,the   

,cossacks4 ,turgenieff pronounced it the
 best short story ever written in       
,russian1 and it is surely no undue     
exaggeration to say of ,tolstoy's       
novelettes in general that in point of  
technical mastery they are unsurpassed4 
,sick at heart over the unending        
bloodshed in the ,caucasus the young    
officer made his way back to ,petrograd1
 and here1 lionized in the salons       
doubly1 fur his feats at arms and in    
letters1 he seems to have returned1     
within more temperate limits1 to his    
former style of living4 ,at any rate1 in
 his own judgment the ensuing three     
years were utterly wasted4 ,the mental  
inanity and moral corruption all about  
him swelled his sense of superiority and
 self-righteousness4 ,the glaring humbug
 and hypocrisy that permeated his social
 environment was1 however1 more than he 
could long endure4  ,having resigned his
 officer's commission he went abroad in 
#aheg1 to ,switzerland1 ,germany1 and   
,france4 ,the studies and observations  

made in these travels sealed his        
resolution to settle down for good on   
his domain and to consecrate his life to
 the welfare of his peasants4 ,but a    
survey of the situation found upon his  
return made him realize that nothing    
could be done for the muzhik without    
systematic education3 therefore1 in     
order to prepare himself for efficacious
 work as a teacher1 he spent some       
further time abroad for special study1  
in #ahei4 ,after that1 the educational  
labor was taken up in full earnest4 ,the
 lord of the land became the            
schoolmaster of his subjects1           
reenforcing the effect of viva voce     
teaching by means of a periodical       
published expressly for their moral     
uplift4 ,this work he continued for     
about three years1 his hopes of success 
now rising1 now falling1 when in a fit  
of despondency he again abandoned his   
philanthropic efforts4 ,about this time1
 #ahfb1 he married ,sophia ,andreyevna  
,behrs1 the daughter of a ,moscow       

physician4 ,with characteristic honesty 
he forced his private diary on his      
fiance1 who was only eighteen1 so that  
she might know the full truth about his 
pre-conjugal course of living4  ,about  
the ,countess ,tolstoy much has been    
said in praise and blame4 ,let her      
record speak for itself4 ,of her union  
with the great novelist thirteen        
children were born1 of whom nine reached
 an adult age4 ,the mother nursed and   
tended them all1 with her own hands made
 their clothes1 and until they grew to  
the age of ten supplied to them the     
place of a schoolmistress4 ,it must not 
be inferred from this that her horizon  
did not extend beyond nursery and       
kitchen1 for during the earlier years   
she acted also as her husband's         
invaluable amanuensis4 ,before the days 
of the typewriter his voluminous        
manuscripts were all copied by her hand1
 and recopied and revised--in the case  
of ,war and ,peace this happened no less
 than seven times1 and the novel runs to

 sixteen hundred close-printed          
pages6--and under her supervision his   
numerous works were not only printed but
 also published and circulated4         
,moreover1 she managed his properties1  
landed1 personal1 and literary1 to the  
incalculable advantage of the family    
fortune4 ,this end1 to be sure1 she     
accomplished by conservative and        
reliable methods of business2 for while 
of his literary genius she was the      
greatest admirer1 she never was in full 
accord with his communistic notions4    
,and the highest proof of all her       
extraordinary ,tchtigkeit and devotion  
is that by her common sense and tact she
 was enabled to function for a lifetime 
as a sort of buffer between her         
husband's world-removed dreamland       
existence and the rigid and frigid      
reality of facts4  ,thus ,tolstoy's     
energies were left to go undivided into 
literary production2 its amount1 as a   
result1 was enormous4 ,if all his       
writings were to be collected1 including

 the unpublished manuscripts now        
reposing in the ,rumyantzoff ,museum1   
which are said to be about equal in     
quantity to the published works1 and if 
to this collection were added his       
innumerable letters1 most of which are  
of very great interest1 the complete set
 of ,tolstoy's works would run to       
considerably more than one hundred      
volumes4 ,to discuss all of ,tolstoy's  
writings1 or even to mention all1 is    
here quite out of the question4 ,all    
those1 however1 that seem vital for the 
purpose of a just estimate and          
characterization will be touched upon4  
99       99       99       99       99  
,the literary fame of ,tolstoy was      
abundantly secured already in the       
earlier part of his life by his numerous
 short stories and sketches4 ,the three 
remarkable pen pictures of the siege of 
,sebastopol1 and tales such as ,the     
,cossacks1 ,two ,hussars1 ,polikushka1  
,the ,snow-,storm1 ,the ,encounter1 ,the
 ,invasion1 ,the ,captive in the        

,caucasus1 ,lucerne1 ,albert1 and many  
others1 revealed together with an       
exceptional depth of insight an         
extraordinary plastic ability and skill 
of motivation2 in fact they deserve to  
be set as permanent examples before the 
eyes of every aspiring author4 ,in their
 characters and their setting they      
present true and racy pictures of a     
portentous epoch1 intimate studies of   
the human soul that are full of charm   
and fascination1 notwithstanding their  
tragic sadness of outlook4 ,manifestly  
this author was a prose poet of such    
marvelous power that he could abstain   
consistently from the use of sweeping   
color1 overwrought sentiment1 and high  
rhetorical invective4  ,at this season  
,tolstoy1 while he refrained from       
following any of the approved literary  
models1 was paying much attention to the
 artistic refinement of his style4      
,there was to be a time when he would   
abjure all considerations of artistry on
 the ground that by them the ethical    

issue in a narration is beclouded4 ,but 
it would be truer to say conversely that
 in his own later works1 since ,anna    
,karenina1 the clarity of the artistic  
design was dimmed by the obtrusive      
didactic purpose4 ,fortunately the      
artistic interest was not yet wholly    
subordinated to the religious urge while
 the three great novels were in course  
of composition3 ,war and ,peace1        
7#ahfd-fi71 ,anna ,karenina1 7first     
part1 #ahgc2 published complete in      
#ahgg71 and ,resurrection1 7#ahii74 ,to 
the first of these is usually accorded  
the highest place among all of          
,tolstoy's works2 it is by this work    
that he takes his position as the chief 
epic poet of modern times4 ,war and     
,peace is indeed an epic rather than a  
novel in the ordinary meaning4 ,playing 
against the background of tremendous    
historical transactions1 the narrative  
sustains the epic character not only in 
the hugeness of its dimensions1 but     
equally in the qualities of its         

technique4 ,there is very little comment
 by the author upon the events1 and     
merely a touch of subjective irony here 
and there4 ,the story is                
straightforwardly told as it was lived  
out by its characters4 ,tolstoy has not 
the self-complacency to thrust in the   
odds and ends of his personal           
philosophy1 as is done so annoyingly    
even by a writer of ,george ,meredith's 
consequence1 nor does he ever treat his 
readers with the almost simian          
impertinence so successfully affected by
 a ,bernard ,shaw4 ,if ,war and ,peace  
has any faults1 they are the faults of  
its virtues1 and spring mainly from an  
unmeasured prodigality of the creative  
gift4 ,as a result of ,tolstoy's        
excessive range of vision1 the orderly  
progress of events in that great novel  
is broken up somewhat by the profusion  
of shapes that monopolize the attention 
one at a time much as individual spots  
in a landscape do under the sweeping    
glare of the search-light4 ,yet although

 in the externalization of this crowding
 multitude of figures no necessary      
detail is lacking1 the grand movement as
 a whole is not swamped by the details4 
,the entire story is governed by the    
conception of events as an emanation of 
the cosmic will1 not merely as the      
consequence of impulses proceeding from 
a few puissant geniuses of the          
,napoleonic order4  ,it is quite in     
accord with such a view of history that 
the machinery of this voluminous epopee 
is not set in motion by a single        
conspicuous protagonist4 ,as a matter of
 fact1 it is somewhat baffling to try to
 name the principals in the story1 since
 in artistic importance all the figures 
are on an equal footing before their    
maker2 possibly the fact that ,tolstoy's
 ethical theory embodied the most       
persistent protest ever raised against  
the inequality of social estates proved 
not insignificant for his manner of     
characterization4 ,ethical justice1     
however1 is carried to an artistic      

fault1 for the feelings and reactions of
 human nature in so many diverse        
individuals lead to an intricacy and    
subtlety of motivation which obscures   
the organic causes through overzeal in  
making them patent4 ,anyway1 ,tolstoy   
authenticates himself in this novel as a
 past master of realism1 particularly in
 his utterly convincing depictment of   
,russian soldier life4 ,and as a painter
 of the battlefield he ranks1 allowing  
for the difference of the medium1 with  
,vasili ,verestschagin at his best4 ,it 
may be said in passing that these two   
,russian pacifists1 by their gruesome   
exposition of the horrors of war1       
aroused more sentiment against warfare  
than did all the spectacular and        
expensive peace conferences inaugurated 
by the crowned but hollow head of their 
nation1 and the splendid declamations of
 the possessors of1 or aspirants for1   
the late ,mr4 ,nobel's forty-thousand   
dollar prize4  ,like all true realists1 
,tolstoy took great pains to inform     

himself even about the minuti of his    
subjects1 but he never failed1 as did in
 large measure ,zola in ,la ,dbcle1 to  
infuse emotional meaning into the static
 monotony of facts and figures4 ,in his 
strong attachment for his own human     
creatures he is more nearly akin to the 
idealizing or sentimentalizing type of  
realists1 like ,daudet1 ,kipling1       
,hauptmann1 than to the downright       
matter-of-fact naturalists such as ,zola
 or ,gorki4 ,but to classify him at all 
would be wrong and futile1 since he was 
never leagued with literary creeds and  
cliques and always stood aloof from the 
heated theoretical controversies of his 
time even after he had hurled his great 
inclusive challenge to art4  ,war and   
,peace was written in ,tolstoy's        
happiest epoch1 at a time1 comparatively
 speaking1 of spiritual calm4 ,he had   
now reached some satisfying convictions 
in his religious speculations1 and felt 
that his personal life was moving up in 
the right direction4 ,his moral change  

is made plain in the contrast between   
two figures of the story1 ,prince       
,andrey and ,peter ,bezukhoff3 the      
ambitious worldling and the honest      
seeker after the right way4  ,in his    
second great novel1 ,anna ,karenina1 the
 undercurrent of the author's own moral 
experience has a distinctly greater     
carrying power4 ,it is through the      
earnest idealist1 ,levine1 that ,tolstoy
 has recorded his own aspirations4      
,characteristically1 he does not make   
,levine the central figure4  ,anna      
,karenina is undoubtedly far from       
pleasant reading1 since it is the       
tragical recital of an adulterous love4 
,but the situation1 with its appalling  
consequence of sorrow1 is seized in its 
fullest psychological depth and by this 
means saved from being in any way       
offensive4 ,the relation between the    
principals is viewed as by no means an  
ordinary liaison4 ,anna and ,vronsky are
 serious-minded1 honorable persons1 who 
have struggled conscientiously against  

their mutual enchantment1 but are swept 
out of their own moral orbits by the    
resistless force of ,fate4 ,this        
fatalistic element in the tragedy is    
variously emphasized2 so at the         
beginning of the story1 where ,anna1 in 
her emotional confusion still           
half-ignorant of her infatuation1       
suddenly realizes her love for ,vronsky2
 or in the scene at the horse races     
where he meets with an accident4        
,throughout the narrative the           
psychological argumentation is beyond   
criticism4 ,witness the description of  
,anna's husband1 a sort of              
cousin-in-kind of ,ibsen's ,thorvald    
,helmer1 reflecting on his future course
 after his wife's confession of her     
unfaithfulness4 ,or that other episode1 
perhaps the greatest of them all1 when  
,anna1 at the point of death1 joins     
together the hands of her husband and   
her lover4 ,or1 finally1 the picture of 
,anna as she deserts her home leaving   
her son behind in voluntary expiation of

 her wrong-doing1 an act1 by the way1   
that betrays a nicety of conscience far 
too subtle for the ,rhadamantine        
inquisitors who demand to know why1 if  
,anna would atone to ,karenin1 does she 
go with ,vronsky8 ,how perfectly true to
 life1 subsequently1 is the rapid       
dgringolade of this passion under the   
gnawing curse of the homeless1 workless1
 purposeless existence which little by  
little disunites the lovers6 ,only the  
end may be somewhat open to doubt1 with 
its metastasis of the heroine's         
character1--unless indeed we consider   
the sweeping change accounted for by the
 theory of duplex personality4 ,she     
herself believes that there are two     
quite different women alive in her1 the 
one steadfastly loyal to her            
obligations1 the other blindly driven   
into sin by the demon of her            
uncontrollable temperament4  ,in the    
power of analysis1 ,anna ,karenina is   
beyond doubt ,tolstoy's masterpiece1 and
 yet in its many discursive passages it 

already foreshadows the disintegration  
of his art1 or more precisely1 its      
ultimate capitulation to moral          
propagandism4 ,for it was while at work 
upon this great novel that the old      
perplexities returned to bewilder his   
soul4 ,in the tumultuous agitation of   
his conscience1 the crucial and         
fundamental questions1 ,why ,do ,we     
,live8 and ,how ,should ,we ,live8 could
 nevermore be silenced4 ,now a          
definitive attitude toward life is      
forming2 to it all the later works bear 
a vital relation4 ,and so1 in regard to 
their moral outlook1 ,tolstoy's books   
may fitly be divided into those written 
before and those written since his      
conversion4 ,anna ,karenina happens to  
be on the dividing line4  ,he was a man 
well past fifty1 of enviable social     
position1 in prosperous circumstances1  
widely celebrated for his art1 highly   
respected for his character1 and in his 
domestic life blessed with every reason 
for contentment4 ,yet all the gifts of  

fortune sank into insignificance before 
that vexing1 unanswered ,why8 ,in the   
face of a paralyzing universal          
aimlessness1 there could be to him no   
abiding sense of life in his personal   
enjoyments and desires4 ,the burden of  
life became still less endurable face to
 face with the existence of evil and    
with the wretchedness of our social     
arrangements4 ,with so much toil and    
trouble1 squalor1 ignorance1 crime1 and 
every conceivable kind of bodily and    
mental suffering all about me1 why      
should ,i be privileged to live in      
luxury and idleness8 ,this ever         
recurring question would not permit him 
to enjoy his possessions without        
self-reproach4 ,to think of thousands of
 fellowmen lacking the very necessaries1
 made affluence and its concomitant ways
 of living odious to him4 ,we know that 
in #ahhd1 or thereabouts1 he radically  
changed his views and modes of life so  
as to bring them into conformity with   
the laws of the ,gospel4 ,but before    

this conversion1 in the despairing      
anguish that attacked him after the     
completion of ,anna ,karenina1 he was   
frequently tempted to suicide4 ,although
 the thought of death was very terrible 
to him then and at all times1 still he  
would rather perish than live on in a   
world made heinous and hateful by the   
iniquity of men4 ,then it was that he   
searched for a reason why the vast      
proportion of humanity endure life1 nay 
enjoy it1 and why self-destruction is   
condemned by the general opinion1 and   
this in spite of the fact that for most 
mortals existence is even harder than it
 could have been for him1 since he at   
least was shielded from material want   
and lived amid loving souls4 ,the answer
 he found in the end seemed to lead by a
 straight road out of the wilderness of 
doubt and despair4 ,the great majority1 
so he ascertained1 are able to bear the 
burden of life because they heed the    
ancient injunction3 ora et labora2 they 
work and they believe4 ,might he not    

sweeten his lot after the same          
prescription8 ,being of a delicate      
spiritual sensibility1 he had long      
realized that people of the idle class  
were for the most part inwardly         
indifferent to religion and in their    
actions defiant of its spirit4 ,in the  
upper strata of society religious       
thought1 where it exists1 is largely    
adulterated or weakened2 sophisticated  
by education1 doctored by science1      
thinned out with worldly ambitions and  
with practical needs and considerations4
 ,the faith that supports life is found 
only among simple folk4 ,for faith1 to  
deserve the name1 must be absolute1     
uncritical1 unreasoning4 ,starting from 
these convictions as a basis1 ,tolstoy  
resolutely undertook to learn to        
believe2 a determination which led him1 
as it has led other ardent religionists1
 so far astray from ecclesiastical paths
 that in due course of time he was      
unavoidably excommunicated from his     
church4 ,his convictions made him a     

vehement antagonist of churchdom because
 of its stiffness of creed and laxness  
of practice4 ,for his own part he soon  
arrived at a full and absolute          
acceptance of the ,christian faith in   
what he considered to be its primitive  
and essential form4 ,in ,walk ,ye in the
 ,light1 7#ahic71 the reversion of a    
confirmed worldling to this original    
conception of ,christianity gives the   
story of the writer's own change of     
heart4  ,to the period under discussion 
belongs ,tolstoy's drama1 ,the ,power of
 ,darkness1 7#ahhf747bi7 ,it is a piece 
of matchless realism1 probably the first
 unmixedly naturalistic play ever       
wrought out4 ,it is brutally1 terribly  
true to life1 and that to life at its   
worst1 both in respect of the plot and  
the actors1 who are individualized down 
to the minutest characteristics of      
utterance and gesture4 ,withal it is a  
species of modern morality1 replete with
 a reformatory purpose that reflects    
deeply the author's tensely didactic    

state of mind4 ,his instructional zeal  
is heightened by intimate knowledge of  
the ,russian peasant1 on his good side  
as well as on his bad4 ,some of his     
short stories are crass pictures of the 
muzhik's bestial degradation1 veritable 
pattern cards of human and inhuman      
vices4 ,in other stories1 again1 the    
deep-seated piety of the muzhik1 and his
 patriarchal simplicity of heart are    
portrayed4 ,as instance1 the story of   
,two ,old ,men1 7#ahhe71 who are pledged
 to attain the ,holy ,land3 the one     
performs his vow to the letter1 the     
other1 much the godlier of the two1 is  
kept from his goal by a work of         
practical charity4 ,in another story a  
muzhik is falsely accused of murder and 
accepts his undeserved punishment in a  
devout spirit of non-resistance4 ,in a  
third1 a poor cobbler who intuitively   
walks in the light is deemed worthy of a
 visit from ,christ4    7#bi7 ,the only 
tragedy brought out during his life     
time4  ,in ,the ,power of ,darkness1 the

 darkest traits of peasant life prevail1
 yet the frightful picture is somehow   
,christianized1 as it were1 so that even
 the miscreant ,nikita1 in spite of his 
monstrous crimes1 is sure of our        
profound compassion4 ,we are gripped at 
the very heartstrings by that great     
confession scene where he stutters out  
his budget of malefactions1 forced by   
his awakened conscience and urged on by 
his old father3 ,speak out1 my child1   
speak it off your soul1 then you will   
feel easier4  ,the ,power of ,darkness  
was given its counterpart in the        
satirical comedy1 ,fruits of ,culture1  
7#ahhi74 ,the wickedness of refined     
society is more mercilessly excoriated  
than low-lived infamy4 ,but artistically
 considered the peasant tragedy is far  
superior to the society play4           
99       99       99       99       99  
,tolstoy was a pessimist both by        
temperament and philosophical           
persuasion4 ,this is made manifest among
 other things by the prominent place    

which the idea of ,death occupies in his
 writings4 ,his feelings are expressed  
with striking simplicity by one of the  
principal characters in ,war and ,peace3
 ,one must often think of death1 so that
 it may lose its terrors for us1 cease  
to be an enemy1 and become on the       
contrary a friend that delivers us from 
this life of miseries4 ,still1 in       
,tolstoy's stories1 death1 as a rule1 is
 a haunting spectre4 ,this conception   
comes to the fore even long after his   
conversion in a story like ,master and  
,man4 ,throughout his literary activity 
it has an obsessive hold on his mind4   
,even the shadowing of the animal mind  
by the ubiquitous spectre gives rise to 
a story3 ,cholstomjer1 ,the ,story of a 
,horse1 7#ahfa71 and in one of the      
earlier tales even the death of a tree  
is pictured4 ,death is most terrifying  
when1 denuded of its heroic             
embellishments in battle pieces such as 
,the ,death of a ,soldier 7,sebastopol7 
or the description of ,prince ,andrey's 

death in ,war and ,peace1 it is exposed 
in all its bare and grim loathsomeness4 
,such happens in the short novel        
published in #ahhf under the name of    
,the ,death of ,ivan ,ilyitch1--in point
 of literary merit one of ,tolstoy's    
greatest performances4 ,it is a plain   
tale about a middle-aged man of the     
official class1 happy in an unreflecting
 sort of way in the jog-trot of his work
 and domestic arrangements4 ,suddenly   
his fate is turned1--by a trite mishap  
resulting in a long1 hopeless sickness4 
,his people at first give him the most  
anxious care1 but as the illness drags  
on their devotion gradually abates1 the 
patient is neglected1 and soon almost no
 thought is given to him4 ,in the       
monotonous agony of his prostration1 the
 sufferer slowly comes to realize that  
he is dying1 while his household has    
gone back to its habitual ways mindless 
of him1 as though he were already dead1 
or had never lived4 ,all through this   
lengthened crucifixion he still clings  

to life1 and it is only when the family1
 gathering about him shortly before the 
release1 can but ill conceal their      
impatience for the end1 that ,ivan at   
last accepts his fate3 ,i will no longer
 let them suffer--,i will die2 ,i will  
deliver them and myself4 ,so he dies1   
and the world pursues its course        
unaltered1--in which consists the       
after-sting of this poignant tragedy4   
99       99       99       99       99  
,between the years #ahgi and #ahhf      
,tolstoy published the main portion of  
what may be regarded as his spiritual   
autobiography1 namely1 ,the ,confession1
 7#ahgi1 with a supplement in #ahhb71   
,the ,union and ,translation of the     
,four ,gospels1 7#ahha-b71 ,what ,do ,i 
,believe8 7also translated under the    
title ,my ,religion1 #ahhd7 and ,what   
,then ,must ,we ,do8 7#ahhf74 ,he was   
now well on the way to the logical      
ultimates of his ethical ideas1 and in  
the revulsion from artistic ambitions so
 plainly foreshown in a treatise in     

#ahhg3 ,what is ,true ,art8 he          
repudiated unequivocally all his earlier
 work so far as it sprang from any      
motives other than those of moral       
teaching4 ,without a clear appreciation 
of these facts a just estimate of ,the  
,kreutzer ,sonata 7#ahhi7 is impossible4
  ,the central character of the book is 
a commonplace1 rather well-meaning      
fellow who has been tried for the murder
 of his wife1 slain by him in a fit of  
insensate jealousy1 and has been        
acquitted because of the extenuating    
circumstances in the case4 ,the object  
of the story is to lay bare the causes  
of his crime4 ,tolstoy's ascetic        
proclivity had long since set him       
thinking about sex problems in general  
and in particular upon the ethics of    
marriage4 ,and by this time he had      
arrived at the conclusion that the      
demoralized state of our society is     
chiefly due to polygamy and polyandrism2
 corroboration of his uncompromising    
views on the need of social purity he   

finds in the evangelist ,matthew1       
v3#bg-bh1 where the difference between  
the old command and its new1 far more   
rigorous1 interpretation is bluntly     
stated3 ,ye have heard that it was said 
by them of old time1 ,thou shalt not    
commit adultery3 ,but ,i say unto you   
that whosoever looketh on a woman to    
lust after her hath committed adultery  
with her already in his heart4  ,now    
,tolstoy thinks that society1 far from  
concurring in the scriptural            
condemnation of lewdness1 caters        
systematically to the appetites of the  
voluptuary4 ,if ,tolstoy is right in his
 diagnosis1 then the euphemistic term   
social evil has far wider reaches of    
meaning than those to which it is       
customarily applied4 ,with the head     
person in ,the ,kreutzer ,sonata1       
,tolstoy regards society as no better   
than a maison de tolrance conducted on a
 very comprehensive scale4 ,women are   
reared with the main object of alluring 
men through charms and accomplishments2 

the arts of the hairdresser1 the        
dressmaker1 and milliner1 as well as the
 exertions of governesses1 music        
masters1 and linguists all converge     
toward the same aim3 to impart the power
 of attracting men4 ,between the woman  
of the world and the professional       
courtezan the main difference in the    
light of this view lies in the length of
 the service4 ,pozdnicheff accordingly  
divides femininity into long term and   
short term prostitutes1 which rather    
fantastic classification ,tolstoy       
follows up intrepidly to its last       
logical consequence4  ,the main idea of 
,the ,kreutzer ,sonata1 as stated in the
 postscript1 is that sexless life is    
best4 ,a recommendation of celibacy as  
mankind's highest ideal to be logical   
should involve a wish for the           
disappearance of human life from the    
globe4 ,a world-view of such pessimistic
 sort prevents itself from the          
forfeiture of all bonds with humanity   
only by its concomitant reasoning that a

 race for whom it were better not to be 
is the very one that will struggle      
desperately against its summum bonum4   
,since race suicide1 then1 is a hopeless
 desideratum1 the reformer must turn to 
more practicable methods if he would at 
least alleviate the worst of our social 
maladjustments4 ,idleness is the mother 
of all mischief1 because it superinduces
 sensual self-indulgence4 ,therefore we 
must suppress anything that makes for   
leisure and pleasure4 ,at this point we 
grasp the meaning of ,tolstoy's vehement
 recoil from art4 ,it is1 to a great    
extent1 the strong-willed resistance of 
a highly impressionable puritan against 
the enticements of beauty1--their       
distracting and disquieting effect1 and 
principally their power of sensuous     
suggestion4  ,the last extensive work   
published by ,tolstoy was ,resurrection1
 7#ahhi74 ,in artistic merit it is not  
on a level with ,war and ,peace and     
,anna ,karenina1 nor can this be        
wondered at1 considering the opinion    

about the value of art that had         
meanwhile ripened in the author4        
,resurrection was written primarily for 
a constructive moral purpose1 yet the   
subject matter was such as to secrete1  
unintendedly1 a corrosive criticism of  
social and religious cant4 ,the         
satirical connotation of the novel could
 not have been more grimly brought home 
than through this fact1 that the hero by
 his unswerving allegiance to ,christian
 principles of conduct greatly shocks1  
at first1 our sense of the proprieties1 
instead of eliciting our enthusiastic   
admiration4 ,in spite of our highest    
moral notions ,prince ,nekhludoff1 like 
that humbler follower of the voice of   
conscience in ,gerhart ,hauptmann's     
novel1 impresses us as a ,fool in       
,christ4 ,the story1 itself1 leads by   
degrees from the under-world of crime   
and punishment to a great spiritual     
elevation4 ,maslowa1 a drunken          
street-walker1 having been tried on a   
charge of murder1 is wrongfully         

sentenced to transportation for life1   
because--the jury is tired out and the  
judge in a hurry to visit his mistress4 
,prince ,nekhludoff1 sitting on that    
jury1 recognizes in the victim of       
justice a girl whose downfall he himself
 had caused4 ,he is seized by penitence 
and resolves to follow the convict to   
,siberia1 share her sufferings1 dedicate
 his life to her redemption4 ,she has   
sunk so low that his hope of reforming  
her falters1 yet true to his resolution 
he offers to marry her4 ,although the   
offer is rejected1 yet the suggestion of
 a new life which it brings begins to   
work a change in the woman4 ,in the     
progress of the story her better nature 
gradually gains sway until a thorough   
moral revolution is completed4          
,resurrection derives its special value 
from its clear demonstration of those   
rules of conduct to which the author was
 straining with every moral fiber to    
conform his own life4 ,from his ethical 
speculations and social experiments are 

projected figures like that of ,maria   
,paulovna1 a rich and beautiful woman   
who prefers to live like a common       
workingwoman and is drawn by her social 
conscience into the revolutionary       
vortex4 ,in this figure1 and more       
definitely still in the political       
convict ,simonson1 banished because of  
his educational work among the common   
people1 ,tolstoy studies for the first  
time the so-called intellectual type of 
revolutionist4 ,his view of the         
intellectuals is sympathetic1 on the    
whole4 ,they believe that evil springs  
from ignorance4 ,their agitation issues 
from the highest principles1 and they   
are capable of any self-sacrifice for   
the general weal4 ,still ,tolstoy1 as a 
thoroughly anti-political reformer1     
deprecates their organized movement4    
,altogether1 he repudiated the systems  
of social reconstruction that go by the 
name of socialism1 because he relied for
 the regeneration of society wholly and 
solely upon individual self-elevation4  

,in an essential respect he was         
nevertheless a socialist1 inasmuch as he
 strove for the ideal of universal      
equality4 ,his social philosophy1 bound 
up inseparably with his personal        
religious evolution1 is laid down in a  
vast number of essays1 letters1         
sketches1 tracts1 didactic tales1 and   
perhaps most comprehensively in those   
autobiographical documents already      
mentioned4 ,sociologically the most     
important of these is a book on the     
problem of property1 entitled1 ,what    
,then ,must ,we ,do8 7#ahhf71 which     
expounds the passage in ,luke iii3#aj1  
#aa3 ,and the people asked him1 saying1 
,what shall we do then8 ,he answered and
 saith unto them1 ,he that hath two     
coats1 let him impart to him that hath  
none2 and he that hath meat1 let him do 
likewise4 ,not long before that1 he had 
thought of devoting himself entirely to 
charitable work1 but practical          
experiments at ,moscow demonstrated to  
him the futility of almsgiving4         

,speaking on that point to his ,english 
biographer1 ,aylmer ,maude17#cj7 he     
remarked3 ,all such activity1 if people 
attribute importance to it1 is          
worthless4 ,when his interviewer        
insisted that the destitute have to be  
provided for somehow and that the ,count
 himself was in the habit of giving     
money to beggars1 the latter replied3   
,yes1 but ,i do not imagine that ,i am  
doing good6 ,i only do it for myself1   
because ,i know that ,i have no right to
 be well off while they are in misery4  
,it is worth mention in passing that    
during the famine of #ahia-b this       
determined opponent of organized        
charity1 in noble inconsistency with his
 theories1 led in the dispensation of   
relief to the starving population of    
,middle ,russia4    7#cj7 ,the ,life of 
,tolstoy1 ,later ,years1 p4 #fdc f4     
,but in ,what ,then ,must ,we ,do8 he   
treats the usual organized dabbling in  
charity as utterly preposterous3 ,give  
away all you have or else you can do no 

good4 444 ,if ,i give away a hundred    
thousand and still withhold five hundred
 thousand1 ,i am far from acting in the 
spirit of charity1 and remain a factor  
of social injustice and evil4 ,at the   
sight of the freezing and hungering ,i  
must still feel responsible for their   
plight1 and feel that since we should   
live in conditions where that evil can  
be abstained from1 it is impossible for 
me in the position in which ,i          
deliberately place myself to be anything
 other than a source of general evil4   
,it was chiefly due to the influence of 
two peasants1 named ,sutayeff and       
,bondareff1 that ,tolstoy decided by a  
path of religious reasoning to abandon  
parasitical existence1--that is1 to     
sacrifice all prerogatives of his wealth
 and station and to share the life of   
the lowly4 ,he reasoned as follows3     
,since ,i am to blame for the existence 
of social wrong1 ,i can lessen my blame 
only by making myself like unto those   
that labor and are heavy-laden4         

,economically1 ,tolstoy reasons from    
this fallacy3 ,if all men do not        
participate equitably in the menial work
 that has to be performed in the world1 
it follows that a disproportionate      
burden of work falls upon the shoulders 
of the more defenseless portion of      
humanity4 ,whether this undue amount of 
labor be exacted in the form of chattel 
slavery1 or1 which is scarcely less     
objectionable1 in the form of the       
virtual slavery imposed by modern       
industrial conditions1 makes no material
 difference4 ,the evil conditions are   
bound to continue so long as the        
instincts that make for idleness prevail
 over the co-operative impulses4 ,the   
only remedy lies in the simplification  
of life in the upper strata of the      
social body1 overwork in the laboring   
classes being the direct result of the  
excessive demands for the pleasures and 
luxuries of life in the upper classes4  
,to ,bondareff in particular ,tolstoy   
confessedly owes the conviction that the

 best preventive for immorality is      
physical labor1 for which reason the    
lower classes are less widely removed   
from grace than the upper4 ,bondareff   
maintained on scriptural grounds that   
everybody should employ at least a part 
of his time in working the land4 ,this  
view ,tolstoy shared definitely after   
#ahhd4 ,not only did he devote a regular
 part of his day to agricultural labor2 
he learned1 in addition1 shoemaking and 
carpentry1 meaning to demonstrate by his
 example that it is feasible to return  
to those patriarchal conditions under   
which the necessities of life were      
produced by the consumer himself4 ,from 
this time forth he modelled his habits  
more and more upon those of the common  
rustic4 ,he adopted peasant apparel and 
became extremely frugal in his diet4    
,although by natural taste he was no    
scorner of the pleasures of the table1  
he now eliminated one luxury after      
another4 ,about this time he also turned
 strict vegetarian1 then gave up the use

 of wine and spirits1 and ultimately    
even tobacco1 of which he had been very 
fond1 was made to go the way of flesh4  
,he practiced this self-abnegation in   
obedience to the ,law of ,life which he 
interpreted as a stringent renunciation 
of physical satisfactions and personal  
happiness4 ,nor did he shirk the        
ultimate conclusion to which his        
premises led3 if the ,law of ,life      
imposes the suppression of all natural  
desires and appetites and commands the  
voluntary sacrifice of every form of    
property and power1 it must be clear    
that life itself is devoid of sense and 
utterly undesirable4 ,and so it is      
expressly stated in his ,thoughts47#ca7 
7#ca7 ,no4 #dcd4                     99 
99       99       99       99  ,to what 
extent ,tolstoy was a true ,christian   
believer may best be gathered from his  
own writings1 ,what ,do ,i ,believe8    
7#ahhd71 ,on ,life1 7#ahhg71 and ,the   
,kingdom of ,god is within ,you1        
7#ahic74 ,although at the age of        

seventeen he had ceased to be orthodox1 
there can be no question whatever that  
throughout his whole life religion      
remained the deepest source of his      
inspiration4 ,by the early eighties he  
had emerged from that acute scepticism  
that well-nigh cost him life and reason1
 and had1 outwardly at least1 made his  
peace with the church1 attending        
services regularly1 and observing the   
feasts and the fasts2 here again in     
imitating the muzhik in his religious   
practices he strove apparently to attain
 also to the muzhik's actual gift of    
credulity4 ,but in this endeavor his    
superior culture proved an impediment to
 him1 and his widening doctrinal        
divergence from the established church  
finally drew upon his head1 in #ahia1   
the official curse of the ,holy ,synod4 
,and yet a leading religious journal was
 right1 shortly after his death1 in this
 comment upon the religious meaning of  
his life3 ,if ,christians everywhere    
should put their religious beliefs into 

practice with the simplicity and        
sincerity of ,tolstoy1 the entire       
religious1 moral1 and social life of the
 world would be revolutionized in a     
month4 ,the orthodox church expelled him
 from its communion because of his      
radicalism2 but in his case radicalism  
meant indeed the going to the roots of  
,christian religion1 to the original    
foundations of its doctrines4 ,in the   
teachings of the primitive church there 
presented itself to ,tolstoy a          
dumfoundingly simple code for the       
attainment of moral perfection4 ,hence  
arose his opposition to the established 
church which seemed to have strayed so  
widely from its own fundamentals4       
,since ,tolstoy's life aimed at the     
progressive exercise of self-sacrifice1 
his religious belief could be no gospel 
of joy4 ,in fact1 his is a sad1 gray1   
ascetic religion1 wholly devoid of      
poetry and emotional uplift4 ,he did not
 learn to believe in the divinity of    
,christ nor in the existence of a ,god  

in any definite sense personal1 and it  
is not even clear whether he believed in
 an after-life4 ,and yet he did not     
wrongfully call himself a ,christian1   
for the mainspring of his faith and his 
labor was the message of ,christ        
delivered to his disciples in the       
,sermon on the ,mount4 ,this1 for       
,tolstoy1 contained all the philosophy  
and the theology of which the modern    
world stands in need1 since in the      
precept of non-resistance is joined     
forever the issue between the ,law and  
the ,gospel3 ,ye have heard that it hath
 been said1 ,an eye for an eye1 and a   
tooth for a tooth3 ,but ,i say unto you1
 ,that ye resist not evil3 but whosoever
 shall smite thee on the right cheek1   
turn to him the other also4  ,and       
farther on3 ,ye have heard that it hath 
been said1 ,thou shalt love thy         
neighbor1 and hate thine enemy4 ,but ,i 
say unto you4 ,love your enemies1 bless 
them that curse you1 do good to them    
that hate you1 and pray for them that   

despitefully use you1 and persecute you4
 444  ,in this commandment ,tolstoy     
found warrant for unswerving forbearance
 toward every species of private and    
corporate aggression4 ,offenders against
 individuals or the commonwealth deserve
 nothing but pity4 ,prisons should be   
abolished and criminals never punished4 
,tolstoy went so far as to declare that 
even if he saw his own wife or daughters
 being assaulted1 he would abstain from 
using force in their defense4 ,the      
infliction of the death penalty was to  
him the most odious of crimes4 ,no life1
 either human or animal1 should be      
wilfully destroyed4  ,the doctrine of   
non-resistance removes every conceivable
 excuse for war between the nations4 ,a 
people is as much bound as is an        
individual by the injunction3 ,whosoever
 shall smite thee on the right cheek1   
turn to him the other also4 ,war is not 
to be justified on patriotic grounds1   
for patriotism1 far from being a virtue1
 is an enlarged and unduly glorified    

form of selfishness4 ,consistently with 
his convictions1 ,tolstoy put forth his 
strength not for the glory of his nation
 but for the solidarity of mankind4     
,the cornerstones of ,tolstoy's         
religion1 then1 were these three        
articles of faith4 ,first1 ,true ,faith 
gives ,life4 ,second1 ,man must live by 
labor4 ,third1 ,evil must never be      
resisted by means of evil4              
99       99       99       99       99  
,outside of the sphere of religious     
thought it is inaccurate to speak of a  
specific ,tolstoyan philosophy1 and it  
is impossible for the student to        
subscribe unconditionally to the        
hackneyed formula of the books that     
,tolstoy will be remembered as perhaps  
the most profound influence of his day  
on human thought4 ,yet the statement    
might be made measurably true if it were
 modified in accordance with the        
important reservation made earlier in   
this sketch4 ,in the field of thought he
 was not an original explorer4 ,he was  

great only as the promulgator1 not as   
the inventor1 of ideas4 ,his work has   
not enriched the wisdom of man by a     
single new thought1 nor was he a        
systematizer and expounder of thought or
 a philosopher4 ,in fact he possessed   
slight familiarity with philosophical   
literature4 ,among the older            
metaphysicians his principal guide was  
,spinoza1 and in more modern speculative
 science he did not advance beyond      
,schopenhauer4 ,to the latter he was not
 altogether unlike in his mental temper4
 ,at least he showed himself indubitably
 a pessimist in his works by placing in 
fullest relief the bad side of the      
social state4 ,we perceive the          
pessimistic disposition also through his
 personal behavior1 seeing how he       
desponded under the discords of life1   
how easily he lost courage whenever he  
undertook to cope with practical        
problems1 and how sedulously he avoided 
the contact with temptations4 ,it was   
only by an almost total withdrawal from 

the world1 and by that entire relief    
from its daily and ordinary affairs     
which he owed to the devotion of his    
wife that ,tolstoy was enabled during   
his later years to look upon the world  
less despairingly4  ,like his theology1 
so1 too1 his civic and economic creed   
was marked by the utmost and altogether 
too primitive simplicity4 ,political    
questions were of slight interest to    
him1 unless they touched upon his vital 
principles4 ,if1 therefore1 we turn from
 his very definite position in matters  
of individual conduct to his political  
views1 we shall find that he was wanting
 in a program of practical changes4 ,his
 only positive contribution to economic 
discussion was a persistent advocacy of 
agrarian reform4 ,under the influence of
 ,henry ,george he became an eloquent   
pleader for the single tax and the      
nationalization of the land4 ,this      
question he discussed in numerous       
places1 with especial force and         
clearness in a long article entitled ,a 

,great ,iniquity47#cb7 ,he takes the    
view that the mission of the ,state1 if 
it have any at all1 can only consist in 
guaranteeing the rights of every one of 
its denizens1 but that in actual fact   
the ,state protects only the rights of  
the propertied4 ,intelligent and        
right-minded citizens must not conspire 
with the ,state to ride rough-shod over 
the helpless majority4 ,keenly alive to 
the unalterable tendency of organized   
power to abridge the rights of          
individuals and to dominate both their  
material and spiritual existence1       
,tolstoy fell into the opposite extreme 
and would have abolished with a clean   
sweep all factors of social control1    
including the right of property and the 
powers of government1 and transformed   
society into a community of equals and  
brothers1 relying for its peace and     
well-being upon a universal love of     
liberty and justice4    7#cb7 ,printed  
in the 7,london7 ,times of ,september   
#aj1 #aije4  ,by his disbelief in       

authority1 the rejection of the         
socialists' schemes of reconstruction1  
his mistrust of fixed institutions and  
reliance on individual right-mindedness 
for the maintenance of the common good1 
,tolstoy in the sphere of civic thought 
separated himself from the political    
socialists by the whole diameter of     
initial principle3 he might not unjustly
 be classified1 therefore1 as an        
anarchist1 if this definition were      
neither too narrow nor too wide4 ,the   
,christian ,socialists might claim him1 
because he aspires ardently to ideals   
essentially ,christian in their nature1 
and there is surely truth in the thesis 
that every thinker who understands and  
earnestly accepts the teaching of the   
,master is at heart a socialist4 ,at the
 same time1 ,christianity and ,socialism
 do not travel the whole way together4  
,for a religion that enjoins patience   
and submission can hardly be conducive  
to the full flowering of ,socialism4    
,and ,tolstoy's attitude towards the    

church differs radically from that of   
the ,christian ,socialists4 ,on the     
whole one had best abstain from         
classifying men of genius4  ,the base of
 ,tolstoy's social creed was the        
non-recognition of private property4    
,the effect of the present system is to 
maintain the inequality of men and      
thereby to excite envy and stir up      
hatred among them4 ,eager to set a      
personal example and precedent1 ,tolstoy
 rendered himself nominally penniless by
 making all his property1 real and      
personal1 over to his wife and children4
 ,likewise he abdicated his copyrights4 
,thus he reduced himself to legal       
pauperism with a completeness of success
 that cannot but stir with envy the     
bosom of any philanthropist who shares  
,mr4 ,andrew ,carnegie's conviction that
 to die rich is to die disgraced4       
,tolstoy's detractors have cast a       
plausible suspicion upon his sincerity4 
,they pointed out among other things    
that his relinquishment of pecuniary    

profit in his books was apparent1 not   
real4 ,since ,russia has no copyright   
conventions with other countries1 it was
 merely making a virtue of necessity to 
authorize freely the translation of his 
works into foreign languages4 ,as for   
the ,russian editions of his writings1  
it is said that in so far as the heavy  
hand of the censor did not prevent1 the 
,countess1 as her husband's financial   
agent1 managed quite skilfully to       
exploit them4                     99    
99       99       99       99           
,altogether1 did ,tolstoy practice what 
he professed8 ,inconsistency between    
principles and conduct is a not uncommon
 frailty of genius1 as is notoriously   
illustrated by ,tolstoy's real spiritual
 progenitor1 ,jean ,jacques ,rousseau4  
,now there are many discreditable       
stories in circulation about the muzhik 
lord of ,yasnaya ,polyana4 ,he urged    
upon others the gospel commands3 ,lay   
not up for yourselves treasures upon    
earth and3 ,take what ye have and give  

to the poor1 and for his own part lived1
 according to report1 in sumptuous      
surroundings4 ,he went ostentatiously on
 pilgrimages to holy places1 barefooted 
but with an expert pedicure attending   
him4 ,he dressed in a coarse peasant    
blouse1 but underneath it wore fine silk
 and linen4 ,he was a vegetarian of the 
strictest observance1 yet so much of an 
epicure that his taste for unseasonable 
dainties strained the domestic          
resources4 ,he preached simplicity1 and 
according to rumor dined off priceless  
plate2 taught the equality of men1 and  
was served by lackies in livery4 ,he    
abstained from alcohol and tobacco1 but 
consumed six cups of strong coffee at a 
sitting4 ,finally1 he extolled the      
sexless life and was the father of      
thirteen children4 ,it was even murmured
 that notwithstanding his professed     
affection for the muzhik and his        
incessant proclamation of universal     
equality1 the peasantry of ,yasnaya     
,polyana was the most wretchedly-treated

 to be found in the whole province and  
that the extortionate landlordism of the
 ,tolstoys was notorious throughout the 
empire4  ,much of this1 to be sure1 is  
idle gossip1 unworthy of serious        
attention4 ,nevertheless1 there is      
evidence enough to show that ,tolstoy's 
insistence upon a literal acceptance of 
earlier ,christian doctrines led him    
into unavoidable inconsistencies and    
shamed him into a tragical sense of     
dishonesty4  ,unquestionably ,tolstoy   
lived very simply and laboriously for a 
man of great rank1 means1 and fame1 but 
his life was neither hard nor cramped4  
,having had no personal experience of   
garret and hovel1 he could have no      
first-hand practical knowledge of the   
sting of poverty1 nor could he obtain   
hardship artificially by imposing upon  
himself a mild imitation of physical    
discomfort4 ,for the true test of penury
 is not the suffering of to-day but the 
oppressive dread of to-morrow4 ,his     
ostensible muzhik existence1 wanting in 

none of the essentials of civilization1 
was a romance that bore to the real     
squalid pauperism of rural ,russia about
 the same relation that the bucolic     
make-belief of ,boucher's or ,watteau's 
swains and shepherdesses bore to the    
unperfumed truth of a sheep-farm or a   
hog-sty4 ,as time passed1 and the sage  
turned his thoughts to a more rigid     
enforcement of his renunciations1 it was
 no easy task for a devoted wife to     
provide comfort for him without shaking 
him too rudely out of his fond illusion 
that he was enduring privations4  ,after
 all1 then1 his practice did not tally  
with his theory2 and this consciousness 
of living contrary to his own teachings 
was a constant source of unhappiness    
which no moral quibbles of his friends  
could still4  ,yet no man could be      
farther from being a hypocrite4 ,if at  
last he broke down under a burden of    
conscience1 it was a burden imposed by  
the reality of human nature which makes 
it impossible for any man to live up to 

intentions of such rigor as ,tolstoy's4 
,from the start he realized that he did 
not conform his practice entirely to his
 teachings1 and as he grew old he was   
resolved that having failed to harmonize
 his life with his beliefs he would at  
least corroborate his sincerity by his  
manner of dying4 ,even in this1 however1
 he was to be thwarted4 ,in his dramatic
 ending1 still plainly remembered1 we   
feel a grim consistency with the        
lifelong defeat of his will to suffer4  
,early in #aiaj a student by the name of
 ,manzos addressed a rebuke to ,tolstoy 
for simulating the habits of the poor1  
denouncing his mode of life as a form of
 mummery4 ,he challenged the sage to    
forsake his comforts and the affections 
of his family1 and to go forth and beg  
his way from place to place4 ,do this1  
entreated the young fanatic1 and you    
will be the first true man after        
,christ4 ,with his typical              
large-heartedness1 ,tolstoy accepted the
 reproof and said in the course of his  

long reply37#cc7 444 ,the fact that ,i  
am living with wife and daughter in     
terrible and shameful conditions of     
luxury when poverty surrounds me on all 
sides1 torments me ever more and more1  
and there is not a day when ,i am not   
thinking of following your advice4 ,i   
thank you very1 very much for your      
letter4 ,as a matter of fact1 he had    
more than once before made ready to put 
his convictions to a fiery proof by a   
final sacrifice1--leaving his home and  
spending his remaining days in utter    
solitude4 ,but when he finally proceeded
 to carry out this ascetic intention and
 actually set out on a journey to some  
vague and lonely destination1 he was    
foiled in his purpose4 ,if ever         
,tolstoy's behavior irresistibly        
provoked misrepresentation of his       
motives it was by this somewhat         
theatrical hegira4 ,the fugitive left   
,yasnaya ,polyana1 not alone1 but with  
his two favorite companions1 his        
daughter ,alexandra and a young         

,hungarian physician who for some time  
had occupied the post of private        
secretary to him4 ,after paying a       
farewell visit to his sister1 a nun     
cloistered in ,shamardin1 he made a     
start for the ,trans-,caucasus4 ,his    
idea was to go somewhere near the       
,tolstoy colony at the ,black ,sea4 ,but
 in an early stage of the journey1 a    
part of which was made in an ordinary   
third-class railway compartment1 the old
 man was overcome by illness and        
fatigue4 ,he was moved to a trackman's  
hut at the station of ,astopovo1 not    
farther than eighty miles from his home1
 and here1--surrounded by his hastily   
summoned family and tenderly nursed for 
five days1--he expired4 ,thus he was    
denied the summit of martyrdom to which 
he had aspired1--a lonely death1        
unminded of men4    7#cc7 ,february #ag1
 #aiaj4                     99       99 
99       99       99  ,even a summary   
review like this of ,tolstoy's life and 
labors cannot be concluded without some 

consideration of his final attitude     
toward the esthetic embodiment of       
civilization4 ,the development of his   
philosophy of self-abnegation had led   
irresistibly1 as we have seen1 to the   
condemnation of all self-regarding      
instincts4 ,among these1 ,art appeared  
to him as one of the most insidious4 ,he
 warned against the cultivation of the  
beautiful on the ground that it results 
in the suppression and destruction of   
the moral sense4 ,already in #ahhc it   
was known that he had made up his mind  
to abandon his artistic aspirations out 
of loyalty to his moral theory1 and     
would henceforth dedicate his talents   
exclusively to the propagation of       
humanitarian views4 ,in vain did the    
dean of ,russian letters1 ,turgenieff1  
appeal to him with a death-bed message3 
,my friend1 great writer of the         
,russians1 return to literary work6     
,heed my prayer4 ,tolstoy stood firm in 
his determination4 ,nevertheless1 his   
genius refused to be throttled by his   

conscience2 he could not paralyze his   
artistic powers2 he could merely bend   
them to his moral aims4  ,as a logical  
corollary to his opposition to art for  
art's sake1 ,tolstoy cast from him all  
his own writings antedating             
,confession1--and denounced all of them 
as empty manifestations of worldly      
conceit4 ,his authorship of that        
immortal novel1 ,war and ,peace1 filled 
him with shame and remorse4 ,his views  
on ,art are plainly and forcibly        
expounded in the famous treatise on     
,what is ,art8 and in the one on        
,shakespeare4 ,in both he maintains that
 ,art1 no matter of what sort1 should   
serve the sole purpose of bringing men  
nearer to each other in the common      
purpose of right living4 ,hence1 no art 
work is legitimate without a pervasive  
moral design4 ,the only true touchstone 
of an art work is the uplifting strength
 that proceeds from it4 ,therefore1 a   
painting like the ,angelus1 or a poem   
like ,the ,man with the ,hoe would      

transcend in worth the creations of a   
,michael ,angelo or a ,heinrich ,heine  
even as the merits of ,sophocles1       
,shakespeare1 and ,goethe are outmatched
 in ,tolstoy's judgment by those of     
,victor ,hugo1 ,charles ,dickens1 and   
,george ,eliot4 ,by the force of this   
nave reasoning and his theoretical      
antipathy toward true art1 he was led to
 see in ,uncle ,tom's ,cabin the        
veritable acme of literary perfection1  
for the reason that this book wielded   
such an enormous and noble influence    
upon the most vital question of its day4
 ,he strongly discountenanced the       
literary practice of revamping ancient  
themes1 believing with ,ibsen that      
modern writers should impart their ideas
 through the medium of modern life4 ,yet
 at the same time he was up in arms     
against the self-styled moderns6 ,they  
took their incentives from science1 and 
this ,tolstoy decried1 because science  
did not fulfill its mission of teaching 
people how rightly to live4 ,in this    

whole matter he reasoned doggedly from  
fixed ideas1 no matter to what ultimates
 the argument would carry him4 ,for     
instance1 he did not stick at branding  
,shakespeare as an utter barbarian1 and 
to explain the reverence for such       
disgusting plays as ,king ,lear as a    
crass demonstration of imitative        
hypocrisy4  ,art in general is a        
practice aiming at the production of the
 beautiful4 ,but what is beautiful8     
asked ,tolstoy4 ,the current definitions
 he pronounced wrong because they were  
formulated from the standpoint of the   
pleasure-seeker4 ,such at least has been
 the case since the ,renaissance4 ,from 
that time forward1 ,art1 like all cults 
of pleasure1 has been evil4 ,to the     
pleasure-seeker1 the beautiful is that  
which is enjoyable2 hence he appraises  
works of art according to their ability 
to procure enjoyment4 ,in ,tolstoy's    
opinion this is no less absurd than if  
we were to estimate the nutritive value 
of food-stuffs by the pleasure          

accompanying their consumption4 ,so he  
baldly declares that we must abolish    
beauty as a criterion of art1 or        
conversely1 must establish truth as the 
single standard of beauty4 ,the heroine 
of my stories whom ,i strive to         
represent in all her beauty1 who was    
ever beautiful1 is so1 and will remain  
so1 is ,truth4  ,his views on art have a
 certain analogy with two modern        
schools1--much against his will1 since  
he strenuously disavows and deprecates  
everything modern2 they make us think on
 the one hand of the naturalists1       
inasmuch as like them ,tolstoy eschews  
all intentional graces of style and     
diction3 and on the other hand of the   
impressionists1 with whom he seems      
united by his fundamental definition of 
art1 namely that it is the expression of
 a dominant emotion calculated to       
reproduce itself in the reader or       
beholder4 ,lacking1 however1 a deep and 
catholic understanding for art1         
,tolstoy1 in contrast with the modern   

impressionists1 would restrict artists  
to the expression of a single type of   
sentiments1 those that reside in the    
sphere of religious consciousness4 ,to  
him art1 as properly conceived and      
practiced1 must be ancillary to         
religion1 and its proper gauge is the   
measure of its agreement with accepted  
moral teachings4 ,remembering1 then1 the
 primitive form of belief to which      
,tolstoy contrived to attain1 we find   
ourselves face to face with a theory of 
art which sets up as the final arbiter  
the man unspoiled by culture1 and he1 in
 ,tolstoy's judgment1 is the ,russian   
muzhik4                     99       99 
99       99       99  ,this course of   
reasoning on art is in itself sufficient
 to show the impossibility for any      
modern mind of giving sweeping assent to
 ,tolstoy's teachings4 ,and a like      
difficulty would be experienced if we   
tried to follow him in his meditations  
on any other major interest of life4    
,seeking with a tremendous earnestness  

of conscience to reduce the bewildering 
tangle of human affairs to elementary   
simplicity1 he enmeshed himself in a new
 network of contradictions4 ,the effect 
was disastrous for the best part of his 
teaching2 his own extremism stamped as a
 hopeless fantast a man incontestably   
gifted by nature1 as few men have been  
in history1 with the cardinal virtues of
 a sage1 a reformer1 and a missionary of
 social justice4 ,because of this       
extremism1 his voice was doomed to      
remain that of one crying in the        
wilderness4  ,the world could not do    
better than to accept ,tolstoy's        
fundamental prescriptions3 simplicity of
 living1 application to work1 and       
concentration upon moral culture4 ,but  
to apply his radical scheme to existing 
conditions would amount to a            
self-stultification of the race1 for it 
would entail the unpardonably sinful    
sacrifice of some of the finest and most
 hard-won achievements of human         
progress4 ,for our quotidian            

difficulties his example promises no    
solution4 ,the great mass of us are not 
privileged to test our individual       
schemes of redemption in the leisured   
security of an ideal experiment station2
 not for every man is there a ,yasnaya  
,polyana1 and the ,sophia ,andreyevnas  
are thinly sown in the matrimonial      
market4  ,but even though ,tolstoyism   
will not serve as a means of solving the
 great social problems1 it supplies a   
helpful method of social criticism4 ,and
 its value goes far beyond that3 the    
force of his influence was too great not
 to have strengthened enormously the    
moral conscience of the world2 he has   
played1 and will continue to play1 a    
leading part in the establishing and    
safeguarding of democracy4 ,after all1  
we do not have to separate meticulously 
what is true in ,tolstoy's teaching from
 what is false in order to acknowledge  
him as a ,voice of his epoch4 ,for as   
,lord ,morley puts the matter in the    
case of ,jean ,jacques ,rousseau3 ,there

 are some teachers whose distinction is 
neither correct thought1 nor an eye for 
the exigencies of practical             
organization1 but simply depth and      
fervor of the moral sentiment1 bringing 
with it the indefinable gift of touching
 many hearts with love of virtue and the
 things of the spirit4                  
,transcriber's ,note3      ,the         
following is a list of corrections made 
to the original4     ,the first line is 
the original line1 the second the       
corrected one4    sublimal regions of   
the inner life1 and that their work     
somehow brings   subliminal regions of  
the inner life1 and that their work     
somehow brings    in the writings of the
 de-gallisized ,frenchman1 ,count       
,joseph ,arthur   in the writings of the
 de-gallicized ,frenchman1 ,count       
,joseph ,arthur    the same time1 the   
universal decreptitude prevented the    
despiser of his   the same time1 the    
universal decrepitude prevented the     
despiser of his    artistic design was  

dimmed by the obstrusive didactic       
purpose4   artistic design was dimmed by
 the obtrusive didactic purpose4