,transcriber's ,notes3 ,italic text is denoted by underscores and bold text by equal signs4 ,small uppercase have been replaced with regular uppercase4 ,blank pages have been eliminated4 ,variations in spelling and hyphenation have been left as in the original4 ,my ,visit to ,tolstoy ,five ,discourses ,by ,rabbi ,joseph ,krauskopf1 ,d4 ,d4 ,illustration ,philadelphia #aiaa ,my ,visit to ,tolstoy4 ,a ,,discourse1 ,,at ,,temple ,,keneseth ,,israel1 ,,by ,,rabbi ,,joseph ,,krauskopf1 ,d4 ,d4 ,philadelphia1 ,december #aath1 #aiaj4 ,my visit to ,russia and its purpose4 ,in the summer of #ahid ,i visited ,russia for the purpose of proposing to the ,czar a plan that might end or lessen the terrible persecution of the ,jews in his realm4 ,the plan intended was a removal of the persecuted ,jews to unoccupied lands in the interior1 there to be colonized on farms1 and to be maintained1 until self-supporting1 by their correligionists of other parts of the world4 ,refused admission by ,russian government4 ,learning that1 because a ,jew1 ,i would not be admitted into ,russia1 ,i conferred with ,president ,cleveland and ,secretary ,gresham1 both of whom heartily endorsed my plan and resolved to intervene4 ,the ,russian ,minister at ,washington declaring his powerlessness to vis my passport1 our ,secretary of ,state cabled to the ,american ,minister at ,st4 ,petersburg to obtain the desired permission from the foreign office1 only to receive as reply the words ,russian government deeply regrets its inability to accede to request in behalf of ,reverend ,jewish divine4 ,determined to test my citizenship right4 ,the injustice of the reply determined me more than ever to enter ,russia1 if only to make a test case of my citizenship rights4 ,the treaty between the ,united ,states and ,russia guarantees to every ,american citizen the right of entry on ,russian soil1 and as an ,american citizen that right was mine2 my religion being my private affair and no concern of ,russia's4 ,the determination to test the supremacy of international law over national prejudice aroused a large part of the ,american press to a vigorous endorsement of my position4 ,a bill was introduced in ,congress to the effect that the treaty between the two countries be declared abrogated if an ,american citizen be turned back from the gates of ,russia by reason of his religion4 ,was admitted4 ,in the height of the agitation ,i departed for ,russia1 knocked at the gates of ,st4 ,petersburg--and was admitted4 ,russia had evidently come to the conclusion that it was better policy to admit me and to keep her eyes on me than to allow the agitation and the indignation to continue in our country4 ,met distinguished ,russians4 ,while within the ,russian borders1 ,i was privileged to come in contact with many prominent ,russians1 one of them ,m4 ,witte1 who at that time was ,minister of ,finance and practically at the head of the empire1 the ,czar1 ,alexander ,,iii1 being critically ill in the ,crimea1 where he shortly after died4 ,tolstoy most distinguished of all4 ,but of all the men ,i met none made the impression that was left upon me by my visit to ,count ,leo ,tolstoy4 ,it was made possible by ,mr4 ,andrew ,d4 ,white1 the distinguished scholar and statesman1 who at that time represented our country at ,st4 ,petersburg4 ,he had written and asked the count to meet me and to learn of the mission that brought me to ,russia4 ,the count's daughter1 ,tatiana1 replied that her father would be pleased to have me visit him1 adding that he was just then engaged in hay-making1 and1 therefore1 had not much leisure4 ,to take as little of his time as possible ,i arranged to arrive in the court-yard of his manor-house at ,yasnaya ,polyana1 late in the afternoon4 ,approaching a group of peasants that stood at a well drinking water and mopping their brows1 my travelling-companion1 a young ,russian lawyer1 asked them where we might find the count4 ,one of them stepped out of the group1 and1 lifting his cap1 said most courteously that he was ,tolstoy1 and1 learning my name1 he bade me a hearty welcome4 ,held me captive from first meeting4 ,from the moment ,i first gazed upon him he held me captive1 and1 by a strange psychic power1 he has held me enthralled ever since4 ,no wish of mine has been more fondly cherished in the sixteen years that have since passed by than that of some day visiting ,russia again1 and only for the purpose of seeing once more that strangely fascinating personality1 of listening again to his marvelous flow of wisdom4 ,his personality4 ,i had often wondered how a ,moses1 an ,isaiah1 a ,jeremiah1 a ,socrates1 looked and talked1 denounced and dreamed1 the moment ,i saw and heard ,tolstoy ,i knew4 ,one hour's talk with him seemed equal to a whole university course in political and social science2 one walk with him on his estate stored up in the listener more knowledge of moral philosophy than could be crowded into a year's seminary instruction4 ,great as was the power of his pen1 immeasurably greater was the power of his living word4 ,in some mysterious way the flow of his speech seemed to exercise an hypnotic spell upon the speaker as much as upon the listener4 ,the speaker seemed at times translated into a super-human being1 seemed inspired1 seemed to speak words not his own1 as one of the ancient prophets of ,israel must have spoken when he said the words3 ,thus saith the ,lord1 while the listener seemed scarcely capable of thought or speech1 felt his being almost lose its identity and become merged with that of the speaker4 ,at times his voice would sound as ,elijah's voice must have sounded when he said to ,ahab1 the king1 ,thou art he who troubleth ,israel1 and at times it would seem as sweet as the voice of one of ,russia's nightingales4 ,at times his strong1 rugged1 bearded face would resemble that of the pictured ,jupiter in wrath1 and then it would rival in serenity one of ,raphael's saints4 ,at times he would seem to carry on his shoulders all the woe of the world1 resembling one of the mediaeval pictures of the martyr of ,nazareth1 and then again he would seem as care-free and happy as a little babe4 ,he had never learned the art of concealing his thoughts and emotions4 ,his face and voice were as a mirror that revealed with microscopic exactness his innermost self4 ,what he felt moved to speak he spoke2 what he felt urged to do he did2 he never stopped to consider whether it will please or displease1 whether it will bring praise or censure upon him4 ,like a piece of living1 weather-beaten ,new ,england granite he looked in his home-spun crash blouse1 his jean trousers girded at the waist with a rope1 his coarse woolen shirt open at the neck1 his well-worn bast shoes4 ,he seemed1 indeed1 a composite of the looks and traits and thoughts that characterized the ,puritans in the early history of the ,new ,england states4 ,he lived his life according to his own light4 ,excepting ,god1 he bowed to no master4 ,his conscience was his sole rule of right4 ,his law was his own4 ,his creed was his own4 ,his style of dress1 his mode of living were of his own choosing4 ,his was above all else himself1 not an echo of another4 ,he was the freest man in the most enslaved of lands4 ,his was the brightest mind in darkest ,russia1 the most democratic spirit in the most autocratic of realms4 ,his peasant garb could not hide the noble man1 ennobled by exalted thought and achievement and not by the will of potentate4 ,his peasant labor could not hide the man born to command1 not by means of knout or sword or prison but by the law of love and right and truth4 ,as severe with the world so gentle with his own4 ,as fearless as he was in his denunciations of the wrong-doings of government and church and society1 and as bold as he was in his reform propositions1 so gentle and simple-minded was he at his family table4 ,i had read that two kinds of meals were served at his table1 a frugal one for himself and a sumptuous one for the rest of his family4 ,the meal of which ,i partook was a frugal one for all4 ,i was1 however1 little conscious of what ,i ate4 ,i was held spell-bound by the count's conversation which dominated the table1 and which was carried on in ,english1 occasionally passing into ,german or ,french or ,russian4 ,a table incident4 ,he was in an especially happy mood that evening4 ,in the mail that had been brought to the table there were a number of papers4 ,opening one of these1 the ,london ,standard1 ,i believe1 he observed that an article of his had been severely censored by the ,russian government4 ,large parts of it had been smeared over with black ink4 ,what amused him was that the parts that were left uncensored were worse than those that had been blackened out1 revealing the stupidity of the censor4 ,turning to me1 who sat at his right1 he said that had the article been a panegyric on the ,czar1 it would probably have received the same treatment1 for no matter what he writes1 it is daubed over1 here and there1 on the general principle that1 having been written by ,tolstoy1 it must of necessity be revolutionary4 ,continuing1 he told me that that particular article was one of a series on the subject of ,christianity and ,patriotism1 which1 not being permitted to be published in ,russia1 appeared in translation in ,england4 ,in it he endeavored to show that ,christianity and patriotism were incompatible1 that the latter was an artificial creation1 skilfully nourished by rulers for selfish purposes4 ,on account of it wars are waged1 evils are wrought1 sufferings are inflicted by ,christians upon ,christians1 who are religiously taught to love one another1 to forgive one another1 to do good to each other1 and who are patriotically trained to hate and overreach each other4 ,humanity1 he said1 must be put in the place of patriotism4 ,the latter is both stupid and unmoral1 stupid because it leads each nation to regard itself the superior of all others1 and unmoral because it lures nations to possess themselves of advantages at the cost of others1 thus violating the fundamental law of morality1 that of not doing to others what they would not have others do to them4 ,humanity makes the whole world every man's country1 and every man each man's brother4 ,his home over-run by visitors4 ,when first introduced to the family ,i felt that their welcome was not quite as hearty as was that of the count4 ,i could easily understand the reason4 ,the presence of guests was almost a daily occurrence1 and quite a burden on the household4 ,the count denied himself to none who had a genuine purpose for seeking him4 ,but he was out of patience with mere curiosity seekers or newspaper writers1 who sought to rob him of his valuable time in order to fill a column or two with sensational matter4 ,one such writer1 a lady journalist1 came one day for the sole purpose of having him give her the menu of his vegetarian diet1 to tell her whether his undergarments were of as coarse a fabric as were his outer clothes1 and whether an equally picturesque peasant-garb might not be designed for women4 ,special incident wins for me family's special welcome4 ,my first impression that ,i was classed with the other afflictions of the count's universal popularity soon wore off1 however1 by reason of a letter to the family which ,i brought with me from a distinguished professor4 ,this gentleman had1 a short time before1 been dismissed from the university of ,st4 ,petersburg because he had published an essay on ,the ,ethics of the ,talmud1 in which he had endeavored to show the lofty moral teachings of the ,jews4 ,i had made his acquaintance while in ,st4 ,petersburg1 and before leaving that city he called on me1 and asked me whether ,i would not take a letter from him1 of an entirely uncompromising nature1 to ,tolstoy1 inasmuch1 as at that particular time1 a letter mailed to the count did not1 for easily accountable reasons1 always reach him4 ,i readily consented1 and that little service1 the professor having been a great favorite of the count1 made me a welcome guest also to the family4 ,approves of stand taken to gain admission4 ,supper over1 the count invited my companion and myself to join him on a walk and to tell him of what service he could be to me4 ,i told him of the mission that brought me to ,russia and of the difficulties that were placed in the way of my admission4 ,he approved of the stand ,i had taken1 but asked me to blame the governments for it1 mine as well as his1 and not the ,russians1 who are a kindly people4 ,if ,united ,states would take bolder stand ,russia would yield4 ,he entered at length upon an exposition showing that if the ,united ,states would refuse to countenance discriminations between her citizens on account of religious belief1 ,russia would be obliged to yield4 ,i told him of the audience which ,mr4 ,white and myself had had with ,m4 ,witte1 and that the latter had said that1 the ,czar being sick1 nothing could be done without his consent1 that ,i should state my request in the form of a petition1 written in ,english and ,russian1 and that he would present it to the ,czar with his approval upon the latter's return1 and that ,i had complied with the advice given4 ,the count had little faith that my petition would ever reach the eyes of the ,czar--and it never did1 for the ,czar never returned alive4 ,and he had little faith in all official promises4 ,the men in power at that time he believed to be either fanatics or cowards4 ,the former sought to secure for themselves a soft berth in heaven1 the latter sought it on earth4 ,these were afraid to speak out their honest thought and to deal an honest blow for right and justice4 ,they were afraid of losing caste or position or of being condemned to penal servitude1 as if better persons than they had not suffered martyrdom before1 or were not now paying in ,siberia the price for exercising their right to liberty of thought and speech4 ,approves of my mission but has little hope4 ,he warmly approved of my mission but saw no present possibility of its realization4 ,even if the ,czar were to feel kindly disposed toward my plan1 ,pobiedonostzeff1 the ,procurator of the ,holy ,synod1 would interpose his objections to permitting ,jews rooting themselves on ,russian soil4 ,the policy of the ,procurator1 he said1 was to root out the ,jews1 to drive them either into the ,greek ,catholic ,church or into exile or starvation1 stupidly attributing the evils of ,russia to her tolerance of non-orthodox-,christian faiths and seeing relief only in their extinction within the empire4 ,and that miscreant considered himself the official head of the ,russian church1 and the administrator of its creed in the name of ,jesus1 of him who bade man to love even his enemy1 to do good even to those who do evil1 to forgive even those who offend1 to bless even those who curse4 ,asks my attitude toward ,jesus1 and defines his4 ,stopping suddenly1 and turning his face full upon me1 he asked ,what is your belief respecting ,jesus8 ,i answered that ,i regard the ,rabbi of ,nazareth as one of the greatest of ,israel's teachers and leaders and reformers1 not as a divine being who lived and taught humanly but as a human being who lived and taught divinely4 ,such is my belief1 said he1 and he continued ,your belief1 however1 is not that of the ,jews in ,russia4 ,many of them have little knowledge of ,jesus1 and more of them1 ,i fear1 have little love for him4 ,and who can blame them8 he continued1 they have been made to suffer so much in his name that it would be little short of a miracle if they loved him4 ,mohamed was more honest1 he gave to people the choice between the ,koran and the sword4 ,christians profess love1 and practice hatred4 ,i told the count that through the mediation of ,mr4 ,white1 the ,procurator had consented to grant me an audience1 but not till after the lapse of seven weeks1 after his return from some monastery to which he had retired for prayer1 penance and meditation4 ,well may he meditate1 said the count1 on the wrongs he has committed1 and even were he to do penance seven times seven weeks or seven times seven months or seven years1 he could not blot out the guilt that stains his soul1 and that has darkened and cursed the lives of tens of thousands of innocent human beings4 ,tells why he escaped ,siberia4 ,amazed at the freedom with which he exposed his condemnation of the most powerful officials of the realm1 and convinced that as he spoke to me he must have spoken often to others1 and that the government could not possibly be ignorant of it1 ,i asked how it was that he had escaped seizure1 exile or imprisonment1 to which he replied3 ,i am not yet sure that ,i shall not end my days in ,siberia4 ,that ,i have escaped thus far is due to the government's sensitiveness of the world's opinion4 ,it knows of the hold my publications have gained for me on civilized people4 ,it fears the cry of outrage that would be raised at the banishment or imprisonment of a man as old as ,i4 ,he was at that time sixty-six years old4 ,i have since read1 that when the ,czar was one day approached by one of the grand dukes with a request for the banishment of ,tolstoy on the ground that he incited rebellion against the government and the church1 the ,czar is said to have replied1 ,je ne veux pas ajouter a sa gloire une couronne d' un martyr--,i do not wish to add to his glory the martyr's crown--words used by ,louis ,,xiv of ,france1 when a similar request was made of him4 ,under the ,poverty ,tree4 ,after that statement1 he walked silently1 lost in deep thought1 perhaps picturing to himself his declining days among fellow martyrs in far-away ,siberia1 perhaps thinking of the agonies and tortures and untimely deaths that had been inflicted by a cruel or misguided government on thousands of ,russia's noblest sons and daughters4 ,silently he led the way toward a tree that stood near the house1 upon a slight eminence4 ,it was the ,poverty ,tree that was destined to afford him beneath its wide spreading branches his last resting place4 ,it derived its name from the custom of poor peasants laying there their troubles before the count4 ,seating himself on a bench beneath the tree he beckoned to us to seat ourselves along side of him4 ,he continued silent for some time1 while the setting sun bathed his lionine face and hair in crimson and golden light1 and gave him an appearance not unlike one of the old ,norse gods or vikings which the artist's brush has made familiar to us4 ,at last he resumed his speech4 ,my ,visit to ,tolstoy4 7,continued47 ,a ,,discourse1 ,,at ,,temple ,,keneseth ,,israel1 ,,by ,,rabbi ,,joseph ,,krauskopf1 ,d4 ,d4 ,philadelphia1 ,december #ahth1 #aiaj4 ,resum--,discourse ,i3 ,reason for my visit to ,russia and for my calling on ,tolstoy4 ,description of his appearance and personality4 ,some of his views on ,russia1 its statesmen1 its religion1 its misgovernment4 ,a pause under ,poverty ,tree beneath which he now lies buried4 ,tolstoy recalled aid sent from ,philadelphia to famine-stricken in ,russia4 ,the first question count ,tolstoy put to me1 after his long silence1 was from what part of the ,united ,states ,i hailed4 ,upon my telling him that ,philadelphia was my home1 he expressed himself as much pleased4 ,he recalled the two shiploads of food we sent from our port1 two years earlier1 for the relief of the famine-stricken of ,russia1 and of the distribution of which he had had personal charge1 and he spoke with pleasure and appreciation of ,mr4 ,francis ,b4 ,reeves1 our fellow-townsman1 who had accompanied the food-relief4 ,said first aid came from ,sacramento synagogue4 ,with even keener delight he recalled that the first aid received from the ,united ,states was from the ,jewish congregation of ,sacramento1 ,california1 which to him was all the more remarkable from the fact that the district stricken was1 through governmental restriction1 uninhabited by ,jews4 ,the expression of pleasure turned to one of sorrow when he remarked that ,russia had little deserved such generous treatment at the hands of ,jews1--and he lived to see the manner in which it was repaid in ,kishineff and other places4 ,was fond of ,quakers4 ,reverting to our city1 he said that the name of ,philadelphia had always had a pleasant sound for him1 partly because of its meaning ,brotherly ,love1 and partly because it was founded by ,william ,penn4 ,he expressed a high admiration for ,quakers1 and asked how strong they were numerically and whether they are still as opposed to war and resistance as their founders were4 ,upon answering his question to the best of my ability1 he asked3 ,why is it that war1 which is the greatest curse of mankind1 has so many advocates1 and peace1 the greatest of all blessings1 so few8 ,after some discussion we both agreed that it was due to that strange perversity of human nature that sees the right and approves of it1 and yet often willfully chooses the wrong4 ,blamed school for many of present-day wrongs4 ,he blamed the schools for many of the errors that obtain in society1 and claimed that there was too much education of the wrong kind1 and too little of the right4 ,in discussing this statement of his1 ,i chanced to mention that education in the lower grades was compulsory with us4 ,to this he strongly objected4 ,all compulsion1 he said1 was wrong4 ,man must be gotten to do right by the law of love and not by the rule of force4 ,upon my telling him that but for compulsory education some parents would never send their children to school1 he said3 ,what of it8 ,the children would probably be no less moral and no less happy than those of highest education4 ,i have associated with the learned and the ignorant1 and ,i have found more honor and honesty1 more fear of the ,lord and more true happiness1 among the unlettered than among the lettered4 ,the more of education we cram into the heads of the people the more of the fear of ,god is crowded out of them4 ,the world lives by the love of ,god and not by the primer or the multiplication table4 ,what1 if you had had no education8 ,i ventured to ask4 ,quickly and feelingly came the answer ,the world would have been none the worse1 and ,i would have been the happier4 ,what if ,jesus and the other prophets had had no schooling8 ,i asked4 ,to which he replied ,it was not what they got out of their schools that made them the spiritual and moral powers they became1 but what they got out of their hearts4 ,god puts more education into the human heart than man has ever been able to put into the head4 ,some of the wisest and best people hereabouts are peasants who have never seen the inside of a school1 and who do not know one letter from another4 ,what of ,paul1 ,i asked1 who certainly enjoyed the benefits of the ,greek schools of his day8 ,to which he replied ,the schools made of ,paul a theologian1 and ,christianity would have been the better without the theology of ,paul4 ,warped by unfavorable surroundings4 ,other objections to some of his paradoxical views on education suggested themselves to me1 but ,i left them unsaid4 ,i perceived that while tolerant of objections1 his opinions were fixed4 ,he apparently judged of world-conditions from the view-point of his limited and unfavorable horizon4 ,under different conditions1 some of his opinions on education1 and on a number of other subjects which we discussed1 would probably have been quite different4 ,well informed of political and social conditions in ,united ,states4 ,the conversation turned to social conditions in the ,united ,states1 and on these matters he displayed an amount of knowledge that was amazing4 ,the more ,i listened the more ,i wondered1 till finally ,i could not but ask him how he who wrote and worked so much could find time to keep himself so well informed of a country so far away as the ,united ,states4 ,to which he replied ,your country has interested me even more than mine4 ,i have lost hope in mine2 all my hope was1 at one time1 centered in yours4 ,but yours is a disappointment as much as mine4 ,you call yourselves a ,republic2 you are worse than an autocracy4 ,i say worse because you are ruled by gold1 and gold is more conscienceless1 and therefore1 more tyrannical than any human tyrant4 ,your intentions are good2 your execution is lamentable4 ,were yours the free and representative government you pretend to have1 you would not allow it to be controlled by the money powers and their hirelings1 the bosses and machines1 as you do4 ,i have read ,progress and ,poverty by ,henry ,george1 and ,i know what ,mr4 ,bryce says about you in his ,the ,american ,commonwealth1 and ,i have read and heard even worse things about your misgovernment than what they say4 ,deplored rule of gold and growth of cities4 ,we were all right1 he continued1 as long as we were an agricultural people4 ,our modes of life1 then1 were simple1 and our ideals were high4 ,politics then was a religion with us and not a matter of barter and sale4 ,we became prosperous2 prosperity brought luxury1 and luxury1 as always1 brings corruption4 ,the thirst of gold is upon us1 and1 in our eagerness to quench it and to gratify our lust of luxury1 our one-time lofty principles and aspirations are dragged down and trampled in the mire4 ,we build city upon city1 and pride ourselves in making one greater than the other1 and1 in the mean time1 we wipe out village after village1 whence have come our strength and moral fibre4 ,the price of real estate in the cities is soaring to the skies1 while farms are deserted and farm-houses decay4 ,we tempt the farmer's son and daughter from field to factory1 and when we have exhausted them of their health and morals we think ourselves charitable when we prolong their miserable existence in hospitals or reformatories4 ,we forget that our greatness lay in the pursuit of husbandry1 and we seek our salvation in commerce and in the industries4 ,prophesied war of classes4 ,with all our stupendous wealth1 our slums are as bad1 if not worse1 as those of ,european cities1 and we are building up a proletariat class which will some day prove our undoing4 ,our rich become degenerates1 and our poor become desperates1 and in the struggle to come the desperate will rise up and slay the degenerate4 ,we keep things quiet by throwing crumbs of charity to those who are in need of justice more yet than they are in need of bread4 ,some day they will tire of crumbs1 and will ask their full share of what the rich eat and have1 and1 if denied1 they will make short work of it4 ,our origin and our destiny should have warned us against repeating the fatal errors of the past4 ,but for our colossal resources1 we would long since have been dashed against the rocks4 ,we may yet save ourselves by going back to the farm1 and taking up anew the life and labors of our fathers4 ,disagreed1 yet kept silent4 ,in this strain he continued for quite awhile1 and the longer he spoke the sadder grew his speech and the more prophetic became his look4 ,at length he ceased speaking1 and an oppressive quiet ensued4 ,i recognized that he was deeply moved1 and ,i therefore did not care to contradict some of his statements which were obviously based on error4 ,in other of his statements ,i fully agreed with him1 yet1 loyalty to my country forbade my seconding the gloomy prospect he held out for us4 ,description of his relationship with wife and family4 ,a fortunate interruption relieved the situation4 ,his wife approached with a letter or manuscript in hand4 ,he arose1 proceeded toward her1 and1 for a while1 the two conferred together4 ,in all probability it was a manuscript of his which she was translating or revising4 ,i was told that she was always doing something of that sort4 ,she was his consultant1 his reviser1 his translator1 while his daughter1 ,tatiana1 was his correspondent in a number of different languages4 ,it is said that his wife copied twenty-one times the four large volumes of his novel ,war and ,peace1 and that there has been no novel nor little else of his writing1 since their marriage in #ahfb1 that did not pass through her hands4 ,he found in her1 in the fullest sense of the word1 his help-mate1 a woman of great culture as well of great practical sense1 who looked after his literary interests no less than after those of the household1 and who often found it no easy task to be1 as has been well said1 the patient wife of an impatient genius4 ,she bore him thirteen children1 six of whom passed away in their early youth4 ,she fairly idolized him and skilfully managed to slip1 unknown to him1 those little comforts into his life which he required for his well-being and which he had renounced4 ,neither she nor the children shared his view respecting the distribution among the peasantry of his estate and other property1 and keeping for himself no more than an equal share with all the others4 ,the family believed in availing themselves of the benefits of civilization1 and for that they required the income of the farm and the royalty of his books4 ,there was quite a wrangle1 for a time1 between the family and its head1 but it was amicably disposed of in the end1 the count agreeing to their living as they chose1 on the condition that they permitted him to live as he pleased4 ,and so in his ,moscow home as well as in that at ,yasnaya ,polyana1 while the family rooms are said to be comfortably furnished1 his own were poorly fitted out1 and while they have servants and butlers and footmen1 he attended to his own wants1 fetched his own water1 cobbled his own shoes1 and1 in summer time1 labored in the field1 from morn to night1 alongside the commonest peasant4 ,description of his working room4 ,stopping suddenly in his conversation with his wife1 and begging us to excuse him for leaving us1 ,i asked him whether he knew where my bag was put1 as ,i wanted to get to my writing material for the purpose of dropping a line to the ,american ,minister4 ,mr4 ,white had feared that1 not being wanted in ,russia1 ,i might get into trouble soon after leaving the protection of our embassy in ,st4 ,petersburg1 and he had enjoined upon me that ,i keep in constant touch with him1 as well as with the ,american consuls1 while in the interior4 ,the count informing me that my bag had been placed into his working-room1 on the ground floor of the house1 ,i had a glimpse of the room in which some of the greatest writings of our time1 of all times1 first saw the light of day4 ,it was a small room with an ordinary1 bare floor somewhat the worse for wear1 with a vaulted ceiling1 and with very thick walls that gave it the aspect of a mediaeval cloister cell4 ,i have since read that at one time it was a storeroom1 and that from the hooks in the ceiling were formerly suspended the ham supply for the family4 ,besides a crude writing-desk and a few chairs1 there seemed to be no other furniture in the room1 and its only ornaments1 as far as ,i can recall1 were some farm implements1 tools1 and seed bags4 ,the desk was littered over with books and papers1 and showed the kind of disorder one would expect of a genius like ,tolstoy4 ,favored suppression of lawyers4 ,upon my return to the tree1 ,i found the count in conversation with my companion1 who told me later that upon ,tolstoy's asking him what his occupation was1 and upon his replying that he had graduated from the law-school of the ,university of ,moscow1 and that1 owing to restrictive laws against ,jews1 he was not permitted to practice1 the count had remarked that the government had done at least one good thing1 it had diminished the number of lawyers4 ,amazed at the amount of poverty in ,new ,york4 ,resuming my seat alongside of him1 he asked me whether it was true that ,new ,york expended as much as one hundred thousand dollars daily in public charity4 ,i told him that it probably was true4 ,he then returned to his discussion on the appalling contrast between the very rich and the very poor of the large cities in ,europe and ,america4 ,the rich1 he said1 would never be as rich as they are nor the poor as poor if the latter were scattered as farmers over the land4 ,it is their congregating in large numbers in the cities1 he said1 that makes possible the extensive industries and commercial enterprises which enslave them1 and which build up the great fortunes of the rich4 ,belittled his own novels4 ,have you read my book ,what ,to ,do8 he suddenly asked me4 ,i was obliged to answer ,no4 ,i have read it since1 and several times1 and profitably1 too1 but1 though ,i had read quite a number of his books before ,i met him1 it was exceedingly embarrassing to be questioned concerning the particular book which ,i had not read4 ,not to appear altogether ignorant of his writings1 ,i proceeded to tell him that ,i had read his ,war and ,peace1 ,anna ,karnina1 etc41 etc41 and started telling him how much ,i admired them1 when1 with an impatient look and gesture1 he interrupted me1 saying ,these works are all chaff1 chaff1 play-toys1 amusing gilded youth and idle women4 ,it is my serious writings which ,i want the world to read4 ,i have ceased publishing novels because readers do not know the meaning of them4 ,they look for entertainment and not instruction1 and even though ,i write only for the uplift of man1 for the purification of society1 they1 like the hawk1 seek out only the carrion4 ,they neither recognize themselves under the fictitious name ,i adopt1 nor do they see their share in the wrongs and vices and injustices depicted1 neither do they perceive that it is for their co-operation that the novelist appeals when he pleads for the kingdom of heaven on earth4 ,spoke of his book ,what ,to ,do4 ,returning to his book ,what ,to ,do1 he said1 even if you have not read it1 you have read the ,prophets1 and having read them1 you know my teachings4 ,the book is an appeal for pity for the submerged1 for justice for the wronged1 for liberation of the oppressed and persecuted1 and for the application of the only remedy--a return to the simple life and labor on the soil4 ,as our subsistence comes from the soil so can justice and right and happiness come from it alone4 ,help can never come from wealth1 for wealth is the creator of poverty and inequality and injustice4 ,it can not come from the government for that exists largely for the purpose of keeping up inequality and injustice4 ,it cannot come from the church1 for she fears the ,czar more than she fears ,god4 ,it cannot even come from the schools which tend to train a class of people who think themselves too good for manual labor4 ,saw solution of ,jewish problem only in agriculture4 ,your plan to lead your people back to the soil1 he continued1 back to the occupation which your fathers followed with honor in ,palestinian lands1 is of some encouragement to me4 ,it shows that the light is dawning4 ,it is the only solution of the ,jewish problem4 ,persecution1 refusal of the right to own or to till the soil1 exclusion from the artisan guilds1 made traders of the ,jew4 ,and the world hates the trader4 ,make bread-producers of your people1 and the world will honor those who give it bread to it4 ,made a request of me4 ,there is little chance at present1 he continued1 for a ,jewish colonization scheme in ,russia4 ,the government does not want to see the ,jews rooting themselves on ,russian soil1 and spreads the report that they are unfit for agricultural labor1 though ,i have been reliably informed that in the few ,jewish agricultural colonies that have been tolerated on the steppes from the time of ,alexander ,i they are as successful farmers as are the best4 ,and he asked me as a favor that ,i make a special trip to those colonies and report to him1 preferably in person1 the result of my observations4 ,i was only too anxious to consent to his request4 ,and yet another promise he asked of me1 and which ,i gave no less cheerfully4 ,but of this ,i shall speak in my next discourse4 ,my ,visit to ,tolstoy4 7,continued47 ,a ,,discourse1 ,,at ,,temple ,,keneseth ,,israel1 ,,by ,,rabbi ,,joseph ,,krauskopf1 ,d4 ,d4 ,philadelphia1 ,december #beth1 #aiaj4 ,,resum--,discourse ,i3 ,reasons for my visit to ,russia and for my calling on ,tolstoy4 ,his appearance and personality4 ,some of his views on ,russia1 its statesmen1 religion1 misgovernment4 ,a pause under the ,poverty ,tree--his burial place4 ,discourse ,,ii3 ,recalled food-relief for famine-stricken in ,russia from ,philadelphia and from ,jewish congregation in ,california4 ,admired ,quakers for their opposition to war4 ,blamed schools for many social wrongs4 ,severely criticised political and economical evils of our country4 ,ascribed them to growth of cities and to farm-desertions4 ,his relationship with wife and family4 ,his working-room4 ,against lawyers4 ,belittled his novels4 ,spoke of his book ,what ,to ,do8 ,saw solution of ,jewish problem in agriculture only4 ,tolstoy suggests school for training ,american lads in agriculture4 ,at the conclusion of my last discourse ,i made mention of yet another request count ,tolstoy made of me4 ,it was in connection with his prediction that the ,russian government would not look favorably upon my proposition to colonize ,russian ,jews upon unoccupied farm-lands in the interior4 ,if the plan cannot be entered upon in ,russia1 he asked1 why can it not be made successful in the ,united ,states8 ,what are you1 ,americans1 doing to prevent a ,jewish problem in your own country8 ,how long before the evils that are harrowing your people in the old world may be harrowing them in the new8 ,your people are crowding into your large cities by the thousands and tens of thousands4 ,you have built up ,ghettoes worse than those of ,europe4 ,there is excuse for it in ,russia2 there is no excuse for it in the ,united ,states4 ,yours is the right to own land and the best of it1 and to till as much of it as you please4 ,granted that ages of enforced abstention from agricultural labor have weaned the elder generation from a love of country life and farm-labor1 why may not a love for it be instilled in the young8 ,lead your young people to the country and to the farm4 ,start agricultural schools for them4 ,teach them to exchange the yard-stick for the hoe1 the peddler's pack for the seed-bag1 and you will solve the problem while it may yet be solved4 ,you will see the lands tilled by them overflow1 as of old1 with milk and honey4 ,you will see them give of their plenty to the people of the land1 and receive in return goodly profit and esteem4 ,and once again there will arise from among ,jewish husbandmen prophets1 lawgivers1 inspired bards and teachers to whom the civilized world will do homage4 ,at yet greater length he spoke on this subject1 and the more he spoke the more he quickened within me the resolve to do as he wished it to be done4 ,founding of ,farm ,school promised4 ,and there1 under ,the ,poverty ,tree1 it was where ,i gave ,tolstoy the solemn promise that upon my return home the earliest task ,i would enter upon would be the establishment of an agricultural school for ,jewish lads1 and other lads4 ,and the existence of the ,national ,farm ,school1 near ,doylestown in this state1 is testimony that ,i kept my promise4 ,i had gone to ,russia to see the ,czar1 and ,i saw a greater man instead4 ,i had gone with a plan for colonizing ,russian ,jews in ,russia1 and ,i returned with a plan for teaching agriculture chiefly to ,russian ,jewish lads in the ,united ,states4 ,verily1 man proposes and ,god disposes4 ,and the hundreds of young men who have received their agricultural training at the ,national ,farm ,school1 and the hundreds of others1 young and old1 who1 directly and indirectly1 have been encouraged by that school to forsake the congested cities and to take up the farmer's life1 owe their escape from the miseries of the ,ghetto1 and their enjoyment of health and happiness1 to the promise asked of me by that noblest of all farmers1 count ,tolstoy4 ,promise kept under difficulties4 ,the establishment of the school was not an easy task1 nor is its maintenance easy even now1 notwithstanding the excellent record it has made4 ,the bulk of our people have not yet acquired that profound grasp of the seriousness of our problem1 and of its only possible solution1 that ,tolstoy had1 sixteen years ago4 ,therefore is the support of that school still so meagre4 ,therefore has it still less than a hundred students in attendance when it easily could have a thousand1 and more1 if it had the means4 ,and1 therefore1 are our ,ghettoes more crowded than ever1 and a greater drain than ever on our charities4 ,that despite indifference and even hostility the school has persevered is due1 to a very large extent1 to the determination to keep sacred a promise solemnly given to one of the best of men4 ,parting from ,tolstoy4 ,it was late that night when ,i took leave of the count and of some of the members of his family4 ,before departing1 it was agreed that ,i enter at once upon my journey to the ,jewish agricultural colonies in the interior1 that ,i might see them at work during the height of their harvesting1 and a peasant and his wagon were engaged to take me on that trip4 ,the count bade me a hearty ,god-speed1 and repeatedly urged me to make my report personally to him1 and ,i promised that ,i would avail myself a second time of his proffered hospitality1 if my way should lead me back again to ,moscow or ,st4 ,petersburg4 ,never heard from him again4 ,unfortunately1 after my inspection of the ,jewish agricultural colonies1 which fully confirmed the favorable reports the count had received of them1 my investigations led me to the ,southern and ,polish provinces1 and consumed so much of my limited time that a return ,north was impossible4 ,and so ,i never got to see the count again4 ,and ,i never heard from him4 ,neither my report1 which ,i sent to him in writing1 nor my other communications to him1 written in ,russia and outside of it1 have brought from him a reply4 ,never a line from him even in answer to the information sent him that the ,national ,farm ,school1 which he had so strongly urged1 had been founded4 ,never an acknowledgment from him of the early annual reports of the ,school that were sent him to show the headway it was making4 ,probable reason of silence4 ,the heartiness of his reception of me1 his almost affectionate farewell1 his deep interest in my mission and his earnest invitation that ,i repeat my visit to him1 preclude the thought that ,i was forgotten by him or became indifferent to him after my departure4 ,there is but one explanation--an explanation strengthened by similar experiences of others in connection with him--none of my communications ever reached him4 ,i was not wanted in ,russia4 ,i was a persona non grata to the government2 my name was blacklisted1 and my mail fell under the ban of the censor4 ,with him in spirit under ,poverty ,tree4 ,but1 if my mail has never reached him1 my thoughts have been with him often4 ,many a time have ,i sat with him1 in spirit1 under that ,poverty ,tree4 ,and yet more often will ,i sit with him there in the future1 now that that site has become ,holy ,ground4 ,has become his grave4 ,gladly do ,i forgive the church of ,russia many an outrage or blunder she has perpetrated or permitted to be perpetrated1 for the one good act she has performed--that of refusing ,tolstoy sepulture in what she is pleased to call consecrated ground4 ,she thus obliged him to designate as his last resting-place a spot that was one of the dearest on earth to him1 a spot that was intimately associated with his life's philosophy1 a spot located within a confine wherein he ruled more mightily and more exaltedly than any ,czar that ever wielded scepter in vast ,russia1 where he wrote those epochal books of his which are destined some day to become of the basal elements of the religion of the future4 ,no ,czarian funeral more solemn than ,tolstoy's4 ,and even though no priest was nigh when the last rites over his remains were performed1 there were present1 besides his family1 those who were more sacred in his eyes than priests or metropolitan1 more honorable than even the ,procurator of the ,holy ,synod--his dearly beloved peasants4 ,it was these who followed him to his last resting place4 ,it was these who sang the mortuary hymn ,everlasting ,memory1 at his open grave4 ,it was these1 the orphaned peasantry1 as they called themselves because of his death1 who gave his burial a distinction such as no ,czarian funeral procession had ever enjoyed1 notwithstanding ecclesiastical pomp or military display4 ,it was these whose labors and outlook he had sought to soften and to brighten1 who delivered the briefest and most eloquent eulogy that has1 perhaps1 ever been spoken3 ,his heart has burst because of his unbounded love for humanity4 ,the light of the world is extinguished4 ,in spite of herself church has made a saint of him4 ,in refusing religious sepulture to the holiest man in ,russia1 the ,greek orthodox church performed the crowning feat in her long series of stupidities4 ,and yet1 by that act she did1 in despite of herself1 the very thing she did not wish to see done4 ,like ,mephistopheles in ,goethe's ,faust who1 in response to the question who he is1 says3 ,ich bin ein ,theil von jener ,kraft1 die stets das ,bse will1 und stets das ,gute schafft1 so did she prove herself the power that sought the evil and yet performed the good4 ,by her act of intolerance she gave a new saint to ,russia1 and perhaps the only one she has4 ,by it she furnished a sanctuary to that country1 one that may be destined to make a ,mecca of ,yasnaya ,polyana1 one that may be more piously sought in the future1 and by larger numbers1 than any shrine or sanctuary of her own creation4 ,by that act she shed a halo of immortal glory around the head of him whom she sought to cover with infamy4 ,has two ways of making saints4 ,the church has two ways of conferring saintships1 a lesser and a higher one4 ,the lesser distinction she confers upon lesser luminaries1 generally upon those made famous by myth or legend for great endurance in fasting or penance1 or for conquering imaginary devils1 for working fancied miracles1 or for displaying fiendish cruelty in persecuting and exterminating heretics4 ,the higher distinction she confers generally at the stake or on the gallows1 within prison walls or in the torture chamber1 upon men of great minds or great hearts1 upon lovers of truth and fearless enunciators of it1 upon men who because of their love of humanity defy the power that interdicts ,god's greatest gift to man3 the right to think and the right to believe and speak in accordance with the canons of reason and with the dictates of conscience4 ,still makes of intolerance an act of piety4 ,in asking me the difference between reform and orthodox ,judaism in ,america1 and between ,american ,reform ,jews and ,russian ,karaitic ,jews1 and in replying that the difference exists mainly in the synagogue1 that outside of it there is little or no difference in life and in social relationship1 ,tolstoy replied3 ,our church has not yet arrived at the stage of tolerance of different religious beliefs4 ,that is the reason why such people as the ,jews and ,doukhobors and ,stundists are persecuted1 and such men as ,i are in ill repute4 ,our church still makes of religious hatred an act of piety4 ,it still measures ,god by the passions of man4 ,had the church the power in our days which it at one time had1 and were the age of martyrdom not past1 she would long since have silenced me for rebelling against her irrational teaching and for denouncing her craven supineness in the midst of outrageous wrongs and injustices1 as now they silence men in our country for rebelling against unjust enactments of the government4 ,tolstoy hoped for the reign of universal good-will4 ,upon my saying that it was fortunate for us of the present day that all churches have been deprived of their one-time all-controlling power1 since no church has yet been known to have possessed power and not to have abused it1 he replied3 ,that is true of all power1 temporal as well as of ecclesiastic1 and it would be more fortunate still if governments were as restricted in their power as is the church1 if all power1 all authority1 were to cease1 if the good that is inherent in every human being were to be given a chance to germinate and to flourish1 and every man learn to live in complete harmony with the highest of all laws1 the law of peace and good-will1 which ,god has written into the human heart4 ,there would then be no need of armies and armaments1 of courts and police1 of prisons and jails1 no need of impoverishing the masses through heavy taxation for the support of millions of soldiers and officers in idleness1 who ought to raise their own bread by their own handiwork4 ,believed that the ,messiah is still to come4 ,on that day1 said ,i1 the ,messianic ,age1 for which the ,jews have hoped and prayed1 will surely have dawned4 ,to which he answered3 ,you1 ,jews1 are right1 the ,messiah is still to come1 or1 if he has come1 his message has not yet entered the hearts of men4 ,recalling this remark of ,tolstoy1 on this ,christmas morn1 suggests the question3 ,how many ,christmas days will yet have to come and go before its gospel of peace and good-will will govern the hearts of all who call themselves ,christians as it governed that of the ,russian peasant-saint4 ,lessening of church power shown by failure of ,tolstoy's excommunication4 ,and vividly ,i recalled his remarks on the shorn power of the church1 when1 six years later1 the papers brought the news that ,tolstoy had been excommunicated by the ,russian church4 ,i could picture to myself the expression of sorrow or disgust on his face when that church decree was conveyed to him4 ,its ecclesiastical wrath1 could have meant only hollow sounds to him4 ,none knew better than he that the metropolitans who issued this excommunication merely grasped at a shadow1 that the substance was gone1 that that age was happily passed when the pronouncement of the ecclesiastical anathema deprived its victim of all association with friend or foe1 deprived him of intercourse even with the closest members of his family1 prevented them1 under the penalty of like punishment1 from providing him even with food1 shelter and raiment4 ,when during his flight from home1 shortly before his death1 he knocked at the doors of a monastery1 and said ,i am the excommunicated and anathematized ,leo ,tolstoy1 the reply was ,it is a duty and a pleasure to offer you shelter4 ,the life of ,tolstoy passed on as serenely1 in the midst of his family and friends1 after his excommunication as before4 ,and the world's esteem of him grew even greater than it had been1 by reason of the charges upon which the excommunication was based1 namely3 ,in his writings on religious questions he clearly shows himself an enemy of the ,russian ,orthodox ,church4 ,he does not recognize ,god in three persons 7or three persons in one ,god71 and he calls the ,son of ,god1 the second person of the ,trinity1 a mortal human being4 ,he scoffs at the idea of ,incarnation4 ,he perverts the text of the ,gospel4 ,he censures the ,holy ,church and calls it a human institution4 ,he denies the ,church ,hierarchy and ridicules the ,holy ,sacraments and the rites of the ,holy ,orthodox ,church4 ,therefore1 the ,holy ,synod has decreed that no priest is to absolve ,count ,tolstoy1 or give him communion4 ,nor is he to be given burial ground1 unless1 before departing this life he shall repent1 acknowledge the ,orthodox ,church1 believe in it1 and return to it4 ,died unreconciled with church4 ,he never recanted4 ,he never changed his attitude towards the errors and wrongs of the ,russian orthodox church4 ,and no one who ever stood and talked with him1 face to face1 could ever have believed that that modern ,prometheus1 that stern and fearless personality1 that re-incarnation of ,mattathias of old1 and of his valiant sons1 the ,maccabees1 could ever swerve from a position once taken by him4 ,when upon his death-bed1 he was frequently importuned to return as a penitent to the mother-church2 he spurned every mention of it4 ,he was still in the possession of his senses1 he said1 he still knew and believed that twice two equals four1 and as long as he knew and believed this so long would he continue to know and to believe that what he had said and written concerning the errors and wrongs of the church was the truth4 ,never a truer follower of ,jesus than he4 ,it is noteworthy1 and quite in keeping with the general tenor of the ,russian orthodox church1 that no cognizance was taken by the church of the many noble things ,tolstoy had said and written and done2 no cognizance of the self-sacrificing efforts he had made to live the life which ,jesus had lived and had enjoined upon his followers2 no cognizance of his having conscientiously endeavored to square his life with the teachings of the ,sermon on the ,mount2 no cognizance of his having brought light to those in darkness and comfort to those in sorrow1 of his having consorted and labored with the poor and lightened their burden1 of his having thirsted and hungered after righteousness1 of his having sought peace and protested against war1 and preached the gospel of the wrongfulness of all physical resistance1 of his having1 though of the oldest nobility1 spurned luxury and ease and even money1 having regarded these the source of corruption and the root of many of the evils in society4 ,yet refused ,christian burial4 ,such a person1 and one even but half as good as this1 should have been entitled to sepulture in the most sacred of ,christian cemeteries1 and the most eminent of priests should have deemed it a privilege to have been permitted to perform the last rites over his mortal remains4 ,so would it have happened among rational people1 but so could it not have happened in ,russia4 ,there1 because he could not subscribe to doctrines and rites and ceremonies for which he found neither scriptural nor rational warrant1 priests felt themselves disgraced1 and in danger of eternal damnation1 even when their names were associated with that of ,tolstoy4 ,priest objected to his name being associated with ,tolstoy's4 ,a striking illustration of this was given1 seven years ago1 at the university of ,dorpat1 at the occasion of the celebration of its hundredth anniversary4 ,in commemoration of that event the institution elected as honorary members of the corporation a number of ,russians distinguished in literature1 science and art1 one of these was ,tolstoy1 another was ,ivan1 the miracle-working priest of ,cronstadt1 elected to allay the church's indignation at the choice of ,tolstoy4 ,ivan1 the priest1 refused the honor1 and in the following letter to the ,rector of the ,university3 ,,your ,,excellency--,i have read your estimable and respectful letter to me1 which is so full of subtle delicacy--,i decline absolutely the honor of the membership to which ,i have been elected4 ,i do not wish to become connected1 in any way1 with a corporation--however respectable and learned--which1 by some lamentable misunderstanding1 has put me side by side with that atheist ,leo ,tolstoy--the most malignant heretic of our unfortunate age--who1 in presumption and arrogance1 surpasses all previous heretics of any age4 ,i do not wish to stand beside ,antichrist4 ,i am surprised furthermore1 to see with what indifference the ,university ,council regards that satanic author1 and with what slavishness it burns incense to him4 ,,ivan ,,sergeief1 ,prior and ,archpriest of the ,cronstadt ,cathedral4 ,this letter tells of the attitude of the church towards ,tolstoy better than any words of mine can tell4 ,and this same ,ivan1 it is said1 approved of the massacre of the petitioners of ,st4 ,petersburg on that memorable ,white ,sunday1 and when petitioned to protect the ,jews against threatening massacres1 treated the appeal with silent contempt4 ,government hatred back of that of the church4 ,it is to be remembered1 however1 that over and back of the ,church of ,russia stands the government4 ,the ,czar is the head of the church4 ,whom the government favors the church favors2 whom the government hates1 the church hates4 ,the church hated ,tolstoy because the government hated him1 and why it hated him we shall be told in the next discourse of this series4 ,my ,visit to ,tolstoy4 7,continued47 ,a ,,discourse1 ,,at ,,temple ,,keneseth ,,israel1 ,,by ,,rabbi ,,joseph ,,krauskopf1 ,d4 ,d4 ,philadelphia1 ,january #ast1 #aiaa4 ,government used church for discrediting ,tolstoy4 ,speaking in our last discourse of the church's excommunication of ,tolstoy1 and of its refusing a resting place to his remains in what she calls consecrated ground1 we said that the ,czar is the spiritual as well as the temporal head of the ,church of ,russia1 and that the hated of the church is yet more the hated of the government4 ,this statement explains what otherwise is difficult to understand1 namely1 how so good a man as ,tolstoy1 who1 for more than two score years1 strove to square his life with the teachings of the ,sermon on the ,mount1 could have incurred the hatred of the ,russian orthodox ,church4 ,the government had far more reason to hate ,tolstoy than had the church4 ,finding it impolitic to proceed directly against him1 it availed itself of the church for discrediting ,tolstoy in the eyes of the credulous populace4 ,before giving reason why4 ,before entering upon a discussion as to why the government feared ,tolstoy1 we must first have a glimpse of his earlier years1 and briefly follow his heroic self-extrication from the corruption of the aristocratic society into which he was born1 and his gradual rise to the exalted station of greatest reformer in the history of ,russia4 ,must hear story of his life4 ,he was born eighty-two years ago of an ancient noble family4 ,his childhood years were spent in the midst of the gay military life of ,moscow4 ,yet more gay and more corrupt was the society that surrounded him during his university life4 ,experiencing a revulsion of feeling against the kind of life he was leading1 he fled from the university before graduation1 returned to his family estate at ,yasnaya ,polyana and took up the life of a farmer4 ,this impetuous flight1 and a later one of which we shall hear presently1 may throw some light upon his last flight1 a few weeks ago1 which came to a pathetic end1 and of which we shall speak in our next discourse4 ,his early glory and shame4 ,five years long he lived the life of a peasant1 when a call to arms landed him on the battlefields of the ,crimea1 where he soon won distinction for heroic service4 ,but the dissoluteness of campaign-life soon disclosed that the ,tartar in him was not yet dead4 ,he returned to the debaucheries of his former years1 and1 according to his own confession1 with all the greater zest1 because of the double glory that had come to him1 that of a distinguished soldier and of a brilliant author4 ,he had taken to story-writing1 and displayed in it a talent that made success instantaneous4 ,he became the lion of his day1 and was courted by high and low4 ,and the greater his glory the more unrestrained grew his libertinism4#a #a ,see his book ,my ,confession4 ,his reform4 ,but there were lucid intervals1 now and then1 during which he held up to himself the lofty ideals of his former peasant life1 and bitterly he denounced himself1 and even portrayed himself unsparingly in the character-sketches of some of his novels4 ,his better self acquired mastery at last2 he threw off the yoke that had held him fast to the corrupt society of his day1 and for the second time he fled to his estate4 ,he himself told of the circumstance that led to that flight4 ,he had attended a ball at the home of a prominent nobleman1 and passed the night in dancing and feasting1 leaving his peasant-coachman waiting for him outside1 in an open sleigh1 in a bitter cold night4 ,when at four in the morning he wished to return home1 he found the coachman seemingly frozen dead1 and it required several hours of strenuous effort to restore him to consciousness and to save his life4 ,why1 he asked himself1 should ,i1 a rich1 young aristocrat1 who has done nothing for society1 spend the night amid warmth and luxuries and feastings1 while this peasant who represents the class that has built our cities1 given us our food and clothing and other necessities1 be kept outside to freeze8 ,he resolved1 then and there1 to dedicate the remainder of his life to the righting of this and other wrongs4 ,and he kept his promise4 ,how strong an impression this incident made upon him may be gathered from an indirect allusion to it1 in his novel ,master and ,man1 published some two score years later4 ,consecrates life to peasant4 ,it was discouraging work at first4 ,the people whom he desired to benefit had no faith in him4 ,they could not conceive of an aristocrat1 to whom the serfs had been no more than worms to be trod upon1 becoming suddenly interested in their welfare4 ,there were long spells of utter disheartenment4 ,a number of times he found himself at the brink of suicide4 ,he sought relief and diversion in travel1 but returned more convinced than ever of the corruptions and evils of society1 of the tyranny of the classes and of the sufferings of the masses4 ,marriage opened at last a new vista of life to him4 ,aided and stimulated by his cultured and companionable wife he entered upon his reform work by directing a powerful search-light on the goings-on among the high and the low1 in a series of novels that secured for him at once rank among the greatest novelists of his age4 ,aided by his writings4 ,in the second discourse of this series1 ,i spoke of his having deprecated his novels1 and of his having expressed his preference for his ethical and religious and sociological and economical and political writings4 ,i ventured to say to him that but for his novels he would have gotten but comparatively few people to look into his other writings1 that his fiction had secured a world-wide audience1 that they contained many of the teachings of his other books1 and that the public swallows a moral pill easiest when offered in the form of a novel4 ,to which he replied ,most readers swallow the sugar-coating and leave the pill untouched1 or1 if they swallow it1 it remains unassimilated4 ,his novels criticized4 ,and he was right4 ,i have heard much criticism of ,tolstoy's novels4 ,some find him too realistic1 too plain spoken1 even coarse4 ,a certain magazine that had begun publishing his ,resurrection was obliged to discontinue the story1 because of complaints by many of its readers4 ,it was a sad commentary1 not on the morals of the writer but on the lack of morals1 or on the false modesty1 of the readers1 for that novel has been declared by eminent critics to be the greatest and most moral novel ever written4 ,others again value his realism for whatever spice they might find therein1 little heeding the serious purpose for which the story was written4 ,few know meaning of novel in ,russia4 ,at best1 few people understand the meaning of a novel in such a country as ,russia1 where free press1 free pulpit1 free platform and free speech are unknown1 where the novelist attempts to do the work of all of these1 under the guise of fiction1 the only form of literature that has a chance to pass the eye of the censor4 ,whole systems of political and social and moral reform are crowded between the covers of a novel1 which1 if published in any other form of literature1 would condemn the author to life-long imprisonment in the ,siberian mines4 ,the novelist in ,russia does not look upon himself as an entertainer nor as a money-maker1 neither is he looked upon as such4 ,he is the prophet1 the leader1 the teacher1 the tribune of the people1 the liberator--the emancipation of the ,russian serfs1 for instance1 was entirely due to the novel4 ,he has serious work to do1 and he does it seriously4 ,his eye is not upon rhetoric nor upon aesthetics1 but upon the evil he has to uproot1 on the corruption he has to expose1 on the reform he has to institute1 on the philosophy of life he has to unfold1 and to do that means the production of a novel like ,anna ,karnina or of a play like ,the ,power of ,darkness4 ,he speaks not to ,english or ,american puritans1 but to ,russians1 whose receptivity of strong1 plain speech is healthier than ours4 ,spoke as a prophet and reformer4 ,such a novelist was ,tolstoy4 ,his fiction is as powerful as is the art of the ,pre-,raphaelites4 ,it is all sincerity4 ,nothing escapes him4 ,what the ,x-,ray does in the physical world that his penetrating eye does in the field of morals4 ,he sees the sin through a thousand layers of pretense and hypocrisy1 and he describes it as he sees it4 ,disagreeable as are some of the subjects of which he treats1 there is not a line that may not be read without a blush by the pure-minded4 ,like a surgeon1 who cuts into the sore for the purpose of letting out the poison1 he lays bare the wrongs and rottenness of church and government for the purpose of affecting the needed cure4 ,as a prophet he speaks the language of prophets4 ,as a reformer he tells the truth as reformers tell it1 unvarnished and ungarnished4 ,he spares others as little as he spared himself in his book ,my ,confession4 ,he wants others to do as he has done1 to subject the lusts and appetites and greeds to the rule of conscience1 if the kingdom of ,god is ever to be established on earth4 ,opposed by government4 ,radical in his reform propositions from the first1 he attracted attention at once4 ,the world was amazed at the daring of his thought and at the plainness of his speech1 and hailed him as a new prophet4 ,the government1 however1 looked upon him as a revolutionist1 and gave him clearly to understand that he would be silenced if he did not change his views and style of writing4 ,instead of complying with its wish1 he became all the more daring in thought and all the plainer in speech4 ,the humblest peasant could understand as clearly as the shrewdest diplomat what he was after4 ,and it was not long before the government was after him4 ,the publication and sale of certain of his books were prohibited4 ,they were read all the more outside of ,russia1 and by the thousands of copies within ,russia4 ,and the more they were read the larger loomed his world-fame1 till he became too large for banishment or prison1 for fortress or ,siberian mine4 ,challenged government to do its worst4 ,with all the fiery zeal of an ancient ,jewish prophet1 he challenged the government to do its worst1 to tighten the well-soaped noose about his throat as it tightened it about the throats of thousands of better men than any that are in the service of the autocrat or of his hirelings1 the bureaucrats4 ,theirs was a government1 he said1 by might not by right1 by gallows and knout1 not by law4 ,his political demands4 ,he demanded the abolition of the throne and of capital punishment1 the disbanding of the army1 and the discontinuance of trial by court-martial4 ,he demanded liberty of speech and freedom of conscience4 ,he demanded the surrender to the people of lands and rights that justly belonged to them1 and scathingly he denounced those who wasted in riotousness what had been painfully gotten together with the heart's blood of the laboring-people4 ,he denounced the government for its cruelty toward the ,jews1 and charged it with having instigated the massacres of them4 ,he held the government responsible for every misfortune that befell the country--war1 famine1 pestilence1 intense poverty1 hopeless misery1 appalling ignorance4 ,in burning words he charged the slaughter of tens of thousands of husbands and fathers and sons1 in the ,japanese war1 to the greed of the mighty4 ,he depicted the ,duma as the laughing stock of the world1 as composed of people so stupid as not even to recognize what fools they were making of themselves4 ,in his ,resurrection he held up to the view of the world ,russia's courts of law1 and her iniquitous prison-system1 the blocking of justice1 the shocking judicial indifference and laxities in cases involving life-long sentences to penal servitude1 the lives that are shed like water upon the ground during the transport to ,siberia1 and the crimes and rebellions that are systematically bred by such crying injustice4 ,little wonder that the government had no love for ,tolstoy1 and that it suppressed publication after publication of his1 and maintained a special corps of censors and spies to watch him4 ,little wonder that it prohibited demonstrations of sorrow at the announcement of his death1 and made use of the church as a cat's paw for holding him up as the ,anti-,christ1 and arch-fiend1 as the enemy of the ,czar1 ,church and people4#b #b ,see his essay ,church and ,state4 ,his demands of the people4 ,plain and fearless as was his speech to the government it was yet more so to the people4 ,not a wrong in society1 public or private1 which he did not know1 and which he did not castigate as only he knew how to castigate4 ,louder and louder1 as he grew older1 he preached the ,law of ,god against the law of degenerate society4 ,art and science1 commerce and industry were to him as nothing in comparison with the ,moral ,law1 without which he saw no future for mankind4 ,his views respecting marriage and society4 ,the sanctity of the marriage tie1 the sobriety and industry of the husband1 the domesticity of the wife1 were among the most constant of his themes4 ,he loathed the self-exhibiting society woman2 in his eyes she was no better than the street-woman4 ,great to him was the womanly woman1 greater the domestic wife1 greatest of all the mother1 and so many more times greater the more times she was mother4#c #c ,see his essays ,man and ,woman1 ,their ,respective ,functions2 and ,the ,mother1 and his book ,what ,to ,do8 ,his views respecting labor and capital4 ,the sad lot of the poor and the riotous extravagances of the rich were constantly recurrent subjects of discussion with him4 ,we speak of the abolition of slavery1 said he1 but we have abolished only the word1 the poor are enslaved as much as ever4 ,we need a new emancipation1 the emancipation of the rich from the tyranny of their money1 from the thraldom of the false view of themselves and of society4 ,with what right do men speak of the abolition of slavery1 when every time they look into the mirror they see a slave-driver1 when they live in idleness1 and fatten on the heart's blood of the down-trodden1 when they indulge their stomachs with the choicest of dainties1 and wrap their bodies in silks and broad cloths and furs1 while those1 whose slavish toil provides these luxuries and comforts1 have not enough food to keep body and soul together1 nor enough of raiment and shelter to keep from freezing8 ,in an article1 published a few years ago in the ,north ,american ,review1 ,tolstoy spoke of a group of peasants standing aside to let a picknicking party of rich folks drive by4 ,one of the ladies' hats has cost more than the horse with which the peasant plows the field1 and for the gentleman's riding stick has been paid a week's wages of an underground workman4 ,everywhere1 two or three men in a thousand live so that1 doing nothing for themselves1 they eat and drink in one week what would have fed hundreds for a year2 they wear garments costing thousands of dollars2 they live in palaces1 where thousands of workmen could have been housed2 and they spend upon their caprices the fruits of thousands and tens of thousands of working days4 ,the others1 sleepless and unfed1 labor beyond their strength1 ruining their moral and physical health for the benefit of these few chosen ones4 ,it is natural that the rich should not object to this arrangement1 said he1 the surprising thing is that the poor take it so complacently4 ,why do all these men1 strong in physical vigor1 and in the habit of labor--the enormous majority of humanity--why do they submit to and obey a handful of feeble men1 generally incapable of anything8 ,tolstoy finds the answer very simple4 ,it is because the minority have money1 and the workingmen need the money to feed their families4 ,millions of workingmen submit because one man has usurped the factory1 another the land1 and a third the taxes collected from the workmen4 ,were the millions1 who now slave for the rich1 to get their food from the soil1 the rich1 to keep alive1 would be obliged to raise their own food1 and the double redemption would have begun4 ,it is because the number of workers who produce the prime necessities of life is diminishing that the number of those who use luxuries is increasing4 ,under such conditions1 the health of society1 wrote he1 is as little possible as is the health of that person1 whose body is continually growing heavier in weight1 and his legs are continually growing thinner and weaker4 ,when the support vanishes the body must fall4#d #d ,see also his book ,what ,to ,do8 and his essay ,the ,russian ,revolution4 ,his ,remedy4 ,as a bitter opponent of violent measures1 he saw but one way for righting the wrongs of society1 and that is in the well-to-do descending to the lowly and starting life anew with them on a common level1 and rising with them step by step to the higher planes4 ,and to prevent a relapse to the old iniquitous state1 he advocated the eradication of capital1 which he held responsible for many of the inequalities and tyrannies and miseries of society4 ,let the rich1 said he1 convert their money into land and parcel it out among the poor1 and claim for themselves no more than an equal share with the others4 ,merely wishing the poor well1 and yet continuing the old state of affairs1 is like sitting on a man's neck and crushing him down1 yet all the time assuring him and others that we are sorry for him1 and wish to ease his condition by every means in our power except by getting off his back4 ,or it is like entering an orchard1 and barring the door behind1 and gathering its fruit for ourselves1 and wishing others might have as much yet continuing to keep the door barred and gathering for ourselves alone4#e #e ,see his book ,what ,to ,do8 and his essay ,money4 ,if we really wish to see the lot of the poor improved1 said he1 we must not look for a miracle to effect it nor trust to some future age to bring it about4 ,we must do it ourselves1 and we must do it now4 ,and we must do it at the cost of self-sacrifice4 ,if people really wish to improve the condition of their brother men1 and not merely their own1 they must be ready not only to alter the way of life to which they are accustomed1 but they must be ready for an intense struggle with themselves and their families4#f #f ,the ,slavery of ,our ,times4 ,society will never be at peace1 said he1 until man will have learned the service of sacrifice4 ,and man will never be happy until he will have learned to find his happiness in making others happy4#g #g ,cossacks4 ,christ's ,christianity4 ,my ,visit to ,tolstoy 7,concluded47 ,a ,,discourse1 ,,at ,,temple ,,keneseth ,,israel1 ,,by ,,rabbi ,,joseph ,,krauskopf1 ,d4 ,d4 ,philadelphia1 ,january #hth1 #aiaa4 ,tolstoy's fatal flight4 ,the world was amazed1 a few weeks ago1 at the news that ,tolstoy had fled from his family and home1 with the resolve to retire to some wilderness1 there to await his end4 ,guesses as to the cause were many1 and the opinion was quite general that extreme old age had affected his reason4 ,explained in light of last article of his4 ,i could not subscribe to this conclusion1 neither could ,i see anything strange in his sudden departure4 ,i knew of a number of similar flights in his life1 and the reasons for them1 and1 therefore1 ,i was little surprised4 ,and as to suspecting him of failing mentality1 ,i had but a short time before read the latest of his writings1 entitled ,three ,days in a ,village1 in which ,i had seen no sign of a lessening of his power of mind and heart and soul4 ,and it is obvious that the ,russian government1 likewise1 saw no lessening of his mentality1 for it promptly suppressed the publication of it4 ,an enterprising newspaper man1 however1 succeeded in forwarding a copy to our country1 which enterprise not only rescued for us the last of ,tolstoy's writings but also furnished us an explanation of his sudden and fatal flight4 ,divided into three parts4 ,the article1 a comparatively short one1 was divided into three parts1 each a heart-rending recital of miseries in villages neighboring the count's estate4 ,first part described peasant poverty4 ,the first part deals with wayfaring men4 ,from six to twelve of them visit these villages daily in search of bread and clothes1 of work and shelter4 ,some are blind or lame1 some sick or feeble1 some are very old or very young1 some are maimed or crippled1 dragging with them hideous memories of the recent ,japanese war4 ,many of them are ignorant and filthy1 but some of them are intelligent and revolutionary1 who look upon the prosperous as thieves1 and ask for their share of the coined blood pressed from the hearts of the poor and down-trodden4 ,to keep these unceasing streams of wayfaring paupers from becoming a government charge1 they are parcelled out by the authorities among the poor and helpless peasantry1 good care being taken that they are not loaded upon the landlords1 merchants or priests4 ,the wickedness of this course is fully intelligible only to those who have some conception of the indescribable poverty and misery of ,russian peasants4 ,stripped of almost all by taxation and by landlord oppression and by priest and constable extortion1 many of them have scarcely food and room enough for themselves and cattle1 scarcely clothes enough to cover their nakedness1 no money with which to buy the absolutely necessary farming-implements1 or to keep their wretched hovels from toppling over their heads4 ,and yet1 notwithstanding their appalling misery1 ,tolstoy saw their hearts go out in pity to these wandering paupers1 and religiously dividing their crust with those yet more unfortunate than they1 not knowing how soon they themselves might be in a similarly wretched plight4 ,second part described peasant misery4 ,the second part of the article bears the sub-title ,living and ,dying4 ,upon entering the village accompanied by his physician1 the count was entreated for aid by a woman4 ,upon inquiry he learned that her husband had been drafted into the army1 and that the family was starving4 ,upon asking the village authority why the law had been violated in taking from a family its sole supporter1 he was told that the husband's brother was quite capable of supporting the family4 ,next he met a little orphan girl twelve years old1 who was the head of a family of five children4 ,her father had been killed in a mine2 her mother had dropped dead from exhaustion1 a few weeks after2 poor but kind-hearted neighbors kept their eyes on the children1 whilst the oldest went about begging the means for their support4 ,in another hovel he found a man in his death-throes with pneumonia4 ,the room was damp and cold2 there was no fuel for the stove2 no food1 no medicine1 no mattress1 no pillow1 for the dying man4 ,contrasted with extravagance in his own family4 ,saddened by what he had seen and heard the count drove home4 ,in front of his house he saw a carpeted sleigh1 drawn by magnificent horses1 driven by a coachman attired in heavy fur-coat and cap4 ,it was the conveyance of the count's son1 who had come on a visit to his father4 ,there were ten at the table1 who partook of a dinner of four courses1 spiced by two kinds of wine4 ,two butlers were in attendance1 and costly flowers were on the table4 ,whence came these orchids8 asked the son1 to which the mother replied that they had come all the way from ,st4 ,petersburg4 ,they cost a ruble and a half a piece1 said the son1 adding that at a recent concert the whole stage was smothered with orchids4 ,another at the table talked of a little recreation trip to ,italy1 but thought it troublesome to be obliged to spend thirty-nine hours in an express train1 and regretted that aviation had not proceeded far enough to make possible a trip to ,italy in shorter time4 ,the count contrasted these table sights and sounds with those he had seen and heard in the village in the course of the day1 and he left the table even sadder than he was when he came to it4 ,third part described peasant oppression4 ,the third part of the article deals with the taxation of the villagers4 ,from one old peasant the tax collectors took his samovar--the brass kettle for making tea--as indispensable to a ,russian as a stove is to us4 ,from another1 a widow1 they took a sheep2 from another they took a cow1 and so on4 ,one poor woman offered him some linen at the price of two rubles1 the amount she needed for taxes1 saying that1 if she failed to make the sale1 they will seize not only the linen but also her chickens1 her only means of support4 ,that women play so large a part in these taxations is due to so many of the men having been killed in the ,japanese war1 or serving in the army4 ,upon remonstrating with the village authorities1 he was told that they were sorry for the poor people1 but helpless1 that they had received instructions from headquarters to be unsparing in the discharge of their duty4 ,upon visiting the district chief he was made clearly to recognize that back of his severity lay his ambition for promotion as a reliable1 immovable government official4 ,felt that all his labors had been in vain4 ,little wonder1 that the government suppressed the publication of this last of ,tolstoy's writings4 ,little wonder1 that the three days spent amid the miseries of the villagers saddened his heart beyond endurance4 ,and still less wonder1 that the government's responsibility for it1 and the world's indifference to it1 even his own family's1 drove him to despair1 ripened in him the resolve to retire to some wilderness1 where the soul would no longer be harrowed by the sight of human outrages and sufferings4 ,in the midst of such miseries as he saw1 he must have felt that the more than half a century of unceasing labors in behalf of the poor and down-trodden1 all his renunciations and sacrifices had all been in vain4 ,he must have felt that the lot of the peasant was as bad as ever1 that the government was as cruel as before1 that all his writings and all his pleadings for a more equitable division of ,god's gifts had failed to make the slightest impression upon the people1 judging by the extravagances within his own family1 seeing four courses of delicacies on his own table1 at a single meal1 two kinds of wine1 costly orchids1 when1 at but a short distance away1 men and women1 even children1 working infinitely harder than any of his own family1 deserving infinitely more than any who lord it over them1 were literally starving for the want of the necessities of life1 were dying in agony for the want of medical care and ordinary comforts1 had their last possession taken from them by pitiless tax-collectors for the support of a vast army of soldiers and officials1 for the maintenance of a costly and an oppressive autocracy4 ,noted his discontent when in conversation with him4 ,even as far back as #ahid1 when he was sixteen years younger than he was at the time of his flight1 even then ,i noted in my conversations with him an undercurrent of deep sorrow when dwelling on the sufferings of the people1 an occasional outburst of impatience at the slowness of progress1 and now and then a cry of despair1 an utter hopelessness of ever seeing a state of society different from what it was4 ,those responsible for wrongs charged him with irreligion4 ,what seemed to vex him most was seeing the very people who were responsible for these wrongs and outrages considering themselves religious1 and branding as infamous such a man as he whose sole cry was for justice and right4 ,because they mumble so many prayers a day1 said he to me1 when speaking of ,pobdiedonostzief1 and cross themselves so many times1 and fast so many days in the year1 they consider themselves ,christian1 as for the rest of their conduct1 one finds it difficult to believe that they had ever heard of the ,sermon on the ,mount1 of the ,golden ,rule or of the ,mosaic command ,thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself4 ,asking me for an explanation of ,reform ,judaism1 and telling him that is was founded upon an emphasis on the spirit of religion rather than on its forms1 he replied that it would not be tolerated in ,russia1 that the mere words ,reform and ,spirit were quite sufficient to condemn it4 ,the government knows that they who seek the ,spirit also seek the ,truth1 and it is afraid that ,truth will overthrow autocracy and hierarchy1 blind obedience and stupid ceremony1 and will set men free4 ,few men had studied religion as much as he4 ,there are many things in connection with ,tolstoy which ,russia of the future will wish to see expunged from the pages of its history1 and chief of these will be its having branded him as infamously irreligious4 ,few men have been as genuinely religious as he4 ,few men have given religion as much thought as he4 ,few men have written on religious subjects as much as he4 ,rebelled against adulteration of religion4 ,he studied the ,scriptures in the original languages1 and carefully he read ,church doctrine and dogmatic theology1 and the more he read the firmer became his conviction that ,christ's ,christianity was quite a different thing from ,church ,christianity4 ,he rejected the latter1 and fervently he espoused the former4 ,three-fourth of what passes for ,christianity1 he said1 has no historical nor logical nor spiritual warrant4 ,he saw how its fundamental principle1 the equality of all men as sons of ,god1 had been perverted to give the classes the right to enslave the masses4 ,he saw how a divine being had been made of ,jesus1 and how this enabled the church to say that living the life he lived1 and practicing the precepts he preached was impossible for human beings4 ,he had read in the ,scriptures not to resist evil1 and yet had been taught the soldier's trade1 the art of killing4 ,the army to which he had belonged was called ,the ,christophile ,army1 and it was sent forth with a ,christian benediction4 ,one day1 he said1 he was reading in ,hebrew1 with a ,rabbi1 the fifth chapter of ,matthew4 ,after nearly every verse the ,rabbi said ,this is in the ,old ,testament or in the ,talmud1 and showed me the corresponding passages4 ,when we reached the words ,resist no evil1 the ,rabbi did not say ,this is in the ,talmud1 but he asked ,do the ,christians obey this command8 ,do they turn the other cheek8 ,i had nothing to say in reply1 said ,tolstoy1 for at that particular time1 ,christians1 far from turning the other cheek1 were smiting the ,jews upon both cheeks4 ,i saw the support the church gave to persecutions and to the death penalty1 and my soul cried out against it4 ,and his mind rebelled1 he said and wrote1 against the mythology which was paraded as theology1 such teachings as the immaculate conception1 the heaven opening and the angels singing1 ,christ's flying through the air and into the sky1 and seating himself at the right hand of ,god4 ,he denounced as blasphemous such teachings as that by partaking of the ,sacrament ,god's body becomes assimilated with that of man1 or that of ,god being three ,gods in one1 being still angry at man for the sin of ,adam1 and sending ,his only son on earth to be crucified so that by the son's blood the father's wrath may be appeased4 ,he regarded as unworthy even of heathens such teachings as that salvation for sin depended on being baptized1 and that ,god will visit eternal punishment on those who do not believe in ,his divinely begotten son4 ,he professed a sincere belief in ,god as the author of all existence1 and as the source of all love4 ,he believed that death meant a new and higher birth4 ,he believed that ,god's will was most clearly expressed in the teachings of the man ,jesus1 whom to consider and pray to as ,god he regarded as blasphemous4 ,compressed religion into five commandments4 ,he compressed the teachings of ,jesus into the following commandments3 ,i4 ,do not be angry4 ,,ii4 ,do not lust4 ,,iii4 ,do not give away the control of your future actions by taking oaths4 ,,iv4 ,do not resist evil4 ,v4 ,do not withhold love from any one4 ,these five commandments he developed into a comprehensive moral philosophy1 and by it he conscientiously endeavored to guide his life and thought4#h #h ,see his books ,my ,confession1 ,my ,religion1 and ,aylmer ,maude's ,the ,life of ,tolstoy4 ,was indebted for his faith to peasants4 ,and for that strong and simple faith of his1 which is destined1 in the not distant future1 to inaugurate an era in the religious world similar to that which ,luther inaugurated four centuries earlier in ,germany1 he was indebted to the peasants4 ,during the libertine life of his early years1 he had lost the little faith that had been taught him in his childhood4 ,he had returned to his estate an avowed atheist1 and as such had he continued for some time1 until1 one day1 he inquired into what it was that made the wretchedly poor and ignorant and hard-working peasants contented with their lot1 resigned to their fate1 bearing hardships and sufferings unmurmuringly1 and looking happily forward to the end4 ,he found it in their faith4 ,surely1 said he1 a state of mind that can do so much for the poor is worth having by all4 ,and he devoted himself to a diligent study of their religion4 ,he found it burdened with foreign accretions1 contaminated with a putrid mass that had been gathered during centuries of darkness and superstition1 adulterated with all kinds of conscious and unconscious inventions4 ,stripping away the foreign and putrid and false1 he alighted upon a rational1 satisfying faith1 the faith which he believed to have been that of the ,rabbi of ,nazareth1 and1 henceforth1 consecrated his life to the propagation of it4 ,gave them his life and labor in return4 ,and more yet than what the peasants gave to him he gave to them in return4 ,he gave them himself1 and1 in the end1 he sacrificed even his life for them4 ,he found them down-trodden serfs1 he endeavored to make free men of them4 ,he found them cowed and bowed1 he taught them to walk and stand erect4 ,he found them unbefriended1 he became a brother to them4 ,he found them wretchedly poor1 he renounced pleasure and treasure1 luxury and ease1 to lessen as much as he could the distance between them and himself4 ,he dressed as they dressed1 and labored as they labored1 and1 as far as permitted1 ate the kind of food they ate4 ,he found them stalking in darkness1 he brightened their way for them4 ,he found them ignorant and at the mercy of priest and government official1 he became their advocate1 dared to brave an all-powerful autocracy in the defense of their rights4 ,he started schools for them4 ,he gave up writing for the thousands of select readers that he might write for the millions of illiterate peasants and other laborers4 ,he wrote special booklets for them1 and sold them at a loss1 at one-half cent a copy1 stories1 legends1 symbolical tales1 moral plays and religious tracts1 all fitted for their minds and stations1 and intended to deepen in them the law of love and right4 ,died believing he had failed4 ,to have sacrificed and renounced and dared as much and as long as he had1 and1 in the end1 to find what he found1 in his three days observation of village miseries and outrages1 was more than his great heart could stand4 ,it broke4 ,he was eighty-two years old4 ,he could no longer continue the fight4 ,he could no longer look upon the suffering of the unfortunates1 nor upon the wrongs of the world1 nor upon the extravagances even within his own family4 ,he regarded his whole life-work a dismal failure4 ,he knew of no other balm for his bleeding heart than flight from the world to some secluded spot1 there1 as a hermit1 to await the end1 which he knew was not far distant4 ,truly pathetic were his farewell lines to his wife3 ,i cannot continue longer to live a life of ease and luxury while others starve and suffer4 ,like many other old men1 ,i retire from the world to await my end in solitude4 ,i ask that you do not seek my place of sojourn1 and that you do not come to it if it be discovered4 ,i beg forgiveness for the grief that ,i may cause you4 ,characteristic of great reformers4 ,he was not the first of the world's great reformers and lovers of humanity to lose heart and to experience spells of despair4 ,moses and ,elijah and ,jesus and others had their hours of agony1 and prayed that the end might come1 and deliver them from their hopeless labors4 ,and many who1 like ,tolstoy1 closed their eyes in the belief that they had utterly failed loomed large in subsequent ages among the greatest of the world's benefactors4 ,succeeded better than he knew4 ,tolstoy has not failed4 ,he succeeded better than he knew4 ,his pathetic death revealed the vast number of followers he had in his own country and in all parts of the world4 ,and had he cared to inquire1 he might have known it before his death4 ,he could have seen it from the fact that more books of his were sold than of all other ,russian authors combined4 ,he could have seen it in the vast crowds that gathered all along the line1 to catch a glimpse of him1 when on his journey1 a few years ago1 to the ,crimea1 in search of health4 ,he could have seen it in the deputations of sympathizers that waited upon him1 and in the streams of congratulatory letters and telegrams that rushed in upon him--till suppressed--after his excommunication4 ,he could have seen it in the ,tolstoyan societies among the students of almost all the ,russian universities and among other bodies4 ,he could have seen it among the considerable number of landlords1 who made conscientious efforts at following his life1 and at adopting his mode of dealing with peasants and laborers4 ,were the yoke of autocracy removed1 there would arise in ,russia an army of ,tolstoyans as vast and mighty as the host which ,ezekiel in his vision saw in the valley of dry bones4 ,religion of future will be largely ,tolstoyan4 ,the religion of ,russia of the future will be largely that which ,tolstoy lived and taught1 and it will be the religion of a large part of the rest of the world4 ,time's sifting process will eliminate whatever is untenable in his system of moral and social and economic philosophy1 which sprang more from a flaming heart than from a cool1 calculating mind4 ,he had neither the time nor the inclination to work out a synthetic philosophy4 ,he wrote as the spirit moved him1 and whenever it moved him1 the keynote of all his writing having been1 as he said to me1 the hastening of the day when men will dwell together in the bonds of love1 and sin and suffering will be no more4 ,there are in the ,tolstoyan system of religion the elements of the long-dreamed of universal creed4 ,it will take time for the rooting of it4 ,mormonism and ,dowieism spring up1 like ,jonah's gourd1 and pass away as speedily as they came4 ,a system as rational and radical as that of ,tolstoy requires an age for germination4 ,but1 once it takes root1 it takes root forever2 once it blossoms1 it blossoms for eternity4 ,publications of ,rabbi ,joseph ,krauskopf1 ,d4 ,d4 ,postage4 ,a ,rabbi's ,impressions of the ,oberammergau ,passion ,play4--#bej pages1 #a4be #j4aj ,some ,isms of ,to-day4--#i ,discourses1 finely bound1 #a4jj 4#jh ,the ,seven ,ages of ,man4--,a ,practical ,philosophy of ,life4 ,twelve ,discourses on heavy paper4 ,bound in cloth1 #a4jj 4#aj ,old ,truths in ,new ,books4--,eight ,discourses in pamphlet form1 4#ej 4#je ,society and its ,morals4--,seven ,discourses1 handsomely bound1 #a4jj 4#jh ,prejudice1 its ,genesis and ,exodus4--,eight ,discourses4 4#ej 4#je ,my ,visit to ,tolstoy4--,five ,discourses 4#ce 4#je ,the ,service ,manual4--,a book of ,prayers1 ,meditations1 ,responses1 and ,hymns differing each ,sabbath and each ,holiday4 ,complete for the entire year1 in one volume4 #djj pages4 ,bound in ,cloth1 #a4ej 4#ab ,morocco1 #b4ej 4#ab ,the ,service ,hymnal4--,containing the ,service for ,friday ,evening1 ,sunday ,morning and the ,sabbath ,school also the ,music for all the ,hymns of the ,service ,manual4 ,bound in ,cloth1 4#ej 4#jh ,bound in ,morocco1 #a4ej 4#jh ,the ,mourner's ,service4--,a book of ,prayers at the house of mourning1 or at the anniversary of the departed1 4#be 4#je ,sunday ,discourses4--,bound in ,cloth1 from #ahhg to #aiaj4 ,per ,volume1 #a4ej 4#ab ,,for ,,sale ,,by ,,oscar ,,klonower1 ,keneseth ,israel ,temple4