Lectures on Russian Literature: Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenef, TolstoyPanin, Ivan
History
Lectures on Russian Literature: Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenef, Tolstoy
Panin, Ivan
Russian literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism
5. And the servants of the Prince of Light are few; and the servants of
the Prince of Darkness are many. Yet the Lord God is ever nigh; and he
ever sendeth his messengers to call together his wandering, his erring
flock. Tolstoy is a messenger sent out to gather together the erring
flock back to the fold of Christ.
6. Tolstoy, then, is a teacher of men. Observe, however, this
fundamental difference between Tolstoy and the other great teachers. To
Socrates, the great enemy of mankind was ignorance; to him, therefore,
to know virtue is to be virtuous, and the central idea of his teaching
is--knowledge. The seat of the soul with Socrates, therefore, is not so
much in the heart as in the head. To Epictetus, the great enemy of
mankind is passion, and the central idea of his teaching is
self-control; to Epictetus, then, the seat of the soul is not so much in
the head as in the will. To Emerson, the great enemy of mankind is
authority, and the central idea of his teaching, therefore, is
self-reliance; to Emerson, then, the seat of the soul is not so much in
man's will as in man's pride. To Carlyle, the great enemy of mankind is
consciousness of self, and the central idea of his teaching is
unconsciousness of self, the forgetting, the drowning of self in work.
To Carlyle, therefore, the seat of the soul is not so much in man's
pride as in his hands. Tolstoy has no such central idea of his own. His
central idea is that of his Master, Jesus, which is love. To Jesus, the
great enemy of man was hatred, and the seat of the soul to him was
neither in the head, nor in the will, nor in the pride, nor in the
hands. To Jesus, the seat of the soul was solely in the heart. And
Tolstoy proclaims above all the doctrine of Jesus, not because he
thinketh lightly of ignorance, not because he thinketh lightly of
passion, not because he thinketh lightly of authority, not because he
thinketh lightly of self-consciousness, but because he believes that
Love conquereth _all_ the children of Darkness. Hence the burden of his
message is the ever-recurring, Brethren, follow Christ! Follow Christ
with your heads, and your metaphysics will take care of themselves;
follow Christ with your will, and your passions will take care of
themselves; follow Christ with your hopes, and your self-respect will
take care of itself; lastly, follow Christ with your hands, and your
work will take care of itself. Tolstoy's book is therefore only the
fifth gospel of Christ, and Tolstoy himself is therefore only the
thirteenth apostle of Jesus.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account