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Art and Science,” that is, its unimportance, this attempt
of a self-taught moralist to pass judgment on things
which are out of the scope of his intellect, will be
surprised that Tolstoï regards money as the root of all
evil. With his own hand he does all sorts of service for
the poor; but he never assists them with money. He
wastes his time in helping an old woman set up her
stove, but does not give her the ruble or two which she
needs to get the stove set up better and more solidly.
He is himself rich and has a large income, but he makes
use of the expression that money affairs belong to the
domain of his wife. He never has any money about him,
only now and then gets from his home fifteen kopeks to
pay for a bath in one of the bath-houses for the common
people.
In the play “The Power of Darkness” there is a trace
of this eccentricity. We notice Akim’s indignation when
Mitritch explains to him how it is that money put in the
bank draws interest. All matters of interest and of
banks are in his view a delusion. The author is to be
heard here through the old peasant.
Otherwise, with exemplary self-control he keeps
himself concealed behind his characters, and the play is a
great work in its exceptional sense of reality and the
great, kind heart which beats in it.
Here we look into a world where no one has the bearings,
where no one really knows anything about what
lies beyond the confines of the country town, not even
the soldier who has roamed about. And how the women
are regarded can be seen from what is said about them
in one of the conversations: “There are millions of them
in the Russian land, and all as blind as moles; no
knowledge but a little superstition; when they die, they are
just as wise as when they were born.”
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