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building churches, supporting clergy, and fighting each other’s
dogmas.”
Of the present religious movement in Russia, which has
certainly raised the Sectarians to a much higher level than the
Orthodox peasantry, Tolstoi has a high opinion. He gave
interesting accounts of peasants who have both grasped and
retained a firmer hold upon practical and central Christian
ideas than many learned theologians. One night he read a
deeply interesting letter from an old Stundist peasant, who had
taught himself to read and write at the advanced age of sixty,
in order to be able to read the Bible for himself. This letter
is translated and given in the account of the Stundist
movement later on in this booh. When he had finished reading it,
he said, “I tell you, these men are real heroes!”
Russian peasants very frequently consult the Count, either
personally or in writing, about their perplexities on religious or
moral questions, or come to him as a friend to confide their
opinions to him, and discuss the matters in point.
His sympathies, like his views, are broad enough to
comprehend what is good and true in all men and creeds. This is
shown both in his writings and his conversation. True, he
criticises narrowness and combats error, and that not
infrequently in vigorous terms, but this is not for the mere pleasure
of opposing others. His desire is to prepare the way for truth
and make openings for the light. To come into personal
contact with this man, and listen to his words, is to feel at once
that you are under the spell of a passionate lover of truth and
righteousness.
There is a fable written by the Count, and published in the
Vestnik Europi, called “The Café of Surat,” which will be
of interest, as it contains the ideas he frequently expresses in
different forms in his conversation, and may fitly find a place
in his “table talk.”
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