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compare with a good man’s heart, on which God Himself receives
the offering? The loftier man’s thought of God, the better
his knowledge of Him. And the better he knows God, the
more nearly will he approach Him, and resemble Him in His
goodness, mercy, and love to the human race. But let not him
who sees God’s full light, that fills the whole world, condemn
or despise the superstitious man, who in his little idol sees only
a ray of the same light; neither let him despise the unbeliever
who is blind and sees no light at all.”
So spake the Chinese, the disciple of Confucius, and all in
the café were silent, and no longer disputed as to which religion
was best. So ends the parable.
The position of Tolstoi and those who think with him with
regard to the political government of the world has been
greatly misrepresented in many quarters. It is true that they
repudiate all worldly authority in general, because they are
convinced of the equality of all men, and regard the unnatural
relations that now prevail between the masters and the
bemastered as a consequence of evolution on wrong lines. But
a violent revolution against the present powers would be equally
contrary to their principles, because they believe the command
“Resist not evil” to be fundamental in morals. On these
grounds they disapprove utterly of the “physical force” policy
of the terrorist party.
Tolstoi and his friends do not think much of Western literature.
They say that like everything else in the present system
of society it is dominated by money-power, and consequently
betrays great laxity of morals. According to them, money
plays the most powerful part in the production of books. The
object of their making is money, and because they are made to
sell, their contents are such as to be pleasing instead of true.
The judgment of the critics is biassed, and these influence the
choice and sale of books. Moreover, the publishers, who are
powerful and wealthy themselves, exercise great pressure on the
press and critics generally; and the retail booksellers are also
under the same pressure of pecuniary motives. Hence it
follows that the vast flood of Western literature that issues
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