Tolstoy and his problems

Front matter

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3 1924 027 487""377"""

Preface

It is still difficMlt for English readers to discover Tolstoy's opinions, or, at any rate, to understand clearly horv his views on different subjects Jit together. Some of his works have never been translated; others have been translated from sense into nonsense. Even in Russian several of his most important philosophic works are only obtainable in the badly edited Geneva edition which is full of mistakes.

Besides these external difficulties, there are difficulties inherent in the subjects he discusses, nor is it always easy for the reader to understand from which side Tolstoy approaches his subject, and to make due allowance for the "personal equation." So that most readers, however open-minded and willing to understand, on reading books that contain so much that runs counter both to the established beliefs of our day and to the hopes of our various "advanced" groups, must have felt, as I did, a desire to cross-examine Tolstoy personally.

Being the only Englishman who, in recent years, has had the advantage of intimate personal intercourse, continued over a period of some years, with Tolstoy, I hardly need an excuse for trying to share with others some of the results he helped me to reach.

Each essay in this volume expresses, in one form or other, Tolstoy's view of life ; and the main object of the book is not to praise his views, but to explain them. His positions, not being final revelations of the truth attainable by man, may

PREFACE

and should he subjected to criticism, and to re-examination from other points of vieiv. But a necessary preliminary to pro- Jitahle criticism is comprehension ; and this necessary preliminary having, heretofore, in relation to Tolstoy's works, been very frequently neglected, my first aim is clearly and simply to restate certain futidamental principles rvith which he has dealt. The first fve essays do this directly, and the last four indirectly. But Tolstoy must, of course, not be held responsible for my statements on matters of detail or matters of fact, such, for example, as the history of the Doukhobdrs or the negotiations that preceded the war in South Africa.

The article on the Doukhobdrs appears now for the first time in print, after having been given several times in the form of a lecture. " Talks with Tolstoy " has been re-shaped, and the other essays have been more or less revised, since they first appeared. My thanks are due to those concerned, for kind permission to republish articles which originally appeared in " The New Century Review," "The Contemporary Review," "The Bookman" (New York J, "The New Age" and "The New Order" ; as well as to my friend Herbert P. Archer, for helping me to prepare this edition.

The publication of the present volume mill not prevent separate essays contained in it from circulating in cheap form.

AYLMER MAUDE.

Great Baddow,

Chelmsford.

Contents

PAGE

I. LEO TOLSTOY . . . . 1

II. TALKS WITH TOLSTOY . 32