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THE COURIER.
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HervwitK in their employ.
,he little sketch called "A Belated
Cwivention" by Lucy Garrison Green
is written from an entirely different
LYEFF N1CKOLABV1T6H TOLSTOY find so unendurable. I know of a mean the renunciation which He and
secondary teacher in the east win not his followers practiced and insisted
long ago insisted that The Scarlet on. But Tolstoy says, Christ did not
Letter should be removed from tli3 bid the rich roan sell all that he had
The review of Hall Caine's, Christian
in the last Atlantic aealn reminds us
standpoint, and with unclouded com- that fame, until sljegels out of short school library on the ground that it and give to the poor and only after
prehension and humor. It is here- dresses, is a very hoydenish and un- was inimoral. A member of the school that come and;followHim,for the sake
with reproduce:!: accountable divinity. The author of board assayed to debate the question, of the rich man's money, or for the
"I)e laws, mammy! what in king- the review aforesaid deviseth thus: "Nobody," he said, "has ever sug
doai you flxin' ter do wid all dem aigs if a novelist chooses to write about gested that it was objectionable be
en chicken-fixins mo1 samcr'n a wed- -vice as a fashion of contemporary fore." "Well," she answered, "it is to
ding'?'' manners, we feel that Grylle is Grylle, me. I've read it three or rour times. -
"Hclsli, child! I ain' got no time ter and may write as he pleases; but when It is evidently high time that we take
tarry dis even'. Run fetch me a hack 3ir. Hall Caine takes advantage of into account the purpose and con
er fatlin', en nev' mine de questions, the sacred name of Christian in order sciousness with which an author
Dii owinebe a weddin'. sho"nuf." to attract decent neonle. and in tlia writes, and the native or national in-
C M. 1 "
sake of the poor to whom it would
have been a fleeting pittance, but for
the sake of the ricli man. Since the
rich man did not find it a joy to do
this, thecal! was not for him. There
was ho "duty'" about it; it was a
privilege he could not rise to. If he
had done it reluctantly and resist-
'Whoonee! weddin heah? Who-alls same natrcs describes vice infrequent stinctsof delicacy governinghis mind, ingly it were better left undone. The
it gwine be? repetition of similar scenes, wo think as well as the effect produced upon the notion has been too common that this
"Gwine be me en yo1 pappy, dat's he must be held to be liming his twig individual reader's mind. Totheun- thing was demanded for sacrifice, for
who, you no-count buzza'd. Didn' you tj catch at the same time a different pure few things are pure. discipline, as a test which, submitted
know I done got'Iigfon fo' sho' dis class of readers." That anybody who There is small' question that Tol- to, would give the one suffering it
time? Gwine be babtize ,conic .Whis- knows Hall Caine, or has read a dozen stoy is one o'f the great intellects of exaltation because he had acted a
suntide; en Mister Goffanysays leer- pages of his Christian can honestly this century, perhaps, indeed, unsur- heroic part. The Sermon on the
t'ny ie got to be ma'ied 'f' I kin come suspect that this author is capable of passed by any. His Xapoleon's Cam- Mount is pitched to a higher key.
inter Abrum's buzzum wid de res' er making a bid for readers and notoriety paign In Russia furnishes alone suffic- Tolstoy believes that Christ would
Plum Creek settlement. I done rea- through pandering to salacity, is bard ient proof. Questions of relative have declared it better to keep one's
aoned with yo' pappy a heap, but he u realize. A dozen vearsfrnm nowit'sunerority in intelligence, or prepon- substance than throw it away for the
.sfeo'is de -stiff-neckes', discommoda
tiaes' nigger dat ever liact up wid.
Said he warn' gwine bu babtize, no
mo' git ma'ied, bis time cr life; dat
de idee wuz plum foolish in de aig.cn
wuss atter hatchin'; but I laid off ter
'im, 'fo Moses I'd wool Mm good nex'
time de rheumatics done struek'ini. He
knowed I gwine do it;caz9 he ain't
forgot the las' time ofTn his mln yit,
en he's done give in.
"You, Vienna, you kin be de brides
maid, caze you's my fus-born;en little
Maola, she kin hoi' de bokay. Who
said I 'uz too fat ter stagger? I lay I
ain't got a bony neck, nohow! Miss
Alice, she done promuss me dc muslin
keurtains outen de parlor fo a dress,
en Adeline Botts gwine mek it, low
neck en all.
"Go long, you all ohillen! Ain't
none of you gals jot ahead of yo' oP
mammy yit! Stan fom under! Dey's
gwine be big doin's on Plum Creek!
I's a bride, 1 is!
"The White Glory," by Kcene Ab
bott, is told with too much feeling. It
seems to me that the story-teller
should not allow himself to be caught
directiug the attention to anything
painful for fear of giving the impres
sicntothe readers that they are be
ing worked."
The poem called Spain, by Joseph
Andrews Sargent, is somewhat diffi
cult to undci stand on account of the
number of personal pronouns in the
first stanza.
To one who has not seen Ejypt, the
poem "Down in Egypt," by H. B. '
Alexander, who has never been in
Egypt, is a satisfactory picture of the
Kile, the Lutus and the river-way
tombs.
Seftia the rays ef the silvery gooaest,
Oases af the Night,
Slillji leweththe Father of Waters
rx ai by her light.
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will all be different. Not. so long ago derance of brains, are hard to settle: sake of conscious merit to be acquired
as that it was not uncommon to see It is far easier to measure differences thereby. And the general spiritual
or hear Tolstoy denounced as an im- of the other soft of development and sense of the age would, I imagine, in
dorse that view.
""" That Tolstoy has done, snirituallv
speaking.thls very act of renunciation,
with joy, without regrets, or posing as
the -world's great martyr for Christ's
sake, is I suppose the disturbing cir
cumstance in the disputations of
the day. He upsets the equanimity
of those who, by great tribulation,
have" come to the comforting conclu
sion that they are great in the king
dom of heaven. Tolstoy claims no
merit for renouncing his man-Wde
privileges, for making himself of no
reputation, and treating the drosky
drivcr as his friend and equal not less
than the Sybaritic patricians of Mos
cow and the court. He feels it merely
fitting that men who keep the higher
company lie keeps should do such
tilings. He makes no pretensions to
mystic raptures or other transcenden
tal emoluments of saintship, yet en
joys a satisfaction and serenity of soul
that is well-nigh the envy of the secu
lar and the Christian thinking world.
Perhaps nothing has been harder to
comprehend than Tolstoy's notions of
non-resistance. We all remember how
Mr. Kennan failed to hear and report
Tolstoy's utterances aright. Tolstoy
holds that nothing so exalts evil as to
enter into warfare with it upon equal
terms. Christ's view, according to
his interpretation, was: never recog
nize evil a? a belligerent, or as capa
ble of legitimate belligerency, at all.
Tolstoy's theory of non-resistance is
due to this reverence for Right and
Truth. I suppose no man in all the
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The sole meaning of life is to serve humanity
by contributing to the s:abltGhmeut of the
Kingdom of Gad, which cm be done only ly
the recognition and profession of the truth by
every man Leo Tolstoy, in ''The Kingdom
of God is Within You."
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MKtfttt9ftam
l the beams of
me Mather of MapS
Ttmplr aad tomb
Mtfliveh brood by the
river
Barns with thek gloom.
moral writer. Of course there are
people who insist that the Bible
should be kept under lock and key as
unfit to read. Yet the reputation of
the Hebrew scriptures is undoubtedly
now, on the wuoie, ocyona jeoparay.
largeness of soul-quality. Undoubt- Russias could have so made the found-
edly Tolstoy is chief among the phil- ations of that colossal and belated tyr
antbropists of modern times. Of anny shake as he, if he had thought it
course it is the fashion to call him were his mission to work reform that
fanatical, but the fact remains that
he alone of the titled and privileged
And similarly, except with hysterical great ones now or lately living 4 has 85
critics, Tolstoy may be held already left all to follow" Christ. Even the KM
5
Leva! of tie waves of
the murmuring waters
lapping her feet,
Ffeateth afar the faiat
breath of th: Lotos
Swaet, ah, so sweet!
Laliathe East the pale
rose hlwfc of dawmag
Btesteth at mora!
Wiie o'er the laad tre priests
chaatiromthe temples,
"Ho-ws is torn!"
.
Briggs Was your stag dinner a suc
cess? t
Do vie I t ho ill J say sj; the po'ice
ttopped it before it was half over.
:ritics, Tolstoy
to have been acquitted at the bar of
public sentiment of any such literary
purpose as coirupting the morals of
his age.
By the way, it is worth noting that
neither the Atlantic reviewer nor
Maurice Thompson, nor any other of
their breed has remembered himself
of 'the necessity of denying that the
London Hall Caine paints is too truly
the London of today. I suppose thiiso
gentlemen know this all too wcl'. It
is very convenient to pretend that a
.writer of Hall Caine's standing and
integrity could not possibly have in
tended to disclose the iniquity he has
unearthed with a view to revulsion
and remedy. The suspicion'cannot be
quite crushed oat that these critics do
not hate what they denounce wjth
most pictistic now-a-days manage to
find a strong inner conviction that it
is absolutely the divine will that they
keep the wealth and station that they
have iniieritcd and that they dispense
from their fortunes at their conve
nient pleasure, what they think the
Lord may need. Tolstoy would sjy
that the Lord is in no need of their
bounty, but wishes merely that they
outgrow caste and the pretentions of
privilege. To do this, while clinging
to all the emoluments of wealth aud
power is impossible. Even among the
followers of Him who gathered no
substance and made it a test of disci
pleship that none who followed him
should have any, worth is far fronib;
ing the spiritual thing in fact that it
is in theory. Xay, thechief exponents
Pss&wsSSwP w Ps3vCsr!!? aw
UOOK
ss
With.
jierfect hatred, and arc-not wholly un- and expounders of Christian doctrine
willing to advertise the foulness they affirm that Christ's sayings do not
I
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