FRIENDS OF TOLSTOY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 955, 24 October 1910, Page 8

FRIENDS OF TOLSTOY.

WITH A "Y." SOME PERSONAL MEMORIES. (By J.Q.X.) '"■ :: . Tolstoi (with an "i"), or Tolstoy '.RTCrth'a V)? After an almost acrimonious argument with a person who said it was "i," and who had a probably valuable, but certainly objectionable volume called "Author and Printer" to support bim, I am prepared to accept a compromise. Why not spell the name both ways? We should then .quite naturally fall into theway of giving a special significance to each form; ,We should write of the novelist as Tolstoi, and of: the'prophet and teacher ,as Tolstoy. If two literary careors are 'comprehended in one man's life, is that any reason why they should bo 'denoted by exactly tho same name? ; Let us call the author of "Anna Karenina" .Tolstoi—Count Tolstoi, if you will—and the writer of ! "What Is Art?" "The Christian Teaching," and "What I Believe," plain Leo Tolstoy, without addition of title. When "Ivan the Fool," and "Where Love Is" come up for dis-. cnssiori'wo may pass with '; a delicate watchfulness from the Tolstoi who tells the story to the Tolstoy who implies the'inoral. . This method of enriching the literary vocabulary appeals to me so strongly' -that I-.'sbould like to. write of "The Stones ;of Venice," by Ruskeyn, and "Unto This Last" by'-.- Ruskin; "The ■Autocrat of tho Breakfast Table" by Holmes; and a number. of medical works by Homes; while a double "r" in Airhbld as the author;of "Culture and Anarchy" would .exquisitely differentiatoCthat. smiter of .the Philistines froni.'the .gentle', jiqet of-."The-Schqlar,, Gipsy;" There'is;amplo precedent'ih Shakespeare, who,- being -a "myriadminded man," spelt his name in a myriad ways.", .•,": ' . . . .-. It is mainly < Tolstoy, though partly, of course, Tolstoi, who has just been awarded the 'sobol peace prize. _ The announcement/;when : I'read it in_tlie papers, touched-one of 'those ' springs that unshutter the secret windows of memory. Through this particular opening I. look across the world and oyer the years' to ; iicenes in which;the name of Tolstoy '.was daily in my. ears and .before my eye 5._...:... - : ...-:-.: .." , .-. .; ~., In a" rod brick farmhouse, -among the level mesidows and cornfields;, of 'Essex,.;' "Resurrection''' was being translated - into English. A,couple of , miles ; away,.'.under a roof: where wind-. .Trill sails'traced their moving shadows,. , the liko labour was .being • bestowed to prepare "Tho .Christian Teaching" for its .first'appearance outside; the jurisdiction of iSb Russian censor. I was in the midst of -a little colony ■of exiles and refugees. Some had been sent away by the, Tsar's Government,. and others had .left, to escape, persecution. Several were personal- friends of Tolstoy, and most were- his disciples. What sufferings,they had endured-they rarely spoke of. They seemed .to'-me cheerful, simple,; affectionate'-pebplo, who talkeda great deal about' serious subjects; ■'-, '. : . ; ' : ; '••' '. 'Some of the.men ■;looked very quaint with their broad, /bearded, Russian faces and their peasant blouses.. When, theyfirst came to.Essex the. natives iwere..': suspicious;'';: They .'thought .these !*'Ro6£'hans" had; come to make some mysterious preparations:for an invasion by tho- army of the" Tsar. Then later,. . jfhen ,:it- began to .be"known that the, newcomers were not on good terms with 'his Imperial Majesty; suspicion : /took another form. ...The machine': which- had been seen pn;'its wayto a lonely farm-, house, whence issued,soon .'..afterwards sundry ; clashings,.; hammerings,' and rumblings, was ij rustically: supposed to be a. thing for making bombs. It was, of 'course; a.printing • press. : The-; je-.'. fugees'were, cer&inly. ' anarchists, ''be-' cause they were non-reshiters, but they had no thought of: using any weapons' but words. They would hurt no living thing.,. ;They were too humanitarian to eat meat, 'and in at' least one house-' hoH they so commiserated the subjugation of, the cow. that they gave up butter, and took to dipping their bread in sunflower oil.'.' ; ' '".-' '■'"''.'. The chief printer, who had only learnt tho craft after coming.toEng- , [land, and cfor the sole purpose of 1 Sprinting the, translations of Tolstoy, ■was a typical disciple. A companion once pointed out to him, while he was 'standing in a street; that his purse was nearly sticking out of his pocket, vend would be aa easy prey to the Jigbi&ijgered. "I should hot mind," foe replied;"that would show that ■somebody else wanted the money more <than I do." , J.;-remember'■:.-' how v the: same - man' addressed me .at . .some , length, and with unaffected Bimplicity, on the valuable philosophical, that had flowed from tho practice-of . cleaning-his own • boots., Another occasional companion was one who might have sat in palaces;had he chosen, and worn glittering uniiorms with ordeTS and medals. But 'wlen he: and' I were sitting on' the ground in: a, cottage garden, while he •explained how an ancient apple-tree could be made fruitful, people would hardly have known him for the prince that he. was.; : Ho '■ had divided v. his ancestral estate among the'.:peasants who worked on it, and when they gavo fliim back a share of it he settled down •as one _of them.' This looked so jvery Teyohitionary that- the -Government isoon found some excuse for ordering ■his removal to another part of Russia.. /There again ho became a sort of elder 'hrother to' the peasants,' and - again -he was moved on. The process was.repeated until he came to England. His relatives gave him up' for a fool. His mother, who'must ' have been a rather terrible old lady, took his two elder snildren away. I trust slie will never get hold of the infant that was born on English soil, in the little wooden sottage where the prince- and princess : iwererliving when I knew them. The princess was one of : those women whose . presence makes any ;■ environment noble. | Through the ' mist of years, some events and people stand out. ■ There was the visit of .the great. Kropotkine, and of the small company of Dukho■bors who came while the Quakers and -Tolstoyans were-discussing whether .they.should be settled in Cyprus or in Canada;'there were English Tolstoyans of the same neighbourhood, digging *heir stiff clay and holding' their stiff arguments;; there was the dear old Ttussian aristocrat who used to stop jne in the .path across the cornfiolds to make personal explanations which were so complicated that I did not •know whether he was apologising to me or intimating that I ought to apologise io him. A connoisseur of the moral picturesque, like the Duke in -"As You like It," would have found those people much more", entertaining than Jaques, and ready on occasion to,pierce through, more forcibly than he, ,*'Tho morals of ■ tho country, city, .' "' court, '~ iYea, and,of. this our. life." But what I wanted to say was that they insisted that Tolstoy, in English, should be spelt with a "y."