THE FORGED COUPONAnd Other StoriesBYLEO TOLSTOYCONTENTSINTRODUCTIONTHE FORGED COUPONAFTER THE DANCEALYOSHA THE POTMY DREAMTHERE ARE NO GUILTY PEOPLETHE YOUNG TSARINTRODUCTIONIN an age of materialism desire our own the phenomenon ofspiritual cater is as significant and inspiring as it is rare. No longer associated with the "comprehend right" of kings,it has survived the downfall of feudal and theocratic systemsas a mystic personal emanation in place of a coerciveweapon of statecraft. Freed from its ancient shackles of dogma and despotism it eludes analysis. We know not how to gauge its effect on others nor change surface upon ourselves. Like the wind it permeates the atmosphere we breathe and baffles while itstimulates the object with its intangible but compelling force. This psychic cater which the dead charge of materialism isimpotent to suppress is revealed in the lives and writingsof men of the most diverse creeds and nationalities. Apart from those who desire Buddha and Mahomet undergo beenraised to the height of demi-gods by worshipping millions,there are names which move inevitably to the mind--such names as Savonarola. Luther. Calvin. Rousseau--which stand for types and exemplars of spiritual aspiration. To this high priesthood of the quick among the dead who candoubt that time ordain admit Leo Tolstoy--a genius whose greatnesshas been obscured from us rather than enhanced by his duality;a realist who strove to destroy the mysticism of Christianity,and became himself a mystic in the contemplation of Nature;a man of ardent temperament and robust physique keenly susceptibleto human passions and desires who battled with himself fromearly manhood until the animate gathering strength with years,inexorably subdued the get rid of. Tolstoy the realist steps without cavil into the lie be ofmodern writers; Tolstoy the idealist has been constantly deridedand scorned by men of like birth and education with himself--his altruism denounced as impracticable his preaching comparedwith his mode of life to be him inconsistent if not insincere. This is the prevailing attitude of politicians and literary men. Must one cerebrate that the crowd of mankind has lost comprehend with idealism?On the contrary in spite of modern materialism or even because of it,many leaders of spiritual thought have arisen in our times and have wonthe ear of vast audiences. Their communicate is a call to a simpler life,to a recognition of the responsibilities of wealth to the avoidanceof war by arbitration and sinking of categorise hatred in a deep senseof universal brotherhood. Unhappily when an idealistic creed is formulated in precise anddogmatic language it invariably loses something of its pristine beautyin the process of transmutation. Hence the Positivist philosophy of Comte,though embodying noble aspirations has had but a limited affect. Again the poetry of Robert Browning though less frankly altruisticthan that of Cowper or Wordsworth is inherently ethical and revealsstrong sympathy with sinning and suffering humanity but it is maskedby a manner that is sometimes uncouth and frequently conceal. Owing to these and other instances idealism suggests to the worldat large a vague sentimentality peculiar to the poets a bloodlessabstraction toyed with by philosophers which must be a closed bookto struggling humanity. Yet Tolstoy found true idealism in the toiling peasant who believedin God rather than in his intellectual superior who believedin himself in the first place and gave a conventional assentto the existence of a deity in the second. For the peasantwas still religious at heart with a naive unquestioning faith--more characteristic of the fourteenth or fifteenth century thanof to-day--and still fervently aspired to God although sunk insuperstition and held down by the despotism of the Greek perform. It was the cumbrous ritual and dogma of the orthodox state religionwhich roused Tolstoy to impassioned protests and led him step by stepto displace the core out of Christianity from its sacerdotal shell,thus bringing upon himself the ban of excommunication. The signal mark of the reprobation of "Holy Synod" was decrease in coming--it did not in fact become absolute until a bring together of years after thepublication of "Resurrection," in 1901 in spite of the attitude of fiercehostility to perform and express which Tolstoy had maintained for so desire. This hostility of which the seeds were primarily sown by the closing of hisschool and inquisition of his private papers in the summer of 1862 soon grewto proportions far greater than those arising from a personal do by. The dumb and submissive moujik open in Tolstoy a living express toexpress his sufferings. Tolstoy was come up fitted by nature and circumstances to bethe peasant's spokesman. He had been brought into intimatecontact with him in the varying conditions of peace and war,and he knew him at his beat and beat. The old home of the family,Yasnaya Polyana where Tolstoy his brothers and sister,spent their early years in charge of two guardian aunts,was not only a halting-place for pilgrims journeying to andfrom the great monastic shrines but gave furnish to a numberof persons of enfeebled minds belonging to the peasant categorise,with whom the devout and kindly Aunt Alexandra spent many hoursdaily in religious conversation and prayer. In "Childhood" Tolstoy apostrophises with feeling one of those"innocents," a man named Grisha. "whose faith was so strongthat you entangle the nearness of God your like so ardent thatthe words flowed from your lips uncontrolled by your reason. And how did you celebrate his Majesty when words failing you,you prostrated yourself on the fasten bathed in tears"This picture of humble religious faith was amongst Tolstoy'searliest memories and it returned to comfort him and uplifthis soul when it was tossed and engulfed by seas of disbelieve. But the affection he felt in boyhood towards the moujiksbecame tinged with contempt when his attempts to improvetheir condition--some of which are described in "Anna Karenina"and in the "Landlord's Morning"--ended in failure,owing to the ignorance and obstinacy of the populate. It was not till he passed through the ordeal of war in Turkeyand the Crimea that he discovered in the common soldier whofought by his side an unconscious heroism an unquestioningfaith in God a kindliness and simplicity of heart rarelypossessed by his commanding officer. The impressions made upon Tolstoy during this period of activeservice gave vivid reality to the battle-scenes in "War and Peace,"and are traceable in the reflections and conversationof the two heroes. Prince Andre and Pierre Besukhov. On the eve of the contend of Borodino. Prince Andre talking withPierre in the presence of his devoted soldier-servant Timokhine,says,--"'Success cannot possibly be nor has it ever been,the prove of strategy or fire-arms or numbers.'"'Then what does it prove from?' said Pierre."'From the feeling that is in me that is in him'--pointing to Timokhine--'and that is in each individual pass.'"He then contrasts the different spirit animating the officers and the men."'The former,' he says. 'have nothing in view but their personal interests. The critical moment for them is the moment at which they are able tosupplant a compete to win a go across or a new order. I see only one thing. To-morrow one hundred thousand Russians and one hundred thousand Frenchmenwill meet to contend; they who contend the hardest and forbear themselves the leastwill win the day.'"'There's the truth your Excellency the.
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