s
likewise. Bring to Europe the gifts of peace and liberty!

"demain," Geneva, May 1, 1917.

VIII

TOLSTOY: THE FREE SPIRIT

In his diary, of which the first French translation has just been issued
by Paul Biriukov,[15] Tolstoy gives utterance to the fantasy that in an
earlier life his personality had been a complex of loved beings. Each
successive existence, he suggested, enlarged the circle of friends and
the range and power of the soul.[16]

Speaking generally, we may say that a great personality comprehends
within itself more souls than one. All these souls are grouped around
one among them, much as, in a company of friends, the one with the
strongest character will establish an ascendancy.

In Tolstoy there are more men than one: there is the great artist; there
is the great Christian; there is the being of uncontrolled instincts and
passions. But in Tolstoy, as his days lengthened and his kingdom
extended, it became plain and yet more plain that there was one ruler.
This ruler was the free reason. It is to the free reason that I wish to
pay homage here, for it is this above everything that we all need
to-day.

Our epoch is not poor in the other energies, those energies which
Tolstoy possessed in so full a measure. Our age is surfeited with
passions and with heroism; in artistic capacity it is not lacking; the
fire of religion, even, has not been withheld. God--all the gods there
be--have cast burning brands into the vast conflagration that rages
among the nations. Christ not excepted. There is not one among the
countries, belligerent or neutral, including the two Switzerlands, the
German and the Romance, which has failed to discover in the gospels
justification for cursing or for slaughter.

Rarer to-day than heroism, rarer than beauty, rarer than holiness, is a
free spirit. Free from constraint, free from prejudices, free from every
idol; free from every dogma, whether of class, caste, or nation; free
from every religion. A soul which has the courage and the
straightforwardness to look with its own eyes, to love with its own
heart, to judge with its own reason; to be no shadow, but a man.

To a surpassing degree, Tolstoy set such an example. He was free.
Invariably, with steadfast gaze, he looked events and men in the face
without blinking. His free judgment was unperturbed even by his
affections. Nothing shows this more plainly than his independence
towards the one whom he valued the most, to