and the zeal of the press. German scholars should read Hertzen's vivid
description of the "idealists of the forties." And what about the
history of the emancipation of the serfs, or of the regeneration of the
judicature? The "reforms of the sixties" are a household word in Russia,
and surely they are one of the noblest efforts ever made by a nation in
the direction of moral improvement.

Looking somewhat deeper, what right have the Germans to speak of their
cultural ideals as superior to those of the Russian people? They deride
the superstitions of the mujikh as if tapers and genuflexions were the
principal matters of popular religion. Those who have studied the
Russian people without prejudice know better than that. Read Selma
Lagerloef's touching description of Russian pilgrims in Palestine. She,
the Protestant, has understood the true significance of the religious
impulse which leads these poor men to the Holy Land, and which draws
them to the numberless churches of the vast country. These simple people
cling to the belief that there is something else in God's world besides
toil and greed; they flock toward the light, and find in it the
justification of their human craving for peace and mercy. For the
Russian people have the Christian virtues of patience in suffering;
their pity for the poor and oppressed are more than occasional
manifestations of individual feeling--they are deeply rooted in national
psychology. This frame of mind has been scorned as fit for slaves! It is
indeed a case where the learning of philosophers is put to shame by the
insight of the simple-minded. Conquerors should remember that the
greatest victories in history have been won by the unarmed--by the
Christian confessors whom the Emperors sent to the lions, by the "old
believers" of Russia who went to Siberia and to the flames for their
unyielding faith, by the Russian serfs who preserved their human dignity
and social cohesion in spite of the exactions of their masters, by the
Italians, Poles, and Jews, when they were trampled under foot by their
rulers. It is such a victory of the spirit that Tolstoy had in mind when
he preached his gospel of non-resistance, and I do not think even a
German on the war path would be blind enough to suppose that Tolstoy's
message came from a craven soul. The orientation of the so-called
"intelligent" class in Russia--that is, the educated middle class, which
is much more numerous and influential than people su