vol. xxx, no. 4 april 1926 universal brotherhood - a fact in nature

THE YOUTH OF COUNT TOLSTOY
of Law. Alas! The Faculty of Law at the Kazan' University was known
much more for its social meetings, its gatherings - where the cream of
the society of that town was supposed to assemble so many times a month,
- its interest in all the futile happenings of the aristocratic circles, and
its absence of interest in the study of anything that had relation to Law!
No wonder that the Principal of the University, Count Moussin-Pushkin,
expressed himself in the following words: "We have not one student of
Law who is not an imbecile," sad, but rather true to facts!
Under the maddening influence of that worldly life, Tolstoy, like
every other one of his comrades, did not care a bit for the coming examina-
tions, and spent the year in the surroundings of his friends, taking part
in every social affair of the city, and in all the indescribable foolishness
and scandals that occurred in the aristocractic circles of the town.
But this was not the kind of life his soul was striving for. It was
not the occupation which could satisfy the needs of a man like Tolstoy,
even in his nineteenth year.
After the first period of pleasure and selfish satisfaction, the reaction
came very soon. Like so many who have later on understood the
emptiness and folly of worldly life, Tolstoy had been drawn into its current,
had tasted all the vain pleasures of it, and, after having felt disgusted
with its allurements and apparent purpose, under which were
hiding the grimacing faces of crass immorality, pride, ambition, and selfish
satisfaction, he began to feel uneasy in the midst of his so-called 'friends.'
He began to think that the kind of life which was customary then in the
highest educational establishments of Russia, and especially in the universities,
would not contribute to make of him a man in the real sense
of the word. He had the sincere desire to be 'good,' but, as he says
himself, the social ~nilieu in which he lived paralysed his good will.
After a disastrous examination at the close of his studies in the
University, he left it in 1847. The certificate delivered to him stated,
among other things, that he was "not capable, extremely lazy, and
failed to come to the lessons."
Tolstoy went to Yasnaya Polyana, which now belonged to him,
after the death of his father, and spent two years there. The change of
atmosphere, the beneficent influence of the great, infinite space of the
Russian country, made an indelible impression on him after the city-life.
He came to hate the worldly existence, the circumstances which sur-
rounded him until now; that life, which, as he said later on in his Con-
fession, "empties the spirit, the heart, and the soul of youth."
Tolstoy felt, perhaps for the first time in his life, that the real life