Chapter 4 two

What we felt instinctively in the past without explaining it should be confirmed by our reason today.We can do this now, when this long life has come to an end, and is unfolded before all eyes, without concealment, as the bright sun in the realm of thought.The first thing that surprises us is that this long life has not changed from the beginning to the end, although people have tried to use fences to separate it from place to place—although Tolstoy himself, because of his enthusiasm, is often in his belief, in his love. At that time, he thought it was the first time he believed and loved for the first time, and thought that this was the beginning of his life.start.Restart.The same transformation, the same struggle, how many times had it happened in his heart!The unity of his thought cannot be discussed—his thought was never unified—but it may be noted that his various elements have a perpetuity in his thought which is sometimes compromised and sometimes hostile.In the heart and mind of a man like Tolstoy there is absolutely no unity, it exists only in the struggle of his passions, in the tragedy of his art and his life.

Art and life are identical.Never has work been more closely connected with life than with Tolstoy: his work is almost always autobiographical; since the age of twenty-five it makes us follow step by step the contradictory experiences of his adventurous career .From before the age of twenty until his death, except for a few periods interrupted, - especially the longest one, from 1865 to 1878, his diary, and his supply to Birukov He provided these records because Birukov wrote many biographies of Tolstoy, such as "Life and Works", "Memoirs", "Memoirs", "Letters", "Selected Diaries", "Biography "Data Collection", etc.; these works have been reviewed by Tolstoy himself, and they are the most important works on Tolstoy's career and works, and they are also the books I refer to most.It also supplements our understanding of him, so that we can not only understand the evolution of his consciousness day by day, but also reproduce the world in which his genius was born and his soul was nourished.

Rich inheritance, double lineage (Tolstoy and Volkonsky), noble, ancient, lineage stretching all the way to Rurik, genealogy with persons in service to Alexander the Great, seven years old Generals in war, heroes of Napoleon's campaigns, Decembrists, political prisoners.In the family memory, several of Tolstoy's most special typical characters: such as his grandfather, the old prince Volkonsky, the Voltaire style in the era of Catherine II. the despotic representative of the nobility; his mother's cousin, Prince Nikolai Gregorevich Volkonsky, who was wounded at Austerlitz and rescued on the battlefield; his father , somewhat like Nikolai Rostov's; his mother, Princess Marya, a gentle ugly woman, with beautiful eyes, an ugly face, and the light of her kindness shone.

He didn't know much about his parents.We all know that the lovely narratives in "Childhood" and "Boyhood" have very little truth.He was not yet two years old when his mother died.So he recalled only in the tearful accounts of little Nikolai Irteneyev's lovely face, always with a radiant smile, which filled her with joy... "Ah ! If I could catch a glimpse of this smile in hard times, I would never know what sorrow is..." "Childhood" Chapter Two. But her perfect candor, her disregard for public opinion, and her wonderful genius for telling stories of her own making must have passed on to him.

He still has at least some memories of his father.He was a kindly, witty man, with melancholy eyes, who led an independent and unambitious life in his village.Tolstoy was nine years old when he lost his father.This death made him "understand the sad reality for the first time, and his heart and soul were filled with despair". "Childhood" Chapter 27. —This is the child's first encounter with a ghastly phantom, and his life is partly to defeat it, and partly to praise it after transfiguring it. ... The traces of this grief are deeply expressed in the last chapters of "Childhood", where memory has become a narrative chasing his mother's death and burial.

In the old mansion of Yasnaya Polyana they were five children.Yasnaya Polyana means "fence". It is a small village more than ten miles away from the city of South Tula in Moscow. The province it belongs to is the most colorful province in Russia.Lev Nikolayevich was born in this house on August 28, 1828, and remained there until his death eighty-two years later.The youngest of the five children was a girl named Maria, who became a monk. (Tolstoy fled his own home when he was dying, and took refuge in her when he left his family.) —Four sons: Sergei, the selfish, lovely one, "his The degree of sincerity is something I have never seen before”; ——Dmitry is passionate and deep. In his college days, he passionately practiced religion, ignored everything, fasted and reduced food, visited the poor, and helped the disabled, and then suddenly became Cheng Bohemian, as violent as his piety, later filled with remorse, stripped for a prostitute to live with her, and died of consumption at the age of twenty-nine; Tolstoy describes him in, that character is Levin's brother. —The eldest son, Nicholas, was the most beloved of the brothers, and had inherited the fantasy of telling stories from his mother, who had written a "Journal of a Hunter."Humorous, timid, delicate temperament, later served as an officer in the Caucasus, developed the habit of drinking, full of Christian warmth.He also distributed all his property to the poor.Turgenev said that he "practiced humility in life, unlike his brother Lev, who was complacent only by theoretical discussions".

Around the children, there are two women with kind hearts: Aunt Tatyana, Tolstoy said: "She has two virtues: calm and love." In fact, she is already a distant relative.She had loved Thors' father, and he loved her; but like Sonia, she backed down.Her whole life is just love.She always sacrificed her life for others... "She made me know the spiritual joy of love..." The other was Aunt Alexandra, she always served others and avoided serving others, she had no servants, and her only hobby was reading The Acts of the Saints, and the pilgrims and the innocent.Several innocent men and women sent food to their home.Among them was an old woman who made a pilgrimage to the mountains, who could recite hymns, and was the foster mother of Tolstoy's younger sister.Another, Grisha, knew nothing but prayer and weeping... "O great Christian Grisha! Your faith is so strong that you feel near to God, your love is so strong that your Words flow from your mouth, for your reason cannot control. You praise the majesty of God, and when you can't find words, you prostrate on the ground with tears streaming down your face!

The influence of all these humble hearts on Tolstoy's growth is of course obvious.Tolstoy in his old age seems to have sprouted and tried these souls.Their prayers and love sow the seeds of faith in the spirits of children, which are seen to reap in old age. Apart from the innocent Griza, Tolstoy in his "Childhood" makes no mention of these lowly characters who contributed to the development of his soul.But on the other hand, the book reveals this child's soul, "this pure and loving soul, like a bright brilliance, always knows how to discover the best qualities in others", and this extreme tenderness!Happy he thought only of the unfortunate he knew, he wept, he would show her devotion to him.He kisses an old horse, and he asks forgiveness for his suffering.He is happy when he loves, even if he is not loved.One had glimpsed the germs of his future genius: the fantasies that made him weep; In his autobiographical notes from 1876, he says he can still remember being swaddled and bathed as a baby.The great Swiss poet Spieter also has the same memory. He has a clear memory of his image when he first entered the world. He once wrote a whole book about it.His sharp eyes - know how to look for his troubles and sorrows on other people's faces.He said that when he was five years old, he felt for the first time, "Life is not a kind of pleasure, but a very heavy job." "Early Memories".

Fortunately, he forgot this longing.At this time, he organized his fantasies in popular stories, Russian bylines myths and legends, and biblical histories, especially the history of Joseph in the Bible-in his later years he still regarded him as A model of the art of writing—and The Arabian Nights.For what he listened to every night at his grandmother's house by a blind storyteller who sat in the window.