ability, down to the final
catastrophe, bears on it the stamp of something which must have
happened just in that very way and no other.

But, as far as Tolstoy's own development is concerned, Levin is the
most interesting figure in the book. This character is another
landmark in Tolstoy's search after truth; he is constantly putting
accepted ideas to the test; he is haunted by the fear of sudden death,
not the physical fear of death in itself, but the fear that in the
face of death the whole of life may be meaningless; a peasant opens a
new door for him and furnishes him with a solution to the problem--to
live for one's soul: life no longer seems meaningless.

Thus Levin marks the stage in Tolstoy's evolution of his abandoning
materialism and of seeking for the truth in the Church. But the Church
does not satisfy him. He rejects its dogmas and its ritual; he turns
to the Gospel, but far from accepting it, he revises it. He comes to
the conclusion that Christianity as it has been taught is mere
madness, and that the Church is a superfluous anachronism. Thus
another change comes about, which is generally regarded as _the_
change cutting Tolstoy's life in half; in reality it is only a fresh
right-about-turn of a man who is searching for truth in blinkers. In
his _Confession_, he says: "I grew to hate myself; and now all has
become clear." He came to believe that property was the source of all
evil; he desired literally to give up all he had. This he was not able
to do. It was not that he shrank from the sacrifice at the last; but
that circumstances and family ties were too strong for him. But his
final flight from home in the last days of his life shows that the
desire had never left him.

Art was also subjected to his new standards and found wanting, both in
his own work and in that of others. Shakespeare and Beethoven were
summarily disposed of; his own masterpieces he pronounced to be
worthless. This more than anything shows the pride of the man. He
could admire no one, not even himself. He scorned the gifts which were
given him, and the greatest gifts of the greatest men. But this
landmark of Tolstoy's evolution, his turning his back on the Church,
and on his work, is a landmark in Russian history as well as in
Russian art. For far less than this Russian thinkers and writers of
high position had been imprisoned and exiled. Nobody dared to touch
Tolstoy. He fearlessly attacked all constituted authority, both
spiritu