ve perused attentively his earlier works will have perceived
that there is really very little that is absolutely new in these
doctrines. They are so strictly the development of ideas which are an
integral part of him, through heredity, environment, and personal bias,
that the only surprise would be that he should not have ended in this
way. Community of goods, mutual help, and kindred doctrines are the
national birthright of every Russian, often bartered, it is true. But
long residence in the country among the peasants who do not preach these
doctrines, but simply practice them, naturally affected the thoughtful
student of humanity though he was of a different rank. He began to
announce his theories to the world, and found followers, as teachers of
these views generally do,--a proof that they satisfy an instinct in
the human breast. Solitary country life anywhere is productive of such
views.

Disciples, or "adepts," began to make pilgrimages to the prophet. There
is a characteristic, a highly characteristic history of one such who
came and established himself in the village at the count's park gate.

"This F. was a Jew, who did not finish his studies, got led astray by
socialists, and joined a community where, like the other members, he
lived out of marriage with a young girl student. At last he came across
a treatise of Lyeff Nikolaevitch, and decided that he was wrong and
Lyeff Nikolaevitch right. He removed to Yasnaya Polyana, married his
former mistress, and began to live and work among the peasants." (He
first joined the Russian church, and one of the count's daughters stood
godmother for him.) "His wife worked also; but, with delicate health and
two small children to care for, she could do little, through weakness
and lack of skill. The peasants laughed at him and at Lyeff
Nikola'itch."

Mrs. F. came to the countess with her griefs, and the latter helped her
with food, clothing, and in other ways. "One day nothing remained in the
house to eat but a single crust. F. was ill. His wife, who was also ill
and feeble, went off to work. On her return she found no bread. Some one
had come along begging '_Khristi radi_' [for Christ's sake], and F. had
given him the crust,--with absolute consistency, it must be confessed.
This was the end. There was a scene. The wife went back to her friends.
F. also gave up, went off to Ekaterinoslaff, learned the tailor's trade,
and married again!" How he managed this second marriage wi