Tolstoy’s Views on Religion and Philosophy
Tolstoy's Teaching, by Aylmer Maude
From his boyhood upwards, both when he listened to the still, small
voice within, and when he observed things outside himself, Tolstoy
felt, though not always with equal clearness, that life has a meaning
and that man has power to progress towards what is good. The intervals
of doubt and hesitation through which he passed, served to clarify and
shape his certainty that morality is in the nature of things. Beginning
with his earliest stories, and
through all his writings, the reader may notice how Tolstoy's strenuous
observation of things around him, and especially of what went on in his
own consciousness, led him towards an understanding of life different
from that of people whose creed is a matter of geography, and who have
not worked at it themselves. He could not be content with a second-hand
belief prepared and expressed for him by professional expounders.