ABSTRACT
This was not mere coincidence. Tolstoy and Rousseau were at variance with their respective times largely because they were at variance with themselves. Their attacks on the period and the civilization to which they belonged were in essence flank attacks upon their own inner discord which they hoped to ease by a call to harmony and simplicity. Yet there is a world of difference between the primitive simplicity which knows no complexity, and the one which has overcome complexity. However much they resemble each other on the surface, they represent different levels of consciousness, of history, and of civilization. l'he harmony, symbolized by the legends of 'paradise' or of the 'golden age', points to that
pre-individual (as well as pre-moral) wholeness which constitutes the main charm of primitive communities and also of children. On this plane the individual is still more or less merged with the collective grouppsyche through which he participates in the life of the race and of Nature herself. Such participation mystique, or whatever its name, may be almost as instinctive as the life in a bee-hive. Not yet severed or differentiated from the group, the individual knows no disturbing problems and dilemmas of his own, but lives the life of the group. And so, whatever he dQes is right: no matter whether he hunts wild animals, paints beautiful ornaments on his weapons and utensils, or else slaughters the enemies of his tribe.
