ABSTRACT
Tolstoi's philosophical and social ideas after the crisis are but the generalization, for the adult man, of the ideas he had always advanced as regards the child. Tolstoi is a thinker in the best sense of the word; it cannot be denied that he is better acquainted with human nature than are most expounders of morality or professors of ethics. Still, it is our duty to add that this thinker is above all else an educator; his teachings, not to be accepted without a certain amount of reserve in the case of the adult, become more and more imperative when we are dealing with the child and assert themselves irresistibly after due reflection and experience. In these teachings, too, education plays a dominant part; it is through it, through Tolstoian education, that Tolstoi mainly envisages the possibility of the humanity after which he so ardently aspires.
