To "re-found the religion of Christ, purged of dogmas and
mysticism—a practical religion, not promising future bliss, but giving bliss on earth "—was the starting idea of Sub- Lieutenant Tolstoy when on leave from his battery in the Caucasus. He was about twenty-five years old at the time, and it was another quarter-century before the idea bore its noble fruit. In the interval there_ was drinking, gambling, dissipation, sport, soldiering, and much heartTsearching in the constant effort to express himself. The Private Diary of Leo Tolstoy, 1853-57, translated and edited by Mr. Aylmer Maude (Heinemann, 15s.), is a remarkable document and tells us all about these early struggles with a passionate nature. It makes us feel ashamed, yet humbly grateful, to sec so inti- mately to the very soul of Tolstoy. It is-not a book to' read through from end to end, but to pause and ponder over and be devoutly thankful for. In it we may learn much of the Russian temperament and of the unfolding of the powers of a genius.
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