Page:Leo Tolstoi - Life Is Worth Living and Other Stories - tr. Adolphus Norraikow (1892).djvu/14

Rh perament. It is interesting to follow the differences also in their respective methods of putting their Christian principles into practice, while much information concerning the sights to be seen in the ancient city gives an added value to the story. The author's description of a terrible famine in Little Russia is especially interesting in view of the present starving condition of the peasantry throughout the Czar's empire.

Translated literally, the title of the third tale might be rendered thus: "Where Love Is There God Is Also;" but I have condensed it into "God Is Love" to meet the requirements of English usage. It tells of a poor shoemaker who, in his humble way, found many opportunities for doing good to others, and illustrates the certainty of the heavenly reward that awaits those who, according to their means, give effective expression to the Golden Rule.

"The Candle," the concluding story of the volume, is one of those pathetic little touches of nature which we find among Tolstoï's earlier writings. It illustrates the superstitious awe with which the lighted candle is regarded by every devout adherent of the Greek Church, and tells with deep pathos of that perversity of