Page:The Complete Works of Lyof N. Tolstoi - 08 (Crowell, 1899).djvu/281

Rh the whole village in because the scale was too large. We rubbed it out, and began anew on a slate. The scale, the plan, the boundaries, gradually became clear. The teacher repeated all that he had said, and then asked what Russia was, and where it ended.

It's the land in which we live, and where the Germans and Tartars live.

The land that is under the Russian Tsar.

Where is the end of it?

Where you find the heathen Germans.

The Germans are not heathen. The Germans also believe in Christ. (Here he gives an explanation of religion and faiths.)

(with alacrity, evidently taking delight in his good memory). In Russia there are laws, Whoever kills gets put in prison; and there are all sorts of people, clergymen, soldiers, and nobles.

Who supports the soldiers?

The Tsar. But then they collect the money from everybody, because everybody is benefited by their serving.

The teacher furthermore explains what the budget is, and finally, with only tolerable success, we get them to repeat what has been said about boundaries.

The lesson lasts two hours. The teacher is persuaded that the children have retained a good deal of what has been said, and the succeeding lessons are carried on in the same style, but in the sequel he is forced to the conclusion that these methods are unsatisfactory, and that all that he has done is perfect rubbish.

Involuntarily I fell into the usual error of the Socratic method carried on in the German Anschauungsunterricht to the last degree of monstrosity. In these lessons I gave no new ideas to the pupils, though I fancied that I was doing so. And only by my moral influence did I compel the children to answer as I wished them to do. Raseya, "Russia," Russkoï, "Russian," remained the same unconscious symbols of mine, ours,—something