To the Reader

Try a little journey with this Pilgrim; for you will find him very good company. You probably will not always agree with his naive talk; but your differences from his outlook will afford much fruit for reflection in the silences which he so greatly values: and in any case you will appreciate his entire simplicity and sincerity.

He harps very much on one string, no doubt; but what a string it is!—a deep bourdon-sound, which runs on, underneath the harmonies and discords of daily life, till it has brought them into unison with God.

If that ever seems monotonous, at any rate there is variety and charm in the vivid pictures of Russian life which illustrate his theme. They suggest a comparison with the matchless folk tales of Leo Tolstoi; and they do not suffer by such a comparison.

For the religion is sounder. Tolstoi wrote as the artist, who, in spite of his own morbid and restless mind, could depict what he saw and heard, but did not really know. Our pilgrim knows every bit of what he says: and you will listen, even to the5 strangest things that he says, with the respect which is due to real, vital knowledge.

I think you will be sorry, when, at the end, he suddenly disappears into the obscurity from which he emerged when you first came across him.

WALTERUS [possibly: TURTON]. 6