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 Cornell University Library 
 D 524.T65 
 
 Vision of the world-war seen repeatedly 
 
 3 1924 027 858 491 
 
THE 
 
 VISION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 WORLD-WAR 
 
 SEEN REPEATEDLY BY 
 
 LEO TOLSTOY 
 
 FROM 
 
 1908 TO 1 9 1 o 
 
 Edited by Albert J. Edmunds, M. A., 
 Author of Buddhist and Christian Gospels. 
 
 Also, La Pucelle : a poem on French Visions of 1913. With notes on doubtful ones. 
 Appendix : The Vision of Joseph Hoag in 1803. 
 
 Philadelphia : 
 Innes & Sons, 129-135 North Twelfth Street, 
 
 , I9'4- 
 
 EV. 
 
f\.3k\o73 
 
 Reprinted by permission of The National Sunday Magazine, being 
 the Semi-Monthly Magazine section of the Philadelphia North Ameri- 
 can, the New York Sun, the Boston Globe, the Chicago Tribune and 
 eleven other newspapers. 
 
 ) 
 
THE APOCALYPSE OF 
 LEO TOLSTOY 
 
 UTTERED BY HIM IN 1910, THE YEAR OF HIS DEATH 
 
 This vision first appeared in The Semi-Monthly Maga- 
 zine attacht to the Sunday North American of Philadel- 
 phia, February 23, 1913. The following letter in French 
 was printed with it in fac-simile. When I first saw the 
 vision reprinted without attestation in 1914, I naturally 
 thought that it was spurious, and said so while giving a 
 summary of it in my History Simplified. It is here re- 
 printed in full from the original text of The Semi-Monthly 
 Magazine of the Sunday North American. This is ex- 
 hausted, and cannot be bought, even at The North Ameri- 
 can office. The copy used has been lent me by my friend 
 Herman Haupt, the bookseller. It is much to be regretted 
 that so important a document should be treated as a jour- 
 nalistic waif. The French letter from Countess Nastasia 
 Tolstoy is reprinted with the permission of the editor of 
 the Sunday North American. 
 
 Several corruptions of the text are already current, es- 
 pecially the introduction of the word Persians, as noted 
 below. This misprint will be eagerly seized upon by par- 
 tisans of the Bahai movement. But it has no warrant 
 from the original text. 
 
 (3) 
 
The Vision of the World-War. 
 
 PSKOFF, GRUSINSKOE, RUSSIA. 
 
 ^ Janvier, igi j. 
 Au rddacteur 
 
 The Semi-Monthly Magazine : 
 Monsieur : 
 
 J 'ai l'honneur de vous adresser mon interview avec le 
 defunt Comte L£on Tolstoi, ayant eu lieu quelques mois 
 avant de sa mort. Je vous autorise s' en faire usage pour 
 la premiere fois, la copie originale ayant 6t€ prdsente" a Sa 
 Majeste" le Czar. En espdrant que le public de lecteurs 
 amdricains soit int£resse" d' apprendre les proprieties du 
 g£nie le plus grand de notre ctge, 
 
 Je suis avec hon[neur] 
 
 et respect, Monsieur, 
 Votre 
 
 N. Tolstoi. 
 
, The Vision of the World- War. 
 
 PROPHECY AND LAST MESSAGE 
 FROM TOLSTOY.(l) 
 
 TOLSTOY TO THE CZAR, THE KAISER 
 AND THE KING OF ENGLAND. 
 
 BY COUNTESS NASTASIA TOLSTOY. 
 
 In the autumn of 1910 the Czarina invited me to visit 
 her at the summer palace at Peterhoff, to have an informal 
 talk with her family. This was a very unusual favor, and, 
 feeling much flattered, I arrived at the appointed hour at 
 the railway station that served the picturesque royal sum- 
 mer resort. A special coach took me directly to the palace, 
 where the Chamberlain's secretary told me that the Imperial 
 family was on the veranda, drinking tea. It was there that 
 the Czarina wisht to receive me. 
 
 Her Majesty was still suffering from her" long nervous 
 breakdown, and she lookt pale and weak. We talkt for 
 a short while about her health, and exchanged items of 
 court gossip. She then remarkt confidentially that the 
 Czar had exprest a wish to see me, and, of course, such an 
 expression was a command. His Majesty was playing 
 chess with his daughters and the governess, when the 
 Czarina invited him to tell me what he wanted. 
 
 " Countess," began the Czar, in a simple and direct way, 
 " I have a very peculiar, confidential mission for you. But 
 I call upon you reluctantly." 
 
 (1) In red on title-page. 
 
6 The Vision of the World- War. 
 
 He became suddenly silent and lookt at me as if doubting 
 my readiness to serve him. I bowed politely, murmuring : 
 
 " Your Majesty, I shall be only too happy to hear about 
 it." 
 
 " Well," he drawled, " the German Kaiser and the King 
 of England have put me in an unpleasant position with 
 their requests. They are curious to get a direct message 
 from our old Count Leo Nicolaevitch Tolstoy — a very 
 strange notion— and naturally I could not decline to humor 
 them. I did not know how to go about the delicate mat- 
 ter ; as, frankly, I do not care for much of the old man's 
 writings and preachings, as you know. But then, the 
 Czarina told me that she knows you very well, and that 
 you know him personally. I suppose he is related to you ? 
 Very well, then, I should be greatly obliged if you could 
 take the old man an oral message from me that if he would 
 in a friendly way send a message thru you to me, I 
 would send it on to the King of England and the Kaiser 
 of Germany. It has to be something that he has not pub- 
 lisht before, and that he will never publish himself." 
 
 " Your Majesty, I am gratified at this mark of your ex- 
 ceptional favor," I replied. " I shall pay the Count a visit 
 without delay." 
 
 "And as soon as you have returned with his message, 
 drop a line to the Minister of the Court and I shall arrange 
 to see you immediately," said the Czar, extending his hand 
 to me. 
 
 We talkt for half an hour longer on various topics of the 
 day, and then I left. 
 
 A week later, I was a guest at the country estate of my 
 grand-uncle, and explained to him briefly the object of my 
 call. He listened to me curiously and replied : " Very 
 strange. I should be glad to send a message to royalty ; 
 but the trouble with me is that I have written all my life 
 messages for the mob. I am not accustomed to the con- 
 
The Vision of the World-War. 7 
 
 ventions of Court diction. However, I will think the 
 matter over." 
 
 " L,eo Nieolaevitch, don't you have any visions of a politi- 
 cal nature, or any prophecies on a large international scale ?" 
 I askt. 
 
 " A good idea ! " he exclaimed. " I have had some really 
 strange experiences which I could not publish as fiction. 
 There is something that has haunted me for the past two 
 years. I don't know how to explain the nature of it to 
 you. I cannot call it a dream, because I have seen it often 
 while I have been sitting at my writing-table. On other 
 occasions it has appeared to me at twilight, before my din- 
 ner hour. I am not a believer in ghosts, nor in the spirit- 
 ualistic explanation of phenomena; but I admit that I 
 cannot account for this mysterious affair." 
 
 " Is it a vision ? " I interrupted. 
 
 " Something of that order, but very clear. So clear that 
 I could draw a distinct picture of all that transpires. Fur- 
 thermore, I can call up the vision at will. I am almost 
 sure I could do it while you are here. The only difficulty 
 is, that I am not able to write anything during the time of 
 the manifestation. My hands are absolutely paralyzed." 
 
 " I shall be happy to write down what you dictate," I 
 urged. 
 
 " Very good ! That settles the matter," he replied. 
 " I shall try for something immediately. There on the 
 table are paper and pencil. Or use a pen — whatever you 
 want." 
 
 In a few minutes I was waiting for the great moment, 
 pencil and paper in hand. • My aged host leaned back in 
 his chair, covered his eyes with his hand and relapst into 
 an apparently comatose condition. For ten minutes 
 he remained absolutely motionless. Then, straightening 
 up like one in a trance, he began in a low and hollow 
 voice : — 
 
8 The Vision of the World- War. 
 
 This is a revelation of events of a universal character 
 which must shortly come to pass. Their spiritual outlines 
 are now before my eyes. I see floating upon the surface 
 of the sea of human fate the huge silhouette of a naked 
 (2) woman. She is — with. her beauty, her poise, her smile, 
 her jewels — a super- Venus. Nations rush madly after 
 her, each of them eager to attract her especially. But 
 she, like an eternal courtesan, flirts with all. In her hair- 
 ornament of diamonds and rubies is engraved her name: 
 "Commercialism." As alluring and bewitching as she 
 seems, much destruction and agony follow (3) in her 
 wake. Her breath, reeking of sordid transactions, her 
 voice of metallic character like gold, and her look of greed 
 are so much poison to the nations who fall victims to her 
 charms. 
 
 And behold, she has three gigantic arms with three 
 torches of universal corruption in her hand. The first 
 torch represents the flame of War, that the beautiful 
 courtesan carries from city to city and country to coun- 
 try. Patriotism answers with flashes of honest flame, but 
 the end is the roar of guns and musketry. 
 
 The second torch bears the flame of Religiosity (4) 
 and hypocrisy. It lights the lamps only in temples and 
 on the altars of sacred institutions. It carries the seed 
 of falsity and fanaticism. It kindles the minds that are 
 still in cradles and follows them to their graves. 
 
 The third torch is that of the Law, that dangerous 
 foundation of all unauthentic traditions, which first does 
 its fatal work in the family, then sweeps thru the larger 
 worlds of literature, art and statesmanship. 
 
 The great conflagration will start about 1912, set by 
 the torch of the first arm in the countries of Southeastern 
 Europe. It will develop into a destructive calamity in 
 1913. In that year I see all Europe in flames and bleed- 
 
 (2) The text has nude, but this is the wrong word. 
 
 (3) The North American reads : "follows". 
 
 (4) The text has : Bigotry. I use a better word. 
 
The Vision of the World- War. 9 
 
 ing. I hear the lamentations from huge battlefields. But 
 about the year 1915 a strange figure from the North— a 
 new Napoleon — enters the stage of the bloody drama. He 
 is a man of little militaristic training, a writer or a jour- 
 nalist, but in his grip most of Europe will remain till 1925. 
 The end of the great calamity will mark a new political 
 era for the Old World. There will be left no empires and 
 kingdoms, but the world will form a federation of the 
 United States of Nations. There will remain only four 
 great giants — the Anglo-Saxons, the Latins, the Slavs 
 and the Mongolians. 
 
 After the year 1925 I see a change in religious senti- 
 ments. The second torch of the courtesan has brought 
 about the fall of the Church. The ethical idea has almost 
 vanisht. Humanity is without the moral feeling. But 
 then, a great reformer arises. He will clear the world of 
 the relics of monotheism and lay the cornerstone of the 
 temple of pantheism. God, Soul, Spirit and Immortality 
 will be molten in a new furnace, and I see the peaceful be- 
 ginning of an ethical era. The man determined to this 
 mission is a Mongolian-Slav. He is already walking the 
 earth — a man of active affairs. He himself does not now 
 realize the mission assigned to him by a superior power. 
 
 And behold the flame of the third torch, which has 
 already begun to destroy our family relations, our stand- 
 ards of art and morals. The relation between woman 
 and man is accepted as a prosaic partnership of the sexes. 
 Art has become realistic degeneracy. Political and re- 
 ligious disturbances have shaken the Spiritual founda- 
 tions of all nations. Only small spots here and there have 
 remained untoucht by those three destructive flames. 
 The anti-national wars in Europe, the class war of Amer- 
 ica and the race wars in Asia have strangled progress for 
 half a century. But then, in the middle of this century, I 
 see a hero of literature and art rising from the ranks of 
 the Latins and purging (5} the world of the tedious stuff 
 
 (5) A Socialist reprint {The Melting Pot, Saint Louis, October, 
 1914) reads: "Persians." This is a good example of how sacred 
 literature becomes corrupt. 
 
10 The Vision of the World-War. 
 
 of the obvious. It is the light of symbolism that shall out- 
 shine the light of the torch of commercialism. In place 
 of the polygamy and monogamy of today, there will come 
 a poetogamy — relations of the sexes based fundamentally 
 upon poetic conceptions of life. 
 
 And I see the nations growing wiser; and realizing 
 that the alluring woman of their destinies is after all 
 nothing but an illusion. There will be a time when the 
 world will have no use for armies, hypocritical religions 
 and degenerate art. Life is evolution, and evolution is 
 development from the simple to the more complicated 
 forms of the mind and the body. I see the passing show 
 of the world-drama in its present form, how it fades like 
 the glow of evening upon the mountains. One motion of 
 the hand of Commercialism and a new history begins. 
 
 The late author-reformer finisht, opened his eyes and 
 lookt at me slightly confused. 
 
 " Had I gone to sleep?" he askt me. " I beg your pardon!" 
 
 When I read his vision-talk to him, he listened gravely 
 and nodded, saying that it was correct. Upon my request, 
 he signed the document and handed it to me with a bless- 
 ing. I left him the same day, and immediately upon my 
 arrival informed the Czar of my readiness to see him. 
 
 I was received at the Court in an informal way and led 
 into the Czar's private study. I handed him the paper. 
 He opened it nervously and read with pronounced agitation. 
 
 " Well, it's very interesting. I will make a copy for 
 myself, and then forward other copies, with a translation, to 
 the Kaiser of Germany and thru him to the King of Eng- 
 land. The original shall be kept in my private archives. 
 I shall ask the Kaiser and the King not to make any com- 
 ments on the matter, as I do not like to figure as an inter- 
 mediary between them and the old man whose seditions 
 writings I do not like, generally." 
 
 It is because I have heard that one of the royal principals 
 
The Vision of the World-War. 11 
 
 is going to include the secret message in his private me- 
 moirs, that I take this opportunity of publishing the whole 
 truth about it and how I received the unusual document. 
 The Czar has told me repeatedly that the Kaiser of Ger- 
 many thinks it is one of the most impressive literary 
 prophecies of this age. 
 
 [end of nastasia Tolstoy's account. J 
 
 The publication of this in America was independent of 
 Tolstoy's regular publishers, and called forth the following 
 from The Daily News and Leader, London and Manchester, 
 November 4, 1914 : 
 
 TOLSTOY AND THE WAR. 
 
 (To the Editor.) 
 
 Sir, — A short time ago there appeared 
 in some Swedish papers an article attri- 
 buted to Leo Tolstoy which was reprinted ( 
 in English, American, Russian and other 
 papers. The article was entitled "A 
 World-Wide Prophecy," and in some 
 cases was published in the form of a 
 " Letter to his daughter." 
 
 Having been Leo Tolstoy's literary 
 representative during his lifetime, and 
 being entrusted by him to edit and pub- 
 lish all his posthumous writings, I feel 
 it my duty to state that Tolstoy never 
 wrote anything of the kind, and that the 
 attribution of this article to him is an 
 absolute invention. 
 
 I would beg those papers who have 
 mentioned the spurious article to reprint 
 this statement. 
 
 (Signed) 
 
 VLADIMIR TCHERTKOFF. 
 
 Jassenki, Toula, Russia, Oct. 10. 
 
 [The article (which did not appear in 
 ' ' The Daily News' ' ) purported to contain 
 a prediction of the present war, alleged 
 to have been delivered by Count Tolstoy 
 while in a state of semi-consciousness or 
 trance . Tolstoy was f u rther represented 
 as having foretold the coming of a 
 strange figure from the north— a new 
 Napoleon in whose grip Europe would 
 remain for ten years — from 1915 to 1925. 
 —Ed., "D.N."] 
 
12 The Vision of the World-War. 
 
 As Tolstoy neither wrote nor printed the vision, but dic- 
 tated it confidentially for the benefit of three kings, there 
 was no reason for Mr. Chertkoff (in English spelling) to 
 know anything about it. 
 
Visions of the World-War. 13 
 
 LA PUCELLE 
 OR, THE FRENCH VISIONS OF 1913. 
 
 In the months of June, July and Atigusl, ip/j, from 
 fifty to a hundred people in the South of France had visions 
 of Joan of Arc in armor. On August, 26, Cicile Lamillot, 
 a miller's daughter at Alzonne, Department of Aude, saw 
 flaming letters in the sky and copied them. They proved 
 to be a Latin invocation to the Maid of Orleans. These 
 facts were told in a letter to The Public Ledger of Philadel- 
 phia, dated from Paris, September 12, ipij. 
 
 In thy dreamy woods, Domremy, 
 
 Once of yore there wallet and prayed, 
 
 Seeing angels, hearing voices, 
 Gallia's pure immortal Maid. 
 
 Glorified in shining armor, 
 
 Under medieval towers, 
 Leading Charles to Rheims Cathedral, 
 
 Rides this wondrous Maid of ours. 
 
 Maid of ours, for France is all men's: 
 E'en the bard of English birth 
 
 Loves the girl who charged the English, 
 Loves the heroine of earth. 
 
 Maiden, our eternal emblem 
 
 Of the rights of folk to be, 
 Emblem of the souls of peoples, 
 
 Emblem of the planet free ! 
 
14 lesions of the World-War. 
 
 Just a year before the world-war, 
 
 By the purr of rural streams, 
 In the ectasy of summer, 
 
 France beheld thee in her dreams. 
 
 Country lads and girls beheld thee, 
 Sword in hand with visor barred, 
 
 Holding high thy mystic standard, 
 Crowned with roses, victory-starred. 
 
 Was it thou their eyes were seeing, 
 
 Or the nation's rising ire ? 
 Like the Michael of thy vision, 
 
 'Twas the soul of France on fire. 
 
 By Alzonne, Cecile Lamillot 
 Saw the flaming words on high, 
 
 Copied down the warlike Latin, 
 Wrote it blazing from the sky ! 
 
 'Twas the prayer, the invocation 
 Of the heart of France to thee, 
 
 Which the miller's artless daughter 
 In the world of soul could see. 
 
 All around us lie the legions 
 
 Of the universe unseen, 
 At these planetary crises 
 
 Bursting from behind the screen. 
 
 From the vast and viewless ocean, 
 Blown by some supernal breeze, 
 
 Breaks the spray, and all the dreamy 
 Smell the salt of unknown seas. 
 August, 1914. A. J. E. 
 
Alleged Visions. 15 
 
 THE ALLEGED VISION OF 
 FRIAR JOHN. 
 
 [Printed in Le Figaro in 1914, by Josephin P&adan, and said by 
 him to have been found among his father's papers in 1890.] 
 
 This apocalypse, ascribed to Friar John of 1600, has 
 been going the rounds of the press, but has not so far 
 given credentials of genuineness. With other doubtful 
 predictions k has been critically examined by Herbert 
 Thurston, a Catholic divine, in The Month for October 
 and November, 1914 (London : Longmans, Green & Co.). 
 Before discovering his articles I had made some notes of 
 my own, which follow. 
 
 There was a John of Paris who died early in the four- 
 teenth century. He wrote a book called De Christo et Anli- 
 ckristo, which exists in manuscript in the library of St. 
 Germain. {Histoire Litteraire de la France. . . . B£n£- 
 dictins. Tome 25 : 1869. Paris, 1898.) 
 
 John's tract on Antichrist was appended to a similar 
 work by Joachim of Calabria (Ssec. XII) and publisht at 
 Venice in 1516. (See Brunet.) The visionary part of the 
 tract is printed in a folio book in the Loganian Library : 
 Lectiones Memorabiles et Reconditce (Frankfort, 1671, Vol. 
 I, p. 489). The compiler was John Wolf (1537-1600), not 
 the famous Wolfius, and the first edition appeared between 
 1600 and 1608. Here is a sample : 
 
 Ecce Leo Gallicus obviabit Aquilce, et feriet caput ipsius ; 
 
 erit bellum immensum et mors valida gentes ab 
 
 omni natione, etc. 
 
16 Alleged Visions. 
 
 One vision under John's name is dated 1287. It was 
 seen by a monk. It seems therefore that Antichrist vis- 
 ions by John of Calabria (twelfth century) and John of 
 Paris (thirteenth and fourteenth) have long been current in 
 the Roman Church, and that they have been printed several 
 times: 1516, 1600, etc. Now, until we get better data, 
 than Jos£phin P£ladan has given us, there will be a suspi- 
 cion that the present Apocalypse of Friar John has been 
 adapted in recent times from former ones. 
 
Hoag^s Vision. 17 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 THE VISION OF JOSEPH HOAG : 1803.(4) 
 
 [Notb. — This is given here as an example of a vision which has 
 been largely fulfilled. It is printed by the Society of Friends and can 
 be bought at their book-store as a leaflet. I have discovered two types 
 of text, and hope to give more account thereof in my forthcoming 
 University Lectures, ,] 
 
 In the year 1803, probably in the Eighth or Ninth 
 Month, I was one day alone in the field, and observed that 
 the sun shone clear, but a mist eclipsed its brightness. 
 
 As I reflected upon the singularity of the event, my 
 mind was struck into (5) a silence the most solemn I ever 
 remember to have witnessed, for all my faculties were low, 
 and unusually brought into deep silence. I said to my- 
 self: "What can all this mean? I do not recollect ever 
 before to have been sensible of such feelings." 
 
 And I heard a voice from Heaven, saying: "This 
 which thou seest is a sign of the present and coming 
 times. I took the forefathers of this country from a land 
 of oppression; I placed them here among the People of the 
 Forest; I sustained them, and while they were humble I 
 blessed them and fed them, and they became a numerous 
 people. But they have now become proud and have for- 
 gotten Me, who nourished them and protected them in the 
 wilderness, and are running into every abomination and 
 evil practice of which the old countries are guilty, and 
 
 (4) Joseph Hoag was born in in the year 1762, and resided in early 
 life in the State of New York, but removed to Vermont, where he died, 
 1846. His parents being members of the religious Society of Friends, 
 he had a birthright membership. He and his wife (Huldah) were both 
 ministers, and highly esteemed. They had a large family, and all of 
 their children became ministers. The vision, although not printed and 
 made public until within a few years, was well known to his family 
 and a'number of his friends many years before any part of it was ful- 
 filled. (Note by the Society of Friends.) 
 
 (5) Or, clothed with. 
 
18 Hoag^s Vision. 
 
 have taken quietude from the land and suffered a divid- 
 ing spirit to come among them: lift up thine eyes and 
 behold." And I saw them dividing in great heat. The 
 division began in the churches on points of doctrine: it 
 commenced in the Presbyterian society, and went through 
 the various religious denominations, and in its progress 
 and close its effects were the same. Those who dissented 
 went off with high heads and taunting language, and 
 those who kept to their original sentiments appeared ex- 
 ercised and sorrowful. And when the dividing spirit en- 
 tered the Society of Friends, it raged in as high degree as 
 in any I had noticed or before discovered, and, as before, 
 those who separated went off with lofty looks and taunt- 
 ing, censuring language; those who kept their ancient 
 principles retired by themselves. It next appeared in the 
 Lodges of the Free Masons (it broke out in appearance 
 like a volcano), inasmuch as it set the country in an up- 
 roar for a time. 
 
 Then it entered politics throughout the United 
 States, and did not stop until it produced a civil war. An 
 abundance of blood was shed in the course of the combat; 
 the Southern States lost their power, and slavery was an- 
 nihilated from their borders. Then a monarchical power 
 sprang up (took the government of the States), estab- 
 lished a National religion, and made all societies tribu- 
 tary to support its expenses: I saw them take property 
 from Friends to a large amount. I was amazed at behold- 
 ing all this, and I heard a voice proclaiming : "This power 
 shall not always stand; but with it I will chastise My 
 church until they return to the faithfulness of their fore- 
 fathers. Thou seest what is coming upon thy native 
 country for their iniquities and the blood of Africa, the 
 remembrance of which has come up before Me." 
 
 This vision is yet for many days. (I had no idea of 
 writing it for many years, until it became such a burden 
 that, for my own relief, I have written it). 
 
 Note. — The parentheses are intended for square brackets, indicating 
 a difference of text to be discust in the Lectures. 
 
Letter to Paul Cams on the War. 19 
 
 FINAL NOTE ON THE WAR. 
 
 In The Open Court for December, 1914, pp. 743-744, 
 Paul Carus quotes the first part of a letter from me. But 
 he omits the second part, which is the most essential point 
 of the argument. It here follows : — 
 
 Every scholar knows that only a fraction of the docu- 
 mentary facts about a war ever sees the light, and the most 
 important from 50 to 100 years afterwards. Even the 
 hundred and twenty-seven volumes of official documents, 
 Federal and Confederate, about our Civil War begin too 
 late. All the ferment that led up to the firing upon Fort 
 Sumter has to be spelt out from thousands of other records, 
 journalistic, military, political, biographical. And then 
 how much is buried in secret conversations, never divulged. 
 Consequently, my method to settle the ethics of a war is 
 chronological. I try to determine upon which side a public 
 man or an influential organ first uttered inflammatory lan- 
 guage or first started a campaign of wordy attack which 
 consolidated hostile sentiment. In the case of the Civil 
 War I lay the blame upon Iyloyd Garrison. We have here 
 the files of his Liberator, and from the first number, Janu- 
 ary 1, 1831, he began to irritate the South. For instance, 
 he would have a flaming motto sprawling across the page, to 
 the effect that the Federal Constitution was a covenant with 
 hell. Now, all my Quaker traditions, as well as my political 
 leanings, cause me to take the Federal side of the conflict ; 
 but, as a philosophic student, I am forced to admit that the 
 Free States were the first to consolidate hostile sentiment. 
 
 Upon the same principle, I shall regard Germany as the 
 aggressor, in the utterance of Professor Treitschke, of 1884, 
 until I can antedate it by a like piece of English jingoism. 
 
 Your sincere friend, 
 
 Albert J. Edmunds. 
 
^ : : £*£>*£:*?* 
 
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