There was no volition aboutit, no consciousness.
But the greatest barrier of all is the childs misconception about age.
At this point one is obliged to start
guessing.
But on theother hand it is dangerous to take such
men as Tolstoy at theirdisciples valuation. Thetwo sets of facts can lie side by
side in my mind, because these happento be my own memories. The weakness of the
child is that it starts with ablank sheet. I had notyet learned of their existence,
and I mis-heard the phrase the SixthForm as Mrs. On the whole it is difficult to
feel that Tolstoyscriticisms are uttered in good faith. And the enormous majority of
human beings, if they understoodthe issue, would choose this world.
Theyrevolve round a central subject which in some
cases can be reduced to asingle word. What should I think of Bingo and Sim, those
terrible,all-powerful monsters? Bynature he was imperious as well as
egotistical.
As I said earlier, one cannot ANSWER Tolstoys
pamphlet, at leaston its main counts.
Shut your eyes and think of KING LEAR, if possible
without calling tomind any of the dialogue.
It is contained in the story, which, after all,
hemade up, or altered to suit his purposes. But the greatest barrier of all is the
childs misconception about age.
Oneafternoon, as we were filing out from tea,
Mrs.
Lear is one of the minority of Shakespeares plays
that are unmistakablyABOUT something. This is not solely because he is weak, sinful
andanxious for a good time.
Some nights the thing happened, others not. If you
throw away your weapons, some lessscrupulous person will pick them up. Nowadays, I
believe, bed-wetting in such circumstances is taken forgranted. Oneafternoon, as we
were filing out from tea, Mrs. But hisattitude towards the play must have been
influenced by its theme. An adult who does not seemdangerous nearly always seems
ridiculous.
LEAR can be imagined as a puppet show, a mime, a
ballet, aseries of pictures. I told him what I thought it was, adding a few hundreds
to make it soundbetter. It was an improbable name,but a child has no judgment in
such matters. It isnot enough to say that I was silly and ought to have known
better. Like Lear, Tolstoy was not humbleand not a good judge of character.
Shakespeare starts by assuming that to make yourself powerless is toinvite an
attack.
If you turn the other cheek, youwill get a harder
blow on it than you got on the first one. Some nights the thing happened, others
not.