SOURCE: "Tolstoy's Confessions," in Pilgrims of the Lonely Road, Books for Libraries Press, Inc., 1913, pp. 281-334.

In the following essay, Atkins provides a biographical and critical analysis of Tolstoy's Confession.

The choice of some one representative figure in whom these studies may terminate is a wholly debatable matter. We are far, far past the time when any one man is great enough to speak for his entire age. We are in the midst of a smothering spiritual confusion and may indeed doubt whether any one will ever be able to speak for long periods and vast movements as Dante spoke for the mediaeval mind, Bunyan for the Puritan, or the Imitation of Christ for monastic gentleness and devotion. If we were considering solely the literature of lonely confession without reference to the fructifying and transforming influence of such confession we might well end with Amiel, for without doubt...