A year before he died, Leo Tolstoy told the following story:
“Once while travelling in the Caucasus , I happened to be the guest of a Caucasian chief of the Circassians, who, living far away from civilized life in the mountains, had but a fragmentary and childish comprehension of the world and its history. The fingers of civilization had never reached him nor his tribe, and all life beyond his native valleys were a dark mystery.”
Tolstoy told them of the industries and inventions of the outside world. When he turned to the subject of warriors and generals and statesmen, the chief said, “Wait a moment, I want my neighbors and my sons to listen to you.”
“He soon returned, Tolstoy said, “with a score of wild looking riders and those sons of the wilderness sat around me on the floor and gazed at me as if hungering for knowledge. I spoke at first of our Czars and of their victories; then I spoke of the greatest military leaders. My talk seemed to impress them deeply. The story of Napoleon was so interesting to them that I had to tell them every detail, as, for instance, how his hands looked, how tall he was, who made his guns and pistols and the color of his horse. It was very difficult to satisfy them and to meet their point of view, but I did my best.”
When Tolstoy finished, the chief lifted his hand. “But you have not told us a syllable about the greatest general and greatest ruler of the world,” he said gravely. “We want to know something about him. He was a hero. He spoke with a voice of thunder; he laughed like the sunrise and his deeds were as strong as the rock and as sweet as the fragrance of roses. The angels appeared to his mother and predicted that the son whom she would conceive would become the greatest the stars had ever seen. He was so great that he even forgave the crimes of his greatest enemies and shook brotherly hands with those who had plotted against his life."
