In Japan it is generally accepted that the American literature and the Russian literature are very much different from each other; the former is optimistic, and the latter takes rather a pessimistic view of life. This generally accepted view on them, however, has led us to misinterrpet the Tolsotyan view of humanism.
It is widely known that young Tolstoy kept a diary which he called "Franklinian journal." He desired to be a practical person like Benjamin Franklin, and the idea that a man should be practical and have a spirit of enterprecise in life seems to have remained in Tolstoy's mind all through his life.
Tolstoy had a high opinion of his contemporary American literature. Henry David Thoreau was his favorite writer. Tolstoy loved and studied "Civil Disobedience" and "Walden." We are apt to take asceticism out of Tolstoy's thought. But we need to have a close look at his rather epicurean attitude towards human freedom.
The poet who had vision close to that of Tolstoy as a writer was Walt Whitman. Those who read "Song of Myself" hear the same tune of bright optimism as is heard in the literature of Tolstoy as a whole.
William James seems to learn a lot from Tolstoy's attitude towards religion in building up his Pragmatism. He notices an empirical rather than an intellectualistic tendency in Tolstoy's religion. In Japan we have had a tendency to interpret Tolstoy's humanism intellectualistically, but his humanism has a great empirical aspect and we should reinterpret it pragmatically.