Page:Russian Realities and Problems - ed. James Duff (1917).djvu/184

 These combined influences did much for the development of Russian thought: they relaxed the authority of Orthodox dogma and stimulated free thought. But this state of mind produced a reaction, which manifested itself in mysticism and in freemasonry, first introduced into Russia about 1830. One of the first Russian philosophers—Skovoroda (1722–1794)—was a mystic, who declared that "the invisible" was the essence of the "visible" and must be studied by means of self-knowledge which he combined with some degree of rationalism; one of the Russian freemasons—the well-known Novikov—organized the "typographic company " and the Russian book-trade in 1782.

Thanks to these influences the consciousness of the value of true knowledge deepened: it was expressed in a somewhat clearer manner by Lomonosov. He declared that "faith and truth are own sisters: they proceed from one Almighty Father and can never come into conflict"; and he supposed that the terms "religious action" or "holy action" could properly be applied, in a certain sense, to scientific thought, but that the latter must have its own separate domain. Thus Lomonosov acknowledged the absolute value of science, and this conception grew clearer in subsequent writers.

The variety of these influences must also be noted: it gave to the Russian cultured classes the opportunity of selecting knowledge from different sources and favoured the development of freedom from prejudice and tradition; it enlarged the sphere of their ideas and nourished in them a cosmopolitan and humanistic spirit; it acquainted them with many-sided