Page:The Russian Review Volume 1.djvu/300

268 but also in his works on England and France, as well as his French and English works on Russia. Of the modern countries, England interested him most. English political evolution concerned him especially, and it was his fond hope that Russia might have a government that would be essentially like that of Great Britain. It is interesting that the subjects for both of his dissertations were taken from the history of English institutions.

And in England, too, he was well known and appreciated. An excellent proof of this may be found in the fact that Kovalevsky was chosen as one of the members of the Peace Tribunal that is to act upon all differences that may arise between Great Britain and the United States, as provided for by the treaty existing between the two countries.

Death was too hasty in carrying away from us this great mind before its labors were brought to a satisfactory close. Death is usually too hasty; it insists on coming before it is a welcome guest, before the completion of that perfect cycle of life, of which Kovalevsky's friend, Mechnikov, speaks so hopefully in his studies of optimistic philosophy. And the great works that we cherish as the priceless possessions of mankind are usually fragmentary. Buckle's monumental work and Kovalevsky's unfinished syntheses bear ample witness to this lack of justice, to this incongruity in man's nature.