Page:The Spirit of Russia by T G Masaryk, volume 1.pdf/422

396 And he had actual experience of yielding to this desire. In the year 1839 he, his wife, and his friend Ogarev prayed together from joy and thankfulness on account of the friendship between the two families. Ogarev, in his religious ecstasy, then craved for martyrdom.

The reaction following 1848 brought disillusionment to Herzen. He desired at length to be a consistent positivist, but the unpositivist moods recurred none the less, they were a "curse" with which he was frequently afflicted. I have quoted the strongly-worded passage concerning the stultifying idea of immortality, this dating from the year 1852; but in no long time thereafter milder utterances were to be found in Herzen's writings. In 1855, for example, he refers to the death of a friend, Worzel, the Polish refugee. To the last Worzel remained the "old idealist"; he continued to believe in the realisation of his utopias. Herzen never found courage to expound to Worzel his own convictions in all their nakedness. Mazzini closed Worzel's eyes: "Worzel needed prayers for the dying, not truth."

It is true that Herzen formulates rules at times to effect the pitiless awakening from mysticism, but in 1855 he confesses that in his despair he has been saved by his children, by some of his friends, and by his work (the writing a description of his personal development). Herzen declares that, speaking generally, despite all disillusionment, he has continued to cling to "the religion of individuality, to the belief in two or three human beings, to confidence in himself and in the human will."

Above all, however, he soon finds a faith in Russia. "Belief in Russia saved me on the brink of moral destruction," he writes in 1854; "for this faith, for this recovery of health, I have to thank my country. I do not know if I shall ever see Russia again, but my love for Russia will endure until I die." In 1857 he formulates his programme of future work as follows: "Work, active work, on behalf of the Russian people, which has laboured enough on our behalf!"

Is that the mental atmosphere of positivism; is that the critical intelligence of positivism?

If Herzen thus fails to attain to Vogt's scientific positivism, he recognises the failure, he realises that this sobriety of disillusionment is beyond his powers; he is too fond, he tells us, of "the poesy of tragical thrills, and of morbid emotions,