Page:The Spirit of Russia by T G Masaryk, volume 2.pdf/227

Rh paper, but only to the organs of the nihilists, the socialists, and the liberals.

Pobědonoscev considered that the frequency of suicide in modern times afforded proof that modern life had become utterly unnatural, senseless, and false: The old and tried standards of social and family life had disappeared, and their place had been taken by egoism, the outcome of unbridled individualism and subjectivism,. The man who can find no supports outside his own ego, the man who possesses no moral standards independent of that ego to guide him through life, runs away from life and destroys himself. Even better men, men with high ideals, succumb to the falsity of their environment, becoming aware of the vanity of their ideals when these are not sustained by faith.

A strange hotchpotch this of truth and falsehood, a characteristic jumble of far-sightedness and short-sightedness. The newspaper press is evil, and yet Pobědonoscev is himself author and journalist; the masses of the people run after the agitators, and yet these same masses are absolute truth when, in their unculture and superstition, they prostrate themselves before the Orthodox altars! Vox populi vox dei, when populus acknowledges the Orthodox faith; but vox populi vox diaboli, when populus demands a parliament and the suffrage! Thus does the mysticism of the fathers of the church take vengeance on Pobědonoscev, upon his philosophy, and upon his politics. He is cultured enough to perceive how superstitious and uncultivated are the masses and the Russian clergy; he admits the facts; but his mysticism makes it impossible for him to see clearly, to distinguish between true religion and superstition, to banish superstition in the interest of true religion. Pobědonoscev, therefore, did not merely regard superstition as "a matter of no importance," but he even regarded the religious fervour of the folk as endowed with something sublimely mysterious. The sublimity of this mystery produced so strong an impression on his mind that he declared popular elementary education to be needless and injurious, for this would be rationalism, this would be logic, and logic is the work of the devil. "The diffusion of popular education is absolutely harmful."

This sophistry and partial application of logic was to be momentous for Russia! Man is by nature evil and malicious; therefore the masses must be guided under the tutelage of the