Page:The Spirit of Russia by T G Masaryk, volume 2.pdf/256

230 of cognition and of metaphysics—for ethics cannot be wholly independent of religion.

The views are reminiscent of Kant and Plato, but also of Spinoza; and we must ask ourselves whether the real presence of the all-embracing God is to be interpreted pantheistically or monotheistically. When Solov'ev speaks of the soul he tells us that he does not conceive the soul as being necessarily an individual and independent substance. It is possible to conceive the soul as a relationship, as one of many mutually inseparable relationships, of the godhead to one or another substratum of mundane life, relationships that are perdurable, immortal. Immortal relationships? We cannot further consider this argument, which does not seem particularly cogent, for it has been adduced merely to show how Solov'ev passes back from Kant by way of Spinoza to Plato.

Solov'ev shows more originality and independence when he deduces the theocratic organisation of mankind from an ethical principle, that of asceticism. He assumes the feeling of shame to be inborn. It appears, he says, in three distinct modifications, and constitutes the moral vital energy. The sentiment of shame in the strictest sense is shown in the relationship between man and the lower creation, and in man's relationship to matter, in especial towards his own material body, towards matters of sex. The sentiment of shame also takes the form of fellow-feeling, of sympathy or altruism. Sympathy is not irrational as Schopenhauer contends; it is rational; it is the positive recognition of another; it is truth and justice, compassion, conscience.

In veneration (pietas, reverentia), finally, Solov'ev discerns the root of religion for each individual. The first manifestations of veneration are seen in family life, in veneration for parents. "The idea of the godhead is incorporated in the living personality of the parents; providence, the main attribute of the godhead, is incorporated in the care and foresight of the mother." To emphasise the religious significance of motherhood, Solov'ev appeals to the first stage of historical development, to the theories of matriarchy and gynecocracy. Yet the father has the higher religious significance. The mother is greatly esteemed by children, but to the adult, death brings awareness of veneration towards ancestors; to the adult, his father seems an understudy for the gods, whilst his grandfather