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266 depend upon his ecclesiastical ideas as well as upon his mysticism. He ascribes a decisive rôle to the hierarchy, thus completely abandoning Homjakov's conception of the church. Leont'ev, thoroughly approved his estimate of the hierarchy.

I need hardly say that I must not be interpreted as suggesting that every mystic is a mere conservative and reactionary. Mysticism was frequently adverse to scholasticism and to the church's faith in the letter. Even Solov'ev, despite his mysticism and by his mysticism, was driven into the liberal camp, just as the masonic mystics as well as the Voltairians were serviceable to the enlightenment. As circumstances may demand, we must examine mysticism either in respect of its content or of its social influence. [sic]

CCORDING to Solov'ev, Europe, having been secularised by the reformation, had since then been passing into a state of religious and moral decay. The ideal of Christianity had disappeared. Revolutionary philosophy had made praiseworthy efforts to replace the unity of the church by the unity of the human race, but with scant success. The universality of militarism converted entire nations into hostile armies, and stimulated a national hatred which had been unknown in the middle ages. The class struggle threatened to transform everything into blood and fire. As the increasing frequency of mental disorder, suicide, and crime, showed, individual moral strength had been weakened. In contrast with these symptoms of degradation, the most we could point to as indications of a certain degree of moral progress was that the criminal law had become less harsh and that torture had been abolished. Nothing but the union of the churches offered the possibility of realising the kingdom of God on earth.

In Solov'ev's opinion, secularised Russia, no less than secularised Europe, though in a different form, presented an image of decay.

Partial, one-sided, and purely political reform was incapable of producing the desired and indispensable regeneration. The program of the moral and religious rebirth of the individual and of the Russian people, the program of the positive all-in-one, as Solov'ev termed his theocratic idea, discountenanced the political aspirations of his contemporaries as one-sided and inadequate, and discountenanced above all the revolution.