Page:The Spirit of Russia by T G Masaryk, volume 2.pdf/535

Rh morally and politically, aristocracy and slavery condition one another mutually (§ 26).

Democracy demands that all shall work; it allots and organises labour. Democracy aims, not merely at work, but at the spirit of industry. The disinclination that everyone has to labour, and especially to labour not of his own choosing, must be overcome by the sentiment of duty. The spirit of industry develops concomitantly with the abandonment of belief in a fantastic universe of mythical spirits and sorcerers, and concomitantly with the growth of a deterministic insight into nature and social life as subject to the reign of law. Men become habituated to regularity and constancy; they learn to observe more closely, to grasp the relationships of cause and effect, and to attain their ends by the deliberate choice of means. Modern science arises and is applied to the purposes of practical life; modern manufacturing industry originates, and therewith come into existence new means of communication, modern commerce, the modern economic system, and its associated mentality.

Theocratic aristocracy makes its influence felt in the domain of the new manufacturing industry, for the old feudal inequality persists; but the men of the common people, the manual workers, the proletarian masses, in conjunction with the philosophic and scientific leaders of socialism, are paving the way for the ultimate triumph of the democratic ethic of equality.

Friedrich Schlegel, who wished to safeguard Catholic romanticism epistemologically by means of a "theocratic consciousness," considered that likeness to God was to be discerned in idleness; and Nietzsche, the aristocratic camp-follower of our own day, charged the spirit of industry with being the cause of unbelief. Nietzsche had the aristocratic feeling that work was a disgrace. Aristocratic "far niente" is equally applicable in the spiritual sphere; the theocratic priest is the guardian of divine revelation; the understanding can produce nothing new, is uncreative, and its function is purely defensive—defensive "against the understanding." Scholasticism, with all its faults, incorporates the knowledge of the theocracy. The priest has adopted the highest and most fundamental truths of revelation, and has become a spiritual ruler as guardian of these truths and as mediator on their behalf. Utterly different is the intellectual work of