The simple liberalism of 1826, which by degrees took, in France, the form sung by Beranger and preached by men like Lafayette and Benjamin Constant, lost its magic power over us after the destruction of Poland.
It was then that some young Russians, including Vadim, took refuge in the profound study of Russian history, while others took to German philosophy.
But Ogarev and I did not join either of these groups. Certain ideals had become so much a part of us that we could not lightly give them up. Our belief in the sort of dinner-table revolution dear to Beranger was shaken; but we sought something different, which we could not find either in Nestor's Chronicle 3 or in the transcendentalism of Schelling.
12
During this period of ferment and surmise and endeavour to understand the doubts that frightened us, there carne into our hands the pamphlets and sermons of the Saint-Simonians, and the report of their trial. We were much impressed by them.
Superficial and unsuperfidal critics alike have had their laugh at Le Pere Enfantin 4 and his apostles ; but a time is coming when a different reception will be given to those forerunners of socialism.
Though these young enthusiasts wore long beards and high waistcoats, yet their appearance in a prosaic world was both romantic and serious. They proclaimed a new belief, they had something to say - a principle by virtue of which they summoned before their judgement-seat the old order of things, which wished to try them by the code Napoleon and the religion of the House
·
of Orleans.
3· The earliest piece of literature in Russian.
4- Barthelemy Enfantin (1796-1864) carried on the work of Saint
Simon in Paris.
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First, they proclaimed the emancipation o f women - summoning them to a common task, giving them control of their own destiny, and making an alliance with them on terms of equality.
Their second dogma was the restoration of the body to credit
Ia rehabilitation de: Ia chair.
These mighty watchwords comprise a whole world of new relations between human beings - a world of health and spirit and beauty, a world of natural and therefore pure morality. Many mocked at the 'freedom of women' and the 'recognition of the rights of the flesh', attributing a low and unclean meaning to these phrases ; for our minds, corrupted by monasticism, fear the flesh and fear women. A religion of life had come to replace the religion of death, a religion of beauty to replace the religion of penance and emaciation, of fasting and prayer. The crucified body had risen in its tum and was no longer abashed. Man had reached a harmonious unity : he had discovered that he is a single being, not made, like a pendulum, of two different metals that check each other ; he realised that the foe in his members had ceased to exist.
It required no little courage to preach such a message to all France, and to attack those beliefs which are so strongly held by all Frenchmen and so entirely powerless to influence their conduct.
To the old world, mocked by Voltaire and shattered by the Revolution, and then patched and cobbled for their own use by the middle classes, this was an entirely new experience. It tried to judge these dissenters, but its own hypocritical pretences were brought to light by them in open court. When the Saint-Simonians were charged with religious apostasy, they pointed to the crucifix in the court which had been veiled since the revolution of 183o; and when they were accused of justifying sensuality, they asked their judge if he himself led a chaste life.
A new world was knocking at the door, and our hearts and minds flew open to welcome it The socialism of Saint-Simon became the foundation of our beliefs and has remained an essential part of them.
With the impressibility and frankness of youth, we were easily caught up by the mighty stream and early passed across that Jordan, before which whole armies of mankind stop short, fold
N U R S E R Y A N D U N I V E R S I T Y
1 3 )
their arms, and either march backwards or hunt about for a ford ; but there is no ford over Jordan !
We do not all cross. Socialism and rationalism are to this day the touchstones of humanity, the rocks which lie in the course of revolution and science. Groups of swimmers, driven by reflection or the waves of circumstance against these rocks, break up at once into two camps, which, under different disguises, remain the same throughout all history, and may be distinguished either in a great political party or in a group of a dozen young men. One represents logic; the other, history : one stands for dialectics ; the other for evolution. Truth is the main object of the former, and feasibility of the latter. There is no question of choice between them : thought is harder to tame than any passion and pulls with irresistible force. Some may be able to put on the drag and stop themselves by means of feelings or dreams or fear of consequences ; but not all can do this. If thought once masters a man, he ceases to discuss whether the thing is practicable, and whether the enterprise is hard or easy : he seeks truth alone and carries out his principles with inexorable impartiality, as the Saint
Sirnonians did in their day and as Proudhon 5 does stilL
Our group grew smaller and smaller. As easily as 1833, the
'liberals' looked askance at us as backsliders. Just before we were imprisoned. Saint-Simonianism raised a barrier between me and Polevoy. He had an extraordinarily active and adroit mind, which could rapidly assimilate any food ; he was a born journalist, the very man to chronicle successes and discoveries and the battles of politicians or men of science. I made his acquaintance towards the end of my college course and saw a good deal of him and his brother, Xenophon. He was then at the height of his reputation; it was shortly before the suppression of his newspaper, the Telegraph.
To Polevoy the latest discovery, the freshest novelty either of incident or theory, was the breath of his nostrils, and he was changeable as a chameleon. Yet, for all his lively intelligence, he could never understand the Saint -Simonian doctrine. What was to us a revelation was to him insanity, a mere Utopia and a hindrance to social progress. I might declaim and expound and argue as much as I pleased - Polevoy was deaf, grew angry and even 5· Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809-63), a French publicist and socialist.
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bitter. H e especially resented opposition o n the part o f a student; for he valued his influence over the young, and these disputes showed him that it was slipping out of his grasp.
One day I was hurt by the absurdity of his criticisms and told him that he was just as benighted as the foes against whom he had been fighting all his life. Stung to the quick by my taunt he said, 'Your time will come too, when, in recompense for a lifetime of labour and effort, some young man with a smile on his face will call you a back number and bid you get out of his way.' I felt sorry for him and ashamed of having hurt his feelings ; and yet I felt also that this complaint, more suitable to a worn-out gladiator than a tough fighter, contained his own condemnation. I was sure then that he would never go forward, and also that his active mind would prevent him from remaining where he was, in a position of unstable equilibrium.