New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-04-18

|
gar. Before he was grown up he became familiar
with the frivolous French history of the eighteenth
century but the study of Goethe and ScSilier IN
spired him with true artistic taste, and q thor
, Oughy ideal view OF life:-
But over all these promising beginnings and qnal-
tiles fell the shadows even then of those wees
| which were the hereditary bane of the fashionable
life and education Of Russian grandees-the
utter want of energy, of Commemorative power ana
of moral earnestness, and, above all. the genuine
SlayOuc addiction to idleness, combined with con-.
slant hankeriDg after pleasure, which have ahcted
the most ilustrious minds OF Russia. spoiled ana
petted as q boy by all around him, Herzen already
as a young man, was tortured with such inmOder.
ate vanity that he could never bear whisper OF
criticism contradiction, while o single word OF
discussion or reproof was enough to destroy for
half the day his otherwise amiable temper. ms
same vanity undermined in time his relations WIN
his wife, q remarkable woman In her way, and whom
| he tenderly loved. II alienated also many OF his
best and most sincere friends and betrayed him into
| point. there was no excuse With Bonski he fell
| out for years over a difference Of opinion about
poem. He could never forgive his wife for keeping
aloof, after the death of child. from society and
those intellectual circles in which to him 1t was
necessity to shine. So completely had vanity, bad
| example, and early acquired habits enslaVed his
| better nature, that he. the mortal enemy of all
| aristocTatical pretension and social preludlces
would not scruple when in grand and brilliant com
pany to ignore his best friends II they happened 10
| he in modest circumstances, and simple and unob-
| trusve accordingly. So far was this aTcl-DemOCrat
and Socialist from renouucing his position as a
dandy Of the first water that lie never hcsItated to
| run after the merest simpleton he came across, II
only they fashionable, and would recite, to the
despair of his wife, his poems and essays TO ladies'
who had not the fainest notion of what they meant
During his exile at vladimir the relations between
husband and wife had been exemplary, and there
seemed no end to their happiness; but the naughty
demagOgue was as pOwerless to resist the fascna-
| tons of high life at Moscow as If he had been
simple lieutenant. The first cORtrGri66 at home was
| enough to plunge him into dissipation which made
| him even more unhappy than his wife, aud which
he put down. after the manner OF weak characters,
1 ,,nN fn Irf IN nYHAn not
| death of his father who left him nearly half mil
hon rubles, Herzen, far from steadyinG himself
| with the reflection that he now wealthy man,
| only irritated his most intimate friends by his
want of tact. and by one of these, the historian
Granovs, be had formally to be called to account.
As for regular occupation and earnest study, neither
Herzen nor his friends ever dreamed of such
things They read and argued together ,ad infn-
itum; they carried tho study of HegePs philosophy
to MANIA and wasted weeks and months in dis
cusSing the most insignificant pamphlets of the
young Hegelian school; but quiet really productive
work was only an occasional result. Thrce-fOurths
of their time claimed for social converse, highly
intellectual and ambitious though, it is true, but
still vague and desultOTy to lose at length all
particular interest. So engrOssed were these yonng
men in understanding" and doing Justice to "
each other and in mutual admiration, that they
ended by losing all sober estimate OF their own and
other persons performances If ever any of them
gathered up his energies for an independent
piece of work. the effort passed for heroic When
Granovsi1 appeared in public with his lectures on
medi@val history he created sensation, which
could not have been greater If the talented young
For whole months together literally nothing was
talked of but these lectures they were perpetually
being brought out examined and admired. Public
displays, indeed, of this kind were permitted to
few; for the censorship and the secret police made
nearly all activity impossible. unless devoted to the
these external difficulties were convenient TO this
circle which had gathered round Herzen, and frit-
tered away It's best energies in theological discus
sions and fantastic dreams Of the future.
The most notorious parsonage in the Nihilist con-
Ro WhO he
other champions Of Russian Radicalism, belonged
by birth and education to the ruling class He was
born in 1914, about the same time as Alexander |
Herzen his father was wealthy landed propri- |
etor; and his ancestors had figured from time i'm
memorial among the aristocraoy of the country. |
After the usual imperfect education received from |
French teachers, he entered the School of Artillery
at st. Petersburg, when about twcnty years of age,
and after passing brilliant examination, instead
of becoming an officer of the guards he was placed
in the Line which is much to say that he was
apparently doomed to waste his life in
some miserable peasant village far away
from the centre of Russian civilization |
He accordingly left the capital at the age
of twenty-one, to spend the next year in |
PEASANTS hut which had been assigned to him for
quarters. Naturally of mcditative turn of mind,
and brought up in a society which looked upon in |
dolence the natural calling of men of good BIRTH
tho young officer sunk into state of lethargy |
which was the more remarkable one who seemed |
endowed with an impetuOus and almost cholerc |
temperament and an unusual amount of energy. |
He gradually renOunCed all social intercourse with
his comrades. dreamed away whole days in his |
dressng-gown on his bed, and placed himself in |
state of complete isolation This state of things.
of course, could not last; complaints were made to
his superiors of his neglect Of duty and he was |
summoned either to attend more faithfully to the |
service or send his commission. He chose the lat
ter alternative and at the early age Of twenty-five
retired to Moscow, to live like q gentle
man on the earnings of his serfs He
here fell into a circle of young men, which
comprised the best talent of Moscow at that time,
and which passiOnately devoted to tho study of
Hege's philosophy. Little did the German Hege-
lians know what extravagant conclusions were
drawn by the Moscow disciples from the doc
trines of their master. They made no difference
between the substance and spirit of the Berlin phil
osophy and the most radical forms of the French
Socialism. Blkunn was considered the most pro-
found thinker of the whole group. He who thus
far had spent his life as q visionary idler now de-
voted himself to the propagation Of the new phil
osophy. In 1880 Bakunin went to Berlin, where,
although Hegel had been dead nine years. his sys-
TEN was still at the height Of its fame Tie chairs
of philosophy were filed by his disciples. A host of
eutnusiastlO SOuuS h0h uPPlicu MO lhedb 10
various departments of science and learn
ing. The lecture rooms were crowded. with
Young men from all countries, who felt themselves
called to momentOus work in the regeneration of
the world. They were all elevated by the sublimity
of their mission. and new life began to trcmblo
through their young hearts and heads. The tall
Russian student, go emotional in temperament, so
eager for disputaton, remarkable for diaectical
acuteness. became a conspicuous and familiar figure
in these dithyrambc circles In the beginning of
1892 Bakunin is found at Dresden, working with
other prominent Radicals for the coming of the
golden age which was assuredly at hand, when the