To the men who fought against the rising truths of physical philosophy, it seemed that if they admitted that truth it would destroy faith in God, in the creation of the firmament, and in the miracle of Joshua the son of Nun. To the defenders of the laws of Copernicus and Newton, to Voltaire for example, it seemed that the laws of astronomy destroyed religion, and he utilized the law of gravitation as a weapon against religion.
Just so it now seems as if we have only to admit the law of inevitability, to destroy the conception of the soul, of good and evil, and all the institutions of state and church that have been built up on those conceptions.
So too, like Voltaire in his time, uninvited defenders of the law of inevitability today use that law as a weapon against religion, though the law of inevitability in history, like the law of Copernicus in astronomy, far from destroying, even strengthens the foundation on which the institutions of state and church are erected.
As in the question of astronomy then, so in the question of history now, the whole difference of opinion is based on the recognition or nonrecognition of something absolute, serving as the measure of visible phenomena. In astronomy it was the immovability of the earth, in history it is the independence of personality—free will.
As with astronomy the difficulty of recognizing the motion of the earth lay in abandoning the immediate sensation of the earth’s fixity and of the motion of the planets, so in history the difficulty of recognizing the subjection of personality to the laws of space, time, and cause lies in renouncing the direct feeling of the independence of one’s own personality. But as in astronomy the new view said: “It is true that we do not feel the movement of the earth, but by admitting its immobility we arrive at absurdity, while by admitting its motion (which we do not feel) we arrive at laws,” so also in history the new view says: “It is true that we are not conscious of our dependence, but by admitting our free will we arrive at absurdity, while by admitting our dependence on the external world, on time, and on cause, we arrive at laws.”
In the first case it was necessary to renounce the consciousness of an unreal immobility in space and to recognize a motion we did not feel; in the present case it is similarly necessary to renounce a freedom that does not exist, and to recognize a dependence of which we are not conscious.
Endnotes
-
The most fascinating woman in Petersburg. ↩
-
God has given it to me, let him who touches it beware! ↩
-
Cousinhood is a dangerous neighborhood. ↩
-
To err is human. ↩
-
You expect to make an income out of the government. ↩
-
So that squares matters. ↩
-
Hors d’oeuvres. ↩
-
Do you know the proverb? ↩
-
That suits us down to the ground. ↩
-
Hollow. ↩
-
I just ask you that. ↩
-
Catherine. ↩
-
A bastard. ↩
-
And all that follows therefrom. ↩
-
“Marlborough is going to the wars; God knows when he’ll return.” ↩
-
To understand all is to forgive all. ↩
-
Kutúzov. ↩
-
“Good God, what simplicity!” ↩
-
“Forty thousand men massacred and the army of our allies destroyed, and you find that a cause for jesting!” ↩
-
“It is all very well for that good-for-nothing fellow of whom you have made a friend, but not for you, not for you.” ↩
-
“A very good morning! A very good morning!” ↩
-
“Busy already?” ↩
-
“Hurrah for the Austrians! Hurrah for the Russians! Hurrah for Emperor Alexander!” ↩
-
“And hurrah for the whole world!” ↩
-
“But my dear fellow, with all my respect for the Orthodox Russian army, I must say that your victory was not particularly victorious.” ↩
-
“We must let him off the u!” ↩
-
Fine eyes. ↩
-
Ours. ↩
-
“Woman is man’s companion.” ↩
-
The marshalls. ↩
-
Bridgehead. ↩
-
That their fire gets into his eyes and he forgets that he ought to be firing at the enemy. ↩
-
“That Russian army which has been brought from the ends of the earth by English gold, we shall cause to share the same fate—(the fate of the army at Ulm).” ↩
-
“This is a pleasure one gets in camp, Prince.” ↩
-
“On vous fera danser.” ↩
-
“What’s he singing about?” ↩
-
Daughter of Matthew. ↩
-
“I love you.” ↩
-
Anna Pávlovna. ↩
-
The little one is charming. ↩
-
“Indeed, Sire, we shall do everything it is possible to do, Sire.” ↩
-
“Hang these Russians!” ↩
-
Nikoláy. ↩
-
Till tomorrow, my dear fellow. ↩
-
“You clear out of this.” ↩
-
I love you. ↩
-
“But what the devil was he doing in that galley?” ↩
-
Frühstück: breakfast. ↩
-
Denísov. ↩
-
To indicate he did not want more tea. ↩
-
“Europe will never
