Michael Speransky. Statesman of Imperial Russia, 1772–1839 - Marc Raeff

PIDLOSOPHICAL VIEWS AND POLITICAL THEORY 207

of knowledge merely as instruments and Vorarbeiten of theology,l

He remained dissatisfied with the picture of the world as constructed

by classical physics, The human intellect, he felt, in its rational form

cannot truly arrive -at a proper knowledge of nature, for human reason

has to split up, divide the material of the world to make it intelligible.

In this process nature's unity and life are lost, for man "transfers the

methods of his investigation, the ways of his own weakness to nature

itself, and he is always cutting down nature to his own size rather than

adjusting himself to nature's".2 Descriptive and logical categories, such

as time and space, which man uses to create an intelligible but synthetic

order in the unity of nature are the results of the inadequacy of man's

mind and reason. They should not be needed to understand the world,

for the true eye comprehends nature without the help of such crutches. 3

Man must find the unifying principle, the harmony of the universe.

This can be done only if he brings into play his emotional, moral,

religious traits, his full confidence in the moral goodness of the universe,

his direct understan~ing of the divinity.4 Only the injection of "purity

of soul," of "goodness" into our reason leads to the proper understand-

ing of nature, of its principles. Thus, the eternal and all-embracing

Eye does not need the categories of human reason to understand the

unity of the universe:

According to its simplest notion, time is the distance between the

beginning and the end of being, but this distance is measured by

our perceptions, this unit of measurement is not true and perfect,

but only relative, for in truth, things are not born and do not

disintegrate, but only appear and disappear from view; if, therefore,

instead of our weak eye, we put the all-seeing Eye, the Eye that

can follow matter in all its changes, it is obvious that for It there

will be neither beginning nor end in things, and, consequently,

no time. For It the universe will be a ceaselessly moving mass,

passing from one system into another, but because all systems are

inherent to the boundless mind, It knows neither the past nor the

future. Everything is not time and not eternity. I)
1 El'chaninov, op. cit., p. 210.
2 Speranskii, "0 poriadke," Druzheskie pis'rna G. Masal'skomu, p. 138 and "0
prostranstve," ibid., p. 137.
3 "Only the weakness of the mind has forced men to split up bodies into parts,
and we have already noted that for the all-embracing Eye there is neither time nor
space nor complexity." Speranskii, "0 slozhnosti," Druzheskie pis'rna G. Masal'skornu,
p. 140.
4 We find this idea already in a sermon given by Speransky in 1791: "Think, solve,
divide, combine, penetrate in the course of your whole life; be a transformer of
the systems of human knowledge; withstand all the thunders of prejudice; affirm
the throne of justice among men, and Gall yourself its first defender; but without
purity of soul your hell will always be with you, it will be in your heart, your
wonderful mind will only light up the abyss over which you stand." Speranskii,
"Propoved' 1791-go g.", Russkaia Starina 109 (Febr. 1902), p. 289.
I) Speranskii, "0 vremeni," Druzheskie pis'rna G. Masal'skornu, p. 136.