14 THE BEGINNINGSwith his abilities were all too rare. But in this case, he would have had
to take monastic vows, and this he was as yet unwilling to do, and he
therefore resisted firmly all the entreaties and cajoleries of the
Metropolitan. In 1796 an unexpected event completely changed the
direction of Speransky's life. The influential magnate, Prince Alexis
Kurakin, needed a private secretary to take care of his personal
correspondence. Some acquaintance told him that a suitable candidate
("QuId surely be found among the teachers or students of the Aleksandro-
Nevskii Seminary. Acting on this advice, Prince Kurakin sent his
majordomo to the Rector of the Seminary to see whether some acceptable
young man could be found. The Rector suggested Speransky as the
best suited candidate. An anecdote, probably apocryphal, but quite
revealing of the mores of the time, relates that Prince Kurakin's
majordomo had come to the Seminary in his master's coach; as
Speransky was about to drive to the Prince's residence for an interview,
his first movement was to stand on the footboard of the carriage. On
second thought he overcame this impulse and, somewhat hesitatingly,
took a seat next to th~ majordomo inside the coach. True or not, the
anecdote graphically illustrates the social position of the future State
Secretary: he was only a poor seminary teacher, treated almost like a
servant, not quite fit to ride inside the carriage of his prospective
employer.
Speransky made a good impression, and to test him, Prince Kurakin
asked him to write a dozen letters, whose tenor he explained in very
general terms. Speransky had until the next morning to prepare the
drafts of these letters. But when he entered his study the next morning,
Prince Kurakin was amazed to find on his desk all the letters ready,
perfectly elegant in composition and so appropriately phrased that he
needed only to sign them. Even the best and most experienced official
secretary could not hava done better. Speransky was hired on the spot,
and a few days later he moved into Prince Kurakin's house. Here his
position was not an exalted one; he was barely more than a "high-class"
servant of the Prince. Speransky had a room in the servants' wing of
the Prince's residence, and although he was invited to Kurakin's table,
he preferred to take his meals with the domestics - he was too
embarrassed by the formality and glitter of the magnate's dining room.
At first, Speransky was viewed with suspicion and animosity by the
other secretaries and employees of the Prince, but he soon won their
good graces by his modest, tactful and pleasant manner - the lessons
of life learned in the Seminary of Vladimir were paying off. The only
person at Prince Kurakin's with whom he established dose relations