to make an assertion which to many at present may seem strange, but which will be in a few years only too evident:  Western Europe is on the highroad to ruin!  We Russians, on the contrary, are young and fresh, and have taken no part in the crimes of Europe.  We have a great mission to fulfil.  Our name is already inscribed on the tablets of victory, and now we have to inscribe our spirit in the history of the human mind.  A higher kind of victory—­the victory of Science, Art and Faith—­awaits us on the ruins of tottering Europe!"*

     * These words were written by Prince Odoefski.

This conclusion was supported by arguments drawn from history—­or, at least, what was believed to be history.  The European world was represented as being composed of two hemispheres—­the Eastern or Graeco-Slavonic on the one hand, and the Western, or Roman Catholic and Protestant, on the other.  These two hemispheres, it was said, are distinguished from each other by many fundamental characteristics.  In both of them Christianity formed originally the basis of civilisation, but in the West it became distorted and gave a false direction to the intellectual development.  By placing the logical reason of the learned above the conscience of the whole Church, Roman Catholicism produced Protestantism, which proclaimed the right of private judgment and consequently became split up into innumerable sects.  The dry, logical spirit which was thus fostered created a purely intellectual, one-sided philosophy, which must end in pure scepticism, by blinding men to those great truths which lie above the sphere of reasoning and logic.  The Graeco-Slavonic world, on the contrary, having accepted Christianity not from Rome, but from Byzantium, received pure orthodoxy and true enlightenment, and was thus saved alike from Papal tyranny and from Protestant free-thinking.  Hence the Eastern Christians have preserved faithfully not only the ancient dogmas, but also the ancient spirit of Christianity—­that spirit of pious humility, resignation, and brotherly love which Christ taught by precept and example.  If they have not yet a philosophy, they will create one, and it will far surpass all previous systems; for in the writings of the Greek Fathers are to be found the germs of a broader, a deeper, and a truer philosophy than the dry, meagre rationalism of the West—­a philosophy founded not on the logical faculty alone, but on the broader basis of human nature as a whole.

The fundamental characteristics of the Graeco-Slavonic world—­so runs the Slavophil theory—­have been displayed in the history of Russia.  Throughout Western Christendom the principal of individual judgment and reckless individual egotism have exhausted the social forces and brought society to the verge of incurable anarchy and inevitable dissolution, whereas the social and political history of Russia has been harmonious and peaceful.  It presents no struggles between the different social classes, and no conflicts