al Academy and the Agricultural Institute. Plainly,
therefore, the system of education was at fault. The semi-military
system of the time of Nicholas had been supplanted by one in which
discipline was reduced to a minimum and the study of natural science
formed a prominent element. Here it was thought, lay the chief root of
the evil. Englishmen may have some difficulty in imagining a possible
connection between natural science and revolutionary agitation. To them
the two things must seem wide as the poles asunder. Surely mathematics,
chemistry, physiology, and similar subjects have nothing to do with
politics. When a young Englishman takes to studying any branch of
natural science he gets up his subject by means of lectures, text-books,
and museums or laboratories, and when he has mastered it he probably
puts his knowledge to some practical use. In Russia it is otherwise. Few
students confine themselves to their speciality. The majority of them
dislike the laborious work of mastering dry details, and, with the
presumption which is often found in conjunction with youth and a
smattering of knowledge, they aspire to become social reformers and
imagine themselves specially qualified for such activity.

But what, it may be asked, has social reform to do with natural science?
I have already indicated the connection in the Russian mind. Though very
few of the students of that time had ever read the voluminous works of
Auguste Comte, they were all more or less imbued with the spirit of
the Positive Philosophy, in which all the sciences are subsidiary
to sociology, and social reorganisation is the ultimate object of
scientific research. The imaginative Positivist can see with prophetic
eye humanity reorganised on strictly scientific principles. Cool-headed
people who have had a little experience of the world, if they ever
indulge in such delightful dreams, recognise clearly that this ultimate
goal of human intellectual activity, if it is ever to be reached,
is still a long way off in the misty distance of the future; but the
would-be social reformers among the Russian students of the sixties were
too young, too inexperienced, and too presumptuously self-confident to
recognise this plain, simple truth. They felt that too much valuable
time had been already lost, and they were madly impatient to begin
the great work without further delay. As soon as they had acquired
a smattering of chemistry, physiology, and biology they imagined