how to strengthen the will. Strong individualities were doubtless to be found, like that of Napoleon, but these remained exceptional. The will was born in seclusion and was trained by silence. To Kirěevskii, Russian monks and the ancients were the true heroes, heroes of the will, and with them he decided in favour of seeking an asylum from the world. Despite all differences, we see here a certain conformity of teaching between Kirěevskii and Čaadaev.
§ 55.
IN close association with Kirěevskii, and yet independently, Homjakov and Konstantin Aksakov elaborately perfected the development of slavophil doctrine; Homjakov being mainly concerned with its theological and Aksakov with its political aspects.[1]
Homjakov was the polemist, the missionary, the agitator of the slavophils. His opponent Herzen speaks of him as having polemised throughout life. In writing and by word of mouth Homjakov presented counter-arguments to the westernisers and also to his own allies (Samarin and Kirěevskii). His dialectic method, above all in historical questions, consisted in an attempt to present the facts in another light. Speaking generally, Homjakov followed the method of theologians who endeavour to make their fixed theses palatable. I am thinking especially of those theologians and men of learning whose good faith is beyond dispute. To Homjakov slavophilism had the cogency of a creed. Let me give a single
- ↑ Aleksěi Stepanovič Homjakov was born in Moscow on May 1, 1804. His mother, née Kirěevskaja, provided for him from early childhood a strictly religious education. Homjakov's father had a taste for literature, but a passion for cards, and gambled away more than a million roubles. Homjakov promised his mother to remain chaste until marriage, and kept his word. His chief interests were mathematics, literature, history, theology, and philosophy; he also painted, and wrote poems and dramas, but neither Puškin nor Bělinskii admired him as a poet. In 1822 he entered the army. While in St. Petersburg he associated with the decabrists, and especially with Rylěev, but dissented from their views. He spent 1825 and 1826 in Europe. In 1818 he rejoined the army to fight against the Turks, and distinguished himself in various skirmishes. During the thirties and the forties he developed his views in intercourse with triends and opponents (among the former being the brothers Kirěevskii, K. Aksakov, Samarin, Košelev, Valuev, and among the latter Herzen and Granovskii). In 1836 he married a sister of the poet Jasykov. He numbered Gogol among his acquaintances. In 1847 he again visited Europe (Prague, England, Germany). On September 23, 1860, he died of cholera.
