Worthy sons of the Fatherland. The progressive role of V.F. Odoevsky in the creation of orphanages (based on the work “Instructions for persons directly in charge of orphanages”)
The ideal of education by A.N. Radishchev (based on the work “Conversation about the fact that there is a son of the Fatherland”).
Alexander Nikolaevich Radishchev (1749-1802) - as an educator, he paid serious attention to the tasks and ways of forming “sons of the fatherland”, Russian patriots, citizens of great Russia. Radishchev opposed the blind submission of children to the will of their parents. - mutual respect between parents and children. Great attention to mental education. The principle of nationality: 1. domestic language is the language of education, 2. knowledge about society and nature.
Radishchev is a man of the era, his goal is to correct the system where social injustice reigns. Article "Conversation about being a son of the fatherland" , imbued with “freedom of spirit” (1789). A true son of the fatherland, a patriot can only be free man. Therefore, they cannot be a serf peasant turned into a slave.
The progressive role of V.F. Odoevsky in the creation of orphanages (based on the work “Instructions for persons directly in charge of orphanages”)
Vladimir Fedorovich Odoevsky (1804-1869) advocated the abolition of serfdom and devoted a lot of effort to improving the living conditions of the capital's poor and educating the people. He developed the Regulations on Children's Shelters and the “Order to Persons Directly in Charge of Children's Shelters,” according to which these institutions have operated since 1839. According to the “Regulations...” the shelters were under the jurisdiction of the Committee of Chief Guardianship, under the patronage of the queen. In 1839 Odoevsky was appointed head of the Committee.
Orphanages should:
- 1) provide shelter to poor children,
- 2) instill in children “a sense of good morality and direct children’s activities and games towards this goal;
- 3) accustom children to order and neatness;
- 4) give children basic knowledge about the environment, craft and needlework skills.
Life in the orphanage was supposed to be organized on a family basis. “Punishment must be proportionate to the importance of the offense; the child should not be punished corporally.” After Odoevsky was removed from office in 1841, his ideas gave way to the methods of official pedagogy of Nicholas's time.
Alexander Nikolaevich Radishchev (1749 - 1802)
Writer, philosopher, publicist, founder of Russian revolutionary pedagogy, ethics and aesthetics. The son of a wealthy landowner, he received his education in the Corps of Pages (1762 - 1766), then studied at the Faculty of Law of the University of Leipzig (1767 - 1771). I was studying natural sciences. Acquaintance with the works of English, French, and German thinkers played a major role in the formation of his worldview. Upon returning to Russia, he was appointed an official in the Senate, then served as chief auditor (legal adviser), retired in 1775, and in 1777 joined the Commerce Collegium, first as an assistant manager, then as manager of the St. Petersburg Customs House.
The literary and journalistic activity of A. N. Radishchev began in the 70s. translation of the book by G. Mably “Reflections on Greek history" with his notes. One of these notes stated that “autocracy is the state most contrary to human nature.” In 1783, A. N. Radishchev completed the ode “Liberty” - the first work of Russian revolutionary poetry; in 1789 - the autobiographical story “The Life of F.V. Ushakov.” In his main work, “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” (1790), A. N. Radishchev truthfully depicts life common people, sharply denouncing autocracy and serfdom. Catherine II, having read the first 30 pages of the copy of “Travel ...” given to her, regarded the author as “a rebel worse than Pugachev.” On June 30, 1790, by order of Catherine II, A. N. Radishchev was arrested and imprisoned Peter and Paul Fortress. For publishing a “disastrous book” he was sentenced to death penalty, replaced by exile to Siberia for 10 years with deprivation of ranks and nobility. In exile, Radishchev wrote a philosophical treatise “On Man, His Mortality and Immortality,” as well as works on economics, history, and poetic works. Under Paul I, Radishchev was allowed to settle in one of his father's estates, and only after the accession of Alexander I did he return to St. Petersburg. Years of hardship and exile did not change Radishchev’s convictions; he still fought for the abolition of serfdom and class privileges. Radishchev was threatened with a new exile. In response to the threat, realizing the idea of a person’s right to suicide as a form of protest, Radishchev committed suicide.
In the scientific, theoretical, literary and journalistic activities of A. N. Radishchev significant place are occupied with issues of education, upbringing and training of the younger generation. He viewed them as component common struggle for the revolutionary renewal of the rotten feudal foundations of life Tsarist Russia, feudal-serf education system in it.
Conversation about what is the son of the Fatherland (abbreviated)
(Published according to the publication: Radishchev A. N. Poli. collection cit., vol. 1. M.; L., 1938. The article was completed by A. N. Radishchev in 1789 and published in the journal “Conversing Citizen” (1789, December). In this work, A. N. Radishchev defined main goal education as the preparation of a true man, a true son of the Fatherland - a fighter against violence and despotism. Only people who rose up to fight tyrants for their freedom and human dignity, can be considered true people and true patriots. 464 Comments)
Not everyone born in the Fatherland is worthy of the majestic title of son of the Fatherland (patriot). Those under the yoke of slavery are not worthy to be adorned with this name. Hold back, sensitive heart, do not pronounce your judgment on such sayings while you stand with the enemy. Come in and see! Who doesn’t know that the name of the son of the Fatherland belongs to a person, and not to a beast or other dumb animal? It is known that man is a free being, since he is gifted with intelligence, reason and free will; that his freedom consists in choosing the best, that he knows and chooses this best through reason, comprehends it with the help of his mind and strives for the beautiful, majestic, high. ...The helipad, flying around from midday (for then he begins his day) the whole city, all the streets, all the houses for the most senseless idle talk, for seducing chastity, for infecting good morals, for catching simplicity and sincerity, having made his head a flour store, eyebrows a receptacle of soot, cheeks with boxes of white and red lead, or, better said, a picturesque palette, the skin of his body with an elongated drum skin, he looks more like a monster in his attire than a man, and his dissolute life, marked by the stench from his mouth and his whole body what is happening, he is suffocated by a whole pharmacy of fragrant sprays, in a word, he is a fashionable person, completely fulfilling all the rules of the dandy big world of science; he eats, sleeps, wallows in drunkenness and lust, despite his exhausted strength, talks all sorts of nonsense, shouts, runs from place to place, in short, he is a dandy. Isn't this the son of the Fatherland? Or the one who lifts his gaze in a majestic manner to the firmament of heaven, trampling under his feet all who are before him, tormenting his neighbors with violence, persecution, oppression, imprisonment, deprivation of rank, property, torture, deception, deception and murder itself, in a word, by all by means known only to him, tearing apart those who dare to utter the words: humanity, freedom, peace, honesty, ... streams of tears, rivers of blood not only do not touch, but delight his soul. He who dares to oppose his speeches, opinions, deeds and intentions should not exist! Is this the son of the Fatherland? Or the one who stretches out his arms to seize the wealth and possession of his entire Fatherland, and if it were possible, the whole world, and who with composure is ready to take away from his most unfortunate compatriots the last crumbs that support their dull and languid life, to rob, to plunder their specks of dust property; who delights in joy if an opportunity for a new acquisition opens up to him, let him pay with rivers of blood of his fellow men, let him deprive his fellow men of the last shelter and food, let them die of hunger, cold, heat, let them weep, let them kill their children in despair, let them risk their lives to thousands of deaths; none of this will shake his heart; all this means nothing to him; he increases his wealth, and that is enough. So, isn’t this what the name of the son of the Fatherland belongs to? Or is it not the same person sitting at a table filled with the work of all four elements, whose tastes and bellies are delighted, several people taken away from serving the Fatherland are sacrificed, so that, when he is full, he can be transferred to bed and there he can calmly engage in the consumption of other works that he pleases until sleep takes away the strength to move his jaws? So, of course, this one or one of the above four? (for we rarely find the fifth addition separately). A mixture of these four is visible everywhere, but the son of the Fatherland is not yet visible, if not among these!..
There is no person who would not feel sorrow when he sees himself humiliated, reviled, enslaved by violence, deprived of all the means and ways to enjoy peace and pleasure and not finding his consolation anywhere. Doesn't this prove that he loves Honor, without which he is like without a soul? ...There is not a single mortal who is so rejected by nature who does not have that spring embedded in the heart of every person, directing him to love Honor. Everyone would rather be respected than reviled... It has already been proven that a true man and a son of the Fatherland are one and the same; therefore it will be true hallmark him, if he... is ambitious.
He kindles this beneficial flame in all hearts; he is not afraid of the difficulties that he encounters during this noble feat... and if he is confident that his death will bring strength and glory to the Fatherland, then he is not afraid to sacrifice his life; if it is needed for the Fatherland, then it is preserved for the full observance of natural and domestic laws; to the extent possible, he averts everything that could tarnish the purity and weaken the good intentions of them, as a detriment to the bliss and improvement of his compatriots. In a word, he is well-behaved! Here is another true sign of a son of the Fatherland! The third and, as it seems, the last distinguishing sign of a son of the Fatherland, when he is noble. Noble is the one who has made himself famous for his wise and philanthropic qualities and actions... true Nobility is virtuous deeds, enlivened by true honor, which is found not elsewhere, as in continuous beneficence to the human race, but primarily to one’s compatriots, giving each one his due. and according to the prescribed laws of nature of government. Those adorned with these only qualities, both in enlightened antiquity, and now are honored with true praise. And here is the third distinctive sign of the son of the Fatherland!
But no matter how brilliant, no matter how glorious, no delightful for every right-thinking heart, these qualities of the son of the Fatherland, and although everyone is born to have them, they cannot, however, not be pure, mixed, dark, confused, without proper education and enlightenment by the sciences and knowledge, without which this best ability of a person conveniently, as it always was and is, turns into the most harmful impulses and aspirations and floods entire states with mischief, anxiety, discord and disorder. For then human concepts are dark, confused and completely chimerical. Why, before anyone desires to have the aforementioned qualities of a true person, it is necessary to first accustom his spirit to hard work, diligence, obedience, modesty, intelligent compassion, to the desire to do good to everyone, to the love of the Fatherland, to the desire to imitate the great examples in that world, as well as love for the sciences and arts, as much as the rank in the hostel allows; would be applied to an exercise in history and philosophy, or philosophy, not school, for the definition of words that is only addressed, but in the true, teaching a person his true duties; and to purify the taste, I would love to look at the paintings of great artists, music, sculptures, architecture or architecture.
Those who consider this reasoning to be that Platonic system of public education, the events of which we will never see, will be very mistaken, when in our eyes a kind of education exactly like this and based on these rules was introduced by the godly monarchs, and enlightened Europe sees with amazement its successes, going back to the intended goal with gigantic steps!
Discourse on work and idleness
(Published according to the publication: Radishchev A. N. Discourse on labor and idleness. - Conversing Citizen, 1789, October.
This article is directly adjacent to the essay “Conversation about the existence of a son of the Fatherland.” The main leitmotif of the article is “idleness is the mother of all vices”; work should be the “precursor of prosperity.”)
Whatever state, rank, title... a person is placed in, it is known that there is not a single one of them that would make him completely free from all positions in the judgment of the society of which he is part and which would give him perfect rights be useless. If there were such an exception, it would be very contemptuous and altogether extremely dangerous. From a useless person to a harmful person there is no more than one step; whoever does not do any good in the world must necessarily do evil, and therefore there is not a single person who does not know this saying: idleness is the mother of all vices. There is nothing in which reason and experience could better discover the truth, and the connection of affairs has never been better proven. From idleness the poor man becomes impoverished, and from poverty all the vices that, of necessity, give rise to the desire to free himself from it at any cost. From idleness a rich man becomes bored, and from boredom all the vices that make it necessary to get rid of them.
Idleness fills the streets with beggars, the marketplaces with swindlers, the free houses with obscene women and the highways with robbers. Idleness feeds that treacherous force, that surrender to luxury, which only often plunges into the abyss of crime those who have the misfortune of listening to their advice; in the bosom of idleness nest the most terrible intentions, the connection of which is strengthened by dishonor and depravity, and it is here that the most iniquities begin. Never so dangerous angry man as when he is idle; however, the habit of idleness quietly extinguishes the feelings that connect us with those like us. It makes us deaf to the voice of nature, which speaks to us in their favor, cold and impartial when looking at them, and accustoms us to forgetting all our duties.
An industrious people has its vices; but it is impossible for an idle country to maintain good morals ( It turns out that in opposition they will present the example of the Spanish people, who are considered idle and who, however, have not lost their good behavior. This is possible; but take away from him, on the one hand, his pride, and on the other, moderation, and tell me, what will happen then to his morals?). It is not enough for the people to be enlightened; they need to be hardworking, and without this, enlightenment will be more harmful than ignorance; for an idle ignorant is much less successful in crime than a slothful person who knows something. But what means will make the whole world industrious? And who can flatter himself that he is able to completely banish idleness from the best-structured societies? What to do with this immovable spirit, which does not want to take on anything, with this flighty spirit, which cannot have success in anything? What to do with these vain people who think that they are busy because they remain imperfectly motionless, who themselves do not doubt their idleness, but whose life is an everlasting emptiness, filled with the continuous succession of nothingness, and whose best use of time lies in nothingness? ? What to do with these idle rich people, who, since happiness has placed them above needs, think that at the same time it has made them alien to be useful in anything, who believe that all their effort should consist in living in pleasure and satiety, and who abhor all labor? What should we finally do with these proud beggars, who, deceived by one opinion, consider nothing so beautiful and lofty as doing nothing, and think that through laziness they rise to the level of abundance? We agree that it is difficult to employ such people usefully in positions and that one should not expect great services from them, but one should also not caress their inclinations or authorize their way of thinking. And prudence requires that we try more to exterminate such principles of idleness and prevent them from spreading further. Fortunately, the benefits of morals meet here completely with those that are generally considered to constitute the well-being of the state. Science, diligence, trade, abundance, and finally wealth are removed when laziness approaches; neither the fertility of the earth, nor the moderation of the climate, nor the advantages of a happy situation can compensate for the evils or losses caused by it; everything is cold, everything is inertia, where it reigns, while everything is animated and successful, despite the most natural oppositions, in places where that property of activity reigns, which sets everything in motion. So, there is nothing more worthy, for all reasons, of the government’s attention than to try through the most effective means to drive out the spirit of idleness and, on the contrary, to breathe in a love of work.
Whoever speaks of love speaks of free feeling, excluding any concept of coercion; for it is impossible, by forcing people to work, to instill in them a love for it; It is not convicts who are needed for society, but free and arbitrary workers. If you want to drive out idleness, destroy it at the very beginning; look at what attracts you about her; try to reduce its charms, contrast passion with passion. If it originates in the property of negligence, generally scattered throughout the entire people, use the most effective and characteristic incentives to shake off and defeat it; put in place this pleasure, honor, benefit; arouse jealousy through everything that contributes to this; highly distinguish a useful and hardworking person from a lazy one, make sure that the latter cannot enjoy the same advantages as the former; force every citizen, not excluding either the noble or the rich, to accept some title that requires activity and labor; watch that everyone fulfills the positions he has chosen or in which he finds himself; exclude every rank without a real position, every benefit without a burden; Equalize the subsequent profit from labor; moreover, do not give it rest places, except for those who, due to the exhaustion of their strength, have received the right to demand it or have become worthy of it by their merits. With such attention, if you do not completely destroy the idle habit, at least correct the careless quality and prevent it from becoming clingy. If the beginning of pride opposes the beginning of labor, overthrow this pride with noble pride; dispel this stupid prejudice that associates a type of advantage with the ridiculous right to live without doing anything; and so that, on the contrary, the satiated, sterile and joyful state would, if possible, be the last thing of all when receiving honors and distinctions; so that, at least, no kind of labor is despised, unless it is of little use; so that the measure of actual services rendered to society is the measure of the people's respect and that every person is valued in no other way than in accordance with the good he renders to society. If it is noted that the spirit of frivolity and inability inspires aversion to useful exercises that require attention and a certain firmness in work; if you notice that empty thoughts prevail either because they require less labor or because they are more profitable, try to correct these abuses; Do not discourage any talent, but ensure that everyone is honored according to its dignity and respected according to its merits; Do not exterminate the butterflies, but fight against the devouring bee and do not allow the diligent and hardworking bee to be despised by everyone. If idleness is a consequence of incomprehensibility, which has its source in a lack of strength, multiply and make the means of learning more convenient; adapt them to everyone, so that no honest industry can complain about the lack of reinforcement and protection or exercise it in case of chance; listen above all to the taste and talents that may be characteristic of the people; encourage useful enterprises that can be brought into action by the grace shown in advance, and rely on the strength, often insufficient, of private people, always promote good will and so that no one can tell the truth; It’s not on my own that I’m idle, on the contrary, I would like nothing so much as to be busy. If disgust from work takes its source in the fear of not enjoying the fruit of one's labor and seeing it stolen through those protected: if despondency is the result of some bonds recklessly imposed on zeal, or some deception of power, or the error of government, eradicate abuses and break the chains of zeal .
If it is noticed that the regulations feed the spirit of idleness and give rise to laziness, immediately make a saving change, no matter what the rules for their establishment may otherwise be; do not allow the bread of alms to be the food of laziness, but on the contrary, let it be the reward of labor; Remember... let the idle not eat. In the most corrective houses, make work not a punishment, but a means to tame the severity of punishments or the cruelty of obedience observed in these places. In a word, so that everywhere work should be the forerunner of good morals, and suffering, on the contrary, the payment and inheritance of idleness.
We do not agree that a person, although condemned to eat his bread in the sweat of his brow, should be condemned to constant labor: he, at least, should have time to wipe his brow and eat his bread calmly; labor gives the right to rest, and peace must be followed by work, but this peace should also not be complete inaction... but it must be accompanied by some feeling that would at least remind a person of his existence, and would remind in a word, pleasure is the fair use of rest. It is a real renewal of strength, unless it is harmful by its nature or by excessive use.
Sacrum
(Published according to the publication: Radishchev A. N. Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow. - In the book: Russian prose of the 18th century. M., 1971, p. 450 - 463.
“Sacrimals” is a chapter from the book by A. N. Radishchev “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow.” The book was first published by the author in his small home printing house with the help of own people in 1790. Almost the entire circulation was destroyed by order of Catherine II. Progressive figures made several attempts to publish the book, but without success. And only in 1858 “The Journey...” was published by A. I. Herzen in London with his preface. In Russia, until 1905, the book was strictly prohibited. The most complete publication was carried out in 1905.
(chapter from the book “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow”)
In Kresttsy I witnessed a separation between a father and his children, which touched me all the more sensitively because I am a father myself and may soon be parting with my children. The unfortunate prejudice of the noble rank tells them to go into service. This one name sets all the blood into extraordinary motion! A thousand against one, you can say that out of a hundred noblemen who enter the service, 98 become rakes, and two in old age, or, more correctly, two in their decrepit, although not old, years, become good people.
“My friends,” said the father, “today we will part,” and, hugging them, he pressed the sobbing ones to his chest. I had already witnessed this spectacle for several minutes, standing motionless at the door, like a father turning to me:
Be a witness, sensitive traveler, be a witness to me before the world, how hard it is for my heart to fulfill the sovereign will of custom.
But if I fulfilled my duty in your upbringing, I am obliged to tell you now why I raised you this way and not another and why I taught you this and not another; and for this you will hear the story of your upbringing and know the guilt of all my deeds against you.
Since infancy, you have not felt your compulsion. Although you were guided by my hand in your deeds, you did not feel any of its direction. Your deeds were foreknown and anticipated; I did not want timidity or obedience of obedience to mark you with the slightest trace of the weight of my finger. And for this reason, your spirit, not tolerating the command of a foolish one, is meek towards the advice of friends. But if, to your little ones, I found that you had deviated from the path I had appointed, being driven by a random emphasis, then I stopped your procession, or, better said, unnoticedly led you back to your previous path, like a stream breaking through strongholds, with a skillful hand turns into its own. shores.
Timid tenderness was not present in me when, it seemed, I did not care about protecting you from the hostility of the elements and weather. I wished it would be better for your body to be offended for a moment by passing pain, than for you to remain at full age. And for this reason you often walked barefoot, having your head uncovered; in the dust, in the mud, they reclined to rest on a bench or on a stone. I tried no less to remove you from deadly food and drink. Our labors were the best seasoning for our dinner. Remember with what pleasure we dined in a village unknown to us, without finding the way to the house. How tasty rye bread and country kvass seemed to us then!
Do not grumble at me if you are sometimes ridiculed because you do not have a showy ascendancy, that you stand as if your body is at peace, and not as custom or fashion dictates; that you do not dress with taste, that your hair is curled by the hand of nature, and not by the comber. Do not complain if you are careless in meetings, and especially from women, because you do not know how to praise their beauty; but remember that you run fast, that you swim without getting tired, that you lift weights without strain, that you know how to drive a plow, dig a ridge, wield a scythe and an ax, a plow and a chisel; you know how to ride a horse and shoot. Don’t be sad that you don’t know how to jump like buffoons. Know that the best dancing does not represent anything majestic; and if you are once touched by the sight of it, then lust will be the root of it, yet something else is foreign to it. But you know how to depict animals and inanimate things, to depict the features of the king of nature, man. In painting you will find true pleasure not only for the senses, but also for the mind. I taught you music, so that a trembling string in accordance with your nerves would excite your dormant heart; for music, setting the interior in motion, makes tenderness a habit in us. I also taught you the barbaric art of fighting with a sword. But let this art remain dead in you until your own safety requires it. I hope it will not make you insolent, for you have a strong spirit and will not consider it an offense if a donkey lays down on you or a pig touches you with its stinking snout. Don’t be afraid to tell anyone that you know how to milk a cow, that you cook shti and porridge, or that a piece of meat you roast will be delicious. The one who knows how to do something himself knows how to force it to be done and will be lenient when it comes to mistakes, knowing all the difficulties in doing it.
In infancy and adolescence I did not burden your mind with ready-made reflections or alien thoughts, I did not burden your memory with unnecessary objects. But, having offered you the path to knowledge, from the moment you began to feel the strength in your mind, you yourself move towards the path that is open to you. Your knowledge is all the more thorough because you acquired it without repeating it, as the proverb says, like Jacob’s magpie. Following this rule, until the powers of reason were active in you, I did not offer you the concept of a Supreme Being, and even less of revelation. For whatever you knew before you were intelligent would be a prejudice in you and would interfere with your reasoning. When I saw that you were guided by reason in your judgments, I proposed to you a connection of concepts leading to the knowledge of God; I am confident in the interior of my heart that it is more pleasant for the all-generous father to see two immaculate souls, in whom the lamp of knowledge is not kindled by prejudice, but that they themselves ascend to the initial fire for combustion. I then proposed to you about the revealed law, without hiding from you everything that was said by many in refutation of it. For I wanted you to be able to choose between milk and gall, and I saw with joy that you accepted the vessel of consolation without timidity.
While teaching you information about the sciences, I did not leave behind introducing you to different peoples by teaching you foreign languages. But first of all, my concern was that you get to know your own, and that you know how to express your thoughts verbally and in writing, so that this explanation would be at ease in you and would not produce sweat on your face. English, and then Latin, I tried to make others better known to you. For the elasticity of the spirit of freedom, turning into the image of speech, will also accustom the mind to firm concepts, so necessary in all kinds of government.
But if I allowed your reason to guide your steps into the path of science, the more vigilant I tried to be in your morality. I tried to moderate the momentary anger in you, subjecting your mind to long-lasting anger that produces vengeance. Vengeance!., your soul disgusts him. Out of this natural, sensitive creature of movement, you have left only the protectiveness of your constitution, trampling on the desire to return wounds.
Now the time has come when your feelings, having reached the perfection of excitement, but not yet the perfection of the concept of what is excited, begin to be disturbed by all appearances and create a dangerous swell in your insides. We have now reached the time in which, as they say, reason becomes the determinant of doing and not doing; or better to say, when the feelings, hitherto obsessed with the smoothness of infancy, begin to feel trembling, or when the vital juices, having filled the vessel of youth, begin to exceed its resurrection, seeking the path of their characteristic aspirations. I have kept you hitherto unapproachable from the perverse shocks of the senses, but I have not hidden from you in ignorance the harmful consequences of seduction from the path of moderation in sensual pleasure. You witnessed how vile the excess of sensory saturation is, and you were disgusted; witnesses of the terrible excitement of passions that exceeded the shores of their natural course, knew their disastrous devastation and were horrified. My experience, hovering over you like a new Egis ( This refers to the aegis, in ancient greek mythology- shield of Zeus. Aegis is a symbol of protection and patronage.), protected you from wrong insults. Now you will be your own leaders, and although my advice will always be the lamp of your endeavors, for your heart and soul are open to me; but just as the light, moving away from the object, illuminates it less, so you too, rejected by my presence, will faintly feel the warmth of my friendship. And for this purpose, I will teach you the rules of living together and living together, so that, after pacifying your passions, you will not disdain the deeds committed in them, and will not know what repentance is.
The rules of living together, as far as it may concern you, must relate to your physicality and morality. Never forget to use your bodily powers and feelings. Moderate exercise will strengthen them without depleting them, and will contribute to your health and long life. And for this purpose, practice the arts, arts and crafts known to you. Improvement in these may sometimes be necessary. We don't know the future. If hostile happiness takes away from you everything that it has given you, you will remain rich in moderation of desires, feeding on the work of your hands. But if you neglect everything in the days of bliss, it is too late to think about it in the days of sorrow. Bliss, laziness and immoderate pleasure of the senses destroy both body and spirit. For, exhausting the body with intemperance, it also exhausts the strength of the spirit. The use of strength will strengthen the body, and with it the spirit. If you feel disgusted with food and illness knocks at the door, then rise from your bed, where you will cherish your feelings, bring your sleeping members into action with exercise and you will feel instantaneous forces update; abstain from the food you need for health, and hunger will make your food sweet, which made you sad from being full. Always remember that all you need to satisfy your hunger is a piece of bread and a ladle of water. If the beneficial deprivation of external feelings, sleep, moves away from your head and you are not able to renew your mental and physical strength, run from your palaces and, having tired your limbs to the point of fatigue, lie down on your bed and rest in health.
Be neat in your clothing; keep your body clean, for cleanliness contributes to health, and untidiness and stench of the body often open an inconspicuous path to vile vices. But don’t be immoderate in this either. Do not hesitate to help by lifting a cart sunk in a ditch, and thereby relieve the fallen; You will dirty your hands, feet and body, but enlighten your heart. Go to the huts of humiliation; comfort those who are languishing in poverty; taste its meat, and your heart will be gladdened, giving joy to the sorrowing.
Now you have reached, I repeat, that terrible time and hour when passions begin to awaken, but reason is still weak to curb them. For the cup of reason without experience will rise on the scales of the will; and the cup of passions will instantly sink to the bottom. So, the only way to approach balance is through hard work. Work with your body, your passions will not be so agitated; work with your heart, practicing tenderness, sensitivity, condolences, generosity, forgiveness, and your passions will be directed to a good end. Work with your mind, immersing yourself in reading, thinking, searching for truth or events, and your mind will control your will and passions. But do not imagine in the delight of your mind that you can crush the root of passions, that you need to be completely dispassionate. The root of passions is good and is based on our sensitivity by nature itself. When our feelings, external and internal, weaken and become dull, then passions also weaken. They produce good anxiety in a person, but without it he would fall asleep in inaction. A completely dispassionate person is a fool and an absurd idol, who does not achieve either good or evil. It is not a virtue to abstain from evil thoughts without being able to create them. An armless man cannot hurt anyone, but he cannot give help to a drowning man, nor hold on to the shore of a sea falling into the abyss.
So, moderation in passion is good; walking on the path through the environment is reliable. Extremeness in passion is destruction; dispassion is moral death. I am a wanderer, I have moved away from the path, I run into the danger of plunging into one or another ditch, such is the procession in morality. But if your passions are directed by experience, reason and heart towards a good end, throw off the reins of languid prudence from them, do not shorten their flight; their metastasis will always be greatness; They know how to dwell on it alone.
But if I urge you not to be dispassionate, what is most needed in your youth is moderation of love passion. It is planted by nature in our hearts for our happiness. And so in his revival he can never make a mistake, but in his subject and immoderation. And so be careful, so that you do not make a mistake about the object of your love and do not honor this image with mutual fervor. With a good object of love, the immoderation of this passion will be unknown to you. Speaking about love, it would be natural to talk about marriage, about this sacred union of society, the rules of which were not drawn by nature in the heart, but the holiness of which state stems from the initial societies. To your mind, as soon as you begin your procession, this would be incomprehensible, and to your heart, which has not experienced the proud passion of love in society, the story of this would be imperceptible to you, and therefore useless. If you want to have an understanding of marriage, remember the one who gave birth to you. Imagine me with her and with you, restore to your hearing our words and mutual kisses, and attach this picture to your heart. Then you will feel a pleasant shudder in it. What is it? You will learn with time; and today be happy with this feeling.
Let us now briefly look at the rules of the hostel. It is not possible to prescribe them with precision, because they are often located according to the circumstances of the moment. But, in order to make as little mistakes as possible, ask your heart at every undertaking; it is good and cannot deceive you at all. Whatever it says, do it. If you follow your heart in youth, you will not go wrong if you have a good heart. But he who pretends to reason, without having hair on his shoulder, proclaiming experience, is a madman.
The rules of community life relate to the fulfillment of folk customs and morals, or to the fulfillment of the law, or to the fulfillment of virtue. If in a society morals and customs are not contrary to the law, if the law does not place any stumbling blocks in the progress of virtue, then compliance with the rules of community life is easy. But where does such a society exist? Everything known to us by many is filled with contradictions in morals and customs, laws and virtues. And that is why it becomes difficult to fulfill the office of a person and a citizen, for they are often in complete opposition.
Since virtue is the pinnacle of human deeds, its fulfillment should not be interfered with by anything. Neglect of customs and morals, negligence of civil and sacred law, things so sacred in society, if the fulfillment of them separates you from virtue. Do not dare to cover up any violation of it with the timidity of prudence. You will be prosperous without her in appearance, but blessed in no way.
By following what customs and morals impose on us, we will gain the favor of those with whom we live. By complying with the law, we can acquire the name honest man. By practicing virtue, we acquire general trust, respect and surprise, even in those who would not want to feel them in their souls. The treacherous Athenian Senate, giving the cup of poison to Socrates, trembled in its interior before his virtue.
Never dare to fulfill a custom in reproach of the law. The law, no matter how bad it is, is the bond of society. And if the sovereign himself ordered you to break the law, do not obey him, for he errs to the detriment of himself and society. Let the law be destroyed, since violation of it commands, then obey, for in Russia the sovereign is the source of laws.
But if the law, or the sovereign, or any authority on earth encouraged you to commit untruth and violate virtue, remain unshakable in it. Do not be afraid of ridicule, or torment, or illness, or imprisonment, less than death itself. Remain unshakable in your soul, like a stone among the rebellious but weak shafts. The fury of your tormentors will be crushed against your firmament; and if they put you to death, you will be ridiculed, but you will live in the memory of noble souls until the end of time. Be afraid in advance to call weakness in actions, this first enemy of virtue, prudence. Today you violate her respect for the sake of it, tomorrow its violation will seem like virtue itself; and so vice will reign in your heart m.
Virtues are either private or public. The motives for the former are always kindness, meekness, condolences and the root of their blessings. Motivations for social virtues often have their origin in vanity and curiosity. But for this you should not stop fulfilling them. The pretext they revolve over gives them importance. In the one who saved Curtia ( Curtius, Mark - a Roman youth, according to legend, sacrificed himself to save the city from danger.) no one sees their fatherland from a destructive ulcer, neither vain, nor desperate, or bored with life, but heroic. If our motivations for social virtues originate in the humane firmness of the soul, then their brilliance will be much greater. Always practice private virtues, so that you may be rewarded with the fulfillment of public virtues.
I will also teach you some executive rules of life. Try above all to earn your own respect in all your deeds, so that, turning your gaze inward in solitude, you would not only not repent of what you have done, but would look at yourself with reverence.
Following this rule, avoid, as much as possible, even the form of servility. Once you enter the world, you will soon learn that in society there is a custom to visit holidays in the mornings of noble persons; the custom is stingy, meaningless, showing in the visitors a spirit of timidity, and in the visited a spirit of arrogance and weak reason. The Romans had a similar custom, which they called ambition, that is, ingratiation or treatment; and from there, curiosity is called ambition, for by visiting eminent people, young men earned their way to rank and dignity. The same thing is being done today. But if this custom was introduced among the Romans so that young people would learn how to deal with experienced people, then I doubt that the purpose of this custom would always remain intact. In our times, visiting noble gentlemen, no one has teaching as their goal, but to gain their favor. So, let your foot not cross the threshold that separates servility from the performance of office. Do not visit the front hall of a noble boyar, except in accordance with the duty of your rank. Then, among the despised crowd, even the one whom they look at with servility will, in his soul, even with indignation, distinguish you from her.
If it happens that death will cut off my days before you have matured in a good path, and, while you are still young, passions will take you away from the path of reason, then do not despair, sometimes seeing your wrong progress. In your delusion, in forgetting yourself, love goodness. A dissolute life, immeasurable curiosity, impudence and all the vices of youth leave no hope of correction, for they glide over the surface of the heart without hurting it. I would rather that in your younger years you were dissolute, wasteful, and arrogant, rather than lovers of money, or overly thrifty, dandy, being more involved in decoration than anything else. A systematic, so to speak, arrangement in panache always means a compressed mind. If they say that Julius Caesar was a dandy; but his panache had a purpose. His passion for women in his youth was his motivation for this. But from being a dandy, he would instantly put on the foulest rags if it would help him achieve his desires.
In a young man, not only transient panache is forgivable, but almost any kind of tomfoolery is forgivable. If, with the most beautiful deeds of life, you cover up deceit, lies, treachery, love of money, pride, covetousness, and atrocity, then although you will blind your contemporaries with the brilliance of your clear appearance, although you will not find anyone who loves you so much, may he present you with a mirror of truth, do not, however, imagine eclipse the gaze of clairvoyance. It will penetrate the luminous robe of deceit and virtue will expose the darkness of your soul. Your heart will hate her, and like a sensual woman, your touch will fade, but instantly, but her arrows from afar will sting and torment you.
Forgive me, my beloved, forgive me, friends of my soul; Today, with a favorable wind, cast off your boat from the shore of alien experience; strive along the shafts of human life, and learn to manage yourself. Blessed, without suffering a wreck, if you reach a refuge, we long for it. Be happy on your voyage. This is my sincere wish. My natural strength, having been exhausted by movement and life, will become weak and fade away; I will leave you forever; but this is my testament to you. If hated happiness exhausts all its arrows over you, if your virtue has no refuge on earth, if driven to the extreme, there will be no protection for you from oppression, then remember that you are a man, remember your majesty, seize the crown of bliss, and take it away from they are taking care of you. Die.
As a legacy I leave to you the word of the dying Cato ( Catanus, Marcus Porcius the Younger (96 - 46 BC) - politician Ancient Rome,. Not wanting to see the death of the republic, he pierced himself with a sword. Radishchev apparently means dying words Cato, quoted by the historian Plutarch: “Now I belong to myself.”) . But if you can die in virtue, know how to die in vice and be, so to speak, virtuous in evil itself. If, forgetting my instructions, you rush into evil deeds, the ordinary soul of virtue will become alarmed; I will appear to you in your dreams. Arise from your bed, pursue my vision with your soul. If then a tear flows from your eyes, then go back to sleep; You will awaken to correction. But if, in the midst of your evil undertakings, remembering me, your soul does not waver and your eye remains dry... Behold steel, behold poison. Spare me sorrow; rid the earth of diarrhea. Be my son again. Die to virtue.
As he spoke this to the old man, a youthful blush covered his wrinkled cheeks; his gaze emitted rays of reliable joy, his facial features shone with a supernatural substance. He kissed his children and, having escorted them to the cart, remained firm until the last parting. But as soon as the ringing of the postal bell announced to him that they had begun to move away from him, this elastic soul softened. Tears streamed through his eyes, his chest heaved; he extended his hands after those departing; seemed as if he wanted to stop the horses' rush. The young men, seeing from afar their father in such sadness, wept so loudly that the wind carried their pitiful groan to our ears. They also stretched out their hands to their father; and it seemed as if they were calling him to their place. The elder could not bear this spectacle; his strength weakened, and he fell into my arms. Meanwhile, the hillock hid the young men who had driven away from our eyes; Having come to his senses, the elder knelt down and raised his hands and eyes to the sky.
“Lord,” he cried, “I pray you, may you strengthen them in the paths of virtue, I pray, may they be blessed.” Weigh, never bothered you, all-generous father, with useless prayer. I am confident in my soul that you are good and just. Dearest to you, there is virtue in us; the deeds of a pure heart are the best sacrifice for you... I have now separated my sons from me... Lord, may your will be done on them. - Confused, but firm in his hope, he drove off to his home.
The word of the Krestitsky nobleman could not leave my head. His evidence of the insignificance of the power of parents over children seemed undeniable to me. But if in a well-established society it is necessary that young men respect the elders and inexperience is perfection, then, it seems, there is no need to make parental power unlimited. If the union between father and son is not based on the necessary feelings of the heart, then it is, of course, unstable; and will be unstable in spite of all the laws. If a father sees his slave in his son and seeks his power in laying down the law, if a son honors his father for the sake of inheritance, then what good does that bring to society? Or one more slave in addition to many others, or a snake in his bosom... The father is obliged to raise and teach his son and must be punished for his misdeeds until he comes of age; and let the son find his positions in his heart. If he doesn’t feel anything, then the father is guilty for not planting anything. The son has the right to demand assistance from his father while he remains weak and young; but in adulthood, this natural and natural connection collapses. The bird chick does not seek help from those who produced it when it begins to find food on its own. The male and female forget about their chicks when they mature. This is the law of nature. If civil laws If they move away from him, they always produce a monster. A child loves his father, mother or mentor until his love turns to another object. May your heart not be offended by this, dear father; nature requires it. Let this be your only consolation, remembering that your son’s son will love his father to the fullest age. Then it will be up to you to turn his ardor towards you. If you succeed in this, blessed and worthy of respect. In these thoughts I arrived at the post office.
About man, his mortality and immortality (abbreviated)
(Published according to the publication: Radishchev A. N. Poli. collection soch., vol. 2. M.: L., 1941. This philosophical work started in 1792 and finished at the end of 1796.
Consists of 4 books. Literature in German, French, and English was used. In the first book, the author reveals general questions the problem raised, introduces the reader to what place man belongs in nature, and analyzes his mental abilities. In the second book he concludes that both the physical and spiritual life of man are mortal. In the third and fourth books, A. N. Radishchev emphasizes the main idea - the soul is immortal, that is, he recognized bodily death and believed in the immortality of the soul. However, this cannot be taken literally. IN in this case A. N. Radishchev (he was at hard labor in Siberia at that time), who knew the ideas of French materialists well, wanted to emphasize that there are two truths: one is logically provable and objective (the bodily death of a person), the other is not fully proven, subjective ( about mortality and immortality of the soul). Both points of view can coexist. The philosophical treatise “On Man, His Mortality and Immortality” helps the reader to better understand the works of A. N. Radishchev, which outline issues of education.)
Having turned our gaze to man, let us consider ourselves; let us penetrate with a curious eye into our insides and try from what we are to determine, or at least guess, what we will be or can be; and if we find that our existence, or better to say, our uniqueness, this so felt self, will last beyond the limits of our days for a moment, even if only one, then we will exclaim in heartfelt joy: we will be again united; we can be blessed; we will! Shall we?.. Having hesitated in conclusion, my dears, the heart in delight often plunged the mind into error.
Man is not a predatory animal. On the other hand, the folding of his arms prevents him from hiding where animals with claws can. His standing position prevents him from escaping danger by flight; but his artificial fingers provide him with defense from afar. So, man, due to his physical constitution, is born, it seems, to be quiet and peaceful. Oh, how he moves away from his goal! Having armed his hands with iron and fire, folded to perform artificial actions, he became more furious than a lion and a tiger; he kills not for food, but for amusement, not driven into despair by hunger, but in cold blood. Oh, creature, the most sensitive of all earthly creatures! Is that what nerves are for?
Man has the power to be aware of things. It follows that he has the power of knowledge, which can exist even when a person does not know. It follows that the existence of things is independent of the power of knowledge about them and exists in itself.
We know things in two ways: 1st, by recognizing the changes that things produce in the power of knowledge; 2nd, cognizing the union of things with the laws of the power of knowledge and with the laws of things. The first is called experience, the second is reasoning. Experience is twofold: 1st, since the power of the concept cognizes things by feeling, we call sensuality, and the change that occurs in it is sensory experience; 2nd, we call the knowledge of the relationship of things with each other reason, and information about the changes of our mind is rational experience.
Through memory we remember the changes we have experienced in our sensuality. We call information about an experienced feeling a representation.
The changes in our concept produced by the relationships of things among themselves are called thoughts.
Just as sensuality differs from reason, so does idea differ from thought.
We sometimes cognize the existence of things without experiencing from them a change in the strength of our concept. We called this reasoning. In relation to this ability we call the power of knowledge mind or reason. So, reasoning is the use of the mind or understanding.
Reasoning is nothing more than an addition to experience, and the existence of things cannot be verified otherwise than through experience...
For reasoning, two things are required, which are assumed to be reliable: 1) a union, as a result of which we judge, and 2) a thing, from the union of which we must know things that have not been subject to experience. These propositions are called premises, and the knowledge arising from them is the conclusion. But just as all premises are propositions of experience and from them extraction or conclusion, then conclusions from premises, or reasoning, are only an addition to experience; therefore, we thus know things whose existence is known by experience.
From this we can judge that human errors can be manifold and nowhere so frequent as on the path of reasoning. For, besides the fact that sensuality can deceive us and that we can poorly understand the unions of things or their relationships, nothing is easier than a conclusion falsely drawn from premises and perverse reasoning. Thousands upon thousands of things displease our reason in the correct conclusion from the premises and interrupt the procession of reason. Inclinations, passions, even often random appearances, placing foreign objects in the environment, give rise to absurdities as often as the steps of our procession in life are frequent. When you consider the actions of intelligent forces and determine the rules that they follow, it seems that nothing is easier than avoiding error; but as soon as you have blotted out the path for your reason, prejudices penetrate, passions rise up and, rushing swiftly onto the shifting helm of the human mind, carry it more than the strongest storms across the abyss of error. Single laziness and negligence produce so many false reasonings that it is difficult to note their number, and the consequences bring forth tears.
Everything affects a person. Its food and drink, external cold and warmth, the air that serves our breath (and this has so many components), electric and magnetic forces, even light itself. Everything affects our body, everything moves in it.
The effect of naturalness becomes most obvious in the human imagination, and this always follows at the beginning from external influence.
The executive mind in man has always depended on the needs of life... agriculture divided the land into regions and states, built villages and cities, invented crafts, handicrafts, trade, organization, laws, and government. As the man quickly said: this is the span of my land! - he nailed himself to the ground and opened the way for bestial autocracy, when man commands man. He began to bow to the god he himself had erected... but, bored with his dream and shaking off his chains and captivity, he trampled on the deified one and took away his breath. These are the six six parts of the human mind. Thus they form his laws and rule, make him blessed or plunge him into the abyss of disasters.
Social reason solely depends on education, and although the difference in mental strength is great between man and man, and seems to occur by nature, education does everything. In this case, our thought differs from Helvetius’s; and since this is not the place to talk about this at length, then, having shortened our words according to decency, we will try to offer our thoughts with possible clarity.
The most elegant teacher about education. J.-J. Rousseau divides it into three types: “First, the education of nature, that is, the dissolution of the inner forces and organs of ours. Second, the education of a person, that is, instruction on how to use this disintegration of forces and organs. Third, the education of things, that is, the acquisition of our own experience with the objects that surround us. The first is completely independent of us; the third depends on us in some respects only; the second consists in our will, and that is only hypothetical, for how can one hope to completely direct the speeches and deeds of everyone, the child of those around him?
No matter how hard Helvetius tried to prove that man never owes his reason to nature, however, to prove the opposite position, we will refer to the experience of everyone. There is no one who has noticed with little attention the disintegration of rational forces in man, there is no one who is not convinced that there is a great difference in the abilities of each from the other. And whoever has dealt with children clearly understands that since the motives in each person are different, since the temperaments are different in people, since, due to the nervous composition of the nerves and fibers, a person differs from another in irritability, and everything that has been said by experiments has been proven, then mental powers should discrimination in every person is inevitable. So, not only will there be a special disintegration of mental powers in each person, but these different powers themselves must have degrees. Let's take memory as an example: look how much one person surpasses another in this talent. All the examples given to prove that memory can be acquired do not refute that it is a gift from nature. Let us enter the first school and the very first class, where the incentives for learning are very limited; ask just one question, and you will be convinced that nature is sometimes a tender mother, sometimes an envious stepmother. But no; let us distance ourselves from blasphemy! Nature is always one, and its actions are always the same. That the differences between mental powers in people are obvious even from infancy is indisputable; but one who is a degree or many degrees from his comrade in learning, due to the march of naturalness and its laws, should not be a partner with him; for a seed not born from him could not achieve an organization equal to that with which it is compared; for a person reaches perfection not through one generation, but through many. This should not be considered a paradox; for who does not know that the procession of nature is quiet, inconspicuous and gradual. But it often happens that the disintegration that has begun stops, and this happens at the expense of reason. If, at the time when Newton laid the foundation for his immortal inventions, he had been hindered in his education and moved to the islands of the Southern Ocean, would he have been able to be what he was? Of course not.
Thus, recognizing the power of education, we do not take away the power of nature. Education, depending on it, or the dissolution of forces, will remain in full force; but the teaching of using them will depend on the person, which will always be facilitated to varying degrees by circumstances and everything around us.
Let's repeat everything that has been said in short words: a person will remain alive after his death; his body will be destroyed, but his soul cannot be destroyed, for it is uncomplicated; his goal on earth is perfection, and the same goal will remain after death; and from this it follows that since the means of improving him was his organization, it must be concluded that he will have another, more perfect and commensurate with his improved state.
A return path is impossible for him, and his condition after death cannot be worse than the present; and for this reason it is probable or plausible that he will retain his acquired thoughts, his inclinations, insofar as they can be separated from the physicality; in his new organization he will correct his errors, direct his inclinations towards the truth; insofar as he retains the thoughts of which the expansion of his speech had the beginning, he will be gifted with speech: for speech, like the composition of arbitrary signs, is a sign of things that signifies, and can be intelligible to any sense, then no matter what the future organization may be, if sensitivity is involved, then it will be gifted with the verb.
Let us put an end to our conclusions, so that we are not seen as seeking only dreams and alienating the truth. But be that as it may, oh man, although you are a complex or homogeneous being, your mind and body are not determined to collapse. Your bliss, your perfection is your goal. Gifted with various qualities, use them in proportion to your purpose, but be careful that you do not use them for evil. Execution lives alongside abuse. You contain within yourself your bliss and misfortune. Walk in the path outlined by nature, and believe: if you live beyond your days and the destruction of your thoughts will not be your lot, believe that your future state will be proportionate to your life, for the one who created you gave your being a law to follow, which cannot be eliminated or violated; the evil you have done will be evil for you. You determine your future by the present; and believe, I’ll say again, believe, eternity is not a dream...
In parallel with the work on “Put. From St. Petersburg to Moscow" Radishchev writes a revolutionary journalistic article "A Conversation about the Son of the Fatherland" (1789), published in the Masonic magazine "Conversation Citizen", and at one time there were even doubts that the author of the "Conversation" was Radishchev , despite the direct evidence of one of the publishers of “BG” Tuchkov, and also despite the fact that the style of “Conversation” corresponds to Radishchev’s letter.
When discussing who can be awarded the title of true son of the fatherland, Radishchev puts forward the main condition: he can only be a “free being.” Hence he refuses this title to a peasant in serfdom, and refuses it with great pity. But how angrily his denunciation sounds towards the oppressors, those serf-owners, tormentors and oppressors who are accustomed to consider themselves sons of the fatherland. In the article we are presented with a whole series satirical portraits of evil, insignificant, frivolous landowners. But who deserves to be true son fatherland? And Radishchev answers that he can be a person full of honor, nobility, capable of sacrificing everything for the good of the people, and if necessary, if he knows that his death will bring strength and glory to the Fatherland, then he is not afraid to sacrifice his life. This is one of Radishchev’s strongest political speeches.
Retelling:
Man, man is needed to bear the name of the son of the Fatherland! - But where is he? Where is this one worthily adorned with this majestic name? Serfs are likened to a horse, condemned to pull a cart for life, and having no hope of freeing themselves from their yoke, receiving equal retribution with the horse, and suffering equal blows; not about those who do not see the end of their yoke, except death, where their labors and their torment will end, although it sometimes happens that cruel sadness, having enveloped their spirit with reflection, ignites the weak light of their mind, and makes them curse their disastrous state and search.
Or the overfed landowner looks more like a monster in his attire than a man, and his dissolute life, marked by the stench from his mouth and his whole body, is suffocated by a whole pharmacy of fragrant sprays, in a word, he is a fashionable person, completely fulfilling all the rules of the dandy big world science ; - he eats, sleeps, wallows in drunkenness and lust, despite his exhausted strength; He changes clothes, talks all kinds of nonsense, shouts, runs from place to place, in short, he is a dandy. - Isn’t this the son of the Fatherland?
Or the one who stretches out his arms to seize the wealth and possessions of his entire Fatherland, and if it were possible, the whole world, and who with composure is ready to take away from his most unfortunate compatriots the last crumbs that support their dull and languid life, to rob, to steal their specks of dust property; who delights in joy if an opportunity for a new acquisition opens up for him;
Discussion about honor.
It has already been proven that a true man and a son of the Fatherland are one and the same; therefore there will be a sure distinctive sign of him if he thus Ambitious.
those who chase fame and praise not only do not acquire it for themselves from others, but even more so are deprived of it. A true man is a true executor of all the laws ordained for his bliss; he religiously obeys them.
He (the son of the Fatherland) would rather agree to perish and disappear than to set an example of bad behavior for others, and thereby take away from the Fatherland children who could be its adornment and support; he is afraid of contaminating the well-being of his fellow citizens; he burns with the most tender love for the integrity and tranquility of his compatriots; there is nothing so eager to ripen as mutual love between them; he kindles this beneficial flame in all hearts; - is not afraid of the difficulties encountered in this noble feat of his; overcomes all obstacles, tirelessly watches over maintaining honesty, gives good advice and instructions, helps the unfortunate, delivers from the dangers of error and vices, and if he is confident that his death will bring strength and glory to the Fatherland, then he is not afraid to sacrifice his life; if it is needed for the Fatherland, then it is preserved for the full observance of natural and domestic laws; to the extent possible, he averts everything that could tarnish the purity and weaken the good intentions of them, as a detriment to the bliss and improvement of his compatriots. In a word, he well-behaved! Here is another sure sign of a son of the Fatherland! The third and, as it seems, the last most distinctive sign of the son of the Fatherland, when he noble. Noble is the one who has made himself famous for his wise and philanthropic qualities and actions; who shines in Society with reason and Virtue, and being inflamed with truly wise curiosity, directs all his strength and efforts towards this only, so that, obeying the laws and the guardians thereof, the authorities who hold him, both himself and everything that he has, will not read differently
A. N. RADISHCHEV.
CONVERSATION ABOUT THE SON OF THE FATHERLAND
Not everyone born in the fatherland is worthy of the majestic title of son of the fatherland (patriot). Those under the yoke of slavery are not worthy to be adorned with this name. - Resist, sensitive heart, do not pronounce your judgment on such sayings while you stand at the threshold.
Enter and wait! Who doesn’t know that the name of the son of the fatherland belongs to a person, and not to a beast or cattle or other dumb animal? It is known that man is a free being, since he is gifted with intelligence, reason and free will; that his freedom consists in choosing the best, that he knows and chooses this best through reason, comprehends it with the help of his mind and always strives for the beautiful, majestic, high. He acquires all this in a single adherence to natural and revealed laws, otherwise called divine, and derived from divine and natural civil or communal laws.
But in whom these abilities, these human feelings are suppressed, can he be adorned with the majestic name of the son of the fatherland?
He's not human, but what? he is lower than cattle; for even cattle follow their own laws, and no departure from them has yet been noticed in them. But the discussion about those is not relevant here; the unfortunate ones, whom deceit or violence have deprived of this majestic advantage of man, who are made such that without coercion and fear they no longer produce anything from such feelings, who are likened to draft cattle, who do not do higher than a certain work, from which they cannot be freed; which are likened to a horse condemned to pull a cart for the rest of his life, and having no hope of freeing himself from his yoke, receiving equal rewards with the horse and suffering equal blows; not about those who do not see the end of their yoke except death, where their labors and their torments will end, although it sometimes happens that cruel sadness, having declared their spirit to be a meditation, ignites the weak light of their mind and makes them curse their disastrous state and seek to this end; We are not talking about those here who do not feel anything other than their humiliation, who crawl and move in the sleep of death (lethargy), who resemble a person only in appearance, otherwise they are burdened with the weight of their chains, deprived of all benefits, excluded from the entire heritage of people , oppressed, humiliated, despised; which are nothing more than dead bodies buried one against the other; work necessary for a person out of fear; they do not want anything other than death, and to whom the slightest desire is denied and the most unimportant undertakings are executed; they are only allowed to grow, then die; about whom it is not asked what they are worthy of humanity did you do it? what commendable deeds, traces of their past lives, did they leave? What good, what benefit did this great number of hands bring to the state?
This is not what we are talking about here; they are not members of the state, they are not human beings, when they are nothing more than machines driven by the tormentor, dead corpses, draft animals!
Man, man is needed to bear the name of the son of the fatherland! But where is he? where is this one, worthily adorned with this majestic name?
Are you in the arms of bliss and lust? Are you not engulfed in the flames of pride, lust, violence? Is he buried in evil profitability, envy, malice, enmity and discord with everyone, even those who feel the same with him and strive for the same thing? or is he not mired in the mire of laziness, gluttony and drunkenness? A helipad, flying around from midday (for then he begins his day) the whole city, all the streets, all the houses for the most meaningless and empty conversation, to seduce chastity, to infect good morals, to catch simplicity and sincerity, making his head a flour store, his eyebrows a receptacle of soot , cheeks with boxes of white and red lead, or, better to say, a picturesque palette, the skin of his body with an elongated drum skin, looks more like a monster in his attire than a man, and his dissolute life, marked by the stench emanating from his lips and his whole body, is smothered a whole pharmacy of fragrant sprays - in a word, he is a fashionable man, completely fulfilling all the rules of dandy high society science: he eats, sleeps, wallows in drunkenness and lust, despite his exhausted strength; He changes clothes, talks all sorts of nonsense, shouts, runs from place to place, in short - he is a dandy.
Is this not the son of the fatherland? - or he who raises his singing gaze in a majestic manner to the firmament of heaven, trampling under his feet all who are before him, tormenting his neighbors with violence, persecution, oppression, imprisonment, deprivation of rank, property, torture, deception, deception and murder itself, in a word, tearing apart those who dare to utter the words: humanity, freedom, peace, honesty, holiness, property and others like them, by all means known to him alone? Streams of tears, rivers of blood not only do not touch, but delight his soul. He who dares to oppose his speeches, opinions, deeds and intentions should not exist! Is this the son of the fatherland?
Or the one who stretches out his arms to seize the wealth and possessions of his entire fatherland, and if it were possible, the whole world, and who with composure is ready to take away from his unfortunate compatriots the last crumbs that support their dull and languid life, to rob, to plunder their specks of dust property; who delights in joy if an opportunity for a new acquisition opens up for him, let it be paid with rivers of the blood of his brethren, let him deprive people like him of the last shelter and food, let them die of hunger, serving, in the heat; let them weep, let them kill their children in despair, let them risk their lives for thousands of deaths; none of this will shake his heart; all this means nothing to him - he multiplies his property, and that’s enough. - And so this is not where the name of the son of the fatherland belongs?
Or is it not the same one, sitting at a table filled with the works of all four elements, to whose delight the taste and belly are sacrificed by several people taken away from serving the fatherland, so that, when he is full, he can be transferred to bed and there he can calmly engage in the consumption of other works that he pleases? until sleep takes away the strength to move his jaws? And so, of course, this one or one of the four mentioned above? (for we rarely find the fifth addition separately). The mixture of these four is visible everywhere, but the son of the fatherland is not yet visible if he is not one of these!
The voice of reason, the voice of the laws written in nature and the hearts of people, does not agree to call the calculated people sons of the fatherland! The very ones who are truly such will pronounce judgment (not on themselves, for they do not find themselves like that), but on those like themselves and will sentence them to exclude such from the number of sons of the fatherland, since there is no man, no matter how depraved and blinded he is by himself, so as not to feel at all the rightness and beauty of things and deeds.
There is no person who would not feel sorrow when he sees himself humiliated, reviled, enslaved by violence, deprived of all means and ways to enjoy peace and pleasure and not finding his consolation anywhere. Doesn't this prove that he loves honor, without which he is like without a soul. There is no need to explain here that this is true honor, for false, instead of deliverance, subjugates everything that has been said above and will never calm the human heart.
Everyone has an innate sense of true honor; but it illuminates the deeds and thoughts of a person as he approaches it, following the lamp of reason, which guides him through the darkness of passions, vices and prejudices to its quiet light, that is, honor. There is not a single mortal who is rejected by nature, who does not have that spring embedded in the heart of every person, directing him to love honor. Everyone wants to be respected rather than reviled, everyone strives for his further improvement, fame and glory: as if the caresser of Alexander the Great, Aristotle, tried to prove the opposite, arguing that nature itself has already disposed the mortal race so that one, and moreover a much larger part of them must certainly be in a slave state and, therefore, not feel that there is honor? and the other in the dominant, because not many have noble and majestic feelings.
It is not in dispute that the much nobler part of the mortal race is immersed in the darkness of barbarity, brutality and slavery; but this does not in the least prove that man was not born with a feeling that directs him to greatness and to self-improvement and, consequently, to the love of true glory and honor. The reason for this is either the type of life led, circumstances, or in which to be forced, or inexperience, or the violence of the enemies of the righteous and lawful exaltation of human nature, who by force and deceit subject it to blindness and slavery, which weakens the human mind and heart, imposing the heaviest shackles of contempt and oppression , overwhelming the strength of the eternal spirit.
Do not justify yourself here, oppressors, villains of humanity, that these terrible bonds are an order that requires submission. Oh, if you would penetrate the chain of all nature as much as you can, and you can do a lot! then you would feel different thoughts in yourself; would find that love as well. It is not violence that maintains such beautiful order and subordination in the world. All nature is subject to it, and where it is, there are no terrible disgraces that draw tears of compassion from sensitive hearts and at which the true friend of humanity shudders.
What would nature be then, other than a discordant mixture (chaos), if it were deprived of this spring? Truly she would lose the greatest way both to preserve and improve oneself. Everywhere and with every person this fiery love for gaining honor and praise from others is born. Sleep comes from a person’s innate sense of limitation and dependence. The feeling of sleep is so strong that it always encourages people to acquire for themselves those abilities and advantages through which they deserve love both from people and from the highest being, evidenced by the pleasure of conscience; and having earned the favor and respect of others, a person becomes trustworthy in the means of preserving and improving himself.
And if this is so, then who doubts that this strong love of honor and the desire to acquire the pleasure of one’s conscience with the favor and praise of others is the greatest and most reliable means, without which human well-being and improvement cannot exist? For what then remains for a person to overcome those difficulties that are inevitable on the path leading to the achievement of blissful peace, and to refute that cowardly feeling that makes one tremble when looking at one’s shortcomings? What is the remedy for getting rid of the fear of falling forever under the most terrible burden of these? if you take away, firstly, refuge filled with sweet hope in the highest being, not as an avenger, but as the source and beginning of all good things; and then to those like ourselves, with whom nature has united us for the sake of mutual assistance and who inwardly bow to the readiness to provide it and, with all the muffling of this inner voice, feel that they should not be those sacrileges who interfere with the righteous human desire to improve themselves.
Who planted this feeling in man to seek refuge? - An innate feeling of dependence, clearly showing us this dual means of salvation and pleasure for us. And what finally prompts him to take this path? What drives him to unite with these two means of human bliss and to care to please them? - Truly nothing more than an innate fiery urge to acquire for oneself those abilities and beauty through which one deserves the favor of God and the love of one’s fellow men, the desire to become worthy of their favor and protection.
He who examines human deeds will see that this is one of the main springs of all the greatest works in the world! And this is the beginning of that impulse to love honor, which was sown in man at the beginning of his creation! This is the reason for the feeling of that pleasure that is usually always associated with a person’s heart, how quickly God’s favor is poured out on it, which consists in sweet silence and pleasure of conscience, and how quickly he acquires the love of those like himself, which is usually depicted by joy at the sight of him, praises, exclamations. This is the object they strive for true people and where they find their true pleasure! It has already been proven that a true man and a son of the fatherland are one and the same; therefore, it will be a sure distinguishing sign of him if he is thus ambitious.
With this, he begins to decorate the majestic name of the son of the fatherland, the monarchy. For this he must honor his conscience, love his neighbors; for love is acquired by love alone; one must fulfill one’s calling as prudence and honesty dictate, without caring in the least about giving honor, exaltation and glory, which is a companion or, moreover, a shadow that always follows virtue, illuminated not by the evening sun of truth; for those who pursue fame and praise not only do not acquire it for themselves from others, but even more so are deprived of it.
A true man is a true executor of all the laws ordained for his bliss; he religiously obeys them. Noble modesty, free from empty talk and hypocrisy, accompanies all his feelings, words and deeds. With reverence he submits to everything that order, improvement and general salvation require; for him there is no low state in serving the fatherland; By serving him, he knows that he is promoting the healthy circulation, so to speak, of the blood of the state body. He would rather agree to perish and disappear than to set an example of bad behavior for others and thereby take away children from the fatherland, who could be an adornment and support for it; he is afraid of contaminating the well-being of his fellow citizens; he flames with the most tender love for the integrity and tranquility of his compatriots, he yearns to see nothing so much as mutual love between them; he kindles this beneficial flame in all hearts; is not afraid of the difficulties encountered in this noble feat of his; overcomes all obstacles, tirelessly watches over maintaining honesty, gives good advice and instructions, helps the unfortunate, delivers from the dangers of error and vices, and if he is confident that his death will bring strength and glory to the fatherland, then he is not afraid to sacrifice his life; if it is needed for the fatherland, then it is preserved for the full observance of natural and domestic laws; to the best of his ability, he averts everything that could tarnish the purity and weaken the good intentions of them, as a detriment to the bliss and improvement of his compatriots. In a word, he well-behaved! Here is another sure sign of a son of the fatherland!
The third and, as it seems, the last distinctive sign of the son of the fatherland, when he noble. Noble is the one who has made himself famous for his wise and philanthropic qualities and actions; who shines in society with reason and virtue and, being inflamed by truly wise curiosity, directs all his strength and efforts towards this only, so that, obeying the laws and the guardians of them, the authorities who control both himself and everything that he has, not to be revered otherwise than as belonging to the patronymic. to use it as a pledge of the goodwill of his compatriots and his sovereign, who is the father of the people, entrusted to him, sparing nothing for the good of the fatherland. He is truly noble, whose heart cannot help but tremble with tender joy at the single name of the fatherland and who feels no differently at that memory (which is incessant in him), as if it were said about the most precious part of him in the world. He does not sacrifice the good of the fatherland to prejudices, which rush like brilliant ones into his eyes; sacrifices everything for its good: his supreme reward consists of virtue, that is, in that inner harmony of all inclinations and desires, which the wise creator pours into the immaculate heart and to which, in its silence and pleasure, nothing in the world can be compared. For true nobility there are virtuous actions animated true honor, which is not found somewhere else, as in continuous beneficence to the human race, but mainly to its compatriots, rewarding each according to his dignity and according to the prescribed laws of nature and democracy. Decorated with these only qualities, both in enlightened antiquity, and now they are honored with true praise. And here is the third distinctive sign of the son of the fatherland!
Those will be very mistaken who consider the reasoning to be that Platonic system of public education, the events of which we will never see, when even before our eyes, a kind of education exactly like this and based on these rules was introduced by the godly monarchs, and enlightened Europe sees with amazement its successes, going back to the intended goal with gigantic steps!
