Chapter 6 Chapter Six

During his stay in Petersburg, Prince Andrew felt at first that the trifles in Petersburg were clouding the mass of ideas he had formed in his solitary life. When he came home in the evening, he wrote down in his diary the four or five obligatory visits, or rendez-vous, for which a time was fixed.The mechanical life and the arrangement of the time of the day (so as to handle the things that should be done on time anytime and anywhere) consumed most of his energy.He had nothing to do, he didn't even think about anything, and he didn't have time to think about it. He just narrated, cleverly narrating the things he had thought about in the countryside in the past.

-------- ① French: dating. He sometimes found, with dissatisfaction, that on the same day he was repeating the same thing repeatedly in different social situations.But he was so busy all day that he had no time to think about things that did not occur to him. Then on Wednesday Speranski received Bolkonski alone at his own house, and this time, like the first meeting with him at Kochubey's, Speranski had a long and candid conversation with him, Made a strong impression on Prince Andrew. Prince Andrei considered most men to be contemptible and insignificant beings, and he was eager to find in others the example of the true virtue to which he craved, and he easily believed that he found in Speransky a very wise and useful thing. An example of a virtuous man.Had Speranski been of Prince Andrew's social class, with the same upbringing and moral character, Bolkonski would have quickly discovered the inherent weakness of a non-heroic, ordinary man, but the present-day The temperament of a wise man, which astonished him, aroused his respect all the more because he had not fully grasped it.Besides, whether it was because he valued Prince Andrew's talents, or because he thought it necessary to get him into his hands; therefore Speranski showed his calm and impartial reason to Prince Andrew. , subtly flattering Prince Andrei, this flattery is mixed with excessive self-confidence, that is to say, only the interlocutor and himself can understand the ignorance of all other people, and can grasp his wise and profound thoughts.

On Wednesday nights, when they talked at length, Speranski said more than once: "Everyone is watching all our out-of-the-ordinary habits..." or said with a smile: "But since we want to feed the wolves, And there are a lot of sheep..." Or: "They can't understand this..." There is always this expression, it seems to say: "We are: you and I, we both know who they are, who we are." His first long conversation with Speransky only intensified in Prince Andrew the feeling he had felt when he first saw him.He saw him as a rational, thoughtful, brilliant man who had gained power by all his energy and tenacity, and used it for the sole benefit of Russia.Speransky was such a man in Prince Andrei's mind: he could explain the phenomena of life wisely, he believed that the rational phenomena were real, and he was good at applying rational criteria to measure everything. To be such a person.Speransky seemed to explain everything so clearly and simply that Prince Andrew could not help agreeing with him in every respect.If he dissented or debated, it was only because he wanted to stand alone, not to submit to Speranski's opinion entirely.All this was true, all was well, but there was only one thing that perplexed Prince Andrew, and that was Speransky's gaze—it was cold and mirror-clear, and prevented one from looking into his soul, And his white, soft arm, which Prince Andrew could not help looking at, as one usually looks at the arms of powerful people.The mirror-clear eyes and the white, tender arm somehow irritated Prince Andrew.Moreover, he found Speransky to be too contemptuous of others, and to use various means to prove his own opinion, which surprised Prince Andrey and displeased him.Apart from using metaphors, he used every possible means of thinking, and it seemed to Prince Andrew that he was changing one means after another too boldly.He alternately denounces fantasists from the standpoint of a practical activist, mocks his enemies from the standpoint of a satirist, sometimes becomes overly rigorous, and sometimes suddenly ascends to the realm of metaphysics (the last means of argument he is especially fond of).He raises this issue to the level of metaphysics, defines space, time, and thought, draws refuting arguments from there, and then returns to the category of debate from top to bottom.

On the whole, the chief feature of Speransky's intelligence, which astonished Prince Andrew, was his unquestionable belief in its power and rationality.It can be seen that Speranski never had thoughts that Prince Andrei considered ordinary, after all you cannot express everything you think, and you never doubt: everything I think and what I believe Is everything nonsense?It was this peculiar way of thinking of Speransky which most attracted Prince Andrew's attention. At the beginning of Prince Andrew's acquaintance with Speransky he had felt for him the same admiration he had felt for Bonaparte.Speransky was the son of a parson, and some foolish people might look down on him, the son of a parson who ran errands, as many did, and it was this that compelled Prince Andrei to cherish his affection for Sperance. Key's feelings, and unconsciously deepened in his heart.

On Bolkonski's first evening at Speranski's, Speranski spoke out about the Commission of Law Editors, who he told him ironically that fifty years of its existence cost money. Millions, nothing to do, only Rosenkampf to put a label on the comparative law clauses. "That's all the state has achieved at the cost of millions of rubles!" he said. "We want to give the Senate new judicial powers, but we don't have a code yet. So people like you, prince, shouldn't be Not working anymore." Prince Andrei said that for this job one had to have a legal education, which he had never had.

"Nobody has that level of education, so what do you want to do? It's a circulusuviciosus that you'll have to work through." A week later, Prince Andrei was a member of the Editorial Committee of Military Regulations, which he had never expected, and at the same time headed a section of the Editorial Committee of Laws.At the request of Speranski, the first part of the Civil Code was edited and, with the help of Code Napoleon and Justinian, the text of the chapter "Human Rights" was prepared. -------- ①French: magic circle. ②French: "Napoleonic Code" and "Justinian Code".