ism of Büchner and Haeckel, and the economic materialism of Marx. Russians, even when they are materialists in theory, remain incurable idealists in practice.
And it is because the Russian is animated with that noble passion for freedom, it is because he is not politically servile like the Prussian, it is because the Slav refuses to be a slave, that we may look forward with every confidence to the result of the new Liberal Constitution which the Russian people conquered in 1905. The Russian Duma is only a few years old, but representative institutions have already struck deeper roots in Russia in five years than they have in Prussia in fifty years. And the Russian people have proved their capacity for self-government even more conspicuously in their local administration, in their Zemstvo which, as well as Zemski Sobor, can be traced back to the remotest traditions of Russian history. The Zemstvo is destined more and more to encroach on the activities of the Central Parliament. For decentralization and Home Rule, Voluntary Association and Cooperation are the watchwords of all Russian Liberals. And it is certainly a significant fact that in a few years twenty thousand agricul-
