. A thousand years of Russian history. onhe became so powerfuland so above attacks byopponents as to be justifiedin the proud assertion re-ported to have been madeby him : I am the Em-perors friend ; therefore,any complaints about mecan be made only to God. It is characteristic ofAlexanders state of mindat this time that Arak-tcheyevs sinister person-ality was able to dominatehim as completely as had,a few years previously,the luminous personahtyof Count Speranski, ofwhom Araktcheyev remarked : Had I only half his brains, I should be by thistime a truly great man. These two names are typical o
. A thousand years of Russian history. onhe became so powerfuland so above attacks byopponents as to be justifiedin the proud assertion re-ported to have been madeby him : I am the Em-perors friend ; therefore,any complaints about mecan be made only to God. It is characteristic ofAlexanders state of mindat this time that Arak-tcheyevs sinister person-ality was able to dominatehim as completely as had,a few years previously,the luminous personahtyof Count Speranski, ofwhom Araktcheyev remarked : Had I only half his brains, I should be by thistime a truly great man. These two names are typical ofthe two aspects of Alexanders reign, namely, progress andreaction ; for although there was often no sequence in hisactions, there was always a distmct Hnk between them andthe character of his advisers. Speranski appealed to thehigher side of his nature, Araktcheyev to the lower ; theformer to the ideahst, the latter to that element of crueltyso often found in the sentimentalist. Metternich came to the conclusion that the Emperors 16. Metropolitan of Moscow. (From Herbersteins Rerurn MoscoviticarumCommentarii, 1549.) 242 A THOUSAND YEARS OF RUSSIAN HISTORY mind underwent a distinct change every five years, whichhe called a periodical evolution of mind. This uniquephenomenon is clearly traceable in his actions both withregard to home and foreign pohtics, and may perhaps be thecause of the alternation between periods of spiritual awaken-ing and periods of darkness. It was as if the Emperor forgotall he had been most eager about in the previous phase, thenew idea having apparently taken such a hold of him as tobecome an obsession. This may help us to understand theotherwise perplexing duaUty of his character. Alexander, who hitherto had been a leader—in fact, theAgamemnon—among the monarchs, became the unwittingtool of that masterly diplomatist, Metternich. This clever, purposeful statesman, to whom the verythought of revolution was like a red rag to a bull, knew howto utilise
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