Farewell to Philosophy

Michael Bakuninwas now in his twenty-ninth year. The domestic battles of Premukhino had not impaired the orthodoxy of his political creed; and he had still not sought any political implications in the philosophical debate about Hegelian reality. He might fairly have been described, at the time of his migration from Russia to Germany, as a rebel by temperament and a conservative by family tradition and rational Conviction. Since in so headstrong a character as Michael Bakunin temperament in the long run generally outweighs both tradition and reason, his eventual conversion to the revolutionary cause may reasonably be regarded as a foregone conclusion. But the rapidity and completeness of the conversion exhibit symptoms typical both of the Russian aristocrat in general and of Bakunin in particular.