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102 PROBLEMS CONFRONTING RUSSIA
ing that he is passing rapidly through space. Be it in the
name of duty or enterprise or for the sake of pleasure, the
Briton becomes a globe-trotter, a week-end hunter, and a
travelling enthusiast. It would be instructive to compare
if possible the amount of money spent on travelling per
capita in Great Britain and in Russia. The difference must
be enormous. Like the British Empire, Russia possesses a
stupendous stretch of territory, comprising no less than
one-seventh of the dry surface of the globe. But Russians do
not sufficiently explore their own territory, for they have
not sufficiently developed the energy required. Their
territory forms one compact block, and offers no special
difficulties in the establishment of intercourse across it.
Communication on that great plain which stretches from
the Pacific to the Urals, and farther to the Carpathians ; and
on the great waterways which traverse Siberia and European
Russia from north to south and from south to north, is
comparatively easy—too easy to challenge and develop human
energy, as in the case of seafaring, that great school for
strengthening human endurance, enterprise, and energy.
Russians do not know their country sufficiently well, and,
with few exceptions, as in the cases of the Cossack leader
Yermak, Prjevalski, and some others, the travellers and
explorers of Russia have been mostly of foreign nationality.
While Britishers travel too much, Russians travel too little.
Both go to extremes in this respect, and, as it is said " Les
extremes se touchent," here again they may, by coming
into closer intellectual touch, exercise a beneficial and
moderating influence on each other.
Amongst the peculiarities of Great Britain there is one
which is not to be found in Russia—namely, the conscientious
objector. The existence of this species, which is a monument
to English sentimentality, is, from the point of view of
common sense, unintelligible. The simple idea of justice
requires that obligations of the individual towards the
State should be extended to all its citizens without exception.
Everybody has, as Kant puts it, to act in such a way that
his action can be taken as the standard applicable to all.
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