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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
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 http://www.archive.org/details/mmkovalevskyOOpasv 
 
M. M. KOVALEVSKY 
 
 BY 
 
 LEO PASVOLSKY 
 
 Editor oi The Russian Review. 
 
 {Reprinted from The Russian Review, Vol. I, No. 5, 
 June, 1916) 
 
-nA^^' 
 
M. M. KOVALEVSKY. 
 (1851-1916.) 
 
Ill<2.54 M. M. Kovalevsky. 
 
 V By Leo Pasvolshy. 
 
 I. 
 
 k-T-R 
 
 Not since the death of Tolstoy has Russia sustained so 
 great a loss as she did when Maxim Maximovich Kovalevsky 
 ceased to be. Russia and the rest of Europe are passing now 
 through a bloody period in their history, when human life seems 
 to have lost all value, when men are swept away by thousands 
 and even millions. The living have become accustomed to this 
 elemental sway that death holds in the most intimate relations 
 of their life. But all these millions of individual deaths are of 
 more or less local concern; the report of each one of them car- 
 ries the grim message of misfortune only to some one corner 
 of the countries plunged into madness. The death of Kovalev- 
 sky, like the death of Tolstoy, is not of merely local concern. 
 Deaths like these arouse the whole nation, from one end to the 
 other, throughout all the social strata. And not the nation 
 alone, but the whole world. 
 
 There was much in common between these two intellectual 
 giants of Russia, no matter how different they were in so many 
 respects. Each of them typified Russia in his own way. Each 
 loved Russia with his whole heart; devoted to his native land 
 every thought, every feeling. Each, through his achievements, 
 rendered his country inestimable service by raising her higher 
 amongst the nations of the world, higher in that most precious 
 of all attainments: intellectual achievement. Each was widely 
 known and generally loved. And the death of each was a blow 
 that brought deep pain, poignant regret, a heavy sense of per- 
 sonal bereavement to millions of hearts. 
 
 Objectively, in their relations with others and with every- 
 thing about them, they had much in common; but subjectively, 
 they were different. Tolstoy represented the soul of Russia, the 
 ever-seeking, ever-striving, never-contented soul, full of true 
 
mysticism, that seeks and yearns for the absolute solution of 
 the world's problems, that reaches out for the ultimate, and, 
 never attaining it, perishes in the quenchless flames of its 
 mighty quest. Kovalevsky typified the intellect of Russia, the 
 vast, the many-sided, interested in everything, eager to under- 
 stand everything, projecting itself into the innermost secrets 
 of nature, into her every realm, ever analyzing, ever striving to 
 reach the great synthesis that would crown its quest, and also 
 perishing in the mighty flames of its ceaseless activity. 
 
 Death overtook Tolstoy when he was just about to embark 
 upon a new quest for spiritual truth ; it stilled his quivering soul 
 when it was just beginning to break the fetters of what he con- 
 sidered spiritual thralldom. Kovalevsky's mighty intellect ceased 
 its tireless labors while still busily engaged in its marvelous activ- 
 ity. What he considered his solemn duty before science and before 
 his people was more important in his own mind than the ques- 
 tion of his health, which finally refused' to withstand the terrific 
 strain to which the tireless brain and the indomitable will of 
 the scientist subjected it. 
 
 And each of these giants, their minds clear to the very end, 
 succeeded in crystallizing the tremendous masses of thoughts 
 and ideas and experiences that constituted their spiritual and 
 intellectual being into small, priceless pearls — the last words 
 they pronounced on their death beds. 
 
 A few minutes before his death, in that small railroad sta- 
 tion which for a time attracted the gaze of the whole world, 
 Tolstoy pronounced his last great words, "the soft, sad, gentle 
 final chord of a great symphony," as Kuprin has called it: "The 
 hero of my story, whom I love with my whole soul, whom I have 
 attempted to reproduce in all his beauty, and who has always 
 been, is, and ever will be beautiful, is truth." The great thinker's 
 whole philosophy of life, so simple, so beautiful, yet so fraught 
 with the mighty significance of his ceaseless quest, is in the 
 one little sentence that his lips whispered a few minutes before 
 death sealed them forever. 
 
 Kovalevsky's last words, too, are so expressive of his whole 
 life, so ail-inclusively descriptive of his; whole activity, that they 
 
are really a summary of everything he thought and said and did 
 during the decades of his scientific and public life. To the few 
 friends who were at his bed-side, to those loving hearts tor- 
 tured by the maddeningly painful realization of the inevitable, 
 he gave his last precept: "Love liberty, and equality, and 
 progress." 
 
 All his life Kovalevsky marched under a standard, upon 
 which were inscribed those great words. All his life he followed 
 them unflinchingly, and with them carried new ideas, new in- 
 spirations to those around him. All his life was spent for the 
 vindication of these fundamental values of human life, for the 
 disclosing of their sterling worth to his countrymen. These 
 three great principles, which lie at the basis of the highest 
 civilization that the world has reached in its evolution, the 
 Aryan civilization of the West, were not welcome guests in 
 Russia during the greater part of Kovalevsky's career. But they 
 were his creed in life, his great guiding star, which he had fol- 
 lowed to the West, outside of the boundaries of his dearly be- 
 loved native land — an exile for over two decades. During 
 this whole period he did everything in his power to make those 
 mighty principles /?ersonfiae gratae in Russia; all his efforts were 
 directed towards gaining for them the right of citizenship in 
 the eastern-most of European countries. He was the direct 
 and undisputed heir of those mighty intellects that strove, a 
 half-century ago, to bring Russia into a close communion with 
 the West. Only, he was more fortunate than they, for within 
 the limits of his lifetime came the first throes of regeneration, 
 the period of Titanic struggle and suffering, so pregnant with 
 the promise of future achievement. When the first beacon light 
 of a new life burst into flames over Russia, Kovalevsky hastened 
 back from his exile, and took his place among those who were 
 fighting for the triumph of the three great principles that were 
 inscribed so inspiringly upon his life-banner, the great prin- 
 ciples that he himself, not the least among many others, had 
 taught his countrymen to love, to cherish, to prize so dearly 
 as to be ready to lose their life in a struggle for their ascendancy. 
 
 He was destined to behold the slow dawn, and the clouds 
 
that dimmed its resplendent glory soon after its very first rays 
 pierced the gloom. He died at the time when the clouds, grown 
 darkest and blackest, were just beginning to roll away, when 
 the rays of the rising sun were beginning again to make their 
 way into the open, piercing the sombre shadows, when the prom- 
 ise of a glorious sunrise was unmistakable on every side. His 
 great body will not have been lying long in the ground when 
 the sun of liberty, equality, and progress will shine forth upon 
 the political and social firmament of Russia. 
 
 II. 
 
 Maxim Maximovich Kovalevsky was bom in 1851, in Khar- 
 kov. His father was a prominent figure among the gentry of 
 the district, and his many private and public duties kept 
 him fully occupied, affording him very little opportunity to 
 devote any attention to his son. The boy's education was left 
 entirely in the hands of his mother, of whom Kovalevsky says 
 in his memoirs that "this able and unusually kind woman, who 
 had received a fine artistic and aesthetic education, despite her 
 youth, beauty and success in society, devoted herself solely to 
 the education of her son." From her and from his French and 
 German tutors, who had charge of his education after he was 
 eight years old, he acquired his love of the artistic, which he 
 preserved all his life. In his early youth he acquired the knowl- 
 edge of the French and the German languages. The knowledge 
 of the English language was not acquired until he was fifteen, 
 while he did not learn Italian and Spanish until he was twenty- 
 eight. Of his tutors, he remembered especially the Frenchman, 
 who taught him French literary and political history, mythology, 
 and other subjects at a very early age. 
 
 When he was thirteen, his father's financial affairs took a 
 turn for the wVDrse, and the boy was sent to a gymnasium, enter- 
 ing the fifth year. He remained at the gymnasium for four years. 
 The course of study offered there did not satisfy him; in his 
 efforts to master the essentials of Latin grammar and rhetoric, 
 in his constant attempts to overcome his aversion to the dryness 
 and inadequacy of the method as wiell as the content of the 
 
school work, he found himself forgetting much of the genuinely- 
 interesting knowledge that he had acquired with his private 
 tutors. He relates the following incident, which is extremely- 
 characteristic of his recollections of this period of his life. At 
 his final examinations, in answer to a question in mythology, 
 he had to bring out the connection between the heroes of the 
 national epics and the pagan divinities of the pre-Christian time 
 in Russia. While he was speaking, a trustee of the school, the 
 noted chemist Voskresensky, entered the room. Hearing that, 
 according to mythology, Vladimir of the folk-songs is really the 
 god of the sun, Voskresensky, burst out laughing, much to the 
 discomfiture of the teachers and the professors present, and 
 they hastened to inform him of his lack of knowledge in the 
 field of comparative mythology. "Voskresensky's fit of laugh- 
 ter," says Kovalevsky, "is the only protest I can recall against 
 the nonsense with which our heads were being stuffed." 
 
 Kovalevsky received his higher education at the University 
 of Kharkov, in its Department of Law. He chose this depart- 
 ment in preference to others not because his interests lay par- 
 ticularly in this direction, but because the faculty of this de- 
 partment was the best in the university. His most important 
 work was done under Professor D. I. Kachenovsky, whose in- 
 fluence, no doubt, was responsible for Kovalevsky's love for Eng- 
 lish institutions and for his faith in the ultimate triumph of 
 international law over militarism — a faith which was subjected 
 to the severest test imaginable on the very eve of his death. 
 
 After completing his course at the university, he went 
 abroad to prepare for a professorship. He spent five years in 
 Western Europe, first studying at the Universities of Paris and 
 Berlin, where he worked successively on his master's and doc- 
 tor's theses. Before returning to Russia, he decided to go to 
 England, and provided himself with letters of recommendation 
 to the leading men of the time. The wealth of material he 
 found in the British Museum and in other archive repositories 
 caused him to remain in England for a considerable length of 
 time. The work he did there and the men with whom he as- 
 sociated served to strengthen his friendly feelings towards Eng- 
 landj already implanted in him during his university years. 
 
Kovalevsky's sojourn in Western Europe had a great forma- 
 tive influence upon him. He had an opportunity to associate 
 with the best men of the time, to meet the greatest speciahsts in 
 the particular fields in which he was working. Karl Marx, Her- 
 bert Spencer and Frederic Harrison were among the men with 
 whom he came in contact in his studies. During this period, 
 too, he met Turgeniev, and the two became friends. 
 
 Soon after he returned to Russia, Kovalevsky received an 
 offer to become a professor at the University of Moscow, and in 
 1878 he took the chair of civil law and comparative government 
 at this university. This chair he occupied until 1887. This 
 period of his life was probably the most brilliant one, from the 
 standpoint of academic activity. His popularity at the univer- 
 sity was almost unparalleled. One of those who, though a very 
 young man at the time, received his share of Kovalevsky's in- 
 tellectual influence. Professor V. I. Vernadsky, characterizes in 
 the following way Kovalevsky's academic activity during this 
 period: "In the history of the cultured life of Moscow and of 
 the Moscow University, Kovalevsky, then young, full of life, 
 ideas and erudition, played an extraordinary part, which, like 
 a beautiful tradition, was fully appreciated during the latest 
 period of intensive life at the university, beginning with 1900 
 and up to the wrecking of the university in 1911; it left deep 
 traces of influences, perhaps not clear as yet, but full of sig- 
 nificance to the historian." 
 
 And yet, even at this time, mere academic activity did not 
 satisfy Kovalevsky. He was essentially a man of social life, in the 
 scientific meaning of this term, a man eager to take an active 
 part in public life. Early in 1879 he began to edit, together with 
 Professor V. Th. Miller, a monthly magazine called the Critical 
 Review, devoted to scientific criticism. The magazine lasted only 
 two years, and was discontinued in 1880, when Kovalevsky was 
 sent by his university abroad to do additional research in his 
 field. This Review carried Kovalevsky's ideas far beyond the 
 walls of the university, for the magazine was eagerly read in 
 all intellectual centers of the country. 
 
 During this period, too, Kovalevsky was active in assisting 
 
the late V. A. Goltsev in the organization of the first Russian 
 Zemstvo Councils. An ardent supporter of constitutionalism and 
 self-government, he did much at this time to help formulate a 
 movement in favor of constitutionalism. 
 
 The latter part of the period of Kovalevsky's professorship 
 at the University of Moscow coincided with one of the blackest 
 periods in the political life of Russia. It was the time of a 
 severe political reaction that set in after the assassination of 
 Alexander II in 1881. For a few years the universities of Russia 
 escaped the heavy hand of repression, but their turn came, too. 
 The statutes of 1884 gave the Minister of Education, Delianov, 
 free rein in the treatment of the higher schools of the country, 
 and, in 1887, Kovalevsky found himself dismissed from the uni- 
 versity without any explanation as to cause, while his chair of 
 comparative government was abolished altogether. 
 
 After this Kovalevsky could not remain in Russia. He went 
 abroad again, this time for two decades. During this period 
 he lived part of the time in his villa at Beaulieu, near Nice, where 
 a greater part of his collection of books, numbering over twenty 
 thousand volumes and now bequeathed to the Universities of 
 Moscow and of Kharkov, is still kept. It was in this villa that 
 Kovalevsky wrote many of his books, working over the research 
 material accumulated during his younger years, and supplement- 
 ing his data with new material, which he obtained in his "ex- 
 cursions" to the archive repositories of Italy, Spain, and other 
 countries of Europe. Part of his time was devoted to lecturing 
 in London, Stockholm, and other cities of Europe, as well as in 
 the United States. He also devoted much time and attention to 
 the "Russian Higher School" at Paris, which was intended to 
 provide higher educational opportunities to Russian youth, un- 
 able, for some reason or other, to enjoy sucE opportunities in their 
 native land. 
 
 During the twenty years of his exile, Kovalevsky was really 
 acting in the capacity of Russia's unofficial ambassador to the 
 cultured West. The death of Turgeniev left this envious posi- 
 tion the undisputed heritage of Kovalevsky, who extended the 
 sphere of his activity in this direction to the transatlantic Re- 
 
8 
 
 public. For two decades he stood before the world as a striking 
 representative of the cultural side of Russia, a constant re- 
 minder of Russia's unlimited intellectual possibilities. 
 
 The political upheaval of 1905 brought Kovalevsky back to 
 his native land. A new sun was rising over Russia, and Koval- 
 evsky, who had done so much to kindle its flames, was one of the 
 first to welcome the dawn. The dream of his life was at last 
 about to be realized. Russia was to have the constitutional 
 government for which he had yearned and pined with every 
 thought of his country's political bondage. He came to Russia 
 in 1906, and was elected to the first Douma. Disqualified as a 
 candidate for election to the second Douma, he was elected by 
 the Russian Academy and the universities as their representa- 
 tive in the Upper Chamber, the Council of the Empire, where he 
 remained until his death. 
 
 Deprived, for twenty years, of active participation in the 
 public life of his country, Kovalevsky, upon his return to Russia, 
 seemed to be feverishly eager to make up for lost time. The 
 extent and the many-sidedness of his activity is simply amazing. 
 He lectured at the Petrograd University, at the Institute of 
 Polytechnology, at the Psycho-neurological Institute, took an 
 active part, as a member, in the work of the Academy of Arts 
 and Sciences and of the Council of thei Empire, was President 
 of the Free Economic Society, presided over dozens of other 
 scientific bodies, was publisher and editor of the best Russian 
 monthly magazine, the Viestnih Evropy, contributed to many 
 scientific and general journals both in Russia and in other coun- 
 tries, and was one of the editors of the Brockhaus and the Granat 
 Encyclopaedias. The above list does not exhaust all the manifold 
 duties that he undertook and bore cheerfully to the very end. 
 In the course of the past few months his duties had increased, 
 largely because of added work in connection with the War. 
 While never active in politics in the ranks of any particular 
 party, he took a very active part in the formation of the pro- 
 gressive hloc. He was the organizer and the president of the 
 Society of the English Flag, and of many other similar or- 
 ganizations. 
 
Kovalevsky occupied a unique position in the Council of 
 the Empire. From the time he entered it, he alligned himself 
 with the progressive element of the upper chamber. There 
 was not a single important question discussed in the Council 
 without Kovalevsky's participation in the discussion, and every- 
 thing he said was heard with profound attention by his friends 
 and his enemies. His great name, his extensive erudition, and 
 his rare powers of oratory made him one of the most welcome 
 speakers on the tribune of the Council., Almost always his 
 speeches were really lectures on progressive politics, and it was 
 strange, indeed, to hear those ideas of civilization and progress 
 in the very stronghold of Russia's reactionary tendencies in 
 politics. It is true that the President of the Council often stopped 
 Kovalevsky and forbade him to continue his address, and Koval- 
 evsky would always resume his seat with the invariable, "I 
 submit." 
 
 The strain of all these labors could not but affect the health 
 of the tireless worker, who had been ailing for some years past. 
 The present War found him in a water resort of Austria, and 
 he was compelled to undergo internment for several months. 
 This enforced stay in the midst of the most distressing circum- 
 stances of the World War also affected Kovalevsky's health. On 
 March 23, 1916, he succumbed to a complication of diseases, 
 among which were diabetes, gout, and heart disease. 
 
 III. 
 
 Kovalevsky had the rare distinction of exerting a tremen- 
 dous influence over the generation whose political work culmin- 
 ated in the upheaval of 1905. And this influence was exerted 
 not through actual political leadership, not through any party 
 affiliation, but through intellectual guidance. It may be asserted, 
 with perfect correctness, that the last generation of the 
 nineteenth century was brought up, politically, on Kovalevsky's 
 ideas. Such political leaders as Milyoukov refer to him as their 
 teacher, who had guided them to the realization of great political 
 truths. The speeches delivered at Kovalevsky's grave by rep- 
 
10 
 
 resentatives of every class in Russia bear ample witness to the 
 unique position that this man occupied in his country. 
 
 He was a popularizer of science, as well as its master. Be- 
 sides his strictly scientific works, he wrote an enormous number 
 of newspaper and magazine articles, sometimes giving, in non- 
 technical language, the results of scientific investigations con- 
 ducted by himself and others, sometimes writing on some great 
 man with whom he had been associated, or some great event 
 that he had followed with the studious and appreciative atten- 
 tion of a scholar. During the past ten years, it was the charm 
 of his personality, perhaps more than anything else, that en- 
 deared him to the whole of cultured Russia. There was not an 
 organization in the country that did not consider it the highest 
 honor and the greatest inspiration to see Kovalevsky in its chair. 
 And he presided over numberless meetings, as many as his other 
 duties permitted. Everywhere his "fascinating soul, his keen, 
 forgiving conscience, his inexhaustible kindness, his vast in- 
 tellect, his unfailing readiness to serve others" brought with 
 them the calm and harmony that were so woefully lacking when 
 his great body and his fascinating personality were away. 
 
 But it is as a scientist that the world outside of Russia 
 knows Kovalevsky, and, as a scientist, he is no less an interesting 
 figure than as a man. His scientific tendencies became evident 
 quite early in life. As a young man, he was fond of making sum- 
 mer excursions to different parts of southern Russia, and curios- 
 ity often led him to the Caucasus, that never-failing source of 
 inspiration to the great Russian poets. But it was not the 
 grandeur of the mig'hty Kasbeck, nor the fascinating beauty of 
 the Daryal valley, nor the indescribable charm of the leaping 
 Terek that attracted Kovalevsky. From his early youth there 
 was something in the apperceptive mass of his great mind that 
 made him interested in man as he finds himself in hi& social 
 relations, in man's social evolution. The picturesque tribes of 
 the Caucasus held unconquerable fascination for young 
 Kovalevsky because of their rich folklore, because of their in- 
 teresting customs and laws. His excursions to the Caucasus 
 were not made in the spirit of an ordinary tourist. The scientific 
 
11 
 
 interest was already awake in him, and the material he gathered 
 at that time, supplemented by data obtained later through sub- 
 sequent investigations in the Caucasus, was very valuable to 
 him as illustrative matter for his theories. 
 
 As we have already noted, Kovalevsky began his studies 
 in the department of jurisprudence, and he always retained 
 a keen interest in the juridical sciences. But his eager mind re- 
 fused to limit itself to the narrow bounds of a specialized inves- 
 tigation. His wide reading led him to other fields. He was 
 equally at home in the domains of administrative law, sociology, 
 both applied and theoretical, ethnography, primitive law and 
 primitive culture, history of political institutions and social 
 classes, history of the development of political and social ideas, 
 history of economic development. 
 
 But first of all he was a sociologist, for his whole scientific 
 outlook was based upon a historico-sociological foundation. To 
 him the essence of sociology consists in a comparative study of 
 the different phases of man's social, political and economic de- 
 velopment. He insists especially upon this "historico-compara- 
 tive" method, as he terms it, and devotes a brilliant monograph 
 to its presentation. He beheves that only by gathering our ma- 
 terial in the widest possible field, and comparing the results of 
 our investigations, can we obtain a really adequate picture of 
 any stage of man's social evolution. And human history, to him, 
 is nothing but social evolution, that ever strives to reach truer 
 and juster forms. 
 
 Since evolution is determined by the interaction of social, 
 political, and economic forces, the conditions of their relations 
 must be ascertained, and this led Kovalevsky to extended studies 
 in the domain of the history of human institutions. Hence his 
 interest in ethnography, which led to valuable researches. 
 These researches were mostly along the lines of primitive law, 
 and therefore primitive institutions in general. In one of his 
 earliest works, "The History of the Disappearance of Communal 
 Landownership in Vaadt," he touches upon these questions, 
 which he treats much more fully in his book, "Communal Land- 
 ownership," and still more definitely in his "Historico-Compara- 
 
12 
 
 tive Method." In the latter work, he divides the study of the 
 history of law into two parts ; the determination of the "natural 
 evolution of human society," and the study of! primitive law 
 among separate groups by means of a comparative method. He 
 himself followed out his method with almost perfect precision. 
 In 1886 he published two works, of which one, "Primitive Law," 
 was devoted to a study of the "natural evolution of human so- 
 ciety," while the other, "Modem Custom and Ancient Law," 
 treats of the questions of law among the Ossetins of the 
 Caucasus. Four years later, he again published two works bear- 
 ing the same relation to each other. One was "Tableau des 
 origines et de I'evolution de la famille et de la propriete," while 
 the other was a two-volume work entitled "Law and Custom in 
 the Caucasus." Several of his later works are devoted to primi- 
 tive institutions, and the second volume of his "Sociology" 
 (1910) treats of genetic sociology, or, as the author himself de- 
 fines it, "a study of the points of departure in the history of the 
 family, the race, property, political rule, and psychic activity." 
 
 "For Kovalevsky," says Professor A. Maximov, "the prob- 
 lems of mere description are of secondary importance; he aims 
 to give the broadest possible sociological view, that would ex- 
 plain the significance and the origin of different customs, and 
 give each one its place in the genetic scheme of development. 
 Even in his works on the Caucasus, Kovalevsky does not attempt 
 to give a systematic presentation of the law among the different 
 tribes, but rather to show under what cultural influences this law 
 originated and what elements in it show traces of archaic in- 
 fluences. Kovalevsky aims not to gather or discover new facts, 
 but to interpret those already known." Here again Kovalevsky 
 remains true to the principles he laid down in his work on the 
 comparative method. 
 
 As a historian of human institutions, Kovalevsky believes 
 that history is made by the minority, that thought is the guid- 
 ing factor in human development, although he does not deny 
 that political ideas are dependent upon the existing social and 
 economic conditions. What he attempts to prove, however, is 
 that ideas are not only produced by life, but exert a decided in- 
 
13 
 
 fluence upon it. These views are especially prominent in three 
 of his greatest works. The first of these is the "Economic De- 
 velopment of Europe during the Period Preceding the Growth 
 of Capitalism," a three-volume work, treating of the evolution 
 of land ownership and agriculture, of industry, the condition of 
 the peasant and the laboring class, as they existed in Western 
 Europe during the period from the fall of the Roman Empire 
 to the end of the Middle Ages. His second great work is "The 
 Development of Modern Democracy," in five volumes, in which 
 he treats the social and economic conditions that existed in 
 France before the Revolution, the democratic legislation that 
 followed, and the fall of the aristocratic republic in Venice. Fi- 
 nally, his last great work of general character, which has unfort- 
 unately remained unfinished, is entitled, "From Direct Popular 
 Rule to Representative Government, and from Patriarchal Mon- 
 archy to Parliamentarism." The title of this work is fully ex- 
 pressive of the wide range of subjects that Kovalevsky intended 
 to treat in this work. 
 
 But it was not in ancient institutions alone that Kovalevsky 
 was keenly interested ; modern problems were no less fascinating 
 to him. The evidence of this is found not only in his articles, 
 but also in his works on England and France, as well as his 
 French and English works on Russia. Of the modem countries, 
 England interested him most. English political evolution con- 
 cerned him especially, and it was his fond hope that Russia 
 might have a government that would be essentially like that of 
 Great Britain. It is interesting that the subjects for both of 
 his dissertations were taken from the history of English 
 institutions. 
 
 And in England, too, he was well known and appreciated. 
 An excellent proof of this may be found in the fact that Kovalev- 
 sky was chosen as one of the members of the Peace Tribunal 
 that is to act upon all differences that may arise between Great 
 Britain and the United States, as provided for by the treaty 
 existing between the two countries. 
 
14 
 
 Death was too hasty in carrying away from us this great 
 mind before its labors were brought to a satisfactory close. 
 Death is usually too hasty; it insists on coming before it is a 
 welcome guest, before the completion of that perfect cycle of 
 life, of which Kovalevsky's friend, Mechnikov, speaks so hope- 
 fully in his studies of optimistic philosophy. And the great 
 works that we cherish as the priceless possessions of mankind 
 are usually fragmentary. Buckle's monumental work and 
 Kovalevsky's unfinished syntheses bear ample witness to this 
 lack of justice, to this incongruity in man's nature. 
 
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