The Shadow of Great Britain

Chapter 1427: Chapter 217: Daddy’s Boy Herzen

It was a pleasure to be with Herzen, although later on, this fellow wasn’t known for any achievements in natural philosophy.

But Arthur could see that this university graduate from the mathematics and physics department of Moscow University was a person with wide interests and a genuine love for reading.

When talking with someone like him, you don’t need to stick to a topic; you can speak whatever comes to mind, because regardless of the subject, Herzen always had something to say.

The two of them talked from Cuvier’s ”Earth Surface Catastrophe Theory” to De Condor’s ”Morphology of Plants”, then to Humboldt’s 30-volume masterpiece ”A Journey to the Tropical Regions of the New Continent”, Heine’s ”North Sea Collection”, Dumas’s ”The Count of Monte Cristo”, Tennyson’s ”Lyric Poetry Collection”, and even the unspeakable little stories Eld created in his spare time.

Herzen was especially interested in stories about the ”British” editorial staff and their grudges with ”Blackwood’s”. Whenever Arthur mentioned a writer, this young man would always timely interrupt to ask all sorts of questions.

Though this fellow always said that after working for half a year, he had become quite mature.

But in Arthur’s eyes, he was still young, for only the young would have such a broad range of interests and curiosity.

The criterion for judging whether one is aging is not their appearance, skin, or age, but whether you can see light in their eyes, see hope, desire, and unrealistic dreams, and Herzen was clearly such a person, full of youthful energy.

Fortunately, Arthur was always surrounded by such a group of young people, even though they sometimes went overboard with their youth.

Another interesting aspect of chatting with Herzen was that this young man had ideas of his own; although he was quite polite, when you debated the core of an issue, he always stood up to argue a few points.

Especially when he noticed Arthur frequently criticizing the philosophical ideas of Hegel and Schelling, he couldn’t help but stand up to defend these two philosophers, even though his methods and logic were not always rigorous, they were intriguing enough.

Herzen, lying back in an easy chair, began to speak: ”To be honest, talking with you reminds me of Lagrange’s famous response to Napoleon. Napoleon told him: ’In astronomy, Kant accepted the hypothesis regarding God.’ Lagrange immediately retorted: ’Your Majesty, in my research, I have never needed this hypothesis.’”

Arthur didn’t want to entangle too long with Herzen on this issue, and as a Devil Contractor, he felt that Herzen’s implying him to be an extreme materialist was completely unfounded.

The reason he expressed such views was more about simply wanting to criticize Hegel’s ’absolute spirit’ and Schelling’s mystical tendencies.

Long-term life in Britain had rubbed off the peculiarities of British empiricism on him, and his work experience over the past few years made him increasingly inclined towards realism.

His identity as an experimental physicist made him a believer in scientific empiricism, causing him to sneer at Schelling’s romanticized view of nature.

As for Hegel?

He had always disliked Hegel, especially after experiencing the London riots and parliamentary reforms, Hegel’s discussions about national and historical rationale only made Arthur feel more uncomfortable.

To believe in the philosophical views of Hegel and Schelling, he might as well believe in Sir Isaac Newton’s philosophical views!

To refute these two guys, Arthur could even grudgingly admit that Newton’s discussion about God was right — God governs everything and knows everything that can be known. And God is the first mover of the universe, and Earth is driven by God’s kick.

Arthur could even argue that God invented football and was elected the cosmic football gentleman.

Herzen, holding a teacup, seemed to recall something, and chuckled involuntarily: ”But speaking of it, it’s rather amusing, although I don’t support such a view, I have to admit it’s just such a view that made me choose to enter the mathematics and physics department.”

Arthur was suddenly reminded of Herzen’s background: ”I remember your graduation thesis was on astronomy, right?”

”That’s right, my paper even won a silver award,” Herzen nodded with satisfaction: ”Even now, I sometimes dream about being in school, about to take an exam, feeling panicked, wondering how much I’ve forgotten, thinking that I’ll definitely fail this time... I wake up with a start, looking at the walls of my room, and realize I’ve already graduated. I feel thrilled deep down, because no one dares to torture me or give me that awful ’one point’ anymore.”

Arthur could empathize with Herzen’s pain and joy; both were considered good students, and both feared professors giving them failing grades, except they used different means to cope with such dreadful consequences.

Arthur didn’t have the good family background like Herzen; when he was in university, he didn’t know influential figures like Duke You Subofu. But fortunately, he knew a duke exiled from Hell, the useless Mr. Agares.

Arthur looked at Herzen’s quiet mansion; besides two yawning and smoking male servants, there was only a cook busy in the kitchen, silently working.

Although this seemed tranquil and comfortable, during such a lively festival like Shrove Tuesday, it inevitably felt somewhat desolate.