Russia in 1839 -Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia

108POLICY ATTRIBUTED

offensive beings, whose birth and death are only separated by a long series of years of innocence.

May the angel or demon of industry and of modern enlightened views, pardon me!—but I cannot help finding a great eharm in ignorance, when I see its fruits in the celestial countenances of the old Russian peasants.

The modem patriarchs, labourers whose work is no longer a compulsory task, seat themselves, with dignity, towards the close of the day, in the threshold of the cottage which they themselves have, perhaps, rebuilt several times ; for under this severe climate the house of man does not last so long as his life. Were I to cany back from my Russian journey no other recollection than that of these old men, with quiet consciences legible on their faces, leaning against doors that want no bolt, I should not regret the trouble I had taken to come and gaze upon beings so different from any other peasants in the world. The majesty of the cottage will always inspire me with profound respect.

Every fixed government, however bad it may be in some respects, has its good results; and every governed people have something wherewith to console themselves for the sacrifices they make to social life.

And yet, at the bottom of this calm which I so much admire, and which I feel so contagious, what disorder! what violence ! what false security !

I had written thus much, when an individual of my acquaintance, in whose woi`ds I place confidence, having left Moscow a few hours after me, arrived at Troïtza, and, knowing that I was going to pass the