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

OF THE PEASANTS.167

If you wish to encamp, this universal genius will build you a dwelling for the night, and one that will be preferable to the taverns in the towns. After having established you as comfortably as you can expect to be, he wraps himself in his sheep-skin and sleeps at the door of your new house, of which he defends the entrance with the fidelity of a dog; or else he will seat himself at the foot of a tree before the abode that he has erected for you, and, while continuing to gaze at the sky, he will relieve the soliüide of your lodging by national songs, the melancholy of which awakes a respond in the gentlest instincts of your heart; for an innate gift of music is still one of the prerogatives of this privileged race. The idea that it would be only just that he should share with you the cabin built by his hands will never enter his head.

ЛУШ these elites of their race remain much longer concealed in the deserts where Providence, with some design of its own, keeps them in reserve ? Providence can only answer! The question as to when the hour of deliverance, and, yet more, of triumph, shall strike for them, is a secret with God.

I am struck with the simplicity of the ideas and sentiments of these men. God, the King of heaven ; the Czar, the king of earth — this is all their theory: the orders, and even the caprices, of the master sanctioned by the obedience of the slave; this suffices for their practice. The Russian ¡)easant believes that he owes both body and soul to his lord.

Conforming to this social devotion, he lives without joy, but not without pride; for pride is the moral element essential to the life of the intelligent bein