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

CHAP. V.

POLAR NIGHTS.MONTESQUIEU AND HIS SYSTEM. — SCENERY OÎ'

THE NORTH. FLATNESS OF THE EARTH'S SURFACE NEAR THE

POLE. SHORES OF FINLAND.MELANCHOLY OF NORTHERN

PEOPLE. PRINCE К. DEFINITIONS OF NOBILITY. — THE

ENGLISH NOBILITY. — FREEDOM OF SPEECH.CANNING. NA

POLEON. CONFIDENTIAL CONVERSATION.GLANCE AT RUSSIAN

HISTORY. — INSTITUTIONS AND SPIRIT OF CHIVALRY UNKNOWN

IN RUSSIA. THE NATURE OF AN AUTOCRACY. POLITICS AND

RELIGION ARE IDENTICAL IN RUSSIA. — FUTURE INFLUENCE Op

RUSSIA.FATE OF PARIS.PRINCE AND PRINCESS D. — THE

COLD-WATER CURE. GOOD MANNERS OF THE HIGHER ORDERS

IN RUSSIA. SOCIETY IN FRANCE BEFORE THE REVOLUTION.

A MODERN FRENCHMAN OF THE MIDDLE CLASSES.HIS MAU-

VAIS TON.— AGREEABLE SOCIETY ON THE STEAM-BOAT.—RUSSIAN

NATIONAL DANCES. — TWO AMERICANS.STEAM-BOAT ACCIDENT.

— ISLE OF DAGO.

I AM writing at midnight, without any lights, on board the steam-boat Nicholas the First, in the gulf of Finland. It is now the close of a day which has nearly the length of a month in these latitudes, beginning about the 8th of June, and ending towards the 4th of July. By degrees the nights will reappear; they are very short at first, but insensibly lengthen as they approach the autumnal ec{uinox. They then increase with the same rapidity as do the days in spring, and soon involve in darkness the north of Russia and Sweden, and all within the vicinity of the arctic circle. To the countries actually within this circle, the year is divided into a day and a night, each of six months'