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

RUSSIA AND THE RUSSIANS.309

antique, the climate, and the customs of Muscovy; but the country the wants and genius of which are least consulted by the Russians, is the country they govern.

When Peter the Great published from Tartary to Lapland his edicts of civilisation, the creations of the middle ages had long been out of date in Europe ; and the Russians, even those that have been called great, have never known how to do more than follow the fashion.

Such disposition to imitate scarcely accords with the ambition which wc attribute to them ; for man does not rule the things that he copies; but every thing is contradictory in the character of this superficial people: besides, a want of invention is their peculiar characteristic. To invent, there must be independence; with them, mimicry may be seen pervading their very passions : if they wish to take their turn on the scene of the world, it is not to employ faculties which they possess, and the inaction of which torments them ; it is simply to act over the history of illustrious communities: they have no creative power; comparison is their talent, imitation is their genius: naturally given to observation, they are not themselves except when aping the creations of others. Such originality as they have, lies in the gift of counterfeit, which they possess more amply than any other people. Their only primitive faculty is an aptitude to re-produce the inventions of foreigners. They would be in history, what they are in literature, able translators. The task of the Russians is to translate European civilisation to the Asiatics.