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

cradle by the lessons which each individual receives in his family : the child of man is not humane; and if he is not at the commencement of life turned from his cruel inclinations, he will never be really polite. Politeness is only the code of pity applied to the every-day affairs of society; this code more especially inculcates pity for the sufferings of self-love : it is also the most universal, the most appropriate, and the most practical remedy that has been hitherto found against egotism.

Whatever pretensions may be made, all these refinements, natural results of the work of time, are unknown to the present Russians, who seem to remember Saraï much better than Constantinople, and who, with a few exceptions, are still nothing better than well-dressed barbarians. They remind me of portraits badly painted, but very finely varnished.

It was Peter the Great, who, with all the imprudence of an untaught genius, all the temerity of a man the more impatient because deemed omnipotent, with all the perseverance of an iron character, sought to snatch from Europe the plants of an already ripened civilisation, instead of resigning himself to the slow progress of sowing the seeds in his own soil. That too highly lauded man produced a merely artificial work: it may be astonishing, but the good done by his barbarous genius was transient, the evil is irreparable.

How does a power to influence the politics of Europe benefit Russia ? Factitious interests! vain, foolish passions ! Its real interests are to have within itself the principles of life, and to develop them : a nation which possesses nothing within itself but obe-p 2