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

320THE TASK OF THE AUTHOR.

Often have I, in the same conversation, surprised the ¾me person changing his tactics two or three times towards me. I do not always flatter myself with having discerned the truth, but I have discerned that it was concealed from me, and it is always something to know that we are deceived; if not enlightened, we are then at least armed.

All courts are deficient in life and gaiety; but at that of Petersburg one has not even the permission to be weary. The emperor, whose eye is on every thing, takes the affectation of enjoyment as a homage, which reminds me of the observation of M. de Talleyrand upon Napoleon: " L'Empereur ne plaisante pas ; il veut qu'on s'anmse."

I shall wound self-love: my incorruptible honesty will draw upon me reproaches; but is it my fault if, in applying to an absolute government for new arguments against the despot that reigns at home, against disorder baptized with the name of liberty, I have been struck only with the abuses of autoeraey, in other words, of tyranny designated good order: Russian despotism is a false order, as our republicanism is a false liberty. I make war with falsehood wherever I discover it; but there is more than one kind of lie : I had forgotten those of absolute power; I now recount them in detail, because in relating my travels I describe without reserve all that I see.

I hate pretexts: I have seen that in Russia, order serves as a pretext for oppression, as in France, liberty does for envy. In a word, I love real liberty — all liberty that is possible in a society from whence elegance is not excluded; I am therefore neither de-