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

332ГНЕ TASK OF THE AUTHOR.

getfulness of oratorical precautions which goes so far as to lend arms against itself to those with whom the individual converses, that fairness of judgment, that altogether involuntary truthfulness of expression, in one word, that Gallic simplicity, is unknown to the Russians. A race of imitators will never be naif; calculation will, with them, always destroy sincerity.

I have found in the will of Monomaehus, prudent and curious counsels addressed to his children : the following is a passage which has particularly struck me, and I have therefore taken it as a motto for my book, for it contains an important avowal: " Above all, respect foreigners, of whatever quality, of whatever rank they may be, and if you cannot load them with presents, at least lavish upon them tokens of good will, for, on the manner in which they are treated in a country depends the good and the evil which they will say of it when they return to their own." . (From the advice of Vladimir Monomaehus to his children, in 1126.)

Such a refinement of self-love, it must be owned, takes from hospitality much of its worth. It is a charity founded on calculation, of which I have, in spite of myself, been more than once reminded during my journey. Men ought not to be deprived of the recompense of their good actions, but it is immoral to make this recompense the primum mobile of virtue.

Karamsin himself, from whom the above is cited, speaks of the unfortunate results of the Mongol invasion, in its effect upon the character of the Russian people : if I am found severe in my judgments, it may be seen that they are justified by a grave historian who yet was disposed to be indulgent.