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

VIEW OF SOCIETY IN KTTSSIA.171

with a mathematical rigour, and the result of such extreme proceeding is an extreme oppression. In beholding this effect of an inflexible policy we feel shocked, and ask ourselves, with a kind of terror, how comes it that there is so little humanity in the actions of man ? But to tremble is not to disdain; we never despise that which excites our fear.

In contemplating Petersburg, and in reflecting on the dreadful existence of the inhabitants of this camp of granite, one might be led to doubt the compassion of Deity. There is presented here a mystery that is incomprehensible, and at the same time a greatness which is prodigious. Despotism thus organised becomes an inexhaustible subject for observation and meditation. This colossal empire, which rises before me all at once in the east of Europe — of that Europe, where society is suffering from the decay of all recognised authority—appears to me like a resurrection. I feel as though in the presence of some nation of the Old Testament, and I stop with fear mingled with curiosity before the feet of the ante-diluvian giant.

The first view of society in Russia shows that its arrangements, as contrived by the Russians themselves, are only adapted to their own social system : he must be a Russian who would live in Russia, even though outwardly every thing may appear to pass as in other places. The difference lies in the foundations of things.

It was a review of the fashionable world which I took this evening at the islands. The fashionable world, they say, is the same every where ; nevertheless each society has a soul, and this soul will be instructed, like any other, by the fairy which is called I 2