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

REMARKS ON THE RUSSIANS.243

Madame de Staël, who said, that in France "every body is either Jacobin or ultra-something."

I returned to my lodgings overwhelmed with the grandeur and magnificence of the emperor, and yet more astonished at seeing the disinterested admiration of his people for the good things which they do not possess, nor ever will, and which they do not dare even to regret. If I did not daily see to how many ambitious egotists liberty gives birth, I should have difficulty in believing that despotism could make so many disinterested philosophers.