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

THE EMPEROR A REFORMER.73

Because a savage may have the vanity of a votary of fashion, does it follow that his mind is cultivated ? I repeat, and may, perhaps, repeat again, that the Russians care much less for being civilised than for making us believe that they are civilised. So long as this public disease of vanity shall continue to prey upon their hearts and to corrupt their minds, they will have certain great lords who will be able to make a display of refinement both among themselves and us; but they will remain barbarians at heart. Unfortunately, however, savages understand the use of fire-arms.

The endeavours of the Emperor Nicholas justify my views. He has thought, before I did, that the time for the display of appearances is past in Eussia, and that the entire edifice of civilisation in that land has to be reconstructed.

Peter the Great woidd have overthrown it a second time in order to rebuild it. Nicholas is more skilful. I am filled with respect for this man, who, with the whole energy of his mind, struggles in secret against the work of the genius of Peter the Great. While continuing to deify that mighty reformer, he is all the while bringing back to their proper position a nation led astray among the paths of imitation for upwards of a hundred years. The views of the present emperor manifest themselves even in the streets of Petersburg. He does not amuse himself with building, in haste, colonnades of stuccoed bricks ; he is everywhere replacing appearance with reality; stone is everywhere superseding plaster, and fabrics of a strong and massive architecture are rising; above the showy monuments of a false splendour. It is by first

YOL. II.E