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

140CHARACTER OF ТПЕ COURTIERS.

representation is over. Since my return from Peter -hofiº I can scarcely recognise the city I left four days ago; but were the Emperor to return this evening, everything to-morrow would assume its former interest. We should have to become Russians to understand the power of the sovereign's eye ; it is a very different thing from the lover's eye spoken of by La Fontaine. Do you suppose that a young gh`l bestows a thought on her love affairs in the presence of the Emperor? Do not deceive yourself; she is occupied with the idea of procuring some promotion for her brother. An old woman, so soon as she breathes the air of the court, feels no longer her infirmities. She may have no family to provide for — no matter, she plays the courtier for the pure love of the game. She is servile without an object, just as others like play for its own sake. Thus, by an endeavour to shake off the burden of years, this wrinkled puppet loses all the dignity of age. We have no pity for busy intriguing decrepitude, because it is ridiculous. At the end of life it is surely time to set about practising the lesson which time is ever teaching, the grand art, namely, of giving up. Happy those who early learn to apply this lesson. To renounce is the great proof of a powerful mind: to abdicate a position before it is lost,—this is the policy of old age.

It is, however, a policy little practised at court, and at that of St. Petersburg less than at any other. Busy, restless old women are the plagues of the court of Russia. The sun of favour dazzles and blinds the ambitious, more especially those of the female sex; it prevents their discerning their true interest, which would be to save their pride by concealing the mi-