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

first * nor the last mode of human existence. Let us leave to the Jews their interested belief, and let us remember the words of Jesus Christ: my kÌ7igdom is not of this world.

These words, whieh so shock the feelings of the worldly man, we are obliged to repeat to ourselves at every step we take in Russia. At the sight of so many inevitable sufferings, of so many necessary cruelties, of so many unwiped tears, of so many iniquities, voluntary and involuntary, for here injustice pervades the very air; before the spectacle of these calamities spread, not over a family or a city, but over a race, a people inhabiting the third part of the globe, the mind, dismayed, is constrained to turn from earth, and to exclaim, ¢¢ My God! it is true, thy kingdom is not of this world."

Alas ! why have my words so little power ? Why can they not equal in their energy the excess of a misery of which we ean only show our sense by an excess of pity ? The spectacle of this community, all of whose springs are stretched like the lock of a fire-arm whose trigger is about to be drawn, inspires me with a feeling of oppression that almost makes me dizzy.

Since I have lived in this country, and especially since I have known the heart of the man who governs it, I have felt a fever whieh I glory in; for if the air of tyranny suffocates me, if falsehood disgusts me, I must be born for something better, and the wants of my nature, too elevated to be satisfied in such societies as I contemplate here, predict for me and my

* Ni le premier ni le dernier mode de la vie L·umaine.