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

MONGOLS IN RUSSIA.59

during the prayer of the children of Bati, now become pariahs among those they enslaved. The present condition of a Tartar in Russia is inferior to that of a Muscovite serf.

The Russians take credit for the tolerance which they accord to the faith of their ancient tyrants. I find such tolerance more ostentatious than philosophical ; and, for the people to whom it is extended. it is but one humiliation more. ЛУегс I in the place of the descendants of those implacable Mongols, who were so long masters of Russia and the terror of the world, I would prefer praying to God in the secret of my heart, rather than in the shadow of a mosque accorded by the pity of my ancient tributaries.

When I wander over Moscow without aim and without guide, I never weary. Each street, each outlet, affords a view of a fresh city ; a city which, studded with its embroidered, pierced, and battle-mented walls, broken with towers, and supporting multitudes of turrets and watch-towers, appears as though built by the genii. Then there is the Kremlin, poetical in its aspect, historical by its name, the root of an empire, the heart of a city, and which is for me all Moscow. I return there with an ever-new attraction ; but it is necessary carefully to avoid examining in detail the incoherent masses of monuments with which this walled mountain is encumbered. The exquisite sense of art, the talent, that is, of finding the one only perfectly just expression of an original conception, is unknown to the Russians ; nevertheless, when giants copy, their imitations always possess a kind of beauty : the works of genius D 6