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

RUSSIAN СПЛЕАСТЕН.131

ance; without even speaking to each other. The Russian peasants are taciturn and devoid of curiosity ; I can understand why: what they know disgusts them with all of which they are ignorant.

I admire their noble features and fine expression. With the exception of the Cahnue race, who have broken noses and liigli cheek bones, I again repeat, the Russians are perfectly beautiful.

Another charm, natural to them, is the gentleness of their voice, which is always base, and whieh vibrates without effort. This voice renders euphonious a language, which, spoken by others, would sound harsh and hissing. It is the only one of the European languages which appears to me to lose anything in the mouth of refined and educated persons. My ear prefers the Russian of the streets to the Russian of the drawing-rooms : in the streets, it is a natural tongue : in the salons, and at court, it is a newly-imported language, which the policy of the master imposes upon the courtiers.

Melancholy, disguised by irony, is in this land the most ordinary humour of mind; in the saloons especially. There, more than elsewhere, it is necessary to dissimulate sadness; henee the sneering, sarcastic tone of lanG 6