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

ject of which was charity. All the prizes, consisting of articles made by the lady of the house, her friends and relatives, were tastefully spread upon the tables: the one whieh fell to me, I cannot say .by chance, for my tickets had been carefully selected, was a pretty note-book with a varnished cover. I wrote in it the date, and added a few words by way of remembrance. In the times of our fathers, an impromptu in verse would have been suggested; but, in these days, when public impromptus abound ad nauseam, those of the salon are out of date. Ephemeral literature, politics, and philosophy have dethroned the quatrain and the sonnet. I had not the ready wit to write a single couplet; but I should, in justice, add, that neither did I feel the ambition.

After bidding farewell to my amiable entertainers, whom I am to meet again at the fair of Nijni, I returned to my inn, very well satisfied with the day. The house of the peasant in which I lodged the day before yesterday, and the saloon of to-day, in other words, Kamtschatka and Versailles within a distance traversed in a few hours, present a contrast which describes Russia.

I sacrifice my nights to relate to my friends the objects that strike me during the day. My chapter is not finished, and dawn already appears.

The contrasts in this empire are abrupt; so much so that the peasant and the lord do not seem to belong to the same land: the grandees are as cultivated as if they lived in another country ; the serfs are as ignorant and savage as though they served under lords like themselves.

It is much less with the abuses of aristocracy that H 3