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

64 FLATNESS OF THE EAl¿TIl's SURFACE.

ing. It is no lively pleasure that it feels; the raptures of passion cease, but the inquietude of violent desires ceases also. If there is not exemption from ennui, there is from sorrow ; a perpetual repose possesses both the mind and the body, the image of which is reflected by this indolent light, that spreads its mortal coldness equally over day and night, over the ocean and the land, blended into one by the icy hand of winter, and the overspreading mantle of the polar snows.

The light of these flat regions near the pole accords well with the bright blue eyes, the inexpressive features, the pale locks, and the timidly romantic imagination of the women of the north. These women are for ever dreaming Avhat others are enacting; of them more especially can it be said, that life is but the vision of a shadow.

In approaching these northerly regions you seem to be climbing the platform of a chain of glaciers: the nearer you advance, the more perfectly is the illusion realised. The globe itself seems to be the mountain you are ascending. The moment yon attain the summit of this large Alp, you experience what is felt less vividly in ascending other Alps : the rocks sink, the precipices crumble away, population recedes, the earth is beneath your feet, you touch the pole. Viewed from such elevation, the earth appears diminished, but the sea rises and forms around you a vaguely defined circle; you continue as though mounting to the summit of a dome — a dome which is the world, and whose architect is God.

From thence the eye extends over frozen seas and crystal fields, in which imagination might picture the