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

RUSSIA AND THE RUSSIANS.307

but such lightness of the yoke is only procured by the labours of genius and superior wisdom, or by a certain relaxation of social discipline. Governments, which were beneficent in the youth of nations, when men, still half savages, honoured every thing that snatched them from a state of disorder, become so again in the old age of communities. At that epoch is seen the birth of mixed institutions. But these institutions, founded on a compact between experience and passion, can suit none but already wearied populations, societies the springs of which are weakened by revolutions. From this it may be concluded, lhat if they are not the most powerful of political systems, they are the most gentle : the people who have once obtained them cannot too carefully strive to prolong their duration : it is that of a green old age. The old age of states, like that of men, is the most peaceable period of existence when it crowns a glorious life; but the middle age of a nation is always a time of trial and violence : Russia is passing through it.

In this country, which differs from all others, nature itself has become an accomplice in the caprices of the man who has slain liberty to deify unity; it, too, is everywhere the same : two kind» of scattered and stunted trees, the birch and the pine, spread over plains always either sandy or marshy, arc the only features on the face of nature throughout that immense expanse of country which constitutes Northern Russia.

What refuge is there against the evils of society in a climate under which men cannot enjoy the country, such as it is, for more than three months of the year?