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

VISIT TO THE ISLANDS.163

VISIT TO THE ISLANDS. CHARACTER OF THE SCENERY". ARTI

FICIAL BEAUTIES.COMPARISON BETWEEN RUSSIAN AND ENGLISH

TASTE.AIM AND CHARACTERISTICS OF RUSSIAN CIVILISATION.

HAPPINESS IMPOSSIBLE IN RUSSIA.FASHIONABLE LIFE IN ST.

PETERSBURG. EQUALITY UNDER DESPOTISM.CHARACTERISTIC

TRAITS OF RUSSIAN SOCIETY.ABSOLUTE POWER.PAVILION

OF THE EMPRESS. VERMIN IN THE HOUSES AND PALACES OF

ST. PETERSBURG. —COSTUME OF THE LOWER ORDERS. BEAUTY

OF THE MEN WHEN OF PURE SLAVONIAN RACE. THE WOMEN.

CONDITION OF THE RUSSIAN PEASANTRY.THE SALE OF SERFS.

COMMERCE CAN ALONE ALTER THE PRESENT STATE OF THINGS.

CARE TAKEN TO CONCEAL THE TRUTH FROM FOREIGNERS.

RELIGIOUS USURPATION OF PETER THE GREAT. HIS CHARACTER

AND MONSTROUS CRUELTIES. — CULPABILITY OF THE ARISTO

CRACY. THE AUTHOR SUSPECTED.STATE OF MEDICAL ART IN

RUSSIA. — UNIVERSAL MYSTERY. PERMISSION TO BE PRESENT

AT THE MARRIAGE OF THE GRAND DUCHESS.

I am just returned from visiting the Islands. They form an agreeable marsh ; never was the vase better concealed by the flowers. A shallow, left dry during the summer, owing to the channels that intersect it serving as drains to the soil, planted with superb groves of birch, and covered with numerous charming villas—such is the tract called the Islands. The avenues of birch, which, together with pines, are the only trees indigenous to these icy plains, create an illusion that might lead the traveller to imagine him-