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

182CHARACTER OF THE RUSSIANS.

pearances of civilisation. If you look to the court and the people who are its votaries, you may suppose yourself among a nation far advanced in social culture and in political economy; but when you reflect on the relations which exist between the different classes of society, when you observe how small the number of these classes — finally, when you examine attentively the groundwork of manners and of things — you perceive the existence of a real barbarism, scarcely disguised under a magnificence which is revolting.

I do not reproach the Russians for being what they are, what I blame in them is, their pretending to be what we are. They are still uncultivated: this state would at least allow room for hope; but I see them incessantly occupied with the desire of mimicking other nations, and this they do after the true manner of monkeys, caricaturing what they copy. They thus appear to me spoilt for the savage state, and yet wanting in the requisites of civilisation; and the terrible words of Voltaire or of Diderot, now forgotten in France, recur to my mind — "The Russians have rotted before they have ripened."

At Petersburg every thing has an air of opulence, grandeur, and magnificence; but if we should by this show of things judge of the reality we should find ourselves strangely deceived. Generally, the first effect of civilisation is to render what may be called, material life easy; but here every tiling is difficult: — a cunning apathy is the secret of existence.

If you wish to ascertain precisely what is to be seen in this great city, and if Schnitzler does not