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

RAMPART OF LIBERTY.283

in me the fellow-being as well as the prince, especially if, when viewed apart from my titles, and reduced to myself, I should still have a right to the title of a sincere, firm, and upright man.

Let the reader seriously ask himself, if that which I have recounted of the Emperor Nicholas, since my arrival in Russia places this prince lower in his opinion than before he had read these chapters.

Our frequent communications in public gained me numerous acquaintances, as well as renewal of acquaintances. Many.persons whom I had met elsewhere cast themselves in my way, though only after they had observed that I was the object of this particular good-wiH on the part of the sovereign. These men were the most exalted persons at court; but it is the custom of people of the world, and especially of placemen, to be sparing of every thing except ambitious schemes. To preserve at court sentiments above the vulgar range, requires the endowment of a very lofty mind, and lofty minds are rare.

It cannot be too often repeated, that there are no great noblemen in Russia, because there are no independent characters, with the exception, at least, of those superior minds, which are too few in number to exercise any general influence on society. It is the pride inspired by high birth, which, far more than riches or rank acquired by industry, renders man independent.

This country, in many respects so different from France, still resembles it in one — it is without any social hierarchy. By reason of this gap in the body politic, universal equality reigns in Russia as in France, and therefore, in both countries, the minds of