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

THE PEESPECTIVE NEWSKI.291

data, which has caused a mathematical eye to preside over the creation of Petersburg. One can never for a moment forget, in surveying tliis abode of monuments without genius, that it is a city built by a man, and not by a people. The conceptions appear limited, though their dimensions are enormous.

The principal street in Petersburg is the Perspective Ncwski, one of the three lines which meet at the palace of the Admiralty. These three lines divide into five regular parts the southern side of the city, which, like Versailles, takes the form of a fan. It is more modern than the port, built near to the islands by Peter the Great.

The Perspective Newski deserves to be described in detail. It is a beautiful street, a league in length, and as broad as our Boulevards. In several places trees have been planted, as unfortunate in their position as those of Paris. It serves as a promenade and rendezvous for all the idlers of the city. Of these, hoAvever, there are but few, for here people seldom move for the sake of moving; each step that is taken has an object independent of pleasure. To carry an order—to pay their court—to obey their master, whoever he may be — such are the influences which put in motion the greater part of the population of Petersburg and of the empire.

Large uneven flint-stones form the execrable pavement of this boulevard called the Perspective : but here, as in some other principal streets, there are deeply imbedded in the midst of the stones, blocks of fir-wood in the shape of cubes, and sometimes of octagons, over which the carriages glide swiftly. Each of these pavements consists of tAvo lines, two or three о 2