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

ANXIETY TO REACH MOSCOW.137

PKTERSBURC IN THE ABSENCE OF THE EMPEROR.—CHARACTER OF

THE COURTIERS.THE TCHINN.ITS NATURE AND ORIGIN. —

DESTRUCTION OF THE ARISTOCRACY. CHARACTER OF PETER

THE GREAT.— THE TCHINN DIVIDED INTO FOURTEEN CLASSES.

AN IMMENSE POWER IN THE HANDS OF THE EMPEROR. OP

POSITE OPINIONS ON THE FUTURE INFLUENCE OF RUSSIA.

RUSSIAN HOSPITALITY.—POLITE FORMALITIES. RESEMBLANCE

TO THE CHINESE. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE RUSSIANS AND

THE FRENCH.RUSSIAN HONESTY. — OPINION OF NAPOLEON. —

THE ONLY SINCERE MAN IN THE EMPIRE.SPOILED SAVAGES.

ERRORS OF PETER THE GREAT. ABSURD ARCHITECTURE.

BEAUTY OF THE QUAYSTHE GREAT SQUARETHE CHURCHES.

PALACE OF THE TAURIDA. ANTIQUE VENUS.THE HERMI

TAGE. PICTURE GALLERY.PRIVATE SOCIAL CODE OF THE

EMPRESS CATHERINE.

I had promised my friends not to return to France without seeing Moscow, the fabulous city — fabulous in spite of history; for the grandeur of the events connected with it, though they recall the most positive and clearly-defined occurrences of our age, renders its name poetical beyond all other names.

This scene of an epic poem has a sublimity which contrasts, in a whimsical manner, with the spirit of an age of mathematicians and# stock-jobbers. I am therefore especially impatient to reach Moscow^ for which city I set out in two days. My impatience will not, however, prevent my expatiating on all that may strike me before arriving there, for I mean to