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

158ERRORS OF PETER THE GREAT.

port, a Russian Dantzie. Instead of this, Peter the First made it a box, from whence his chained boyards might contemplate, with envy, the stage on which is enacted the civilisation of Europe; a civilisation which, in forcing them to copy, he forbade them to emulate !

Peter the Great, in all his works, acted without any regard to humanity, time, or nature. The more we examine Russia, the more strongly shall we be confirmed in the opinion that that prince has been too highly extolled, both at home and abroad. Had he been as superior a character as is pretended, he would have perceived and shunned the wrong road into which he drove his people ; he would have foreseen and detested the frivolity of mind, the superficial acquirements, to which he condemned them for ages.

Great men, in building up the future, do not destroy the past; on the contrary, they avail themselves of it, even in order to modify its consequences. Far from continuing to deify the enemy of their natural genius, the Russians ought to reproach him with being the cause of their possessing no character.*

That crowned missionary forced nature for a moment, because he had the power to do so; but to this his power was circumscribed. Had he been, in reality, what the superstition of his people, and the exaggeration of writers have made him in history, how differently would he have acted! He would have waited, and by that patience have merited his brevet of great man: he preferred obtaining it in

* The Russians are superficial in every thing, except the art of feigning.