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

BEAUTY OF THE QUAYS.161

parodies of Greece and Italy, minus the marble and the sun, are, it must be allowed, calculated to revive all my anger. Besides, I can renounce with the greater resignation the title of impartial traveller, because I am persuaded that I still have a right to it.

Though I were menaced with Siberia, I would not be prevented repeating that the want of good sense in the construction of a building, of finish and of harmony in its details, is intolerable. In architecture, the objeet of genius is to find the most short and simple means of adapting edifices to the uses for which they are destined. Where, then, could be the genius of men who have piled up so many pilasters, arcades, and colonnades, in a land which cannot be inhabited for nine months in the year without double sashes to windows hermetically closed ? At Petersburg, it is under ramparts that they should walk, not under light and airy peristyles. Vaulted galleries should be their vestibules. The heaven is their enemy ; they should banish therefore the sight of it: the sun will not vouchsafe them his beams, they should live by torch-light. With their Italian arelú-teeture, they set up claims to a fine climate, and this only renders the rains and storms of their summer more intolerable, to say nothing of the icy darts that are respired under their magnificent porticoes, during the interminable winter season. The quays of Petersburg are among the finest objects in Europe. Why? Their splendour lies in their solidity. Mighty blocks of granite forming foundations that supply the place of mother earth ! the eternity of marble opposed to the destructive power of eold !... These things give me an idea of strength and of greatness which