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

270CASUISTICAL REFLECTIONS.

It will be said that evil is evil, wherever committed; and that the man who steals at Moscow, is just as much a thief as the pickpocket in Paris. It is precisely this which I deny. On the general education that a people receives, depends in a great measure the morality of each individual; from whence it follows that a fearful and mysterious relativeness of merits and of demerits has been established by Providence between governments and subjects, and that moments arrive in the history of communities when the State is judged, condemned, and destroyed, as though it were a single individual.

The virtues, the faults, and the crimes of slaves have not the same signification as those of freemen; therefore, when I examine the character of the Russian people, I can assert as a fact which does not imply the same blame as it would with us, that in general they are deficient in spirit, delicacy, and elevation of sentiment, and that they supply the want of these qualities by patience and artifice.

" The Russian people are gentle," is often said to me. To this I answer, "I cannot give them any credit for being so : it is their habit of submission." Others say, " The Russian people are only gentle because they dare not show what is in their hearts; their fundamental sentiments are superstition and ferocity." To this I reply, " Poor creatures ! they are so ill educated!"

From all that I see in this world, and especially in this country, I conclude that happiness is not the real object for which man was placed here upon earth. That object is purely religious in its character: it is moral improvement—the struggle and the victory.