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

In short, enervated, bewildered, and dismayed, Russia threw herself at the feet of Ivan, whom she dreaded less than she distrusted herself, and entreated this indispensable master to pick up his crown and bloody sceptre, asking, as the only favour, that he would again put on her neck the iron yoke which she will never be tired of bearing.

If this was humility, it went too far, even for Christianity ; if it was cowardice, it was unpardonable ; if it was patriotism, it was impious. Religion humbles, slavery debases; there is the difference between them that there is between sanctity and brutality. The Russians make a virtue of sacrificing every thing to the weal of the empire. Detestable empire, whose existence may not be perpetuated without the sacrifice of human dignity ! Blinded by then' monarchical idolatry, on their knees before the political idols of their own hands, the Russians, including those of our own century as well as those of Ivan's, forget that a respect for justice, a cultivation of truth, is more important to mankind, not excepting the Slavonians, than the fate of Russia. In this act I imagine that I again see the intervention of a supernatural power. I ask myself, what can be the future reserved by Providence for a community which pays such a price for the prolongation of its existence ? I have too often occasion to remark that a new Roman empire is brooding in Russia under the ashes of the old Greek stock. Fear alone does not inspire so much patience. A passion actuates the Russians in a manner that no people have experienced since the time of the Romans — that passion is ambition; an ambition powerful enough to induce