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

RUSSIAN SERVILITY.323

them to sacrifice all—absolutely all—to its cravings. It was this sovereign law which attached a nation to an Ivan IV.: — a tiger for our God rather than the annihilation of our Empire. Such was the Russian policy under the reign which made Russia, and during which the forbearance of the victims horrifies me much more than the frenzy of the tyrant. It horrifies me because I see it perpetuated, however modified by circumstances; and because, even at this day, it would produce similar effects under a similar reign, if the earth were destined to give birth twice to an Ivan IV. Let us wonder, then, at this unique picture in history : the Russians, with the courage and the baseness of the men who desire to possess the earth, weeping at the feet of Ivan to move him to continue their governor,—him who would have made all government hateful to any people not intoxicated with the fanatical presentiment of their coming glory !

All swore — the great, the little, the boyards, the tradespeople, the castes, and the individuals; in a word. all the nation swore with tears, to submit to every thing, provided they might not be abandoned to themselves. This height of misfortune was the only reverse which the Russians, in their ignoble patriotism, could not muster courage to encounter, seeing that the inevitable disorder that would have been the result might have destroyed their empire of slaves. Ignominy carried to this point approaches the sublime: it is of the nature of virtue; it perpetuates the state; — but such a state! —the means dishonour the end.

The wild beast, touched with compassion, took pity on the herd on which he had so long preyed; p 6