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

aspect is so independent. The Czars, ancient tyrants mitigated by the fashion which has metamorphosed them into emperors, and eyen into amiable men, fly Moscow. They prefer Petersburg, with all its inconveniences, for they wish to be in continual communication with the West of Europe. Russia, as formed by Peter the Great, does not trust to herself to live and to learn. At Moscow they could not obtain in a week's time the little importations of the current anecdotes and small gossip of Paris, nor the ephemeral literature of Europe. These details, contemptible as they appear to us, furnish the chief excitement of the Russian court, and consequently of Russia.

If the freezing or the melting snow did not render railroads useless in this land during six or eight months of the year, we should see the Russian government surpass all others in the construction of those roads which are, as it were, lessening the size of earth; for that government suffers more than any other from the inconveniences of distance. But, notwithstanding acceleration of the speed of travelling, a vast extent of territory will always be the chief obstacle to the circulation of ideas: for the soil will not allow itself, like the sea, to be crossed in all directions. The water, which, at first sight, appears destined to separate the inhabitants of the world, is the medium which, in reality, unites them. Wonderful problem ! Man, the prisoner of God, is yet allowed to be the king of nature.

Certainly, were Moscow a, sea-port, or the centre of a vast network of those metal wheel-tracks, those electric conductors of human thought, destined to