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

CONSEQUENCES OF DESPOTISM.73

thus that I qualify the life of a professed debauchee in Moscow.

In physical respects, the climate, and in moral respects, the government of this land devour all that is weak in its germ : all that is not robust or stupid dies early, none survive but the debased, and natures strong in good as in evil. Russia is the land of unbridled passions or of passive characters, of rebels or of automata, of conspirators or of machines. There is here nothing intermediate between the tv-rant and the slave, between the madman and the animal: the juste milieu is unknown; nature will not tolerate it; the excess of cold, like that of heat, pushes man to extremes.

Notwithstanding the contrasts which I here point out, all resemble each other in one respect — all have levity of character. Among these men of the moment, the projects of the evening are constantly lost in the forgetfulness of the morrow. It may be said, that with them the heart is the empire of chance ; nothing can stand against their propensity to embrace and to abandon. They live and die without perceiving the serious side of existence. Neither good nor evil with them possesses any reality: they can cry, but they cannot be unhappy. Palaces, mountains, giants, sylphs, passions, solitude, brilliant crowds, supreme happiness, unbounded grief, —but it is useless to enumerate : a quarter of an hour's conversation with them suffices to bring before your eyes the whole universe. Their prompt and contemptuous glance surveys, without admiring any thing, the monuments raised by human intelligence during centuries. They fancy they can place themselves above every thing, because they de-

YOL. III.E