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

MODERN LITERATURE.77

lowering the tone of sentiment. Such respect for the delicacy of the reader has, if yon like, a moral object; it is far more essential to civilised society than an exact knowledge of the turpitude of its bandits, and the virtues of its prostitutes. I must ask pardon for this excursion in the fields of conteinporary criticism, and hasten to return to the strict and painful duties of the veracious traveller, duties that are unfortunately too often opposed to these laws of literary composition which a respect for my language and my country has induced me to refer to.

The writings of our boldest painters of manners are but weak copies of the originals which have been daily presented to my eyes since I have been in Russia.

Bad faith injures every thing, but more especially the affairs of commerce: here it has yet another sphere of action; it incommodes the libertines in the execution of their most secret contracts. The continual alterations of money, favour, in Moscow, every species of subterfuge ; nothing is clear and precise in the mouth of a Russian, nothing is well defined nor well guaranteed ; and the purse always gains something by the slipperiness of the language. This extends even to amorous transactions: each party, knowing the duplicity of the other, requires payment in advance, whence much difficulty arises.

The female peasants are more cunning than even the women of the town. Sometimes these young and doubly-corrupted savages violate the primary laws of prostitution, and escape with their booty, without paying the dishonourable debt they had contracted. The bandits of other lands observe their oaths, and E 3