— RESEMBLANCE OF THE POLES AND RUSSIANS.LIBERTINISM IN
MOSCOW.MORAL CONSEQUENCES OF DESPOTISM. —OBSERVATIONS
ON MODERN LITERATURE.DRUNKENNESS A VICE OF THE HIGHEST
CLASSES.RUSSIAN CURIOSITY. PORTRAIT OF PRINCE AND
HIS COMPANIONS. MURDER IN A NUNNERY.CONVERSATION AT
A TABLE-d'hOTE. THE LOVELACE OF THE KREMLIN. A BUR
LESQUE PETITION. MODERN PRUDERY.— PARTING SCENE WITH
PRINCE . AN ELEGANT COACHMAN. MORALS OF THE
CITIZENS' WIVES. LIBERTINISM THE FRUIT OF DESPOTISM. —
MORAL LICENCE IN LIEU OF POLITICAL FREEDOM.— CONDITION
OF THE SERFS AND OTHER CLASSES. NATURE OF RUSSIAN AM
BITION. RESULTS OF THE SYSTEM OF PETER THE GREAT.
THE TRUE POWER OF RUSSIA. DANGER OF TRUTH.— SONGS OF
THE RUSSIAN GYPSIES.MUSICAL REVOLUTION ACCOMPLISHED
BY DUPREZ. THE THEATRE IN RUSSIA. FRENCH LANGUAGE
IN RUSSIA UNDERSTOOD SUPERFICIALLY. A RUSSIAN IN HIS
LIBRARYTHE TARANDASSE. RUSSIAN IDEAS OF DISTANCE
A NOBLE TRAIT IN RUSSIAN CHARACTER.
During the last two days I have seen many sights : among others, the Tartar Mosque. The religion of the conquerors is now tolerated in a corner of the capital of the vanquished; and this, only on condition
THE TARTAR MOSQUE.
that the Christians have free permission to enter the Mohammedan sanctuary.
The mosque is a small and mean edifice, and the men there allowed to worship God and the prophet, have a wretched, timid, dirty, and poverty-stricken appearance. They come to prostrate themselves in this temple every Friday, upon a filthy piece of woollen mat, which each carries with him. Their graceful Asiatic garments are become rags ; their own condition is abject: they live as much apart as possible from the population which surrounds them. In seeing these beggars in appearance, creeping in the midst of actual Russia, it is difficult to realise the idea of the tyranny which their fathers exercised over the Muscovites.
The unfortunate sons of conquerors trade at Moscow in the provisions and the merchandise of Asia, and adhere as much as possible to the practice of their religion, avoiding the use of wines and strong liquors, and shutting up their women, or at least veiling them, in order to shield them from the eyes of other men ; a precaution which is, however, little needed, for the Mongol race present but few attractions. High cheek bones, flat noses, small sunken black eyes, frizzled hair, a brown and oily skin, a low stature, an appearance of filth and squalor, — sueh were the characteristics which I remarked in the men of this degenerate race, and in the small number of women of whose features I could obtain a glimpse.
May it not be said that divine justice, so incomprehensible when viewed in the fate of individuals, becomes brightly visible when mirrored in the destiny of nations ? The life of every man is a drama, played D 5
58THE DESCENDANTS OF THE
upon one theatre, but whose plot will be unravelled on the boards of another. It is not thus with the life of nations : their instructive tragedy begins and ends upon earth ; and it is this which makes history a sacred scripture : history is the justification of Providence.
Saint Paul has said, ' Let every soul be subject to the higher powers : the powers that be are ordained of God.' The church, with him, called men from a state of isolation nearly two thousand years ago, by baptizing them citizens of an eternal community, a society of which all others are but imperfect representations. These truths are not falsified; on the contrary, they are confirmed by experience. The more deeply we study the character of the different nations who share the earth, the more clearly do we recognise that their fate is the consequence of their religion. The religious element is essential to the duration of society : men need a belief in the supernatural, in order to raise themselves from that pretended state of nature which is a state of violence and iniquity ; and the miseries of oppressed races are no more than the punishment of their voluntary errors in matters of faith. Such is the belief which my numerous pilgrimages have instilled into me. Every traveller is obliged to become a philosopher, and more than a philosopher ; for it is necessary to become a Christian to contemplate without shocked senses the condition of the various races dispersed upon the globe, and to meditate without despair upon the dealings of God, — mysterious causes of the vicissitudes of man.
I am recording reflections made in the mosque
MONGOLS IN RUSSIA.59
during the prayer of the children of Bati, now become pariahs among those they enslaved. The present condition of a Tartar in Russia is inferior to that of a Muscovite serf.
The Russians take credit for the tolerance which they accord to the faith of their ancient tyrants. I find such tolerance more ostentatious than philosophical ; and, for the people to whom it is extended. it is but one humiliation more. ЛУегс I in the place of the descendants of those implacable Mongols, who were so long masters of Russia and the terror of the world, I would prefer praying to God in the secret of my heart, rather than in the shadow of a mosque accorded by the pity of my ancient tributaries.
When I wander over Moscow without aim and without guide, I never weary. Each street, each outlet, affords a view of a fresh city ; a city which, studded with its embroidered, pierced, and battle-mented walls, broken with towers, and supporting multitudes of turrets and watch-towers, appears as though built by the genii. Then there is the Kremlin, poetical in its aspect, historical by its name, the root of an empire, the heart of a city, and which is for me all Moscow. I return there with an ever-new attraction ; but it is necessary carefully to avoid examining in detail the incoherent masses of monuments with which this walled mountain is encumbered. The exquisite sense of art, the talent, that is, of finding the one only perfectly just expression of an original conception, is unknown to the Russians
60
PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS.
are grand, the works of physical power are great: and this alone is something.
To divert my mind for a moment from the terrific Kremlin, I have paid a visit to the tower of Souka-reflf, built on an eminence near to one of the entrances of the city. The first story is a vast structure, containing an immense reservoir, from whence nearly all the water drunk in Moscow is distributed to the different parts of the city. The view'of this walled lake, reared high in air, produces a singular impression. The architecture is heavy and gloomy ; but the Byzantine arcades, the massy flights of steps, and the ornaments in the style of the Lower Empire, make the whole very imposing. This style is perpetuated in Moscow: had it been applied with discernment, it would have given birth to the only national architecture possible to the Russians: though invented in a temperate climate, it equally accords with the wants of northern people, and the habits of those of the south. The interior of Byzantine edifices are very similar to ornamented cellars ; the solidity of the massive vaults, and the obscurity of the walls, offer a shelter from the cold as well as from the sun.
