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

any more.

The governor's dinner was good and well served, without superfluity, and without useless recherche. The abundance and excellent quality of the watermelons astonishes me: it is said that they come from the environs of Moscow, but I should rather imagine they send to the Crimea for them. It is the custom in this country to place the dessert upon the table at the commencement of the dinner, and to serve it plate by plate. This method has its advantages and its inconveniences: it seems to me only perfectly proper at great dinners.

The Russian dinners are of a reasonable length; and nearly all the guests disperse upon rising from table. Some practise the Oriental habit of the siesta ; others take a promenade or return to their business after

VOL. III.H

146FAMILY SOIREE.

drinking coffee. Dinner is not here the repast which finishes the labours of the day; and when I took leave of the lady of the house, she had the kindness to engage me to return and pass the evening with her. I accepted the invitation, for I felt it would be impolite to refuse it: all that is offered to me here, is done with so much good taste, that neither my fatigue nor my wish to retire and write to my friends, are sufficient to preserve my liberty: such hospitality is a pleasant tyranny; it would be indelicate not to accept it; a earriage-and-four and a house are placed at my disposal, a whole family are troubling themselves to amuse me and to show me the country; and this is done without any affected compliments, superfluous protestations, or importunate empi`esscment: I do not know how to resist so much rare simplicity, grace, and elegance; I should yield were it only from a patriotic instinct, for there is in these agreeable manners a souvenir of ancient France which affects and attracts me: it seems as though I had come to the frontiers of the civilised world to reap a part of the heritage of the French ^ spirit of the eighteenth century, a spirit that has been long lost among ourselves. This inexpressible charm of good manners, and of simple language, reminds me of a paradox of one of the most intellectual men I have ever known : ' There is not,' he says, ' a bad action nor a bad sentiment that has not its source in a fault of manners ; consequently true politeness is virtue ; it is all the virtues united.' He went yet further ; he pretended there was no other vice but that of coarseness.

At nine o'clock this evening I returned to the

SUPERIORITY OF THE FEMALE SEX.147

house of the governor. 'We had first music, and aftenvards a lottery.

One of the brothers of the lady of the house plays the violoncello in a charming manner; he was accompanied on the piano by his wife, a very agreeable woman. This duo, as well as many national airs, sung with taste, made the evening pass rapidly.

The conversation of Madame de, the old

friend of my grandmother and of Madame de Po-

lignac, contributed in no slight degree to shorten

it. This lady has lived in Kussia for forty-seven

years ; she has viewed and judged the country with

discernment and justice, and she states the truth

without hostility, and yet without oratorical pre

cautions : this is new to me ; her frankness strangely

contrasts with the universal dissimulation practised by

the Russians. An intelligent French woman, who has

passed her life among them, ought, I think, to know

them better than they know themselves; for they

blind themselves in order the better to impose false

hood upon others. Madame desaid and repeated

to me, that in this country the sentiment of honour is without power except in the heart of the women : they have made it a matter of religion to be faithful to their word, to despise falsehood, to observe delicacy in money affairs, and independence in politics;

in short, according to Madame de, the greater

number of them possess what is wanted in the great majority of the men — probity in all the circumstances of life, whether of greater or less importance. In general, the -Russian women think more than the men, because they act less. Leisure, that advantage inherent in a woman's mode of life, is as advantageous и 2

J 48JUSTIFICATION OF PROVIDENCE.

to their character as to their understanding; they are better informed, less servile, and possess more energy of sentiment than the other sex. Heroism itself often appears to them natural, and becomes easy. The Princess Troubetzkoi is not the only woman who has followed her husband to Siberia; many exiled men have received from their wives this sublime proof of devotion, which loses none of its value for being less rare than I imagined it: unfortunately I do not know their names. 'Where will they find a historian and a poet ? 'Were it only on account oi unknown virtues, it would be necessary to believe in a last judgment. The glory of the good is a part which would be wanting to the justice of God : we can imagine the pardon of the Omnipotent; we cannot imagine his indifference. Virtue is only so called, because it cannot be recompensed by men. It would lose its perfection and become a matter of mercenary calculation if it were sure of always being appreciated and remunerated upon earth: virtue which did not reach to the supernatural and the sublime would be incomplete. If evil did not exist, where would there be saints ? The combat is necessary to the victory, and the victory may even ask from God the crown of conqueror. This beautiful spectacle justifies Providence, which, in order to present it to the attentive Heaven, tolerates the errors of the world.

Towards the close of the evening, before permitting me to leave, my entertainers, with the view of paying me a compliment, expedited, by several clays, a ceremony which has been looked forward to for six months in the family : it was the drawing of a lottery, the ob-

A LOTTERY.

149

ject of which was charity. All the prizes, consisting of articles made by the lady of the house, her friends and relatives, were tastefully spread upon the tables: the one whieh fell to me, I cannot say .by chance, for my tickets had been carefully selected, was a pretty note-book with a varnished cover. I wrote in it the date, and added a few words by way of remembrance. In the times of our fathers, an impromptu in verse would have been suggested; but, in these days, when public impromptus abound ad nauseam, those of the salon are out of date. Ephemeral literature, politics, and philosophy have dethroned the quatrain and the sonnet. I had not the ready wit to write a single couplet; but I should, in justice, add, that neither did I feel the ambition.

After bidding farewell to my amiable entertainers, whom I am to meet again at the fair of Nijni, I returned to my inn, very well satisfied with the day. The house of the peasant in which I lodged the day before yesterday, and the saloon of to-day, in other words, Kamtschatka and Versailles within a distance traversed in a few hours, present a contrast which describes Russia.