130 INCONGRUITY BETWEEN ТПЕ CLIMATE, ETC.
aspect of the country, the tint of the sky, the costume and manners of the inhabitants, as to suggest the idea of being captive heroes in a hostile land ; expatriated edifices, temples that might have fallen from the summit of the Grecian mountains into the marshes of Lapland ; — such were the objects that most struck me at the first sight of St. Petersburg. The magnificent temples of the pagan Gods, which so admirably crown, with their horizontal lines and severely chaste contours, the promontories of the Ionian shores, and whose marbles, gilded by the sunshine amid the rocks of the Peloponnesus, here become mere heaps of plaster and mortar; the incomparable ornaments of Grecian sculpture, the wonderful minuti? of classic art, have all given place to an indescribably burlesque style of modern decoration, which substitution passes among the Finlanders as proof of a pure taste in the arts. Partially to imitate that winch is perfect is to spoil it. We should either strictly copy the model, or invent altogether. But the re-production of the monuments of Athens, however faithfully executed, would be lost in a miry plain, continually in danger of being overflowed by water whose level is nearly that of the land. Here nature suggests to man the very opposite of that which he has imagined. Instead of imitations of pagan temples, it demands bold projecting forms and perpendicular lines, in order to pierce the mists of a polar sky, and to break the monotonous surface of the moist grey steppes which form, farther than the eye or the imagination can stretch, the territory of Petersburg. I begin to understand why the Russians urge us with so much earnestness to
AND THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE COUNTRY. 131
visit them during winter: six feet of snow conceals all this dreariness, but in summer we see the country. Explore the territory of Petersburg and the neighbouring provinces, and you will find, I am told, for hundreds of leagues, nothing but ponds and morasses, stunted firs and dark-leaved birch. To this sombre vegetation the white shroud of winter is assuredly preferable. Every where the same plains and bushes seem to compose the same landscape ; at least, until the traveller approaches Finland and Sweden. There he finds a succession of little granite rocks covered with pines, which change the appearance of the soil, though without giving much variety to the landscape. It will be easily believed that the gloom of such a country is scarcely lessened by the lines of columns which men have raised on its even and naked surface. The proper bases of Greek peristyles are mountains: there is here no harmony between the inventions of man and the gifts of nature; in short, a taste for edifices without taste has presided over the building of St. Petersburg.
But, however shocked our perceptions of the beau tiful may be by the foolish imitations which spoil its appearance, it is impossible to contemplate without a species of admiration, an immense city which has sprung from the sea at the bidding of one man, and which has to defend itself against a periodical inundation of ice, and a perpetual one of water.
The Kronstadt steam-boat dropped her anchor before the English quay opposite the Custom-house, and not far from the famous square where the statue of Peter the Great stands mounted on its rock.
I would gladly spare my reader the detail of the G б
132THE CUSTOM-HOUSE AND POLICE.
new persecutions, which, under the name of
For three days in the year the sun of Petersburg is insupportable. I arrived on one of these days. Our persecutors commenced by impounding us (not the Russians, but myself and the other foreigners) on the deck of our vessel. ^We were there, for a long time, exposed without any shelter to the powerful heat of the morning sun. It was eight o'clock, and had been daylight ever since one hour after midnight. They spoke of thirty degrees of Reaumur *, which temperature, be it remembered, i?` much more inconvenient in the North, where the air is surcharged with vapour, than in hot climates.
At length I was summoned to appear before a new tribunal, assembled, like that of Kronstadt, in the cabin of our vessel. The same questions were addressed to me, with the same politeness, and my answers were recorded with the same formalities.
' What is your object in Russia ?'
' To see the country.'
' That is not here a motive for travelling.'
(What humility in this objection !)
•* I have no other.'
' Whom do you expect to see in Petersburg?'
' Every one with whom I may have an opportunity of making acquaintance.'
* Nearly 100° Fahrenheit. —
INQUISITORIAL EXAMINATION.133
' How long do you think of remaining in Russia ?'
' I do not know.'
' But, about how long?'
' A few months.'
' Have you a public diplomatic mission ?
' No.'
' A secret one ? '
' No.'
' Any scientific object ? '
' No.'
' Are you employed by your government to examine the social and political state of this country ? '
' No.'
' By any commercial association ? '
' No.'
' You travel, then, from mere curiosity ? '
' Yes.'
' What was it that induced you, under this motive, to select Russia ? '
' I do not know,' &c. &c. &c,
' Have you letters of introduction to any people of this country ? '
I had been forewarned of the inconvenience of replying too frankly to this question; I therefore spoke only of my banker.
At the termination of the session of this court of assize I encountered several of my
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134DIFFICULTIES OF LANDING.
chant, who was among our passengers, was searched unmercifully, not omitting even the clothes on his person, and his pocket-book. Had such a search been made upon me, I should have been pronounced a very suspicious character. My pockets were full of letters of introduction, and though the greater number had been given me by the Russian ambassador himself, and by others equally well known, they were sealed; a circumstance which
