be, in future, more circumspect in his selection of deputies.
I left the ball of the Michael Palace at an early hour. I loitered on the staircase, and could have wished to remain there longer: it was a wood of
* This title had been secured to her at her marriage. † Did I not truly say that, at this court, life is passed in general rehearsals ? An Emperor of Russia, from Peter the Great, downwards, never forgets that it is his office personally io instruct his people.
CABINET OF MINERALS.261
orange trees in flower. Never have I seen any thing more magnificent or better directed than this fete ;
but there is nothing so fatiguing as admiration too
greatly prolonged, especially if it does not relate to the phenomena of nature, or the works of the higher arts.
I lay down my pen in order to dine with a Russian
officer, the young Count, who took me this morn
ing to the cabinet of mineralogy, the finest I believe in
Europe, for the Uralian mines are unequalled in the
variety of their mineral wealth. Nothing can be
seen here alone. A native of the country is always
with you to do the honours of the public establish
ments and institutions, and there are not many days
in the year favourable for seeing them. In summer
they are repairing the edifices damaged by the frosts,
in winter there is nothing but visiting: every one
dances who does not freeze. It will be thought I
am exaggerating when I say that Russia is scarcely
better seen in Petersburg than in France. Strip the
observation of its paradoxical form and it is strictly
true. Most assuredly it is not sufficient to visit this
country in order to know it. AVithout the aid of
others, it is not possible to obtain an idea of any thino·,
and often this aid tyrannises over its object, and imbues
him with ideas only that are fallacious.*
262THE LADIES OF THE COURT.
THE LADIES OF THE COURT. THE FINNS. ТПЕ OPERA. — THE
EMPEROR THERE. — IMPOSING PERSON OF THIS PRINCEHIS
ACCESSION TO THE THRONE. — COURAGE OF THE EMPRESS.
THE EMPEROR'S RECITAL OF THIS SCENE TO THE AUTHOR.
ANOTHER DESCRIPTION OF THE EMPEROR.CONTINUATION OF
HIS CONVERSATION. HIS POLITICAL OPINIONS. SINCERITY OF
HIS LANGUAGE.FETE AT THE DUCHESS OF OLDENBURG`S. —
BAL CHAMPETRE.FLOWERS IN RUSSIA. THE FRIEND OF THE
EMPRESS. SEVERAL CONVERSATIONS WITH THE EMPEROR.
HIS NOBLE SENTIMENTS. — CONFIDENCE WITH 'WHICH HE IN
SPIRES THOSE WHO APPROACH HIMARISTOCRACY THE ONLY
RAMPART OF LIBERTY. PARALLEL BETWEEN AUTOCRACIES AND
DEMOCRACIES.THE ARTS IN PETERSBURG.ALL TRUE TALENT
IS NATIONAL.
Seveeal of the ladies of this court, but their number is not great, have a reputation for beauty which is deserved ; others have usurped this reputation by means of coquetries, contrivances, and affectations — all copied from the English; for the Russians in high life pass their time in searching for foreign models of fashion. They are deceived sometimes in their choice, when their mistake produces a singular kind of elegance — an elegance without taste. A Russian left to himself would spend his life in dreams of unsatisfied vauity: he would view himself as a barbarian. Nothing more injures the natural disposition, and consequently the mental powers, of a people, than this continual dwelling upon the social superiority of other nations. To feel humbled by
THE FIXXS.
263
the very sense of one's own assumption is an inconsistency in the actings of self-love which is not un- frequently to be seen in Russia, where the character of the
As a general rule applicable to the different classes of the nation, beauty is less common among the women than the men; though among the latter also may be found great numbers whose faces are flat and void of all expression. The Finns have high cheek bones, small, dull, sunken eyes, and visages so flattened that it might be fancied they had all, at their birth, fallen on their noses. Their month is also deformed, and their whole appearance bears the impress of the slave. This portrait does not apply to the Slavonians.
I have met many people marked with the smallpox, a sight rarely now seen in other parts of Europe, and which betrays the negligence of the Russian administration on an important point.
In Petersburg the different races are so mingled, that it is impossible to form a correct idea of the real population of Russia. Germans, Swedes, Livonians, Finns (who are a species of Laplanders), Calmucs and other Tartar races, have so mixed their blood with that of the Slavonians, that the primitive beauty of the latter has, in the capital, gradually degenerated ; which leads me often to think of the observation of the emperor, 'Petersburg is Russian, but it is not Russia.'
I have been witnessing at the opera what is called a
264
THE OPERA.
Galleries and projecting boxes are unknown here: there is at Petersburg no citizen class for whom to provide seats. The architect, therefore, unfettered in his plan, can construct theatres of a simple and regular design, like those of Italy, where the women who are not of the highest ranks arc seated in the pit.
By special favour I obtained a chair in the first row of the pit. On gala days these chairs are reserved for the
