In Russia a double gloom pervades every thing — the fear of power and the want of sun. The national dances resemble rounds led by shadows under the gleam of a twilight which never ends. Ma-
* M. Bi·ulow has copied several of Raphael's works; but I was especially struck with the beauty of the one here mentioned.
ABOLITION OF THE UNIATES.293
demoiselle Taglioni herself (alas ! for Mademoiselle Taglioni!) is not a perfect dancer at St. Petersburg. What a fall for La Sylphide ! But when she walks in the streets — for she walks at present — she is followed by footmen in handsome cockades and gold lace; and the newspapers overwhelm her every morning with articles containing the most preposterous praises I have ever seen. This is all the Russians, notwithstanding their cleverness,, ean do for the arts and for artistes. What the latter want is a heaven to give them life, a public which can understand them, a society which can excite and inspire them. These are necessaries : rewards are supererogatory. It is not, however, in a country contiguous to Lapland, and governed under the system of Peter the Great, that such things are to be sought for. I must wait for the Russians' establishment in Constantinople, before I can know of what they are really capable in the fine arts and in civilisation.
The best method of patronising art is to have a sincere desire for the pleasures it procures: a nation that reaches this point of civilisation will not be long-compelled to seek for artists among foreigners.
At the time of my leaving St. Petersburg, several persons were secretly deploring the abolition of the Uniates*, and recounting the arbitrary measures by which this irreligious act, celebrated as a triumph by the Greek church, has been accomplished. The unknown persecutions to which many priests among the Uniates have been exposed would be viewed as revolt-
* The Uniates are Greeks reunited to the Catholic church, and therefore regarded as schismatics by the Greek church. о 3
294 SUPERIORITY OF A REPRESENTATIVE
ing by even the most indifferent parties ; but in a country where distances and secrecy lend their aid to the most tyrannical acts, all these violences remain concealed. This reminds me of the significant words too often repeated by Russians deprived of protectors — " God is so high, and the emperor so far off!"
Here, then, is the Greek church busy making martyrs. What has become of the toleration of which it boasts before men who are ignorant of the East ? Glorious confessors of the Catholic faith are now languishing in convent prisons ; and their struggle, admirable in the eyes of heaven, remains unknown even to the church for whom they generously fight upon earth, — that church which is*mother of all the churches, and the only church universal; for it is the only one untainted by locality, the only one which remains free, and which belongs to no particular country.*
When the sun of publicity shall rise upon Russia, how many injustices will it expose to view! — not only ancient ones, but those which are enacted daily will shock the senses of the world. They will not be sufficiently shocked; for such is the fate of truth upon earth, that, so long as people have a great interest in knowing it, they remain ignorant of it, and when at last they have their eyes opened, it has become to them no longer a matter of importance. The abuses of a destroyed power excite only cold exclamations : those who recount them, pass for ungenerous strikers
* Has it not taken three years to carry to Koine the cry of these unfortunate beings ?
FORM OF GOVERNMENT.295
of the slain; whilst, on the other hand, the excesses of this iniquitous power remain carefully concealed so long as it maintains itself; for its first aim is to ítifîe the cries of its victim: it exterminates, hut avoids lightly wounding; and applauds itself for its mercy in having recourse to none save indispensable cruelties. But its boasting is hypocritical: when the prison is as silent and closely shut as the tomb, there is no mercy in saving from the scaffold.
I left France scared by the abuses of a false liberty; I return to my country persuaded that, if logically speaking, representative government is not the most moral, it is, practically, the most wise and moderate, preserving the people on one side from democratic licence, and on the other from the most glaring abuses of despotism: I therefore ask myself if we ought not to impose a silence upon our antipathies, and submit without murmur to a necessary policy, and one which, after all, brings to nations prepared for it more good than evil. It is true that hitherto this new and wise form of government has only been able to establish itself by usurpation. Perhaps these final usurpations have been rendered inevitable by preceding errors. This is a religious question, which time, the wisest of God's ministers upon earth, will resolve to our posterity. I am here reminded of the profound idea of one of the most enlightened and cultivated intellects in Germany, M. Varnhagen von der Ense:
" I have often laboured," he wrote to mc one day, " to discover who were the prime movers of revolutions ; and, after thirty years' meditation, I have come to the conclusion that my earliest opinion was О 4
296
the author's feelings
right, and that they are caused by the men against whom they are directed."
Never shall I forget my feelings in travelling from Niemen to Tilsit: it was more especially then that I did justice to the observation of my host at Lübeck. A bird escaped from its cage could not have been more joyous. I can speak, I can write all that I think: I am free! were my exulting exclamations. The first real letter that I despatched to Paris was sent from this frontier: it would cause quite a sensation in the little circle of my friends, who, until they received it, had, no doubt, been the dupes of my official correspondence. The following is the copy of that letter:
"Tilsit, Thurs(%, 26th September, 1839.
¢¢ You will, I hope, have as much pleasure in reading the above date as I have in writing it: here I am beyond the empire of uniformity, minutia, and difficulties. I hear the language of freedom, and I feel as if in a vortex of pleasure, a world earned away by new ideas towards inordinate liberty. And yet I am only in Prussia: but in leaving Kussia I have again found houses, the plan of which has not been dictated to a slave by an inflexible master, but which are freely built: I see a lively country freely cultivated (it is of Prussia I am speaking), and the change warms and gladdens my heart.
'•' In short, I breathe ! I can write to you without carefully guarding my words for fear of the police — a precaution almost always insufficient; for there is as much of the susceptibility of self-love as of political prudence in the espionnage of the Russians. Russia is the most gloomy country, and is inhabited by the
ON ESCAPING FROM RUSSIA.297
most handsome men that I have ever beheld; a country in which women are scarcely seen, cannot be gay. Here I am, escaped from it, and without the smallest accident. I have travelled two hundred and fifty leagues in four days, by roads often wretched, often magnificent; for the Russian spirit, friend as it is to uniformity, cannot attain a real state of order: the characteristics of its administration are meddlesomeness, negligence, and corruption. A sincere man in the Empire of the Czar would pass for a fool.
" I have now a journey of two hundred leagues tc perform before I reach Berlin; but I look forward to it as a mere excursion of pleasure."
Good roads throughout the distance, good inns, beds on which one may lie down, the order of houses managed by women — all seemed delightful and novel. I was particularly struck with the varied architecture of the buildings, the air of freedom in the peasants, and the gaiety of the female sex among them. Their good humour inspired me with a kind of fear: it was an independence, the consequences of which I dreaded for them, for I had myself almost lost the memory of it. I saw towns built spontaneously, before any government had imagined a plan of them. Ducal Prussia does not assuredly pass for a land of licence; and yet, in passing through the streets of Tilsit, and afterwards those of Königsberg, I could have fancied myself at a Venetian carnival. My feelings brought to my memory a German of my accpiaint-ance, who, after having been obliged, by
business, to pass whole years in Russia, was at last able to leave that country for ever. He was accompanied by a о 5
298REASONS FOR NOT RETURNING
friend; and had scarcely set foot on the deck of the English vessel, which was about to weigh anchor, when he threw himself into his companion's arms, exclaiming, " God be praised, we may now breathe freely and speak openly !"
Many people have, doubtless, felt the same sensation : but why has no traveller before recorded it ? Here, without comprehending, I marvel at the prestige which the Russian government exercises over minds. It obtains silence, not only from its own subjects — that were little, — but it makes itself respected, even ît a distance, by strangers escaped from its iron discipline. The traveller either praises it or is silent: this is a mystery which I cannot comprehend. If ever the publication of tins journey should procure me an explanation of the marvel, I shall have additional reason to applaud myself for my sincerity.
I had purposed returning from Petersburg into Germany, by way of `Wilna and Warsaw; but I changed that project.
Miseries like those which Poland suffers cannot be attributed entirely to fatality: in prolonged misfortunes, we may always look to faults as well as to circumstances. To a certain point, nations, like individuals, become accomplices in the fate which pursues them ; they appear accountable for the reverses which, blow after blow, they have to suffer: for, to attentive eyes, destinies arc only the development of characters. On perceiving the result of the errors of a people pmished with so much severity, I might not be able to abstain from reflections of which I should repent. To represent their case to the oppressors would be a task we should impose upon our-
THROUGH POLAND.299
selves with a kind of joy, sustained, as we should feel, by the idea of courage and generosity which attaches to the accomplishment of a perilous, or, at least, painful duty : but to wound the heart of the victim, to overwhelm the oppressed, though even with deserved strokes, with just reproaches, is an executioner's office, to which the author who does not despise his own pen will never abase himself.
This was my reason for renouncing my proposed journey through Poland.
О Ö
300
RETURN TO EMS,
CHAR XXXVII. *
RETURN TO EMS. — AUTUMN IN THE VICINITY OF THE RHINE. — COMPARISON BETWEEN RUSSIAN AND GERMAN SCENERY.—THE YOUTH OF THE SOUL.—DEFINITION OF MISANTHROPY. — MISTAKE OF THE TRAVELLER REGARDING RUSSIA. — RESUME OF THE JOURNEY. — A LAST PORTRAIT OF RUSSIA AND THE RUSSIANS. —
6ECRET OF THEIR POLICY. A GLANCE AT THE CHRISTIAN
CHURCHES. — THE TASK OF THE AUTHOR. DANGER OF SPEAK
ING OF THE GREEK RELIGION IN RUSSIA. — PARALLEL BETWEEN
SPAIN AND RUSSIA.
I left Ems for Russia five months ago, and return to this elegant village after having made a tour of some thousand leagues. My stay here during the previous spring was disagreeable to me by reason of the erowd of bathers and drinkers : I find it delicious now that I am literally alone, with nothing to do but to enjoy a beautiful autumn sky in the midst of mountains, the solitude of which I admire; and to review my recollections, while I at the same time seek the repose I need after the rapid journey just completed.
With what a contrast am I presented! In Russia, I was deprived of all the scenes of nature; for I cannot give the name of nature to solitudes without one picturesque object, — to seas, lakes, and rivers, whose banks are on a level with the water; to marshes without bounds, and steppes without vegetation, under a sky without light. Those plains are not, in-
* Written at Ems, October, 1839.
AUTUMN ON THE RHINE.3ül
deed, devoid of a kind of beauty; but grandeur without gi`ace soon fatigues. What pleasure can the traveller have in traversing immense spaces, whose surface and whose horizon are always destitute of feature ? Such monotony aggravates the fatigue of locomotion, by rendering it fruitless. Surprises must always constitute a great portion of the enjoyment of travelling; and the hope of them must always furnish much of the stimulus that keeps alive the zeal of the traveller.
It is with sensations of real happiness that I find myself at the elose of the season in a varied and beautiful country. I cannot express the delight with which I stray, and for a moment lose myself among large woods, where showers of leaves have strewed the earth and obliterated the paths. I am carried back to the descriptions of Rene; and my heart beats as it beat formerly while reading that sorrowful and sublime conversation between nature and a human soul. That religious and lyrical prose has lost none of its power over me ; and I have said to myself, astonished at my own easily-affected feelings, youth will surely never end ! Sometimes I perceive through the foliage, brightened by the first hoar-frost, the vapoury distances of the valley of the Lahn, contiguous to the most beautiful river in Europe; and I greatly admire the grace and calm of the landscape.
The points of view formed by the ravines, which serve as channels for the tributaries of the Rhine, are infinitely varied; those of the Volga all resemble each other. The aspect of the elevated plains that are here called mountains, because they separate deep valleys, is in general cold and monotonous; still this cold and monotony is light, life, and motion, after the
302 THE YOUTH ОГ THE SOUL.
marshes of Muscovy: the bright rays of the sun spread a southern gladness over the whole face of the northern landscape; in which the dryness of the contour and the stiffness of the broken lines are lost amid the mists of autumn.
The repose of the woods during the autumn season is very striking: it contrasts with the activity of the fields, among which man, warned by the calm forerunner of winter, hastens to complete his labours.
This instructive and solemn spectacle, which is to last as long as the world endures, interests me as much as though I had seen it for the first time, or knew that I was never to see it again : the intellectual life is nothing but a succession of discoveries. The soul, when it has not expended its vigour in the too habitual affectations of people of the world, preserves an inexhaustible faculty of surprise and curiosity ; new powers arc ever exciting it to new efforts; this world no longer suffices for it; it summons and it apprehends the infinite: its ideas ripen, yet they do not proceed to decay; and this it is Mwhich intimates to us that there is something beyond the things which are seen.
It is the intensity of our life which forms its variety ; what is strongly felt always appears new: language partakes of this eternal freshness of impressions ; each new affection imparts its special harmony to the words destined to express it: and thus it is that the colouring of style is the most certain test of the novelty—I might say, the sincerity of sentiments. When ideas are borrowed, their source is carefully concealed; but the harmony of the language never deceives, — sure proof of the sensibility of the soul.
DEFINITION ОГ MISANTHROPY.303
An involuntary revelation — it bursts directly from the heart, and speaks directly to the hearts of others: art can but imperfectly supply it; it is born of emotion : in short, this music of speech reaches beyond the ideas that it conveys; it embodies also the indefinable, involuntary extension of those ideas. Herein lies the reason of Madame Sand's having so quickly obtained among us the reputation winch she deserves.
Sacred love of solitude, thou art no less than a real necessary of mental life ! The world is so false, that a mind imbued with a passionate love of truth must needs be disposed to shun society. Misanthropy is a calumniated sentiment; it is a hatred of lies. There are no misanthropes; but there are souls which would rather fly than feign.
Alone with God, and man becomes humble under the influence of internal sincerity; in his retreat he expiates, by silence and meditation, all the successful frauds of worldly spirits, their triumphant duplicities, their vanities, their hidden and too often rewarded treacheries : incapable of being duped, unwilling to dupe, he becomes a voluntary victim, and conceals himself with as much care as the courtiers of fashion take to dis
play themselves. Such is undoubtedly the secret of the life of saints, — a secret easily penetrated, but a life difficult to imitate. t`Vere I a saint I should no longer feel curiosity in travelling, nor yet a desire to relate my travels. I am seeking: the saints have found.
While thus seeking, I have surveyed the Russian empire. I wished to see a country where reigns the calm of a power assured of its own strength : but arrived there, I found only the reign of silence main-
304RESUME OF
tained by fear; and I have drawn from the spectacle a lesson very different from the one which I came to seek. Russia is a world scarcely known to foreigners: the Russians who travel to escape it, pay, when at a distance, in crafty encomiums, their tribute to their country; and the greater number of travellers who have described it to us have been unwilling to discover in it any thing but that which they went to find. If people will defend their prejudices against evidence, where is the good of travelling ? When thus determined to view nations as they wish to view them, there is no longer a necessity for leaving their own country.
The following is the resume of my journey, written since my return to Ems.
Russia in 1839 -Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia Page 88