" The Russian nation was not formed in that brilliant school of good faith, by whose instructions chivalrous Europe had so well profited, that the word honour was for a long period synonymous with truth, and the гсога of honour had a sanctity which is still revered, even in France, where so many things have been forgotten.
" The noble influence of the Knights of the Cross
E 3
78GREEK rOLICY Ш RUSSIA,
stopped, with that of Catholicism, in Poland. The Russians are warriors, but they fight under the principle of obedience, and with the object of gain; the Polish chevaliers fought for the pure love of glory; and thus, though these people spring from the same stock, and have still many points of resemblance, the events of history have separated them so widely that it will require a greater number of ages of Russian poliey to reunite them than it has required of religion and of social habitudes to part them asunder.
" Whilst Europe was slowly recovering from the efforts she had made during centuries to rescue the tomb of Christ from the unbelievers, Russia was paying tribute to the Mohammedans under TJsbeck, and at the same time drawing her arts and sciences, her manners, religion, and politics, as also her principles of craft and fraud, and her aversion to the Latin cross, from the Greek empire. If we reflect on all these civil, religious, and political influences, we shall no longer wonder at the little confidence that can be placed in the word of a Russian (it is the Russian prince who speaks), nor that the Russian character in general should bear the impress of that false Byzantine stamp which influences social life even under the empire of the Czars — worthy successors of the lieutenants of Bati.
" The unmitigated despotism that reigns over us established itself at the very period that servitude ceased in the rest of Europe. From the time of the invasion of the Mongols, the Slavonians, until then one of the freest peoj)le in the world, became slaves-: first to their conquerors, and afterwards to their own princes. Bondage was thenceforward established
NATURE OF AN AUTOCRACY.79
among them, not only as an existing state, but as a constituent principle of society. It has degraded the right of speech in Russia to such a point that it is no longer considered anything better than a snare: our government lives by lies, for truth is as terrible to the tyrant as to the slave. Thus, little as one speaks, in Russia, one always speaks too much, since in this country all discourse is the expression of religious or political hypocrisy."
" Prince," I replied, after having listened attentively to this long series of deductions, " I will not believe you. It is enlightened to rise above national prejudices, and polite to deal gently with the prejudices of foreigners; but I have no more confidence in your concessions than I have in others' claims and pretensions."
" In three months you will render me greater justice ; meanwhile, and as we are yet alone," — he said this after looking round on all sides, — "I will direct your attention to a leading point, I will present you with a key which will serve to explain every thing to you in the country you are about to visit.
" Think at each step you take among this Asiatic people that the chivalrous and Catholic influence has never obtained in their land; and not only have they never adopted it, they have withstood it also, with bitter animosity, during long wars with Lithuania, Poland, and the knights of the Teutonic order."
" You make me proud of my discernment. I wrote lately to one of my friends that I conceived religious intolerance to be the secret spring of Russian policy.
" You anticipated clearly what you are going to see ; you can have no adequate idea of the intense intolerance of the Russians ; those whose minds are E 4
80POLITICS ANT) RELIGION IDENTICAL,
cultivated, and whom business brings into intercourse with western Europe, take the utmost pains to conceal the predominant national sentiment, which is the triumph of the Greek orthodoxy — with them synonymous with the policy of Russia.
" Without keeping this in view nothing can be explained either in our manners or our politics. You must not believe, for example, that the persecutions in Poland were the effect of the personal resentment of the Emperor: they were the result of a profound and deliberate calculation. These acts of cruelty are meritorious in the eyes of true believers; it is the Holy Spirit who so enlightens the sovereign as to elevate him above all human feelings ; and it is God who blesses him as the exeeutor of his high designs. By this manner of viewing things, judges and executioners become so much the greater saints as they are greater barbarians. Your legitimist journals little know what they are doing when they seek for allies. among schismatics. We shall see an European revolution before we shall see the Emperor of Russia acting in good faith with a Catholic power; the Protestants are at least open adversaries; besides, they will more readily reunite with the pope than the chief of the Russian autocracy; for the Protestants, having beheld all their creeds degenerate into systems, and their religions faith transformed into philosophic doubt, have nothing left but their sectarian pride to sacrifice to Rome ; whereas the Emperor possesses a real and positive spiritual power, which he will never voluntarily relinquish. Rome, and all that can be connected with the Romish church, has no more dangerous enemy than the autocrat of Moscow—visible
MILITARY SPIRIT IN RUSSIA.81
head of his own church; and I am astonished that Italian penetration has not discovered the danger that threatens you from that quarter. After this veracious picture, judge of the illusion with which the Legitimists of Paris niu`se their hopes."
This conversation will give an idea of all the others. Whenever the subject became unpleasant to Muscovite
self-love, the prince Кbroke off, at least until
he was fully sure that no one overheard us.
The subjects of our discourse have made me reflect, and my reflections make me fear.
There is perhaps more to look forward to in this country, long depreciated by our modern thinkers, because appearing so far behind all others, than in those English colonies implanted on the American soil, and which are too higlily vaunted by the philosophers whose systems have developed the real democracy, with all its abuses, which now subsists.
If the military spirit which prevails in Russia has failed to produce anything analogous to our creed oí honour, or to invest its soldiers with the brilliant reputation which distinguishes ours, it should not therefore be said that the nation is less powerful. Honour is a human divinity, but in practical life duty outvalues even honour; though not so dazzling it is more sustained, and more capable of sustaining.
In my opinion the empire of the world is henceforth no longer to be committed to the turbulent, but to people of a patient spirit.* Europe, enlightened
* I must again request the reader, who would follow me throughout this work, to wait before forming an opinion of 3ßussia, until he shall have compared my different views made E 5
82FUTURE INFLUENCE OF RUSSIA.
as she now is, will no longer submit, except to real strength: now the real strength of nations is obedience to the power which rules them, just as discipline is the strength of armies. Henceforth falsehood will react so as to produce most injury to those who would make it their instrument; truth will give birth to a new influence, so greatly will neglect and disuse have renewed its youth and vigour.
When our cosmopolitan democracies, bearing their last fruits, shall have made war a detested thing to all people,—when nations once the most civilised of the earth shall by their political debaucheries have brought themselves to a state of enervation, and from one fall to another sunk into internal lethargy and external contempt, then—all alliance being admitted impossible with societies steeped in helpless egotism, the flood gates of the north will again open upon us, and we shall have to endure a last great invasion, an invasion of no longer ignorant barbarians, but of a people more enlightened and instructed than ourselves, for they will have been taught, by our excesses, the means and the mode of ruling over us.
It is not without d
esign that Providence is accumulating so many inactive instruments of power in Eastern Europe. A day will come when the sleeping giant will rise up, and when force will put an end to the reign of speech. Vainly, at that time, will dismayed equality call upon the old aristocracy to rise in rescue of liberty. Arms in the hands
before and after my journey. The candour and good faith with which I profess to write forbid me to retrench anything that I have already written.
FUTURE INFLUENCE OF RUSSIA.83
of those too long unaccustomed to their use will be weak and powerless. Society will perish for having put its trust in empty words, and then those lying echoes of opinion, the journals, will revel in the overthrow, were it only to have something to relate for one month longer. They will kill society in order to live upon its carcase.
Germany, with its enlightened governments, its good and sensible people, might again lay in Europe the foundations of a defensive aristocracy *, but its governments are not one with its people. The king of Prussia, beeome the mere advanee guard of Russia †, has converted his soldiers into silent and patient revolutionists, instead of having availed himself of their good dispositions to render them the natural defenders of ancient Europe,—that only portion of the earth where rational liberty has hitherto discovered an asylum. In Germany it might yet be possible to allay the storm; in France, England and Spain, we can now do no more than await the thunder-bolt. A return to religious unity would save Europe. But this unity, by what means ean it be restored, by what new miracles will it enforce its elaims on an indifferent and thankless world ; by what authority will it be supported ? This is a seeret with God. The human mind proposes problems, it is the Divine action, that is to say, it is time, whieh must resolve them.
These considerations fill me with painful apprehensions for my own country. When the world, wearied
* Une aristocratie tutélaire. † TL·is was written in June 1839. E 6
84FATE OF PAKIS.
with half measures shall have taken one step towards the truth, — when religion shall be recognised as the only important principle of society, actuated no longer by perishable, but by real, that is, eternal interests, — Paris, frivolous Paris, exalted so proudly under the reign of a sceptical philosophy, Paris, the wanton capital of indifference and of cynicism, will it preserve its supremacy amid generations taught by fear, sanctified by chastisements, undeceived by experience, and perfected by meditation ?
The reaction would have to proceed from Paris itself. Dare we hope for such a prodigy ? Who will assure us that at the termination of the epoch of destruction, and when the new light of faith shall illume the heart of all Europe, the centre of civilisation shall not be removed ? Who, in short, shall say, whether France, east off for her impiety, will not then become to the regenerated Catholics what Greece was to the early Christians, the ruined temple of pride and eloquence ? What right has she to hope for immunity ? Nations die like individuals, and volcanic nations die quickly.
Our past was so brilliant, our present is so tarnished, that instead of boldly invoking the future, we ought. to look forward to it with fear. I avow it, from henceforth, that my fears for my country exceed my hopes; and the impetuosity of that young France, which, under the bloody reign of the Convention, promised such glorious triumphs, now appears to me as the symptom of dotage and decay. Yet the present state of things, with all its evils, is better for us than the era which it presages, and from which I essay in vain to turn away my thoughts.
PRINCE AND PRINCESS D.85
The curiosity which I feel to see Russia, and the admiration with which the spirit of order that must govern the administration of so vast a state in-spires me, does not prevent my judging impartially of the policy of its government. The domination of Russia when confining itself to diplomatic efforts, without proceeding to actual conquest, appears to me that which is most to be dreaded by the world. There is much misapprehension as regards the part which this state would play in Europe. In accordance with its constitutional character, it would represent the principle of order, but influenced by the character of its rulers, it# seeks to propagate tyranny under pretext of remedying anarchy; as though arbitrary power could remedy any evil! It is the elements of moral principle that this nation lacks : with its military habits, and its recollections of invasions it is still occupied with notions of wars of conquest, the most brutal of all wars, whereas the struggles of France and the other western nations will henceforth assume the character of wars of propagandism.
The number of passengers whom I have Mien in with on board the Nicholas I. is fortunately few.
There is a young princess Daccompanying her
husband on his return to St. Petersburg, a charming person, in appearance quite the heroine of a Scottish romance.
This amiable couple, accompanied also by the brother of the princess, have been passing several months in Silesia, subjecting themselves to the treatment of the famous cold water remedy. It is more than a remedy, it is a sacrament: it is medical baptism.
In the fervour of their faith, the prince and prin-
86THE COLD WATER CURE.
cess entertained us with wonderful results obtained by this mode of cure. The discovery is due to a peasant, who professes to be superior to all the doctors in the world, and justifies his pretensions by his works. He believes in himself; this example communicates itself to others; and many disciples in the new apostle are made whole by their faith. Crowds of strangers from all countries resort to Gräffenberg, where all diseases are treated except those of the chest. The patient is subjected to the pumping system, (ice-cold water being employed,) and then wrapped for five or six hours in flannel. No complaint, said the prince, eould· stand the perspiration which this treatment produces.
" No complaint, and no individual," I remarked.
" You are mistaken," replied the prince, with the zeal of anew convert; ¢¢ among a multitude, there are very few who have died at Gräffenberg. Princes and princesses fix themselves near to the new saviour, and after having tried his remedy, the love of water becomes a passion."
Here prince Dlooked at his watch, and called
a servant. The man came with a large pitcher of cold water in his hand, and poiu`ed it over his master's body between the waistcoat and the shirt. I could scarcely believe my eyes.
The prince continued the conversation without noticing my astonishment.
" The father of the reigning Due de Nassau arrived at Gräffenberg entirely deprived of the use of his limbs ; the water has greatly restored him ; but as he aspires to a perfect cure, it is uncertain when he leaves. No one knows on arriving at
THE COLD WATER CURE,
87
Gräffenberg how long he will remain ; the duration of the treatment depends on the complaint and the temperament of the individual; besides one cannot calculate on the influence of a passion, and this mode of using water becomes a passion with some people, who continue, indefinitely, to Hnger near the source of then supreme felicity."
(¢ Prince, in listening to your account, I am ready to believe in these wonderful restilts; but when I reflect, I must still doubt their efficacy. Such apparent cures have often ill consequences; perspirations so violent decompose the blood, and often change gout into dropsy."
" I am so persuaded of the efficacy of the cold water treatment," replied the prince, "that I am goiii£; to form near to me an establishment similar to that of Gräffenberg."
The Slavonians, thought I to myself, have a mania for other things besides cold water, namely, a general passion for novelties. The thoughts of this imitative people exercise themselves with the inventions of others.
Besides the personages already mentioned, there was yet another Russian princess on board our vessel.
This lady, the princess L, was a most agreeable
person in society : our evenings passed delightfully in listening to Russian airs, which she sang with pleasing exeeiition, and which were quite new to me.
The prin
cess Dtook parts with her, and even
sometimes accompanied the airs with a few graceful steps of some Cossack dance. These national exhibitions and impromptu concerts agreeably suspended our conversations, and made the hours pass like moments.
88 GOOD MANNERS OF ТПЕ HIGHER ORDERS.
True models of good taste and of sociable manners are only to be found in aristocratic lands. There, none think of «nvincc themselves those comme il faut airs which spoil society in places infested by parvenus. In aristocratic circles, each member feels himself in his proper place, all are accustomed to the same society, and even where there is no sympathy, there is an intimacy that produces ease and confidence. The parties understand the slightest allusions that occur in conversation ; each recognises his own manner of thinking in the language of the rest; all so dispose themselves towards each other as though expecting to pass through life in company; and travellers destined to remain together for a length of time understand each other better than those who meet for only an hour. From this necessary harmony springs general politeness, which is not, however, unvaried in its aspect, A delicate shading still marks the diversity of minds ; and elegance of discourse embellishes all that is said, without doing injury to anything: for the truth of sentiments loses nothing by the sacrifices which delicacy of expression requires. Thus, thanks to the security which is established in all exclusive society, constraint disappears, and conversation throws off the coarseness without losing the charm of freedom.
Formerly, in France, every class of citizens could enjoy this advantage. There are many causes, into which I shall not here enter, that have deprived us of it; above all others is the improper mixing of the men of all classes.
Russia in 1839 -Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia Page 10
