" What an excellent people !" cried the lady who had undertaken to entertain me.
" What pitiable beings," I thought, as I re-seated myself, for I shall never admire the miracles of fear. However, I deemed it wiser to be silent.
" Order is not so easily re-established in your
MADAME DE GENLIS.197
country/' continued my indefatigable enemy, never ceasing to scrutinise me with her inquisitive eyes.
This impoliteness was new to me. In general, I had found the manners of the Russians too obliging for the malignity of mind which I could detect under their fine phrases; here I recognised an accord between the sentiments and their expression, that was yet more disagreeable.
"We have among us the inconveniences of liberty ; but we have also the advantages," I replied.
" What are they ? "
" They would not be understood in Russia."
" They can be dispensed with."
" As can every thing else that is not known."
My adversary was piqued, and sought to hide her vexation by suddenly changing the subject of discourse.
"Is it of your family that Madame de Genlis speaks so much in the Souvenirs of Felicia, and of your person in her Memoirs ? "
I answered in the affirmative, and then expressed my surprise that these books were read at Schlus-selburg.
" You take us for Laplanders," retorted the lady, with that tone of acrimony which I had not succeeded in softening, and which began to react upon me, until I had nearly reached the same diapason.
"No, madame, but for Russians who have something better to do than to occupy themselves with the gossip of French society."
" Madame de Genlis is no gossip."
" Yet such of her writings as those in which she does no more than gracefully relate the little anee-K 3
198
FRENCH LITERATURE.
dotes of her times, can only, it appears to me, be interesting to the French."
" You do not wish that Ave should make much of you and your writers."
k¢I wish that we should be valued for our real merit."
" If the influence that you have exercised over Europe in matters of social intercourse were taken from you, what would be left you ? "
I felt that I had to deal with a powerful adversary. " There would remain to us the glory of our history, and even that of the history of Russia; for this empire owes only its new influence in Europe to the energy with which it avenged itself for the conquest of its capital by the French."
•' It is true that you have immensely aided us, without wishing to do so."
" Did you lose any dear friend in that Avar ? "
" No, monsieur."
I had hoped that the aversion against France, which Avas betrayed by every word in the conversation of this rude lady, avou1c1 be explained to me by some too legitimate cause of resentment, but my expectation Avas deceived.
The conversation, which could not become general, Avas carried on in this manner until dinner. I sought to turn it to our new school of literature, but Balzac alone had been read. He was infinitely admired, and fairly judged. Almost all the works of our modern authors are prohibited in Russia, which proves the influence attributed to them. At last, after a long delay, Ave seated ourselves at table. The lady of the house, ever faithful to her part as a statue, made
THE DINNER.
199
that day but one movement: she transported herself, without turning her eyes or opening her lips, from her sofa in the drawing room to her chair in the dining-room. This change of position, performed spontaneously, proved to me that the idol had legs.
The dinner did not pass over without constraint, but it was not long, and appeared to me sufficiently good, with the exception of the soup, the originality of which passed all bounds. This soup was cold, and consisted of pieces of fish, which swam in a broth of strong, highly-seasoned, and highly-sweetened vinegar. With the exception of this infernal ragout, and of the sour cruarss, a species of beer which is a national beverage, I ate and drank with good appetite. There was excellent claret and ehampagne on the table, but I saw clearly that they had put themselves out on my account, which produced mutual formality and constraint. The engineer did not participate in this feeling; though a great man at his sluices, he was nothing at all in his own house, and left his mother-in-law to do its honours, with the grace of which the reader may judge.
At six in the evening my entertainers and myself parted, with a satisfaction that was reciprocal, and, it must be owned, ill-disguised. I left for the castle of
, where I was expected. The frankness of the
fair plebeians had reconciled me to the mincing affectations of certain great ladies. One may hope to triumph over affectation, but natural dispositions are invincible.
It was yet light when I reached, which is six
or eight leagues from Schlusselburg. I spent there
the rest of the evening, walking, in the twilight, in a
к 4
200EETURN TO PETERSBUEG.
garden, which, for Russia, is very handsome, sailing in a little boat on the Neva, and enjoying the refined and agreeable conversation of a member of the fashionable circles. What I have seen at Schlus-selberg will make me cautious how I place myself again in a position where it is necessary to face such interrogations as I submitted to in that society. Such drawing-rooms resemble fields of battle. The circles of fashion, with all their vices, seem preferable to this petty world, with all its precise virtues.
' I was again in Petersburg soon after midnight, having travelled during the day about thirty-six leagues through sandy and miry roads, with two sets of hired horses.
The demands upon the animals are in proportion to those made upon the men. The Russian horses seldom last more than eight or ten years. The pavement of Petersburg is as fatal to them as it is to the carriages, and, it may be said, to the riders, whose heads nearly split as soon as they are off the few wooden roads that can be found. It is true that the Russians have laid their detestable pavement in regularly-figured compartments of large stones,—an ornament which only increases the evil, for it makes riding in the streets yet more jolting. A certain appearance of elegance or magnificence—a boastful display of wealth and grandeur, is all that the Russians care for: they have commenced the work of civilisation by creating its superfluities. If such be the right way of proceeding, let us cry, " Long live. vanity, and down with common sens/'!
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ADIEUS.201
CHAP. XXI.
PHILOSOPHY OF ADIEUS.IMAGINATION.A TWILIGHT SCENE IN
PETERSBURG.NORTHERN MYTHOLOGY. GOD IN NATURE.
THE SPIRIT OF THE WORLD.LITERARY CANDOUR.THE BRIDGE
OF NEVA AT NIGHT.PETERSBURG COMPARED TO VENICE.THE
GOSPEL DANGEROUS. — RELIGION IN RUSSIA. JANUS. NEAY
POLAND. THE FUTURE.A DELAY. HISTORY OF THE PRINCE
AND PRINCESS TROUBETZKOI.DEVOTION OF THE PRINCESS.
FOURTEEN YEARS IN THE URALIAN MINES.MERCY OF THE EM
PEROR. THE CHILDREN OF A CONVICT. COLONISATION IN
SIBERIA.A MOTHER'S ANGUISH. SECOND PETITION TO THE
EMPEROR, AND HIS ANSWER.A FINAL OPINION ON THE CHA
RACTER OF THE EMPEROR.THE FAMILY OF THE EXILES.—
CHANGE IN THE AUTHOR`S PLANS.— MEANS TAKEN FOR DECEIVING THE POLICE.
I have bid adieu to Petersburg. — Adieu is a magical word ! It invests places as well as persons with an attraction previously unknown. Why has Petersburg never appeared to me so beautiful as on this evening? It is because I have seen it for the last time. The mind, rich in illusions, has the power of metamorphosing the world, the image of which is to us never anything more than the reflection of our inward life. Those who say that nothing exists beyond ourselves, are perhaps right; but I, prone to philosophy without wishing to be so, metaphysical without any other pretension than that of allowing the natural bent of my thoughts to take their course, inclining ever towards insolvable ques
tions, doubtless к 5
202THE PHILOSOPHY OF ADIEUS.
I am unwise in seeking to account to myself for this incomprehensible influence. The torment of my mental faculties, the chief faults of my style, are produced by the necessity of defining the nndefinable : my powers lose themselves in the pursuit of the impossible ; my words suffice no better than my sentiments or my passions. Our dreams, our visions, are, as compared with clear precise ideas, what a horizon of brilliant clouds is to mountains, whose chains it sometimes imitates betwixt heaven and earth. No modes of expression can cleai`ly define and fix those fugitive creations of the phantasy, which vanish under the pen of the writer, as the brilliant pearls of a clear stream escape from the nets of the fisherman.
What is it that can be added to the real beauty of a place by the idea that we are about to quit it ? In thinking that I behold it for the last time, I feel as though I валу it for the first.
Our destiny is so movable as compared with the destiny of things, that whatever recalls to us the shortness of our days inspires us with a renewed admiration. This sentiment of respect for things that last longer than do we, leads us to reflect upon ourselves. The stream that we are descending is so rapid that the objects we leave on the banks seem beyond the influence of time. The waters of the cascade must believe in the immortality of the tree that overshadows them ; and the world seems to us eternal, so rapidly are we passing through its varied scenes.
Perhaps the reason that the life of the traveller is so full of emotions is because the departures of which it is composed are but rehearsals of death. Herein, doubtless, lie the reasons for our discovering beauty in
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ADIEUS.203
that which we abandon; but there is another reason which I scarcely venture here to dwell upon.
In certain minds the necessity for independence becomes a passion. The fear of forming ties operates in such manner that we attach ourselves only to things from which we flee, because the attraction that we feel towards such objects binds us to nothing. We experience raptures without any further results. We depart: to depart is to perform an act of liberty. By absence we disengage ourselves from the fetters of sentiment; man enjoys in full security the pleasure of admiring that which he will never see more; he abandons himself to his preferences or his affections without fear or constraint: he knows that he has wings ! But when he feels that through constantly expanding and folding them, they are beginning to wear out, when he discovers that travelling instructs him less than it fatigues him, then is the hour for return and repose arrived : I can perceive that this hour is approaching for me.
It was night. Obscurity, like absence, has its illusion ; like it, it forces us to conjecture. Towards the end of the clay the mind abandons itself to reverie, the heart opens to sensibility and to regret. When all that we see disappears, there remains for us only what we feel: the present dies, the past revives ; death and earth restore their prey, and night. rich in shade, drops over the varied objects an atmospheric veil which magnifies them and makes them appear more tenderly beautiful; obscurity, like absence, enthrals the mind by means of incertitude; it summons the vagueness of poetry in aid of its en-<. hantments : night," absence, and death are magicians, к G
204
IMAGINATION.
and their power is a mystery like every thing else that acts upon the imagination. Imagination in its relations with nature, in its effects, in its illusive influences, will never be defined satisfactorily by minds even the most subtle and the most sublime. Clearly to define imagination would be to mount up to the fountain head of the passions. Source of love, channel of pity, moving element of genius, most tremendous of all the endowments of man—for it makes of him a new Prometheus, — imagination is the strength of the Creator lent for one moment to the creature. Man receives it, but he cannot scan it: it is in him, but it is not of him. When the voice ceases to warble, when the rainbow melts away, whither are the sounds and the colours fled ? Can any one say whence they came ? Similar in their nature, although yet more incomprehensible, more varied, more fugitive, and above all, more disquieting, are the illusions of imagination ! I have felt the power of this faculty all my life with an unavailing awe; I have far too much of it for the use I make of it; I sought to render myself its master; I remain its victim and its toy. Abyss of desires and contradictions, it is it which still urges me to traverse the world, and which attaches me to places at the very moment when it is summoning me elsewhere. О illusions ! how perfidious are you when you seduce us, and how cruel when you abandon us !
It was past ten o'clock when I returned from the promenade of the Islands. At that hour the aspect of the city has a singular and not easily described effect; for the beauty of the picture does not consist in the lines, since the site is entirely flat, it lies in
A TWILIGHT SCENE.
205
the magic of the vapoury nights of the North ; though vapoury, luminous, and — though it cannot be understood without seeing them—full of poetic majesty.
On this evening the disposition of the light was such as to involve the west of the city in obscurity, though the heaven above was clear ; whilst in the east, everything on earth was brightly illuminated, and stood in white relief against a dark sky. This contrast produced to the eye an effect that words could render but very imperfectly. The slow melting of the tints of twilight, which appeared to perpetuate the day in struggling against an ever-increasing gloom, communicated to all nature a mysterious movement; the low lands of the city, with their structures little raised above the banks of the Neva, seemed to oscillate betwixt the sky and the water, which gave the impression of their being about to vanish in the void.
Holland, although it enjoys a better climate and a richer vegetation, might convey an idea of some of the streets of Petersburg, but this would only be by day-light, for the polar nights teem with apparitions of wonder all their own. Several of the towers and steeples of the city are, as I have already said, surmounted with lofty turrets, which resemble the masts of vessels; at night, these ornaments of the Russian public buildings, gilded according to the national custom, seem to float in the expanse, and, when not lost in the shade, shine with a thousand reflections similar to the glossy scales of the lizard.
It is now the beginning of August, the end of summer in these latitudes, nevertheless a small portion of the heavens remains luminous the whole night. This glory of mother-of-pearl, set in the horizon, is
206
GOD IN NATURE.
reflected in the calm stream or rather lake of the Neva, which, thus irradiated, resembles an immense plate of bright metal, a silver plain, only separated from a sky as white as itself, by the dim miniature of a city. That little spot of earth which seems to detach itself from the water and to tremble upon it like the froth of an inundation, those small dark irregular points scarcely observable between the white of the sky and the white of the river, can they form the capital of a vast empire?—or rather, is it not all an optical illusion, a phantasmagoria?
The spire of the cathedral church in which are deposited the remains of the last sovereigns of Russia, rises blackly against the white curtain of heaven. This taper spire, soaring above the fortress and the city, has the effect of the too hard and too bold pencil-stroke given by a painter in a moment of intoxication. A stroke which would spoil a picture may embellish the reality. God does not paint as we do. The whole scene was beautiful; — scarcely any movement, but a solemn calm, a vague inspiration. All the sounds and bustle of ordinary life were interrupted ; man had disappeared, the earth remained in the possession of the supernatural powers. There are in these remains of day, these unequal and dying lights of a boreal night, mysteries which I know not how to define, and which explain to me the mythology of the North. I can now understand all the superstitions of the Scandinavians. God hides himself in the light of the pole as much as he manifests himself in the blazing noon-tide of the tropics. All places and all climates are beautiful in the eyes of the w
ise man who seeks only in creation to discover the
GOD IN NATURE.
207
Creator. To whatever corner of the earth the restlessness of my heart may impel my steps, it is ever the same God whom I admire, the same voice that I interrogate. Wherever man casts clown a religious eye, he recognises in nature, a body of which God is the soul. The spectre of a sleeping city reminds me of that ballad of Coleridge, in which the English seaman beholds the phantom of a vessel gliding across the sea. These nocturnal illusions are to the inhabitants of the polar regions what the Fata Morgana, in broad day, is to the men of the South : the colours, the lines, and the hour are different; the illusion is the same.
In contemplating with emotion one of the countries of the earth in which nature is the most naked, and where she is considered the least worthy of admiration, I love to dwell upon the consolatory idea that God has dispensed to each point of the globe beauties that enable his children to recognise Him everywhere by indubitable signs, and to recognise also that they owe Him thanks, in whatever zones his providence may have called them to live. The features of the Creator are imprinted upon every portion of the earth, which is thus rendered sacred to the eye of man. Each locality has its soul, according to the poetical expression of Jocelyn. I can never tire of a scene which speaks to me. It may be the same burden unceasingly repeated, yet each time it conveys the idea of something new. The lessons that I can thus draw, suffice for the modest aspirations of my life. A taste for travel is, with me, neither a pretence, a fashion, nor a consolation. I am born a traveller as others are born diplomatists: - To me, my country is every spot
Russia in 1839 -Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia Page 48
