I hope to see the day in which this man—as wonderful by the passions he foments after death as by the actions of his life —will be fairly judged. Truth has but yet touched the pedestal of his statue, hitherto shielded against the equitable severity of history l>y the double influence of unparalleled successes and misfortunes.
At any rate our children will have to learn, that
CHARACTER OF NAPOLEON.oó
he had more grasp of mind than dignity of character, and that he was greater by his talent in availing himself of successes, than by his constancy in strug-сА\щ against reverses. Then, but not till then, will the terrible consequences of his political immorality.. and his machiavelian government, be mitigated.
After leaviuo` the terraces of the Kremlin, I re-turned to my rooms with a feeling of exhaustion similar to that of a man who has been just witnessing the performance of some horrible tragedy, or rather like an invalid who awakes with the nightmare in a fever.
С 5
34ORIENTAL ASPECT OP MOSCOW.
CHAP. XXVIII.
ORIENTAL ASPECT OF MOSCOW.HORACE VERNET.WANT OF
SUPERIOR WORKS OF ART.RUSSIAN FICKLENESS.SILK MANU
FACTORIES. APPEARANCES OF LIBERTY.RAILROADS. ENG
LISH CLUBRUSSIAN PIETY.CHURCH AND STATE IN ENGLAND.
—DEVOTEES AND STATESMEN. ERROR OF THE LIBERALS IN
REJECTING CATHOLICISM. FRENCH POLICY. NEWSPAPER GO
VERNMENT. THE GRECO-RUSSIAN CHURCH. ITS SECTS, AND
THEIR ORIGIN. POLYGAMY. — MERCHANTS OF MOSCOW. A
RUSSIAN FAIR. RURAL SCENERY IN MOSCOW.DRUNKENNESS
AMONG THE RUSSIANS. HIDDEN POETRYSONG OF THE DON
COSSACKS.THE MUSIC OF NORTHERN NATIONS.THE COSSACKS.
THEIR CHARACTER.INFLUENCE UNDER WHICH THEY FIGHT.
—POLITICAL SUBTERFUGES. A POLISH FABLE.
Moscow is about the only mountainous district in the centre of Russia. Not that this word is to sug-gest the idea of Switzerland or Italy : the soil is full of inequalities, and that is all. But the contrast presented by these hills, rising in the middle of an expanse, where both the eye and the thoughts lose themselves as on the savannahs of America or the steppes of Asia, produces an effect that is very strik-in<>`. Moscow is the city of panoramas. With its commanding sites and its grotesque edifices, which might serve as models for the fantastic compositions of Martin, it recalls the idea which we form, without knowing why, of Perscpolis, Bagdad, Babylon, or Palmyra,—romantic capitals of fabulous lands, whose history is a poem, and whose architecture is a dream.
HORACE VERNET.`¿5
In a word, at Moscow we forget Europe. This was what I did not know in France, although I had read nearly all the travellers' descriptions of the eity. They have then failed in their duty. There is one especially whom I cannot pardon for not having permitted others to enjoy his visit to Russia. No descriptions are equal to the sketches of a painter, exact and, at the same time, picturesque, like Horace Vernet. What man was ever more gifted to perceive, and to make others perceive, the spirit that breathes in things ? The truth of painting lies not so much in the form as in the expression of objects: he understood them like a poet, and transferred them like an artist; consequently, every time I feel the insufficiency of my words, I am inclined to be angry with Horace Vernet.
Here, every view is a landscape. If art has done little for Moscow, the caprice of the builders and the foree of circumstances have created marvels. The extraordinary forms of the edifices, and the grandeur of the masses, strongly impress the imagination. The enjoymentj it must be owned, is of an inferior order: Moscow is not the product of genius; connoisseurs will there find no monuments of art worthy of a minute examination: those monuments are rather the strange and deserted habitations of some race of giants; they are the works of the eyelops. In a city where no great artist has left the impress of his thoughts we may feel astonishment, but nothing more, and astonishment is soon exhausted. However, there is nothing here, not even the disenchantment that follows the first surprise, from which I cannot draw a lesson: more particularly am I struck with С 6
36
RUSSIAN FICKLENESS.
the visible intimate connection between the aspect of the city and the character of the people. The Russians love all that dazzles; they are easily seduced by appearances: to excite envy, no matter at what price, contitutes their happiness. The English are gnawed by pride, the Russians are corroded by vanity.
I feel the necessity of here reminding the reader that generalities always pass for injustices. Once for all, I would state that my observations never exclude exceptions; and I avail myself of the occasion to express the respect and admiration I entertain for the merits and agreeable qualities of individuals to whom my criticisms do not apply.
Other travellers have observed before I did, that the less we know of a Russian the more amiable we find him. The Russians have retorted upon those travellers, that they spoke in their own disparagement, and that the coolness of which they complained only proved their want of merit. " We gave you a good reception," they add, " because we are naturally hospitable ; and if we afterwards changed in our manner towards you, it was because we thought more highly of you at first than you deserved." Such an answer was made a considerable time ago to a French traveller, an able writer, but whose position obliged him to be excessively reserved. I do not mean here to cite either his name or his book. The few truths which, in his prudent recitals, he allowed himself to expose, placed him in a very disagreeable position. This was the penalty for denying himself the exercise of his intellect, in oi`der to submit to expectations which can never be satisfied; not any more by flattering them than by doing them justice. It would cost less
SILK MANUFACTORIES.37
to brave them; and on this opinion the reader will perceive I act.
Moscow prides herself on the progress of her manufactures. The Russian silks here contend with those of both East and West. The merchant-quarter, the Kitaigorod, as well as the street called the Bridge of the Marshals, where the most elegant shops are found, are reckoned among the curiosities of the city. If I mention them it is because I think that the efforts of the Russians to free themselves from the tribute which they pay to the industry of other nations, may produce important political consequences in Europe. The liberty that reigns in Moscow is illusive ; yet it cannot be denied that in its streets there are men who appear to move spontaneously, who think and act under an impulse of their own. Moscow is in this respect very different from Petersburg. Among the causes of the difference, I place in the first rank the vast extent and the varied surface of the territory in the midst of which it stands. Space and inequality (I here take this word in all its acceptations) are the elements of liberty ; for absolute equality is the synonyme of tyranny, though it is the minority who may be placed under the yoke : liberty and equality exclude each other by means of reserves and combinations, more or less abstruse, which neutralise the effect of things while preserving their names.
Moscow remains almost buried in the midst of a country of which it is the capital: hence the seal of originality impressed upon its buildings, the air of liberty which distinguishes its inhabitants, and the little inclination of the Czars for a residence whose
38
RAILROADS.
aspect is so independent. The Czars, ancient tyrants mitigated by the fashion which has metamorphosed them into emperors, and eyen into amiable men, fly Moscow. They prefer Petersburg, with all its inconveniences, for they wish to be in continual communication with the West of Europe. Russia, as formed by Peter the Great, does not trust to herself to live and to learn. At Moscow they could not obtain in a week's time the little importations of the current anecdotes and small gossip of Paris, nor the ephemeral literature of Europe. These details, contemptible as they appear to us, furnish the chief excitement of the Russian court, and consequently of Russia.
If the freezing or the melting snow did not render railroads useless in this land during six or
eight months of the year, we should see the Russian government surpass all others in the construction of those roads which are, as it were, lessening the size of earth; for that government suffers more than any other from the inconveniences of distance. But, notwithstanding acceleration of the speed of travelling, a vast extent of territory will always be the chief obstacle to the circulation of ideas: for the soil will not allow itself, like the sea, to be crossed in all directions. The water, which, at first sight, appears destined to separate the inhabitants of the world, is the medium which, in reality, unites them. Wonderful problem ! Man, the prisoner of God, is yet allowed to be the king of nature.
Certainly, were Moscow a, sea-port, or the centre of a vast network of those metal wheel-tracks, those electric conductors of human thought, destined to
ENGLISH CLUB.
39
satisfy, in some respects, the impatient spirit of our age, we should not see what I saw yesterday at the English club-house — military men, and fashionables of all ages, serious persons and giddy youths, making the sign of the cross, and remaining silent for some moments before sitting down at table — not a family-table, but a tahle-dlwte. Those who disclaim all religion (and there is a considerable number of such) viewed the others without any surprise. It may still be seen that there are 800 good leagues between Paris and Moscow.
The palace belonging to the club is large and handsome. The entire establishment is well planned and skilfully directed; everything is about the same as in the clubs of other places. This did not surprise me ; but the pious feeling of the Russians I sincerely admired, and said as much to the person who had introduced me,
We were talking together after dinner in the garden of the club.
lí We must not be judged by the appearance," replied my companion, who is, as I am about to show, one of the most enlightened of the Russians.
" It is precisely this appearance," I replied, " which inspires me with esteem for your nation. With us, people dread only hypocrisy ; but the sneer of cynicism is even yet more injurious to society."
" Yes, but it is less revolting to noble minds."
" I think so too : but by what strange whim is it that incredulity should raise so great a cry of sacrilege whenever she thinks she sees in a man's heart a little less piety than he proclaims by his words and actions ? Were our philosophers consistent, they
40
ERROR OP THE LIBERALS
would tolerate hypocrisy, as one of the stays of the machine of state. Faith is more tolerant."
" I did not expect to hear you make an apology for hypocrisy !"
" I detest it as the most odious of all vices: but I say that, injuring man only in his relations with God, hypocrisy is less pernicious to society than barefaced incredulity; and I maintain that it is only truly j)ious people who have any right to qualify it with the name of profanation. Irreligious minds, philosophical statesmen, ought to view it with indulgence, and might even use it as a political auxiliary. This, however, has not often happened in France; for Gallic sincerity revolts from drawing advantages out of falsehood, in order to govern men : but the calculating genius of a rival nation has known better than we have how to make use of the yoke of convenient fictions. The policy of England — a country which excels all others in the practical character of its views and aims—has liberallv rewarded theological in-consistency and religious hypocrisy. The church of England is certainly much less reformed than is the Catholic church, since the Council of Trent has done justice to the legitimate claims of princes and people : it is absurd to destroy unity under the pretext of abuses, and at the same time to perpetuate those abuses for the abolition of which the fatal right of making sects has been arrogated; nevertheless, the English church, founded upon patented contradictions, and maintained by usurpation, still continues to aid the country in prosecuting the conquest of the world ; and the country recompenses it by a hypocritical protection. I therefore maintain, that these incon-
IN REJECTING CATHOLICISM.41
sistencies and hypocrisies, monstrous as they appear in the eyes of men sincerely pious, ought not to shock statesmen or philosophers."
" You do not pretend to say that there are no u`ood Christians in the Anglican church ?"
" No : I merely maintain that among such Christians the ideas of the greater number are illogical. I therefore do not envy for France the religious policy of England, though I admire at each step I take in this country, the religious submission of the Russians. Among the French, every clergyman who has influence becomes an oppressor in the eyes of the powerful minds, who, while governing, have been disorganising the country for the last hundred and thirty yeai·s, either openly by their revolutionary fanaticism, or tacitly by their philosophical indifference."
The really enlightened man with whom I talked appeared seriously to reflect; and then, after a long silence, resumed : —
" I am not so very far as you may suppose from sharing your opinion ; for since I have travelled, one thing has always struck me as involving a contradiction—the unfriendliness of the liberals to the Catholic religion. I speak even of those who call themselves members of that church. How is it that such minds— for there are some who argue clearly, and carry reasons to their farthest consecµiences, — how is it that they cannot see that, in rejecting the Catholic religion, they deprive themselves of a guarantee against the local despotism which every government, of whatever character it may be, always tends to exercise ?"
42FRENCH POLICY
" You are right," I replied, " but the world is led by routine; and during centuries the strongest minds have so exclaimed against the intolerance and rapacity of Home, that people have not yet accustomed themselves to shift their point of view, and to look at the Pope in his quality of spiritual head of the church, of unchangeable supporter of religious liberty, as well as in his capacity of temporal sovereign; to view him as a venerable power, embarrassed in his double duties ■— a complication perhaps unavoidable, л if he would maintain his independence. How is it that people cannot see that a nation, when sincerely Catholic, must inevitably become the adversary of England, whose political power is based entirely upon heresy ? Let France succour and defend with the energy of conviction the banner of the Catholic church, and by such act alone she will, from one end of the world to the other, be carrying on a powerful war against England. These are truths which ought to strike all minds, and which yet have hitherto only occurred to interested parties, and are consequently without weight: for it is another of the singularities of our age, that in France a man is considered wrong whenever it is suspected that he has any interest in being right. Such is the disorder of ideas produced by fifty years of revolutions, and more than a hundred of philosophical and literary cynicism. Have I not, then, good reason to envy your faith?"
" But the results of your religious policy would be to place the nation at the feet of the priests."
" Exaggerations as regards religion are the worst signs in the features of our age: but were the piety of the faithful as menacing as it appears to me harmless,
NEWSPAPER GOVERNMENT.43
I would not shrink from the consequences involved in my principles. All who would do or obtain anything real in this world are obliged — to use your expression — to place themselves at the feet of somebody."
" True; but I should prefer to flatter even the government of the journalists rather than that of the priests: the advantages of liberty of thought counterbalance its inconveniences."
" Had you lived under it as I have done, and seen, as I have, the tyrannical minds of the greater number of the directors of the periodical press in France, and the results of their arbitrary power, you would not be quite so contented with that seductive word — liberty of thought. You would ask for the thing itself, and you would soon discover that the power of the journalists is exercised with as much partiality, and much less morality, than the ecclesiastical authority. To leave for a moment the subject of politics, just ask the newspapers
by what they are governed in the fame or credit they accord to each individual! The morality of any power depends on the school through which the men have to pass who are destined to wield it. !N^ow you cannot think that the school of journalism is more capable of inspiring men with really humane and independent sentiments than the sacerdotal school. All the question is comprised in this ; and France is called upon to resolve it.
" But, without further reference to general considerations, give me an idea of the actual state of religion in your country; tell me, how are the minds of the men who teach the Gospel in Russia cultivated ? "
44ТПЕ GRECO-RUSSIAN CHURCH.
Although I addressed a man of superior mind, the question would have been an indiscreet one at Petersburg : at Moscow I felt I might risk it, confiding in that mysterious liberty that reigns in this city, though we can neither fully account for nor define it; and though the confidence which it inspires may sometimes have to be dearly paid for. * The following is the summary of my Russian philosopher's reply: I use the word philosopher in its most favourable signification. After years passed in different European countries, he has returned to Russia very liberal, but very consistent. His reply then was as follows :
Russia in 1839 -Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia Page 65
