422 RUSSIA IN 1833. 



Scarcely a century ago Russia was comprised in the territory 

 occupied by the Muscovites, who, in the opinion of mankind, were 

 confounded with the Sclavonians, whose manners brought back to the 

 memory the Scythians, the Parthians, and the Huns, and all those 

 scourges of the human race that at different intervals of time have 

 devastated civilized Europe. Suddenly a great man arose among 

 these barbarians ; he impressed upon them an impulse that survived 

 him ; he taught military discipline to their hordes, and industry to 

 their towns ; he conquered provinces in which civilization had al- 

 ready made some progress. By degrees the military resources of the 

 empire were developed, and signalized themselves in every succeed- 

 ing generation by conquests more and more important; some were 

 extended across the dreary latitudes of Asia to the frontiers of China, 

 of Persia, and of Turkey ; the others embraced the finest provinces 

 of Sweden and Poland. These last acquisitions considerably ex- 

 tended the civilized portion of the empire. 



We can now appreciate those European errors which lead the 

 most enlightened people to entertain erroneous opinions upon distant 

 states. Russia never presents itself to the mind without suggesting 

 the revolting recollections of the Barbarians of the North ; and yet 

 the people of the northern parts of Russia are incomparably more 

 civilized than a large portion of the inhabitants of its southern 

 divisions, or even those in the southern states of Austria. In the 

 very centre even of the empire, Moscow and the seven governments 

 that surround it, far from presenting the aspect of a barbarous coun- 

 try, are perhaps the districts the most advanced in civilization among 

 all the provinces of Russia: the useful arts, and even the fine arts, 

 flourish in them industry displays her activity which commerce 

 redoubles. Letters and the sciences are cultivated upon the banks of 

 the Moskwa the philosophy of Newton, the theories of La Grange, 

 of Laplace, and of Lavoisier are taught not only in the academies 

 of the ancient capital, but in those of the great towns of the empire. 

 Both at Moscow and at St. Petersburg the masterpieces of Corneille, 

 of Racine, and of Voltaire, of Schiller and of Klopstock, are repre- 

 sented in the language of their authors. Painting and sculpture em- 

 bellish monuments of the most sumptuous architecture. This taste for 

 the fine arts attests the progress of the upper classes in the march of 

 civilization. We are indebted to a Russian Senator (Count Orloff,) 

 for the history of Italian musick and painting, a work written in the 

 French language, and remarkable for its purity of style and elevation 

 of sentiment. 



It is far away towards the east, and towards the frontiers of the 

 south, that we must advance ere we meet with the barbarian tribes ; 

 it is in those regions inhabited by the Nomadic Tartar hordes, be- 

 yond the Taurida, nearer Turkey, at the foot of the Caucasus, or on 

 the confines of China. 



But even in these parts, the inhabitants are for ever cured of those 

 prejudices that rendered their ancestors, the Huns and the Alani, the 

 scourges of civilized nations. They begin to feel the advantages and 

 benefits of education, and cherish the productive arts. Schools of 

 mutual instruction are established upon either bank of the Don and 



