MISCELLANIES. 



635 



the place more flourishing : for, 

 excepting some public buildings 

 which have beeu repaired for the 

 use of the university, no change of 

 consequence has taken place here, 

 and the number of inhabitants, 

 amounting to G,000, has not in- 

 creased in any considerable degree. 

 Among the professors of Char- 

 kow I found some Germans well 

 known by their works, but who 

 seemed to me not to be exactly in 

 their element here. This observa- 

 tion applies to most of the Ger- 

 mans, who, when no longer young, 

 emigrate to Russia and enter into 

 the service of the Crown, if they 

 are not appointed to situations in 

 Petersburg and Moskwa. It is 

 however in some measure their 

 own fault. Many of them, for in- 

 stance, neglect to learn the Russian 

 language, under the idea that they 

 have no occasion for ir, and expect 

 the natives to converse with them 

 in a foreign idiom. This is un- 

 reasonable ; for, when a man re- 

 sides in a country and receives a sa- 

 lary from the government of that 

 country, he ought certainly to take 

 the trouble to learn its language. 

 Again, the Germans would have 

 every thing to proceed in Russia 

 just as it does in their own coun- 

 try, and most of them insist on 

 this point with such obstinacy as 

 to excite the hatred of the Russians. 

 They also in general think them- 

 selves wiser and better than their 

 new countrymen, and in betraying 

 these sentiments to the latter they 

 prove that they are neither the one 

 nor the other. This conduct occa- 

 sions circumstances extremely un- 

 pleasant to themselves ; but in the 

 Russians, who are accustomed to 

 take things more easily, it creates 

 contempt and arersion for these 



strangers. I have often wondered 

 iu silence at the blindness of self- 

 conceited foreigners, who fancied 

 themselves esteemed by all, and 

 perceived not that wherever they 

 appeared they were the objects of 

 universal derision. In my opinion, 

 therefore, only such young Ger- 

 mans should go to Russia, as are 

 yet capable of adapting themselves 

 to the way of thinking and acting 

 in that country. 



The building appropriated to the 

 university is spacious, and accord- 

 ing to report is about to be still 

 further enlarged ; but the number 

 of the students would be very smalt 

 had it not been augmented by a 

 recent ordinance of the emperor, 

 according to which no person shall 

 be appointed to any civil employ- 

 ment unless he has studied at some 

 Russian university, nor any indivi- 

 dual without a previous examina- 

 tion in the sciences be promoted to 

 a staff officer, or from a collegiate 

 counsellor to a counsellor of state. 



The idea of founding an univer- 

 sity at Charkow was not of itself a 

 bad one, because many opulent 

 gentry whose sons might have be- 

 nefitted by it resided in that vici- 

 nity. But in Russia there is yet too 

 little taste for learning, and the old 

 French mode of education is still 

 too fashionable; on which account 

 people of rank and fortune very 

 seldom avail themselves of the ad- 

 vantages offered by universities and 

 other seminaries. It was likewise 

 an exceedingly injudicious step to 

 attempt to introduce knowledge 

 into Russia by means of foreigners, 

 and to raise a fabric which requires 

 the labour of ages, as expeditiously 

 as a triumphal arch may be patch- 

 ed up. The only method of eflec- 

 tually [iromoting the ditfusioi) of 



