jealousy or hatred of the Imperial prerogative.  On the other hand, it has never had to struggle with the other social classes, and therefore it harbours towards them no feelings of rivalry or hostility.  If we hear a Russian noble speak with indignation of autocracy or with acrimony of the bourgeoisie, we may be sure that these feelings have their source, not in traditional conceptions, but in principles learned from the modern schools of social and political philosophy.  The class to which he belongs has undergone so many transformations that it has no hoary traditions or deep-rooted prejudices, and always willingly adapts itself to existing conditions.  Indeed, it may be said in general that it looks more to the future than the past, and is ever ready to accept any new ideas that wear the badge of progress.  Its freedom from traditions and prejudices makes it singularly susceptible of generous enthusiasm and capable of vigorous spasmodic action, but calm moral courage and tenacity of purpose are not among its prominent attributes.  In a word, we find in it neither the peculiar virtues nor the peculiar vices which are engendered and fostered by an atmosphere of political liberty.

However we may explain the fact, there is no doubt that the Russian Noblesse has little or nothing of what we call aristocratic feeling—­little or nothing of that haughty, domineering, exclusive spirit which we are accustomed to associate with the word aristocracy.  We find plenty of Russians who are proud of their wealth, of their culture, or of their official position, but we rarely find a Russian who is proud of his birth or imagines that the fact of his having a long pedigree gives him any right to political privileges or social consideration.  Hence there is a certain amount of truth in the oft-repeated saying that there is in reality no aristocracy in Russia.

Certainly the Noblesse as a whole cannot be called an aristocracy.  If the term is to be used at all, it must be applied to a group of families which cluster around the Court and form the highest ranks of the Noblesse.  This social aristocracy contains many old families, but its real basis is official rank and general culture rather than pedigree or blood.  The feudal conceptions of noble birth, good family, and the like have been adopted by some of its members, but do not form one of its conspicuous features.  Though habitually practising a certain exclusiveness, it has none of those characteristics of a caste which we find in the German Adel, and is utterly unable to understand such institutions as Tafelfaehigkeit, by which a man who has not a pedigree of a certain length is considered unworthy to sit down at a royal table.  It takes rather the English aristocracy as its model, and harbours the secret hope of one day obtaining a social and political position similar to that of the nobility and gentry of England.  Though it has no peculiar legal privileges, its actual position in the Administration and at Court gives its members