I saw at Moscow the most enlightened men in the career of science and literature; but there, as well as at Petersburg, the professors’ chairs are almost entirely filled with Germans.  There is in Russia a great scarcity of well-informed men in any branch; young people in general only go to the University to be enabled sooner to enter into the military profession.  Civil employments in Russia confer a rank corresponding to a grade in the army; the spirit of the nation is turned entirely towards war:  in every thing else, in administration, in political economy, in public instruction, &c. the other nations of Europe have hitherto borne away the palm from the Russians.  They are making attempts, however, in literature; the softness and brilliancy of the sounds of their language are remarked even by those who do not understand it; and it should be very well adapted for poetry and music.  But the Russians have, like so many other continental nations, the fault of imitating the French literature, which, even with all its beauties, is only fit for the French themselves.  I think that the Russians ought rather to make their literary studies derive from the Greeks than from the Latins.  The characters of the Russian alphabet, so similar to those of the Greeks, the ancient communication of the Russians with the Byzantine empire, their future destinies, which will probably lead them to the illustrious monuments of Athens and Sparta, all this ought to turn the Russians to the study of Greek:  but it is above all necessary that their writers should draw their poetry from the deepest inspiration of their own soul.  Their works, up to this time, have been composed, as one may say, by the lips, and never can a nation so vehement be stirred up by such shrill notes.

CHAPTER 15

Road from Moscow to Petersburg.

I quitted Moscow with regret:  I stopped a short time in a wood near the city, where on holidays the inhabitants go to dance, and celebrate the sun, whose splendor is of such short duration, even at Moscow.  What is it then I see, in advancing towards the North?  Even these eternal birch trees, which weary you with their monotony, become very rare, it is said, as you approach Archangel; they are preserved there, like orange trees in France.  The country from Moscow to Petersburg is at first sandy, and afterwards all marsh:  when it rains, the ground becomes black, and the high road becomes undistinguishable.  The houses of the peasants, however, every where indicate a state of comfort; they are decorated with columns, and the windows are surrounded with arabesques carved in wood.  Although it was summer when I passed through this country, I already felt the threatening winter which seemed to conceal itself behind the clouds:  of the fruits which were offered to me, the flavor was bitter, because their ripening had been too much hastened; a rose excited emotion in me as a recollection of our fine countries, and the flowers themselves appeared to carry their heads with less pride, as if the icy hand of the North had been already prepared to pluck them.