short a time.  This people which must always be described by contrasts, possesses an unheard of perseverance in its struggles with nature or with hostile armies.  Necessity always found the Russians patient and invincible, but in the ordinary course of life they are very unsteady.  The same men, the same masters, do not long inspire them with enthusiasm; reflection alone can guarantee the duration of feelings and opinions in the habitual quiet of life, and the Russians, like all people subject to despotism, are more capable of dissimulation than reflection.

On my arrival at Petersburg my first sentiment was to return thanks to heaven for being on the borders of the sea.  I saw waving on the Neva the English flag, the symbol of liberty, and I felt that on committing myself to the ocean, I might return under the immediate power of the Deity; it is an illusion which one cannot help entertaining, to believe one’s self more under the hand of Providence, when delivered to the elements than when depending on men, and especially on that man who appears to be a revelation of the evil principle on this earth.

Just facing the house which I inhabited at Petersburg was the statue of Peter I.; he is represented on horseback climbing a steep mountain, in the midst of serpents who try to stop the progress of his horse.  These serpents, it is true, are put there to support the immense weight of the horse and his rider; but the idea is not a happy one:  for in fact it is not envy which a sovereign can have to dread:  neither are his adulators his enemies:  and Peter I. especially had nothing to fear during his life, but from Russians who regretted the ancient customs of their country.  The admiration of him, however, which is still preserved is the best proof of the good he did to Russia:  for despots have no flatterers a hundred years after their death.  On the pedestal of the statue is written:  To Peter the First, Catherine the Second.  This simple, yet proud, inscription has the merit of truth.  These two great monarchs have elevated the Russian pride to the highest pitch; and to teach a nation to regard itself as invincible, is to make it such, at least within its own territory:  for conquest is a chance which probably depends more upon the faults of the vanquished than upon the genius of the victor,

It is said, and properly, that you cannot, at Petersburg, say of a woman, that she is as old as the streets, the streets themselves are so modern.  The buildings still possess a dazzling whiteness, and at night when they are lighted by the moon, they look like large white phantoms regarding, immoveable, the course of the Neva.  I know not what there is particularly beautiful in this river, but the waves of no other I had yet seen ever appeared to me so limpid.  A succession of granite quays, thirty versts in length, borders its course, and this magnificent labour of man is worthy of the transparent water which it adorns.  Had Peter I. directed similar undertakings towards