its inutility?  That which is wanting to the sacred cause of morality, is, that it should contribute in a very striking manner to great success in this world; he who feels all the dignity of this cause will sacrifice with pleasure every success, but it is still necessary to teach those presumptuous persons who imagine they discover depth of thinking in the vices of the soul, that if in immorality there is sometimes wit, in virtue there is genius.  In obtaining the conviction of the good faith of the emperor Alexander, in his relations with Napoleon, I was at the same time persuaded that he would not imitate the example of the unfortunate sovereigns of Germany, and would sign no peace with him who is equally the enemy of people and kings.  A noble soul cannot be twice deceived by the same person.  Alexander gives and withdraws his confidence with the greatest reflection.  His youth and personal advantages have alone, at the beginning of his reign, made him be suspected of levity; but he is serious, even as much so as a man may be who has known misfortune.  Alexander expressed to me his regret at not being a great captain:  I replied to this noble modesty, that a sovereign was much more rare than a general, and that the support of the public feelings of his people, by his example, was achieving the greatest victory, and the first of the kind which had ever been gained.  The emperor talked to me with enthusiasm of his nation, and of all that it was capable of becoming.  He expressed to me the desire, which all the world knows him to entertain, of ameliorating the state of the peasants still subject to slavery.  “Sire,” said I to him, “your character is a constitution for your empire, and your conscience is the guarantee of it.”  “Were that even the case,” replied he, “I should only be a fortunate accident."* Noble words!  The first of the kind, I believe, which an absolute monarch ever pronounced!  How many virtues it requires, in a despot, properly to estimate despotism! and how many virtues also, never to abuse it, when the nation which he governs is almost astonished at such signal moderation.  At Petersburg especially, the great nobility have less liberality in their principles than the emperor himself.  Accustomed to be the absolute masters of their peasants, they wish the monarch, in his turn, to be omnipotent, for the purpose of maintaining the hierarchy of despotism.  The state of citizens does not yet exist in Russia; it begins however to be forming; the sons of the clergy, those of the merchants, and some peasants who have obtained of their lords the liberty of becoming artists, may be considered as a third order in the state.  The Russian nobility besides bears no resemblance to that of Germany or France; a man becomes noble in Russia, as soon as he obtains rank in the army.  No doubt the great families, such as the Narischkins, the Dolgoroukis, the Gallitzins, &c. will always hold the first rank in the empire; but it is not less true that the advantages of the aristocracy belong to men,