On the surface is absolutism in glittering completeness, and beneath that—­chaos.  Lying at the bottom of that chaos is the great mass of Slavonic people undeveloped as children—­an embryonic civilization—­utterly helpless and utterly miserable.  In the mass lying above that exists the mind of Russia—­through which course streams of unduly developed intelligence in fierce revolt against the omnipresence of misery.  And still above that is the shining, enameled surface rivaling that of any other nation in splendor.  The Emperor may say with a semblance of truth l’etat c’est moi, but although he may combine in himself all the functions, judicial, legislative, and executive, no channels have been supplied, no finely organized system provided for conveying that triple stream to the extremities.  The living currents at the top have never reached the mass at the bottom—­that despised but necessary soil in which the prosperity of the Empire is rooted.  There has been no vital interchange between the separated elements, which have been in contact, but not in union.  And Russia is as heterogeneous in condition as it is in elements.  It has accepted ready-made the methods of Greek, of Tatar, and of European; but has assimilated none of them; and Russian civilization, with its amazing quality, its bewildering variety of achievement in art, literature, diplomacy, and in every field, is not a natural development, but a monstrosity.  The genius intended for a whole people seems to have been crowded into a few narrow channels.  Where have men written with such tragic intensity?  Where has there been music suggesting such depths of sadness and of human passion?  And who has ever told upon canvas the story of the battlefield with such energy and with such thrilling reality, as has Verestchagin?

The youngest among the civilizations, and herself still only partially civilized, Russia is one of the most—­if not the most—­important factor in the world-problem to-day, and the one with which the future seems most seriously involved.  She has only just commenced to draw upon her vast stores of energy; energies which were accumulating during the ages when the other nations were lavishly spending theirs.  How will this colossal force be used in the future?  Moving silently and irresistibly toward the East, and guided by a subtle and far-reaching policy, who can foresee what will be the end, and what the ultimate destiny of the Empire which had its beginning in a small Slavonic State upon the Dnieper, and which, until a little more than a century ago, was too much of a barbarian to be admitted into the fraternity of European States.