eely yielded up their hard-earned
gains; when women and children joined the great work of destruction to
deliver their country from the hands of a ruthless invader, it may
well be said of that sublime flame--

"Thou stand'st alone unrivall'd, till the fire,
To come, in which all empires shall expire."

Truly, when we glance back at the national career of the Russians,
they can not but strike us as a wonderful people. While we must
condemn their cruelty and rapacity; while we can see nothing to excuse
in their ferocious persecution of the Turks; while the greater part of
their history is a bloody record of injustice to weaker nations, we
can not but admire their indomitable courage, their intense and
unalterable attachment to their brave old Czars, and their sublime
devotion to their religion and their nationality.

CHAPTER XX.

PASSAGE TO REVEL.

It was not without a feeling of regret that I took my departure from
St. Petersburg. Short as my visit to Russia had been, it was full of
interest. Not a single day had been idly or unprofitably spent.
Indeed, I know of no country that presents so many attractions to the
traveler who takes pleasure in novelties of character and
peculiarities of manners and customs. The lovers of picturesque
scenery will find little to gratify his taste in a mere railroad
excursion to Moscow; but with ample time and means at his disposal, a
journey to the Ural Mountains, or a voyage down the Volga to the
Caspian Sea, would doubtless be replete with interest. For my part,
much as I enjoy the natural beauties of a country through which I
travel, they never afford me as much pleasure as the study of a
peculiar race of people. Mere scenery, however beautiful, becomes
monotonous, unless it be associated with something that gives it a
varied and striking human interest. The mountains and lakes of
Scotland derive their chief attractions from the wild legends of
romance and chivalry so inseparably connected with them; and
Switzerland would be but a dreary desert of glaciers without its
history. In Russia, Nature has been less prodigal in her gifts; and
the real interest of the country centres in its public institutions,
the religious observances of the people, and the progress of
civilization under a despotic system of government. Of these I have
endeavored to give you such impressions as may be derived from a
sojourn of a few weeks in Moscow and St. Petersburg--necessarily
imper