erally it is only in beings of superior
order that we find an union of opposite qualities; the mass is in
general of a uniform color.

I made at Kiow the trial of Russian hospitality. The governor of the
province, General Miloradowitsch, loaded me with the most amiable
attentions; he had been an aide-de-camp of Suwarow, like him
intrepid; he inspired me with greater confidence than I then had in
the military successes of the Russians. Before this, I had only
happened to meet some officers of the German school, who had
entirely got rid of their Russian character. I saw in General
Miloradowitsch a real Russian; brave, impetuous, confident, and
wholly free from that spirit of imitation which sometimes entirely
robs his countrymen even of their national character. He told me a
number of anecdotes of Suwarow, which prove that that warrior
studied a great deal, although he preserved the original instinct
which is connected with the immediate knowledge of men and things.
He carefully concealed his studies to strike with greater force the
imagination of his troops, by assuming in all things an air of
inspiration.

The Russians have, in my opinion, much greater resemblance to the
people of the South, or rather of the East, than to those of the
North. What is European in them belongs merely to the manners of the
court, which are nearly the same in all countries; but their nature
is eastern. General Miloradowitsch related to me that a regiment of
Kalmucks had been put into garrison at Kiow, and that the prince of
these Kalmucks came to him one day, to confess that he suffered very
much from passing the winter cooped up in a town, and wished to
obtain permission to encamp in the neighbouring forest. Such a cheap
pleasure it was impossible to refuse him; he and all his regiment
went in consequence, in the middle of the snow, to take up their
abode in their chariots, which at the same time serve them for huts.
The Russian soldiers bear nearly in the same degree the fatigues and
privations of climate or of war, and the people of all classes
exhibit a contempt of obstacles and of physical suffering, which
will carry them successfully through the greatest undertakings. This
Kalmuck prince, to whom wooden houses appeared a residence too
delicate in the middle of winter, gave diamonds to the ladies who
pleased him at a ball; and as he could not make himself understood
by them, he substituted presents for compliments, in the manner
pra