they never cease to be
Russians, that is to say uniting impetuosity and reserve, more
capable of passion than friendship, more bold than delicate, more
devout than virtuous, more brave than chivalrous, and so violent in
their desires that nothing can stop them, when their gratification
is in question. They are much more hospitable than the French; but
society does not with them, as with us, consist of a circle of
clever people of both sexes, who take pleasure in talking together.
They meet, as we go to a fete, to see a great deal of company, to
have fruits and rare productions from Asia or Europe; to hear music,
to play; in short to receive vivid emotions from external objects,
rather than from the heart or understanding, both of which they
reserve for actions and not for company. Besides, as they are in
general very ignorant, they find very little pleasure in serious
conversation, and do not at all pique themselves on shining by the
wit they can exhibit in it. Poetry, eloquence and literature are not
yet to be found in Russia; luxury, power, and courage are the
principal objects of pride and ambition; all other methods of
acquiring distinction appear as yet effeminate and vain to this
nation.

But the people are slaves, it will be said: what character therefore
can they be supposed to have? It is not certainly necessary for me
to say that all enlightened people wish to see the Russian people
freed from this state, and probably no one wishes it more strongly
than the Emperor Alexander: but the Russian slavery has no
resemblance in its effects to that of which we form the idea in the
West; it is not as under the feudal system, victors who have imposed
severe laws on the vanquished; the ties which connect the grandees
with the people resemble rather what was called a family of slaves
among the ancients, than the state of serfs among the moderns. There
is no middling class in Russia, which is a great drawback on the
progress of literature and the arts; for it is generally in that
class that knowledge is developed: but the want of any intermedium
between the nobility and the people creates a greater affection
between them both. The distance between the two classes appears
greater, because there are no steps between these two extremities,
which in fact border very nearly on each other, not being separated
by a middling class. This is a state of social organization quite
unfavorable to the knowledge of the higher classes, b