g between Asia
and Europe. Fifteen hundred Churches attested the devotion of the
Muscovite people.

The commercial establishments at Moscow had quite an Asiatic
character; men in turbans, and others dressed in the different
costumes of all the people of the East, exhibited the rarest
merchandize: the furs of Siberia and the muslins of India there
offered all the enjoyments of luxury to those great noblemen, whose
imagination is equally pleased with the sables of the Samoiedes and
with the rubies of the Persians. Here, the gardens and the palace
Razoumowski contained the most beautiful collection of plants and
minerals; there, was the fine library of the Count de Bouterlin,
which he had spent thirty years of his life in collecting: among the
books he possessed, there were several which contained manuscript
notes in the hand-writing of Peter I. This great man never imagined
that the same European civilization, of which he was so jealous,
would come to destroy the establishments for public instruction
which he had founded in the middle of his empire, with a view to
form by study the impatient spirit of the Russians. Farther on, was
the Foundling House, one of the most affecting institutions of
Europe; hospitals for all classes of society might be remarked in
the different quarters of the city: finally, the eye in its
wanderings could rest upon nothing but wealth or benevolence, upon
edifices of luxury or of charity; upon churches or on palaces, which
diffused happiness or distinction upon a large portion of the human
race. You saw the windings of the Moskwa, of that river, which,
since the last invasion by the Tartars, had never rolled with blood
in its waves: the day was delightful; the sun seemed to take a
pleasure in shedding his rays upon these glittering cupolas. I was
reminded of the old archbishop Plato, who had just written a
pastoral letter to the emperor Alexander, the oriental style of
which had extremely affected me: he sent the image of the Virgin
from the borders of Europe, to drive far from Asia the man who
wished to bear down upon the Russians with the whole weight of the
nations chained to his steps. For a moment the thought struck me
that Napoleon might yet set his foot upon this same tower from which
I was admiring the city, which his presence was about to extinguish;
for a moment I dreamed that he would glory in replacing, in the
palace of the czars, the chief of the great horde, which had also
once