Petersburg lead the same kind of life: it is impossible, as one may
readily see, for any kind of continued conversation to be kept up in
it, and learning is of no utility in this kind of society; but where
so much is done only from the desire of collecting in one's house a
great multitude of persons, entertainments are after all the only
means of preventing the ennui which a crowd in the saloons always
creates.

In the midst of all this noise, is there any room for love? will be
asked by the Italian ladies, who scarcely know any other interest in
society than the pleasure of seeing the person by whom they wish to
be beloved. I passed too short a time at Petersburg to obtain
correct ideas of the interior arrangements of families; it appeared
to me, however, that on one hand, there was more domestic virtue
than was said to exist; but that on the other hand, sentimental love
was very rarely known. The customs of Asia, which meet you at every
step, prevent the females from interfering with the domestic cares
of their establishment: all these are directed by the husband, and
the wife only decorates herself with his gifts, and receives the
persons whom he invites. The respect for morality is already much
greater than it was at Petersburg in the time of those emperors and
empresses who depraved opinion by their example. The two present
empresses have made those virtues beloved, of which they are
themselves the models. In this respect, however, as in a great many
others, the principles of morality are not properly fixed in the
minds of the Russians. The ascendancy of the master has always been
so great over them, that from one reign to another* all maxims upon
all subjects may be changed. The Russians, both men and women,
generally carry into love their characteristic impetuosity, but
their disposition to change makes them also easily renounce the
objects of their choice. A certain irregularity in the imagination
does not allow them to find happiness in what is durable. The
cultivation of the understanding, which multiplies sentiment by
poetry and the fine arts, is very rare among the Russians, and with
these fantastic and vehement dispositions, love is rather a fete or
a delirium than a profound and reflected affection. Good company in
Russia is therefore a perpetual vortex, and perhaps the extreme
prudence to which a despotic government accustoms people, may be the
cause that the Russians are charmed at not being led, by the