eated by his predecessors and
ancestors. That work is in charge of more august agents. It is
perishing by natural process because it is vicious, because it is out
of harmony with its environment, and because the maladjusted life
forces are moving by eternal laws from the surface to their natural
home in the centre. And we may well believe that the fates are
preparing a destiny commensurate with the endowments of a
great--perhaps the greatest--of the nations of the earth.

Let it not be supposed that it is the moujik, the Russian peasant in
sheepskin, with toil-worn hands, who has conducted that brilliant
parliamentary battle in the _Duma_. Certain educational and property
qualifications are required for eligibility to membership in that body,
which would of necessity exclude that humble class. It is not the
emancipated serf, but it is _rural Russia_ which the _Duma_
represented, and the vastness of the area covered by that term is
realized when one learns that of the 450 members constituting that body
only eighteen were from cities. It is the leaders of this vast rural
population, members of ancient princely families or owners of great
landed estates, these are the men who are coming out of long oblivion
to help rule the destinies of a new Russia. Men like Prince
Dolgorouki, some of them from families older than the Romanoffs--such
men it is who were the leaders in the _Duma_. They have been for years
studying these problems, and working among the _Zemstvos_. They are
country gentlemen of the old style,--sturdy, practical, imaginative,
idealistic, and explosive; powerful in debate, bringing just at the
right moment a new element, a new force. Happy is Russia in possessing
such a reserve of splendid energy at this time. And if the moujik is
not in the forefront of the conflict, he, too, affords a boundless
ocean of elementary force--he is the simple barbarian, who will perhaps
be needed to replenish with his fresh, uncorrupted blood the Russia of
a new generation.

LIST OF PRINCES.

GRAND PRINCES OF KIEF.

Rurik, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 862-879
Oleg (Brother of Rurik, Regent), . . . . . . 879-912
Igor (Son of Rurik), . . . . . . . . . . . . 912-945
Olga (Wife of Igor, Regent), . . . . . . . . 945-964
Sviatoslaf, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 964-972
Vladimir (Christianized Russia, 992), . . . . 972-1015
Yaroslaf (The Legislator), . . . . . . .