their world away:
Theirs are those arts that mind to mind endear,
For honor forms the social temper here.
Honor, that praise which real merit gains,
Or even imaginary worth obtains,
Here passes current; paid from hand to hand,
It shifts in splendid traffic round the land;
From courts to camps, to cottages it strays,
And all are taught an avarice of praise:
They please, are pleased, they give to get esteem,
Till, seeming blest, they grow to what they seem.

But while this softer art their bliss supplies,
It gives their follies also room to rise:
For praise too dearly loved, or warmly sought,
Enfeebles all internal strength of thought;
And the weak soul, within itself unblest,
Leans for all pleasure on another's breast.
Hence ostentation here, with tawdry art,
Pants for the vulgar praise which fools impart;
Here vanity assumes her pert grimace,
And trims her robes of frieze with copper lace;
Here beggar pride defrauds her daily cheer,
To boast one splendid banquet once a year:
The mind still turns where shifting fashion draws,
Nor weighs the solid worth of self-applause.

IVAN ALEKSANDROVITCH GONCHAROF

(1812-)

BY NATHAN HASKELL DOLE

[Illustration: I.V. GONCHAROF]

Among the Russian novelists of the first rank stands Ivan the son of
Alexander Goncharof. His life has been almost synchronous with the
century. He was born in 1812 in the city of Simbirsk, on the Volga below
Nizhni Novgorod. His father, a wealthy merchant of that flourishing
town, died when the boy was only three years old, leaving him in the
care of his mother, a conscientious and lovely woman, who, without a
remarkable education, nevertheless determined that her son should have
the best that could be provided. In this she was cordially assisted by
Ivan's godfather, a retired naval officer who lived in one of her houses
and was a cultivated, lively, and lovable man, the centre of the best
society of the provincial city. His tales of travel and adventure early
implanted in the boy a great passion for reading and study about foreign
lands, and the desire to see the world.

He was at first taught at home; then he was sent to a private school
which had been established by a local priest for the benefit of
neighboring land-owners and gentry. This priest had been educated at the
Theological School at Kazan, and was distinguished for his courtly
manners and general cultivation. His wife--for i