with
Baron George Hekkeren-Dantes, who had been persecuting his wife with
unwelcome attentions, in January, 1837. Baron Hekkeren-Dantes died only
a year or two ago.

As a school-boy he had instinctively turned into a new path, that of
national Russian literature. For this national service, and because he
was the first to realize the poetic ideal, his countrymen adored him. To
the highest external elegance and the most exquisite beauty, he fitly
wedded inward force and wealth of thought, in the most incomparable
manner. His finest effort, "Evgeny Onyegin" (1822-1829), exhibits the
poet in the process of development, from the Byronic stage to the
vigorous independence of a purely national writer. The hero, Evgeny
Onyegin, begins as a society young man of the period; that is to say, he
was inevitably a Byronic character. His father's death calls him from
the dissipations of the capital to the quiet life of a country estate.
He regards his neighbors as his inferiors, both in culture and social
standing, and for a long time will have nothing to do with them. At
last, rather accidentally, he strikes up a friendship with Lensky, a
congenial spirit, a young poet, who has had the advantage of foreign
education, the son of one of the neighbors. Olga Larin, the young
daughter of another neighbor, has long been betrothed to Lensky, and the
latter naturally introduces Onyegin to her family. Olga's elder sister,
Tatyana, promptly falls in love with Onyegin, and in a letter, which is
always quoted as one of the finest passages in Russian literature, and
the most perfect portrait of the noble Russian woman's soul, she
declares her love for him. Onyegin politely snubs her, lecturing her in
a fatherly way, and no one is informed of the occurrence, except
Tatyana's old nurse, who, though stupid, is absolutely devoted to her,
and does not betray the knowledge which she has, involuntarily,
acquired. Not long afterwards, Tatyana's name-day festival is celebrated
by a dinner, at which Onyegin is present, being urged thereto by Lensky.
He goes, chiefly, that no comment may arise from any abrupt change of
his ordinary friendly manners. The family, ignorant of what has happened
between him and Tatyana, and innocently scheming to bring them together,
place him opposite her at dinner. Angered by this, he revenges himself
on the wholly innocent Lensky, by flirting outrageously with Olga (the
wedding-day is only a fortnight distant), and Olga, bein