CHAPTER XXIV.

THE CHARACTER OF THE RUSSIAN INTELLECT.

Having made a partial exhibition of the elements of greatness which belong to the Russian Empire, it may be well to pause before the introduction of additional statements on these points, and bestow some attention upon the mental characteristics of the race in whose hands these resources and advantages have been placed in the providence of God. This, perhaps, will enable us to determine the probable character of Russian civilization, and its future influence upon the destiny of Europe and America. Two interesting questions here present themselves. Will Russia assume a form of civilization, individual and national-a Russian or Sclavonic civilization-and if so, what will be its distinctive characteristics? It is a common remark of French and English writers, that Russia produces nothing original, that she is destitute of the creative power of genius, and possesses only the imitative character of some of the oriental nations, and is therefore doomed like them to the inferior life of a mere copyist of western Europe. She is represented as wearing the garments of civilization after the manner of a savage; a European exterior, which can not conceal the barbarian. No intelligent opinion can be formed

of the future of this great empire, until we decide whether such representations are true or false. In the very beginning of such an investigation it should be remembered that even the highest forms of genius must operate with materials already in existence, that strictly speaking it creates nothing, and that its most signal triumphs are won by presenting familiar things in a new light, and throwing them into original combinations.

Every modern nation to a great extent is necessarily an imitator. Our age is the heir of the past, and has come into possession of the treasures of thought and art accumulated by preceding generations, and the only question which remains is, whether from this stock of material, common to all Christendom now, a nation can rear a social, political, and religious structure, which shall exhibit a distinctive and individual character? The nations of the modern world are all the inheritors of the mingled Greek and Roman civilization, and these forms of national life have been developed, in western Europe, from the materials thus supplied-the Latin, the German, and the Anglo-Saxon. These, however, are being now mingled, and the original individuality by which they were distinguished is disappearing, and a constantly increasing intercourse is sweeping away the peculiarities of each. It would appear impossible, under present circumstances, for any one of the nations of western Europe to work out hereafter a separate and individual destiny, or to pursue a strictly national policy. Each is molding each, and society must become the resultant of conflicting forces. Europe can neither be English, nor French, nor German, nor can either nation retain the sharp distinctness of its own original outline.

It remains to be seen what excellencies these mingled elements may exhibit as they combine. Still Germany, France, and England, stamping their own characteristics upon the materials furnished by the ancient world, have each produced a national form of civilization, a form which France shares with the other branches of the Latin family. In the same manner the Roman forms received the impress

of the Grecian mind, and thus Greece herself softened and adorned the stately gigantic grandeur of Egypt. Nor will it be easy to discover any nation this side the deluge that has originated, strictly speaking, its modes of thought and expression, and its form of national life. Wherever we search we find something still due to the past; a former age has bequeathed its legacy of wisdom and experience.

If, then, Russia is able to avail herself of the materials which the age affords her, and can construct from them a national edifice which shall bear the impress of a distinct national character, the world must then admit that she possesses an originating power, and can produce a Russian civilization which, in the end perhaps, will assume the more definite, as well as more comprehensive name, Sclavonian. This she may do, although the style of her architecture and dress, her manufactures, tools, weapons, etc., have the European form. America presents an example of what is here intended. Through forms which, with the exception of the political structure, are essentially European, there appears an individual, an American life, which, with each succeeding year, will become more distinct and dominant, till the ultimate result is reached, not an Anglo-Saxon, but an American civilization, separate and peculiar.

The people of the United States are continually reminded that they are mere blind imitators of what others perform, that they have no literature, or art, or science, of their own, or independent national life or character. Doubtless this is to a great extent true, or rather it has been true. Still it should have been remembered, that nothing less than a miracle on the most extended scale could have enabled an English colony, with the task of subduing a continent on their hands, to present at once all the phenomena of an independent national existence. The question should rather have been, whether a germ had been planted here, which, in its maturity should have not only a territory but a name, a character, a history of its own.

Such considerations should not be lost sight of in forming an estimate of the present condition and prospects of

Russia. For although, if we adopt the mere reckoning of years, Russia may be considered old, yet her true national career dates back not more than a hundred years; and indeed it was not until the reign of Catharine II., that she first appeared as a great nation upon the theater of Europe. At the time of the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth the population of the Empire was about twelve millions, at the death of Peter the Great, in 1725, about twenty millions, and at the ascension of Catharine II., in 1763, about twentyfive millions. One hundred years, then, is quite as long a time as can reasonably be assigned as the true national life of the Muscovite nation, for the impulse given to the nation's growth by Peter the Great was subsequently lost in a great degree, and the attempt to improve the country was made in a new direction. It is then quite too soon to charge Russia with a want of original power; the capabilities of the Sclavonic race are yet but in the germ.

In studying the future of this nation, we should regard not so much the Russia which now is, as that which is so rapidly forming itself from the mass of accumulated material. Travelers have deceived themselves and misled others by dwelling upon and magnifying the fact of the existence of many races within the limits of the empire, describing it as a mere aggregation which must soon fall asunder. They forget that there has been a rapid acquisition of territory and population, and that sufficient time has not yet elapsed to secure a complete consolidation of the mass. But had they looked a little beyond the external aspect of things, and studied with some care the actual movement of the forces which shape the course of the nation, they would have discovered a central life power which, with an almost unexampled energy, is diffusing itself through the whole national mass, assimilating or displacing whatever it touches, and aided in its operations by the settled policy of the government. They would have discovered one dominant race, compacted by every tie that can bind a people together, inspired by common hopes and a common ambition, wielding a power before which all else disappears, either by

incorporation or removal, and which, unless arrested by the providence of God, will inevitably fill the vast territory of Russia with one single family, with one language, one literature, one government, and one religion.

Of the mental characteristics of this race, then, we should gain, if possible, a distinct idea, in order to estimate the future because the future will be the work of their hands. There are three methods of estimating the mental characteristics of a people. They may be studied, as exhibited in individuals, or in those public manifestations which are the expressions of national thought, or in the characters of those great men who sometimes stand forth as the exponents of their age, an individual expression of the characteristics of a nation. The true Russian possesses in an eminent degree energy, activity, and fertility of resource. He is found in every part of the empire, as a merchant, a mechanic, a pedlar, a speculator, and in all society his is the ruling spirit; he is the shrewd, successful man, to whom others give place-removed from his path by superior skill, or force, or fraud, as circumstances seem to demand. Society receives from him its impulse-new schemes are hatched in his brain-he drives the sharpest bargain—and, like other sharp men, he overreaches and deceives. Some travelers speak of him in terms that might have been borrowed from the descriptions given by southern men of the pedlars and clock-sellers from New England. The Russian universally thinks or says he can. His disposition is to surmount obstacles, or sweep them from his path. He endures. the toil, and labors hopefully on.

De Custine, who was filled with true French disgust every moment while in Russia, who saw almost nothing that he could approve, has, nevertheless, recorded this national characteristic as a noble trait. He says, "One of the most "attractive traits in their character, at least in my opinion, "is their dislike to objections; they refuse to recognise "either difficulties or obstacles. With his hatchet in his "hand, which he never lays aside, a Russian peasant "triumphs over accidents and predicaments which would