Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Critical Notices Of The Literature Of The Last Three Months,
" So much , indeed , is the supposed influence of foreigners over the people of St . Petersburg contemned by even the Russians generally , and not unfrequently by men of a class among whom we should least expect to find such feelings , when we remember the origin of their country ' s progress , and know the course of their instruction , that were it not for the residence and countenance of the court which St . Petersburg enjoys , a wild man from the Siberian deserts would be more respected by the greater part of the inhabitants of the interior of the country ,
than a native Russian from that supposed contaminated capital . Nevertheless , this uncharitable feeling is only indulged against those whom it is thought should be purely Russian . " Everything is full of religion , in some form or other , in Moscow . Even in the most ordinary street-scenes you have continually before your eyes the acts of reverence or worship paid by the people to some symbol of their faith that they pass by . Every Muscovite , uncontaminated or unchanged by his intercourse with foreignersdoffs his hat and crosses himself before every churchcathedralchapel
, , , , altar , or picture of any saint which he passes , and makes some additional sign of reverence , according fco the degree of his zeal or the amount of respect which he entertains for the particular saint to which the church or . altar is dedicated , or which the picture represents . Thus , after the ordinary reverence of removing the hat and making tlie sign of the cross , where there is something to excite a little more than common respect , the pa , rty turns towards the object of his sentiment and bows ; or , if his zeal should exceed the ordinary degree , the knee is also bent . But where there is anything in the object of reverence fco excifce still greater
respect , the coolest will bend the knee , and the more devout drop down on both knees and say a prayer , and afterwards kiss the ground . " Very often persons are seen performing- these acts of devotion where there is no church to be seen , and no object visible that might be supposed to be the cause of their pious exercises . This , however , is usually done in reverence to some church shut out from the view , or to some sacred spot of ground where an altar has at soma time stood . "
Mrs . Austin ' s "Germany from 1760 to 1814 , " * is an acceptable work , for more reasons than one . Independently of the value which attaches to it as the production of an author thoroughly conversant with German literature and German society , it is useful as a connecting link between the Germany of to-day and that of the last century . We are able to trace , with its assistance , the relation vrhich the liberalism of present times bears to the old spirit which emancipated the nation from foreign oppression ;
and we can also profit by those lessons of experience Avhich it conveys of the necessity of drawing more closely together the different classes of society , as a means of avoiding equally the mischances of revolution on the one hand , and the horrors of a home or foreign despotism on the other . We have presented to ns also pictures , the truth and fidelity of which we do not doubt , of the corruption and pusillanimity of several of the German courts—of the ridiculous and absurd formalities in which
German society voluntarily clothed itself—of the submission of the governors , as well as of the governed , to red-tape politicians and bureaucratic formula—and of the prevailing tendencies of the masses towards theories of legislation and morals strongly at variance with those actually in use and existence ; all of which renders the work , not only very pleasant reading , but also highly instructive . Mrs . Austin ' s experience also of tho light in which the Germans viewed
the Russians is interesting , as showing the state of national feeling on the subject , a matter Avhich may not be without its importance at the present crisis : — " Whatever unfavourable impressions I may have of the higher classes in
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Critical Notices Of The Literature Of The Last Three Months,
" So much , indeed , is the supposed influence of foreigners over the people of St . Petersburg contemned by even the Russians generally , and not unfrequently by men of a class among whom we should least expect to find such feelings , when we remember the origin of their country ' s progress , and know the course of their instruction , that were it not for the residence and countenance of the court which St . Petersburg enjoys , a wild man from the Siberian deserts would be more respected by the greater part of the inhabitants of the interior of the country ,
than a native Russian from that supposed contaminated capital . Nevertheless , this uncharitable feeling is only indulged against those whom it is thought should be purely Russian . " Everything is full of religion , in some form or other , in Moscow . Even in the most ordinary street-scenes you have continually before your eyes the acts of reverence or worship paid by the people to some symbol of their faith that they pass by . Every Muscovite , uncontaminated or unchanged by his intercourse with foreignersdoffs his hat and crosses himself before every churchcathedralchapel
, , , , altar , or picture of any saint which he passes , and makes some additional sign of reverence , according fco the degree of his zeal or the amount of respect which he entertains for the particular saint to which the church or . altar is dedicated , or which the picture represents . Thus , after the ordinary reverence of removing the hat and making tlie sign of the cross , where there is something to excite a little more than common respect , the pa , rty turns towards the object of his sentiment and bows ; or , if his zeal should exceed the ordinary degree , the knee is also bent . But where there is anything in the object of reverence fco excifce still greater
respect , the coolest will bend the knee , and the more devout drop down on both knees and say a prayer , and afterwards kiss the ground . " Very often persons are seen performing- these acts of devotion where there is no church to be seen , and no object visible that might be supposed to be the cause of their pious exercises . This , however , is usually done in reverence to some church shut out from the view , or to some sacred spot of ground where an altar has at soma time stood . "
Mrs . Austin ' s "Germany from 1760 to 1814 , " * is an acceptable work , for more reasons than one . Independently of the value which attaches to it as the production of an author thoroughly conversant with German literature and German society , it is useful as a connecting link between the Germany of to-day and that of the last century . We are able to trace , with its assistance , the relation vrhich the liberalism of present times bears to the old spirit which emancipated the nation from foreign oppression ;
and we can also profit by those lessons of experience Avhich it conveys of the necessity of drawing more closely together the different classes of society , as a means of avoiding equally the mischances of revolution on the one hand , and the horrors of a home or foreign despotism on the other . We have presented to ns also pictures , the truth and fidelity of which we do not doubt , of the corruption and pusillanimity of several of the German courts—of the ridiculous and absurd formalities in which
German society voluntarily clothed itself—of the submission of the governors , as well as of the governed , to red-tape politicians and bureaucratic formula—and of the prevailing tendencies of the masses towards theories of legislation and morals strongly at variance with those actually in use and existence ; all of which renders the work , not only very pleasant reading , but also highly instructive . Mrs . Austin ' s experience also of tho light in which the Germans viewed
the Russians is interesting , as showing the state of national feeling on the subject , a matter Avhich may not be without its importance at the present crisis : — " Whatever unfavourable impressions I may have of the higher classes in