spects the Russians evince a more enlarged appreciation of
the world's progress than many of their European neighbors. They have
no fixed prejudices against mechanical improvements of any kind. Quick
to appreciate every advance in the useful arts, they are ever ready to
accept and put in practical operation whatever they see in other
countries better than the product of their own. Thus they adopt
English and American machinery, railways, telegraphs, improvements in
artillery, and whatever else they deem beneficial, or calculated to
augment their prosperity and power as a nation. While in Germany it
would be almost an impossibility to introduce the commonest and most
obvious improvement in the mechanical arts--if we except railways and
telegraphs, which have become a military and political necessity,
growing out of the progress of neighboring powers--while many of their
fabrics are still made by hand, and their mints, presses, and
fire-engines are of almost primeval clumsiness, the Russians eagerly
grasp at all novelties, and are wonderfully quick in the comprehension
of their uses and advantages. A similar comparison might be made in
reference to the freedom of internal trade, and the encouragement
given to every industrial pursuit among the people, being the exact
reverse of the policy pursued by the German governments. Thus, while
we find them backward in the refinements of literature and
intellectual culture, it is beyond doubt that they possess wonderful
natural capacity to learn. They lack steadiness and perseverance, and
are not always governed by the best motives; but in boldness of
spirit, disregard of narrow prejudice, ability to conceive and
execute what they desire to accomplish, they have few equals and no
superiors. Combined with these admirable traits, their wild Sclavonic
blood abounds in elements which, upon great occasions, arise to the
eminence of a sublime heroism. Brave and patriotic, devoted to their
country and their religion, we search the pages of history in vain for
a parallel to their sacrifices in the defense of both. Not even the
wars of the Greeks and Romans can produce such an example of heroic
devotion to the maintenance of national integrity as the burning of
Moscow. When an entire people, devoted to their religion, gave up
their churches and their shrines to the devouring element; when
princes and nobles placed the burning brands to their palaces; when
bankers, merchants, and tradesmen fr