a rose-bush grafted on
a wild forest tree. It has not grown up naturally from a poetic want
in the people, and finds in the country little or nothing in the way
of a poetic basis. Accordingly, the theater in Russia is in every
respect a foreign institution. Not national in its origin, it has not
struck its roots into the heart of the people. Only here and there
a feeble germ of theatrical literature has made its way through the
obstinate barbarism of the Russian nature. The mass have no feeling
for dramatic poetry, while the cultivated classes exhibit a most
striking want of taste.

But in Russia everything is inverted. What in other nations is
the final result of a long life, is there the beginning. A natural
development of the people appears to its rulers too circuitous,
and in fact would in many things require centuries of preparation.
Accordingly, they seek to raise their subjects to the level of other
races by forcing them outwardly to imitate their usages. Peter the
Great says in his testament: "Let there be no intermission in teaching
the Russian people European forms and customs." The theater in Russia
is one of these forms, and from this it is easy to understand the
condition it is in.

It is true there are in the country a few independent companies
of players, but they are not Russian, or at least were formed as a
speculation by some foreigner. For example, Odessa has often two
such, and sometimes three. The Italian company is said to be good. The
Russian, which has now become permanent, has hitherto been under the
management of a German, and has been very poor. The company in Kiew
consists mostly of Poles, from the old Polish provinces incorporated
with Russia, and has a high reputation. In Poland it would be possible
in every little nest of a city to get together a tolerable company for
dramatic performance. In Russia it would be much easier to raise an
army. The ultimate reason of this striking contrast is the immense
dissimilarity in the character of the two nations. The Pole is
remarkably sanguine, fiery, enthusiastic, full of ideality and
inspiration; the Russian is through and through material, a lover of
coarse physical pleasures, full of ability to fight and cut capers,
but not endowed with a capacity quickly to receive impressions and
mentally elaborate them.

In this respect, the mass and the aristocracy, the serfs and their
masters, are as alike as twins. The noble is quite as coarse as the
pe