the moral standard of the Noblesse. Formerly, when the noble lived
on his estate, he could play with impunity the petty tyrant, and could
freely indulge his legitimate and illegitimate caprices without any
legal or moral restraint. I do not at all mean to assert that all
proprietors abused their authority, but I venture to say that no class
of men can long possess such enormous arbitrary power over those around
them without being thereby more or less demoralised. When the noble
entered the service he had not the same immunity from restraint--on
the contrary, his position resembled rather that of the serf--but he
breathed an atmosphere of peculation and jobbery, little conducive to
moral purity and uprightness. If an official had refused to associate
with those who were tainted with the prevailing vices, he would have
found himself completely isolated, and would have been ridiculed as a
modern Don Quixote. Add to this that all classes of the Russian people
have a certain kindly, apathetic good-nature which makes them very
charitable towards their neighbours, and that they do not always
distinguish between forgiving private injury and excusing public
delinquencies. If we bear all this in mind, we may readily understand
that in the time of serfage and maladministration a man could be
guilty of very reprehensible practises without incurring social
excommunication.

During the period of moral awakening, after the Crimean War and the
death of Nicholas I., society revelled in virtuous indignation against
the prevailing abuses, and placed on the pillory the most prominent
delinquents; but the intensity of the moral feeling has declined, and
something of the old apathy has returned. This might have been predicted
by any one well acquainted with the character and past history of the
Russian people. Russia advances on the road of progress, not in that
smooth, gradual, prosaic way to which we are accustomed, but by a series
of unconnected, frantic efforts, each of which is naturally followed by
a period of temporary exhaustion.

CHAPTER XXII

PROPRIETORS OF THE MODERN SCHOOL

A Russian Petit Maitre--His House and Surroundings--Abortive Attempts
to Improve Agriculture and the Condition of the Serfs--A Comparison--A
"Liberal" Tchinovnik--His Idea of Progress--A Justice of the Peace--His
Opinion of Russian Literature, Tchinovniks, and Petits Maitres--His
Supposed and Real Character--An Extreme Radical--Disorders in
the Uni