The Hermitage, therefore, be it said for the hundredth and the last time (?), is no cloistered soHtude, no rocky grotto, hidden amid the waters of the Neva's murmuring sources, but a magnificent palace, a great temple of the Muses loftily and proudly throned, at the mouth of the broad river ; a temple in which every mental enjoyment has an altar reared in its honour. The forests of masts excepted, no forests are here to be seen ; nor except the bears and foxes worn by the St. Petersburg elegants on the court quay, are there any wild animals in this wilderness ; the rocks of tliis solitude are chiselled, poHshed, and perforated by well frequented saloons ; the hermit is an empress ; the muses, nymphs, and other divinities of the woods, are visible and warm-blooded princesses and coimtesses fed with the nectar and ambrosia of the imperial table.
The empress built this magic temple for the recreation of her leisure in the conversation of men of learning, and for the preservation of the productions of art, and it is well kno^vn how attractive, how splendid and luxurious were the evenings passed here, when the business transacted in the Winter Palace was ended, and when, traversing the covered passages and bridges that connected the buildings, she entered her own magic creation, where she had formed a little republic of arts and letters.
We possess many an alluring picture by Storch, by Dupr^ de St. Maure and by others who took a part in those evenings, of the perfect freedom and equahty that reigned here, in accordance with the ukases suspended in all the apartments of the palace. Musicians displayed their talents, artists their works, and men of wit their opinions, and the pictures which we see elsewhere only as allegorical representations of art and science-loving princes were here every day realized. On the roof of the buildings the mighty Semiramis of the north had created a garden with flowers, shrubs, and lofty trees heated in winter by subterraneous vaults, and illuminated in summer, and many might here really esteem their abode more splendid than the Grecian Olympus.
It is true the soul is now wanting to the whole, yet enough remains to quicken the spirit and warm the heart. Catherine's garden yet blooms, though the birds she fed have long since moulted their feathers for the last time. Her theatre is so unchanged that a representation might be given in it to-morrow, if the actors could be reanimated ; the laws she made for the etiquette of her literary evenings are stiU suspended in the apartments — they want only a second Catherine to put them again in force ; the library, the collection of pictures, the museum, are still there as she left them; nothing is yet injured, only here and there something added. In another year all will be changed, and Catherine's court of love and the muses transformed into — what ?
The great picture collection contains many that are renowned all over the world, and may well enchant the eyes of connoisseurs, particularly those who admire the Netherlands school of painting. On the whole, there are more Dutch cottages such as Ostade painted (offering the strangest contrast to the palace, to which they belong), than there are Venetian palaces or Roman churches ; more North German cattle-pastures than southern Alps ; more unroasted and roasted game, than roasted martyrs ; more hares transfixed by the spit of the cook, than St. Sebastians by the arrows of the heathen ; more dogs, horses, and cows, than priests, prophets, and saintly visions. So numerous are the productions of some of these masters here, that separate haUs are devoted to them, and it is scarcely conceivable how enough of their pictures were found for other collections.
Going through the collection in the usual manner, the apartment first entered is that containing the pictures of Van der Neer. This artist has painted the moon as often as if he had been one of Diana's priests ; every where it is the moon, and again the moon. In general there is the sea, or a lake, or some other piece of water in the neighbourhood, on which the long reflected rays stream far into the dark distance ; fishere are in the foreground, and boats dancing on the silver wave.