In the same shop I also saw a copy a la Mushik, of BruilofTs celebrated picture in St. Petersburg, and to the imagination displayed in the copy, the original must strike its flag. Mount Vesuvius was planted in the middle of the paper, and was working terrible mischief on all sides. It was throwing up not only stones but rocks and mountains, while a stream of lava as broad as the Ganges was pouring from the summit. The little town of Herculaneum was painted after the model of Moscow, and the twenty cupolas were all split and gaping as at a given signal. The pillars fell regularly right and left, like grass under the mower's scythe ; and the rows of houses swayed hither and thither, like a forest moved by the wind. Most pitiful was the plight of poor humanity. Out of every window a pair of arms was stretched towards heaven, and legs and arms most wofully crushed lay about in hundreds. There were copies from several other pictures, all " translated" in the same style, to meet the level of taste and intelligence among the people.
There are not upon the whole many elements in the character of the Russian nation, for the production of extraordinary psychological appearances and originality of character ; and just as little is their political constitution favourable to such growths. Only an intellectually-gifted nation, with great depth of character, is fitted to bring fortli men, who, partly as men of genius, partly as originals, nmst choose their own paths and set at nought prevailing manners and fashions. A political constitution that i^-ill afford room for free indiwdual development is also necessary ; for, where mental growth is fostered, there also will mental extravagance find place. Ill Rusisia, where there are feAv persons who feel the vanity of tliis world very deeply, and wlicrc indopendence of character is not very general, but all rather adopt themselves with wonderful suppleness to the prevailing mode ; where the whole energy of the upper classes is directed to the same end ; to laboiu" in the state machine in the capital, and in the several governments ; and where very few hve apart as independent citizens : among these smooth, cosmopolitan, easy going Russians, originality or eccentricity of character is almost as rare as creative genius.
In this respect, as in very many others, the Russian nation is a direct contrast to the English, which may be called the nation of eccentrics and originals, to whom nothing is exactly as it should be, while the other is evidently a nation of cosmopolites, to whom every thing comes alike, and by whom original and self-dependant opposition of any kind is very iU received. However, Russia is a large country, and the population is numerous ; so that here and there will still be a departure from the given model. The majority of such originals is to be found among the wealthier classes, whose opulence gives them independence, and leisure enough to give way to their caprices, and means to purchase the toleration of others.
Living oddities enough there are in Russia, who might be mentioned if propriety allowed ; but the dead, under certain conditions and limitations, may be considered as a kind of psychological common property, and I will here instance a few, of whom anecdotes are related in Moscow, and who may serve as a supplement to the description of manners of the higher classes in Russia.