The whole system of education in Russia seems to have been, indeed, expressly devised for stifling all feelings of independence in the heart of youth, so that they may submit without a struggle to the despotic government under which they have had the misfortune to be born. Their minds are formed to one pattern, just as their persons are by the military drill; their energies are made to contribute in every way towards the aggrandizement of the Czar’s power, and to render more solid the chains of their country. “We can have no _great men_,” said a Russian, “because they are all absorbed in the name of the Emperor:” meaning that _individual_ glory could not exist. The Mussulman teaches his child—“There is but one God, and Mahomet is his prophet.” The Russian as piously inculcates the precept that “Nicholas is his general.” “God and the Czar know it,” is often the reply of a Muscovite when he can give no direct answer to a question. A gentleman was one evening giving us an account of the Emperor’s journey to Moscow, and of the manner in which he had been received on the route. “I assure you,” continued he, “it was gratifying in the extreme; for _the peasants knelt_ as he passed, just as if ‘c’était le bon Dieu lui-même.’” Whatever pleasure _he_ might have felt on the occasion, I could not help regarding with astonishment and intense disgust a person who could thus exultingly speak of the moral degradation of his countrymen. CHAPTER XVIII. Moscow—Poushkin’s verses—The Moscowites—Dislike of foreigners—Antipathy to the St. Petersburg people—Ancient devotees—Places of amusement—General remarks—The Kremlin—The churches—General view of the city—Napoleon—The miraculous image—Ivan and his recompence for genius—The Gostinoi Dwor—The shopkeepers’ brides—A wedding coach—The Tartar—The Persian—The Metropolitan of Moscow—The Jews—The shopkeepers—Smoking—The Tiramà, or ancient palace—The new palace—The Treasury—The diadems—The Tartars of the present day—The church of Warsaw—The last fight for freedom—Various curiosities—Spoils of the _grande armée_—The officer’s widow—French refugees: their gratitude—The model of the Kremlin.