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this account that he is a failure in his relation to
Nathalie, and especially in life, even if he does not succeed as
a hero. But, great God!—do not believe about us that
we are a failure in the wearisome battle of life, which
we are in, day in and day out. How unjust! my strong
and living faith is that Russia will some day come forth
cured of its political disease, and disclose itself liberally
and manfully. I believe not only in the Russian people,
but I believe in our intelligent youth, in their
receptiveness of everything which is true and therefore
beautiful. It betrays itself in the profound respect for
the men who understand how to find out and unveil the
meaning of things, and to open for us wider horizons.’”
There is, perhaps, nothing in this letter indicative of
uncommon abilities, and the seventeen-year-old child is
visible behind it; nevertheless, there is a personality in
it which may be typically Russian, and which it would
be impossible to find in a Scandinavian girl of that age,—and
a will gleams out through the words, flashing like
a steel blade, a will which is full of promise.
One can form a vivid conception of this progressive
youth of both sexes, as they enter upon life, face to face
with the common people, whose elevation is the object of
their aspirations.
These young people represent the highest culture of
the age; among the peasants there is an ignorance which
renders it almost impossible to begin the communication
of information. An exiled mathematician, who had
returned from Siberia, a very practical young man, told me
that in the country town he was regarded as a man with
a supernatural insight, simply on account of his large
library; and after he had taught some peasants there, in
the spring, how to graft fruit-trees, they came to him
the next day from the whole neighborhood with sick
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