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fairs, and to pass weeks and months in a pilgrimage to
Kief; nay, even to this day the Russian peasants in
crowds make pilgrimages to Jerusalem. For this reason
they are exceedingly well fitted for colonizing a new
country. Although they are bound to Russia, they do
not feel at all bound to their homesteads. Nature is, so
to speak, uniform, wherever they go. They can wander
for weeks together over the steppes without seeing any
special change. They can build new houses (izbás) for
themselves in a few days anywhere. For, from a fear
of fire, which in Russia, on account of the droughts and
the construction of the houses, is more frequent than in
other countries, the peasant never ornaments his izbá.
The new house contains everything which was contained
in the old. He misses nothing in it. The new soil
which he is cultivating brings forth just as good a
harvest as the old. And by his emigration he has satisfied
his desire for adventure, for new experiences, and for
seeing new faces.
There is this peculiarity about the steppes, that they
continually invite one to go on and on. Level as the
sea never is, it evokes limitless reveries, passion for
wandering about, thirst for novelty, and the inclination
to let every idea be pursued to its never-reached end.
The uniformity of the country gives to the Russian
the roaming propensity, the contrasts of the climate
make a certain pliability necessary in the face of the
great and sudden changes, which may be the basis of
the Russian flexibility in intellectual matters, and is
perhaps connected with the spasmodic in Russian
manners and mode of life.
It is the suppleness in the Russian’s nature which
makes him so susceptible to foreign impressions. The
intellectual transition to the Russian talent for
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