"Leaving my life in its full noonday,

And no one to know why I flung it away."

Then come brief, vivid pictures of the sultry, monotonous, external life in India; then a sketch of Rajpoto rebels' destestation of the dull English régime, as keen and clear as that of the Mahommedan brigand with which the book opened. Then come the meditations of a Hindoo

Prince, penetrated, of course, by the philosophy, or rather the despair of philosophy, contained in the creed that all is illusion; then we have a living portrait of a Rajpoot chief's conception of life and war and pleasure; then, again, little etchings of Indian life, with the picture of English sports thus watched by a Mahommedan :"Near me a Musalmán, civil and mild,

Watched as the shuttlecocks rose and fell, And he said, as he counted his beads and smiled,

'God smite their souls to the depths of

hell.'

Then we have a disagreeable tale of the Mutiny, relating an English wife's unfaithfulness and her husband's murder, in the fiercest moment of the struggle; then some admirable glimpses of Afghan troubles, and Abdur Rahman's soliloquy upon them; then a Mahommedan fanatic's scornful sermon to the feeble Mahommedans of Lower Bengal; then one or two readings of Jewish history, and of the feelings of the Roman rulers of Judæa; and then more pictures of the message of the West to the East,- -a very dreary message of civil order and material prosperity, -and of the East to the West, a very scornful repudiation of all interest in that prosperity. Finally, in a poem on "Siva,' which precedes "The Land of Regrets" already given, Sir Alfred Lyall sums up the lower Hindoo creed, the belief in the sensuous transformation of life into death and death into life, of love into cruelty and cruelty into love, of pleasure into pain and pain into pleasure,-in a word (as the god Siva is supposed to put it), of the vital thrill which passes through minds and bodies, now in the form of agony, and now again in that of ecstasy,--as

"the play of power that stirs In the dance of my wanton worshippers." And finally Siva goes on to declare that all higher worships are dreams of the human heart —

We do not, of course, intend in any way to suggest that the poet personally adopts the dramatically expressed doctrine here expounded for us; but the poetry of this striking little volume is certainly more or less deeply overshadowed by the fear that so it be. may mense scale on which the spectacle had It looks as if the imbeen presented to him of what seem almost like spectral hosts of human beings flitting across the stage from birth to death without one clearly discerned gleam of moral life properly so called, had so possessed the poet's imagination as to render it impossible for him to find in his own consciousness of duty and freedom any true key to the enigma of human existence. He is fascinated and almost magnetized into the conviction that we are all of us such spectres as these, and such spectres only; that our so-called freedom and conscience are, as the Hindoo philosophy loves to teach, mere illusions; that our pieties are no better than our desires and am

bitions, perhaps only transformed desires or ambitions; that our English idea of "beneficent" rule in India is only the triumph of one sort of materialistic illusion over another, and another perhaps no worse than itself, or possibly even less ignoble; that in giving India civil order and peace and trade, we are but substituting an ideal of life which does not really touch the hearts of the natives for one which does, though the latter may involve more bloodshedding and more suffering; and, in a word, that the Englishman, in spite of his loyalty to English ideas of life and honor, is a strange excrescence in India, and makes no really useful impression on the country of which he regulates the superficial order. Often it is useful and

wholesome to see ourselves as others see us; but it is never useful and wholesome unless we can combine with it the art of seeing others as we see ourselves, and so rectifying that false philosophy of illusion which springs from regarding the world as a pageant to which we have no clew, and including ourselves as a part of that pag

eant, even though to ourselves, taken alone, we could certainly find a clew. The truth is, that though the external view of life and history is almost essential for the purpose of taking any comprehensive intellectual view of the effects of human action and energy, it is as incapable of telling us anything in relation to the origin and character of that energy, as a sweeping glance at a prairie would be incapable of telling us how a blade of grass grows, and what is the nourishment which feeds it. His torical surveys give no real insight into the individual life of man. It is the microscopic, not the telescopic view of things, which reveals the secret of growth. It is the subjective and not the objective view of human motive and action which reveals the secret of human deterioration or improvement. To study in such a field as that of India what man can do for himself and for his fellows, is like sweeping the

heavens with a telescope to discover the genesis of a world. Such a survey as Sir Alfred Lyall gives us in his poems is sure to end in a plaintive " Vanity of Vanities." He should have corrected this brilliant but misleading glance over a bewildering field of human toil and penury and luxury by a study of individual effort and purpose, wherever he could get a glimpse of it, and then he could not have spread before us so dismaying a picture of human lives driven like leaves before the wind. After all, the interior view of human action, though contracted, does shed light on the genesis of society and on the character and tendency of social changes. The exterior view, though it be dazzling and in the highest degree impressive, sheds no light on the propagation of that multitude of individual germs out of which society grows.-Spectator.

THERE are many ingenious explanations of the stoical contempt of death which is so marked a characteristic of the vast majority of Russians, but the most plausible of them all would appear to be that which attributes it to their fatalistic turn of mind, suggested as it is by careful observation, and confirmed by the proverbs and sayings of the people. Still it cannot be gainsaid that the galling conditions and grim surroundings of actual life are, and have been for ages, amply sufficient to account for even more desperate feelings than contempt of death; and foreigners in Russia often unconsciously repeat the saying of the Sybarite, who when he had come to Sparta and seen what a miserable life the people were forced to lead there, ceased to wonder at their valor, exclaiming, "I myself would rather rush upon a swordpoint than lead such a wretched existence." A whole string of proverbs,

*

* For instance: "If you mourn, God will lengthen your life" "To live is more terrible than to die ;" "To live is to groan; by night in dreams, by day from suffering." This last saying recalls Job's plaintive cry: "When

say, My bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaint; then thou scarest

which are in every one's mouth, go to show that the Russian's desire to die is at least as strong as the natural instinct which makes us all cling to life, and yet he lingers listlessly on, unconsciously realizing Ovid's ideal of fortitude :

"Rebus in adversis facile est contemnere vitam,

Fortiter ille facit qui miser esse potest;" and putting himself wholly in the hands of Fate, in which he is as firm a believer as Lermontoff's Voolitch who, having proved his faith in predestination by pulling the trigger of a loaded pistol levelled at his head and won the wager when it hung fire, was brutally murdered that same night by a drunken Cossack.

It is in perfect keeping with such views about life that time, the stuff that life is made of, should be greatly undervalued; and it is no exaggeration to say that it could not be held cheaper or be more wantonly wasted than by the Russians who talk and act-or rather talk and forbear to act -as if in their eyes a thousand years were as one day. The very language they speak

me with dreams, and terrifiest me through visions."-Job vii. 13, 14.

*

66

bears witness to their incurable procrastination, making an hour signify the twinkling of an eye. The ordinary term for holiday, which Teutonic nations call a "Day of Solemnity," Day of Holiness, or "God's Day," means literally in Russian a day of idleness," while the word week signifies in Russian that "time when no work is done." And the customs and habits of the people are in strict harmony with these curious conceptions. No one is ever in a hurry in the land where festina lente is looked upon as the grand rule of life, even though he have the most potent incentives to despatch. A striking instance of this constitutional inability to increase the traditional creepingpace with which everything moves in Russia, is to be found in the building of the church in commemoration of the late Emperor on the spot where he was foully murdered. It was commenced in 1881 in what seemed hot haste at the time. Eight years have dragged their slow length along since then, and yet, at the beginning of the present year, the temple in so far resembled that of Jerusalem, that there was not one stone visibly standing upon another; at which state of things the present Emperor was so indignant, that he had some broad hints à la Dr. Francia, conveyed to certain of the parties responsible, who are now evincing a disposition to bestir themselves. Every business in life is conducted on the same principle set forth in the proverb, "The slower you drive the further you'll go." I have known foreign merchants to arrive in Russia on a Saturday evening too late to transact the very urgent business for which they had come, and having waited feverishly till Monday, discovered that it was a church holiday on which no man can work, no firm do business; and having made praiseworthy efforts to control their feelings and possess their souls in patience till Tuesday, found that it was the Emperor's birthday or name's-day, and equally sacred to indolence. In a provincial city it is enough for an average funeral procession to pass along the streets for cars and cabs to pull up, tramcars to come to a standstill, the passengers to get out and gape, and traffic

generally to be temporarily suspended. In all other departments of public or private activity it is the same. Judicial procedure is proverbially slow in most countries; and it would be no easy matter to beat the records of the English Court of Chancery in that respect, with its lawsuits like that of Jarndyce v. Jarndyce continuing from generation to generation. But even here Russia bears off the palm. The district Court of Kherson (near Odessa), for instance, has a case still before it which is older than the nineteenth century. The object of the litigation is the right of inheritance to the property of the Shidansky family, the proprietors of the great salt works. The suit was begun toward the end of the eighteenth century, and the first judgment upon its merits was delivered in 1802. Since then it has been three several times before the Governing Senate-the Supreme Court of Appeal in Russia. It is now being carried on by the grandchildren of the first plaintiffs, and lately came before the District Court of Kherson, which has again adjourned it.*

The post and the telegraph exist in Russia as in England or Germany, but their real significance has not yet been fully grasped by the people, who see no cause for complaint in the circumstance that a telegram reaches its destination no quicker than a letter should, and a letter frequently never reaches it at all. A friend of mine fell ill some months ago, and sent a telegram to his wife who was living with their children in the country ten miles from town. Although her country-house was only ten minutes' walk from the railwaystation that telegram took eighteen hours and a half to reach her, during which time her husband lay dangerously ill in his town-house, without attendants. And this is by no means an extreme or rare case. If you enter the chief telegraph-office of the most business-like city in RussiaOdessa-with a despatch, on the speedy transmission of which thousands of pounds, or interests still more weighty, depend, you may find the room full of people, especially if it is near two o'clock P.M., and you take your stand behind the last. Suddenly the clerk who receives the telegrams stands up, surveys the public with a quiet smile, and leisurely saunters out. You wait impatiently ten or fifteen min

*Cf. Novoye Vremya, 7th August, 1889.

strength enough to reach the vessel. He began to lose ground visibly and was being carried by the current away from the boat, when the captain threw out a life buoy which he failed to catch hold of. On this he shouted for help at the top of his voice, and a boat was lowered. After some trouble he was rescued

and brought back to the steamer, but the captain's cap was never recovered.

That business men in Russia, especially foreign residents, require an unusual stock of patience to bear up under the occasional disastrous results of this criminal waste of time, needs no pointing out here. Fancy a London city man compelled to fulfil to the letter the following formality before he could legally receive a paltry consignment of one cut. of dry Swedish bread, these formalities not containing anything exceptional for his particular case, but constituting the normal rule for all.

"1. He must present the bill of lading in

the customs' storehouse. 2. He must deliver it to an interpreter. 3. He must obtain a copy of the declaration. 4. He must purchase and affix a revenue stamp of the value of 80 copecks. 5. He must obtain the authorization ined (the examination taking place but twice daily, at 10 A M., and at 1 P.M.), whereby he must wait till the Director arrives. 6. When

of the Director to have his merchandise exam

the authorization has been received, he must get it entered in the books of the storehouse. 7. He must present the authorization to the storehouse board and await the arrival of the examiners. 8. He goes along with the examiners to the storehouse. 9. He has the goods examined. 10. He signs a declaration that he is satisfied with the examination. 11. The ex

aminers sign it. 12. All return to the store.

house office. 13. The duty on the merchandise is calculated. 14. All documents relating to the matter are presented to the controller. 15. The duty is paid. 16. A receipt for the duty is written out. 17. The receipt has to be presented to the head book-keeper. 18. A revenue stamp of 80 copecks has to be purchased and affixed. 19. A talon" has to be

obtained. 20. It must be handed to the customs' guard. 21. The bill of expenses of the Customs' Workingmen's Association is made out and handed to the consignee. 22. He receives a customs' ticket authorizing him to leave the Custom House precincts. 23. He must see that his cases are properly repacked; and 24. He has to hand in his ticket to the guard." +

* Graschdanin, 6th September, 1889.

This is no mere formality of the citius diclo kind one has often to wait twenty minutes or half an hour before the cashier finds it convenient to accept one's money.

Novoye Vremya, 24th August, 1888. This journal has made one important omission in drawing up its list. One must set out by ob

The Novoye Vremya, from which I have translated this list of formalities without changing a word, tells us that one gentleman accomplished all this in four hours-a comparatively short time-for formalities that some people spend three days in wading through.

*

It would be difficult to conceive of anything so truly characteristic of Russian notions of the value of time as the keen competition that goes on in many parts of the empire between peasant carriers with their oxen or horses, and railway companies with their steam engines. Some time ago one company formally besought the Government to protect their threatened interests by forbidding private enterprise to compete, as otherwise "they would lose the goods traffic" and become bankrupts. A few weeks since a firm of printers of the city of Yekaterinoslav ordered a large quantity of paper of the value of 1,700 roubles, which they had purchased in Kharkoff, to be conveyed to them in Yekaterinoslav (280 Russian versts) on floats drawn by horses, this being a much less expensive and generally more satisfactory way than getting it sent by rail. In the Baltic Provinces the same phenomenon is frequent, and it is said to be yearly growing more so. tween Riga and Valk, for instance, which are joined by rail, much of the carrying trade is done by private individuals, who convey the merchandise on floats and drays drawn by horses. § drays drawn by horses. § And so lively has this competition become in the South. of Russia that some railway companies are, if we can believe the local press, actually being worsted in the struggle.

Be

And the weightiest interests, the most sacred considerations, go for nothing in comparison with the inherent right of the Russian to indulge in this demoralizing sloth.

As soon would the inexorable order of Carthusian monks give a morsel of meat to its most valuable member-though the effect were to restore his ebbing life-as a Russian department would hasten by a single day the delivery of a document to hinder the ruin or death of scores of hu

taining from the police a certificate that he who presents himself is really the person he claims to be.

*The Basuntchak Railway.

+ Novoye Vremya, Sept. 13th, 1889. Ibid. § Ibid.j Odessa Messenger, Dec. 1st, 1888.