the eye of a Byron or a Lamartine ; while the observer of 1850 regards that spot of Asia as his ancestral mother-country, and feels that it partly belongs to him.
We shall find that Pushkin's successors possess none of his literary qualities. He is as concise as they are diffuse; as clear as they are involved. His style is as perfect, elegant, and correct as a Greek bronze ; in a word, he has style and good taste, which terms cannot be applied to any of his successors in Russian literature. Is it taking away anything from Pushkin to remove him from his race and give him to the world and humanity at large? Because he was born in Russia, there is nothing whatever to prove that his works were thereby modified. He would have sung in the self-same way for England, France, or Italy.
But, although he resembles his country so little, he served it well. He stirred its intellectual life more effectively than any other writer has done; and it is not too much to call him the Peter the Great of Russian literature. The nation gratefully recognizes this debt. To quote one of his own verses : — " The monument I have erected for myself is made by no mortal hand ; and the grass will not have time to grow in the path that leads to it."
