all converts her to Nihilism by means of conversations and books, and then persuades her to make a runaway match with him in order to escape from the authority of her parents.' The success of their plans of elopement was partly due to the friendly services of a Madame Julie Letellier, one of the most notorious lionnes of St. Petersburg, 'whose language was such that it caused even the greatest polissons of the upper classes to blush.' At a breakfast given by this lady to the newly married couple, both the hostess and her two guests drink so much champagne that they all become quite tipsy. Julie, remembering that Vera was now a married woman, judged that it was no longer necessary to be guarded in her conversation, and ended by enthusiastically describing orgies in the most licentious of colours. Suddenly Julie arose from the table and pinched Vera, who quickly rose in her turn and pursued her friend all through the rooms, jumping over chairs and tables.' Having finally succeeded in catching Julie, a struggle ensues, which ends by the two women falling down together in a drunken sleep on the sofa, whilst Alexander also falls asleep in another corner of the room.

A month or two later Vera takes it into her head to earn her own living; accordingly she sets up a dressmaking business under the immediate patronage of Julie and her friends. Twenty young needlewomen belong to this establishment, which is conducted according to Nihilist notions. At the end of every month the net profits are equally divided amongst all the members, Vera merely taking her share with the rest. The young women all live in the same house and take their meals together; in this manner they are able to economise a great deal by buying all their provisions and necessaries at wholesale prices. They appear to have possessed everything in common and to have contented themselves with little, for M. Tschernyschewsky expressly informs us that the twenty young ladies only had five umbrellas amongst them. The financial success of the undertaking is so great that we actually find the girls at a loss how to invest their earnings profitably. Taking advantage, however, of Vera's experience in the matter, they use their money to set up a pawnbroker's business in connection with the dressmaking establishment. The author does not inform us whether the pawnbroking is also conducted according to Nihilistic principles.

About a year after their marriage a third Nihilist makes his appearance on the scene. He is a medical student named Kirsanoff. We are informed that he is exceedingly clever, that he had thoroughly mastered the French language by reading through eight times a French version of the New Testament, a well-known book;' and finally that he had written a treatise on physiology which 'even the great Claude Bernard of Paris had alluded to in terms of respect.' In the same manner as Alexander is distinguished for perseverance, so is Kirsanoff remarkable for his kindness of heart, of which the

following instance is given :-Having fallen in love with a grisette of notoriously drunken habits, he allowed her to come and live with him as soon as she had earned a sufficient sum of money by her vile trade to pay for a proper outfit. However, drunkenness and debauchery bring on consumption, and she dies shortly after the marriage of Alexander and Vera.

Before proceeding any further the author takes great pains to assure us that Vera, Alexander, and Kirsanoff are persons of the most irreproachable and elevated character, and that their hearts only beat with generous impulses. To illustrate this he goes on to cause Kirsanoff to fall in love with Vera, who, having now developed into a full-grown woman,' returns Kirsanoff's affection, and has no hesitation in telling her husband all about it. The latter is not in the least offended by the news. Far from it! No, after devoting half an hour to considering the matter, he goes to see his friend Kirsanoff, informs him of what Vera had told him, and ends by inviting him to come and live with them, so as to make matters quite nice and comfortable. We are not to feel surprised at this proposal, for Alexander is one of those people who consider that a man of intellect should not allow himself to be subject to jealousy. It is a false, unnatural, and altogether abominable sentiment, a mere phenomenon of the present order of things, according to which I ought to allow nobody to wear my linen or to smoke my pipe. It is the unfortunate result of a person's considering his helpmate in the light of private ownership.' And again, apropos of the same subject, Can contraband be considered as a good thing? Isn't it much better to do things openly and aboveboard? In trying to hide matters we are forced to make use of falsehoods and all kinds of deceptions, and then, and then only, we become bad.'

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However, Kirsanoff declines Alexander's invitation on the ground that, although a ménage à trois would be quite in accordance with Nihilist notions, yet that people in general were still too old-fashioned and conservative in their prejudices to approve of such a proceeding. Vera also declines the proposed arrangement. But we must not do her the injustice of attributing her refusal to any false feelings of womanly shame. She distinctly states that if a husband continues to live with his wife, there can be no cause for scandal, no matter what her relations with any other man may be.' She merely refuses because, being under obligations to Alexander for having rendered her independent of the authority of her parents, his continued presence would become irksome to her. Accordingly Alexander disappears, and is reported to have committed suicide by drowning. On the following day, however, Vera and Kirsanoff receive a letter from him, informing them that under cover of this report he had secretly embarked for the United States. Kirsanoff, having obtained the necessary papers certifying his friend's death, marries Vera a fortnight

later. They live happily, and carry on a most friendly correspondence with Alexander.

Some time after her second marriage Vera discards dressmaking, and begins to study medicine under the auspices of Kirsanoff, who has now become a professor of it. We are told that she showed a special predilection for the study of anatomy, and the author warmly recommends this kind of occupation to his lady readers.

Two years later Alexander returns from the United States and settles down at St. Petersburg under the assumed name of Charles Belmont. He is now a naturalised American subject, and the agent of a great New York tallow company. Making the acquaintance of a friend of Vera, named Katia, he converts her to Nihilism, and confides to her his true history, which, however, in no wise shocks her, for she readily consents to become his wife. A few days before their marriage they go together to see Kirsanoff and Vera, and the meeting is described as being of a most affectionate nature. Soon afterwards the soi-disant Charles Belmont takes his wife to live in the same house with the Kirsanoffs, with whom they continue on terms of the warmest friendship. According to the author they now become the centre of a choice and intellectual circle of friends. The entertainments which take place at their house are minutely described.

Having frequently commended the elevated characters of Vera, Alexander, and Kirsanoff, M. Tschernyschewsky towards the end of his book becomes afraid that we should despair of ever attaining a similar degree of excellence. Accordingly he assures us that his three friends are the most ordinary Nihilists in the world, and that with very little trouble we may become like them. In order to prove the truth of his assertion he is good enough to introduce us, before leaving him, to a most superior kind of Nihilist, the quintessence of the new doctrine personified, whose name is Rakhmetoff.

Rakhmetoff, we are told, belongs to an old Boyard family, and is very wealthy. At the age of sixteen he is obliged to leave home because he has fallen in love with a woman to whom his father was attached, so he comes to St. Petersburg to study at the University. He soon makes the acquaintance of some students, who provide him with Nihilist literature. Thanks partly to the books and chiefly to his friendship and intimate communion with M. Tschernyschewsky himself, Rakhmetoff rapidly attains a degree of Nihilistic excellence which it is useless for us to strive to equal. He now reads but very few books, and only deigns to associate with men who are known to exercise influence on their fellow-creatures. After the perusal of three or four pages of Macaulay's works he throws them down in disgust, calling them a mere bundle of old rags. Nor are Stuart Mill, Adam Smith, and other writers on political economy better treated by this extraordinary youth. We are somewhat relieved,

however, to learn that Thackeray's Vanity Fair finds favour in his sight.

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At the age of eighteen he deems that it is necessary' that he should cultivate his physical strength; for what reason we are not informed. Accordingly he declines all food excepting raw beef-steaks and apples; though he eats oranges when at St. Petersburg because the lower classes of that city also eat them.'

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Leaving the University before he had completed his studies, he travels through the country as a common labourer, working at the anvil, at road-making, wood-cutting, and all other work calculated to develope the muscles; his favourite occupation being to tow barges up the river. His strength soon becomes so great that he is able to stop a runaway horse and carriage by merely seizing hold of the axletree of the latter. His amusements are of an eccentric nature. One morning he is found lying on a bed composed of inch-long nails pointed upwards, and covered with blood. In reply to inquiries he only vouchsafes to state that it is necessary that he should know whether he could support pain. A little later he leaves Russia, telling his friends that he had done all he can to propagate the new doctrines there, and that now it is necessary that he should make himself acquainted with the various customs and social organisations of other countries. After this we hear no more of him.

M. Tschernyschewsky concludes by regretting that there are but very few people as high-minded as Rakhmetoff, and says that he has known but eight persons who could be compared to him, and that two of these were women.

II.

To Western Europeans it is almost utterly incomprehensible how thousands of human beings can entertain such notions as have now been quoted; and above all, how they can have been adopted to such an extent as to form a menace to the Government.

In order to understand, in any measure, their ready acceptance in Russia, we must take the character of the people into consideration.

Their most prominent features are superficiality and sensuality. The Russian is the obedient servant of his senses, and is entirely governed by the impressions which his eyes and ears convey to him. He does everything on the impulse of the moment; he laughs with the merry, weeps with the sad, becomes as kindly and generous to misfortune and misery when they are brought before his eyes, as he is cold and indifferent to them at a distance. He is honest with

the honest, but readily falls into the ways of thieves when he finds himself in their company. Credulous and full of fantasies which rapidly flame up and are just as quickly extinguished, all the qualities necessary for steadfastness of purpose are entirely wanting in him. The abstract principles of right and wrong but feebly influence his actions. On the other hand he is all the more ready to pursue the shadows of principles, and to cling to any theories which the wind of the day may have blown across his path. The more glittering, the more plausible, the more unsubstantial they are, the more likely are they to carry him away. Without philosophical profundity, he nevertheless possesses considerable ingenuity; hence he is too ready to be seduced by specious arguments, and to accept the logical conclusions of premisses which he has never duly examined.

Another fact must also be remarked. The Russians have no political history. Until quite recently they were subject to an autocracy which repressed any expression whatever of opinion concerning the Government. All power was concentrated in the hands of the Czar, and administered by an immense bureaucracy. The public discussion of political and administrative questions was forbidden or jealously restricted. Political education under such a condition of things was impossible. Political character is the outcome of political strife in the forum and in the press. It is the political life of a nation which alone can furnish the individual with political character; and there is no such life in Russia. Until the present generation there was no regular organisation of classes in Russia; everybody was equally subject to the will and pleasure of the Czar.

Having therefore no political experience, the Russian people were ill prepared for the reforms which ushered in the comparatively liberal era of the present Emperor's reign. In quick succession serfdom was abolished, trial by jury and the English system of judicial proceedings introduced, provincial, district, and municipal assemblies instituted, and liberty of the press granted in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

In addition to all these things the construction of an immense network of railways opened up communication with foreign countries, and admitted the influx of the political ideas of Western Europe. The abolition of serfdom introduced the principles of liberty and legal equality; the new provincial, district, and municipal assemblies introduced those of self-government; whilst the liberty of the press carried with it the novel right of protest, in the name of the nation, against the evils and oppressions of the Government. The more enlightened classes suddenly became aware of the immense power of the people, which had hitherto lain dormant. But unfortunately, in consequence of political inexperience, they were unable to give it a proper direction.