New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1885-06-23
NEW PUBLICATIONS.

THE RUSSIAN REVOLT; IT'S CAUSES; CoNP Pd!oo:
AND rR0S sa,in Co ey hDA''' -'
The author Of this book is an Engiishman. VINO mas
iiyed in Russia and who has studied its literature
and people carefully. The result Is much more
than one of those hastily written aud ephemera
volun,es which are published to meet some sudden
exipency. such as the late menace OF war between
England aud Russia. Mr. Noble has written
thoughtful analysis of Russian history aud the
Russian character. He has endeavored 10 explain
and describe the character OF tue present revolt oy
a careful invests cation Of the changes whch 'ine
has wrought upon Slav institutions. He believes
that the federative principle was so deeprooted III
slav nature that centuries of tyranny and genera
lions of absolutism have repressed without destroy
ippt Ii has been kept alive in part by the influence
of the Mir though it must have possessed an IN
herent vitality or the Mir wonld have itself passed
away. Russia has ZEN fated to draw all her
changes, even such as were reforms, from outsiue
She has had imposed upon her foreign
religion, foreign institutions, foreign ruieis
foreign philosophy, foreign literature ana
foreign science. But though these exotic ihhu-
ences have moulded her. she also has also reactea
upon them, and the deep sadness OF her strange
destiny has been reflected in the lives of her peo-
ple. oyershadowing their superficial levity Win
profound Fundamental pathos snch as no other ma
tion exhibits Ii is no doubt the case that the gen.
eral aspect of the country has somsthlng to do with
this ouality of the national temperament. Ihe
vast stretches of soDbre c0lored plain, against
areas OF dark forest the peculiar village character
of the towns the absence of great cities, comoneto
foster that undercurrent of melancholy which ap-
pears alike in the songs of the peasant and the
poems and novels of the literary men.
But this melancholy is in truth an evidence that
the Russian people have been forced and kept out
g oft
the passion for equality is ioeradicaby strong has
been thrust into letters which distort all Its limos
and prevent its normal development Czarsm is
utterly unsuited to the popular genius. and uncon-
sciously as we'll as consciously the national
intelligence is always in state OF re-
sistance to its institutions. While ignor
ancc prevailed this resistance was passive Inc
Greek Church, which might have helped the peo-
pie only injured them. 1t degraded and repressed
womanhood, and through the RIGHTEOUSNESS or Its
priesthood it brought religion into discredit. All
that it established was dead and dismal formal
ism All that it fostered was rank and enervatlDg
superstition.
With the influx of Western thought there came
an intellectual repining. Young Russia ate of the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and harm
came upon it because of its nakodness. Patriotic
feeling, long confined to vague regrets and as
vague aspirations, now obtained form and purpose.
Under the regime Of absoutism the new efforts
could meet but one reception. Regarded
as treason, they were repressed by violence,
and the chains were drawn more tightly. And thus
gradually the dream of regeneration dissipatcd;
the reformers were scattered amid the Siberian
steppes; miitarism and bureaucracy reigned
more imperiousy than ever; and the hope of re-
form gave place to the demand for revolution.
Emancipation, which liberated the peasant from
the soil to which he had been fixed. did not stop
the spread of discomfort, for absOlutism remained.
and the fruiton OF the feicrative principle was as
far away as ever. Thus the dynamite era was
evolved, and the war against Czarism assumed
desperate phase. How the Russian revolt grew and
developed, and how the national temperament and
race tendencies rendered the conflict inevitable,
Mr. Noble has undertaken to show with great
wealth of illustration aud with keenness and
analytical force which add much to the interest of
his theories He may not be wholly right Prob
ably TO such attempt to trace national progress
through centuries of change and conflict ever Is
wholly right. But certainly he has constructed a
thoroughly probable and reasonable theory. and its
Chief value consists in the evident fact that he I'M
derstands the people he is investigating, and enters
into the spirit of thor national sentiments and as
plrations. The book is really therefore valuable
contribution TO a deeply interesting subject and 1t
is exceedingly well written.