New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-12-17

| shadow of the Kremlin in the sixteenth century.
The Gar was not yet of age when military
nacessitv compelled him to take the field against
| tbe Tartars ensconced In Kazan. The eastern
, axnansion had begun. Undismayed by the mis-
! fortunes of two successive campaigns, he came
| a third time to the attack with fresh army.
The indomitabe spirit and dynamic resource
OF the Russia of our day is foreshadowed and
! at the same time we catch a glimpse of the In
! consistencies of a masterful nature, bearing
down all imposition, yet the slave of the sIiest
/ sunerstitions reVerenced something sacred
! bv his followers, but unable to conquer the
weakness of his temperament. He had assem-
| bled the army, he had given the orders. he had
! provided fire weather by sending to Moscow
! for a miraculous cross. but when he should
| have been leading his hosts he was cringing be-
! fore the altar The Tartars We're rallying and
his presence was demanded at the front and
he wept copiously and prayed audibly.
He was the heir of the Russian princes who had
formed on batfiefeids but by the dim paths of in.
trigue. bargain making and economy by miracles OF
&c the pupil OF the ancient Eastern teachers of
As ASS HABITS Of mao ndierenee of physical
effort and naughty calm; The act Of lighting of
them did not enter into their conception of a SOW
qu hart e ss 20 Ve his saE oTSeT TSr send his
men out to die and say prayers himself.
The picture is important for the parallel 1t
suggests and for it's value in enabling us to
reach a comprehension of the Russian point OF
view. When, later. Ivan INDUCED in the most
bloodthirsty reprsals, visiting his vengeance
upon whole districts and finding a fiendish de-
light IN the massacre of thousands of his peo-
pie, he left undisturbed that general feeling
of LOYALTY which is referred to above as
altation of love toward so grotesque an object
All the eagerness and violence of the fray did not
eradicate that resignation to accomplished facts
unalterable feature in the national character When
the Emperor Macmillan. was stopped on his way
by a serious illness. he bewaed himself: IF only
was able to get up My Ts is nothing a 5 so s 0mg as as
much zeal for SO great tyrant?" inquired The
Russians are devoted to our soyereisns whether
fact that boIar who had been impaled by the
nr sn e BPS ies den
torments for four and twenty hours, and never
repeating Great God protect the Carl
The biographer has endeavored to 10 full jus
tice 20 his subject. but he labors under no illu-
sions. Remarking that Ivan killed his son and
heir with his own hand. that he had three times
many wives children. that his brother
became idiot that of his sons was half
imbecile and another epileptic, he concludes
that the first Car degenerate. paranoiac,
but he must be judged by the standards of his
time. not of Ivan died in 1854 He left
an ideal of material greatness and brute force
He spent his energy in tearing down. and did
not live to build again. After interval it was
Peters task to take up the work and carry it
further.
NJ. Walszewski has displayed no little skill In
tracing amid so many cross currents the chan
mel of consistent and progressive movement.
And as all that concerns the historical develop
ment of Russia has special significance to-day.
his study of her aims and aspirations, en-
bodied in the life Of the first Car. will we'll re-
pay the reader for bearing with turgid pom
posities OF language.