Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow Irina Reyfman (snow like ashes .TXT) 📖

this to be printed, saying: this is a personal affront since we have princes and counts among our people of quality.

* Mr. Dickinson, who took part in the recent American Revolution and thereby earned a reputation, did not shirk when he became president of Pennsylvania from taking on his detractors. The most violent libels were published against him. The preeminent governor of the region descended into the arena, had his defense published, justified himself, refuted the allegations of his enemies, and covered them in shame…. Here is an example to follow in the way to take revenge when one is attacked in writing in public. If published lines render someone furious they give reason to think that what has been published is true and that the person taking revenge is just as they have been depicted in print.

* The works of Arias Montano, who printed in the Netherlands the first inventory of forbidden books, were entered into the same inventory.

† Cassius Severus, the friend of Labienus, on seeing the writings of the latter devoured by the fire said: “Now you will have to burn me since I know them by heart.” This was the occasion for the law of libelous writings under Augustus, which due to the human tendency to ape one another, was adopted in England and also in other countries.

*Codex diplomaticus, published by Gudenus, volume IV.

* One can compare this with the permission to possess foreign books of any type and the ban on the very same books in the vernacular language.

* “Aforementioned art” here and below refers to printing.—Trans.

* In England, William Caxton, a London merchant, established a printing press in the reign of Edward IV in 1474. The first book printed in the English language was A Treatise on Chess, translated from the French. The second was the Collection of Sayings and Speeches of Philosophers, translated by Lord Rivers.

* In Denmark freedom to print books was brief. The verses of Voltaire addressed to the King of Denmark on this occasion are proof that one should not hasten to praise a law, however wise it was.

* We read in the most recent news that the successor of Joseph II intends to renew the censorship committee abolished by his predecessor.

MEDNOE

“In a field a birch tree stood / in a field it curly stood / oi lyuli-lyuli-lyuli-lyuli.” A round dance of young womenfolk and maidens—they dance. “Let us draw closer,” said I to myself while unfolding the found papers of my acquaintance.—But I read the following. I was unable to walk up to the round dance. My ears were blocked with sadness and the joyous voice of plain cheerfulness failed to penetrate my heart. O my friend! Wherever you are, harken and judge.

Twice weekly the entire Russian Empire gets the news that N.N. or B.B. either cannot or does not want to pay what he borrowed or took, or the sum demanded of him. The borrowed sum is gambled away, spent on travel, used up, eaten up, drunk up, … up or given away, lost in fire or water, or through some other set of circumstances either N.N. or B.B. has gone into debt or repossession. Both reasons are printed by newspapers.—As printed: “On this day … at 10 o’clock in the morning, on the remand of the district court or the city magistrate, at a public auction will be sold the real estate, house, located in … quarter, at number … and with it six souls male and female, of the retired captain G; the sale will be held at the said house. All those interested may view in advance.”

A bargain always has many seekers. The day and hour of the sale arrives. The purchasers are gathering. Those who have been condemned to sale stand motionless in the room where it is being conducted. An old man of about seventy-five, leaning on an elm club, craves to guess which pair of hands fate will give him to, who will close his eyes. He was with his master’s father in the Crimean campaign in the time of Field Marshal Münnich;108 at the battle of Frankfurt, he carried his wounded master on his shoulders from the front line. On return home, he was serf tutor to his young master. He saved him in his childhood from drowning, plunging into the river where the other had fallen during his crossing on a ferry and at danger to his own life saved him. In his youth, he bailed his master from the prison to which he had been sentenced because of debts incurred during his time as a junior officer in the guards.—An old woman of eighty years, his wife, was wet nurse to the young master’s mother, was his nanny, and had oversight of the house until the very hour when she was brought to this auction. For the entire period of her service, she never lost anything of her masters’, never coveted anything, never lied, and if she irritated them in any way then it was only perhaps through her truthfulness.—A woman of forty years, a widow, the wet nurse of her young master. Even now she still feels for him a measure of tenderness. Her blood runs in his veins. She is a second mother to him, and he owes his life to her more than to his natural mother. She who conceived him in pleasure gave no thought to his childhood. His wet nurse and nanny raised him. They part from him like a son.—A young woman of eighteen, her daughter and the granddaughter of the old people. Vicious beast, monster, fiend! Look at her, look at her crimson cheeks, tears flowing from her delightful eyes. Is it not you who, when unable to capture her innocence by means of seduction and promises, nor to intimidate with threats and punishment her constancy, finally used deception by marrying her to a collaborator in your vileness and in this guise take the pleasure that she abhorred to share