He knew that
many, rather than help a neighbour who is in danger by a robber,
will join the robber and share the spoil, crying out that force
majeure was used to them.
But, as every man must judge according to his lights, so must even
the greatest find himself in the dark at last. No man of the Latin
race will ever understand the Slav. And because the beginning is
easy--because in certain superficial tricks of speech and thought
Paris and Petersburg are not unlike--so much the more is the breach
widened when necessity digs deeper than the surface. For, to make
the acquaintance of a stranger who seems to be a counterpart of
one's self in thought and taste, is like the first hearing of a
kindred language such as Dutch to the English ear. At first it
sounds like one's own tongue with a hundred identical words, but on
closer listening it will be found that the words mean something
else, and that the whole is incomprehensible and the more difficult
to acquire by the very reason of its resemblance.
Napoleon thought that the Russians would act as his enemies of the
Latin race had acted. He thought that like his own people they
would be over-confident, urging each other on to great deeds by loud
words and a hundred boasts. But the Russians lack self-confidence,
are timid rather than over-bold, dreamy rather than fiery. Only
their women are glib of speech. He thought that they would begin
very brilliantly and end with a compromise, heart-breaking at first
and soon lived down.
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