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RUSSIAN LITERATURE
absence of the physical signs of degeneracy clearly indicate, the process of selection on the whole works truly. The Russian pessimist and the hostile foreigner see nothing but decadence. The thoughtful observer knows that such decadence is but the inevitable by-product in the formative process of a great nation."
"Beyond any other European people the Russians possess a degree of receptivity, a radical humanity of feeling, a fund of high idealism, and a sense of the relationship of ideals to practical life, which cannot fail to carry them very far. These things, far more than either an outrageous militarism or the capacity for frantic industrial production, in the end make up civilization."
