thousand miles from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean, from Archangel to Astrakhan.
V
Now, my point is that this single feature of the physical geography of Russia has determined beforehand the whole history of the Russian people. We are reminded of the admirable sonnet of Wordsworth on the subjugation of Switzerland by Napoleon:
Two Voices are there; one is of the sea,
One of the mountains; each a mighty voice;
In both from age to age Thou didst rejoice,
They were thy chosen music, Liberty.
If it be true that the voices of sea and mountain are the two mighty voices of Liberty, on the other it is even more obvious that the plain has ever been the arena and refuge of despotism. The levelling of the soil seems to be significant and symbolical of the levelling of men. Ernest Renan has told us that the desert is monotheistic, i.e. that the uniformity of the desert suggests and determines a belief in the unity of God. In the same way, one might assert that the plain is monarchic and autocratic. In
