“Oh, yes!” was the reply, “certainly; I have been to Helsingfors!”
There is a corps forestier, an establishment in which the mode of cultivating land, planting trees, &c., is taught. The gardens belonging to this corps are about four miles from St. Petersburg, and are very interesting; they contain a great variety of shrubs and flowers, to which much attention is paid. The grounds are laid out in the English style.
Not far from this college, on the Viborg road, is one for the deaf and dumb. I frequently saw the boys out at play in the garden attached to the establishment. The utter silence reigning among so many unfortunate youths had a mournful and oppressive effect, but they seemed happy and even merry. I had no opportunity of learning anything touching the mode of instruction pursued, or to what occupation the young men were destined upon quitting; perhaps the government finds them useful.
In St. Petersburg there is an academy for actors and actresses, near the Alexander Theatre; they are educated at the expense of the crown, and for the first fifteen years after completing their training they are obliged to give up the greater part of their salaries to the government; this arrangement cannot be very gratifying to the artistes one would think, for those fifteen years must be the very best in their lives, supposing that they commence their histrionic career at the age of eighteen. After the expiration of the above term they are free to retain for themselves all they earn by their engagements.
A large square building in Vassili Ostrof is the Academy of the Fine Arts, where the productions of modern painters are exhibited every year for a certain length of time. Great encouragement is given by the government to the students, and he who gains the first prize is sent at the expense of the crown to travel in various countries for the space of two years, so that he may have the advantage of seeing the works of men of genius, and of profiting by them.
As the Russian government is a military one, there are of course innumerable establishments for the education of officers: there are the Gymnasiums, the Corps des Pages, and fifty others, in which warlike studies are pursued. “Notre Empereur aime à jouer aux soldats,” said a Russian; “ce n’est pas sûr qu’il FAIT des soldats.”
There are commercial schools for the bourgeoisie, and priouts, or establishments on the Bell and Lancaster system, for poor children, such as those of petty shopkeepers, domestic servants, and such like. Immense numbers of the scholars in all the colleges and different establishments are maintained at the expense of the crown; others are paid for by their parents.
The boys are always under the embarrassing restraints of a strict surveillance; even young men of seventeen and eighteen cannot go home or return from school unless they are attended by a relation or a servant. This plan, although it may be thought proper for young ladies, seems excessively ridiculous for young men; and of course, as a natural consequence of such a measure, as soon as they become their own masters they do not know how to govern themselves; and this is doubtless the cause of a vast deal of evil in Russia.
The study of the greatest importance in the Russian code of instruction is that of modern languages,—French, German, and English. The classic tongues are but little studied. Very few gentlemen know Latin, and still fewer have any acquaintance with Greek. Although it is agreeable to be able to converse in all these different languages, yet upon the whole it must be a defect in the plan of education to learn so many at once; for the time thus taken up in acquiring so many words and grammatical rules would be better employed in obtaining useful and solid information in one’s own, and that is what the Russians are extremely deficient in. A great many really know nothing beyond the frontiers of their own country. The appearance of knowledge given by the facility of chattering fluently in so many languages is a kind of imposition unless accompanied by the acquirement of the wisdom contained in each.