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48 To attempt to quote, to translate his precious words, would be a hopeless task. He himself said : " In my opinion, there is nothing more difficult, I might say impossible, than to translate Russian poetry into French; concise as our language is, we can never be concise enough."

In Latin one might possibly be able to express as many thoughts in as few words, and as beautifully. The charm vanishes with the translator's touch; besides, the principal object of this book is to show how the peculiar type of Russian character is manifested in the works of the Russian writers. Neither do I think that Pushkin could aid us much in this study ; although he was no servile imitator, like so many of his predecessors, it is none the less true that he drew his material from the great sources of European literature. He was educated from a child in French literature. His father knew Moliere by heart, and his uncle was a great admirer of Beranger. When he entered the Lyceum he could scarcely speak his mother-tongue, but he had been fed with Voltaire from early childhood. His very first verses were written in French, and his first Russian rhymes were madrigals on the same themes. In the "Prisoner of the Caucasus," written in 1824, we can feel the influence of Byron, whom he calls the "master of his thoughts." Gradually he acquired more originality, but it is quite certain that but for Byron some of the most impor-