Thence he would have to accompany me to a provincial town, and spend months in a public office, whilst I endeavoured to master the mysteries of local self-government.

After this he would have to spend two years with me in a big library, where I studied the history and literature of the country.

And so on, and so on.

Even my journeys would prove tedious to him, as they often were to myself, for he would have to drive with me many a score of weary miles, where even the most zealous diary-writer would find nothing to record beyond the names of the post-stations.
It will be well for me, then, to avoid the strictly chronological method, and confine myself to a description of the more striking objects and incidents that came under my notice.

The knowledge which I derived from books will help me to supply a running commentary on what I happened to see and hear.
Instead of beginning in the usual way with St.Petersburg, I prefer for many reasons to leave the description of the capital till some future time, and plunge at once into the great northern forest region.
If it were possible to get a bird's-eye view of European Russia, the spectator would perceive that the country is composed of two halves widely differing from each other in character.