It is perishing by natural process because it is vicious, because it is out of harmony with its environment, and because the maladjusted life forces are moving by eternal laws from the surface to their natural home in the centre.

And we may well believe that the fates are preparing a destiny commensurate with the endowments of a great--perhaps the greatest--of the nations of the earth.
Let it not be supposed that it is the moujik, the Russian peasant in sheepskin, with toil-worn hands, who has conducted that brilliant parliamentary battle in the _Duma_.

Certain educational and property qualifications are required for eligibility to membership in that body, which would of necessity exclude that humble class.

It is not the emancipated serf, but it is _rural Russia_ which the _Duma_ represented, and the vastness of the area covered by that term is realized when one learns that of the 450 members constituting that body only eighteen were from cities.

It is the leaders of this vast rural population, members of ancient princely families or owners of great landed estates, these are the men who are coming out of long oblivion to help rule the destinies of a new Russia.