granite, to be put upon some cross way of nations as an object of
wonder and admiration for all who come from the four winds of heaven.

Turgenev did not write for the masses but for the _elite_ among men. The
fact that .he has won such a fame among foreigners, and that the
number of his readers is widening every year, proves that great art is
international, and also, I may say, that artistic taste and
understanding is growing everywhere.




II


It is written that no man is a prophet in his own country, and from
time immemorial all the unsuccessful aspirants to the profession have
found their consolation in this proverbial truth. But for aught we
know this hard limitation has never been applied to artists. Indeed it
seems absurd on the face of it that the artist's countrymen, for whom
and about whom he writes, should be less fit to recognise him than
strangers. Yet in certain special and peculiar conditions, the most
unlikely things will sometimes occur, as is proved in the case of
Turgenev.

The fact is that _as an artist_ he was appreciated to his full value
first by foreigners. The Russians have begun to understand him, and
to assign to him his right place in this respect only now, after his
death, whilst in his lifetime his _artistic genius_ was comparatively
little cared for, save by a handful of his personal friends.