Russia in 1839 -Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia

THE GREEK RELIGION IN RUSSIA.347

though I could cite more than one instance of accidents of this kind happening even to ladies in the highest circles of society, both foreign and Russian ; and once attaeked, the individual feels the effects all his life. I had no wish uselessly to brave together these evils, with the tedious precautions that would be necessary to avoid them. Besides, in this empire of profound silence, of vast empty spaces, of naked country, of solitary towns, of prudent physiognomies, whose expression, by no-means sincere, made society itself appear empty, melancholy was gaining hold upon me ; I fled before the spleen as much as the cold. Whoever would pass a winter at Petersburg must resign himself for six months to forget nature, in order to live imprisoned among men who have nothing in their characters that is natural.* I admit, ingenuously, I have passed a wretched summer in Russia, because I have not been able well to understand beyond a small portion of what I have seen. I hoped to arrive at solutions; I bring back only problems.

There is one mystery which I more especially regret my inability to penetrate : I allude to the little influence of religion. Notwithstanding the political servitude of the Greek Church, might it not at least preserve some moral authority over the people ? It does not possess any. What is the cause of the nothingness of a church whose labours every thing seems to

* I have found, in the newly-published Letters of Lady Montague, a maxim of the Turkish courtiers, applicable to all courtiers, but more especially to the Russian ; it will serve to mark the relations, of which more than one sort exist, between Turkey and Muscovy : — " Caress the favoured, shun the unfortunate, and trust nobody."