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

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goes farther, and maintains not only the principle but the practice of promiscuous intercourse between the sexes.

" Our priests are forbidden to write even historical scripture ; our peasants are constantly interpreting passages from the Bible, which, taken separately, without the context, and falsely applied, frequently give rise to some new heresy, most generally Calvin-istic in its character. Before the pope of the village discovers it, it has already gained a hold among the inhabitants, and often spread among the neighbouring populations. Should the priest then treat the matter publicly, the contaminated peasants are sent to Siberia, which ruins the lord of the soil, who consequently, if previously aware of the circumstance, finds more than one way of causing the pastor to preserve a silence : so that, when at last the heresy does break out and attract the eyes of the supreme authority, the number of seceders is so considerable that it is no longer possible to act against them. Violence would divulge the mischief without stifling it; persuasion would open a door for discussion — the worst of all evils in the eyes of an absolute government: they can therefore do nothing but have recourse to silence, under whose veil the evil is concealed, without being cured; on the contrary, it gradually spreads.

" It is by religious divisions that the Russian empire will perish ; therefore to envy in us, as you do, the power of faith, is to judge us without knowing us."

Such is the opinion of the most clear-sighted and sincere men that I have met in Russia.

A foreigner, worthy of credence, and who has been