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

The worship of the United Greeks (the Uniates) has been, after long and heavy persecutions, abolished. The following fact will show the danger run in Eussia by speaking of the Greek religion, and of its little moral influence.

Some years ago, a man of mind, and highly esteemed by every one in Moscow, noble both by birth and character, but, unfortunately for himself, devoured with a love of truth — a passion dangerous everywhere, but mortally so in Russia, — ventured to print that the Catholic religion is more favourable to the development of mind, and to the progress of arts, than the Russian Byzantine. The life of the Catholic priest, he says in his book, a life altogether supernatural, or which at least ought to be so, is a voluntary and daily sacrifice of the gross inclinations of nature ; a sacrifice incessantly renewed on the altar of faith, to prove to the most incredulous that man is not subjected in all things to the tyranny of material laws, and that he may receive from a superior power means of escaping from them: he adds, " By virtue of the changes operated by time, the Catholic religion can no longer employ her virtuality except in doing good:" in fact, he maintained, that Catholicism was wanting to the great destinies of the Slavonian race, because in it alone could, at the same time, be found, sustained enthusiasm, perfect charity and pure discernment ; he supported his opinion by a great number of proofs, and endeavoured to show the advantages of an independent, that is an universal religion, over local or politically-limited religions ; in short, he professed an opinion which I shall never cease to defend with all my powers.