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

PETERSBURG AND VENICE.213

nice, but more extraordinary. They are both colossi raised by fear. Venice was the work of unmixed fear; the last Romans preferred flight to death, and the fruit of their fear became one of the world's wonders. Petersburg is equally the result of terror, but of a pious terror, for Russian policy has known how to convert obedience into a dogma. The Russian people are accounted very religious ; it may be so : but what kind of religion can that be which is forbidden to be taught ? They never preach in the Russian churches. The gospel would proclaim liberty to the Slavonians.

This fear of things being understood, which they desire should be believed, seems to me suspicious. The more reason and knowledge contract the sphere of faith, and the brighter that divine light, thus concentrated in its focus, becomes; the less people believe, the more fervent is their belief. Sm`ns of the cross

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are no proofs of devotion ; and, notwithstanding their genuflexions and other external evidences of piety, the Russians, in their prayers, seem to me to think more of their emperor than their God. " Awake me when you come to the subject of God," said an ambassador, about to be put to sleep in a Russian church by the imperial liturgy.

Sometimes I feel ready to participate in the superstition of this people. Enthusiasm become» contagious when it is or appears to be general; but the moment the symptoms lay hold of me, I think of Siberia, that indispensable auxiliary of Muscovite civilisation, and immediately I recover my calmness and independence.

Political faith is more firm here than religious faith; the unity of the Greek church is only apparent: the sects, reduced to silence, dig their way under-