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

58THE DESCENDANTS OF THE

upon one theatre, but whose plot will be unravelled on the boards of another. It is not thus with the life of nations : their instructive tragedy begins and ends upon earth ; and it is this which makes history a sacred scripture : history is the justification of Providence.

Saint Paul has said, " Let every soul be subject to the higher powers : the powers that be are ordained of God." The church, with him, called men from a state of isolation nearly two thousand years ago, by baptizing them citizens of an eternal community, a society of which all others are but imperfect representations. These truths are not falsified; on the contrary, they are confirmed by experience. The more deeply we study the character of the different nations who share the earth, the more clearly do we recognise that their fate is the consequence of their religion. The religious element is essential to the duration of society : men need a belief in the supernatural, in order to raise themselves from that pretended state of nature which is a state of violence and iniquity ; and the miseries of oppressed races are no more than the punishment of their voluntary errors in matters of faith. Such is the belief which my numerous pilgrimages have instilled into me. Every traveller is obliged to become a philosopher, and more than a philosopher ; for it is necessary to become a Christian to contemplate without shocked senses the condition of the various races dispersed upon the globe, and to meditate without despair upon the dealings of God, — mysterious causes of the vicissitudes of man.

I am recording reflections made in the mosque