more ludicrous than the mixture of conflicting prejudices which are working in the head of this poor foreigner, who has been for a great number of years established in Moscow, his adopted country. His ideas of childhood, brought from Home, dispose him to believe in the intervention of the saints and the Virgin ; and, without losing himself in theological subtilties, he takes for good, in defanlt of better, the miracles of the relics and images of the Greek church. This poor Catholic, converted into a zealous adorer of the Virgin of Vivielski, proves to me the omnipotence of unanimity in creeds. He does в 4
8
MIRACULOUS VIRGIN.
not cease repeating to me, with Italian loquacity, ' Signor, creda a me, questa madonna fa dei miracoli, ma dei miraeoli veri, veri verissimi, non e come da noi altri; in questo paese tutti gli miracoli sono veri.'
This Italian, preserving the ingenuous vivacity and the good temper of the people of his country in the empire of silence and reserve, amuses me.
A gossip in Eussia is a phenomenon, a rarity delightful to encounter, a thing that is missed every hour by the traveller, wearied with the tact and prudence of the natives of the country. To lead this man to talk, which is not difficult to accomplish, I risked a few doubts as to the authenticity of the miracles of his Virgin of Vivielski: had I denied the spiritual authority of the Pope, my Roman servant could not have been more shocked. In seeing a poor Catholic endeavouring to prove to me the supernatural power of a Greek painting, I thought that it is no longer theology that separates the two churches. The history of all the Christian nations teaches us that princes have known how, in aid of their political schemes, to avail themselves of the obstinacy, the ?ubtilty, and the logic of the priests, to envenom religious controversies.
In the small square to which the vaulted passage leads, stands a group in bronze, executed in a very bad
THE HOLY GATE.
ir
century, — singular heroes to wear the Roman habit ! These two individuals are very much in fashion in the present day. Further on I saw before me the extraordinary church of Vassili Blagenuoi. The style of that grotesque edifice contrasts in a whimsical manner with the classic statues of the liberators of Moscow. A quantity of bulbous- shaped cupolas, not one of which resembles the other, a dish of fruits, a vase of Delft ware full of pine-apples, all pointed with golden crosses, a colossal crystallization, — such, on a near approach, were the only things to which I eoiid compare the church that had appeared so imposing on my first approach to the city. This building is small, like most other Russian churches; and, notwithstanding the interminable medley of its colours, it does not long interest the observer. Two fine flights of steps lead to the esplanade on which it stands. The interior is confined, paltry, and without character. Its erection cost the life of the architect. It was built, according to Laveau, by the order uf Ivan 1ЛТ., politely surnamed the Terrible. That prince, as a reward to the architect who had greatly embellished Moscow, caused his eyes to be torn out, under the pretext that he did not wish such a
On leaving the church we passed under the sacred gate of the Kremlin; and, in accordance with the custom religiously observed by the Russians, I took care to doff my hat before entering the archway, which is not long. The custom is traced back to the time of the last attack of the Calmucs, whom an intervention of the tutelary saints of the empire prevented, they say, from penetrating into the sacred в 5
10ADVANTAGE ОГ FAITH OVER DOUBT.
fortress. The saints are sometimes rather inattentive, but on this day they were on the look-out: the Kremlin Avas saved; and Russia lias continued to acknowledge, by a mark of respect renewed every moment, the remembrance of the divine protection in which she glories. There is in these public manifestations of a religious sentiment, more practical philosophy than in the incredulity of the nations who call themselves the most enlightened on earth; because, after having used and abused the faculties of intelligence, and lost all taste and relish for the true and the simple, they doubt the end of existence, as well as every thing else, and glory in such a state that others may be encouraged to imitate them, as though their perplexity were worthy of envy. These redoubtable sages deprive the nations of the springs of activity, v ithout being able to give any substitute for what they destroy : for a thirst for riches or pleasure inspires man with nothing more than a sensation as passing and feverish as his life is short. It is the temperament and the physical feelings, rather than the light of intellect, which guide the materialists in their wavering march, ever opposed by doubt: for the reason of a man, though he be the first in his country, though a Goethe himself, has not yet reached a height placed beyond the influence of doubt. Now doubt inclines the heart to tolerance, but it deters it from sacrifice. In the arts, in the sciences, as in politics, sacrifice is the basis of every durable work, of every sublime effort, This, people do not like to own —they accuse Christianity of preaching self-denial: — to act thus is to blame virtue. The priests of Jesus Christ open to the multitude a road which was once
CHURCH OF THE ASSUMPTION.11
only known and trodden by the higher orders of human intelligence.
I must not stay to again describe the wonderful aspect of the exterior of the Kremlin — its prodigious walls and towers, carried over hills and ravines, and rising above each other in every variety of style, shape, and design, forming altogether the most original and poetical architecture in the world. But how shall I describe my surprise when, on entering the interior of the enchanted city, I approached the building called the Treasury, and saw before me a little modern palace, with straight lines and sharp angles, ornamented in front by Corinthian pillars. This cold and puny imitation of the antique, for which I ought to have been prepared, appeared to me so ridiculous, that I stepped back some paces and asked my companion permission to delay our visit to the Treasury, under pretext of first admiring some ehurches. After having been so lono` in llussia, I ought to be surprised at no incoherence in the inventions of the Imperial architects; but this time, the discordance was so glaring, that it struck me as cµiite a novelty.
We therefore commenced our survey by a visit to the Cathedral of the Assumption. This church possesses one of those innumerable paintings of the Virgin Mary that good Christians, of all lands, attribute to St. Luke. The edifice reminds me rather of the Saxon and the Norman than of our Gothic churches. It is the work of an Italian architect of the fifteenth century. After the structure had sunk and fallen in several times, while being erected by the bad artificers and worse architects of the land, foreign aid в 6
THE ICHONOSTASIS.
