the influence of the Russian Church, that its priests should be tabooed by good society for the unpardonable crime of not being hommes civilisés, and at the same time be used by peasants as the constant butt of homely and proverbial satire. But, best of all, in illustration of the thoroughly external relation of Russian religion to Russian life, is the readiness not only to accept, but also to give up again, successive European theories of morality and of unbelief, which has been for more than a century a prominent national trait. This shows more clearly than anything else, not only that the Russian Church has failed to make good its own claims to permanent acceptance, but also that it has been no result of its teaching to awaken in its followers any lively sense of the function of religion as a power over conduct, rather than as a mere formula of thought which may be set aside whenever a fresh one comes into fashion. These characteristics of the Russian religion cannot, however, alone be held responsible for the number and the peculiarities of Russian sects. It would be unwarrantable to affirm that it is a tendency peculiar only to the Russian Church to separate religion from conduct, and degrade it to the level of a profitable investment, which not only involves no interference with the impulses of our daily lives, but also secures to us an ample return of happiness in the future. The creed which permits sins to be wiped out by confession and by the propitiation of saints, through church offerings and payments for masses, presents perfectly parallel features to those of the Russian Church. If numerous instances may be cited of Russian thieves going to church to pray for some saint's aid in an act of some contemplated robbery, offering in return a certain share of the plunder in the shape of tallow candles, it is yet equally true that similar incidents are not infrequent in Spain, Italy, and South Germany. It is accordingly not in the absence of a moral content to her religion, a feature shared in common with Russia by other countries, that we seek an explanation of that extraordinary upgrowth of sects which Russia possesses alone. The two great facts in this matter of Russian sects are their peculiar character and their great number. What has led the Russian people to profess doctrines so nonsensical, and often so abominable? And why has the revolt against the Established Church, of which each sect furnishes only a different example, taken so many various forms, instead of concentrating itself in one grand movement, like the Reformation? The answer to these questions lies not only in the characteristics already ascribed to the Rus sian religion, but also in the peculiar circumstances under which that religion has grown up and exerted its influence. The Russian Church has never, like the Roman, been a repository of the best culture. The Russian despot early perceived the inconveniences to foreign States arising from temporal pretensions of the Holy See, and wisely determined that his own Church should never attain to such intellectual enlightenment as might prove dangerous to his sovereign will. To keep the clergy ignorant, as it is to-day, has always been the policy of Russian rulers. A further step toward the excution of this plan united the heads of Church and State in the single person of the Emperor, and thus effectually put religion under Government control. But if Russia was thus deprived of a Pope, it was nevertheless taken care that she should enjoy all the blessings of infallibility. To do no more thinking than the Government prescribes has always been in Russia an essential quality of the good subject; and so rigorously has the necessity of thus accepting opinion on authority been enforced, that it may be said to have become the characteristic feature of the national mind to be utterly incapable of independent thinking. It is to this worst form of ignorance, an incapacity of judgment, that I have little hesitation in attributing the success which the promoters of the more obnoxious of the Russian sects have had. All the sects, whether for better or for worse, agree in regarding religion as something more than a mere observance of ceremonials, which is to secure immunity from punishment and rewards of happiness in the future. Whether we turn to the disgusting doctrines of the Scoptsi, or to the admirable lives of the Molokans, we find in each case that the religion holds forth its rewards only in return for a certain order of living. It has, in short, joined to itself a morality and imposed on its followers a responsibility. This one feature of the sects has enabled them to claim the attention of all those whom the emptiness of the Orthodox creed no longer satisfied; and it is not surprising that the Russian, with his long training in ignorance, when called for the first time in his life to pronounce upon a religion with a moral content, often proves incompetent to discriminate between the morality that rests upon a rational basis and that which is but the offspring of a diseased fancy. We may thus set down a long training in ignorance, and a consequent incapacity of judgment, as the principal reasons for the successful diffusion of absurd and disgusting doctrines among the Russian people. It remains, however, to pass beyond the character of the sects, and to explain why they have sprung up in such number and variety. That the multitude of sects have never been able to unite and form a common body of dissenters seems to me to result simply and inevitably from the fact that the Russian Church and the Russian Government are both under the single headship of the Czar. To this assertion, that the head of the Government is also the head of the Church, the average Russian is never tired of replying that the only real head of the Church is Christ. This sounds well; but to those who would convince themselves of the truth of the matter, we recommend, once for all, the following pregnant passage, from Mr. Wallace's Russia, to be read and pondered. The author is discussing the relation of the Synod, the supreme ecclesiastical body, to the temporal power, and proceeds: "The Synod is not a council of deputies from various sections of the Church, but a permanent college, or ecclesiastical senate, the members of which are appointed and dismissed by the Emperor as he thinks fit. It has no independent legislative authority, for its legislative projects do not become law till they have received the imperial sanction; and they are always published, not in the name of the Church, but in the name of the Supreme Power. Even in matters of simple administration, it is not independent, for all its resolutions require the consent of the Procureur, a layman nominated by his Majesty. In theory, this functionary protests only against those resolutions which are not in accordance with the civil law of the country; but as he alone has the right to address the Emperor directly on ecclesiastical concerns, and as all communications between the Emperor and the Synod pass through his hands, he possesses in reality considerable power. Besides this, he can always influence the individual members by holding out prospects of advancement and decorations; and if this device fails, he can make the refractory members retire, and fill up their places with men of more pliable dispositions. A council constituted in this way cannot, of course, display much independence of thought or action, especially in a country like Russia, where no one ventures to oppose openly the imperial will. If a bishop sometimes complains to an intimate friend that he has been brought to St. Petersburg and made a member of the Synod, merely to append his signature to official papers and to give his consent to foregone conclusions, his displeasure is directed, not against the Emperor, but against the Procureur. He is full of loyalty to the Tsar, and has no desire to see his Majesty excluded from all influence in ecclesiastical affairs; but he feels saddened and humiliated when he finds * * * that the whole government of the Church is in the hands of a lay functionary, who may be a military man, and who certainly looks at all things from a layman's point of view.” The italics are mine. Few, I presume, except the sentimentally insane, can read this extract without disgust at the monstrous absurdity of pretending that Christ, and not the Czar, is the only real head of the Russian Church. A more perfect device for giving over the Church, bound hand and foot, to the imperial will, it would be difficult, indeed, to imagine. As a matter of fact, the complete and absolute union thus indicated of the temporal and the spiritual powers is one of Russia's most potent instruments, both in foreign conquest and in home administration; and has been, also, the chief means of fostering the upgrowth of the multitude of religious sects. Therefore, while Russian ignorance, fostered by the Government and the Church, is to be held responsible for the unworthy character of many of these sects, we must turn, as I said before, to the power derived by the Church from its union with the State, for an explanation of their number and variety. In this result, however, it is not to be denied that ignorance, too, has had its share; for the Russians have never yet known clearly enough what they wanted to unite in any one movement for attaining it. The Roman Church had sowed the seeds of enlightenment so abundantly among men that, when at length it began to look upon knowledge with suspicion, the growth which its own hands had implanted could no longer be arrested. It was thus, in large measure, the result of its own acts that those who revolted from its authority were able both to guide their revolt by intelligence, and to find intelligent followers for its support. But no similar educating capacity on the part of their national church has ever prepared the Russians for union in one common movement of reformation, and the revolts from the Orthodox church have taken all the directions that ignorance could dictate. Far more potent, however, than ignorance, in making a common movement of dissenters impossible, is the influence already indicated. United with the State, the Russian Church has always had the State's strength to back it. Jealousy of a rival creed could thus always be followed by an immediate exercise of this crushing power. The State, which, for the sake of controlling any dangerous pretensions of ecclesiastics, had united one church with itself, would naturally be led, by the same policy, to stop, by all means, the troublesome upgrowth of another; and the consciousness of having this force at its command would leave the Estab lished Church always free, in the treatment of its rivals, to despise inquiry into the merits of their doctrines, and to put them out of existence on the mere ground of rivalry alone. As a matter of fact, the mutual action and reaction of these two tendencies of the Church and the State have combined to produce as perfect a system of intolerance as one could readily imagine. A few illustrations will suffice to show how the Government forces the people to be religious in the Orthodox fashion. the case hopeless. Nobody happened to know that he was a member of the Lutheran Church, and the priest sent for was Orthodox. That priest, in spite of the explicit injunctions of his Church, administered the sacrament to a man who was out of his mind, and then performed the right of extreme unction. A few hours afterward the crisis of the fever passed over, and the patient gave evident signs of recovery. The priest at once proclaimed to the neighborhood that, with God's help, he had wrought a miracle. Be that as it may, the officer steadily improved in health, and was strong enough after some weeks to start for St. Petersburg. Mark, now, what followed. In going one day into the Protestant church, of which he had long been a member, he was greeted by his pastor with the request that he would leave the church, and not bring with him the penalties which fell upon every heterodox preacher who ministered to the Orthodox. On demanding, in astonishment, an explanation, he was informed that the account of his miraculous cure had been sent to the Synod, which had warned his former Lutheran pastor that the man was thenceforth Orthodox. In vain he protested that he had always been a member of the Lutheran Church, that he had never voluntarily altered his faith, that the sacrament and extreme unction had been administered to him when he was unconscious. It made no difference-Orthodox he must be for the future; and a direct appeal to the Czar only elicited the reply that his Majesty could not interfere with general regulations of the Ecclesiastical Synod, which had already received his imperial sanction. With such power as this wielded by the Church, it ceases to be a wonder that the Russian heterodox sects have never united in a common movement. Far more wonderful is it that dissent By the law of the land all children of Orthodox parents are bound to remain members of the Orthodox Church. No Orthodox parent has a right to bring up his children as members of a different communion. Violation of this renders the parent liable to criminal punishment and exile for propagandism to Siberia. If one of the parents is Orthodox and the other a member of another church, all the children must be Orthodox. If neither of the parents is Orthodox, while at the same time each is a believer in a different creed, it is not for them to say to which of the two faiths their children shall conform. Orthodox they must be by the State's command. In this respect the offspring of parents of different heterodox creeds are treated precisely as illegitimate children, who must all be Orthodox. Terrible as these infringements upon personal liberty may seem, they are supplemented in actual practice by subterfuges which make them even more monstrous. For fear of desertions from the Orthodox faith, it is specially enacted that the minister to whose church defection is made shall be held personally responsible. If he be found guilty, for example, of having allowed an Orthodox Russian to take part in his service, he receives a warning for the first offense; for a recurrence of it, he is temporarily suspended from his office; and if it be again repeated, he is de- has ever been able for one moment to asser prived permanently of the right to preach. No. such penalties, however, need be dreaded by the Orthodox pastor when a member of some heterodox communion strays into his fold. In accordance with the Russian elastic and reversible scheme of justice, the heterodox Russian who receives the sacrament from the hands of an Orthodox priest becomes thenceforth, willingly or unwillingly, Orthodox forever. The same result befalls him on whom the right of extreme unction is performed by Orthodox hands. A shocking instance of this happened to a Russian within my own circle of acquaintance. The man, an officer in the Russian army, and of distinguished family, was stricken down with a fever while serving in Siberia. He finally became delirious, and the doctors pronounced VOL. II.-27. This much of the doings of the Russian Church must suffice to show how intimately the study of the dissentient sects is connected with an understanding of the tendencies of the Government. For, though it is to the ignorance and the intolerance of the Church that the sects and their characteristics are directly to be at tributed, it is nevertheless the Government which, by its policy, has kept the Church ignorant, and the Government which, by its force, has given that ignorant Church power to carry out its will. No better than the rest, the Russian Church takes its place with all the other tools by which the Russian despot's work is done. A religion without morality, a press without liberty, generals without generalship, and officials without responsibility to the peo ple whose affairs they manage, make up a sum thought for, not thinking—subjects, not citizens. of evils great enough to set a whole nation clam- Compared with the decrepitude of Turkey, we oring for justice. But people do not clamor in are bound in justice to concede to Russia that Russia. They know too well the bourne from superiority which belongs to a nation that conwhich no clamorer returns. Nineteen years ago tains, and has already given good evidence of, the Emperor emancipated the bodies of some capacity for progress. But, measured with millions of his subjects; but he forgot the equal-Western Europe, Russia cannot escape being ly important duty of emancipating their minds; put in the category of semi-civilized States. and so the poor beings 'still continue to be ALFRED A. WHEELER. SHE KNOWS. Who is it is so pretty That she can't be named, She should be ashamed: She knows-she knows. Who is it that does fly me Then is instant gone: Who changes every wind that blows? Of crazing form and feature- For whom is all my sighing Through the lonely night; For whom is all my pining But how shall she escape me If I, bold, pursue? And should I overtake her, Then what will she do? What under heaven do you suppose? The little angel sinner The very mischief's in her She knows she knows. JOHN VANCE CHENEY. MINING IN THE SKY. intelligent alike. It requires no special education to appreciate the value of the precious metals. By a curious anomaly the popular qualifying adjective used among prospectors in speaking of luck applies with equal facility to good or bad luck. It is a strong adjective and would offend polite ears. There is no offense in leaving the matter to the imagination of the reader. Therefore, I adopt that course. Homer is a mining district in the Sierra Ne- | pecting, and take to the herding of cattle, the vada Mountains. The name is not a classical hewing of wood, or the drawing of water. Proscompliment to the locality. There is no tradi-pecting has a fascination for the ignorant and tion current that the poet was born or reared in either of the district camps. Nor is it said that he sought inspiration amid the grand scenery in this section of the Sierra main range. The Homer of Homer District was its reputed discoverer. He had no poetry in his soul. He had an eye to business. He studied nature for a practical purpose. Mythology was not in his line. He wanted no literary bonanza. He looked for gold, of which he stood in great need, and found it free and rich. He was simply a prospector, and a simple prospector. As a natural result, he disposed of his mining interests for ready cash. Then he sped to San Francisco for rest and recreation, and was ruined. The last of a series of sprees left him a poor man. He defied poverty-with a pistol. Less than six months after the location of Homer the locater met death by his own hand. Such is the tragical interest attaching to the district. History has in this case furnished another example of its power of repetition. Prospectors, like many inventors, are not only mere children when manipulated by men of the business world, but are apt to lack the mental stamina necessary in the man who successfully stands prosperity. Homer had the shrewdness to sell some of his rich claims, where others in his position might have wasted their opportunities. Prosperity led him into the excesses of dissipation, and adversity, which followed closely, impelled him to self-destruction. The lucky prospectors of the Pacific Coast have enriched men and communities. The successful prospectors, those who have reaped an adequate, lasting profit, are so few in number that it is even difficult to find one in a mining community. Prospectors who have just missed a fortune, who view their misfortune philosophically, and who have a strong and abiding faith in the future, are to be seen in every camp. Each prospector is a success in his own estimation. His failure to find a rich ledge is a freak of fortune. Luck is against him. Luck will change with time. If he were not sure of ultimate success, if he did not feel that wealth awaited him, if he did not thrill with an eager expectation almost unknown in the haunts of civilization, he would soon tire of the dangers and hardships peculiar to pros Homer District is one hundred and seventy miles east of San Francisco, and thirty miles south-west of Bodie, and embraces within its limits portions of two or three of the many lateral spurs or ridges on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada range. It is directly west of Mono Lake, from which it is distant seven miles, and its western boundary is the southeastern corner of Tuolumne County. The summit of the range at this point forms a dividing line between Mono and Tuolumne Counties. Waters flowing east are in Mono; those flowing west are in Tuolumne. The trend of the range on the boundary line is about north and south. I was at Bodie in the month of July, and an enthusiastic friend assured me that it would be rank treason to the mining interest if I did not accept an invitation to visit Homer. The acceptance was forthcoming. We left Bodie at the break of day. The sky was still spangled with stars, the air was fresh and cool from the effects of a bath taken the preceding evening, and every indication pointed to a pleasant and dustless ride. The town of Bodie was quiet. Several stragglers, more or less hilarious-the tailings, so to speak, from saloons and gaming dens—were moving about the main street in an aimless way. Otherwise there was no animation save that we imparted to the town, as we passed through the leading thoroughfare on our buckboard. My companion was a gentleman who has fought the Apaches and the Sioux with Crook, who has seen rough times in the mining camps of Idaho, Nevada, Dakota, and California, who has climbed the Alpine glaciers, and whose geniality is bright and cheering as sunshine. On the score of a long and intimate acquaintance I call him Joe. |