RUSSIA'S RELIGION 99 



tive to use their own free wills and intellectual 

 faculties to advance themselves and their children 

 in the scale of civilization, but it carries them into 

 the outer darkness of a blind fatalism. They 

 firmly believe that their Emperor is the vicegerent 

 of Almighty God. They are generally loyal, 

 therefore, to the 'powers that be' 1 while they 

 are meekly submissive to their desperate lot. 

 Conspiracies against the Government are rarely fo- 

 mented among them, but in so far as they are ever 

 discovered, they are traced to the official classes or 

 the military, or to men of the universities. But 

 whilst holding their Emperor in highest reverence, 

 the peasants are wont to regard the under officials 

 and in some measure the clergy with feelings akin 

 to contempt. Their ability to discriminate, how- 

 ever, between their real friends among those 

 dignitaries and those whom they regard as 

 mere incumbrances, is quite remarkable. Men 

 on their knees on the street curbstones pray- 

 ing before an Icon are examples of their church 

 loyalty. On entering the door of a post- 

 office everyone is obliged to remove his hat 

 and bow before the Icon; and even when en- 

 tering a bank, business office, or shop, the hat 



