MOSCOW. 
101 
All that has been said or written of Roman- CH V AP - 
Catholic bigotry affords but a feeble idea of v — ■ 
the superstition of the Greek Church. It is 
certainly the greatest reproach to human reason, 
the severest satire upon universal piety, that 
has yet disgraced the history of mankind. The 
wild, untutored savage of South America, who 
prostrates himself before the Sun, and pays 
his adoration to that which he believes to be 
the source of life and light, exercises more 
rational devotion than the Russian, who is all 
day crossing himself before his Bogh, and 
sticking farthing candles near a picture of 
St. Alexander Nevsky. But in the adoration Morivefor 
paid bv this people to their Saints and Virgins 9 ship of 
x J v i , . - pictures. 
we may discern strong traces of their national 
character. The homage they offer to a court 
parasite, or to a picture, is founded upon the 
same principle ; and in all their views, political 
or religious, they are actuated by similar mo- 
tives. A Deity, and a despot, by the nature ol 
the one, and the policy of the other, are too 
far removed from their view to admit ol any 
immediate applications. All their petitions, 
therefore, instead of being addressed at once 
either to a spiritual or to a temporal throne, are 
directed to the one or to the other by channels 
falling more immediately under observation. 
Thus we find favouritism to be the leading feature 
