{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_25126/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_25126","id":"gutenberg_25126","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25126","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - Other","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Category: Sociology","Religions"],"text":"Produced by Al Haines\n\n\n\n\n\nMODERN SAINTS AND SEERS\n\n\nTRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF\n\nJEAN FINOT\n\n\nBY\n\nEVAN MARRETT\n\n\n\n\n\nLONDON\n\nWILLIAM RIDER & SON, LTD.\n\nCATHEDRAL HOUSE, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.\n\n1920\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\n\n_THE FOREST OF ILLUSIONS_\n\n\"Listen within yourselves, and gaze into the infinity of Space and\nTime.  There resounds the song of the Stars, the voice of Numbers, the\nharmony of the Spheres.\"--HERMES TRISMEGISTUS.\n\n\n_In these days the phenomenon of religion, which we believed to have\nreceded into the background of human life, is reappearing among us,\nmore vigorous than ever.  The four years' desolation into which the\nworld was plunged has rendered the attraction of \"the beyond\"\nirresistible, and man turns towards it with passionate curiosity and\nundisguised longing.  The millions of dead who have vanished from\nmortal sight seem to be drawing the present towards the unsounded deeps\nof the future.  In many cases their loss has taken all joy and colour\nfrom the lives of those who survive them, and tear-stained faces are\ninstinctively turned towards the portals of the Great Mystery._\n\n_Occultism is triumphant.  In its many different forms it now emerges\nfrom obscurity and neglect.  Its promises excite our deepest thoughts\nand wishes.  Eagerly we examine the strength of the bridge that it has\nbuilt between this world and the next; and though we may see our hopes\nslip down between the crevices, though we may find those who have been\ndisappointed in a more despairing state than before--what matter?  We\nstill owe thanks to occultism for some cherished moments of illusion._\n\n_The number of its followers increases steadily, for never before has\nman experienced so ardent a desire for direct contact with the\nUnknowable.  Science will have to reckon with this movement which is\ncarrying away even her own high-priests.  She will have to widen her\nfrontiers to include the phenomena that she formerly contemned._\n\n_The supernatural world, with its abnormal manifestations, fascinates\nmodern humanity.  The idea of death becomes more and more familiar.  We\neven demand, as Renan happily expressed it, to know the truth which\nshall enable us not to fear, but almost to love, death: and an\nirresistible force urges us to explore the depths of subconsciousness,\nwhence, it is claimed, may spring the desired renewal and\nintensification of man's spiritual life._\n\n\n_But why is it that we do not return to the old-established religions?\nIt is because, alas, the Great Agony through which the world has passed\nhas not dealt kindly with any form of established faith.  Dogmatic\ntheology, which admits and exalts the direct interference of the\ndivinity in our affairs, has received some serious wounds.  The useless\nand unjustifiable sacrifice of so many innocent lives, of women, of old\nmen, of children, left us deeply perplexed.  We could not grasp the\nreason for so much suffering.  Never, at any period in the past, have\nthe enemies of humanity and of God so blasphemed against the eternal\nprinciples of the universe--yet how was it that the authors of such\ncrimes went unpunished?_\n\n_Agonising doubts seized upon many faithful hearts, and amid all the\nmisery with which our planet was filled we seemed to distinguish a\ncreeping paralysis of the established faiths.  Just at the time when we\nmost had need of religion, it seemed to weaken and vanish from our\nsight, though we knew that human life, when not enriched and ennobled\nby spiritual forces, sinks into abysmal depths, and that even any\ndiminution in the strength of these forces is fatally injurious to our\nmost sacred and essential interests._\n\n_Attempts to revive our faith were bound to be made sooner or later,\nand we shall no doubt yet witness innumerable pilgrimages towards the\nsource of religion._\n\n\n_The psychology of the foundations of the spiritual life; the\nmysterious motives which draw men towards, or alienate them from,\nreligious leaders; the secret of the influence exercised by these\nlatter upon mankind in the mass--all these things are now and always of\nintense interest.  Through the examination of every kind of disease,\nthe science of medicine discovers the laws of health; and through\nstudying many religions and their followers we may likewise arrive at a\nsynthesis of a sane and wholesome faith.  The ever-increasing numbers\nof strange and attractive places of worship which are springing up in\nall countries bear witness to man's invincible need to find shelter\nbehind immediate certainties, even as their elaborate outer forms\nreflect the variety of his inward aspirations._\n\n\n_In the great forest of ecstasies and illusions which supplies\nspiritual nourishment to so many of our fellow-humans, we have here\nconfined ourselves to the examination of the most picturesque and\nunusual plants, and have gathered them for preference in the soil of\nRussia and of the United States.  These two countries, though in many\nrespects further apart than the Antipodes, furnish us with\ncharacteristic examples of the thirst for renewal of faith which rages\nequally in the simple soul of an uncultured peasant and in that of a\nbusiness man weary of the artificialities of modern life._\n\n_Many of us held mistakenly that our contemporaries were incapable of\nbeing fired to enthusiasm by new religions, whose exponents seemed to\nus as questionable as their doctrines.  But we need only observe the\nfacts to behold with what inconceivable ease an age considered prosaic\nand incredulous has adopted spiritual principles which frequently show\nup the lack of harmony between our manner of life and our hidden\nlongings._\n\n_The religious phenomena which we see around us in so many complex\nforms seem to foreshadow a spiritual future whose content is\nillimitable._\n\n_Such examples of human psychology, whether normal or morbid, as are\nhere offered to the reader, may well recall to mind some of the\nstrangest products of man's imagination.  The tales of Hoffmann or of\nEdgar Allan Poe pale before these inner histories of the human soul,\nand the most moving novels and romances appear weak and artificial when\ncompared to the eruptions of light and darkness which burst forth from\nthe depths of man's subconsciousness._\n\n_These phenomena will interest the reader of reflective temperament no\nless than the lover of the sensational and the improbable in real life._\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\nPREFACE: THE FOREST OF ILLUSIONS\n\n\nPART I\n\nTHE SALVATION OF THE POOR\n\nA. THE ORGANISED SECTS\n\nCHAPTER\n\n     I.  THE NEGATIVISTS\n    II.  THE WHITE-ROBED BELIEVERS\n   III.  THE STRANGLERS\n    IV.  THE FUGITIVES\n     V.  THE SOUTAIEVTZI\n    VI.  THE SONS OF GOD\n   VII.  THE TOLSTOYANS\n  VIII.  THE SPIRITUAL CHRISTIANS\n    IX.  A LABORATORY OF SECTS\n     X.  THE DOUCHOBORTZI\n    XI.  THE MOLOKANES\n   XII.  THE STOUNDISTS\n  XIII.  THE MERCHANTS OF PARADISE\n   XIV.  THE JUMPERS AND THE HOLY BROTHERS\n    XV.  THE LITTLE GODS\n   XVI.  THE FOLLOWERS OF GRIGORIEFF\n  XVII.  THE NAPOLEONITES\n XVIII.  THE DIVINE MEN\n   XIX.  THE RELIGION OF RASPUTIN\n    XX.  THE INSPIRED SEERS\n   XXI.  THE RELIGION OF SISTER HELEN\n  XXII.  THE SELF-MUTILATORS\n\n\nB. THE NON-SECTARIAN VISIONARIES\n\n     I.  THE BROTHERS OF DEATH\n    II.  THE DIVINITY OF FATHER IVAN\n   III.  AMONG THE MIRACLE-WORKERS\n\n\nC. THE RISING FLOOD\n\n     I.  THE MAHOMETAN VISIONARIES\n    II.  THE RELIGION OP THE POLAR MARSEILLAIS\n   III.  THE RELIGION OF THE GREAT CANDLE\n    IV.  THE NEW ISRAEL\n     V.  CONCLUSION\n\n\n\nPART II\n\nTHE SALVATION OF THE WEALTHY\n\nA. RELIGION AND ECONOMY\n\n     I. THE MORMONS, OR LATTER-DAY SAINTS\n    II. THE RELIGION OF BUSINESS\n   III. THE ADEPTS OF THE SUN OF SUNS\n\n\nB. RELIGION AND MIRACLES\n\n     I. THE CHRISTIAN SCIENTISTS\n    II. SCHLATTER, THE MIRACLE-MAN\n\n\n\nPART III\n\nTHE DEPTHS OF THE SUBCONSCIOUS MIND\n\n     I. SECTS IN FRANCE AND ELSEWHERE\n    II. THE RELIGION OF MURDER\n   III. THE REINCARNATIONISTS' PARADISE\n        CONCLUSION\n\n\n\n\nMODERN SAINTS AND SEERS\n\n\nPART I\n\nTHE SALVATION OF THE POOR\n\n\nA.  THE ORGANISED SECTS\n\nThe tragic death of the monk Rasputin made a deep impression upon the\ncivilised world, and truth was lost to view amid the innumerable legends\nthat grew up around his life and activities.  One leading question\ndominated all discussions:--How could an individual so lacking in\nrefinement and culture influence the life of a great nation, and become\nin indirect fashion one of the main factors in the struggle against the\nCentral Powers?  Through what miracle did he succeed in making any\nimpression upon the thought and conduct of a social order infinitely\nsuperior to himself?\n\nPsychologists are fascinated by the career of this adventurer who\nploughed so deep a furrow in the field of European history; but in\nseeking to detach the monk from his background, we run the risk of\nentirely failing to comprehend the mystery of his influence, itself the\nproduct of a complex and little understood environment.  The misery of\nthe Russian people, combined with their lack of education, contributed\nlargely towards it, for the desire to escape from material suffering\ndrove them to adopt the weirdest systems of salvation for the sake of\ndeliverance and forgetfulness.\n\nThe perception of the ideal is often very acute among the uneducated.\nThey accept greedily every new \"message\" that is offered them, but alas,\nthey do not readily distinguish the true from the false, or the genuine\nsaint from the impostor.\n\nThe orthodox clergy of the old Russian regime, recruited under deplorable\nconditions, attained but rarely the moral and intellectual eminence\nnecessary to inspire their flock with feelings of love and confidence;\nwhile, on the other hand, the false prophets and their followers,\nvigorously persecuted by official religion, easily gained for themselves\nthe overwhelming attraction of martyrdom.  Far from lessening the numbers\nof those who deserted the established church, persecution only increased\nthem, and inflamed the zeal of its victims, so that they clung more\npassionately than ever to the new dogmas and their hunted exponents.\n\nThese sects and doctrines, though originating among the peasantry, did\nnot fail to spread even to the large towns, and waves of collective\nhysteria, comparable to the dances of death of the Middle Ages, swept\naway in their train all the hypersensitives and neurotics that abound in\nthe modern world.  Even the highest ranks of Russian society did not\nescape the contagion.\n\nWe shall deal in these pages with the most recent and interesting sects,\nand with those that are least known, or perhaps not known at all.\nBeginning with the doctrines of melancholia, of tenderness, of suffering,\nof exalted pietism, and of social despair--which, whether spontaneous or\ninspired, demoniac or divine, undoubtedly embody many of the mysterious\naspirations of the human soul--we shall find ourselves in a strange and\nmoving world, peopled by those who accomplish, as a matter of course,\nacts of faith, courage and endurance, foreign to the experience of most\nof us.\n\nThese pages must be read with an indulgent sympathy for the humble in\nspirit who adventure forth in search of eternal truth.  We might\nparaphrase on their behalf the memorable discourse of the Athenian\nstatesman: \"When you have been initiated into the mystery of their souls\nyou will love better those who in all times have sought to escape from\ninjustice.\"\n\nWe should feel for them all the more because for so long they have been\ninfinitely unhappy and infinitely abused.  Against the dark background of\nthe abominations committed by harsh rulers and worthless officials, the\nspectacle of these simple souls recalls those angels described by Dante,\nwho give scarcely a sign of life and yet illuminate by their very\npresence the fearful darkness of hell; or those beautiful Greek\nsarcophagi upon which fair and graceful scenes are depicted upon a\nbackground of desolation.  These \"pastorals\" of religious faith have a\nstrangely archaic atmosphere, and I venture to think that my readers will\nenjoy the contemplation of such virgin minds, untouched by science, in\ntheir swift and effortless communings with the divine.\n\nThe mental profundities of the _moujik_ exhale sweetness and faith like\nmystic flowers opening under the breath of the Holy Spirit.  In them, as\nin the celebrated _Psychomachy_ of Prudence, the Christian virtues meet\nwith the shadows of forgotten gods, Holy Faith is linked to Idolatry,\nHumility and Pride go hand in hand, and Libertinism seeks shelter beneath\nthe veils of Modesty.\n\nThis thirst for the Supreme Good will in time find its appeasement in the\njust reforms brought by an organised democracy to a long-suffering\npeople.  Some day it may be that order, liberty and happiness shall\nprevail in the Muscovite countries, and their inhabitants no longer need\nto seek salvation by fleeing from reality.  Then there will exist on\nearth a new paradise, wherein God, to use Saint Theresa's expression,\nshall henceforth \"take His delight.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nTHE NEGATIVISTS\n\nThe most propitious and fertile soil in which collective mania can grow\nis that of unhappiness.  Famine, unjust taxation, unemployment,\npersecution by local authorities, and so on, frequently lead to a dull\nhatred for the existing social, moral and religious order, which the\nsimple-minded peasant takes to be the direct cause of his misfortunes.\n\nThus it was that the Negativists denied everything--God, the Devil,\nheaven, hell, the law, and the power of the Tsar.  They taught that\nthere is no such thing as right, religion, property, marriage, family\nor family duties.  All those have been invented by man, and it is man\nwho has created God, the Devil, and the Tsar.\n\nIn the record of the proceedings taken against one of the principal\nupholders of this sect, we find the following curious conversation\nbetween him and the judge.\n\n\"Your religion?\"\n\n\"I have none.\"\n\n\"In what God do you believe?\"\n\n\"In none.  Your God is your own, like the Devil, for you have created\nboth.  They belong to you, like the Tsar, the priests, and the\nofficials.\"\n\nThese people believe neither in generosity nor in gratitude.  Men give\naway only what is superfluous, and the superfluous is not theirs.\nLabour should be free; consequently they kept no servants.  They\nrejected both trade and money as useless and unjust.  \"Give to thy\nneighbour what thou canst of that of which he has need, and he in turn\nwill give thee what thou needest.\"  Love should be entirely free.\nMarriage is an absurdity and a sin, invented by man.  All human beings\nare free, and a woman cannot belong to any one man, or a man to any one\nwoman.\n\nHere are some extracts taken from some other legal records.  Two of the\nbelievers were brought before the judge, accompanied by a child.\n\n\"Is this your wife?\" the judge inquired of the man.\n\n\"No, she is not my wife.\"\n\n\"How is it then that you live together?\"\n\n\"We live together, but she is not mine.  She belongs to herself.\"\n\nTurning to the woman, the judge asked:\n\n\"Is this your husband?\"\n\n\"He is not _mine_.  He does not belong to me, but to himself.\"\n\n\"And the child?  Is he yours?\"\n\n\"No, he is not ours.  He lives with us; he is of our blood; but he\nbelongs to himself.\"\n\n\"But the coat you are wearing--is that yours?\" demanded the exasperated\njudge.\n\n\"It is on my back, but it is not mine.  It belonged once to a sheep;\nnow it covers me; but who can say whose it will be to-morrow?\"\n\nThe Negativists invented, long before Tolstoi, the doctrine of inaction\nand non-resistance to evil.  They were deceived, robbed and ruined, but\nwould not apply to the law, or to the police.  Their method of\nreasoning and their way of speaking had a peculiar charm.  A solicitor\nwho visited one of the Siberian prisons reports the following details\nconcerning a man named Rojnoff.  Arrested and condemned to be deported\nfor vagabondage, he escaped repeatedly, but was at length imprisoned.\nThe inspector was calling the roll of the prisoners, but Rojnoff\nrefused to answer to his name.  Purple with rage, the inspector\napproached him and asked, \"What is your name?\"\n\n\"It is you who have a name.  I have none.\"\n\nAfter a series of questions and answers exchanged between the ever more\nfurious official and the prisoner, who remained perfectly calm, Rojnoff\nwas flogged--but in spite of raw and bleeding wounds he still continued\nto philosophise.\n\n\"Confess the truth,\" stormed the inspector.\n\n\"Seek it,\" replied the peasant, \"for yourself, for indeed you have need\nof it.  As to me, I keep my truth for myself.  Let me be quiet--that is\nall I ask.\"\n\nThe solicitor visited him several months later, and implored him to\ngive his name, so that he might obtain his passport and permission to\nrejoin his wife and children.\n\n\"But I have no need of all that,\" he said.  \"Passports, laws,\nnames--all those are yours.  Children, family, property, class,\nmarriage--so many of your cursed inventions.  You can give me only one\nsingle thing--quietness.\"\n\nThe Siberian prisons swarmed with these mysterious beings.  Poor souls!\nTheir one desire was to quit as soon as possible this vale of injustice\nand of tears!\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nTHE WHITE-ROBED BELIEVERS\n\nSometimes this longing for a better world, where suffering would be\ncaused neither by hunger nor by laws, took touching and poetic forms.\n\nAbout the month of April, 1895, all eyes in the town of Simbirsk were\nturned upon a sect founded by a peasant named Pistzoff.  These poor\ncountryfolk protested against the injustices of the world by robing\nthemselves in white, \"like celestial angels.\"\n\n\"We do not live as we should,\" taught Pistzoff, an aged, white-haired\nman.  \"We do not live as our fathers lived.  We should act with\nsimplicity, and follow the truth, conquering our bodily passions.  The\nlife that we lead now cannot continue long.  This world will perish, and\nfrom its ruins will arise another, a better world, wherein all will be\nrobed in white, as we are.\"\n\nThe believers lived very frugally.  They were strict vegetarians, and ate\nneither meat nor fish.  They did not smoke or drink alcohol, and\nabstained from tea, milk and eggs.  They took only two meals daily--at\nten in the morning, and six in the evening.  Everything that they wore or\nused they made with their own hands--boots, hats, underclothing, even\nstoves and cooking utensils.\n\nThe story of Pistzoff's conversion inevitably recalls that of Tolstoi.\nHe was a very rich merchant when, feeling himself inspired by heavenly\ntruth, he called his employes to him and gave them all that he had,\nincluding furniture and works of art, retaining nothing but white\ngarments for himself and his family.  His wife protested vehemently,\nespecially when Pistzoff forbade her to touch meat, on account of the\nsuffering endured by animals when their lives are taken from them.  The\nold lady did not share his tastes, and firmly upheld a contrary opinion,\ndeclaring that animals went gladly to their death!  Pistzoff then fetched\na fowl, ordered his wife to hold it, and procured a hatchet with which to\nkill it.  While threatening the poor creature he made his wife observe\nits anguish and terror, and the fowl was saved at the same time as the\nsoul of Madame Pistzoff, who admitted that fowls, at any rate, do not go\ngladly into the cooking-pot.\n\nThe number of Pistzoff's followers increased daily, and the sect of the\n\"White-robed Believers\" was formed.  Their main tenet being\n_loving-kindness_, they lived peacefully and harmed none, while awaiting\nthe supreme moment when \"the whole world should become white.\"\n\nFor the rest, the white-robed ones and their prophet followed the\ndoctrines of the _molokanes_, who drank excessive quantities of milk\nduring Lent--hence their name.  This was one of the most flourishing of\nall the Russian sects.  Violently opposed to all ceremonies, they\nrecognised neither religious marriages, churches, priests nor dogmas,\nclaiming that the whole of religion was contained in the Old and New\nTestaments.  Though well-educated, they submitted meekly to a communal\nauthority, chosen from among themselves, and led peaceful and honest\nworking lives.  All luxuries, even down to feminine ornaments or dainty\ntoilettes, were banned.  They considered war a heathen invention--merely\n\"assassination on a large scale\"--and though, when forced into military\nservice, they did their duty as soldiers in peace-time, the moment war\nwas in view it was their custom to throw away their arms and quietly\ndesert.  There were no beggars and no poor among them, for all helped one\nanother, the richer setting aside one-tenth of their income for the less\nfortunate.\n\nHunted and persecuted by the government, they multiplied nevertheless,\nand when banished to far-away districts they ended by transforming the\nwaste, uncultivated lands into flourishing gardens.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nTHE STRANGLERS\n\nA sect no less extraordinary than the last was that of the Stranglers\n(_douchiteli_).  It originated towards the end of 1874, and profited by\na series of law cases, nearly all of which ended in acquittal.  The\nStranglers flourished especially in the Tzarevokokschaisk district, and\nfirst attained notoriety under the following circumstances.\n\nA large number of deaths by strangling had been recorded, and their\nfrequency began to arouse suspicion.  Whether they were due to some\ncriminal organisation, or to a series of suicidal impulses, the local\npolice were long unable to decide, but in the end the culprits were\ndiscovered.\n\nWere they, however, in reality culpable?\n\nThe unfortunate peasants, after much reflection, had come to the\nconclusion that death is not terrible, but that what is indubitably to\nbe feared is the last agony--the difficult departure from terrestrial\nlife.  They decided, therefore, to come to the assistance of the Death\nAngel, and, when any sufferer approached the final struggle, his\nneighbours or relatives would carry him off to some isolated spot, tie\nup his head firmly but kindly in a cushion--and soon all was over.\n\nBefore, however, they had recourse to such drastic measures, they would\ninquire from the wizards (or _znachar_) of the district, doctors being\nalmost unknown, whether the invalid still had any chance of recovery,\nand it was only after receiving a negative reply that the pious\nceremony took place.  We say \"pious\" because there is something\nstrangely pathetic in this \"crowning of the martyrs,\" as the peasants\ncalled it.  Arising in the first place from compassion, the motive for\nthe deed was, after all, a belief in the need for human sacrifice.  The\ninvalid who consents to give up his life for the honour of heaven\naccomplishes thereby an act of sublime piety; but what merit has he who\ndies only from necessity?\n\nThe corpses were buried in the forest and covered with plants and\nleaves, but no sign was left that might betray them to the suspicious\nauthorities.  When a member of the community disappeared, and the\npolice made inquiries, they always had the greatest possible difficulty\nin finding his remains.  Sometimes even his nearest relations did not\nknow where the \"saviours of his soul\" had hidden him.\n\nBut there was one thing that marked the discovery of a dead Strangler.\nHis body never bore any trace of violence, and as dissection always\nproved, in addition, the existence of some more or less serious\ndisease, the sham \"murderers\" were eventually left in peace.  A small\nlocal paper, the _Volgar_ (April, 1895), from which these facts are\ntaken, reports that several actions brought against them ended in their\nacquittal.\n\nLord Avebury recounts that certain cannibal tribes kill those of their\nmembers who have reached the stage of senile decay, and make them the\nsubstance of a more or less succulent repast.  These savages act, no\ndoubt, whether consciously or unconsciously, from some perception of\nthe misery and uselessness of old age, but the Russian peasants cannot\nbe compared to them.  The Stranglers are not moved by any unconscious\nsentiment.  Their belief is the logical application of a doctrine of\npessimism, whose terrible consequences they have adopted, although they\nknow not its terminology.  What is the life of a _moujik_ worth?\nNothing, or nearly nothing.  Is it not well, then, to accelerate the\ncoming of deliverance?  Let us end the life, and, snapping the chains\nthat bind us to mortals, offer it as a sacrifice to heaven!  So reason\nthese simple creatures, inexorable in their logic, and weighed down by\nuntold misery.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nTHE FUGITIVES\n\nThe suffering of a people nourishes the spirit of rebellion, enabling\nit to come to birth and to survive.  There are some religious sects\nbased exclusively upon popular discontent.  The _biegouny_, or\nFugitives, did nothing but flee from one district to another.  They\nwandered throughout Russia with no thought of home or shelter.  Those\nwho joined the sect destroyed their passports, which were considered a\nwork of Satan, and adopted a belief in the Satanic origin of the State,\nthe Church and the Law.  They repudiated the institution of marriage,\nthe payment of taxes, and all submission to authority.  Their special\nimagery included, among other things, the devil offering a candle to\nthe Tsar, and inviting him to become the agent for Satanic work upon\nearth.  Sometimes their feelings led them to commit acts of violence;\none, for instance, would interrupt divine service; another would strike\nthe priest.  A peasant named Samarin threw himself upon the priest in a\nRussian church, forced him away from the altar, and, having trampled\nthe Holy Sacraments under foot, cried out, \"I tread upon the work of\nSatan!\"\n\nWhen arrested and condemned to penal servitude for life, Samarin was in\ndespair because the death sentence had not been passed, so sure was he\nthat he would have gone straight to heaven as a reward for his heroic\nexploit.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nTHE SOUTAIEVTZI\n\nThe Soutaievtzi (founded in 1880 by a working-man of Tver, named\nSoutaieff) scoffed at the clergy, the ikons, the sacraments, and\nmilitary service, while upholding the principle of communal possession.\nThey very soon became notorious.  Soutaieff travelled all over the\ncountry preaching that true Christianity consists in the love of one's\nneighbour, and was welcomed with open arms by Tolstoi himself.  He\ntaught that there was only one religion, the religion of love and pity,\nand that churches, priests, religious ceremonies, angels and devils,\nwere mere inventions which must be rejected if one wished to live in\nconformity with the truth.\n\nAs to Paradise, when all the principles of love and compassion were\nrealised upon earth, earth itself would be Paradise.  Private ownership\nbeing the cause of all misery, as well as of crimes and lies, it must\nbe abolished, together with armies and war.  Further, Soutaieff\npreached non-resistance to evil, and the avoidance of all violence.\nOne of his sons, when enrolled as a conscript, refused to carry a\nrifle.  Arguments and punishments had no effect.  He proved that heaven\nitself was opposed to the bearing of arms by quoting the Gospel to all\nwho tried to compel him; and in the end he was imprisoned.\n\nNeither did Soutaieff allow that a man should be judged by his\nneighbour.  \"Judge not, that ye be not judged,\" was his motto, and his\nlife filled his followers with enthusiasm, and many besides with\nastonishment.  This uncultured peasant, who had the courage to throw on\nthe fire the money he had earned as a mason in St. Petersburg, who\ncarried the idea of compassion to such lengths that he followed thieves\nin order to give them good flour in place of the bad that they had\nstolen from him by mistake--this simple-minded being, whose only desire\nwas to suffer for the \"truth,\" possessed without doubt the soul of a\nsaint and a visionary.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nTHE SONS OF GOD\n\nThe \"sons of God\" held that men were really gods, and that as divinity\nis manifested in our fellows and in ourselves, it is sufficient to\noffer prayers unto--our neighbours!  Every man being a god, there are\nas many Christs as there are men, as many Holy Virgins as there are\nwomen.\n\nThe \"sons of God\" held assemblies at which they danced wildly, first\ntogether and then separately, until the moment when the women, in\nsupreme ecstasy, turned from the left, and the men from the right,\ntowards the rising sun.  The dance continued until all reached a state\nof hysterical excitement.  Then a voice was heard--\"Behold the Holy\nSpirit!\"--and the whole company, emitting cries and groans, would\npursue the dizzy performance with redoubled vigour until they fell to\nthe ground exhausted.\n\nTheir sect originated in the neighbourhood of a great hill, where dwelt\na man named Philipoff with his disciples.  He had retired there to work\nagainst the influence of anti-Christ, and it was there that God\nappeared to him, and said, \"Truth and divinity dwell in your own\nconscience.  Neither drink nor marry.  Those among you who are already\nmarried should live as brothers and sisters.\"\n\nWomen were held in high esteem by the \"sons of God,\" being venerated as\n\"mothers or nieces of the Saviour.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\nTHE TOLSTOYANS\n\nThe numerous admirers of Count Tolstoi will find in his writings some\nderivations, whether conscious or unconscious, from the principles\nelaborated by many of the Russian sects.  The doctrine of\nnon-resistance, or inaction, the abolition of the army, vegetarianism,\nthe defiance of law, and of dogmatic Christianity, together with many\nother conceptions which either scandalised or enraptured his readers,\nwere already widespread among the Russian peasantry; though Tolstoi was\nable to give them new forms of expression and an original, if\ndisquieting, philosophic basis.\n\nBut even as the products of the earth which we consume return to earth\nagain, so do ideas and doctrines ever return to the source from which\nthey sprang.  A great reformer usually gathers his ideas from his\nenvironment, until, transformed by the workings of his brain, they\nreact once more upon those to whom they actually owed their origin.\n\nRenan has traced very accurately the evolution of a religious leader,\nand Tolstoi passed through all its logical phases, only stopping short\nof the martyrdom necessary ere he could enter the ranks of the prophets.\n\nImbued with the hopes and dreams that flourished all around him, he\nbegan, at a ripe age and in full possession of his faculties, to\nexpress his philosophy in poetic and alluring parables, the hostility\nof the government having only served to fire his enthusiasms and\nembitter his individual opinions.  After first declaring that the\nmasters of men are their equals, he taught later on that they are their\npersecutors, and finally, in old age, arrived at the conclusion that\nall who rule or direct others are simply criminals!\n\n\"You are not at all obliged to fulfil your duties,\" he wrote, in the\n_Life and Death of Drojine_, 1895, dedicated to a Tolstoyan martyr.\n\"You could, if you wished, find another occupation, so that you would\nno longer have to tyrannise over men. . . .  You men of power, emperors\nand kings, you are not Christians, and it is time you renounced the\nname as well as the moral code upon which you depend in order to\ndominate others.\"\n\nIt would be difficult to give a complete list either of the beliefs of\nthe Tolstoyans, or of their colonies, in many of which members of the\nhighest aristocracy were to be found.\n\n\"We have in Russia tens of thousands of men who have refused to swear\nallegiance to the new Tsar,\" wrote Tolstoi, a couple of years before\nhis death, \"and who consider military service merely a school for\nmurder.\"\n\nWe have no right to doubt his word--but did Tolstoi know all his\nfollowers?  Like all who have scattered seed, he was not in a position\nto count it.  But however that may be, he transformed the highest\naspirations of man's soul into a noble philosophy of human progress,\nand attracted the uneducated as well as the cultured classes by his\ngenuine desire for equality and justice.\n\nEarly in June, 1895, several hundreds of _verigintzi_ (members of a\nsect named after Veregine, their leader) came from the south of Russia\nto the Karsk district.  The government's suspicions were aroused, and\nat Karsk the pilgrims were stopped, and punished for having attempted\nto emigrate without special permission.  Inquiries showed that all were\nTolstoyans, who practised the doctrine of non-resistance to evil on a\nlarge scale.  For their co-religionists in Elisabethpol suddenly\nrefused to bear arms, and nine soldiers also belonging to the sect\nrepeated without ceasing that \"our heavenly Father has forbidden us to\nkill our fellowmen.\"  Those who were in the reserve sent in their\npapers, saying that they wished to have nothing more to do with the\narmy.\n\nOne section of the _verigintzi_ especially distinguished themselves by\nthe zeal with which they practised the Tolstoyan doctrines.  They\nreverenced their leader under the name of \"General Tolstoi,\" gave up\nsugar as well as meat, drank only tea and ate only bread.  They were\ncalled \"the fasters,\" and their gentleness became proverbial.  In the\nvillage of Orlovka they were exposed to most cruel outrages, the\ninhabitants having been stirred up against them by the priests and\nofficials.  They were spat upon, flogged, and generally ill-treated,\nbut never ceased to pray, \"O God, help us to bear our misery.\"  Their\nmeekness at last melted the hearts of their persecutors, who, becoming\ninfected by their religious ardour, went down on their knees before\nthose whom they had struck with whips a few minutes before.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\nTHE SPIRITUAL CHRISTIANS\n\nThe Slavonic atmosphere exhales an intense longing for the ideal and\nfor heaven.  Often a kind of religious ecstasy seems to sweep over the\nwhole length and breadth of the Russian territories, and Tolstoi's\ncelebrated doctrines reflected the dreamy soul of the _moujik_ and the\nteachings of many Russian martyrs.  It would, however, be a mistake to\nsuppose that it is only the peasants buried in the depths of the\ncountry who provide favourable soil for the culture of the religious\nbacillus.  It is the same with all classes--merchants, peasants,\nlabourers and aristocrats.\n\nThe working-classes, especially those of the large towns, usually offer\nmore resistance to the influence of religious fanatics, but in\nPetrograd and Moscow they are apt to follow the general current.  Lack\nof space forbids us to study in all their picturesque details the birth\nand growth of religious sects in these surroundings.  We must confine\nourselves to one of the more recent manifestations--that of the\nmysterious \"spiritual Christians.\"\n\nIn 1893, a man named Michael Raboff arrived in St. Petersburg.  Peasant\nby birth, carpenter by trade, he immediately began to preach the tenets\nof his \"spiritual Christianity.\"  He became suspect, and with his\nfriend Nicholas Komiakoff was deported to a far-distant neighbourhood;\nbut in spite of this his seed began to bear fruit, for the entire\ndistrict where he and Komiakoff were sent to work was soon won over to\nthe new religion.  The director himself, his wife, and all his workmen\nembraced it, and though the workshops were closed by the police, the\nvarious members distributed themselves throughout the town and\ncontinued to spread Raboff's \"message.\"  Borykin, the master-carpenter,\ntook employment under a certain Grigorieff, and succeeded in converting\nall his fellow-workers.  Finally Grigorieff's house was turned into a\nchurch for the new sect, and an illiterate woman named Vassilisa became\ntheir prophetess.  Under the influence of the general excitement, she\nwould fall into trances and give extravagant and incomprehensible\ndiscourses, while her listeners laughed, danced and wept ecstatically.\nBy degrees the ceremonial grew more complex, and took forms worthy of a\ncult of unbalanced minds.\n\nAt the time when the police tried to disperse the sect it possessed a\nquite considerable number of adherents; but it died out in May, 1895,\nscarcely two years after its commencement.\n\nThe \"spiritual Christians\" called themselves brothers and sisters, and\ngave to Raboff the name of grandfather, and to the woman Vassilisa that\nof mother.  They considered themselves \"spiritual Christians\" because\nthey lived according to the spirit of Christianity.  For the rest,\ntheir doctrine was innocent enough, and, but for certain extravagances\nand some dangerous dogmas borrowed from other sects, their diffusion\namong the working-classes of the towns might even have been desirable.\nSexual chastity was one of their main postulates, and they also\nrecommended absolute abstention from meat, spirits, and tobacco.  But\nat the same time they desired to abolish marriage.\n\nWhen the police raided Grigorieff's workshops, they found there about\nfifty people stretched on the ground, spent and exhausted as a result\nof the excessive efforts which Raboff's cult demanded of them.  At\ntheir meetings a man or woman would first read aloud a chapter from\nHoly Scripture.  The listeners would make comments, and one of the more\nintelligent would expound the selected passage.  Growing more and more\nanimated, he would finally reach a state of ecstasy which communicated\nitself to all present.  The whole assembly would cry aloud, groan,\ngesticulate and tear their hair.  Some would fall to the ground, while\nothers foamed at the mouth, or rent their garments.  Suddenly one of\nthe most uplifted would intone a psalm or hymn which, beginning with\nfamiliar words, would end in incoherency, the whole company singing\naloud together, and covering the feet of their \"spiritual mother\" with\nkisses.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\nA LABORATORY OF SECTS\n\nWe will now travel to the south of Russia, and examine more closely\nwhat might be called a laboratory of sects, or in other words a\nbreeding-ground of religions whose idealism, whether foolish or\nsublime, is often sanctified by the blood of believers, and descends\nlike dew from Hermon into the midst of our busy civilisation.\n\nThe mystical tendencies of the popular soul sometimes develop in a\nfashion little short of prodigious, and to no country do we owe so many\nremarkable varieties of religious faith as to that portion of Russia\nwhich lies between Kherson and Nicolaiev.  There is seen in full\nactivity the greatest religious laboratory in the world; there\noriginate, as a rule, the morbid bacilli which invade the rest of\nRussia; and there do sects grow up like mushrooms, only to disappear\nwith equal rapidity.\n\nAn orthodox missionary named Schalkinsky, who was concerned especially\nwith the erring souls of the region of Saratov, has published a work in\nwhich he gives a fantastic picture of the events of quite recent years.\nHe was already the author of several books dealing with the sect of the\n_bezpopovtzi_, and his high calling and official position combine to\ngive authority to his words.\n\nWhen we consider the immense variety of these sects, we can easily\nimagine what takes place in every small village that becomes possessed\nof the craving for religious perfection.  Prophets, gods and demi-gods,\nholy spirits and apostles, all kinds of saints and mystics, follow\nthick and fast upon one another's heels, seeking to gain the ascendancy\nover the pious souls of the villagers.  Some are sincere and genuinely\nconvinced believers; others, mere shameless impostors; but all,\nmanifesting the greatest ardour and eloquence, traverse the\ncountryside, imploring the peasants to \"abandon their old beliefs and\nembrace the new holy and salutary dogmas.\"  The orthodox missionaries\nseem only to increase the babel by organising their own meetings under\nthe protection of the local authorities.\n\nSome of the sectarians will take part in public discussions, either in\nthe open air or in the churches, but most of them content themselves\nwith smiling mockingly at the assertions of the \"anti-Christian faith\"\n(i.e. the orthodox official religion).  With the new regime conditions\nmay undergo a radical change, but in former times religious doubts,\nwhen too openly manifested by the followers of the \"new truths,\" were\npunished by imprisonment or deportation.\n\nSometimes the zeal of the missionaries carried them too far, for, not\ncontent with reporting the culprits to the ecclesiastical authorities,\nthey would denounce them publicly in their writings.  The venerable\nFather Arsenii, author of fifteen pamphlets against the _molokanes_,\ndelivered up to justice in this way sufficient individuals to fill a\nlarge prison; and another orthodox missionary crowned his propaganda by\nprinting false accusations against those who refused to accept the\ntruth as taught by him.\n\nIn a centre like Pokourlei, which represented in miniature the general\nunrest of the national soul, there were to be found among the\nclassified sects more than a dozen small churches, each having its own\nworshippers and its own martyrs.  An illiterate peasant, Theodore\nKotkoff, formed what was called the \"fair-spoken sect,\" consisting of a\nhundred and fifty members who did him honour because he invented a new\nsort of \"Holy Communion\" with a special kind of gingerbread.  Another,\nChaidaroff, nicknamed \"Money-bags,\" bought a forest and built a house\nwherein dwelt fifteen aged \"holy men,\" who attracted the whole\nneighbourhood.  Many men in the prime of life followed the example of\nthe aged ones, and retired to live in the forest, while women went in\neven greater numbers and for longer periods.  Husbands grew uneasy, and\nbitter disputes took place, in which one side upheld the moral\nsuperiority of the holy men, while the other went so far as to forbid\nthe women to go and confess to them.  One peasant claimed to be\ninspired by the \"Holy Ghost,\" and promenaded the village, summer and\nwinter, in a long blouse without boots or trousers, riding astride a\ngreat stick on which he had hung a bell and a flag, and announcing\npublicly the reign of Anti-Christ.  In addition the village was visited\nby orthodox missionaries, but, as the Reverend Father Schalkinsky\nnaively confesses, \"the inhabitants fled them like the plague.\"  They\ninterviewed, however, the so-called chiefs of the new religions, who\nlistened to them with gravity and made some pretence of being convinced\nby the purveyors of official truth.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X\n\nTHE DOUCHOBORTZI\n\nThe religious ferment of South Russia was due to some special causes,\nits provinces having served since the seventeenth century as lands of\nexile for revolutionaries of all kinds, religious, political and\nsocial.  Dangerous criminals were also sent there, and a population of\nthis nature naturally received with open arms all who preached\nrebellion against established principles and doctrines.\n\nAbout the year 1750, a Prussian non-commissioned officer, expatriated\non account of his revolutionary ideas, appeared in the neighbourhood of\nKharkov.  He taught the equality of man and the uselessness of public\nauthority, and was the real founder of the _douchobortzi_, who believed\nin direct communion with the divinity by aid of the spirit which dwells\nin all men.  The sparks scattered by this unknown vagabond flared up\nsome time later into a conflagration which swept away artisans,\npeasants and priests, and embraced whole towns and villages.\n\nThe beliefs of the sect were that the material world is merely a prison\nfor our souls, and that our passions carry in themselves the germs of\nour punishments.  Nothing is more to be decried than the desire for\nworldly honour and glory.  Did not Our Lord Himself say that He was not\nof this world?  Emperors and kings reign only over the wicked and\nsinful, for honest men, like the _douchobortzi_, have nothing to do\nwith their laws or their authority.  War is contrary to the will of\nGod.  Christ having declared that we are all brothers and sisters, the\nwords \"father\" and \"mother\" are illogical, and opposed to His\nteachings.  There is only one Father, the Father in Heaven, and\nchildren should call their parents by their Christian names.\n\nExcept for these leading tenets, their doctrine was variable, and they\nnot only gave rise to about a hundred other sects, but were themselves\nin a continual state of evolution and change.  At one time it was their\ncustom to put to death all children who were diseased in mind or body.\nAs God dwells in us, they said, we cannot condemn Him to inhabit a body\nthat is diseased.  One leader of the sect believed himself to be the\njudge of the universe, and terrorised his co-religionists.  Another\nordered all who betrayed the doctrines of the sect to be buried alive,\nand legal proceedings which were taken against him and lasted several\nyears showed him to be responsible for twenty-one \"religious murders.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI\n\nTHE MOLOKANES\n\nA sect of considerable importance, that of the _molokanes_, owed its\norigin to the _douchobortzi_.  It was founded by a sincere and ardent\nman named Oukleine, about the end of the eighteenth century.  _Moloko_\nmeans milk; hence the name of the sect, whose adherents drank nothing\nelse.\n\nImproving upon the principles of liberty professed by the\n_douchobortzi_, the _molokanes_ taught that \"where the Holy Ghost is,\nthere is liberty\"; and as they believed the Holy Ghost to be in\nthemselves they consequently needed neither laws nor government.  Had\nnot Christ said that His true followers were not of this world?  Down,\nthen, with all law and all authority!  The Apostle Paul states that all\nare equal, men and women, servants and masters; therefore, the Tsar\nbeing a man like other men, it is unnecessary to obey him.\n\nThe Tsar has ten fingers and makes money; why then should not the\n_molokanes_ make it, who also have ten fingers?  (This was the reply\ngiven by some of them when brought up for trial on a charge of\nmanufacturing false coinage.)  War is a crime, for the bearing of arms\nhas been forbidden.  (It is on record that soldiers belonging to the\nsect threw away their arms in face of the enemy in the Crimean War.)\nOne should always shelter fugitives, in accordance with St. Matthew\nxxv. 35.  Deserters or criminals--who knows why they flee?  Laws are\noften unjust, tribunals give verdicts to suit the wishes of the\nauthorities, and the authorities are iniquitous.  Besides, the culprits\nmay repent, and then the crime is wiped out.\n\nThe _molokanes_ have always been led by clever and eloquent men.\nUplifted by a sense of the constant presence of the Holy Ghost, they\nwould fall into ecstatic trances, fully convinced of their own divinity\nand desiring only to be transported to Heaven.\n\nOf this type was the peasant Kryloff, a popular agitator who inflamed\nthe whole of South Russia at the beginning of the nineteenth century.\nIntoxicated by the success of his oratory, he grew to believe in his\nown mission of Saviour, and undertook a pilgrimage to St. Petersburg in\norder to be made a priest of the \"spiritual Christians.\"  Poor\nvisionary!  He was flogged to death.\n\nAnother _molokane_ leader was one Andreieff, who long preached the\ncoming of the prophet Elijah.  One fine day, excited by the eloquence\nof his own discourses, he set forth with his followers to conquer the\n\"promised land,\" a rich and fertile district in the neighbourhood of\nMount Ararat, but accomplished nothing save a few wounds gained in\naltercations with the inhabitants.  On returning to his own country, he\nwas deported to Siberia for having hidden some dangerous criminals from\njustice.\n\nAs the number of _molokanes_ increased, they decided to emigrate _en\nmasse_ to the Caucasus.  Their kind actions and enthusiastic songs\nattracted crowds of the poor and sick, as well as many who were\ntroubled by religious doubts.  At their head marched Terentii\nBezobrazoff, believed by his followers to be the prophet Elijah, who\nannounced that when his mission was accomplished he would ascend to\nHeaven to rejoin God, his Father, Who had sent him.  But alas, faith\ndoes not always work miracles!  The day being fixed beforehand, about\ntwo thousand believers assembled to witness the ascension of their\nElijah.  By the prophet's instructions, the crowd knelt down and prayed\nwhile Elijah waved his arms frantically.  Finally, with haggard mien,\nhe flung himself down the hillside, and fell to the ground.  The\ndisillusioned spectators seized him and delivered him up to justice.\nHe spent many years in prison, but in the end confessed his errors and\nwas pardoned.\n\nMany other Elijahs wished to be transported to heaven, but all met with\nthe same fate as Bezobrazoff.  These misfortunes, however, did not\nweaken the religious ardour of the _molokanes_.  A regular series of\n\"false Christs,\" as the Russians called them, tormented the\nimaginations of the southern peasantry.  Some believed themselves to be\nElijah, some the angel Gabriel; while others considered themselves new\nsaviours of the world.\n\nOne of these latter made his debut in the role of Saviour about 1840,\nand after having drained the peasants of Simbirsk and Saratov of money,\nfled to Bessarabia with his funds and his disciples.  Later he\nreturned, accompanied by twelve feminine \"angels,\" and with them was\ndeported to Siberia.\n\nBut the popular mind is not discouraged by such small matters.  Side by\nside with the impostors there existed men of true faith, simple and\ndevout dreamers.  Taking advantage of freedom to expound the Gospel,\nthey profited by it for use and abuse, and it seemed to be a race as to\nwho should be the first to start a new creed.\n\nEven as the _douchobortzi_ had given birth to the _molokanes_, so were\nthe latter in turn the parents of the _stoundists_.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII\n\nTHE STOUNDISTS\n\nThis sect believed that man could attain to perfection of life and\nhealth only by avoiding the fatigue of penance and fastings; and that\nall men should equally enjoy the gifts of Nature, Jesus Christ having\nsuffered for all.  Land and capital should belong to the community, and\nshould be equally divided, all men being brothers, and sons of the same\nGod.  Wealth being thus equalised, it was useless to try to amass it.\nTrade was similarly condemned, and a system of exchange of goods\nadvocated.  The _stoundists_ did not attend church, and avoided\npublic-houses, \"those sources of disease and misery.\"  The government\nmade every effort to crush them, but the more they were persecuted, the\nmore they flourished.  The seers and mystics among them were considered\nparticularly dangerous, and were frequently flogged and imprisoned--in\nfact, the sect as a whole was held by the Russian administration, to be\none of the most dangerous in existence.  It originated in the year\n1862, and from then onwards its history was one of continuous martyrdom.\n\nLike the _molokanes_, the _stoundists_ refused to reverence the ikons,\nthe sacraments, or the hierarchy of the orthodox church, and considered\nthe Holy Scriptures to be simply a moral treatise.  They abominated\nwar, referring to it as \"murder _en masse_,\" and never entered a court\nof law, avoiding all quarrels and arguments, and holding it to be the\nmost degrading of actions for a man to raise his hand against his\nfellow.  All their members learnt to read and write, in order to be\nable to study the Scriptures.  They recognised no power or authority\nsave that of God, refused to take oaths, and protested against the\npublic laws on every possible occasion.  Their doctrine was really a\nmixture of the _molokane_ teachings and of Communism as practised by\nthe German colonists, led by Gutter, who settled in Russia about the\nend of the eighteenth century and were banished to New Russia in 1818.\n\nStrengthened by persecution and smacking of the soil, it was no wonder\nthat _stoundism_ became the religion _par excellence_ of the Russian\n_moujik_, assuming in time proportions that were truly disquieting to\nthe authorities.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII\n\nTHE MERCHANTS OF PARADISE\n\nSide by side with these flourishing sects whose followers could be\nnumbered by millions, there existed other communities, founded upon\nnaive and child-like superstitions, strange fruits of the tree of\nfaith.  The members of one of these believed that it was only necessary\nto climb upon the roofs in order to take flight to heaven.  The\ndeceptions practised on them by charlatans, the relentless persecution\nof the government, even the loss of reason, all counted for nothing if\nonly they might enjoy some few moments of supreme felicity and live in\nharmony with the divine!  To experience such ecstasy they despoiled\nthemselves of their worldly goods, and gave away their money to\nimpostors in exchange for pardon for their sins.\n\nThe famous sect called the \"Merchants of Paradise\" was founded by a\npeasant, Athanasius Konovaloff.  Together with his son Andrew, he\npreached at Osikovka, from 1885 to 1892, the absolution of sins in\nreturn for offerings \"in kind.\"  There was need for haste, he declared.\nTime was flying, and there were but few vacant places left in Paradise.\nThese places were of two kinds--those of the first class, at ten\nroubles each, which enabled the purchaser to repose upon a celestial\nsofa; and those of the second class, at five roubles, whose occupiers\nhad to spend eternity seated upon footstools.  The credulous peasants\nactually deprived themselves of food in order to procure their places.\n\nIn 1887, a man who was much respected in the village sold his crops,\nand went to buy himself one of the first-class places.  His son heard\nof it, and was in despair over this lavish expenditure of ten roubles.\nWhy, he demanded, could not his father be content with a second-class\nplace, like so many of their neighbours?\n\nThe dispute was brought into the courts, and the old man loudly\nlamented the criminal indifference of his son.\n\n\"In my poor old age,\" he cried, \"after having worked so hard, am I to\nbe condemned to sit for ever on a footstool for the sake of five\nroubles?\"\n\nThen, addressing his offspring--\"And you, my son, are you not ashamed\nso to disregard the future life of your parent, who maintained you\nthroughout your childhood?  It is a great sin with which you are\nburdening your soul.\"\n\nPlaces in Paradise were promised not only to the living, but also to\nthose who had omitted to secure them before departing on their eternal\njourney.  The relatives would apply to the prophet, who fixed the price\naccording to the fortune left by the deceased.\n\nA curious ceremonial always accompanied the payment of money to\nKonovaloff.  It was first placed upon the ground; Konovaloff would lift\nit with his teeth and lay it on the table; and it was finally put in\nhis pocket by his son, Andrew.  He was also assisted in his operations\nby two old women.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV\n\nTHE JUMPERS AND THE HOLY BROTHERS\n\nThe Jumpers, or _sopouny_, founded by one Petroff, considered it their\nduty to blow upon one another during Divine Service.  This arose from a\nmisinterpretation of the ninth verse of the fortieth psalm.  It was\nalso their custom to pile benches one upon another and pray from the\ntop of them, until some hysterical female fell to the ground in a\nreligious paroxysm.  One of those present would then lean over her and\nact the scene of the resurrection.  Petroff was a great admirer of King\nDavid, and would sing his psalms to the accompaniment of dancing, like\nthe psalmist before the Ark.  His successor, Roudometkin, reorganised\nthe Jumpers, and gave their performances a rhythmic basis.  Foreseeing\nthe near advent of the Saviour, he caused himself to be crowned king of\nthe \"spiritual Christians\" in 1887, and married a \"spiritual\" wife,\nthough without discarding his \"material\" one.  His successors all\ncalled themselves \"Kings of the spiritual Christians,\" but they had not\nthe authority of poor Roudometkin, who had been removed to prison in\nSolovetzk.\n\nWe may class with the Jumpers the Holy Brothers, or _chalapouts_, who\nbelieved in the indwelling presence of the Holy Ghost.  They were\nvisionaries of a more exalted kind, and often attained to such a state\nof religious enthusiasm that in their longing to enter heaven they\nclimbed to the roofs of houses and hurled themselves into space.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV\n\nTHE LITTLE GODS\n\nThe sect of the \"little gods,\" or _bojki_, was founded about 1880 by a\npeasant named Sava.  Highly impressionable by nature, and influenced by\nthe activities of at least a dozen different sects that flourished in\nhis native village (Derabovka, near Volsk), Sava ended by believing\nhimself to be God.\n\nThough naturally aggressive, and of an irascible temperament, he soon\nbecame as serious as a philosopher and as gentle as a lamb.  His\nintelligence seemed to increase visibly.  He discoursed like a man\ninspired, and said to the inhabitants of Derabovka:--\n\n\"If there be a God in Heaven, there must also be one on earth.  And why\nnot?  Is not the earth a creation of Heaven, and must it not resemble\nthat which created it? . . .  Where then is this earthly God to be\nfound?  Where is the Virgin Mary?  Where are the twelve apostles?\"\n\nThe dreamer wandered about the village, uttering his thoughts aloud.\nAt first men shrugged their shoulders at his strange questions.  But he\ncontinued to hold forth, and in the end the peasants gathered round him.\n\nIt was the sweetest moment of his life when the villagers of Derabovka\nat last found the deity who had been sought so eagerly.  For whom could\nit be, if not Sava himself? . . .  Thus Sava proclaimed himself God;\ngave to his kinsman Samouil the name of Saviour; to a peasant-woman of\na neighbouring village that of the Virgin Mary; and chose the twelve\nApostles and the Holy Ghost from among his acquaintance.  The\nnomination of the latter presented, however, some difficulties.  The\nHoly Ghost, argued the peasants, had appeared to Jesus by the river\nJordan in the form of a dove, and how could one represent it by a man?\nThey refused to do so, and decided that in future all birds of the dove\nspecies should be the Holy Ghost.\n\nThe authorities began to seek out the \"gods,\" as they were called\nlocally.  Samouil was arrested and charged with being a false Saviour,\nbut defended himself with such child-like candour that the tribunal was\nbaffled.  The movement therefore continued, and was indeed of a wholly\ninnocent nature, not in any way menacing the security of the\ngovernment, and filling with rapture all Sava's followers.\n\nIt was the custom of the \"little gods\" to gather in some forest, and\nthere to hide the \"Virgin Mary\" in a leafy glade, and await her\n\"apparition.\"  Sava himself, and Samouil, the \"Saviour,\" would be\nconcealed close at hand, and she would emerge from her hiding-place in\ntheir company.  The lookers-on then gave vent to loud cries of joy, and\nall united in glorifying the goodness of Heaven.  The \"Virgin\" wore on\nthese occasions a rich and beautiful robe in which all the colours of\nthe rainbow were blended.  The company would gather round her, while\nthe \"Apostles\" reverently kissed her feet.  Sacred hymns were then\nsung, and the worshippers dispersed filled with unbounded ecstasy.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVI\n\nTHE FOLLOWERS OF GRIGORIEFF\n\nThe forms taken by religious mania are not always as harmless as in the\ncase of the \"God Sava.\"  Ivan Grigorieff, founder of the Russian\nMormons, began by preaching that God created the world in six days, but\nby degrees he came to attack established religion as well as the\nexisting social order.  According to him, the _molokanes_ were\n\"pestilent,\" the _douchobortzi_ were \"destroyers of the faith,\" and the\n_chlysty_ were \"mad cattle.\"  There was only one truth, the truth of\nGrigorieff!\n\nThe Bible should be interpreted \"according to the spirit,\" and as the\nApostle Paul had said that Christ was to be found in those who believed\nin Him, then Grigorieff could be no other than Christ.  He went to\nTurkey, returned in the role of \"Saviour,\" and preached the necessity\nfor a \"spiritual life.\"  Several women were chosen to share his life\nand that of the twelve \"Apostles\" whose duty it was to \"glorify\" him.\n\nPassing from one hallucination to another, he insisted on a general\ncessation of labour.  \"Work not,\" he said, \"for I will be gentle and\nmerciful to you.  You shall be like the birds who are nourished without\nneed to till the earth: Work not, and all shall be yours, even to the\ncorn stored away in the government granaries.\"\n\nAnd so the peasants of Gai-Orlov left their fields unfilled, and\ncultivated nothing save hymns and prayers.  They seemed to be uplifted\nas by some wave of dreamy, poetic madness.  Even the unlettered\nimitated Grigorieff in composing psalms and hymns, some specimens of\nwhich are to be found in Father Arsenii's collection.  They breathe an\nalmost infantile mysticism.\n\n  \"The dweller in heaven,\n  The King Salim,\n  Saviour of the world,\n  Shall descend upon earth.\n  The clouds flee away,\n  The light shines. . . .\"\n\n  \"We will climb the mountain,\n  It is Mount Sion that we climb,\n  And we will sing like angels.\"\n\n\nWhen Grigorieff's mind began definitely to fail, and, forgetful of\ndivine service, he passed his time in the company of his \"spiritual\nwives,\" doubt seized upon the members of his church, and they composed\na melancholy psalm which was chanted to Grigorieff by his \"Apostles.\"\n\n  \"Father, Saviour,\n  Hope of all men . . .\n  Thou gavest us the spark,\n  The spark of faith.\n  But to-day, little father,\n  Thou hidest the light,\n  Thou hidest the light. . . .\n\n  Our life is changed.\n  We weep for thy faith,\n  Lost and deranged,\n  We weep for thy holy life.\n  Upon the Mount Sion\n  There grew a vine of God. . . .\"\n\n\nGrigorieff appeared to be touched, and replied with a psalm which\nexplained, in rhymed couplets, how the Holy Ghost (that is to say,\nGrigorieff) was walking in a garden when brigands appeared, and tried\nto carry him off--an allusion to some of his followers who had caused\ndissension by proclaiming themselves to be \"Holy Ghosts.\"  But the sun\ndescended upon the Garden of Paradise, the celestial garden . . . and\nso on.\n\nOne day, however, \"Anti-Christ,\" in the person of a travelling\nmagistrate, descended upon Gai-Orlov and carried off Grigorieff.  He\nwas sent to prison, where he died of poison administered by one of his\n\"spiritual wives,\" who was jealous of her rivals.  But his teachings\ndid not die with him.  His work was continued by the peasant\nVerestchagin, with the help of twelve venerable \"apostles.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVII\n\nTHE NAPOLEONITES\n\nImagination can scarcely conceive of some of the strange forms under\nwhich the thirst for religious truth in Southern Russia was revealed.\nIn this great laboratory of sects, all the dreams of humanity had their\nmore or less \"inspired\" representatives.  Even the smallest town was in\nthe same case as, for example, the prison of Solovetzk, which was\nusually inhabited by large numbers of sectarian leaders.  A Mr.\nSitzoff, who spent some time there, has published a description of this\nmodern Tower of Babel.\n\nIt harboured, among others, a _douchoboretz_; a \"god\" of the Sava\npersuasion, with his wife, representing the \"Holy Ghost\"; a _chlyst_,\nwho rotated indefatigably round a tub of water; a captain who claimed\nthe honour of brotherhood with Jesus Christ; a man named Pouchkin, who\nsupposed himself to be the Saviour reincarnated; a _skopetz_ who had\nbrought a number of people from Moscow to be initiated into the sect of\nthe Russian eunuchs; and the _staretz_ Israil, a famous seer, who\ndesired to found a \"Church Triumphant\" among the inhabitants of the\nprison.\n\nThese ardent reformers of religion made a terrible uproar during the\nhours for exercise, each one wishing to convert the rest, and\nfrequently the warders had to intervene, to save the terrified \"Holy\nGhost,\" for example, from the \"brother of Christ\" or the prophet Elijah.\n\nBefore taking leave of these and other equally bizarre products of the\n\"great laboratory,\" we must mention the sect of the Napoleonites, some\nfew members of which were still to be found recently in Southern\nRussia.  William Hepworth Dixon, who visited the country in 1870,\nclaims to have met some in Moscow, and according to him they were then\nrapidly increasing in numbers.\n\nThe _douchobortzi_ and the _molokanes_ were deeply impressed by the\nadvent of Napoleon the First.  It seemed to them that a man who had\ntaken part in so many heroic adventures must be an envoy of the Deity.\nThey conceived it his mission to re-establish the throne of David and\nto put an end to all their misfortunes, and there was great joy among\nthe \"milk-drinkers\" when the \"Napoleonic mystery\" was expounded to them\nby their leaders.  It was arranged to send five _molokane_ delegates to\ngreet the \"heavenly messenger,\" and five old men set forth, clad in\ngarments white as their beards.  But they arrived too late.  Napoleon\nhad left Russia after the disaster of 1812, and when the _molokanes_\ntried to follow him they were arrested on the banks of the Vistula and\nthrown into prison.\n\nThe popular imagination, however, refused to abandon its idol, and the\nidea of Napoleon ascending into heaven continued to arouse much\nenthusiasm.  Many of the Napoleonites lamented the wickedness of his\nenemies, who had driven him out of Russia, thus depriving mortals of a\nsaviour from on high.\n\nAt their meetings they spoke of Napoleon's heroic exploits, and knelt\nbefore his bust.  It was said that when he entered Russia a star had\nappeared in the sky, like that which heralded the birth of Christ; that\nhe was not dead, but had escaped from St. Helena by sea and was living\nin Irkutsk; that one day the heavens would be torn open by a great\nstorm, and Napoleon would appear as leader of the Slavonic people; that\nhe would put an end to all discord and, surrounded by angels and brave\nsoldiers, would re-establish justice and happiness on earth to the\nsound of trumpets.\n\n\"The hour draws near!\"  This cry of supremest hope was ever upon the\nlips of the members of the Napoleonite church.\n\nBut to become almost God was a promotion of which the \"little corporal\"\nhad surely never dreamed!\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVIII\n\nTHE DIVINE MEN\n\nThe origin of this sect seems to be lost in the mists of the past.\nSome connect it with the teachings of Vishnu, some with mysterious\npractices of antiquity; but the \"divine men\" were certainly children of\nthe Slavonic soil.\n\nThose who seek for resemblances may find certain analogies between\nthese adepts of \"virginal virginity,\" or of \"the great garden of the\nTsar\"--for both these names were applied to them--and the _adamites_ or\n_aryanists_; for eager minds seeking supreme salvation are apt to meet\nupon the great road that leads to deliverance.\n\nThe rather sarcastic name of _chlysty_ (or flagellants, by which they\nwere also known) indicates one of the methods used by them in their\ndesire to please the Lord.\n\nA life-and-death struggle, lasting for some centuries, took place\nbetween Russian orthodoxy and this sect whose socialistic ideas\nthreatened to overthrow the aristocratic dogmas of the official church.\n\nThe real founder of the sect was a man named Philipoff, who lived about\nthe middle of the seventeenth century.  According to him, Jesus Christ\nwas only one of many Christs who have come to the succour of humanity\nduring the course of ages.  The divine spirit incarnates in men of high\nmorality, so that Christs appear and disappear, living with and among\nus from time to time.\n\nThe chlysty, therefore, might always have one or more Christs among\nthem; but all were not of equal standing.  Some were great and some\nsmall!\n\nPhilipoff was convinced that he was the great Christ, having the right\nto choose the twelve Apostles and the Holy Mother.  By degrees he came\nto think himself God the Father, and adopted a \"divine son\" in the\nperson of a peasant named Sousloff, who succeeded him as leader of the\nsect after his death.\n\nAnother \"Christ,\" named Loupkin, who bestowed the title of \"Holy\nVirgin\" upon his wife, Akoumina, gave a great impetus to the growth of\nthe sect.  His followers proclaimed him their spiritual Tsar, and\nreceived him everywhere with imposing ceremonies.  He allowed his feet\nand hands to be kissed and obeisances to be made to the \"Virgin.\"  As a\nresult of his propaganda many prominent members of the orthodox church\nwere won over.\n\nOn the death of Akoumina, the role of Holy Virgin was taken by the\nCanoness Anastasia, of the convent of Ivanoff, and as time went on many\nof the aristocracy of Moscow and other parts came to swell the ranks of\nthe believers in the \"living Christs.\"\n\nPhilipoff's doctrines differed to some extent from those of Loupkin.\nBranches of his church were to be found in most of the Russian\nprovinces, and as time went on these emancipated themselves and became\nindependent, and many new \"Christs\" made their appearance.  In 1903,\nnearly every Russian province was said to be seriously affected by the\ndoctrines of the \"divine men.\"\n\nApart from the secondary articles of faith which differentiated the\nchurches, their main principles may be epitomised as follows:--\n\nThere are seven heavens, and the seventh is the Paradise of the \"divine\nmen.\"  There dwell the Holy Trinity, the Mother of Jesus, the\nArchangels, and various Christs who have visited our planet.  It is not\na question of material bodies, but of spiritual principles.  God\nincarnates in good men whenever He feels it to be necessary, and those\nwho are chosen for this divine honour become Christs.  The Christ of\nthe Gospels died like all the rest.  His body is interred at Jerusalem,\nand his resurrection only meant the deliverance of his spirit.  His\nmiracles were merely symbolical.  Lazarus was a sinner; Christ cured\nhim and made him a good man; hence the legend of the raising from the\ndead.  The Gospels contain the teachings of the Christ of that epoch,\nbut the Christs of our time receive other teachings appropriate to the\nneeds of the present day.\n\nThe orthodox religion of Russia is a material religion, lacking the\nSpirit, whose presence is only to be found in the creed of the \"divine\nmen.\"  In order that their truth shall triumph, these latter may belong\nnominally to the official religion.  They may even attend its churches,\nbut must leave their souls on the threshold.  A \"divine man\" must guard\nhis soul from the \"infidels,\" the \"wicked,\" the \"voracious\nwolves\"--thus were the orthodox believers designated.  The human soul\nwas created before the body.  (A \"divine mother,\" questioned as to her\nage in a court of law, declared that though her body was only seventy\nyears old, her soul had lived through nearly as many centuries.)\nMetempsychosis was one of their beliefs.  Souls change their\nhabitations, and work upwards to supreme perfection.  That of a Christ\non earth becomes an angel after death; that of an imperfect man\nrequires repeated incarnations.  The body is the source of evil, and\nthe soul the source of good.  The body, therefore, with all its\ninstincts and desires, must be dominated by the soul.  \"Divine men\"\nmust abstain from meat and alcoholic drinks, and also from marriage in\nthe material sense.  By a singular misapprehension of the idea of\ndominating the body, they looked upon marriage as a spiritual\ninstitution, believing that the soul of a man who had lived with his\nwife in any but a fraternal relationship would enter that of a pig\nafter his death, and that children coming into the world through\nmarriage were the joy of Satan.  But love between men and women should\nexist outside the bonds of marriage, the sins of the flesh being then\nredeemed by the virtues of the spirit.  Adultery was thus tolerated,\nand even held in high honour, by many branches of the sect, who\nbelieved that the vulgar relations between the sexes were thus\nspiritually purified, and that men and women who loved under these\nconditions were like the doves and turtle-doves favoured by heaven.\nThey avoided having children, and abortion was not only tolerated but\nencouraged.\n\n\nRasputin, who borrowed largely from the doctrines of the \"divine men,\"\nmade great use of this strange idea of \"spiritual love\" in bringing\nabout the triumph of debauchery in the highest ranks of Russian society.\n\nThe multiplicity of \"Christs\" caused some regrettable\nmisunderstandings, and at times actual duels took place.  The\ndifficulty was resolved, however, by some of the churches in admirably\nsimple fashion--for, in spite of all, many of these strange people were\ninspired by the Gospel teachings.  The opponents exchanged blows, and\nhe who longest continued to offer his cheek to the other was considered\nto have proved himself a superior Christ.\n\nThe _chlysty_ were divided into sections, each having its angels, its\nprophets, and its Christ.  They met in their \"Jerusalem,\" which was\nusually a cellar, and their services took place at night, the\nparticipants all wearing white robes.  The ceremonies consisted chiefly\nof graceful movements--first a solo dance, then evolutions in pairs,\nafter which a cross would be formed by a large number of dancers, and\nfinally the \"dance of David\" took place, in imitation of the Biblical\nKing before the Ark.  The dancers then fell exhausted to the ground,\ntheir tired bodies no longer opposing the manifestation of their souls,\nand the prophets and prophetesses gave voice to divine inspirations.\n\nOnce a year the \"high ceremonial\" was held.  A tub filled with water\nwas placed in the middle of the room, and lit up by wax candles, and\nwhen the surface of the water became ruffled the ecstatic watchers\nbelieved God to be smiling upon them, and intoned in chorus their\nfavourite hymn---\n\n  \"We dance, we dance,\n  And seek the Christ who is among us.\"\n\nIn some of the churches this ceremony concluded with the celebration of\nuniversal love.\n\n\nOn account of its numerous ramifications, the sect presented many\ndivergent aspects.  The _teleschi_, following the example of Adam and\nEve in Paradise, performed their religious rites in a state of nature;\nand there were other branches whose various dogmas and practices it\nwould be impossible to describe.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIX\n\nTHE RELIGION OF RASPUTIN\n\nThe career of Rasputin provides one of the most disquieting chapters in\nthe history of sexual and religious emotions, and furnishes remarkable\nproof of the close relationship which exists between these two sides of\nhuman life, to all appearances diametrically opposed.\n\nThe supposed monk had undoubted hypnotic powers, and through his\nsuccess in sending people to sleep in his native Siberian village (in\nthe neighbourhood of Tomsk), he earned the reputation of being a \"holy\nman.\"  As they had never heard of either suggestion or hypnotism, the\nSiberian peasants were all the more impressed by his miracles.  Before\nlong he decided to make use of his mysterious power on a larger scale,\nand departed for St. Petersburg, where the news of his exploits had\npreceded him.  The Tsarina, who suffered from insomnia, sent for him,\nand--thanks also to certain qualities which it is best not to\nspecify--Rasputin's fortune was made in a day.\n\nThe village of his origin had an undesirable reputation, for its\ninhabitants were loose-livers, and the scandal of the surrounding\ncountryside.  But even in this environment the monk's family had made\nthemselves conspicuous by their low and unmentionable customs.  The\nyoung Gregory, known by the diminutive of Gricha, began his exploits at\na very tender age, and earned the sobriquet of Rasputin, which means\n\"debauched.\"  He was mixed up in all kinds of dubious affairs--for\ninstance, thefts of horses, the bearing of false witness, and many acts\nof brigandage.  He was even sentenced more than once to be flogged--a\npenalty of which the local law-courts made generous use in those days.\nOne of his boon companions, a gardener named Vamava, later became\nBishop of Tobolsk through his influence.\n\nBut the time came when Gricha thought it well to abandon his small\nmisdoings, and take up a more lucrative trade.  He discarded his\npeasant costume, and adopted a robe similar to that worn by monks.\nGrave and serious, declaring that he was ranged \"on the side of the\nLord,\" he went about begging importunately, on the pretext of wishing\nto build a church.  In this way he succeeded in amassing a very\nconsiderable sum of money, and subsequently founded a new sect whose\nbizarre nature surpassed that of any others that had recently seen the\nlight.\n\nIts chief doctrines were borrowed from the _chlysty_, with some\nmodifications to suit the decadent atmosphere of the Russian Court.  It\ntaught that none could be saved without first having repented; and none\ncould repent without first having sinned.  Therefore to sin became a\nduty, and it may be imagined how full of attraction was this \"religion\nof sin\" for those who had neither the will nor the desire to practise\nvirtue.\n\nRasputin began proceedings in his native province.  He was a marvellous\npreacher, and easily attracted many followers, though some of the forms\ntaken by the new religion were indescribable.  The believers of both\nsexes were in the habit of assembling in an open field, in the midst of\nwhich a bonfire was lighted.  They would form a chain and dance round\nthe fire, praying for their sins to be forgiven, as they had repented\nof them.  Gradually the fire would die out, and the leader then\nlaunched his command--\"Now, my children, give yourselves up to sin!\"\nThe sequel may be left untold, but truly the _saturnalia_ of ancient\nRome grow dim before the spectacle of the ceremonies established by\nRasputin.\n\nHis hypnotic practices, combined with the attractions of his\n\"religion,\" only served to augment his popularity, and, burdened with\npast glory, he arrived in the capital to win the favour not only of\nladies of high degree, but also of many prominent members of the\nestablished church.\n\nFather John of Cronstadt, whom he first visited, was deeply impressed\nwhen Rasputin revealed to him the extent of his \"intimacy with the\nLord,\" and introduced him to the Archbishop Theophanus, almost as great\na celebrity as himself.\n\nFinding it impossible to establish the Siberian practices openly in St.\nPetersburg, Rasputin made great use of hypnotism.  The fascination that\nhe wielded over all in his vicinity gave authority to his words, and he\ndevoted himself to exorcising the demons that slept in the bodies of\nthe pretty sinners of high society.  In this, scourging played a\nconsiderable part, and as all sorts of illnesses and unsatisfied\ndesires were attributed to the \"demons,\" the number of cases treated by\nthe \"holy man\" was almost incalculable.\n\nEven the prelates whom Rasputin ousted from their positions in some\ncases still continued to believe in him after his death.  The Bishop\nHermogen, whom he disgraced at Court, declared, the day after the\nassassination, his conviction that Rasputin possessed \"a spark of\ngodhead\" when he first arrived in Petrograd.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XX\n\nTHE INSPIRED SEERS\n\nThe official clergy, finding it incumbent on them to defend the\narticles of the orthodox faith, were themselves frequently swept away\nby the storm of religious mania.  Before the war the fortress of\nSolovetzk sheltered quite an army of these harmless rebels, who,\ntroubled by the general desire for human perfection, had ended in\nblasphemy.  Especially from the monasteries were they recruited.  It\nseemed as though their souls were violently assaulted by devils, like\nthose of the anchorites of olden days.  Monks and nuns alike were\nequally discontented, equally eager to uproot evil, whether real or\nimaginary, by seeking out new ways of salvation.\n\nOne such was the unfortunate Israil, originally head of the monastery\nof Selenginsk, later a prisoner at Solovetzk.  He preached eloquently\nand fervently the renunciation of property, and persuaded his mother\nand sisters to abandon their worldly goods and devote themselves to the\nservice of the Virgin.  \"To a nunnery!\" he cried, with all the\nconviction of Hamlet driving Ophelia from this world, and they sang\npsalms with him and went to conceal their misery in a convent.  Then,\nwith a staff in his hand, he traversed Russia, and visited many\n_staretz_, or holy men.  They taught him \"the beginning and the middle\nof the end which does not exist,\" but poor Israil was still conscious\nof an emptiness in his heart.  In the pursuit of truth he retired to a\nvirgin forest on the banks of the river Schouia, near the desert of\nKrivoziersk, and remained there for years engaged in prayer, until at\nlast, touched by such piety, the Lord gave peace to his soul.\nSurrounded by holy books, he practised meditation, and God manifested\nHis love by sending him visions and dreams which, coming direct from\nHeaven, promised salvation to himself and to all who should follow him.\nIn one dream he saw a great temple above the cave where he was praying.\nMillions of people sought to enter it, but could not, and shed bitter\ntears of disappointment.  One man alone could approach the altar.  It\nwas Israil, the beloved of the Lord.  He went straight through the\ngreat doors, and all the rest followed him.\n\nThe holy man then decided that he must act as guide to his fellows who,\nlike himself, were possessed by the fever for eternal salvation.  He\nknew how to distinguish between dreams sent by heaven, and those\nemanating from the infernal regions.\n\nIt was a great day for the new religion which was to be born in the\ndesert of Krivoziersk when the Father Joseph came to join Israil, the\ntale of whose glory by this time resounded throughout the whole\nneighbourhood.  They remained on their knees for whole weeks at a time,\npraying together.  Israil painted sacred pictures, and Joseph carved\nspoons, for the glory of the Lord.  An inexplicable emotion filled\ntheir souls; they trembled before the Eternal, fasted, and shed\nscalding tears; then, overcome by fatigue, fell fainting to the ground.\nIsrail beheld the heavens descending upon earth.  They had no dread of\nwild beasts, and, disregarding the need for food or sleep, they thus\ndwelt far from the haunts of men, in the light of Eternity.\n\nOne day Israil rose abruptly in an access of religious frenzy, climbed\na hill, saluted the East three times, and returned radiant to his\ncompanion.\n\n\"The burden which lay at the door of my heart,\" he cried, \"the burden\nwhich hindered my spirit from soaring heavenwards, has disappeared!\nHenceforward the Kingdom of Heaven is in me, in the depths of my soul,\nin the soul of the Son of my Father!\"\n\nHe proceeded to share this kingdom with the brothers Warlaam, Nikanor,\nand others who had been \"touched by the finger of God.\"  Unbelievers\nwere gradually won over, and a community was formed whose members lived\non prayers and celestial visions, and obeyed the rules laid down for\nthem by Israil.  The sick were cured by his prayers, and the\nincredulous were abashed by the holiness of his appearance.\n\nHis fame spread, and ever greater crowds were attracted, so that while\nthe faithful rejoiced in the triumph of \"the beloved,\" Israil himself\ndeemed the time to be ripe for his promotion in the ranks of sanctity.\nHe proclaimed himself to be Jesus Christ.\n\nOn Holy Thursday he washed the feet of his disciples, blessed the bread\nand wine, and distributed it to the assembled believers.\n\nBut, alas, by this time dreams of a strangely sensual nature had seized\nupon him, and seemed to pervade his whole being.\n\nIn one of these dreams he found himself in an empty temple, and on\napproaching the altar, perceived a dead woman lying there.  He lifted\nher up, and as he touched her she showed signs of life.  Suddenly,\nslipping from his grasp, she leapt upon the altar, and, radiating\nheavenly beauty, threw herself into his arms.  \"Come, come, my spouse!\"\nshe said.  \"Come, that I may outpour for thee the wine of my love and\nthe delights of my Eternal Father!\"\n\nOn hearing these words from the Queen of Heaven, Israil dissolved into\ntears.  He was filled with boundless rapture, and in his excitement\ncould not forbear from sharing this joyful experience with his\ndisciples.\n\nHis Golgotha was drawing near.  The new religion was openly denounced,\nand rigorously suppressed.  The apostles were imprisoned, and the Jesus\nChrist of Krivoziersk was sent for to the town of Kostroma, that he\nmight give account of himself, his visions, and his crimes.  Ultimately\nhe was condemned to a spell of confinement, and forced to perform the\nmost humiliating duties.  His asceticism, his many virtues, his fasting\nand prayers, the love which God had manifested for him--all were\nforgotten, and Israil, who had held the Queen of Heaven in his arms,\nwas in future obliged to clean out the stables of the monastery of\nMakariev, to light the fires, and prepare the brothers' baths for them.\n\nThe \"beloved of the Lord\" fully expected to see the earth open and\nengulf his impious judges in its yawning depths--but no such thing\nhappened.  His spirit grew uneasy, and, taking advantage of the Russian\nGovernment's appeal for missionaries to convert the Siberian peoples,\nhe set forth to preach his own religion to them instead of that of\nTsarism.  Arrived at Irkutsk, he sought first of all to save the souls\nof the chief authorities, the Governor-General and the Archbishop.  But\nhis efforts beat in vain against the indifference of these high\ndignitaries.\n\n\"Happy are those who follow me,\" he assured them, \"for I will reveal to\nthem the secrets of this world, and assure them of a place in my\nFather's kingdom.\"\n\nHowever, they did not heed him, and horrified at such lack of faith,\nIsrail presented the Governor-General with a formal document on \"the\nSecond Coming of Our Saviour Jesus Christ.\"  Still the souls of his\ncontemporaries remained closed to the revelation, and while he\nmeditated upon their blindness and deplored their misfortune, he was\nsuddenly seized by their equally faithless representatives and\ntransported to the farthest limits of the country.\n\nThere he found many of his old disciples, and proceeded to form the\nsect of the \"inspired seers.\"  He taught them with all earnestness that\nthey would shortly see the Lord, Saint Simeon, and the Queen of Heaven,\nand soon after this, when in a state of ecstatic exaltation, they did,\nas by a miracle, behold God surrounded by His saints, and even the\nInfant Jesus.\n\nBut a new era of persecution was at hand for Israil.  Heaven was\nmerciful to him, but the powers of the earth were harsh.  However, the\nmore he was persecuted, the more his followers' ardent belief in his\n\"divinity\" increased, and their enthusiasm reached a climax when the\npolice had the audacity to lay hands on \"the son of the Lord.\"  But\nIsrail was quite unmoved by the fate of his earthly body, or by the\nprospect of earthly punishment.  His soul dwelt with God the Father,\nand it was with the profoundest disdain that he followed the\nrepresentatives of evil.\n\nDuring the trial his disciples loudly expressed their belief in him,\nand what seemed to strengthen their faith was the fact that Israil,\nlike the Divine Master, had been betrayed by a \"Judas.\"  They believed\nalso that his death would be followed by miracles.\n\nIsrail himself desired to be crucified, but Heaven withheld this\nsupreme grace, and also denied his followers the joy of witnessing\nmiracles at his graveside.  The Holy Synod contented itself with\nsentencing him to lifelong imprisonment at Solovetzk.\n\nWe may add that the founder of the \"inspired seers\" left, at his death,\nseveral volumes of verse.  Unhappy poet!  In the west he might have\nbeen covered with honour and glory; in the far north his lot was merely\none of extreme unhappiness.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXI\n\nTHE RELIGION OF SISTER HELEN\n\nSister Helen Petrov, of the convent of Pskov, declared in a moment of\n\"divine illumination\" that the Church had no hierarchy, that priests\nwere harmful, that God had no need of intermediaries, that men should\nnot communicate, and should, indeed, absolutely refrain from entering\nchurches.\n\nIt was the vision of an inspired soul, or of a diseased mind--for the\ntwo extremes may meet.  A pure religion, based upon the direct\ncommunion of man's spirit with God, free from false and artificial\npiety, having no churches or ceremonies, but exhaling the sentiment of\nbrotherly love--what a \"vision splendid\" is this, so often sought but\nnever yet attained!\n\nIn the age preceding the birth of Christ many of the finer spirits were\nalready rebelling, like Sister Helen, against the use of agents between\nthe human soul and God.  Simeon the Just, Hillel, Jesus, son of Sirach,\nand many others, like Isaiah of old, besought men to cease importuning\nGod with offerings of incense and the blood of rams.  \"What is needed,\"\nthey said, \"is to have a pure heart and to love virtue.\"  No one,\nhowever, succeeded in formulating this teaching in so sublime a fashion\nas Christ Himself.  For what is pure Christianity, as revealed by Him,\nif not the divine aspiration towards Heaven of all men as brothers,\nwithout fetters of creed and dogma, and without intermediaries?\n\nIn the name of the Divine Messenger, Sister Helen protested against the\nerrors of men.  She reproached them with their sins and their mistakes.\nBut though the same teachings eighteen centuries before had brought\nabout a moral renaissance, repeated by Helen they only caused untold\nmiseries to descend upon her head.  Driven from the Church and\nthreatened with a prison-cell, her heart grew bitter within her, and\nher once pure spirit was clouded over.\n\nA vision came to her, in which she learnt that the end of the world was\ndrawing near, Anti-Christ having already made his appearance.\n\n\"We must prepare for the Last Judgment,\" she declared.  \"All family\nlife must be renounced, wives must leave their husbands, sisters their\nbrothers, and children their parents.  The Day of God is at hand!\"\n\nAfter being expelled from the convent, the beautiful Helen--for she was\nbeautiful when she first gave herself to God--carried her sacred\nmessage to the simple-minded peasants.  By them she was understood and\nvenerated, and their admiration filled her with ecstasy.\n\nTwo priests and several other nuns were attracted by the reports of her\nsanctity, and came to join her.  She still repeated that Anti-Christ\nwas already upon earth, and that the end was near.  One day she saw him\nface to face and tried to kill him, for the glory of Heaven, but he\nescaped.  However, she remembered his appearance, and was able to\ndescribe him to her followers.\n\n\"He is no other,\" she said, \"than Father John of Cronstadt who,\nalthough a great worker of miracles, is in fact an evil genius in the\nservice of Satan.\"\n\nAnd all her hearers rejoiced, and paid homage to Helen's clairvoyant\npowers.  Their enthusiastic adulation, together with the conviction of\nthe love Christ bore her, threw the good sister into a frenzy of\nintense excitement, until she, who formerly had only desired to\nameliorate the lot of mankind, suddenly perceived in herself an\nincarnation of the divine.  But she sought, nevertheless, to resist the\nidea, and said to her followers, \"I am only a poor daughter of the\nLord, and He has chosen me to spread the truth about His sufferings,\nand to proclaim the great punishment of mankind--the end of the world.\"\n\nShe spoke with such emotion that her hearers, visualising the agony to\ncome, shed tears abundantly, and prayed and fasted.  But now the\nprophetess had another vision, for on the night before Good Friday\nChrist Himself appeared to her.\n\n\"Weep not, _Helenouchka_ (little Helen),\" He said.  \"The end of the\nworld approaches for the wicked, and for those who knew Me not--the\npagans, Jews, and priests.  But you, my faithful Bride, shall be saved,\nand all who follow you.  On the day when the world is darkened and all\nthings crumble into ruins, the true kingdom of God shall dawn for the\nbeloved children of heaven.\"\n\nAnother time Helen was overcome with joy because her heavenly Spouse\nvisited her by night.\n\n\"Dost thou not see,\" said the divine Lover, \"with what brilliance the\nsun is shining, how the flowers are opening, and every face is\nillumined with joy?  These are the 'last rays' bidding farewell to\nlife.  But thou, Helen, shalt peacefully enjoy the raptures of love.\nOn the appointed day thy celestial Spouse, accompanied by His angels,\nshall come to rescue thee, and thou shalt dwell with Him three hundred\nyears.\"\n\nOne of the priests who had adopted Helen's religion composed numerous\nhymns in her honour, and these were chanted in chorus by the believers.\nThe opening line of one which was sung to greet her when she awoke each\nmorning, ran as follows: \"Rejoice, Saint Helen, fair Bride of Christ,\nrejoice!\"\n\nPoor Saint Helen!  She was not allowed to enjoy her heavenly idyll for\nlong.  Just when the new religion promised consolation to so many, the\nbelievers and their prophetess were delivered up to the rigours of the\njustice of this world, which called down upon their heads in turn the\ncatastrophe of the \"day of judgment.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXII\n\nTHE SELF-MUTILATORS\n\nThe thirst for perfection, the ardent desire to draw near to God,\nsometimes takes the form of an unhappy perversion of reason and common\nsense.  The popular soul knows no hesitation when laying its offerings\nupon the Altar of the Good.  It dares not only to flout the principles\nof patriotism, of family love, and of respect for the power and the\ndogmas of the established church, but, taking a step further, will even\ntrample underfoot man's deepest organic needs, and actually seek to\ndestroy the instinct of self-preservation.  What even the strictest\nreformers, the most hardened misanthropists, would hardly dare to\nsuggest, is accomplished as a matter of course by simple peasants in\ntheir devotion to whatever method of salvation they believe to be in\naccordance with God's will.  Thus came into existence the\nself-mutilators, or _skoptzi_, victims, no doubt, of some mental\naberration, some misdirected sense of duty, but yet how impressive in\ntheir earnestness!\n\nThe sect having been in existence for more than a century ought perhaps\nto be excluded from our present survey; but it has constantly\ndeveloped, and even seemed to renew its youth, so merits consideration\neven if only in the latter phases of its evolution.\n\nThe _skoptzi_ were allowed, at the beginning of the twentieth century,\nto form separate communities, and the life of these communities under\nquite exceptional social conditions, without love, children, marriage\nor family ties, offers a melancholy field for observation.  Indeed,\nthese colonies of mutilated beings, hidden in the depths of Siberia,\ngive one a feeling as of some monstrous and unfamiliar growth, and\npresent one of the most puzzling aspects of the religious perversions\nof the present age.\n\nAfter being denounced and sentenced, and after performing the forced\nlabour allotted to them--a punishment specially reserved for the\nmembers of sects considered dangerous to orthodoxy--the _skoptzi_, men\nand women alike, were permitted to establish their separate colonies,\nlike those of Olekminsk and Spasskoie.\n\nThe forced labour might cripple their limbs, but it did not weaken\ntheir faith, which blossomed anew under the open skies of Siberia, and\nseemed only to be intensified by their long sufferings in prison.\n\nThe martyrs who took refuge in these Siberian paradises were very\nnumerous.  It has been calculated that at the end of the nineteenth\ncentury they numbered more than sixty-five thousand, and this is\nprobably less than the true figure, for, considering the terrible\nordinances of their religion, it is not likely that they would trouble\nmuch about registering themselves for official statistics.  We may\nsafely say that in 1889 there were about twelve hundred and fifty in\nthe neighbourhood of Yakutsk who had already accomplished their term of\nforced labour.  They formed ten villages, and it would be difficult to\nspecify their various nationalities, though it is known that in\nSpasskoie, in 1885, there were, among seven hundred and ten members of\nthe sect, six hundred and ninety-three Russians, one Pole, one Swede,\nand fifteen Finns.\n\nTo outward view their colonies were rather peculiar.  Each village was\nbuilt with one long, wide street, and the houses were remarkable for\nthe solidity of their construction, for the flourishing gardens that\nsurrounded them, and for their unusual height in this desolate land\nwhere, as a rule, nothing but low huts and hovels were to be seen.  A\nhouse was shared, generally, by three or four believers, and--perhaps\nowing to their shattered nervous systems--they appeared to live in a\nstate of constant uneasiness, and always kept revolvers at hand.  The\n\"brothers\" occupied one side of the building, and the \"sisters\" the\nother; and while the former practised their trades, or were engaged in\ncommerce, the women looked after the house, and led completely isolated\nlives.  On the arrival of a stranger they would hide, and if he offered\nto shake hands with one of them, she would blush, saying, \"Excuse me,\nbut that is forbidden to us,\" and escape into the house.\n\nThe existence of the \"sisters\" was indeed a tragic one.  Deprived of\nthe sweetness of love or family life, without children, and at the\nmercy of hardened egoists, such as the _skoptzi_ usually became, their\nsequestered lives seemed to be cut off from all normal human happiness.\n\nAccording to the author of an interesting article on the _skoptzi_ of\nOlekminsk, which appeared in 1895 in the organ of the then-existing\nRussian Ethnographical Society, these women were sometimes of an\nastonishing beauty, and when opportunity offered, as it sometimes did\n(their initiation not always being quite complete), they would marry\northodox settlers, and leave their so-called \"brothers.\"  Cases are on\nrecord of women acting in this way, and subsequently becoming mothers,\nbut any such event caused tremendous agitation among the \"brothers\" and\n\"sisters,\" similar to that provoked in ancient Rome by the spectacle of\na vestal virgin failing in her duty of chastity.\n\nPlatonic unions between the self-mutilators and the Siberian\npeasant-women were fairly frequent, so deeply-rooted in the heart of\nman does the desire for a common life appear to be.\n\nThe _skoptzi_ loved money for money's sake, and were considered the\nenemies of the working-classes.  Although drawn for the most part from\nthe Russian provinces, where ideas of communal property prevailed, they\ndeveloped into rigid individualists, and would exploit even their own\n\"brothers.\"  Indeed they preyed upon one another to such an extent that\nin the village of Spasskoie there were, among a hundred and fifty-two\n_skoptzi_, thirty-five without land, their portions having been seized\nfrom them by the \"capitalists\" of the village.\n\nTheir ranks were swelled chiefly by illiterate peasants.  As to their\nreligion, it consisted almost exclusively in the practice of a ceremony\nsimilar to that of the Valerians, the celebrated early Christian sect\nwho had recourse to self-mutilation in order to protect themselves from\nthe temptations of the flesh.[1]\n\nThe lot of the _skoptzi_ was not a happy one, but they were upheld and\nconsoled by their belief in the imperial origin of their faith.\nAccording to them, Selivanoff, the prophet and founder of the sect, was\nno other than the Tsar Peter the Third himself (1728-1762).  They did\nnot believe in his assassination by the Empress Catherine, but declared\nthat she, discovering to what initiation he had submitted, was seized\nby so violent a passion of rage that she caused him to be incarcerated\nin the fortress of Petropavlovsk.  From there they believed that he had\nescaped, with the help of his gaoler, Selivanoff, and had assumed the\nlatter's name.  What strengthened them in this belief was the marked\nfavour shown by the Tsar Alexander I for Selivanoff.  Alexander being\nnaturally inclined to mysticism, was impressed by this strange\ncharacter, and requested him to foretell the issue of the war with\nNapoleon.  He was equally well disposed to the sect of Madame\nTartarinoff, which closely resembled that of the self-mutilators, and,\ninfluenced by his attitude, all the Russian high officials felt\nthemselves bound to pay court to the new religions.  One of the\nImperial councillors, Piletzky, who was supposed to be writing a book\nrefuting the doctrines of the _skoptzi_, defended them, on the\ncontrary, with such warmth that his volume--obviously inspired by the\nopinions of the Court--was prohibited by the Bishop Filarete as\nAnti-Christian.\n\nBut though they could talk volubly of the illustrious origin of their\nleader Selivanoff, \"the second Christ,\" and of their \"divine mother,\"\nAkoulina Ivanovna, their doctrines were in fact obscure and nebulous,\nand they avoided--with good reason--all religious argument.  They\ninsisted, however, upon the sacredness of their initiation\nceremony--which invariably ended in deportation for life, or the\ndelights of the prison-cell.\n\nFrom the physiological point of view, the _skoptzi_ resembled the\nEgyptian eunuchs, described by M. Ernest Godard.  Those who had\nundergone the initiation at the age of puberty attained extraordinary\nmaxillary and dental proportions.  Giants were common among them, and\nthere was frequently produced the same phenomenon that Darwin\ndiscovered in the animal world--enlargement of the pelvic regions.\n\nThis doctrine, which ought to have repelled the populace, attracted\nthem irresistibly.  The young, the brave, and the wealthy, in the full\nflower of their strength, abandoned at its call the religion of life\nand yoked themselves to that of death.  It seemed to fascinate them.\nAfter conversion they despised all human passions and emotions, and\nwhen persecuted and hunted down they took their revenge by expressing\nprofoundest pity for those who were powerless to accomplish the act of\nsacrifice which had brought them \"near to divinity.\"\n\nThey often let this pity sway them to the extent of running into danger\nby preaching their \"holy word\" to \"infidels.\"  Like the ascetics of\nAncient Judea, who left their retreats to make sudden appearances in\nthe midst of the orgies of their contemporaries, these devotees of\nenforced virginity would appear among those who were disillusioned with\nlife, and instruct them in the delights of the supreme deliverance.  In\ntheir ardent desire to rescue all slaves of the flesh, some rich\nmerchants of Moscow, who had adopted the doctrine, placed the greater\npart of their fortunes at the disposal of their co-religionists, and in\nthis way the sect was enabled to extend its influence throughout\nRussia, and even into neighbouring countries.\n\nAt one time in Bucharest and other towns certain carriages drawn by\nsuperb horses attracted much admiration.  These were some of the\nstrange presents--the price of a still stranger baptism--with which the\n\"Church of the Second Christ\" rewarded its members!\n\n\n\n[1] Valerius, passionate and devout at the same time, was the first to\nsacrifice himself thus on the altar of purity, following the example of\nOrigen, who had used this heroic method to safeguard the virtue of the\nwomen of his _entourage_.  But while Origen was rewarded for his action\nby the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Valerius was expelled from the church,\nand retired to Arabia, where his sect flourished in the third century\n(A.D.).\n\n\n\n\nB.  THE NON-SECTARIAN VISIONARIES\n\nIn addition to the sects having their prophets and leaders and a\ncertain amount of organisation, almost every year in Russia saw--and\nprobably still sees--the birth of many separate heresies of short\nduration.  For instance, in one part a whole village would suddenly be\nseized by religious ardour, its inhabitants deserting the fields and\npassing their time in prayer, or in listening to the Gospel teachings\nas expounded to them by some \"inspired\" peasant.  Or elsewhere, the\nwomen would all leave their husbands and depart into the forests, where\nin the costume of Mother Eve they would give themselves up to\nmeditating upon the sins of humanity and the goodness of God.\n\nOn the outskirts of a village near Samara, in East Russia, a forester\nwas one day attracted to a cabin by the resounding cries and groans\nthat issued from it.  On entering, a strange sight met his eyes--three\nwomen, completely naked, praying and weeping.  They were like\nskeletons, and one of them died soon after being forcibly brought back\nto the village.  In spite of all entreaties she refused to let the\northodox priest come near her, and begged that no cross should be\nplaced over her grave.\n\nThe police searched the forest, and found several other women in a\nsimilar condition.  Inquiry revealed that they had left their homes in\nthe neighbourhood of Viatka in order to expiate the sins of their\nfellows.  For nourishment they depended on herbs and strawberries, and\nprayer was their sole occupation.  Their unquenchable desire was to be\nallowed to die \"for the greater glory of Jesus Christ.\"  They belonged\nto no sect, and did not believe in sacred symbols or in priests.  In\norder to get into direct communication with God, they discarded their\ngarments and lived in a state of nature, eating nothing but what they\ncould find by the wayside.  Thirty or forty of these women were\ngathered in and sent back to their homes.\n\nThe peasants of the Baltic Provinces, although better educated than\nthose of Southern Russia, became victims of religious mania just as\nfrequently.  It was in the Pernov district that the cult of the god\nTonn was brought to light.  The chief function of this god was to\npreserve cattle and other livestock from disease, and to gain his\nfavour the peasants brought him offerings twice a year.  His statue was\nplaced in a stable, and there his worshippers were wont to gather,\npraying on bended knee for the health of their cows and horses.  In\ntime, however, the statue was seized by the police, to the great grief\nof the peasants of the district.\n\nIn another part there dwelt a magician who was said to cure all bodily\nills by the aid of the sixth and seventh books of Moses.\n\nThe tribunal of Kaschin, near Tver, once had occasion to judge a\npeasant named Tvorojnikoff who, as a result of his private meditations,\nhad succeeded in evolving a new religion for himself and his friends.\nAfter working for six months in St. Petersburg as a mechanic, and\nstudying the \"vanity of human affairs,\" he came to the conclusion that\northodox religious observances were an invention of the priests, and\nthat it was only necessary to believe in order to be saved.\n\nAn action was brought against him, whereupon his mother and sister, who\nwere called as witnesses, refused to take the oath, that being \"only an\ninvention of men.\"  Tvorojnikoff described his doubts, his sufferings,\nand the battle which had long raged in his soul, and declared that at\nlast, on reaching the conclusion that \"faith is the only cure,\" he had\nfound happiness and peace.\n\n\"What have I done to be punished?\" he demanded.  \"What do you want with\nme?  Instead of sending me to prison, explain how I have sinned.  Read\nthe Gospel with me!\"\n\nBut his entreaties were ignored.  The \"religious expert,\" who was\npresent in the person of a delegate of the ecclesiastical authorities,\nthought it beneath his dignity to discuss eternal truths with a\npeasant, and the poor dreamer received a sentence of imprisonment.\n\nThe Russian legal records are full of the misdeeds of many such, whose\nsole crimes consisted in dreaming with all sincerity, and in spite of\ncruel deceptions and disappointments, of the day when man should at\nlast attain perfection upon earth.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nTHE BROTHERS OF DEATH\n\nFrom time to time this thirst for the ideal, this dissatisfaction with\nthe actual, gave rise to a series of collective suicides.  We may\nrecall the celebrated propaganda of the monk Falaley, who preached that\ndeath was man's only means of salvation.  He gathered his unhappy\nhearers in a forest, and there expounded to them the emptiness of life\nand the best method of escaping from it.  His words bore fruit, and the\nsimple peasants who heard them decided to have done with \"this life of\nsin.\"\n\nOne night eighty-four persons congregated in an underground cavern near\nthe river Perevozinka, and began to fast and to pray.  The peasants\ngathered round their improvised camp, built of straw and wood, ready to\ndie when the signal was given.  But one woman, taking fright at the\nidea of so horrible a death, fled and warned the authorities.  When the\npolice arrived, one of the believers cried out that Anti-Christ was\napproaching, and the poor creatures then set fire to the camp and\ndied--as they thought--for Christ.\n\nA few fanatics who were saved received sentences of imprisonment and\ndeportation, but one of them--Souchkoff--succeeded in escaping, and\ncontinued to spread \"the truth of God.\"  Whether it was his own\neloquence or the misery and despair of the people that helped his\ndoctrine, it bore at any rate such fruits that soon afterwards sixty\nfamilies in one locality made up their minds to die _en masse_,\nbelieving that simple murder--the murder of the faithful by the\nfaithful--would hasten the day of supreme deliverance.  A peasant named\nPetroff entered the house of his neighbour, and killed the latter's\nwife and children, afterwards carrying his blood-stained hatchet in\ntriumph through the village.  In the barn of another a dozen peasants\ngathered with their wives, and the men and women laid their heads upon\nthe block in turn, while Petroff, in the role of the angel of death,\ncontinued his work of deliverance.  He then made his way to a hut near\nby where a mother and three children awaited his services, and finally,\novercome with fatigue, he laid his own head on the block, and was\ndespatched to eternal glory by Souchkoff.\n\nBut the kind of death recommended by Chadkin about the year 1860 was\neven more terrible.  In this case it was not a question of a wave of\nmadness that came and passed, but of the prolonged torture of death by\nvoluntary starvation.\n\nChadkin's teaching was that as Anti-Christ had already come, there was\nnothing left to do but escape into the forests and die of hunger.  When\nhe and his adherents had reached a sufficiently isolated spot, he\nordered the women to prepare death-garments, and when all were suitably\narrayed, he informed them that in order to receive the heavenly grace\nof death, they must remain there for twelve days and nights without\nfood or water.\n\nFrightful were the sufferings endured by these martyrs.  The cries of\nthe children, as they writhed in agony, were heartrending, but Chadkin\nand his followers never wavered.  At last, however, one of the\nsufferers, unable longer to face such tortures, managed to escape, and\nChadkin, fearing the arrival of the police, decided that all the rest\nmust die at once.  They began by killing the children; next the women\nand the men; and by the time the police appeared on the scene there\nremained alive only Chadkin and two others, who had forgotten in their\nfrenzy to put an end to themselves.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nTHE DIVINITY OF FATHER IVAN\n\nIt seems enough, in Russia, when a single individual is obsessed by\nsome more or less ridiculous idea, for his whole environment to become\ninfected by it also.  The ease with which suggestions make their way\ninto the popular mind is amazing, and this reveals its strong bias\ntowards the inner life, the life of dreams.  The actual content of the\ndreams is of small importance, provided that they facilitate the soul's\nflight to a better world, and supply some link in a chain which shall\nattach it more firmly to the things of eternity.  Consequently, those\nwho have any supernatural experience to relate are almost sure to find\nfollowers.\n\nAn illiterate woman named Klipikoff one day proclaimed the good news of\nthe divinity of Father Ivan of Cronstadt.  The incredulous smiles of\nher fellow-citizens were gradually transformed into enthusiastic\nexpressions of belief, and Madame Klipikoff proceeded to found a\nschool.  About twenty women began to proclaim openly throughout\nCronstadt that Father Ivan, the miracle-worker, was divine, and he had\ndifficulty in repudiating the honours that the infatuated women tried\nto thrust upon him.  According to the priestesses of this\n\"unrecognised\" cult, Father Ivan was the Saviour Himself, though he hid\nthe fact on account of the \"Anti-Christians\"--that is to say, the\npriests and the church authorities.  Those who were converted to the\nnew doctrine placed his portrait beside that of the Divine Mother, and\nprayed before it.  They even fell on their knees before his garments,\nor any articles belonging to him, and though the old man expressed\nhorror at such idolatry, he nevertheless permitted it.  One of the\nlocal papers described a ceremony that took place in one of the houses\nwhere the pilgrims, who journeyed to Cronstadt from all parts of\nRussia, were lodged.  Father Ivan deigned to give his benediction to\nthe three glasses of tea that the hostess proffered him, and after his\ndeparture she divided their contents among the assembled company, in\nreturn for various offerings.\n\nThere were, however, cases in which, instead of kneeling before the\ngarments of miracle-workers or committing suicide, the visionaries\nstrove to reach heaven by offering up the lives of their fellow-men in\nsacrifice.\n\nIn the law-courts of Kazan a terrible instance of one of these\nreligious murders was brought to light.  It was revealed that the\ninhabitants of a neighbouring village had suspended by the feet a\nbeggar named Matiounin, and then, opening one of his veins, had drunk\nhis blood.\n\nThere are throughout Russia many records of proceedings brought against\nsuch murderers--for instance, the tragic case of Anna Kloukin, who\nthrew her only daughter into an oven, and offered her charred body to\nGod; and that of a woman named Kourtin, who killed her seven-year-old\nson that his mortal sins might be forgiven.\n\nThe vague remembrance of Abraham, who offered up his only son, and the\nconviction that Anti-Christ, \"born of a depraved woman, a Jewess,\"\ntravels the earth in search of Christian souls--these are the most\nobvious motives for murders such as we have described.  Their real\ncause sprang, however, from the misery of the people and their\nweariness of life.\n\nBy a kind of reaction these murders--whose perpetrators often could not\nbe found--frequently gave rise to even stranger crimes and\ndisturbances.  Suspicion was apt to fall upon any Jews dwelling in the\ndistrict, and there resulted trials, such as that of Beilis, or Jewish\n_pogroms_ which filled the civilised world with horror.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nAMONG THE MIRACLE-WORKERS\n\nThe pilgrims and \"workers of miracles\" who wander through Russia can\nalways find, not only free lodging, but also opportunity for making\ntheir fortunes.  Their gains mount, often, to incredible figures, and\nthe faith and piety that they diffuse have both good and bad aspects.\nThere are places, for instance, like Cronstadt, which, at one time\ninhabited mainly by drunkards, became before the war a \"holy town.\"\nApart from Father Ivan and his peculiar reputation, there were hundreds\nof other pilgrims who, though quite unknown on their arrival, soon\ngained there a lucrative notoriety.\n\nOne of these was the _staretz_ (ancient) Anthony, who in three or four\nyears amassed a considerable fortune.  His popularity attracted\nrepresentatives of all classes of society.  People wrote for\nappointments in advance, and went in order of precedence as to a\nfashionable doctor.  It was quite common to have to wait ten or fifteen\ndays for the desired interview.  In Petrograd, where the population\nbelonged half to the twentieth and half to the sixteenth century,\nAnthony was quite the mode.  The _salons_ literally seized upon him,\nand, flattered and fondled, he displayed his rags in the carriages of\nfashionable women of the world, while the mob, touched by the spectacle\nof his acknowledged holiness, gave him enthusiastic ovations.  His\njourney from Petrograd to Cronstadt was a triumphal progress.  The\ncrowds pressed around him and he walked among them barefooted, in spite\nof this being expressly forbidden by law.  Finally, however, the police\nwere roused, and one fine day he set forth at the government's expense\nfor the \"far-off lands\"--of Siberia.\n\nCronstadt, town of drunkards and of miracle-workers _par excellence_,\nboasted about two hundred _staretz_.  The most famous among them were\nthe four brothers Triasogolovy--Hilarion, James, Ivan and Wasia.\n\nThe crowds, who had formerly visited Cronstadt only on Father Ivan's\naccount, became ever greater, and were divided up among the various\nsaints of the town, one of the most popular being Brother James, who\nundertook to exorcise demons.\n\nHis methods were simple.  A woman once came to him, begging to be\ndelivered from the numerous evil spirits that had taken possession of\nher soul.  In view of their numbers, Brother James felt it necessary to\nhave recourse to heroic measures.  He rained blows upon the penitent,\nwho emitted piercing shrieks, and as this took place in the hotel where\nthe \"holy man\" was living, the servants intervened to put an end to the\nsufferings of the \"possessed\" one.  But Brother James, carried away by\nenthusiasm in a good cause, continued to scourge the demons until the\nwoman, unable to bear more, broke the window-pane and leapt into the\nstreet.  Crowds gathered, and the Brother, turning to them, prophesied\nthat shortly he would be--arrested!  Thereupon the police made their\nappearance and removed him to the lock-up, and the crowds dispersed,\nfilled with admiration for Brother James, who not only coped with\ndemons, but actually foretold the evil that they would bring upon him.\n\nIn addition to the genuine visionaries, there were many swindlers who\ntook advantage of the popular credulity.  Such was the famous pilgrim\nNicodemus, who travelled throughout Russia performing miracles.  In the\nend the police discovered that he was really a celebrated criminal who\nhad escaped from prison.\n\nBut Nicodemus was, as a matter of fact, better than his reputation,\nfor, in granting absolution for large numbers of sins, his charges were\nrelatively small.  He is said to have assured whole villages of eternal\nforgiveness for sums of from twenty to a hundred roubles.\n\nFrequently some out-of-work cobbler would leave his native village and\nset forth on a pilgrimage in the character of a _staretz_; or some\n\"medical officer,\" unable to make a living out of his drugs, would\nestablish himself as a miracle-worker and promptly grow rich.  When one\n_staretz_ disappeared, there were always ten new ones to take his\nplace, and the flood mounted to such an extent that the authorities\nwere often powerless to cope with it.  Persecution seemed only to\nincrease the popular hysteria, and caused the seekers after truth to\nact as though intoxicated, seeing themselves surrounded by a halo of\nmartyrdom.\n\n\n\n\nC.  THE RISING FLOOD\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nTHE MAHOMETAN VISIONARIES\n\nThe flood of religious mania reached even beyond the borders of\nEuropean Russia, and its effects were seen as much among the followers\nof other religions as among the Christians.\n\nMahometanism, although noted for its unshakable fidelity to the dogmas\nof Mahomet, did not by any means escape the mystic influences by which\nit was surrounded.  To take one example from among many: in the month\nof April, 1895, a case of religious mania which had broken out among\nthe Mahometan inhabitants of the south of Russia was brought before the\nlaw-courts at Kazan.  It concerned a set of Tartars called the\n_Vaisoftzi_, which had been founded in 1880 by a man named _Vaisoff_,\nwhose existence was revealed in unexpected fashion.  A lawyer having\ncalled at his house, at the request of one of his creditors, Vaisoff\nshowed him the door, explaining that he did not consider himself under\nany obligation \"to repay what had been given to him.\"  The other\nreturned later, however, accompanied by several policemen, and\nVaisoff's adherents then attacked the latter, while chanting religious\nhymns and proclaiming the greatness of their leader.  They next\nbarricaded themselves into the house, which was besieged by the police\nfor some days, during which prayers issued from it towards heaven and\nstones towards the representatives of the law.  Finally the rebels were\noverpowered, and sentenced to several years' imprisonment.\n\nThe police had a similar experience on another occasion when they tried\nto arrest one of the _Vaisoftzi_, but in the end they got the upper\nhand, and several Tartars were delivered up to justice.\n\nAfter being judged and sentenced, they presented themselves before the\nCourt of Appeal, but when the usual questions were put to them, all\nbegan to pray and sing loudly.  Silence was at last reestablished, and\nthe judge again asked one of them for his name and profession.  \"Who\nare you, that you should question me?\" was the reply, and once again\nall chanted together in chorus.  The Tartars who had crowded into the\ncourt seemed deeply impressed by this attitude, and the judge thought\nit well to dismiss the prisoners while the case was considered.  They\nwere brought back to hear the sentence, and again began to sing their\nprayers and hymns, while one of them cried out: \"I am the chief of the\nheavenly regiment; I am the representative of Vaisoff upon earth; and\nyou, who are you that you should take upon yourself the right to judge\nme?\"  The others then calmly continued their interrupted song to the\nLord, but they were all condemned to a period of forced labour, and\ntheir spokesman, in addition, to twenty-five strokes with the birch.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nTHE RELIGION OF THE POLAR MARSEILLAIS\n\nLet us now travel to the extreme north, to the land where dwell the\nYakuts, the Marseillais of the Polar regions.  Living a life of gay and\ncareless vagabondage in this snowy world, they took part in one of the\nmost characteristic episodes of the general religious upheaval.\n\nAt Guigiguinsk, a straggling village on the borders of the Arctic\nOcean, lived a Yakut tribe already converted to Christianity.  Their\nnew faith had not in any way modified the happy-go-lucky nature of the\ninhabitants of this frozen land; neither had it in any way clarified\ntheir religious conceptions.  \"There are many gods,\" said they, \"but\nNicholas is the chief\"--and no matter how miserable their life, they\ndanced and sang, remembering no doubt how in their ancient home in the\nfar-off south, their ancestors also sang, filling the whole world with\ntheir gaiety.  Theirs was a fine climate and a fine country!  The sun\noften shone, the grass grew high, and the snow only lasted for six\nmonths in the year.  So everyone talked and danced and sang.  There\nwere orators who held forth for whole days; there were dancers who\ndanced for weeks and weeks.  From father to son these two ruling\npassions have been handed down even to the Yakuts of the present day.\nNow, as in former times--as when Artaman of Chamalga \"so sang with his\nwhole soul that the trees shed their leaves and men lost their\nreason\"--the Yakuts sing, and their songs disturb the \"spirits,\" who\ncrowd around the singer and make him unhappy.  But he sings on,\nnevertheless; though the whole order of nature be disturbed, still he\nsings.\n\nNow, as in former times, the Yakut believes in \"the soul of things,\"\nand seeks for it everywhere.  Every tree has a soul, every plant, every\nobject; even his hammer, his house, his knife, and his window.  But\nbeyond these there is _Ai-toen_, the supreme, abstract soul of all\nthings, the incarnation of being, which is neither good nor bad, but\njust _is_--and that suffices.  Far from concerning himself with the\naffairs of this world, Ai-toen looks down upon them from the seventh\nheaven, and--leaves them alone.  The country is full of \"souls\" and\n\"spirits,\" which appear constantly, and often incarnate in the shadows\nof men.  \"Beware of him who has lost his shadow,\" say the Yakuts, for\nsuch a one is thought to be dogged by misfortune, which is always ready\nto fall upon him unawares.  Even the children are forbidden to play\nwith their shadows.\n\nThose who desire to see spirits must go to the _Shamans_, of whom there\nare only four great ones, but plenty of others sufficiently powerful to\nheal the sick, swallow red-hot coals, walk about with knives sticking\ninto their bodies--and above all to rejoice the whole of nature with\ntheir eloquence.  For the Yakuts consider that there is nothing more\nsacred than human speech, nothing more admirable than an eloquent\ndiscourse.  When a Yakut speaks, no one interrupts him.  They believe\nthat in the spoken word justice and happiness are to be found, and in\ntheir intense sociability they dread isolation, desiring always to be\nwithin reach of the sound of human voices.  By the magic of words, an\norator can enslave whole villages for days, weeks and months, the\npopulation crowding round him, neglecting all its usual occupations,\nand listening to his long discourses with unwearied rapture.\n\nSirko Sierowszewski, who spent twelve years in the midst of these\npeople, studying them closely, affirms in his classic work on the\nYakuts (published in 1896 by the Geographical Society of St.\nPetersburg) that their language belongs to a branch of the Turko-Tartar\ngroup, and contains from ten to twelve thousand words.  It holds, in\nthe Polar countries, a position similar to that held by the French\ntongue in the rest of the world, and may be described as the French of\nthe Arctic regions.  The Yakuts are one of the most curious races of\nthe earth, and one of the least known, in spite of the hundreds of\nbooks and pamphlets already published about them.  Their young men\nfrequently appear as students at the University of Tomsk, though they\nare separated from this source of civilisation by more than three\nthousand miles of almost impassable country.  The journey takes from\nfifteen months to two years, and they frequently stop _en route_ in\norder to work in the gold mines, to make money to pay for their\nstudies.  These are the future regenerators of the Yakut country.\n\nAbout thirty years ago there arrived among these care-free children of\nnature a Russian functionary, a sub-prefect, who took up his residence\nat Guigiguinsk, on the shores of the Arctic Sea.  He was a tremendous\ntalker, though it is impossible to say whether this was the result of\nhis desire to found a new religious sect, or whether the sect was the\nresult of his passion for talking.  At any rate, he harangued the\npopulace indefatigably, and they gathered from all quarters to listen\nto the orator of the Tsar, and were charmed with him.\n\nIn one of his outpourings he declared that he was none other than\nNicholas, the principal god of the whole country, and his listeners,\nwho had never before beheld any but \"little gods,\" were filled with\nenthusiasm at the honour thus bestowed upon their particular district.\nThe sub-prefect ended by believing his own statements, and accepted in\nall good faith the homage that was paid to him, in spite of\nChristianity.  A writer named Dioneo, in a book dealing with the\nextreme north-east of Siberia, tells us that even the local priest\nhimself was finally converted, and that after a year or so the Governor\nof Vladivostock, who had heard rumours, began to grow uneasy about his\nsubordinate, and despatched a steamer to Guigiguinsk to find out what\nhad become of him.  Upon arrival the captain hastened to fulfil his\nmission, but the people suspected that some danger threatened their\n\"god\" and took steps to hide him, assuring the inquirers that he had\ngone away on a visit and would not return for a long time.  As\nnavigation is only possible in those parts for a few weeks in the year,\nthe captain was obliged to return to Vladivostock.  Another year\npassed, and still there was no news of the sub-prefect.  The captain\nreturned to Guigiguinsk, and having received the same reply as before\nto his inquiries, made pretence of departure.  He came back, however,\nthe next day, and with his sailors, appeared unexpectedly among the\nYakuts.\n\nAn unforgettable spectacle met their eyes.\n\nThe little town was _en fete_, church bells ringing, songs and reports\nof firearms intermingling.  Great bonfires flamed along the seashore,\nand a solemn procession was passing through the streets.  Seated on a\nhigh throne in a carriage, the sub-prefect, the \"great god\" of\nGuigiguinsk, was haranguing the crowds, with partridges' wings,\nribbons, tresses of human hair and other ornaments dear to the Yakuts,\ndangling round his neck.  To his carriage were harnessed eight men, who\ndrew it slowly through the town, while around it danced and sang\n_shamans_ and other miracle-workers, accompanying themselves on\ntambourines.  Thus did the believers in the new religion celebrate the\nhappy escape of their \"god\" from danger.\n\nThe appearance of the captain and his armed men produced a sensation.\nThe \"great god\" was seized and carried off, and forced to submit,\nsubsequently, to all kinds of humiliations.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nTHE RELIGION OF THE GREAT CANDLE\n\nOn the outskirts of Jaransk, in the Viatka district, a race called the\n_Tcheremis_ has dwelt from time immemorial.  While Russian scholars,\nlike Smirnov, were employed in unveiling all the mysteries of their\npast, the authorities were endeavouring to imbue them with Russian\nconceptions of religion and government.  But these people were not\neasily persuaded to walk in the right way, and from time to time there\narose violent differences of opinion between them and the\nrepresentatives of officialdom.\n\nIn 1890, at the time of the Scientific and Industrial Exhibition at\nKazan, an appeal was made to the Tcheremis to send some objects of\nanthropological and ethnographical interest.  They responded by sending\nthose representing their religion, for, having rejected orthodoxy, they\nwished the beauties of their \"new faith\" to be admired.  They therefore\nexhibited at Kazan large spoons and candles, drums that were used to\nsummon the people to religious ceremonies, and various other articles\nconnected with their mysterious beliefs, and the Committee of the\nExhibition awarded them a medal for \"a collection of invaluable objects\nfor the study of the pagan religion of the Tcheremis.\"\n\nThe natives, knowing nothing of the complicated organisation of\nscientific awards, simply concluded that the medal had been given to\nthem because their religion was the best, and the leader of their\ncommunity wore it round his neck, and recounted everywhere how \"out of\nall the religions that had been examined at Kazan, only that of the\n'Great Candle' had been found to be perfect.\"  All the believers\nrejoiced over the prestige thus won by their faith, and a wave of\nreligious ecstasy swept over the country.  Three of the fathers of the\nchurch affixed copies of the medal to their front doors, with the\ninscription: \"This was given by the Tsar to the best of all religions,\"\nand the people made merry, and gave themselves up to the bliss of\nknowing that they had found the true and only way of salvation, as\nacknowledged by the representatives of the Tsar himself.\n\nPoor creatures!  They were not aware of the contents of Article 185 of\nthe Russian criminal code, which ordained that the goods of all who\nabandoned the orthodox faith should be confiscated, until they\nexpressed repentance and once more acknowledged the holy truths of the\nofficial church.  So it came about that in spite of the triumph of\ntheir religion at the Exhibition of Kazan, legal proceedings began, and\nin 1891 and 1892, as many as fourteen actions were brought against the\nadepts of the Great Candle, and numbers of them were sentenced to\nimprisonment and to the confiscation of their goods.  All this in spite\nof the fact that their beliefs did not in any way threaten to undermine\nthe foundations of society.\n\n\"There are six religions contained in the books which the Tsar has\ngiven to his people\"--they said, when brought before the tribunal--\"and\nthere is a seventh oral religion, that of the Tcheremis.  The seventh\nrecognises neither the sacraments nor the gospel.  It glorifies God in\nperson, and the faith which has been handed down from father to son.\nIt has been given to the Tcheremis _exclusively_, because they are a\npoor, unlettered people, and cannot afford to keep up priests and\nchurches.  They call it the religion of the Great Candle, because in\ntheir ceremonies a candle about two yards in length is used; and they\nconsider Friday a holiday because on it are ended the prayers which\nthey begin to say on Wednesday.\"\n\nWhen questioned by the judge, the accused complained that the orthodox\nclergy expected too many sacrifices from them, and charged them heavily\nfor marriages and burials, this being their reason for returning to\n\"the more merciful religion of their forefathers.\"\n\nAccording to the _Journal of the Religious Consistory of the Province\nof Viatka_, the Tcheremis were guilty of many other crimes.  They did\nnot make the sign of the cross, and refused to allow their children to\nbe baptised or their dead to be buried with the rites of the orthodox\nchurch.  Truly there is no limit to the heresies of men, even as there\nis none to the mercies of heaven!  Further, the missionaries complained\nwith horror that, in addition to seven principal religions, the\nTcheremis acknowledged seventy-seven others, in accordance with the\ndivision of humanity into seventy-seven races.\n\n\"It is God,\" they said, \"who has thus divided humanity, even as He has\ndivided the trees.  As there are oaks, pines and firs, so are there\ndifferent religions, all of heavenly origin.  But that of the Tcheremis\nis the best. . . .  The written Bible, known to all men, has been\nfalsified by the priests, but the Tcheremis have an oral Bible, which\nhas been handed down intact, even as it was taught to their forbears by\nGod. . . .  The Tsar is the god of earth, but he has nothing to do with\nreligion, which is not of this world.\"\n\nThe prayers of these dangerous heretics, who were punished like common\ncriminals, mirror the innocence of their souls.  They implored God to\npardon all their sins, great and small; to grant good health to their\ncattle and their children.  They thanked Him for all His mercies,\nprayed for the Tsar and all the Imperial family, for the soldiers, for\nthe civil authorities, and for all honest men; and finally for the dead\n\"who now labour in their celestial kingdom.\"\n\nThe tribunal, however, implacably brought the law to bear upon them,\nand thinking their punishment too great for their crimes, they had\nrecourse to the Court of Appeal, where they begged to be judged\n\"according to the good laws of the Tsar, not the bad ones of the\nConsistory.\"  But the sentence was ratified, and the religion of the\nGreat Candle procured for its followers the martyrdom that they had so\nlittle desired.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nTHE NEW ISRAEL\n\nAlthough most of the sects of which we have spoken sprang from the\northodox church, the _molokanes_ and the _stoundists_ were indirect\nfruits of the Protestant church, and even among the Jews there were\ncases of religious mania to be found.\n\nLeaving out of account the _karaitts_ of Southern Russia, formerly the\n_frankists_--who ultimately became good Christians--we may remark from\ntime to time some who rejected the articles of the Jewish faith, and\neven accepted the divinity of Christ.  Such a one was Jacques Preloker,\nfounder of the \"new Israel,\" a Russian-Jew philosopher who discovered\nthe divine sermon on the Mount eighteen hundred and seventy-eight years\nafter it had been delivered.  This was the beginning of a revolution of\nhis whole religious thought, which resulted in 1879 in the founding of\na new sect at Odessa.  The philosopher desired an intimate relationship\nwith the Christian faith, and dreamed of the supreme absorption of the\nJewish Church into that of Christ.  In his new-found adoration for the\nChristian Gospel, he tried by every means in his power to lessen the\ndistance between it and Judaism, but, though some were attracted by his\nardour, many were repelled by the boldness of his conceptions.\n\nTowards the end of his life, the bankrupt philosopher, still dignified\nand serious, although fallen from the height of his early dreams, made\nhis appearance on the banks of the Thames, and there endeavoured to\ncontinue his propaganda and to explain to an unheeding world the\nbeauties of the Jewish-Christian religion.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nCONCLUSION\n\nIt is as difficult to pick out the most characteristic traits of the\ninnumerable Russian sects as it is to describe the contours of clouds\nthat fleet across the sky.  Their numbers escape all official reckoning\nand the variety of their beliefs renders classification very difficult.\nIn these pages the sectarian organism has been presented in its most\nrecent and most picturesque aspects, and its chief characteristic seems\nto be that it develops by a process of subdivision.  Each existing sect\ndivides itself up into various new ones, and these again reproduce\nthemselves by breaking apart, like the first organisms in which life\nwas manifested on the earth.  Every separated portion of the parent\nbecomes an offspring resembling the parent, and the number of divisions\nincreases in proportion to the number of adherents.  As in the\nprotozoa, multiplication commences with a mechanical rupture, and with\nthe passage of time and the influence of outside elements, the sects\nthus born undergo visible modifications.  By turns sublime or\noutrageous, simple or depraved, they either aspire heavenwards or\ndebase the human spirit to the level of its lowest passions.\n\nMaking common use of the truths of the Gospel revelations, they include\nevery phase of modern social life in their desire for perfection.\nLiberty, equality, wealth, property, marriage, taxes, the relation\nbetween the State and the individual, international peace, and the\nabolition of arms--all these things, even down to the very food we eat,\nbecome the prey of their reformatory ardour.\n\nThe sects that abound in Anglo-Saxon countries do little but copy one\nanother in evolving new and amazing variations of Bible interpretation.\nConfined within these limits, they rarely even touch upon the serious\nproblems that lie outside the text of the Gospels, and we might say of\nthem as Swift said of the religious sects of his day--\"They are only\nthe same garments more or less embroidered.\"\n\nBut the Russian sects vividly reveal to us the secret dreams and\naspirations of millions of simple and honest men, who have not yet been\ninfected by the doctrinal diseases of false science or confused\nphilosophy; and further, they permit us to study the manifestation in\nhuman life of some new and disquieting conceptions.  In their depths we\nmay see reflected the melancholy grandeur and goodness of the national\nsoul, its sublime piety, and its thirst for ideal perfection, which\nsometimes uplifts the humble in spirit to the dignity and\nself-abnegnation of a Francis of Assisi.\n\nThe mysticism which is so deep-rooted in the Russian national\nconsciousness breaks out in many different forms.  Not only poets and\nwriters, painters and musicians, philosophers and moralists, but\nstatesmen, socialists and anarchists are all impregnated with it--and\neven financiers and economic reformers.\n\nTolstoi, when he became a sociologist and moralist, was an eloquent\nexample of the mental influence of environment; for his teachings which\nso delighted--or scandalised, as the case might be--the world, were\nmerely the expression of the dreams of his fellow-countrymen.  So was\nit also with the lofty thoughts of the philosopher Soloviev, the\n_macabre_ tales of Dostoievsky, the realistic narratives of Gogol, or\nthe popular epics of Gorky and Ouspensky.\n\nThe doctrines of Marx took some strange shapes in the Russian _milieu_.\nEminently materialistic, they were there reclothed in an abstract and\ndogmatic idealism--in fact, Marxism in Russia was transformed into a\nreligion.  The highly contestable laws of material economics, which\nusually reduce the chief preoccupations of life to a miserable question\nof wages or an abominable class-war, there gained the status of a\nveritable Messianic campaign, and the triumphant revolution, imbued\nwith these dogmas, strove to bring the German paradox to an end, even\nagainst the sacred interests of patriotism.  The falling away of the\nworking-classes and of the soldiers, which so disconcerted the world,\nwas really nothing but the outer effect of their inner aspirations.\nHaving filled out the hollow Marxian phraseology with the mystic\nidealism of their own dreams, having glimpsed the sublime brotherhood\nwhich would arise out of the destruction of the inequality of wages and\nincomes, they quite logically scorned to take further part in the\nstruggle of the nations for independence.  Of what import to them was\nthe question of Teutonic domination, or the political future of other\nraces?\n\nIt is much the same with the peasant class.  The partition of the land\nis their most sacred dogma, and they can scarcely imagine salvation\nwithout it.  This materialistic demand, embellished by the dream of\nsocial equality, has become a religion.  Mysticism throws round it an\naureole of divine justice, and the difficulty--or the impossibility--of\nsuch a gigantic spoliation of individuals for the sake of a vague\nideal, has no power to deter them.\n\nThe land--so they argue--belongs to the Lord, and the unequal way in\nwhich it is divided up cannot be according to His desire.  The kingdom\nof heaven cannot descend upon earth until the latter is divided among\nher children, the labourers.\n\nThe far-off hope of victory faded before these more immediate dreams,\nand the continuation of a war which seemed to involve their\npostponement became hateful to the dreamers; while the emissaries of\nGermany took advantage of this state of affairs to create an almost\nimpassable gap between the few who were clear-sighted and the mass who\nwere blinded by visions.\n\nThe extreme rebelliousness which characterises the Russian religious\nvisionaries is manifested to an almost equal extent by all political\nparties and their leaders.  Consequently the spirit of unity which\nprevailed (during the war) in other countries met with insuperable\ndifficulties in Russia.\n\nThe whole nation seems to have been driven, by the long suppression of\nfree thought and belief, added to the miseries brought about by the old\nregime, to take refuge in unrealities, and this has resulted in a kind\nof deformity of the national soul.  It was a strange irony that even\nthe aristocracy should end by falling victim to its own environment.\nExploited by miracle-mongers, thrown off its balance by paroxysms of\nso-called mysticism, it disappeared from view in a welter of practices\nand beliefs that were perverse and childish even at their best.\n\n\n\n\nTRANSLATOR'S NOTE\n\nIt seems appropriate to call attention here to an article from the pen\nof Prince Eugene Troubetzkoy, Professor of Law at the University of\nMoscow, which appeared in the _Hibbert Journal_ for January, 1920.\nWriting apparently in the autumn of 1919, the Prince declared that the\ncivil war then in progress in Russia was \"accompanied by a spiritual\nconflict no less determined and portentous,\" and pointed out that the\ndoctrine of Bolshevism was a deliberate distortion of Marxism,\n_immediate revolution_ having been substituted by the Bolshevists for\nthe _evolution_ preached by Marx.  He went on to say that one of the\nmost striking characteristics of Bolshevism was its pronounced hatred\nof religion, and especially of Christianity, the ideal of a life beyond\ndeath being \"diametrically opposed to the ideal of Bolshevism, which\ntempts the masses by promising _the immediate realisation of the\nearthly paradise_.\"  And, Bolshevism's practical method for realising\nits Utopia being \"the armed conflict of classes . . . the dream of the\nearthly paradise, to be brought into being through civil war, becomes\ninstantly the reality of hell let loose.\"  After dwelling in detail on\nvarious aspects of the situation, the writer makes some statements\nwhich will be of special interest to readers of M. Finot's study of\npre-war religious conditions in Russia.  He speaks of the growth of\nunbelief among the masses, and declares that \"the empty triumph of\nBolshevism would have been impossible but for the utter enfeeblement of\nthe religious life of the nation\"; but--and this is the point of\ninterest--\"thanks to the persecutions which the revolution has set on\nfoot, there has come into being a genuine religious revival. . . .  The\nChurch, pillaged and persecuted, lost all the material advantages it\nhad hitherto enjoyed: in return, the loss of all these relative values\nwas made good by the absolute value of spiritual independence. . . .\nThis it is that explains the growing influence of the Church on the\nmasses of the people: the blood of the new martyrs won their\nhearts. . . .  These awful sufferings are becoming a source of new\npower to religion in Russia.\"  The Prince then describes the complete\nreorganisation of the church which was carried through at Moscow in\n1917-18, and the restoration of the patriarchal power in the person of\nthe Archbishop Tykone (now Patriarch), a man of great personal courage,\nhigh spirituality, and remarkable sweetness of disposition.  The people\nrallied round him in enormous numbers, attracted by his courageous\nresistance to the Bolshevist movement--(a resistance which had then\nfrequently endangered his life, and may since have ended it)--and by\nhis determined avoidance of all pomp and ostentation.  In the great\nreligious processions which took place at that time, hundreds of\nthousands passed before him, but he had no bishops and very few clergy\nin his retinue, only one priest and one deacon.  When urged to adopt\nmore ceremony and display in his public appearances, he replied, \"For\nthe love of God, don't make an idol of me.\"  He was always ready with a\nhumorous word, and filled with a serene and unshakable confidence, even\nin the most dangerous situations.  The people looked upon him as \"Holy\nRussia\" personified, and said that \"the persecutors who would have\nburied her for ever had brought her back to life.\"\n\nIn an appendix to the above-quoted article appears a statement \"from a\nresponsible British source in Siberia\" to the effect that \"a strong\nreligious movement has begun among the laity and clergy of the Russian\nChurch. . . .  The _moujiks_ are convinced that Lenin is Anti-Christ;\"\nand an urgent appeal for Russian Testaments and Bibles to be sent from\nEngland, the writer having been told by a prominent ecclesiastic that\n\"Russian Bibles are now almost unprocurable.\"\n\nThus, having long revolted from orthodoxy in the day of its material\nprosperity, the masses seem, in the day of adversity, to be returning\nto it.  Further developments may, of course, take place in almost any\ndirection, but we may rest assured of one thing--that no changes of\ngovernment, however drastic, will ever succeed in stamping out the\nmystical religious strain which is so deeply embedded in the soul of\nthe Russian people.\n\n\n\n\nPART II\n\nTHE SALVATION OF THE WEALTHY\n\n\nA.  RELIGION AND ECONOMY\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nTHE MORMONS, OR LATTER-DAY SAINTS\n\nIn the American of the United States there exist two distinctly opposed\nnatures: the one positive and practical, the other inclined to\nmysticism.  The two do not clash, but live, on the contrary, on\nperfectly good terms with one another.  This strange co-existence of\nreality and vision is explained by the origin of the race.\n\nThe American is, to a very great extent, a descendant of rigorous\nPuritanism.  The English, who preponderated in numbers over the other\nelements of the European immigration into North America, never forgot\nthat they had been the comrades of Penn or of other militant\nsectarians, and never lost the habit of keeping the Bible, the ledger,\nand the cash-book side by side.  They remained deeply attached to their\nreligion, which they looked upon as a social lever, although for many\nof them their faith did not go beyond a conviction of the immanence of\nthe supernatural in human life.  Thus it was that their spirits were\noften dominated by a belief in miracles, all the more easily because\ntheir intellectual culture was not always as highly developed as their\nbusiness ability, and consequently the clever manufacturers of\nreligious wonders were able to reap incredible harvests among them.\n\nThere is perhaps no country where the seed sown by propagandists\nsprings up more rapidly, where an idea thrown to the winds finds more\nsurely a fertile soil in which to grow.  A convinced and resolute man,\nknowing how to influence crowds by authoritative words, gestures and\npromises, can always be certain of attracting numerous followers.  In\nAmerica the conditions are without doubt propitious for the founders of\nnew religions.\n\n\nI\n\nHow is a new religion started in the United States?  Joe Smith wakes up\none morning with the thought that the hour has come for him to perform\nmiracles, that he is called thereto by the Divine Will, that the\nexistence and the secret hiding-place of a new Bible printed on sheets\nof gold have been revealed to him by an angel, and that its discovery\nwill be the salvation of the world.  He proclaims these things and\nconvinces those who hear him, and the Book of the Mormons which he\nproduces becomes sacred in the eyes of his followers.\n\nIn ever-increasing numbers they hasten first to Illinois, then to Utah;\nand when Brigham Young, Smith's successor, presents the Mormon colony\nwith religious and political laws which are a mixture of Christianity,\nJudaism and Paganism, and include the consecration of polygamy, they\nfound a church which claims more than a hundred thousand adherents, and\nis ruled by twelve apostles, sixty patriarchs, about three thousand\nhigh priests, fifteen hundred bishops, and over four thousand deans.\n\nAfter being dissolved by the decree of the 10th of October, 1888, the\nChurch of the Latter-Day Saints seemed to be lost, without hope of\nrevival.  The State of Utah, where Brigham Young had established it in\n1848, was invaded by ever-growing numbers of \"Gentiles,\" who were\nhostile to the Mormons, but these latter, far from allowing the debris\nof their faith to bestrew the shores of the Great Salt Lake, succeeded,\non the contrary, in strengthening the foundations of the edifice that\nthey had raised.  The number of its adherents increased, and the colony\nbecame more flourishing than ever.  If, at one time, it was possible to\nspeak of its dying agonies, those who visit it to-day cannot deny the\nfact of its triumphant resurrection.\n\nTwo principal causes have been its safeguard: the firm and practical\nworking-out of the economic and philanthropic principles upon which its\norganisation has always rested, and the resolute devotion and\ncapability of those who direct it as the heads of one great family.\nEvery member is concerned to maintain the regular and effective\nfunctioning of its mechanism, and all work for the same ends in a\nspirit of religious co-operation.\n\nWe must not lose sight of the fact that in addition to the elements\nthey borrowed from Buddhism, Christianity, Gnosticism and Islam, the\nMormons introduced into their new Gospel a social ideal inspired by the\nCommunistic experiments of the first half of the nineteenth century.\nThe founders of Mormonism--Joseph Smith, Heber Kimball, George Smith,\nthe brothers Pratt, Reuben Hedlock, Willard Richards, and Brigham\nYoung--were not visionaries, but men risen from the people who desired\nto acquire wealth while at the same time bringing wealth to those who\ntook part in their schemes.  We find in their doctrine, and in their\nlegal and religious codes, not only the idea of multiple union claimed\nby Enfantin and his forty disciples of Menilmontant, but also the\ntheories of Buchez, who desired to free labour from the servitude of\nwages, to bring about solidarity of production, and to communalise\ncapital, after first setting aside an inalienable reserve.  They\nfollowed the example of Cabet in making fraternity, which should\nguarantee division of goods, the corner-stone of their social\nstructure, and, avoiding the delusions of Considerant and other\nCommunists, they brought about, stage by stage, the rapid and lasting\ndevelopment which has characterised their successive establishments in\nMissouri, Illinois, and on the borders of California.\n\n\nII\n\nMilitant as well as constructive, the Mormon leaders, like many other\nreformers, believed themselves to be charged with a mission from on\nhigh, and were quick to condemn as rebels all who failed to rally to\nthe standard of the \"Latter-Day Saints.\"  Joe Smith was not content\nwith making thousands of converts, but, after having turned his colony\nat Independence into an \"Arsenal of the Lord,\" and surrounding himself\nwith a veritable army, he proclaimed that, as the Bible gave the saints\nempire over all the earth, the whole State of Missouri should be\nincorporated in his \"New Jerusalem.\"  The \"Gentiles\" replied with a\ndeclaration of war, and Joe Smith and his twelve apostles were seized,\npublicly flogged, divested of their garments, tarred and feathered, and\nchased out of the State with shouts and laughter and a hail of stones.\n\nThe Mormons took up arms.  The Governor of Missouri called out the\nmilitia.  Vanquished in the encounter that followed, the Mormons had to\nabandon all their possessions and take flight.  They then founded a\ntown called Far West, and remained there for three years, at the end of\nwhich time fresh aggressions and more battles drove them out of the\nState of Missouri into that of Illinois, where they built the large\ntown of Nauvoo.  Many thousands of fresh recruits were won over, but\nonce again their designs for the acquisition of land--as well as of\nsouls--stirred up a crusade against them.  Joe Smith and the other\nleaders of the sect were taken prisoners and shot--a procedure which\nendowed Mormonism with all the sacredness of martyrdom.  To escape\nfurther persecutions, the Saints decided on a general exodus, and the\nwhole sect, men and women, old people and children, numbering in all\nabout eighty thousand souls, set forth into the desert.\n\nIt was a miserable journey.  They were attacked by Red Indians, and\ndecimated by sickness; they strayed into wrong paths where no food was\nto be found; they were buried in snowdrifts; and many of them perished.\nBut the others, sustained by an invulnerable faith, and by the undying\ncourage of their leaders, pushed on ever further and further, until in\nthe summer of 1847, after the cruel hardships of a journey on foot over\nnearly three hundred leagues of salt plains, the head of the column\nreached the valley of the great Salt Lake.  Here Brigham Young's\nstrategic vision beheld a favourable situation for the re-establishment\nof the sect.  He himself, with a hundred and forty-three of his\ncompanions--the elite of the church--directed the construction of the\nbeginnings of the colony, and then returned to those who had been left\nbehind, bringing back a caravan of about three thousand to the spot\nwhere the New Jerusalem was to be built.\n\nIt was given the name of Utah, and Filmore, the President of the United\nStates, appointed Brigham Young as governor.  The latter, however,\ndesired to become completely autonomous.  He was soon in conflict with\nthose under him, and his open hostility to the American constitution\ncaused him to be deposed.  His successor, Colonel Stepton, finding the\nsituation untenable, resigned almost at once, and the Mormons,\nrecovering their former militancy and independence, then sought to free\nthemselves altogether from the guardianship of America, and to be sole\nmasters in their own territory.  In order to reduce them to submission,\nPresident Buchanan sent them a new governor in 1857 with some thousands\nof soldiers.  The Mormons resisted for some time, and finally demanded\nadmittance into the Union.  Not only did Congress refuse this request,\nbut it passed a law rendering all polygamists liable to be brought\nbefore the criminal courts.  The War of Secession, however, interrupted\nthe measures taken against the sect, which remained neutral during the\nmilitary operations of the North and South.  Brigham Young, who had\nremained the Mormons' civil and religious head, occupied himself only\nwith the economic and worldly extension of his church, until in 1870,\nfive years after the termination of the war, the attention of Congress\nwas once more directed towards him.  For the second time the Mormons\nwere forbidden by law to practise polygamy, under penalty of\ndeportation from America, but they resisted energetically and refused\nto obey.  Defying the governor of Utah, General Scheffer, they rallied\nfanatically round Brigham Young, who was arraigned and acquitted--and\nthe Mormon Church remained ruler of the colony.\n\nAfter Young's death, government was carried on jointly by the twelve\napostles, until on October 17th, 1901, George Smith was elected\nuniversal President of all branches.\n\nA Frenchman, Jules Remy, who visited the Mormons some time back, has\ngiven a striking description of them:--\n\n\"Order, peace and industry are revealed on every side.  All these\npeople are engaged in useful work, like bees in a hive, thus justifying\nthe emblem on the roof of their President's palace.  There are masons,\ncarpenters, and gardeners, all carrying out their respective duties;\nblacksmiths busy at the forge, reapers gathering in the harvest,\nfurriers preparing rich skins, children picking maize, drovers tending\ntheir flocks, wood-cutters returning heavily loaded from the mountains.\nOthers again are engaged in carding and combing wool, navvies are\ndigging irrigation canals, chemists are manufacturing saltpetre and\ngunpowder, armourers are making or mending firearms.  Tailors,\nshoemakers, bricklayers, potters, millers, sawyers--every kind of\nlabourer or artisan is here to be found.  There are no idlers, and no\nunemployed.  Everybody, from the humblest convert up to the bishop\nhimself, is occupied in some sort of manual labour.  It is a curious\nand interesting sight--a society so industrious and sober, so peaceful\nand well-regulated, yet built up of such divers elements drawn from\nsuch widely differing classes. . . .\n\nAll these people, born in varied and often contradictory faiths,\nbrought up for the most part in ignorance and prejudice, having lived,\nsome virtuously, some indifferently, some in complete abandonment to\ntheir lowest animal instincts, differing among themselves as to\nclimate, language, customs, tastes and nationality, are here drawn\ntogether to live in a state of harmony far more perfect than that of\nordinary brotherhood.  In the centre of the American continent they\nform a new and compact nation, with independent social and religious\nlaws, and are as little subject to the United States government that\nharbours them as to that, for instance, of the Turks.\"\n\nSuch they were, and such they have remained, ever developing their\nactivities and industries, and--as another traveller has said--having\nno aim save that of turning their arid and uncultivated \"Promised Land\"\ninto a fertile Judea--an aim in which they have marvellously succeeded.\n\n\nIII\n\nMormonism owes its success chiefly to its practical interpretation of\nthe Communistic ideals, and to its determination to encourage labour by\nmeans of religion and patriotism, setting before it as object the\nsatisfaction of each individual's social needs, under the direction of\nthose who have proved themselves capable and vigilant and worthy of\nconfidence.  It is a republic from which are banished the two most\nusual causes of social collapse--idleness and egotism; a hive,\naccording to its founder, in which each bee, having his particular\nfunction, is always under the eye of those who direct individual\nactivities in the interests of collective welfare.  The President of\nthe Mormon Church is its moving spirit.  He surveys it as a whole,\nencourages or moderates its energies, according to circumstances,\npreserves order and regularity, and exercises his paternal influence\nover every cell of the hive, giving counsel when needed, redressing\ngrievances, preventing false moves, yet leaving to every corporation\nnot only its administrative freedom but its own powers for industrial\nextension.\n\nUnder these conditions the Church of the Latter-Day Saints unites the\nsocial and economic advantages of individual and collective labour.\nThe corporations are like stitches that form a net, holding together\nthrough community of interests and a general desire for prosperity, yet\neach having its own separate formation and the power to enlarge itself\nand increase its activities without compromising the others or\nlessening their respective importance.  One of the most remarkable is\nthe \"Mercantile Co-operative Society of Sion,\" the central department\nof wholesale and retail trade.  It was founded in 1863 by Brigham\nYoung, who was its first president, and is in direct relationship with\nthe Mormon colonies all over the world, having a capital fund of more\nthan a million dollars which belongs exclusively to the Mormons.  Its\norganisation, like that of all Mormon institutions, is based upon the\ndeduction of a tithe of all profits, which practically represents\nincome tax.  The \"Sugar Corporation\" has an even larger capital, and\nwas founded directly by the church through the advice of Brigham Young,\nwho recommended that Mormon industries should be patronised to the\nexclusion of all others.  The salt industry also is of much importance,\nthe Inland Crystal Salt Company having at great expense erected\nelaborate machinery in order to work the salt marshes around the Great\nLake, and to obtain, under the best possible conditions, grey salt\nwhich is converted into white in their refineries.  Other corporations\nunder the presidency of the supreme head of the Mormon Church are the\n\"Consolidated Company of Railway Carriages and Engines,\" the \"Sion\nSavings Bank,\" the \"Co-operative Society for Lighting and Transport,\"\nand the chief Mormon paper, the _Desert Evening News_, which is the\nofficial organ of the church, and has a considerable circulation.\n\n\nIV\n\nThese corporations are not only commercial or industrial institutions,\nbut are animated by a spirit that is pre-eminently fraternal.  Their\nheads are concerned with the well-being of every member, and material,\nmoral or intellectual assistance is given to all according to their\nneeds.\n\nTo each corporation is attached a \"delegate,\" whose functions do not\nappear to be of great importance, but who renders, in reality, services\nof considerable value.  The man who holds this post is one of\nunimpeachable honesty and integrity, with a kind and conciliatory\ndisposition, chosen for these qualities to act as intermediary between\nthe bishop and the \"saints\" of all classes, from the highest to the\nlowest.  He has free entry into the Mormon homes, and is always ready\nto give advice and counsel to any member of the church in his district;\nand he even penetrates into the houses of the Gentiles, wherever a\nMormon, man or woman, may happen to be employed.  Take, for instance,\nthe case of a young Scandinavian servant-girl, living with\n\"unbelievers.\"  The mother, who had remained in Europe, wished to\nrejoin her daughter, but the girl had not been able to raise more than\na third of the sum necessary to pay the expenses of the journey.  The\ndelegate took note of this and referred the case to the bishop, who,\nafter inquiry, sent the old mother the required amount.\n\nAgain, two neighbours might be disputing over the question of the\nboundary between their respective properties.  The delegate would do\nall in his power to settle the affair amicably, and to restore harmony;\nand failing in this would bring the two parties concerned before the\nbishop.  Or there might be an invalid requiring medicine and treatment,\nan old person needing help, a layette to be bought for a new-born\nchild--in all such cases the delegate sees that the needs are supplied,\nfor the strength of this Church of the Latter-Day Saints lies in the\nfact that all the Mormons, from the President down to the humblest\nworkman, call themselves brothers and sisters and act as such towards\none another.  Thanks to the delegate, who is friend, confidant and\nconfessor in one, immediate help can be obtained in all instances, and\nno suffering is left unrelieved.\n\nThus it comes about that there are no poor among the Mormons, and very\nfew criminals.  The delegate has no need to search into the secrets of\nmen's minds, for all are open to him.  To a great extent he is able to\nread their innermost hearts, for men speak freely to him, without veils\nor reservations.  As far as is possible he sees that their desires are\ngranted; he notifies all cases of need to the Relief Societies; he\nconducts the sick and aged to the hospitals; he is the messenger and\nmouthpiece for all communications from the people to the bishop and\nfrom the bishop to his flock.\n\nIt is the delegate also who is charged with the duty of seeing that\none-tenth of each person's income, whatever its total sum may be, is\ncontributed for the upkeep of the Mormon faith and its church.  He\nreminds the dilatory, and admonishes the forgetful, always in friendly\nfashion.  In fact it is he, who--to use a popular expression--brings\nthe grist to the mill.  This contribution of a tenth part obviates all\nother taxation, and as it is demanded from each in proportion to his\nmeans, its fairness is disputed by none.\n\n\nV\n\nBrotherly co-operation also prevails in the Mormon system of\ncolonisation.  The leaders of the church have always been aware of the\ndangers of overcrowding, and at all times have occupied themselves with\nthe founding of new settlements to receive the surplus population from\nthe centres already in activity.  It is for this reason that the church\nhas been so urgent in seeking and demanding new territory to irrigate\nand cultivate, in Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Arizona, Idaho, and even\nas far afield as Canada.  The transplanting of a swarm from the parent\nhive is undertaken with the greatest care.  Let us take for example the\ncolonisation of the Big Horn Valley, in the north of Wyoming.  Before\ncoming to a decision the apostles themselves inspected the locality,\nwhich had been recommended as suitable for a new colony of saints.\nFinding that it fulfilled all requirements, they published their\nresolve in the official Press, and invited all who desired to become\nmembers of the colony to present themselves before their bishop with\nthe necessary guarantees.  The President of the church then sought out\na brother capable of organising the scheme, and this brother, proud and\ngrateful at being chosen for such a mission, sold all his goods and\ntook up his new responsibilities.  On the appointed day the new\ncolonists grouped themselves around their leader, with their wagons,\nbaggages, provisions, agricultural tools, horses and cattle, and so on.\nOne of the twelve apostles being appointed as guide, they set forth for\nthe Big Horn Valley.  Here they built their dwelling-places, dug a\ncanal to provide water for the whole settlement, founded all kinds of\nco-operative societies, including one for the breeding of cattle--and\nprospered.\n\nIn this way, upon a Socialism quite distinct from that of the European\ntheorists, and differing widely from that practised by the New\nZealanders, are built up institutions, which have given proof, wherever\nstarted, of their power of resistance to human weaknesses.  The Mormon\ncolonies, fundamentally collectivist, like the sect from which they\noriginally sprang, still bear the imprint given to them by the\ninitiators of the movement.  Each one becomes industrially and\ncommercially autonomous, but all are firmly held together in a common\nbrotherhood by the ties of religion.  The Big Horn Mormons, although so\nfar away, never for a single day forget their brothers of Salt Lake\nCity, and all alike hold themselves ever in readiness to render mutual\nassistance and support.\n\n\nVI\n\nThe Mormon considers activity a duty.  Co-operation implies for him not\nonly solidarity of labour but union of will, and these principles are\napplied in all phases of his public or private life--in politics,\neducation, social conditions of every kind, and even amusements.  He\nholds it obligatory under all circumstances to contribute personal help\nor money according to his means, knowing that his brothers and sisters\nwill do likewise, and that he can rely upon them with absolute\ncertainty.\n\nNevertheless, dissension does occasionally arise in the heart of this\nclose-knit brotherhood.  The authority of the President, or that of the\napostles and bishops may be the cause of rivalries and jealousies, as\nin the case of Joseph Morris, Brigham Young's confidant, who wished to\nsupplant his chief.  He and his partisans were assaulted and put to\ndeath by Young's adherents.  A spirit of discord also manifests itself\nat times in the national elections, and there are plottings and\nintrigues, especially when there seems to be hope of supremacy in\nCongress, or when one of the twelve apostles offers himself as\ncandidate for the Senate without first consulting the Mormon Church.\n\nSuch shadows are inseparable from all human communities.  What it is\nimportant to study in the Church of the Latter-Day Saints is the\nevolution of a communism which has more than half a century of activity\nto its credit, and which, in contrast to so many other fruitless\nattempts, has given marked proofs of a vitality that shows no sign of\ndiminishing.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nTHE RELIGION OF BUSINESS\n\nJoe Smith was, to speak plainly, nothing but an adventurer.  Having\ntried more than twenty avocations, ending up with that of a\ngold-digger, he found himself at last at the end of his resources, and\ndecided, in truly American fashion, that he would now make his fortune.\nHe thereupon announced that he was in close communication with Moses,\nand that he had in his possession the two mosaic talismans, Urim and\nThummim, and the manuscript of the Biblical prophet, Mormon--the latter\nhaving as a matter of fact been obtained from Solomon Spaulding, pastor\nof New Salem, Ohio, in 1812.\n\nIt was different with John Alexander Dowie, who with remarkable wisdom\nseized the psychological moment to appear in the United States as a\nBarnum and a Pierpont Morgan of religion combined.  By what was an\nindisputable stroke of genius, he incorporated into his religion the\nmost outstanding features of American life--commerce, industry, and\nfinance, the tripod upon which the Union rests.  What could be more\nup-to-date than a commercial and industrial prophet, business man,\nstock-jobber, and organiser of enterprises paying fabulous dividends?\nAnd--surely the crowning point of the \"new spirit!\"--the man who now\ndeclared himself to be the most direct representative of God upon earth\nwas accepted as such because people saw in him, not only the Messianic\npower that he claimed, but an extraordinary knowledge of the value of\nstocks and shares side by side with his knowledge of the value of souls!\n\nHe was of Scottish origin, and had reached his thirtieth year before\nhis name became known.  As a child he was disinclined to take religion\nseriously, and had a habit of whistling the hymns in church instead of\nsinging them.  Later he was distinguished by a timidity and reserve\nwhich seemed to suggest that he would never rise above the environment\ninto which he had been born.  His studies and his beliefs--which for\nlong showed no sign of deviating from the hereditary Scottish\nfaith--were under the direction of a rigidly severe father.  At the age\nof thirteen his parents, attracted by the Australian mirage of those\ndays, took him with them to Adelaide, and he became under-clerk in a\nbusiness house there, serving an apprenticeship which was to prove\nuseful later on.  At twenty he returned to Edinburgh, desiring to enter\nthe ministry, as he believed he had a religious vocation, and plunged\ninto the study of theology with a deep hostility to everything that was\noutside a strictly literal interpretation of the Scriptures.  Full of\ndevotion and self-abnegation in his desperate struggle with the powers\nof evil, he read the Holy Book with avidity, and was constant in his\nattendance at theological conferences.  Thus, nourished on the marrow\nof the Scotch theologians, he returned to Australia and was ordained to\nthe priesthood at Alma.  Soon afterwards he was appointed minister to\nthe Congregational Church in Sydney, where his profound learning was\nhighly appreciated.\n\nHe who desires to attract and instruct the masses must have two gifts,\nwithout which success is impossible--eloquence and charm.  Dowie had\nboth.  As an orator he was always master of himself, yet full of\nemotion, passionate in his gestures, and easily moved to tears.\n\nWe must admit that he did not, like so many others, owe his influence\nto his environment.  In New South Wales, where he made his _debut_ as a\npreacher at Sydney, his eloquence and his learning made so great an\nimpression--especially after he had emerged victorious from a\ncontroversy with the Anglican bishop, Vaughan, brother to the\nCardinal--that the governor of the province, Sir Henry Parkes, offered\nhim an important Government position.  He refused to accept it,\ndesiring, as he said, to consecrate his life to the work of God.\nPersuaded--or wishing to persuade others--that he had been personally\nchosen by God to fulfil the prophecy of St. Mark xvi. 17, 18, he took\nup the practice of the laying-on of hands, claiming that in this way,\nwith the help of prayer, the sick could be cured.  On these words of\nthe evangelist his whole doctrine was based.  Through assiduous reading\nhe familiarised himself with medical science, as well as with\nhypnotism, telepathy and suggestion, his aim being to organise and\ndirect a crusade against medicine as practised by the faculty.  He\ngathered together materials for a declaration of war against the\nmedicos, attacking them in their, apparently, most impregnable\npositions, and showing up, often through their own observations, the\nfatal inanity--in his eyes--of their therapeutics.  At the same time he\nmanaged to acquire experience of commerce, finance and administration,\nand, thus equipped, he opened his campaign.  Thaumaturgy, science,\noccultism, eloquence, knowledge of men and of the world--all these he\nbrought into play.  The prestige he gained was remarkable, and of\ncourse the unimpeachable truth of Bible prophecy was sufficient to\nestablish the fact of his identity with the expected Elias!\n\n\"Logic itself commands you to believe in me,\" he said in his official\nmanifesto.  \"John the Baptist was the messenger of the Alliance (which\nis the Scotch Covenant), and Elias was its prophet.  But Malachi and\nJesus promised the return of the messenger of the Alliance, and of\nElias the Restorer. . . .  If we are deceived, it is God who has\ndeceived us, and that is impossible.  For the office with which we are\ncharged is held directly from God, and those who have helped us in\nfounding our Church, and who have given us their devotion, testify that\nthey have been instructed to do so by personal revelations.\"\n\nAll the believers in Dowieism affirmed that John Alexander Dowie was\nElias the Second, or Elias the Third (if John the Baptist were\nconsidered to be the Second), but Dowie himself went further still.  He\nwas too modern to base his influence on religion alone, and he actually\nhad the cleverness to become not only a banker, manufacturer,\nhotel-keeper, newspaper proprietor, editor and multi-millionaire, but\nalso the principal of a college and the \"boss\" of a political party\nwhich acknowledged him as spiritual and temporal pope and numbered over\nsixty thousand adherents.  He had ten tabernacles in Chicago, and ruled\ndespotically the municipal affairs of one of the suburbs of the city.\n\n\nII\n\nIt is interesting to study closely the way in which Dowie gradually\nattained to such a powerful position.  Up to his arrival in Chicago,\nand even for some years after it, his career differed little from that\nof the ordinary open-air evangelist with long hair and vague theories,\nsuch as may be seen at the street-corners of so many English and\nAmerican towns.  In New South Wales his excessive ardour at temperance\nmeetings in the public squares caused such disorder that he was twice\nimprisoned, and he came to the conclusion that Melbourne would offer\nbetter scope for his mission.  He went there to establish a \"Free\nChristian Tabernacle,\" but almost immediately an epidemic of fever\nbroke out, and he became popular through his intrepidity in visiting\nthe sick, whom he claimed to be able to cure by a secret remedy, the\nuse of which, as a matter of fact, only resulted in augmenting the\nlists of dead.  But to his religious propaganda the Australians turned\na deaf ear, and after persevering for ten years he gave up, partly\nbecause the authorities had intimated that he had best pitch his camp\nelsewhere, partly, perhaps, because he was glad to leave what he later\nreferred to as \"that nest of antipodean vipers.\"\n\nWe find him in San Francisco in 1888, preaching his new religion at\nstreet-corners, and once more causing almost daily disturbances by the\nvigour of his eloquence.  Here again his hopes miscarried, and from\nthenceforward he fixed his eyes on Chicago, where he should \"meet the\ndevil on his own ground.\"\n\nThis final resolution bore good fruit, for Chicago is pre-eminently\n\"the city of Satan,\" and those who desire to wage war against him can\nalways be sure of plentiful hauls, whatever nets they use.  It is that\ntype of American town where all is noise and animation, where the\npopulation is cosmopolitan, and confusion of tongues is coupled with an\neven greater confusion of beliefs; where it is possible to pursue the\navocations of theologian and pork-butcher side by side, and no one is\nsurprised.  Called \"Queen of the West\" by some, Porkopolis (from its\nchief industry) by others, it is a giant unique in its own kind.  While\nits inhabitants, in feverish activity, climb or are rushed in lifts to\nthe nineteenth and twentieth storeys of its immense buildings, there is\nheard from time to time a call from regions beyond this life of\nincessant bustle; the voice of a preacher dominates the tumult, and\nthis million and a half of slaughterers of sheep and oxen, jam-makers\nand meat-exporters, factory-hands, distillers, brewers, tanners,\nseekers of fortune by every possible means, suddenly remembers that it\nhas a soul to be saved, and throws it in passing, as it were, to\nwhoever is most dexterous in catching it.  In such a _milieu_ Dowie\nmight indeed hope to pursue his aims with advantage.\n\nHis personality had a certain hypnotic fascination.  His eloquence, his\npatriarchal appearance, his supposed power of curing even the most\nintractable diseases, his use of modern catch-words, his talent for\ndecorating the walls of his little temple with symbols such as\ncrutches, bandages and other trophies of \"divine healing,\" all combined\nto bring him before the public eye.  He had a dispute with the doctors,\nwho accused him of practising their profession illegally, and another\nwith the clergy, who attacked him in their sermons; the populace was\nstirred up against him, and laid siege to his tabernacle, and he\nhimself threw oil upon these various fires, and became a prominent\npersonage in the daily Press.\n\nIt is true that the arrest of some Dowieists whose zeal had carried\nthem beyond the limits of the law of Illinois was commented upon; that\nlong reports were published of the death of a member of the Church of\nSion who had succumbed through being refused any medical attention save\nthat of the high-priest of the sect; that much amusement was caused by\nthe dispersal of a meeting of Dowieists by firemen, who turned the hose\nupon them; and much interest aroused by the legal actions brought\nagainst Dowie for having refused to give information concerning the\nBank of Sion.  All these affairs provided so many new \"sensations.\"\nBut what is of importance is to attract the public, to hold their\nattention, to keep them in suspense.  The time came when it was\nnecessary to produce some more original idea, to strike a really\ndecisive blow, and so Dowie revealed to a stupefied Chicago that he was\nthe latest incarnation of the prophet Elijah.  Then while the serious\nPress denounced him for blasphemy, and the comic Press launched its\nmost highly poisoned shafts of wit against him, the whole of Sion\nexulted in clamorous rejoicings.  For the prophet knew his Chicago.\nCredulity gained the upper hand, and the whole city flocked to the\ntabernacle of Sion, desirous of beholding the new Elias at close\nquarters.\n\n\nIII\n\nThe definite organisation of Dowieism--or Sionism, as it is more\nusually called--dates from 1894.  From this time forward Dowie ceased\nto be merely a shepherd offering the shelter of his fold to those\ndesiring salvation, and, allowing evangelisation as such to take a\nsecondary place, became the director, inspector and general overseer of\na religious society founded upon community of both material and moral\ninterests, and upon fair administration of the benefits of a commercial\nand industrial enterprise having many sources of revenue.  In this\nsociety, political, sociological and religious views were combined, so\nthat it offered an attractive investment for financial as well as\nspiritual capital.  Dowie was not only the religious and temporal\nleader of the movement, but also the contractor for and principal\nbeneficiary from this gigantic co-operative scheme, which combined\nselling and purchasing, manufacture and distribution, therapeutics,\nsocial questions and religion.\n\nLike most founders of sects, the prophet of the \"New Sion\" was at first\nsurrounded by those despairing invalids and cripples who try all kinds\nof remedies, until at last they find one to which they attribute the\nrelief of their sufferings, whether real or fancied.  Such as these\nwill do all that is required of them; they will give all their worldly\ngoods to be saved; and they paid gladly the tenth part which Dowie\nimmediately demanded from all who came to him, some of them even\npouring their entire fortunes into the coffers of the new Elias.  The\nranks of his recruits were further swelled by crowds of hypochondriacs,\nand by the superstitious, the idle, and the curious, who filled his\ntemple to such an extent that soon he was obliged to hire a large hall\nfor his Sunday meetings, at which he was wont to appear in great\nmagnificence with the cortege of a religious showman.\n\nThese displays attracted widespread attention, and indeed Dowie\nneglected nothing in his efforts to make a deep and lasting impression\non the public mind.  Here is the account of an eye-witness:--\n\nThe prophet speaks.  The audience preserves a religious silence.  His\nvoice has a quality so strange as to be startling.  To see that broad\nchest, that robust and muscular frame, one would expect to hear rolling\nwaves of sound, roarings as of thunder.  But not so.  The voice is\nshrill and sibilant, yet with a sonority so powerful that it vibrates\non the eardrums and penetrates to the farthest corners of the hall.\n\nPresently the real object of the sermon is revealed.  The enemies of\nSion are denounced with a virulence that borders upon fury, and the\npreacher attacks violently those whom he accuses of persecuting his\nchurch.  He poses as a martyr, and cries out that \"the blood of the\nmartyr is the seed of faith\"; he pours out imprecations upon other\nreligious sects; calls down maledictions upon the qualified doctors,\nwho are to him merely \"sorcerers and poisoners\"; consigns \"the vipers\nof the press\" to destruction; and, carried away by the violence of his\nanathemas, launches this peroration upon the ears of his admiring\naudience:\n\n\"If you wish to drink your reeking pots of beer, whisky, wine, or other\ndisgusting alcoholic liquors; if you wish to go to the theatre and\nlisten to Mephistopheles, to the devil, to Marguerite, the dissolute\nhussy, and Doctor Faust, her foul accomplice; if you wish to gorge\nyourselves upon the oyster, scavenger of the sea, and the pig,\nscavenger of the earth--a scavenger that there is some question of\nmaking use of in the streets of Chicago (_laughter_); it you wish, I\nsay, to do the work of the devil, and eat the meats of the devil, you\nneed only to remain with the Methodists, Baptists, or such-like.  Sion\nis no place for you.  We want only clean people, and, thanks to God, we\ncan make them clean.  There are many among you who need cleansing.  You\nknow that I have scoured you as was necessary, and I shall continue to\ndo it, for you are far from clean yet.\"\n\nThen, entering into a dialogue with his hearers upon the vital point of\nSionism, he asks:\n\n\"Does America pay her tithe to God?\"\n\nThe audience replies \"No.\"\n\n\"Do the churches pay their tithes to God?\"\n\n\"No.\"\n\n\"Do you yourselves pay your tithes to God?  Stand up, those of you who\ndo.\"\n\nThe listeners stand up in thousands.\n\n\"There are a number of robbers here who remain seated, and do not pay\ntheir tithes to God.  Now I know who are the robbers.  Do you know what\nshould be done with you?  I will tell you.  There is nothing for you\nbut the fire--the fire!  Is it not villainy to rob one's brother?\"\n\n\"Yes.\"\n\n\"Is it not villainy to rob one's mother?\"\n\n\"Yes.\"\n\n\"Is it not the vilest villainy to rob God?\"\n\n\"Yes.\"\n\n\"Well, there are some among you who are not ashamed of committing it.\nYou are robbing God all the time.  You are like Ahaz, the Judean king\nfamed for his impiety, and if you remain as you are, you will be doomed\nto eternal death.  To whom does the tithe belong?  What is done with\nit?  I am going to answer that.  If anyone here says that what I\npossess is taken out of the tithes, he lies--and I will make his lie\nstick in his throat.  The tithes and all other offerings go straight to\nthe general fund, and do not even pass through my hands.  But I have a\nright to my share of the tithes.  Have I--or not?\"\n\n\"Yes.\"\n\n\"Yes, and I shall take it when I have need of it.  It is you whom I\naddress--you vile robbers, hypocrites, liars, who pretend to belong to\nSion and do not pay the tithe.  Do you know what is reserved for you?\nYou will burn in eternal fire.  Rise--depart from Sion!\"\n\nBut no one departs.  All the defaulters hasten to pay, for the prophet\ninspires them with a terror very different from their dread of the\ntax-collector, and there is no single example of one sufficiently\nobstinate to brave his threats of damnation.\n\nIn other ways also Elias was all-powerful.  He made a mock of political\nor ecclesiastical elections, holding that a leader's power should not\nbe subject to suffrages or renewals of confidence.  Thanks to these\nsermons, dialogues, and the general _mise en scene_, the autocracy of\nDowie was beyond question.\n\n\nIV\n\nThe new Elias called himself \"the divine healer,\" and, like Schlatter,\nhe attracted all who believed in the direct intervention of God, acting\npersonally upon the sufferer.  In their eyes he was simply the\nrepresentative of God, source of health and healing.  It was not he who\nbrought about the cures, but God, and therefore the payments that were\nmade to him were in reality payments to God.  This teaching was largely\nthe source of Dowie's power.\n\nThere were two large hotels in Chicago which were continually filled to\noverflowing with pilgrims from all parts who came to seek \"divine\nhealing.\"  These left behind them sums of money--often considerable--in\ntoken of their gratitude to God; not to the prophet, who would accept\nnothing.\n\nIt is obvious that if none of his cures had been effectual, Dowie, in\nspite of his power over credulous minds, could not have succeeded.\nThaumaturgy must perform its miracles.  If it fails to do so, it is a\nfraud, and its incapacity proves its ruin.  But if it accomplishes\nthem, its fame becomes widespread.  These miraculous cures generally\ntake place, not singly, but in numbers, because there are always people\nwho respond to suggestion, and invalids who become cured when the\nobligation to be cured, in the name of God, is placed upon them.  Thus\nChicago saw and wondered at the miracles, and had no doubts of their\ngenuineness.\n\nThere was the case of Mr. Barnard, one of the heads of the National\nBank of Chicago, whose twelve-year-old daughter was suffering from\nspinal curvature.  She grew worse, in spite of all the efforts of the\nmost eminent doctors and surgeons, and it seemed that nothing could be\ndone.  The child must either die, or remained deformed for the rest of\nher life.  The father and mother were overcome with grief, and after\nhaving gone the round of all the big-wigs of the medical profession,\nthey tried first bone-setters, then Christian Scientists, without\navail.  Finally they went to Dowie, who had already cured one of their\nfriends.  Up till then they had not had confidence in him, and they\nonly went to him as a counsel of despair, so to speak, and because a\ncareful re-reading of the Bible had persuaded them that God could and\nwould cure all who had faith in His supreme power.  Dowie, perceiving\nthat they and their daughter had true faith, laid his hands on the\nchild and prayed.  In that same moment the curvature disappeared, and\nthe cure was complete, for there was never any return of the trouble.\n\nIn recognition of this divine favour Mr. Barnard, who had hitherto\nbelonged to the Presbyterian Church, voluntarily joined the Sionists,\nand became their chief auxiliary financier.  Dowie made him manager of\nthe Bank of Sion, under his own supervision, and confided to him the\nfinancial administration of the church.\n\nSimilarly a Mr. Peckman, whose wife he cured, and who was leader of the\nBaptist Church of Indiana, gave thanks to God and to Dowie, His\nprophet, by founding a colony affiliated to Sionism which paid its\ntithes regularly.\n\nThere are many other examples of successful cures, but also many\nfailures.  These, however, did not lower the prestige of the modern\nElias, who said to his detractors: \"God has the power to cure, and all\ncures are due to Him alone.  He desires to cure all who suffer, for His\npity is infinite; but it may very well happen that the consumptives and\nparalytics who come to me after being given up by the doctors, are not\nalways cured by God, however much I pray for them.  Why is this?  The\nreason is simple.  Disease and death must be looked upon as ills due to\nthe devil, who, since the fall of the rebellious angels, is always in a\nstate of insurrection against God.  And it is certain that whoever has\nnot faith--absolute and unquestionable faith--is in the power of Satan.\nThe Scripture tells us precisely, 'he that believeth and is baptised\nshall be saved; he that believeth not is condemned.'  When a sufferer\nis not healed through my intercession, it means that in the struggle\nfor that particular soul, the devil has been victorious.\"\n\nSo, supported by this thesis, Dowie triumphed over the objections of\nhis critics, not only in the eyes of Sion, but of all Chicago.  Even\nwhen he lost his only daughter, Esther, his authority was in no way\naffected.\n\nEsther Dowie was twenty-one, and the pride of her father's heart.  She\nhad finished her studies at the University of Chicago, and a happy\nfuture seemed to be opening out before her.  One day in the month of\nMay she was preparing for a large reception which was being held in\nhonour of young Booth-Clibborn, grandson of General Booth of the\nSalvation Army.  The event was an important one, for it was hoped that\nthis meeting would bring about an understanding between the\nSalvationists and the Sionists, and Miss Dowie wished to give the\nvisitor the most gracious welcome possible.  She was lighting a\nspirit-lamp, for the purpose of waving her hair, when a draught of air\nblew her peignoir into the flame.  It caught fire, and the poor girl\nwas so terribly burned that she succumbed soon afterwards, although her\nfather and all the elders of the Church prayed at her bedside, and\nalthough Dowie permitted a doctor to attend her and to make copious use\nof vaseline.  After her death, the jury decided that she must have been\nburnt internally, the flames having penetrated to her throat and lungs.\nBefore she died she begged her father to forgive her for having\ndisobeyed him--for Dowie strictly forbade the use of alcohol, even in a\nspirit-lamp--and implored the adherents of Sionism not to expose\nthemselves to death through disobedience, as she had done.\n\nThe attitude adopted by the prophet under this blow was almost sublime.\nLetters of condolence and of admiration rained upon him.  He wept over\nhis daughter's dead body, and was broken-hearted, while, instead of\ndrawing attention to the extenuating circumstances for his own\ninability to save her--as he would have done in all other cases--he\nfervently prayed to God to forgive her for having sinned against the\nlaws of Sion.  His grief was so sincere that not only the Sionists but\nthe whole of Chicago joined in it.\n\nLack of faith was not the only thing that prevented cures.  Omitting to\npay the tithes could also render them impossible; for the tithes were\ndue to God, and those who failed to pay them committed a voluntary\noffence against the divine power.  When we remember that there were at\nleast sixty thousand Sionists, it is obvious that these tithes must\nhave amounted to an enormous sum--and of this sum Dowie never gave any\naccount.  His spiritual power was founded upon his moral power.  It is\ncertain that he tried to influence his followers for good in forbidding\nthem alcoholic drinks and gambling, and in advising exercise and\nrecreation in the open air, and the avoidance of medicaments and drugs\nwhich he believed did more harm than good.  He said to them--\"Your\nhealth is a natural thing, for health is the state of grace in man, and\nthe result of being in accord with God, and disease has no other cause\nthan the violation of law, religious or moral.\"  He ordained that all\nshould live in a state of cleanliness, industry and order, so that\ncommunal prosperity might be assured.  And of this prosperity which\nthey owed to God and to His representative, what more just than that a\npart of it should be given to God and to Dowie, His prophet?  What more\nlegitimate than that there should be no separation between the material\nlife and the spiritual life?\n\nHe had a special machine constructed which registered, by a kind of\nclockwork, the intercessions made on behalf of the various applicants\nfor healing.  Each one would receive a printed bulletin, stating, for\nexample--\"Prayed on the 10th of March, at four o'clock in the\nafternoon, John A. Dowie.\"  If the patient was not in Chicago, Dowie\nwould pray by telephone, so that the immediate effect of the divine\npower might be felt.  He also made use of a phonograph for recording\nhis homilies, sermons and prayers, and these records were sent, at a\nfixed price, to his adherents in all parts of the world.\n\n\nV\n\nThe city of Sion lies between Chicago and Milwaukee, about forty-two\nmiles to the north of the former.  It comprises an estate of 6400 acres\non the shores of Lake Michigan.  This land--some of the best in\nIllinois--was let out in lots, on long lease, by Dowie to his\nfollowers, and brought in thousands of dollars yearly.  At the same\ntime that he created this principle of speculation in land, he was also\nengaged in founding a special industry, whose products were sold as\n\"products of Sion.\"  His choice fell upon the lace industry, and thanks\nto very clever management he was able to establish large factories\nmodelled on those of Nottingham, employing many hundreds of workers\nwhose goods commanded a considerable sale.\n\nBefore he undertook its organisation the possessions of the Church were\nfew.  Fifteen years afterwards, it had a fortune of more than a million\npounds.\n\nIn order to carry out his plan of building a town in which neither\nspirits nor tobacco should be sold, and which should be inhabited only\nby Sionists, it was necessary that all the land should belong to him,\nand he had to reckon with the probably exorbitant demands of the\nsellers.  To circumvent these his real intentions had to be hidden, and\nwith the help of his faithful auxiliaries this was successfully\naccomplished.\n\nI do not know what has become of Sionism during recent years.  Will the\ndynasty be continued after the reign of John Dowie by that of his son\nWilliam Gladstone Dowie; or will the death of the prophet, as stated by\nthose who have seen the eclipse of other stars of first magnitude, be\nthe signal for the dissolution of the sect?\n\nWhat matters, however, is the genesis and not the duration of an\nenchantment which has united around one central figure, so many\nthousands who thirsted for the simultaneous salvation of their souls\nand of their purses.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nTHE ADEPTS OF THE SUN OF SUNS\n\nNearly all Communistic theories when applied in practice prove\nfailures, but there seems to be one infallible safeguard--that supplied\nby religion.  Faith, when mingled with the trials and disenchantments\nof life, appears to mitigate them, and communal experiments based on\nreligious beliefs nearly always prosper.  This applies to the\nhalf-religious, half-communal sects of modern Russia, and the principle\nhas also been adopted by the American apostles of communism.\n\nOne of these, Dr. Teed of Chicago, understood it well, and his sect\nwas, in fact, merely a religious sect based on the principle of\ncommunal possessions.  Its adherents took the name of _Koreshans_,\nafter the title _Koresh_ (or the sun) boasted by its founder.  He,\n_Koresh_, \"Light of Lights,\" \"Sun of Suns,\" was called by Heaven to\nteach the truth to mortals, and to show them which road to eternal\nsalvation they should follow in order to prosper upon earth.  Founded\nin Chicago, the sect moved recently to Florida, and there, from day to\nday, Teed had the satisfaction of seeing the number of believers\nsteadily increase.\n\nHe had at first to put up with a good deal of ridicule, for his\nteaching, based upon that of Fourier, and incorporating some of the\nmystical ideas of Swedenborg, was not at all to the taste of his\nfellow-citizens.  The doctor then evolved the brilliant idea of\ndividing his system into two doctrines--the way to heaven, or the\nmystical doctrine; and the way to earthly prosperity, or the economic\ndoctrine.  It was permissible to follow the second without adopting the\nfirst, and the result may easily be guessed.  Attracted by the prospect\nof terrestrial benefits, believers flocked to the fold, and invariably\nended by accepting the second half of the teaching also (the mystical\ndoctrine), all the more willingly because their material happiness and\nprosperity depended on the degree of their \"union\" with the founder.\n\nThe mysticism of _Koresh_ had some novel features, for the American\ndoctor saw the wisdom of making use of some of the prestige lately\ngained by science.  His religion, consequently, was essentially\nscientific.  He, _Koresh_, was the \"unique man,\" who, thanks to his\n\"scientific studies\" and to \"celestial inspiration,\" could understand\nthe mysteries of nature.  He had reached the summit of scientific\nknowledge and the greatest possible human perfection--that is to say,\n\"sainthood\"--and all who approached him were made participators in his\n\"holiness.\"  Thanks to this gift, pertaining only to _Koresh_, his\nfollowers could \"enjoy the bliss of heaven upon earth\"; for the Kingdom\nof God upon earth was near at hand, and _Koreshism_ was preparing the\nway for its disciples.\n\nBut what had to be done in order to attain the higher degrees of\nsalvation?  Teed was a sufficiently clever psychologist to know that\nnothing fascinates the crowd so much as mysteries and things that\ncannot be understood, and he acted accordingly.\n\nHis doctrine is so obscure that only those claiming divine illumination\ncould hope to find their way amid its cloudy precepts.  Let us give an\nexample:--\n\n\"In recognition of the principal source of the force of the intrinsic\nand innate life of the Christian revelation, the _Koreshan_ doctrine\nelevates the founder of Christianity to the place of father, become\nperfect, thanks to the sacrifice of his son, which it has been given to\nus to understand by the flesh of Jehovah.\"\n\nThe believers could give it whatever meaning they liked, and for those\nwho despaired of understanding this part of the _Koreshan_ revelation,\nthe prophet kept in reserve thousands of other dogmas, all equally\nenigmatic and equally obscure.  We will not attempt to discuss them!\n\nThe teaching included the attainment of perfection through marriage,\nand claimed omniscience for _Koreshism_, which could throw new light\nupon all things, including such subjects as astronomy and philosophy.\nThe earth is not round, light is not diffused, as science teaches, and\nman has not five senses, but seven--so said _Koresh_.  He described his\ndoctrine as communistic and co-operative.  The use of money was\nforbidden, its place being taken by cheques representing the amount of\nservices rendered to the community.\n\nThe colony founded at Estero, in Florida, was almost exclusively\ncommercial and industrial, not agricultural like most communal\nsettlements.  Electric railways and factories were built--and are still\nbeing built--there, for steam, like money, is banned in the colony of\n_Koresh_; while being in possession of a seaport, the _Koreshans_\npropose to enter into commercial relationship with the whole world.\n\nThe Bureau of Equitable Commerce directs the business affairs of the\ncommunity, and at its head is the chief of the Commonwealth (or public\nfortune).  All the inhabitants share in the general prosperity, and in\norder to prevent the more capable individuals from developing into\ncapitalists, the fortunes of all are carefully equalised by means of a\nprogressive tax upon income.  The land belongs to all, and is\nnon-transferable, like the factories.  No payment is demanded of\nnew-comers; it is enough if they bring the moral capital of an\nirreproachable life, and are good workers; and any poor people who\ndesire to seek salvation in the colony are enabled to travel to it by\ncontributions from the public funds.  Absolute tolerance of all beliefs\nforms the spiritual basis of the sect.\n\nNew Jerusalem, the capital of the colony, covers about eighty-six\nsquare miles, having streets four hundred feet in width, and separate\nindustrial quarters.  The business affairs of the community are\nundeniably prosperous.\n\n\n\n\nB.  RELIGION AND MIRACLES\n\n\n\"O men born upon earth, why abandon yourselves to death, when you are\npermitted to obtain immortality?\"\n\nHERMES TRISMEGISTUS.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nTHE CHRISTIAN SCIENTISTS\n\nThe marriage between Science and the Bible, brought about by Mary Baker\nEddy, has given birth to a most prosperous sect.  In this amalgam, the\nChristianity is not of the purest, and the Science appears rather in\nthe form of the negation of its own principles; but so great is\nhumanity's desire for the union of revelation and experience that\nbelievers crowd from all parts to range themselves behind the hew\nbanner.\n\nThere is something almost disconcerting in the ardour and devotion of\nMrs. Eddy's followers.  Truly, in the success of Christian Science we\nsee one more proof of the ease with which a new religion can be started\nif, in addition to faith, it concerns itself with man's earthly welfare.\n\nThe founder of the sect was a clever woman.  Well aware of the power\nand fascination of the mysterious, she exploited it with a profound\nunderstanding of the human heart.  She mingled the realities of life\nwith the mysteries of thought, and the sun of her revelations is always\nveiled by intangible clouds.  From her gospel one might cull at random\nscores of phrases that defy human understanding.  \"Evil is nothing, no\nthing, mind or power,\" she says in _Science and Health_.  \"As\nmanifested by mankind, it stands for a lie, nothing claiming to be\nsomething.\"  And again--\"Mortal existence has no real entity, but saith\n'It is I.'\"\n\nThe nonsensicalness of her phraseology can find no comparison save in\nthe inconceivable chaos of her teachings.  She goes so far as to imply\nthat the supreme effort of a woman's spirit should suffice to bring\nabout conception.  Jesus Christ having been conceived of the Holy\nGhost, she suggests that man should follow this example, and renounce\nthe lusts of the flesh.  \"Proportionately as human generation ceases,\nthe unbroken links of eternal, harmonious being will be spiritually\ndiscerned\"--and in another place, \"When this new birth takes place, the\nChristian Science infant is born of the spirit, born of God, and can\ncause the mother no more suffering.\"\n\nIn the explanations of the Bible given in her _Key to the Scriptures_\nwe are told that when we come upon the word \"fire,\" we are to translate\nit as \"fear,\" and the word \"fear\" as \"heat\"; while we must remember\nthat Eve never put the blame for her sin upon the serpent, but, having\n\"learnt that corporeal sense is the serpent,\" she was the first to\nconfess her misdeed in having followed the dictates of the flesh\ninstead of those of the spirit.\n\nLike all prophets and saviours, Mrs. Eddy was crucified during her\nlifetime.  She had to engage in a continuous struggle with the envy and\njealousy of those who sought to misrepresent her teachings and bring\nher glory to the dust.  But she was far from being an ordinary woman,\nand even in childhood seemed to be marked out for an exceptional\ncareer.  At the age of eight, like Joan of Arc, she heard mysterious\nvoices, and her mother, who was of Scottish origin and subject to\n\"attacks of religion,\" remembered the story of the Infant Samuel and\nencouraged her to speak with the Lord.  But Mary was alarmed by the\nvoices, and wept and trembled, instead of replying to them like a good\nchild.\n\nAbout her forty-fifth year, however, being in the grip of a serious\nillness, she did hold converse with the Lord, who told her how she\nmight be cured.  She listened and obeyed, and was cured.  This was her\n\"great initiation.\"  She then retired from the world, and spent several\nyears engaged in meditation and prayer, while her study of the Bible\nrevealed to her the key to all mysteries, human and divine.\n\nThe deductions of her philosophy are often characterised by an\nastonishing naivete.  \"God being All-in-all, He made medicine,\" she\ntells us; \"but that medicine was Mind. . . .  It is plain that God does\nnot employ drugs or hygiene, nor provide them for human use; else Jesus\nwould have recommended and employed them in His healing.\"\n\nShe frequently makes use of ingenious statements whose very candour is\ndisarming, but she had considerable dialectical gifts, and can argue\npersuasively, especially against spiritualism.  In _Science and Health_\nshe violently denies the authenticity of spiritualistic phenomena,  \"As\nreadily can you mingle fire and frost as spirit and matter. . . .  The\nbelief that material bodies return to dust, hereafter to rise up as\nspiritual bodies with material sensations and desires, is\nincorrect. . . .  The caterpillar, transformed into a beautiful insect,\nis no longer a worm, nor does the insect return to fraternise with or\ncontrol the worm. . . .  There is no bridge across the gulf which\ndivides two such opposite conditions as the spiritual, or incorporeal,\nand the physical, or corporeal.\"\n\nIn the confusion of precepts and principles championed by Mrs. Eddy\nthere are sometimes to be found thoughts worthy of a great\nmetaphysician.  Her teaching, when purified from admixture, does at any\nrate break away energetically from all materialistic doctrines.\n\nHer literary output was considerable, for in addition to her gospel,\n_Science and Health_, she wrote _The Concordance of Science and\nHealth_, _Rudimentary Divine Science_, _Christian Science versus\nPaganism_, and other works, including some verse.\n\nThe Christian Science churches, with their adherents, who number more\nthan a million, are spread all over the world, each having an\nindependent existence.  They are found chiefly in the United States,\nEngland, Germany, and the British Colonies.  The number of \"healers\"\nexceeds several thousands, for the most part of the female sex.  In\nFrance the first \"Church of Christ, Scientist\" has been founded in\nParis, in the Rue Magellan, under the name of Washington Palace.\n\nThe Christian Science leader denounced the established churches and\nspared them no criticism, and her doctrine contained a seed of truth\nwhich enabled it to triumph even over its own lack of logic and\ncoherence.\n\nThe world, submerged in matter, either denies spirit or turns away from\nit.  Mrs. Eddy exalts the power of spirit above that of matter, the\nuniversal goddess, by means of statements which are heroic rather than\nscientific.\n\nMatter does not exist.  God is all, and God is spirit; therefore all is\nspirit.  Matter is not spirit, but is a fiction which only exists for\nthose who persist in believing in it against the evidence of facts.  As\nmatter does not exist, and is only a lie and the invention of Satan,\nthe body, which we see in the form of matter, does not exist either.\nThe suffering caused by the body is simply an \"error of mortal mind,\"\nfor since the body does not exist, there can be no such thing as bodily\nsuffering.  Therefore instead of concerning ourselves with the healing\nof the supposed body, with the prevention or cure of pain and\nsuffering, we must go straight to spirit.  Spirit is perfect, and the\nthought of pain or disease can have no place in it.  Let us then leave\nthe curing of our bodies, and seek to rectify our spirits.\n\nDoctors and surgeons, on the contrary, follow the errors of centuries\nin concerning themselves with the body, and causing it to absorb drugs\nwhich, having no connection with disease, can neither cure nor relieve\nit.  \"Mind as far outweighs drugs in the cure of disease as in the cure\nof sin.  The more excellent way is divine Science in every case. . . .\nThe hosts of Aesculapius are flooding the world with diseases, because\nthey are ignorant that the human mind and body are myths.\"\n\nA follower of the \"true doctrine,\" according to Mrs. Eddy, is never ill\nfor the simple reason that he does not believe in the body or in any of\nits infirmities.  If he should be overtaken by illness, it is because\nhis spirit is ill, and his faith not sufficiently pure.\n\nFrom this results a very simple method of healing.  The \"healer\" merely\nseeks to re-establish the faith of the sufferer, and to convince him of\nthe non-reality of his illness.  No medicine is given, the treatment\nconsisting of thoughts and suggestions from _Science and Health_.\nChristian Science healers need to have a robust and unshakable faith,\nfor if they do not succeed in their task it is because their own spirit\nhas been infected by doubt.\n\n\nMrs. Eddy declared that our concrete and practical age required, above\nall, a religion of reality; that men could no longer be content with\nvague promises of future bliss.  What they needed was a religion of the\npresent that would end their sufferings and procure for them serenity\nand happiness on earth.  The title of \"applied Christianity\" has been\nadopted by Christian Science, which advises us to make use of the\nteachings of Jesus in our daily life, and to reap all the advantages of\nsuch a practice.  We have need of truth \"applied\" to life just as we\nhave need of telegraphs, telephones and electric apparatus, and\nnow--say the Scientists--for the first time in man's existence he is\noffered a really practical religious machinery, which enables him to\novercome misfortune and to establish his happiness, his health, and his\nsalvation on a solid basis.\n\nThe Scientists claim to have recourse to the same spiritual law by\nmeans of which Jesus effected His cures, and they declare that its\nefficacy is undeniable, since all Mrs. Eddy's pupils who use it are\nable to heal the sick.  One may suggest that Jesus performed miracles\nbecause He was the Saviour of the world.  Mrs. Eddy replies that\nstatements are attributed to Him which never issued from His lips; that\nHe said (in the Gospel according to St. John) that it was not He who\nspoke or acted, but His Father; and stated elsewhere, that the Son\ncould do nothing of Himself.  Also that Jesus never sent His disciples\nforth to preach without adding that they should also heal.  \"Heal the\nsick,\" was His supreme command.  And that He never counselled the use\nof drugs or medicines.\n\nThe healing of the sick, according to Mrs. Eddy, was one of the chief\nfunctions of the representatives of the Church during the first three\ncenturies of Christianity, her subsequent loss of importance and power\nbeing largely due to the renunciation of this essential principle.\n\nHealing is not miraculous, but merely the result of a normal spiritual\nlaw acting in conformity with the Divine Will.  The leader of the new\n\"Scientists\" explains that Jesus had no supernatural powers, and that\nall He did was done according to natural law.  Consequently everybody,\nwhen once brought into harmony with spiritual truth, can accomplish\nwhat He accomplished.\n\nSome of Mrs. Eddy's statements have an undeniable practical value.  For\ninstance, she attacks \"fear\" as one of the chief causes of human\nmisery, and declares that it is wrong to fear draughts of air, or wet\nfeet, or the eating and drinking of certain substances--and wrong,\nabove all, to fear microbes.\n\nBut exaggeration is always harmful.  The total suppression of fear\nwould mean the suppression of often necessary and desirable\nprecautions.  In order to succeed, however, a religion has need of the\nabsolute, for conditional truths are not likely to impress the public;\nand the founder of Christian Science was well aware of this.\n\n\nHealth, according to the Scientists, is truth.  In order to enjoy\nexistence, we must live in the truth and avoid sin, and ultimately\ndeath itself will disappear, being entirely superfluous.  Jesus said\nthat whoso believed on Him should never see death, and He would not\nhave said this if death were necessary for salvation.  Therefore\nbelievers are taught that humanity will in time conquer sickness and\ndeath, and that this blessed consummation will be reached when human\nbeings attain to the heights of the Christian Science \"gospel,\" and are\nguided by it in all the thoughts and actions of their everyday life.\nOther equally enchanting prospects are conjured up, like mirages in the\ndesert, before the dazzled eyes of Mrs. Eddy's followers.  Making use\nof the ancient conception of angels, she teaches that such beings are\nalways close at hand, for angels are \"God's thoughts passing to man;\nspiritual intuitions, pure and perfect.\"  \"These angels of His\npresence . . . abound in the spiritual atmosphere of Mind.\"\n\nThus Christian Science is seen to be a religion of health, longevity\nand happiness, the fruits of spiritual action; a religion which denies\nboth the theoretical and practical existence of matter.\n\nThere are, however, occasions when the invocations of \"science\" prove\npowerless to deal with rebellious matter.  But this does not embarrass\nMrs. Eddy.  She considers that her doctrine is in advance of the age,\nand that men themselves must progress in order to rise to its level.\nTheir spirits will then become pure and perfect, and matter will have\nno more power over them.  Man will be able to live quite differently,\nfor hygienic conditions--even those considered most indispensable--will\nno longer be of any importance.\n\n\nOne of the most irresistible attractions of Christian Science lies in\nits declaration that it will be possible at some future time to\novercome death--a dream that has been known in all epochs.  Yet, for\nall our love of life, how unprofitably we squander it!  Our normal life\ncould be prolonged to a hundred and fifty, or even two hundred\nyears,[1] but we have stupidly imposed upon ourselves an artificial\nbarrier which we scarcely ever surpass!\n\nMrs. Eddy knew well what charm the possibility of destroying the \"King\nof Terrors\" would add to her doctrine, and she made effective use of it.\n\nWe may note that the idea of overcoming death can be traced back for\nsome three thousand years or so.  Hermes, the \"Thrice Greatest One,\"\ntaught that only \"by error\" had death become installed upon our planet,\nand that nothing in the world could ever be lost.  \"Death does not\nexist; the word 'mortal' is void of meaning, and is merely the word\n'immortal' without its first syllable.\"  He taught further that the\nworld was the second God, immortal and alive, and that no part of it\ncould ever die; that \"the eternal\" and \"the immortal\" must not be\nconfused, for \"the eternal\" was God Uncreate, while the world which He\nhad created and made in His own image was endowed with His immortality.\nHermes also suggested that it was only necessary to send our bodily\nsensations to sleep in order to awake in God and rejoice in immortality!\n\nThere was a close relationship between Hermes, the Essenes of Egypt,\nand St. John, the author of _Revelation_.  Indeed, if we search\ncarefully, we find that the Gnostics of every school believed in the\npossibility of banishing death from the earth.\n\n\"Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never\nthirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of\nwater springing up into everlasting life.\" (St. John iv. 14).\n\nAnd what superiority over the claims of Mrs. Eddy is shown by Hermes,\nwhen he declares that in order to reach the spiritual worlds we only\nneed to free ourselves from sensation!\n\nUnsuspected sources of inspiration, as yet unutilised, abound in the\nwritings of the Pythagoreans, the Essenes, and even the Neo-Platonists.\nThe creators of future religions are likely to draw much water from\nthese wells, but Christian Science can lay claim to be the first to\nhave made use of the mysticism of the past in a practical fashion, so\nthat its adherents rejoice in the prospect of endless life, even as did\nthe visionaries of former ages.\n\nWhen one examines the doctrine closely, its lack of originality becomes\napparent.  The idea that matter does not exist has had numerous\nprotagonists in the realms of philosophy, and is ardently defended by\nBerkeley.  In the dialogues of Hylas and Philonous, the latter speaks\nof the \"absolute impossibility\" of matter, which has no existence apart\nfrom spirit.  But Mrs. Eddy succeeded in giving this purely\nmetaphysical conception a concrete value in the affairs of every-day\nlife.\n\nShe opened the first _School of Christian Science Mind-healing_ in 1867\nwith one student; towards the end of the century her followers numbered\nclose on a hundred thousand; while to-day the \"Mother Church\" can boast\nover a million adherents, to say nothing of its financial resources.\n\nWithout doubt suggestion is the basis of the miraculous cures which are\nthe pride of Christian Science, but the prophetess and her followers\nhave always denied this.  As Jesus ignored the power of suggestion,\nthey also must not only ignore it, but wage merciless war upon it.\nThey deny both suggestion and matter, while making use of each--but\nneither the use of suggestion nor the doctrine of the non-existence of\nmatter could alone or together have procured for the new sect its truly\nphenomenal success.  That is due largely to ingenious methods of\npublicity, on the most modern lines (and is not advertisement itself\none of the most effective forms of suggestion?).  When one miraculous\ncure after another was announced, money flowed in, and Mrs. Eddy made\nuse of it to increase the numbers of believers.  Adapting herself to\nthe mentality of her hearers, or readers, she demanded large fees for\nthe manifestations of the \"spirit\" which was incarnated in herself and\nher helpers, and left behind her when she died, an immense personal\nfortune, and hundreds of prosperous churches.  \"Matter\" does not seem\nto be altogether negligible, even for pure spirits who do not believe\nin its existence, and consider it an invention of the devil!\n\n\n\n[1] See _La Philosophie de la Longevite_ (Bibliotheque de Philosophie\nContemporaine, Felix Alcan, 12th edition), by Jean Finot.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nSCHLATTER, THE MIRACLE-MAN\n\nThe town of Denver, the \"pearl of Colorado,\" was _en fete_.  Hundreds\nof thousands of pilgrims were flocking to it from all parts of America,\nand all, immediately they arrived, made straight for the house of\nAlderman Fox, where dwelt Francis Schlatter, the greatest\nmiracle-worker of the century.  For two months Denver was able to\ncontemplate an unparalleled variety of invalids with illnesses both\nrare and common, all--or nearly all--of whom departed reassured as to\ntheir progress, if not completely cured.  The trains were overcrowded,\nthe hotels overflowed with visitors, and all the States rang with hymns\nof praise in honour of Schlatter, the saint of Denver.\n\nBut perpetual joy is not of this world.  On the 14th of November, 1895,\nthere were still thousands of people outside Alderman Fox's house, but\ntheir grief and despair were pitiable to witness.  The women sobbed,\nthe men cursed, and all this, mingled with the woeful complaints of the\nsick, created an extraordinary atmosphere in the usually gay and\ncheerful town.\n\nThe cause of it was that Saint Schlatter had fled from Colorado without\nwarning in the night--whether for a short time or for ever nobody knew.\nThe news spread far and wide, the affair assumed the proportions of a\npublic calamity, and the _Rocky Morning News_ and other Colorado\njournals shed copious tears over the sad lot of the abandoned pilgrims.\nEven the American newspapers, which so often foresee events that never\nhappen, had not been able to foresee this thunderbolt that had\ndescended in the midst of their readers.\n\nOn the previous day the saint had, as usual, given his blessing to the\nthousands of pilgrims gathered from all quarters, and had appeared to\nbe in his customary state of serene kindliness.  Nothing had suggested\nhis desertion--for the disappointed crowds considered it a desertion\nindeed.  Even Alderman Fox, deeply troubled as he was, could offer no\nconsolation to his fellow-citizens.  He, who was formerly stone-deaf,\nhad gone one day to see Schlatter at Omaha, and when the latter took\nhis hand his deafness had completely disappeared.  Full of gratitude,\nhe offered Schlatter a large sum of money, which was refused.  He then\noffered the hospitality of his house at Denver, and this being\naccepted, Schlatter arrived there, preceded by the glory of his saintly\nreputation and his miraculous cures.  Two months passed thus, and never\nhad prophet a more devoted and enthusiastic disciple than the worthy\nalderman of Colorado's capital city.  Then fell the blow!\n\nWhen Alderman Fox had entered his guest's room the night before, the\nbed was empty.  Dressed just as he had arrived, in his unique costume,\nSchlatter had disappeared, leaving behind him as sole trace of his\nvisit this message:--\"Mr. Fox--my mission is ended, and the Father\ncalls me.  I salute you.  Francis Schlatter.  November 13th.\"\n\nAfter that he was sought for in vain.  He who \"intoxicated the weak\nsoul of the people\"--to quote one of the Colorado clergy--and made the\nland of sin ring with songs of heavenly triumph, had completely\ndisappeared.  In the words of another of them, \"the plant that had\ngrown up in barren soil was withered away by the wrath of God.\"\n\nBut the grief of those who had believed in him lasted for many years.\n\n\nSchlatter was born in Alsace in 1855, and after his arrival in America\nhe followed many avocations, finally adopting that of a \"holy man.\"\nWith head and feet bare, he traversed the States from one end to\nanother, and proclaimed himself a messenger of heaven.  He preached the\nlove of God and peace among men.  He was imprisoned, and continued to\npreach, and though his fellow-prisoners at first mocked at him, they\nended by listening.\n\nHe only had to place his hand on the heads of the sick, and they were\ncured.  After being released from prison, he went to Texas.  His\npeculiar dress, bare feet, and long hair framing a face which seemed\nindeed to be illuminated from within, drew crowds to follow him, and he\nwas looked upon as Elijah come to life again.\n\n\"Hearken and come to me,\" he said.  \"I am only a humble messenger sent\nby my Heavenly Father.\"\n\nAnd thousands came.  He cured the incurable, and consoled the\ninconsolable.  Once he was shut up in a mad-house, but emerged more\npopular than ever.  Then he went on a pilgrimage through the towns of\nMexico, preaching his \"Father's\" word among the adulterers of goods and\nthe Worshippers of the Golden Calf.  An object of reverence and\nadmiration, he blessed the children and rained miracles upon the heads\nof the sick, finally arriving at San Francisco in 1894.  From there,\nstill on foot and bare-headed, he crossed the Mohave Desert, spent\nseveral weeks at Flagstaff, and then continued his wanderings among the\nIndian tribes.  They recognised his saintliness and came out in crowds\nto meet him, amazed at the power of the Lord as manifested by him.  He\nspent five days in the company of the chief of the Navajos, performing\nmany miracles, and filling with wonder the simple souls who crowded\nround to touch his hands.  After having traversed several other\ndistricts, he stopped at Denver, which became his favourite residence.\nIn this paradise of the New World his most startling miracles took\nplace.  It became known as his special town, and from all parts there\nflocked to it believers and unbelievers, good, bad and indifferent,\nattracted by the fame of the heavenly messenger.  Women and men\nfollowed in his train, expressing their admiration and gratitude; even\nthe reporters who came to interview him were impressed by his\nsimplicity, and described in glowing terms the miracles accomplished by\nthe \"prophet of Denver.\"\n\nThe American journals which thus put themselves at his service throw a\nstrange light upon this twentieth-century saint.  For Schlatter the\nSilent, as some called him, only became eloquent when in the presence\nof newspaper reporters.  He took heed to \"sin not with his tongue,\" as\nthe psalmist sings, and \"kept his mouth with a bridle\" and \"held his\npeace,\" as long as \"the wicked\" were before him; but when confronted by\nreporters his thoughts became articulate, and it is only through them\nthat his simple \"Gospel\" has been handed down to us.  \"I am nothing,\"\nhe would say to them.  \"My Father is all.  Have faith in Him, and all\nwill be well.\"  Or--\"My Father can replace a pair of diseased lungs as\neasily as He can cure rheumatism.  He has only to will, and the sick\nman becomes well or the healthy one ill.  You ask me in what does my\npower consist.  It is nothing--it is His will that is everything.\"\n\nOne day when a crowd of several thousands was pressing round him,\nSchlatter addressed a man in his vicinity.\n\n\"Depart!\" he said to him, with a violence that startled all who heard.\n\"Depart from Denver; you are a murderer!\"\n\nThe man fled, and the crowd applauded the \"saint,\" remarking that \"it\nwas not in his power to heal the wicked.\"\n\nFaith in him spread even to the railway companies of New Mexico, for\none day there appeared a placard of the Union Pacific Railway stating\nthat those of the employees, or their families, who wished to consult\nSchlatter would be given their permits and their regular holiday.\nFollowing on this announcement, the _Omaha World Herald_ describes the\nimpressive spectacle of the thousands of men, women and children,\nbelonging to all grades of the railway administration, who went to the\nholy man of Denver to ask pardon for their sins, or to be healed of\ntheir diseases.\n\nThus did the transport systems, combined with the newspapers, pay\nhomage to the exploits of the new prophet.\n\n\nAnd still the miracles continued.  The blind saw, the deaf heard, and\nthe cripples walked.  The lamp of faith lighted in New Mexico threw its\nbeams over the whole of America, and the remarkable charm of\nSchlatter's personality influenced even the most incredulous.\n\nThe fame of his deeds reached Europe, and some of the English papers\ntold of cures so marvellous that New Mexico bade fair to become the\nrefuge of all the incurables in the world.\n\nIn the _Omaha World Herald_ a long article by General Test was\npublished, in which he said: \"All those who approach him find\nconsolation and help.  Dr. Keithley has been cured of deafness. . . .\nI have used spectacles for many years, but a touch of his hand was\nenough to make me have need of them no longer.\"\n\nOne of the officials of the Union Pacific Railway, a Mr. Sutherland,\nafter an accident, could neither walk nor move his limbs.  He was taken\nto Denver, and returned completely cured, not only of his inability to\nwalk, but also of deafness that had troubled him for fifteen years.\n\nA Mr. Stewart, who had been deaf for twenty years, was also completely\ncured by the saint.  Nothing seemed able to resist his miraculous\npowers.  Blindness, diphtheria, phthisis, all disappeared like magic at\nthe touch of his hand; and gloves that he had worn proved equally\nefficacious.\n\nA Mrs. Snook, of North Denver, had suffered from cancer for some\nmonths, when, worn out by pain, she sent to the holy man for the loan\nof one of his gloves.  He sent her two, saying that she would be\ncured--and she was cured.  The same thing happened with John Davidson\nof 17th Street, Denver; with Colonel Powers of Georgetown; and a dozen\nothers, all of whom had suffered for years from more or less incurable\nmaladies.\n\nAn engineer named Morris was cured of cataract instantaneously.  A\ntotally blind wood-cutter was able to distinguish colours after being\ntouched by Schlatter.  A Mrs. Holmes of Havelock, Nebraska, had tumours\nunder the eyes.  She pressed them with a glove given her by the\nprophet, and they disappeared.  (This case is reported in the _Denver\nNews_ of November 12th, 1895.)\n\nGloves began to arrive from all parts, and lay in mountains on\nSchlatter's doorstep.  He touched them with his hand, and distributed\nthem to the crowd.  _Faith_ being the sole cause of the cures, it was\nunnecessary, he said, to lay hands on the sick.  When he did so, it was\nonly in order to impress the souls of those who had need of this outer\nsign in order to enjoy the benefits sent them by the Father through His\nintermediary.  This explains how Schlatter was able to treat from three\nto five thousand people every day.  He would stand with outstretched\nhands blessing the crowds, who departed with peace in their souls.\n\nAnd the \"pearl of Colorado\" rejoiced, seeing how the deaf heard, the\ncripples walked, the blind saw, and all glorified the name of the Saint\nof Denver.\n\nHis disinterestedness was above suspicion, and the contempt that he\nshowed for the \"almighty dollar\" filled all the believers with\nastonishment and admiration.\n\n\"What should I do with money?\" he said.  \"Does not my Heavenly Father\nsupply all my needs?  There is no greater wealth than faith, and I have\nsupreme faith in my Father.\"\n\nGifts poured in upon him, but he refused them all with his customary\ngentleness, so that at last people ceased to send him anything but\ngloves.  These, after having touched them with his hands, he\ndistributed among the sick and the unfortunate.\n\nHis fame increased with the ardour of his faith.  Suspicion was\ndisarmed, and great and small paid him homage.  Out of touch as he was\nwith modern thought, and reading nothing but the prophets, he attained\nto a condition of ecstasy which at last led him to announce that he was\nChrist come down from heaven to save his fellow-men.  Having lived so\nlong on the footing of a son of God, he now was convinced of his direct\ndescent, and his hearers going still further, were filled with\nexpectation of some great event which should astonish all unbelievers.\n\nUnder the influence of this general excitement he proceeded to undergo\na forty days' fast.  He announced this to his followers, who flocked to\nsee the miracle, preceded by the inevitable reporters; and while\nfasting he still continued to heal the sick and give them his blessing,\nattracting ever greater crowds by his haggard visage and his atmosphere\nof religious exaltation.\n\nThen, having spent forty days and forty nights in this manner, he sat\ndown at table to replenish his enfeebled forces, and the beholders gave\nvoice to enthusiastic expressions of faith in his divine mission.\n\nBut the famished Schlatter attacked the food laid before him with an\nardour that had in it nothing of the divine.  The onlookers became\nuneasy, and one of them went so far as to suggest that his health might\nsuffer from this abrupt transition.\n\n\"Have faith,\" replied Schlatter.  \"The Father who has permitted me to\nlive without nourishment for forty days, will not cease to watch over\nHis Son.\"\n\n\nThe town of Denver formed a little world apart.  Miracles were in the\nair, faith was the only subject of conversation, and everyone dreamed\nof celestial joys and the grace of salvation.  In this supernatural\natmosphere distinctions between the possible and the impossible were\nlost sight of, and the inhabitants believed that the usual order of\nnature had been overthrown.\n\nFor instance, James Eckman of Leadville, who had been blinded by an\nexplosion, recovered his sight immediately he arrived at Denver.\nGeneral Test declared that he had seen a legless cripple _walk_ when\nthe saint's gaze was bent upon him.  A blind engineer named Stainthorp\nbecame able to see daylight.  A man named Dillon, bent and crippled by\nan illness several decades before, recovered instantaneously.  When the\nsaint touched him, he felt a warmth throughout his whole body; his\nfingers, which he had not been able to use for years, suddenly\nstraightened themselves; he was conscious of a sensation of\ninexpressible rapture, and rose up full of faith and joy.  A man named\nWelsh, of Colorado Springs, had a paralysed right hand which was\nimmediately cured when Schlatter touched it.\n\nAll New Mexico rejoiced in the heavenly blessing that had fallen upon\nDenver.  Special trains disgorged thousands of travellers, who were\ncaught up in the wave of religious enthusiasm directly they arrived.\nThe whole town was flooded with a sort of exaltation, and there was a\nrecrudescence of childishly superstitious beliefs, which broke out with\nall the spontaneity and vigour that usually characterises the\nmanifestation of popular religious phenomena.\n\nWhat would have been the end of it if Schlatter had not so decisively\nand inexplicably disappeared?\n\n\nIt would be difficult to conceive of anything more extraordinary than\nthe exploits of this modern saint, which came near to revolutionising\nthe whole religious life of the New World.  The fact that they took\nplace against a modern background, with the aid of newspaper interviews\nand special trains, gives them a peculiar _cachet_.  Indeed, the\nspectacle of such child-like faith, allied to all the excesses of\ncivilisation, and backed up by the ground-work of prejudices from which\nman has as yet by no means freed himself, is one to provide\nconsiderable food for reflection for those who study the psychology of\ncrowds in general, and of religious mania in particular.\n\nThe case of Schlatter is not a difficult one to diagnose.  He suffered\nfrom \"ambulatory automatism,\" the disease investigated by Professor\nPitres of Bordeaux, and was a wanderer from his childhood up.\nIncapable of resisting the lure of vagabondage, he thought it should be\npossible to perform miracles because it was \"God his Father\" who thus\nforced him to wander from place to place.  \"All nature being directed\naccording to His Will,\" said Schlatter, \"and nothing being accomplished\nwithout Him, I am driven to warn the earth in order to fulfil His\ndesigns.\"\n\nBeing simple-minded and highly impressionable, the first cure that he\nsucceeded in bringing about seemed to him a direct proof of his\nalliance with God.  As Diderot has said, it is sometimes only necessary\nto be a little mad in order to prophesy and to enjoy poetic ecstasies;\nand in the case of Schlatter the flower of altruism which often\nblossoms in the hearts of such \"madmen\" was manifested in his complete\nlack of self-seeking and in his compassion for the poor and suffering\nwhich drew crowds around him.  As to his miracles, we may--without\nattempting to explain them--state decisively that they do not differ\nfrom those accomplished by means of suggestion.  The cases of blindness\ntreated by Schlatter have a remarkable resemblance to that of the girl\nMarie described by Pierre Janet in his _Psychological Automatism_.\n\nThis patient was admitted to the hospital at Havre, suffering, among\nother things, from blindness of the left eye which she said dated from\ninfancy.  But when by means of hypnotism she was \"transformed\" into a\nchild of five years of age, it was found that she saw well with both\neyes.  The blindness must therefore have begun at the age of six\nyears--but from what cause?  She was made to repeat, while in the\nsomnambulistic state, all the principal scenes of her life at that\ntime, and it was found that the blindness had commenced some days after\nshe had been forced to sleep with a child of her own age who had a rash\nall over the left side of her face.  Marie developed a similar rash and\nbecame blind in the left eye soon afterwards.  Pierre Janet made her\nre-live the event which had had so terrible an effect upon her, induced\nher to believe that the child had no rash, and after two attempts\nsucceeded in making her caress her (imaginary) bedfellow.  The sight of\nthe left eye returned, and Marie awoke--cured!\n\nThe saint of Denver could not, of course, make use of methods adopted\nby doctors in the hospitals, but he had something much stronger and\nmore effective in his mysterious origin, his prophet-like appearance,\nand his airs as of one illuminated by the spirit.  Suggestion, when\nacting upon those who are awake, spreads from one to another like an\nattack of yawning or of infectious laughter.  Crowds are credulous,\nlike children who look no further than their surface impressions.\n\nThe case of W. C. Dillon, who had been bent and crippled for years, but\nwas able to straighten his limbs at once under Schlatter's influence,\nrecalls that of the young sailor in the household of Dr. Pillet, who\nfor several weeks was bent forward in a most painful position.  He had\nreceived a severe blow at the base of the chest, after which he seemed\nunable to stand upright again.  He was put into a hypnotic sleep, and\nasked if he could raise himself.\n\n\"Why not?\" he replied.\n\n\"Then do so,\" said the doctor--and he rose from his bed completely\ncured.\n\nA remarkable thing with regard to Schlatter's cures is that they were\nso frequently concerned with cases of paralysis.  Now Charcot has\nproved that such cases are usually found in hysterical subjects\nsuffering from amnesia or anaesthesia (general or partial loss of\nsensation), and according to modern medical research paralysis and\nanaesthesia are almost identical.  We know, further, with what ease\nhypnotic suggestion can either provoke or dispel partial or general\nanaesthesia, and this applies equally to partial or general paralysis.\n\nParalysis is often, if not always, due to a simple\namnesia--forgetfulness to make use of certain muscles--which can be\novercome by suggestion.  Schlatter, with his undeniable hypnotic power,\nhad consequently small difficulty in accomplishing \"miracles\"--that is\nto say, in producing incomprehensible and inexplicable phenomena.\n\nHis custom of dealing with people in crowds gave him greater chances of\nsuccess than if he had merely treated individual cases.  \"Faith is the\nonly thing that cures,\" he declared--and, as if by magic, his hearers\nbecame possessed of faith and intoxicated by the benefits obtained from\nhis divine intervention.\n\nTruly the life of this impulse-ridden vagabond, so lacking in\nself-interest, so devoted to the needs of the sick and poor, throws a\nnew light upon the souls of our contemporaries.  There seems to exist\nin every human being, no matter how deeply hidden, an inexhaustible\ndesire for contact with the Infinite.  And this desire can be as easily\nplayed upon by the tricks of impostors as by the holiness of saints, or\nthe divine grace of saviours.\n\n\n\n\nPART III\n\nTHE DEPTHS OF THE SUBCONSCIOUS MIND\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nSECTS IN FRANCE AND ELSEWHERE\n\nDuring the second half of the nineteenth and the beginning of the\ntwentieth century, scarcely a single country has been free from\nreligious manifestations of the most varied kind, all concerned with\nnew ways and means of attaining salvation; and if one were to include\nall the different phases of occultism as well, one would be astounded\nat the mystical ardour of which modern humanity is possessed.\n\nFrom the spiritualists and the theosophists to the crystal-gazers and\nthe palmists, all these occult practices are, in reality, merely the\nresult of a more or less intensified desire to communicate with the\nspiritual worlds.\n\nFrance, although considered a country pre-eminently sceptical, has not\nescaped the general tendency, for even in what appeared to be the most\nrationalistic epoch--that of the Revolution--the \"Cult of Reason\" was\nfounded, to be succeeded by the \"Religion of the Supreme Being\"\nintroduced by Robespierre.  And what numbers of new sects and religions\ncan be recorded since then!\n\nThere was, first of all, the _Theophilanthropy_ of Jean-Baptiste Chemin\nand Valentine Hauy, representing the faith of those who love man in\nGod, and God in so far as He loves man.  The Empire, in persecuting\nthis doctrine, only added to its vitality, for it has hot even yet\ncompletely died out.\n\nThe religion of Father Enfantin, which had a great vogue in the last\ncentury, conformed in many respects to the name of its founder.  Man\nand woman, united by religion, were to form priests \"in duplicate\" for\nthe guidance of their flock, young and old, lovers and married couples\nalike.  The Saint-Simonites--so admirable in some ways--allied\nthemselves to this doctrine, and succeeded in attracting a number of\nsympathisers.\n\nThe life of French sects has always been of short duration, though\nthere have existed among them many that in other countries would\ncertainly have won for their founders the laurel-wreath of fame.  Such\nwas, for instance, the _Church of France_, inaugurated by the Abbe\nChatel, whose idea was to entrust sacerdotal functions to the most\nworthy among his followers, by means of a public vote.  The sect\nprospered for a time, but soon disappeared amid general indifference,\nand the Abbe ended his days as a grocer.\n\nThe doctrine of Fabre Palaprat had more success, being drawn from the\nesoteric teachings of the Gospel of St. John.  He either suppressed or\nmodified many of the Catholic dogmas, abandoned the use of Latin and\ninaugurated prayers in French.\n\nThe _Fusionists_ were founded by Jean-Baptiste de Tourreil.  After a\ndivine revelation which came to him in the forest of Meudon, near\nParis, he broke with Catholicism and preached the intimate union of man\nand nature.  He anticipated to some extent the naturalist beliefs which\nspread through both France and England at the beginning of the present\ncentury, and his posthumous work entitled _The Fusionist Religion or\nthe Doctrine of Universalism_ gives an idea of his tendencies.  There\nwas an element of consolation in his doctrine, for the harmony between\nman and the universe, as taught by him, renders death only a\nprolongation of life itself, and makes it both attractive and desirable.\n\nThe _Neo-Gnostic Church_ of Fabre des Essarts was condemned by Leo XIII\nwith some severity as a revival of the old Albigensian heresy, with the\naddition of new false and impious doctrines, but it still has many\nfollowers.  The Neo-Gnostics believe that this world is a work of\nwickedness, and was created not by God but by some inferior power,\nwhich shall ultimately disappear--and its creation also.  While the\nManichaeans teach that the world is ruled by the powers of both good\nand evil, God and Satan, the Neo-Gnostics declare that it is Satan who\nreigns exclusively upon earth, and that it is man's duty to help to\nfree God from His powerful rival.  They also preach the brotherhood of\nman and of nations, and it is probably this altruistic doctrine which\nhas rendered them irresistible to many who are wearied and disheartened\nby the enmities and hatreds that separate human beings.\n\nIn 1900, after a letter from Jean Bricaut, the patriarch of universal\nGnosticism in Lyons, the Neo-Gnostics united with the Valentinians, and\ntheir union was consecrated by the Council of Toulouse in 1903.  But\nsome years afterwards, Dr. Fugairon of Lyons (who took the name of\nSophronius) amalgamated all the branches, with the exception of the\nValentinians, under the name of the _Gnostic Church of Lyons_.  These\nlatter, although excluded, continued to follow their own way of\nsalvation, and addressed a legal declaration to the Republican\nGovernment in 1906 in defence of their religious rights of association.\n\nIn the Gnostic teaching, the Eons, corresponding to the archetypal\nideas of Plato, are never single; each god has his feminine\ncounterpart; and the Gnostic assemblies are composed of \"perfected\nones,\" male and female.  The Valentinians give the mystic bride the\nname of Helen.\n\nThe Gnostic rites and sacraments are complicated.  There is the\n_Consolamentum_, or laying on of hands; the breaking of bread, or means\nof communication with the _Astral Body of Jesus_; and the\n_Appareillamentum_, or means of receiving divine grace.\n\nIn peculiarities of faith and of its expression some of our French\nsects certainly have little to learn from those of America and Russia.\n\n\nThe _Religion of Satanism_--or, as it was sometimes called, the\n_Religion of Mercy_--founded by Vintras and Boullan, deserves special\nmention.  Vintras was arrested--unjustly, it seems certain--for\nswindling, and in the visions which he experienced as a result of his\nundeserved sufferings he believed himself to be in communication with\nthe Archangel Michael and with Christ Himself.  Having spent about\ntwelve years in London, he returned to Lyons to preach his doctrine,\nand succeeded in making a number of proselytes.  He died in 1875.  Some\nyears afterwards a doctor of divinity named Boullan installed himself\nat Lyons as his successor.  He taught that women should be common\nproperty, and preached the union with inferior beings (in order to\nraise them), the \"union of charity,\" and the \"union of wisdom.\"  He\nhealed the sick, exorcised demons, and treated domestic animals with\ngreat success, so that the peasants soon looked upon him as superior to\nthe cure who was incapable of curing their sick horses and cattle.\n\nVintras had proclaimed himself to be Elijah come to life; Boullan\nadopted the title of John the Baptist resurrected.  He died at the\nbeginning of the twentieth century, complaining of having been cruelly\nslandered, especially by Stanislas de Guaita, who in his _Temple of\nSatan_ had accused Boullan of being a priest of Lucifer, of making use\nof spells and charms, and--worst of all--of celebrating the Black Mass.\n\n\nThe founder of the _Religion of Humanity_ had a tragic and troublous\ncareer.  Genius and madness have rarely been so harmoniously combined\nfor the creation of something that should be durable and of real value.\nFor one cannot doubt the madness of Auguste Comte.  It was manifested\nin public on the 12th of April, 1826, and interrupted the success of\nhis lectures, which had attracted all the leading minds of the time,\nincluding Humboldt himself.  After a violent attack of mania, the\nfounder of the philosophy of Positivism took refuge at Montmorency.\nFrom there he was with difficulty brought back to Paris and placed\nunder the care of the celebrated alienist, Esquirol.  He was released\nwhen only partially cured, and at the instigation of his mother\nconsented to go through a religious marriage ceremony with Madame\nComte, after which he signed the official register _Brutus Bonaparte\nComte_!  The following year he threw himself into the Seine, but was\nmiraculously saved, and, gradually recovering his strength, he\nrecommenced his courses of lectures, which aroused the greatest\ninterest both in France and abroad.\n\nThe Positivist leader had always shown signs of morbid megalomania.\nHis early works are sufficient to prove that he was the prey to an\nexcessive form of pride, for he writes like a Messiah consciously\ntreading the path that leads to a martyr's crown.  His private troubles\naggravated the malady, and the escapades of his wife, who frequently\nleft his house to rejoin her old associates, were the cause of violent\nattacks of frenzy.\n\nLater the philosopher himself was seized by an overwhelming passion for\nClotilde de Vaux, a writer of pretensions who was, in reality,\ndistinguished neither by talent nor beauty.  The feeling that she\ninspired in him has no parallel in the annals of modern love-affairs.\nAfter some years, however, she died of consumption, and the germ of\nmadness in Comte, which had been lying latent, again showed itself,\nthis time in the form of a passionate religious mysticism.  His dead\nmistress became transformed, for him, into a divinity, and he looked\nupon everything that she had used or touched as sacred, shutting\nhimself up in the midst of the furniture and utensils that had\nsurrounded her during her life-time.  Three times a day he prostrated\nhimself, and offered up fervent prayers to the spirit of Clotilde, and\nhe often visited her grave, or sat, wrapped in meditation, in the\nchurch that she had frequented.  He sought to evoke her image, and held\nlong conversations with it, and it was under her influence that he\nfounded a new religion based chiefly on his _Positivist Catechism_.  In\nthis cult, Clotilde symbolised woman and the superior humanity which\nshall proceed from her.\n\nAlthough a profound and original thinker, Comte was like the rest in\nconsidering himself the High Priest of his own religion.  He sought to\nmake converts, and wrote to many of the reigning sovereigns, including\nthe Tsar; and he even suggested an alliance, for the good of the\nnations, with the Jesuits!\n\nBut to do him justice we must admit that he led an ascetic and\nsaint-like life, renouncing all worldly pleasures.  An Englishman who\nsaw much of him about 1851 declared that his goodness of soul surpassed\neven his brilliancy of intellect.\n\nThough he had so little sympathy for the past and present religions\nupon whose grave he erected his own system, he himself reverted, as a\nmatter of fact, to a sort of fetishism; and his \"Humanity,\" with which\nhe replaced the former \"gods,\" manifested nearly all their defects and\nweaknesses.\n\nIn his _Sacerdoce_ and _Nouvelle Foi Occidentale_ the principal ideas\nare borrowed from inferior beliefs of the Asiatic races.  He\nincorporated the arts of hygiene and medicine in his creed, and\ndeclared that medicine would reinstate the dominion of the priesthood\nwhen the Positivist clergy succeeded in fulfilling the necessary\nconditions.\n\nThe remarkable success of this religion is well known.  Numerous sects\nbased on Comte's doctrines were founded in all parts of the world, and\nhis philosophy made a deep impression on the minds of thinking men, who\nassisted in spreading it through all branches of society.  Even to-day\nbelievers in Positivism are found not only in France, but above all in\nNorth and South America.  In Brazil, Comte's influence was both\nwidespread and beneficial, and the very laws of this great Republic are\nbased on the theories of the Positivist leader.\n\nThe value of certain of his fundamental doctrines may be questioned,\nequally with the ruling ideas of his religion, his Messianic role, and\nhis priesthood.  But there is nevertheless something sublime in the\nteaching that individual and social happiness depends upon the degree\nof affection and goodwill manifested in the human heart.  This is no\ndoubt one reason why the adherents of the Positivist Church are so\noften distinguished by their high morality and their spirit of\nself-sacrifice.\n\n\nIn addition to purely local sects and religions, France has always\nharboured a number of _Swedenborgians_, whose beliefs have undergone\ncertain modifications on French soil.  For instance, thaumaturgy was\nintroduced by Captain Bernard, and healing by means of prayer by Madame\nde Saint-Amour.  But Leboys des Guais, the acknowledged leader of the\nsect about 1850, reverted to the unalloyed doctrines of the founder,\nand thanks to Mlle. Holms and M. Humann, and their church in the Rue de\nThouin, the Swedenborgian religion still flourishes in France to-day.\n\nThe _Irvingites_, founded in Scotland towards the end of the eighteenth\ncentury, also made many French converts.  Irving preached the second\ncoming of Christ, and believed that the Holy Ghost was present in\nhimself.  He waited some time for God the Father to endow him with the\nmiraculous gifts needed for establishing the new Church, and then,\nfinding that many of his followers were able to heal the sick with\nsurprising success, he concluded that heaven had deigned to accept him\nas the \"second Saviour.\"  He organised a Catholic Apostolic Church in\nLondon, and proclaimed himself its head; while in Paris the principal\nchurch of the sect, formerly in the Avenue de Segur, has now been moved\nto the Rue Francois-Bonvin.  Woman is excluded from the cult, and\nconsequently the name of the Virgin is omitted from all Irvingite\nceremonies, while the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption of the\nVirgin are denied.\n\n\nBut many other sects exist in addition to those already mentioned.\nOften their life is short as a summer night, and they appear and\ndisappear, leaving no trace behind them save a passing exaltation in\nthe hearts of their followers.  Those who join them seem for a time to\nbe satisfied with dreams and illusions, but usually end by returning to\nthe bosom of the established Church--or by being confined in an asylum.\n\nThese innumerable sects with their illusory pretensions serve to\ndemonstrate the truth of our thesis--that the most ardent desire of\npresent-day humanity is for the renewal or transformation of the faith\nto which it has grown accustomed.\n\nA well-known critic has claimed that it is possible for all the\ndramatic or comic incidents that have been played in all theatres of\nall ages to be reduced down to thirty-six situations from the use of\nwhich not even a genius can escape.  To how many main variations could\nwe reduce the desire for reform displayed by our religious\nrevolutionaries?  The search for salvation takes on so many vague and\nincalculable shapes that we can only compare them to clouds that float\nacross the sky on a windy day; but there are, all the same, signs of\nkinship to be discovered even between the sects that appear to be\nfurthest apart.\n\nThe _Chlysty_, from whom the religion of Rasputin was partly derived,\nshow some resemblance to the \"Shakers,\" and to the Christian\nScientists, both of whom have evolved along lines diametrically\nopposed.  The \"Shakers,\" direct descendants of the Huguenots, teach\nthat the end of the world is at hand, and that all men should repent in\npreparation for the coming of the heavenly kingdom.  Their meetings\nhave always been characterised by visions and revelations, and they\nsing and dance for joy, leaping into the air and trembling with nervous\nexcitement--to which fact they owe their name.\n\nIn tracing out their history we find many striking analogies with the\nsects of our own day.  It was in 1770 that the \"Shakers\" believed\nChrist to have reincarnated in the body of Anne Lee, the daughter of a\nManchester blacksmith.  Although married, she preached--like Mrs. Eddy\na hundred years later--the benefits of celibacy, the only state\napproved by God.  Her convictions were so sincere, and her expression\nof them so eloquent, that when charged with heresy she succeeded in\nconverting her accusers.  The cult of virginity was adopted by her\nfollowers, who considered her their \"Mother in Christ,\" inspired from\non high; and when she counselled them to leave England and emigrate to\nthe New World, they followed her unquestioningly, even to embarking in\nan old and long-disused vessel for the Promised Land.  Arrived there,\nhowever, their lot was not a happy one, for they met with much\npersecution, and Anne Lee herself was imprisoned.  But after her\nrelease she preached with greater force and conviction than ever the\nend of sexual unions and the near approach of the Kingdom of God.  Her\neloquence attracted many, and even today her religion still has\nfollowers.  Among their settlements we may mention that of Alfred,\nMaine, where a number of \"spiritual families\" live harmoniously\ntogether, convinced that the Kingdom of God has already descended upon\nearth, and that they are existing in a state of celestial purity like\nthat of the angels in heaven.  They refuse to eat pork or to make use\nof fermented drinks, and dancing still plays a part in their religious\nservices.  Sometimes, in the midst of the general excitement, a sister\nor a brother will announce a message that has been delivered by some\nunseen spirit, whereupon all the hearers leap and dance with redoubled\nvigour.\n\nTo-day, even as a hundred years ago, the \"Shakers\" affirm, not without\nreason, that Heaven and Hell are within ourselves, and that that is why\nwe must live honestly and well in order to share in the heavenly\nkingdom from which sinners are excluded.  Just so do Christian\nScientists declare that we may be led by faith towards heaven,\nhappiness and health.\n\nEven murder, that most extreme perversion of all moral feeling, has\nbeen adopted as a means of salvation by several Russian sects as well\nas by the Hindus, evolving in widely contrasted environments.  The\ngeneral desire to gain, somehow or other, the favour of the \"Eternal\nPrinciple of Things,\" thus expresses itself in the most varied and the\nmost unlikely forms, one of the most striking being that of the\n\"religion of murder,\" which throws a lurid light upon the hidden\nregions of man's subconscious mind.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nTHE RELIGION OF MURDER\n\nThere are certain periodical publications which as a rule are neither\nexamined nor discussed.  Yet their existence dates back for many years,\nand in this age of filing and docketing they must by now provide a\nregular gold-mine for the study of human psychology.  What increases\ntheir value is that they avoid all attempt at \"literary effect.\"  No\npicked phrases, no situations invented or dramatised to suit the taste\nof the author; nothing but facts taken from real life and recorded by\nthe functionaries of His Majesty the Emperor of India.  We are\nreferring to those very interesting _Reports of the Indian Government_\nto which we owe practically all our knowledge of fakirism and its\nmiracles, of the artificial conservation of human life in the tomb, and\nof the strangulation rites of the Thugs.  They are indeed a valuable\ncontribution to the study of the perversions of religious faith--that\nmost alluring and yet least explored section of psychology.\n\nA librarian at the British Museum showed me some years ago one of the\nmost suggestive documents that the art of cartography has ever\nproduced.  It was the famous map prepared by Captain Paton, about 1890,\nfor the British Government, showing the various neighbourhoods in which\nthe Thugs had strangled and buried their victims.  Drawn up according\nto precise information furnished by several leaders of the sect, it\nindicated every tomb in the province of Oudh, where the majority of the\nworshippers of the goddess Kali were to be found.  The written\ndescriptions that accompanied the map were particularly interesting,\nfor--like Swift, when he enumerated the benefits that would accrue to\nthe starving Irish people if they killed their children like sheep and\nate them instead of mutton--Captain Paton felt himself compelled to\nrecord the glorious deeds of some of the most valiant of the Thugs.  He\ngave details which would have rejoiced the imagination of a de Quincey\nor an Edgar Allan Poe.  About 5200 murders had been committed by a\ncompany of forty people, all highly thought of and commanding general\nrespect.  At their head was the venerable Buhram, who laid claim to 931\nassassinations during his forty years of religious activity in the\nprovince of Oudh.  The second in merit, one Ramson, had strangled 608\npeople.  The third, it is true, could only claim about 500, but he had\nreached this figure in thirty years, and had made a record of 25\nmurders in one year.  Others had to their credit 377, 340 and 264\nassassinations respectively, after which one dropped from these heights\nto figures of twenty, ten or even only five annual murders in honour of\nKali.  This record undoubtedly represented the supreme flower of the\nreligion of this goddess, who not only taught her followers the art of\nstrangulation, but also succeeded in hiding their deeds from the\nsuspicious eyes of unbelievers.\n\nMurders followed thick and fast, one upon another, but though thousands\nof Hindus, rich and poor, young and old, were known to disappear, their\nterrified families scarcely dared to complain.  English statisticians\ngo so far as to say that from thirty to fifty thousand human lives were\nsacrificed every year on the altar of this fatal goddess, who, desiring\nto thwart the growth of the too prolific life-principle in the\nuniverse, incited her worshippers to the suppression and destruction of\nhuman beings.  But while using her power to shelter her followers from\nsuspicion and discovery, Kali expected them, for their part, to take\ncare that none witnessed the performance of her duties.  One day\nmisfortune fell upon them.  A novice of the cult had the daring to spy\nupon the goddess while she was occupied in destroying the traces of her\nrite, and Kali's divine modesty being wounded, she declared that in\nfuture she would no longer watch over the earthly safety of her\nfollowers, but that they themselves must be responsible for concealing\ntheir deeds from the eyes of men.  Thus, after having worshipped her\nwith impunity for centuries, the Thugs all at once found themselves\nexposed to the suspicions of their fellow-countrymen, and above all, of\nthe British Government.  Captain Sleeman played the part of their evil\ngenius, for in his anger at their abominable deeds he decided, in spite\nof the resistance offered by the heads of the East India Company, to\nwage war to the knife against the religion of Kali.  Such alarming\nreports were received in England that at last the home authorities were\naroused, and in 1830 a special official was appointed to direct\noperations (the General Superintendent of Operations against Thuggee).\nCaptain Sleeman was chosen to fill the appointment, and he dedicated to\nit all his courage and practically his whole life.  The tale of the\ntwenty years' struggle that followed would put the most thrilling\ndramas of fiction in the shade.\n\nIn the works founded on Captain Sleeman's reports, and above all in his\nown official documents, are found remarkable accounts of the ways in\nwhich the Thugs lured their victims to their doom.\n\nA Mongol officer of noble bearing was travelling to the province of\nOudh accompanied by two faithful servants.  He halted on his way near\nthe Ganges, and was there accosted by a group of men, polite in speech\nand respectable in appearance, who asked permission to finish their\njourney under his protection.  The officer refused angrily and begged\nthem to let him go on his way alone.  The strangers tried to persuade\nhim that his suspicions were unjust, but, seeing his nostrils inflate\nand his eyes gleam with rage, they finally desisted.  The next day he\nmet another group of travellers, dressed in Moslem fashion, who spoke\nto him of the danger of travelling alone and begged him to accept their\nescort.  Once more the officer's eyes flashed with rage; he threatened\nthem with his sword, and was left to proceed in peace.  Many times\nagain the brave Mongol, always on his guard, succeeded in thwarting the\ndesigns of his mysterious fellow-travellers, but on the fourth day he\nreached a barren plain where, a few steps from the track, six Moslems\nwere weeping over the body of one who had succumbed to the hardships of\nthe journey.  They had already dug a hole in the earth to inter the\ncorpse, when it was discovered that not one of them could read the\nKoran.  On their knees they implored the Mongol officer to render this\nservice to the dead.  He dismounted from his horse, unable to resist\ntheir pleadings, and feeling bound by his religion to accede to their\nrequest.\n\nHaving discarded his sword and pistols, he performed the necessary\nablutions, and then approached the grave to recite the prayers for the\ndead.  Suddenly cloths were thrown over his own and his servants'\nheads, and after a few moments all three were precipitated into the\nyawning hole.\n\nIt may be asked why so much cunning was needed in order to add a few\nmore members to the kingdom of the dead.  The reason is that the Thugs\nwere forbidden to shed human blood.  The sacrifice could only be\naccomplished through death by strangling.  It might often be easy\nenough to fall upon solitary travellers, but woe to the Thug who in any\nway brought about the shedding of blood!  Consequently they had to have\nrecourse to all sorts of ingenious methods for allaying suspicion, so\nthat their victims might be hastened into the next world according to\nthe rites approved by their implacable goddess.  They believed in\ndivision of labour, and always acted collectively, employing some to\nentice the victim into the trap, and others to perform the act of\nstrangulation, while in the third category were those who first dug the\ngraves and afterwards rendered them invisible.\n\nThe murders were always accomplished with a kind of cold-blooded\nfanaticism, admitting neither mercy nor pity, for the Thug, convinced\nthat his action would count as a special virtue for himself in the next\nlife, also believed that his victim would benefit from it.\n\nFeringhi, one of the most famous of Indian stranglers, who also held a\nresponsible official position, was once asked if he was not ashamed to\nkill his neighbour.\n\n\"No,\" he replied, \"because one cannot be ashamed to fulfil the divine\nwill.  In doing so one finds happiness.  No man who has once understood\nand practised the religion of Thuggee will ever cease to conform to it\nto the end of his days.  I was initiated into it by my father when I\nwas very young, and if I were to live for a thousand years I should\nstill continue to follow in his footsteps.\"\n\nThe Thugs of each district were led by one whom they called their\n_jemadar_, to whom they gave implicit obedience.  The utmost discretion\nreigned among them, and they never questioned the plans of their\nsuperiors.  We can imagine how difficult it was to combat a fanaticism\nwhich feared nothing, not even death; for when death overtook them, as\nit sometimes did, in the performance of their rites, they merely looked\nupon it as a means of drawing nearer to their goddess.\n\nThe origin of this extraordinary religion seems to be hidden in the\nmists of the past, though European travellers claim to have met with it\nin India in the seventeenth century.  We may note that during the\nMahometan invasion all sorts of crimes were committed in the name of\nreligion, and possibly the murders in honour of Kali were a survival\nfrom this time.  As years went by the sect increased rapidly, and many\nof the most peaceable Hindus were attracted by it, and joined it in the\ncapacity of grave-concealers, spies, or merely as passive adherents who\ncontributed large sums of money.  In Sleeman's time about two thousand\nThugs were arrested and put to death every year, but nevertheless their\nnumbers, towards the end of the nineteenth century, were steadily\nincreasing.  (Of recent years, however, a considerable diminution has\nbeen shown.)  In 1895 only three are recorded to have been condemned to\ndeath for murder; in 1896, ten; and in 1897, twenty-five; while\ntravellers in Rajputana and the Hyderabad district speak of much higher\nfigures.  The Thugs always bear in mind the maxim that \"dead men tell\nno tales,\" and their practice of killing all the companions of the\nchosen victim, as well as himself, renders the detection of their\ncrimes extremely difficult; while their mastery of the art of getting\nrid of corpses frequently baffles the authorities.  Further, the\nterrified families of the victims, dreading reprisals, often fail to\nreport the deaths, so that the sect has thus been enabled to continue\nits murderous rites in spite of all measures taken to stamp it out.\n\nThey avoid killing women, except in the case of women accompanying a\nman who has been doomed to death, when they must be sacrificed in order\nto prevent their reporting the crime.  Stranger still, they admit that\nmurder is not always a virtuous action, but that there are criminal\nmurders which deserve punishment.\n\n\"When a Thug is killed,\" said one of them to the celebrated Sleeman,\n\"or when one does not belong to the sect, and kills without conforming\nto the rites, it is a crime, and should be punished.\"\n\nThey seem to experience a strange and voluptuous pleasure when\nperforming their rites of strangulation--a pleasure increased, no\ndoubt, by the knowledge that their goddess looks on with approval.  Yet\neven the most hardened among them is capable of the greatest chivalry\nwhen women are concerned, and a rigorous inquiry into the details of\nthousands of their crimes has failed to reveal any single attempt at\nviolation.  A Thug returning from one of his ritualistic expeditions\nmay show himself to be a good and affectionate husband and father, and\na charitable neighbour.  Apart from numerous acts of assassination, on\nwhich he prides himself, his conduct is usually irreproachable.  No\nwonder that he fills the English magistrates with stupefaction, and\nthat justice does not always dare to strike when it can act more\neffectively by persuasion or seclusion.\n\nAll things evolve with the passage of time, and in the twentieth\ncentury even the rite of strangulation has undergone changes.  From the\nmain sect of Thuggee, other branches of a new and unlooked-for type\nhave sprung.  These, instead of strangling their neighbours, prefer to\npoison them, the virtue being the same and the method easier and more\nexpeditious.  Their proceedings, though more difficult to control, are\nquite as lucrative for Kali, the devourer of human life, and if they\nhave made their goddess less notorious than did the Thugs, they\ncertainly worship her with equal ardour.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nTHE REINCARNATIONIST'S PARADISE\n\nAmid luxuriant vegetation, in an enchanting position overlooking the\nPacific Ocean, flourishes the religion of reincarnation \"without\nbeginning and without end.\"  Its followers, gathered there from all\nparts of the world, steep themselves in the atmosphere of fraternal\nlove and general benevolence which is exhaled by this doctrine of the\nevolution of souls, leading to ultimate perfection.\n\nThe scenes which greet the dazzled eyes of the visitor are of such\nextreme beauty that he might well believe himself to have been\nmiraculously transported to ancient Hellas.  Greek theatres and temples\ngleam whitely in the shade of majestic palm-trees, and groups of young\npeople dressed like the youths and maidens of ancient Athens may be\nseen taking part in rhythmic dances and elaborate processions.\n\nAmid the dirt and chaos of our modern world this Grecian city seems to\nhave sprung up as by a miracle, fully reconstituted not only in its\nouter appearance but also in its inner life of harmony and peace.\nTheosophists of every degree, who in other lands seem so often to lose\nthemselves in a mist of vague dreams and metaphysical speculations,\nhave here succeeded in expressing their ideals in concrete form.\n\nWhy postpone the paradise promised by Karma, the fundamental law of\nlife?  Why not seek to enjoy it now, without delay?  So a number of the\nscattered disciples of Madame Blavatsky, following their new guide,\nCatherine Tingley, set to work to construct their holy city in\nCalifornia, on the shores of the Pacific, like the Jews who followed\nMoses to the Promised Land.\n\nThese teachings, handed down through untold ages, rejoice to-day in a\nsetting that would surely have astonished their Hindu or Egyptian\nprogenitors; and the revelations which came to Madame Blavatsky after\nher discovery of the forgotten truths of a dim and distant past bid\nfair to revivify our time-worn planet.  Since the war there has been a\ntremendous revival of theosophical propaganda in allied and neutral\ncountries, in the Old World and in the New, and without doubt\nTheosophy, together with Christian Science--to which it is in many ways\nopposed--is destined to undergo striking developments.\n\n\nThe new theory of metempsychosis saw the light about fifty years ago.\nIt was brought to the United States by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, a\nRussian lady of noble birth and high educational attainments, whose\nthought had been influenced partly by the esoteric wisdom of the past\nand partly by the religious unrest of her native land.\n\nThe doctrine of reincarnation has been accepted in India and Egypt for\nat least three thousand years.  It was taught secretly in the\nEleusinian mysteries.  The philosophy of Pythagoras and of Plato is\ndeeply impregnated with it.  The Early Christian Church, as well as the\nGnostics, admitted it tacitly, but in the fourth century it was\ncondemned by the Fathers of the Church and banished from orthodox\nChristianity.  Nevertheless it has always had an irresistible\nattraction for thoughtful minds, and many of the greatest thinkers,\nartists and poets of all ages have been firmly convinced of its truth.\n\nOnce installed in New York the Russian prophetess sowed far and wide\nthe seeds of her new faith, whose consolatory doctrine attracted many\nwho were saddened by the phenomenon of death, while at the same time it\nbrought her many enemies.\n\nAfter a time she departed for India, where her teachings became\nconsiderably enriched and widened by local and historical influences.\nShe died in London in 1891.\n\nWe will pass in silence over the calumnious and dishonourable\naccusations which poisoned her years of triumph, and with which it has\nbeen sought to tarnish her memory.  In these days we slander our\nprophets instead of killing them--a procedure which may cause them\ngreater suffering, but has no effect upon the spread of their doctrines.\n\n\nMadame Blavatsky's philosophy is set forth in a series of elaborate\nworks of which the chief are _The Secret Doctrine_, the _Key to\nTheosophy_, and _Isis Unveiled_, constituting, according to the author,\na key to the mysteries of ancient and modern science and theology.  To\nthis medley of thoughts and facts drawn from the mystical wisdom of all\ncountries and all ages, the magic of the writer's style gives a\npeculiar force and flavour, and though she may not always convince, she\ncertainly offers food for thought and speculation--which is, perhaps,\neven more essential.\n\nHer frequent lack of precision and clearness seems only to enhance the\neffect of her affirmations and revelations.  A prophet who could easily\nbe understood by intelligences of all grades would soon come to grief,\nfor religious teachers, like philosophers and metaphysicians, seem to\nbe esteemed and admired largely in proportion to the vagueness of their\ndoctrines.  The works of Madame Blavatsky are worthy of being classed\namong the most obscure, and for that very reason have every chance of\nendurance.\n\nIn spite of the differences that arose among the principal Theosophists\n(who included Colonel Olcott, William Q. Judge, and Annie Besant) after\ntheir leader's death, Catherine Tingley succeeded in rallying large\nnumbers of the American believers to her banner, and founded a colony\nat Point Loma, California, under the name of \"the universal and\ntheosophical brotherhood,\" which was approved by the Theosophical\nconferences held in New York and Chicago in 1898.\n\nTheosophy is in fact a philosophy of altruism, whose main tenets are\nbrotherly love and justice.  By following truth the soul becomes\npurified, and after a life consecrated to others and guided by the laws\nof justice, the individual may hope to reincarnate in some higher form.\nAs the poet of Sakuntala has said--\"In other existences we all have\nloved and wept\"--but the divine Kalidasa teaches that past lives should\nnot be spoken of, \"for the mystery of rebirth is sacred.\"\n\nThe duality of our being is shown, on the one hand, in our earthly sins\nand failures, and on the other in the spiritual aspirations which ever\nurge us on to greater heights.  The law of Karma affirms the\nrelationship between cause and effect, and teaches that \"as a man sows,\nso shall he also reap\"--and consequently, the better our thoughts and\nactions now, the greater our advancement in the next life.\n\nIt is in the teachings of the divine Krishna that we find the original\nsource of the greater part of modern Theosophy.  His precepts are full\nof consolation for restless minds, and have the power to reconcile us\nnot only to death, but to life.\n\nIn the vast store-house of the world's legends there is none more\nbeautiful than that of the immaculate maiden Devaki, who in a divine\necstasy, amid strains of celestial music, brought forth the child of\nMahadeva, Sun of Suns, in perfect serenity and bliss; while the story\nof Krishna's life, his dangers and temptations, his virtues and his\nbeauty, his wisdom and his final supreme initiation, has provided the\nHindu world with conceptions of a grandeur, originality and depth\nrarely met with elsewhere.  To this well of wisdom came Plato and\nPythagoras, and drew from it the chief ingredients of their\nphilosophies; and here, too, we receive from the lips of Krishna,\nthirty centuries before the birth of Christ, the first faint\nintimations of the immortality of the soul.\n\nHe taught his disciples that man, living upon earth, is triple in\nessence, possessing spirit, mind and body.  When he succeeds in\nharmonising the two first, he attains the state of _Sattva_, and\nrejoices in wisdom and peace.  When he succeeds in harmonising mind and\nbody only, he is in the state of _Raja_, which is unstable and\ndangerous.  When the body preponderates, he is in the state of _Tamas_,\n\"that bindeth by heedlessness, indolence and sloth.\"  Man's lot depends\ntherefore on the correlation of these three states.  When he dies in\nthe state of _Sattva_, his soul rises to regions of the utmost purity\nand bliss, and comprehends all mysteries, in close communion with the\nMost High.  This is true immortality.  But those who have not escaped\nfrom _Raja_ and _Tamas_ must return to earth and reincarnate in mortal\nbodies.\n\n\nIn later years Hermes Trismegistus, the Thrice-Greatest One, further\ndeveloped these principles, adding to them the mystical treasures of\nEgyptian wisdom.  It has been said by Lactance that \"Hermes, one knows\nnot how, succeeded in discovering nearly all the truth.\"  During the\nfirst few centuries of the Christian era his works enjoyed a\nconsiderable vogue, and he also had a very great influence on the\nRenaissance period.  The Hermetic books, with all their mysteries, have\nbecome part of the theosophical gospel, as well as the doctrines of\nPlato and of the Neo-Platonists, Plutarch's treatises on Isis and\nOsiris, the philosophies of Plotinus and Iamblichus, the teachings of\nPhilo and of the Gnostics, and the works of innumerable others, who in\nseeking to throw light on the super-physical realms seem often only to\nhave succeeded in plunging them into greater darkness.  Augmented by\nall these obscure products of philosophy and metaphysics, the new\nTheosophy gives the impression of a gigantic and impenetrable maze, but\nit must be admitted that its followers have drawn from it maxims whose\njustice and high morality are beyond question.\n\nThe general trend of its teachings is indicated by the following\nsublime passages from the Bhagavad Gita, or Lord's Song:--\n\n\"He attaineth Peace, into whom all desires flow as rivers flow into the\nocean, which is filled with water, but remaineth unmoved--not he who\ndesireth desires.  Whoso forsaketh all desires and goeth onwards free\nfrom yearnings, selfless and without egoism--he goeth to Peace. . . .\nFreed from passion, fear and anger, filled with Me, taking refuge in\nMe, purified in the fire of wisdom, many have entered into My Being.\nHowever men approach Me, even so do I welcome them, for the path men\ntake from every side is Mine, O Partha.\"\n\nBut the many imitations and variations of this wonderful Song have\ndespoiled it of some of its freshness and beauty, so that in these days\nit is rather like the airs played on barrel-organs whose original\ntunefulness is forgotten through wearisome repetition.\n\n\nTheosophists are also concerned, with studying the sevenfold nature of\nman and of the universe, with the existence of invisible worlds, the\ngraduated stages of death and rebirth, and the attainment of divine\nwisdom through perfect purity of life and thought.  They are opposed to\nracial prejudices, social classifications, and all distinctions that\nseparate and divide mankind, and they inculcate the greatest possible\nrespect for, the widest possible tolerance between, the world's\ndifferent religions.  Like Christian Scientists they do not believe in\nthe practice of hypnotic suggestion, but they disagree with the\nmaterialism of the Scientists, holding that, in the search for truth,\npurity of life is the one essential, and worldly prosperity of small\nimportance.\n\nIn 1912 and 1913 Mrs. Tingley visited Europe and made numerous converts\nin England, Italy, France, Germany and the Scandinavian countries,\nwhile the Theosophical Conference held at Point Loma in 1915, in the\ninterests of peace and universal brotherhood, was an immense success.\nThe Theosophists have always been ardent workers in the cause of\ninternational peace, and while awaiting the dawn of a New Age when war\nshall be unknown, they strive to forestall its advent in their\nCalifornian paradise.\n\nDramatic and musical performances are given in theatres built in the\nGreek style; there is a college of Raja-Yoga, where thousands of pupils\nof all races are initiated into the mysteries of Karma and\nReincarnation; a School of Antiquity, \"temple of the living light,\"\nwhere the secret of living in harmony with nature is taught; frequent\nlectures, conferences, sports and games; while animated conversations\nconcerning memories of past lives have an undying fascination for the\nadherents of this doctrine which sends so many missionaries out into\nthe world every year.\n\nUnlike other sects, the Theosophists do not seem anxious to publish\ntheir numbers abroad--whether because they make too many converts, or\ntoo few, it is impossible to say!--but there must certainly be hundreds\nof thousands scattered throughout the United States, India, and the\nAnglo-Saxon countries.\n\n\n\n\nTRANSLATOR'S NOTE\n\nThe foregoing chapter scarcely seems complete without some reference to\nthe other two centres where an attempt has been made to express the\nideals of Theosophy in concrete form--one in the East, at Adyar,\nMadras, the other in the West, at Krotona, near Los Angeles,\nCalifornia.  The former came into being in 1882 under Madame\nBlavatsky's own leadership, and has grown from a small property of only\n27 acres to one of 263 acres.  With its many fine buildings it has a\nriver-frontage (on the Adyar river) of one mile, and a sea-frontage of\ntwo-fifths of a mile.  Here Mrs. Besant--World-President of the\nTheosophical Society, apart from Mrs. Tingley's followers--makes her\nhome, leaving it only for periodical lecturing tours throughout India,\nor for visits to London and other European centres.  Her lectures at\nQueen's Hall, London, in the years immediately preceding the war, and\nagain in 1919, were remarkable for the crowds who flocked to listen to\none who, whether her views find agreement or not, is universally\nadmitted to be in the front rank of living orators.  Adyar possesses an\nexcellent library, with many valuable books and manuscripts relating to\nthe ancient religions of India; a publishing house, the Vasanta Press,\nwhence are issued yearly numerous theosophical books, pamphlets and\nmagazines, for purposes of study and propaganda; a lecture hall which\nseats 1500 people, but into which as many as 2300 have found admittance\non special occasions; a Masonic temple; an extensive building for the\nhousing of resident students; and very beautiful grounds with a\npalm-grove and an ancient banyan tree, in whose shade many of the most\nimportant theosophical lectures and conferences are held, and around\nwhich more than 3000 people of all nationalities have often been\ngathered to hear the discourses of the President and her colleagues.  A\nstriking feature of the grounds is the massive sculptured trilithons,\nabout 2000 years old, brought from a ruined temple in southern India,\nand erected here in picturesque surroundings.\n\nThe colony at Krotona is of more recent origin, and its environment is\nsimilar in some respects to that of Point Loma.  Founded in 1912 by A.\nP. Warrington, the head of the American section of the Theosophical\nSociety under Mrs. Besant's leadership, it stands on high ground on the\noutskirts of Hollywood, a suburb of Los Angeles, with magnificent views\nof the Santa Monica Mountains and of the valley leading to the sea\ntwelve miles away.  This \"Institute of Theosophy\" takes its name from\nthe School of Science, Art and Philosophy founded by the great\nPythagoras, and aspires to be to-day what his Krotona was in the\npast--a centre of spiritual enlightenment.  It is run on co-operative\nlines, and on a non-profit basis.  There are no \"servants\" in the\ncommunity, and the means of support is from a ground-rent or tax\ncharged to each house-builder, from the renting of rooms, and from\nvoluntary donations.  The buildings are in picturesque Moorish or\nSpanish style, their white walls gleaming amid the brilliant flowers\nand luxuriant greenery of this favoured climate.  They include a fine\nLending Library and Reference Room, a scientific research laboratory, a\npublishing house, an administration building, and many pretty villas\nand cottages.  There is also a temple, in whose auditorium religious\nceremonies, meetings, lectures and concerts take place, and an open-air\nstadium where each year a miracle play is to be produced, the one first\nchosen being a dramatisation of Sir Edwin Arnold's \"Light of Asia,\"\nwhich ran for three weeks in the summer of 1918.\n\nThe English Headquarters of the Society are now at 23 Bedford Square,\nLondon.\n\n\n\n\nCONCLUSION\n\n\"Tell us then, Mary, what hast thou seen upon thy way?\"\n\n\"I have seen the shroud and the vestments and the angelic witnesses,\nand I have seen the glory of the Resurrected.\"\n\n\nSaints and prophets of all lands and all ages bear an unconscious\nresemblance one to another.  The craving for truth, the unquenchable\ndesire to escape from reality, leads them into realms of mystery and\ndream, where simple peasants and labourers, religious men and\nagnostics, philosophers and mystics, all meet together.  Their\nunsuspicious minds are easily dazzled by the least ray of light, and\ndeceived by the most unlikely promises, and it is not surprising that\nthey are often imposed upon and led to accept false ways of salvation.\n\nMany of the mystics show a desire to revert to the Esoteric\nChristianity dear to Saint John, the disciple whom Jesus loved; or to\nthat of Mani, whose doctrine--unjustly distorted by his detractors--was\nconcerned with direct initiation and final mergence in the Divinity.\nBut it is not easy to progress against the stream of the centuries, and\nwith the Catharists of Hungary, the Albigenses of Provence, and the\nTemplars massacred in the name of St. Augustine--that ancient Manichean\nwho became the worst enemy of his fellow-believers--Esoteric\nChristianity seemed to have died out.  Nevertheless the desire for it\nhas never been destroyed, and continues to inspire the teachings of all\nthose who revolt against dogmas that tend to restrict the soul's\nactivities instead of widening them.\n\nLogically, all viable religious evolution is a departure from the\nChristianity which has moulded our present-day thought and morality and\nis the centre of all our hopes.  But every new revival has to reckon\nwith it.  Madame Blavatsky, for instance, made Gautama Buddha--the\nking's son who became a beggar by reason of his immense compassion for\nmankind--the central pivot of her esotericism, which was Buddhist\nrather than Christian in essence; but Annie Besant, the spiritual\nleader of modern Theosophy, has returned to Christianity and\nacknowledges the divinity of the Son of Man.  This symbolic example\nshould reassure Christian believers, showing how even those who depart\nfrom Christianity contribute, in spite of themselves, to its continuous\ngrowth.\n\n\nCrowds of new phenomena are now demanding entry into the divine city of\nreligion.  There is, first of all, science, undertaking to present us\nwith a morality conforming to the Gospel teachings, which it claims\nhave become a dead letter.  But if twenty centuries of Christianity\nhave not transformed human nature, neither has science.  Materialism\nand commercialism have failed just as the Church, with her spirit of\nexclusion and domination, has failed.  The fact that all these have\nworked separately and in hostility to one another is perhaps the\nreason, for mutual understanding and respect, once established between\nthem, might well result in a new revelation worthy of the new humanity\nwhich shall emerge from this tragic age.  A superior idealism, at once\nreligious, social and scientific, must sooner or later bring new light\nand warmth to the world, for a world-crisis which has shaken the very\nfoundations of our existence cannot leave intact its logical corollary,\nfaith, in whose vicinity threatening clouds have long been visible.  As\nat the dawn of Christianity, the whole world has seemed to be rent by\ntorturing doubts and by the menace of an approaching end.  After having\nbeen preserved from destruction by Christ for two thousand years, it\nsuddenly found itself in the throes of the most appalling upheaval yet\nexperienced, with the majority of its inhabitants engaged in a\nmurderous war.  The dream of human brotherhood, glimpsed throughout the\ncenturies, seemed to be irretrievably threatened, and once more arose\nthe age-old question as to how the Reign of Love was to be introduced\nupon earth.\n\nThe present era shows other striking analogies to the early days of\nChristianity, as, for instance, in the democratic movement tending to\nestablish the sovereignity of the people.  But it is no longer\nexceptional men, like prophets, who proclaim the dawn of the age of\nequality, but the masses themselves, under the guidance of their chosen\nleaders.  In the book of Enoch the Son of Man tears kings from their\nthrones and casts them into Hell; but this was only an isolated seer\ndaring to predict misfortune for those who built their palaces \"with\nthe sweat of others.\"  The old-time prophets desired to reduce the rich\nto the level of the poor, and a man denuded of all worldly goods was\nheld up as an ideal to be followed.  This naturally necessitated\nmendicity, and it was not till some centuries had passed that the\nChurch herself became reconciled to the possession of riches.  Our own\nage, however, desires to uplift the poor to the level of the rich, and\na more generous spirit is manifested, in accordance with the progress\nmade by the science of social reform.  Still it is, at bottom, the same\nspirit of brotherhood, enlarged and deepened, which now seeks to level\nfrom below upwards instead of from above downwards.  Distrust and\nsuspicion are directed chiefly towards the \"New Rich,\" products of the\nwar, who have built up their fortunes on the ruin and misery of others,\nand to these might be addressed the words of Jesus to the wealthy of\nHis time--\"Be ye faithful stewards\"--that is to say, \"Make good\ninvestments for the Kingdom of God in the interests of your fellow-men.\"\n\nWe are witnessing a revival of the \"good tidings for the poor,\" in whom\nmay be included the whole human community.  For the revolution of\nto-day differs from that of the simple Galileans, and is of grave and\nuniversal portent, proceeding, as it does, from men who have thought\nand suffered, and profited by the disorder and misery of thousands of\nyears.\n\nThe Gospel is in process of being renovated.  All these new churches\nand beliefs can only serve to strengthen the great work in which the\n\"Word\" is incarnated.  Whether produced by deliberate thought or by\nunconscious cerebration, whether professed by \"saints\" or practised by\n\"initiates,\" they hold up a mirror to the soul of contemporary humanity\nwith all its miseries and doubts; and for this reason, whatever their\nnature or origin, they are deserving of sympathetic study.\n\n\nThere are great religions and small ones, and as with works of art, we\nare apt to find in each, more or less, what we ourselves bring to it.\nJeremiah, when travelling through Ancient Egypt, felt indignation at\nthe sight of gods with hawks' or jackals' heads; while the touching\nconfessions of the dead, consigned to papyrus--\"I have not killed!  I\nhave not been idle!  I have not caused others to weep!\"--only drew from\nhim exclamations of anger and contempt.  Herodotus, a century later,\nalso understood nothing of this world of mysterious tombs, with its\nmoral teachings thousands of years old, or of the great spiritual\nrevelation with which the land of the Pharaohs is impregnated.  Both\nalike--Jeremiah, unmoved by the cruelty and hardness of Jehovah,\nHerodotus, oblivious to the sensuality and immorality of his own gods,\nwho, according to Xenophon, were adepts at thieving and lying--shook\ntheir heads in dismay before the Egyptian symbols.  But Plato, on the\ncontrary, was able to appreciate the harmonious beauty of a divine\nTrinity, sublime incarnation of that which is \"eternal, unproduced,\nindestructible . . . eternally uniform and consistent, and monoeidic\nwith itself.\"\n\nThere are, no doubt, many Jeremiahs to-day, but there are also\nunderstanding souls capable of taking an interest in even the most\nbizarre manifestations of religious faith.  These throw a revelatory\nlight upon some of the most painful problems of our time, as well as\nupon the secret places of the human soul where lurks an ever eager\nhope, often frustrated, and alas, often deceived.\n\n\nAll religious sects and reformers since the time of Christ have only\nsucceeded in modifying, renovating, uplifting or debasing the eternal\nprinciples already enunciated by the Son of Man.  He it was who founded\nthe integral religion for all time, but as it permits of the most\nvaried interpretations, innumerable and widely divergent sects have\nbeen able to graft themselves upon its eternal trunk.  After Him, said\nRenan--who has been wrongly considered an opponent of Christ--there is\nnothing to be done save to develop and to fertilize, for His perfect\nidealism is the golden rule for a detached and virtuous life.  He was\nthe first to proclaim the kingdom of the spirit, and has established\nfor ever the ideal of pure religion; and as His religion is a religion\nof _feeling_, all movements which seek to bring about the kingdom of\nheaven upon earth can attach themselves to His principles and to His\nway of salvation.\n\nFurther, any religious movement which appeals to our higher instincts\nmust eventually contribute to the triumph of human brotherhood and to\nthe beautifying of human life--which increases the interest of studying\nall attempts at revival and reform.  Such a study will prevent us from\nbeing overwhelmed by the uglinesses of life, or from becoming sunk in a\nmorass of material pleasures, and will open up ways of escape into the\nheavenly realms.\n\nThe true teaching of Jesus has, as a matter of fact, never yet been\nrealised in practice.  It holds up an ideal almost unattainable for\nmortals, like the light of a fixed star which attracts us in spite of\nits unthinkable distance.  But we may, perhaps, by roundabout ways,\nultimately succeed in giving a definite form to the Platonic dreams\nwhich ever hover around the shores of our consciousness.  Among the\n\"saints\" and \"initiates\" who work outside the borders of accepted\ndogma, there are often to be found some whose originality and real\nspiritual worth is not generally recognised, and instead of turning\naway from their \"visions\" and \"revelations,\" we should rather examine\nthem with close attention.  Even if our faith gains nothing, we shall\nbe sure to pick up psychological treasures which could be turned to the\nprofit of science.\n\nWe have been re-living, in these recent years, the \"desolation\" of the\nprophets, only that the suffering of the few in former times became\nwith us the suffering of all.  There is the same difference between the\ntroubles of ancient Judea and those of the modern world, as there is\nbetween her miniature wars and the colossal conflict whose aftermath is\nwith us still.\n\nYet now, as in the time of Isaiah, the nations long for eternal peace,\nand the desire for a world more in harmony with man's deepest thoughts\nand wishes is one of the dominant causes of religious schism and revolt.\n\nLet us hope that the world-wide catastrophe that we have witnessed may\nyet lead to the realisation of the ideal expressed by Jesus, and by the\nancient prophet before Him:--\n\n\"And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people:\nand they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears\ninto pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation,\nneither shall they learn war any more.\"  And again--\"The work of\nrighteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness\nand assurance for ever.  And my people shall dwell in a peaceable\nhabitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.\"\n\n\nMany are being stirred to new life and action by dreams which hold, in\nalmost every case, some fragment of the longed-for truth, however\nfoolish or illogical in expression; and we should in consequence\napproach the dreamers with all the sympathy of which we are capable.\nOften their countenances are made beautiful by love, and they will, at\nthe least, provide us with a golden key to the fascinating mysteries of\nman's subconscious mind.  What though their doctrines vanish from sight\nunder the scalpel of analysis?  It is no small pleasure to contemplate,\nand even to examine closely, such delightful phantoms.","title":"Modern Saints and Seers","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":49630}