the least inconvenience in treating the subjects he has elected: to speak truth, his tenets are in a certain sense pagan, or rather, such as might well be included in a pagan code. From the hardy minds of the old world he has adopted all that is kindly, humane, resignedly brave, and a little of what is sad in the pathetic belief in a short life soon to be forgotten; but the evident healthiness of a robust, manly soul has saved him from deforming his works by any fatal admixture of that maudlin anti-theism which, when admitted, cannot fail to mar the calm beauty of an antique ideal. There is not in Mr. Morris's writings a trace of unhealthy revolt against circumstance and law; and although we may gather plenty of wholesome lessons to struggle after attainable good and struggle away from avoidable evil, we are made to feel at the same time the beauty and strength of manly submission to the inevitable, so that when we call this poet "pagan," it is merely in the negative sense of exhibiting no essential and distinctive modern principle, æsthetic, ethic, or religious. The period of paganism has not been, and indeed could not be, merged in a better period without leaving any trace of itself, without furnishing some good residuum to be built into the fabric of such better period, and Mr. Morris merely seems to neglect the later portions of the fabric in selecting that residuum. To pass censure on this selection would be to ignore the beautiful, unaffected "Apology" prefixed to The Earthly Paradise :·

"Of heaven or hell I have no power to sing,

I cannot ease the burden of your fears,
Or make quick-coming death a little thing,
Or bring again the pleasure of past years,
Nor for my words shall ye forget your tears,
Or hope again for aught that I can say,
The idle singer of an empty day.

But rather, when aweary of your mirth,
From full-hearts still unsatisfied ye sigh,
And, feeling kindly unto all the earth,
Grudge every minute as it passes by,

Made the more mindful that the sweet days die-
Remember me a little, then, I pray,

The idle singer of an empty day.

The heavy trouble, the bewildering care

That weighs us down who live and earn our bread,
These idle verses have no power to bear.

So let me sing of names remembered,

Because they, living not, can ne'er be dead,

Or long time take their memory quite away
From us poor singers of an empty day.

Dreamer of dreams, born out of my due time,
Why should I strive to set the crooked straight?
Let it suffice me that my murmuring rhyme
Beats with light wing against the ivory gate,
Telling a tale not too importunate

To those who in the sleepy region stay,
Lulled by the singer of an empty day.

Folk say, a wizard to a northern king

At Christmas-tide such wondrous things did show,
That through one window men beheld the spring,
And through another saw the summer glow,
And through a third the fruited vines arow,
While still, unheard, but in its wonted way,
Piped the drear wind of that December day.
So with this earthly Paradise it is,
If ye will read aright, and pardon me,
Who strive to build a shadowy isle of bliss
Midmost the beating of the steely sea,

Where tossed about all hearts of men must be,

Whose ravening monsters mighty men shall slay,
Not the poor singer of an empty day."

These are his gifts no doubt, these he here describes; and he has made a beautiful use of them. What more should we ask?

POSTSCRIPT.-Mr. Morris's rapidity of production is such that it is difficult to keep pace with him. Since the foregoing article was written he has, in conjunction with Mr. Eiríkr Magnússon, put forth two Sagas translated from the Icelandic-The Story of Grettir the Strong, which forms a considerable volume, and The Saga of Gunnlaug_the_Wormtogne and Rafn the Skald, published in the Fortnightly Review. Further, while we were going to press, a second instalment of The Earthly Paradise was issued. We are obliged to leave undiscussed the great merits of the two Sagas, and the special beauties conferred on these translations by the touch of a poetic hand; while of the new part of The Earthly Paradise we can merely note that it is, in our opinion, of greater importance than its predecessor, and that, in the story told therein of Gudrun and her lovers, the poet has taken a higher flight than in any previous work, while keeping on the earth in communion with human beings only, instead of scaling Olympus.

* London: F. S. Ellis, 33, King-street, Covent-garden.

The Greco-Russian Church.

361

ART. IV.-1. L'Eglise de Russie. Par L. BoISSARD, Pasteur à Glay, près Montbéliard (Doubs). Deux Tomes. Paris:

Cherbouliez.

1867.

2. Sketches of the Rites and Customs of the Greco-Russian Church. By H. C. ROMANOFF. Rivingtons: 1869.

A BRIEF notice of these volumes has already appeared in this Review. The larger work is from the pen of a French Protestant pastor, and contains a history of the Russian branch of the Greek Church, from the earliest date of which there are authentic records, to the present day. The historical matter is supplemented by comprehensive details as to the discipline and doctrine of the Church, its various schisms, its literature, its monachism, its Christian life, and its relation to the other Churches of Christendom. The substance of the book is the fruit of diligent and conscientious compilation; but this is varied by a judicious and often eloquent criticism, which shows that the writer is a man of no ordinary intelligence, and of large and catholic spirit. He has a profound sympathy with his subject; and to this the one weakness of his work may be traced. An ardent and almost impassioned admiration for "Holy Russia" and her Faith betrays him sometimes into the use of heightened tones of colour, with which a Protestant can scarcely sympathise, and which the facts of the case do not warrant. With this single drawback, M. Boissard's volumes may be confidently commended to all students of the phenomena of ecclesiastical history. They are historically trustworthy, and they furnish as complete a summary of the subject as is requisite for purposes of general information. To those also who wish to go more deeply into the problems of the world's religious life, they will offer many suggestions. We may add that the style of the writer is very chaste and beautiful; and those who are sufficiently familiar with the French language will follow him with pleasure and profit. The Sketches of the Rites and Customs of the Greco-Russian Church, by Madame Romanoff, an English lady who is married to a Russian officer, is a work of much less pretension, and is scarcely worthy of being classed with the volumes of Pasteur Boissard. It consists of a series of domestic tales, illustrative of the religious ceremonial of Russia, and of its hold on the popular mind and VOL. XXXIII. NO. LXVI.

B B

heart. This method of conveying authentic information is open to suspicion, and in most instances fatal to correct representation; but, in this case, it is so well applied as to disarm objection. Madame Romanoff has produced a charming book, which will command a large circle of readers outside the range contemplated in the volumes of M. Boissard.

We need not apologise for recurring, according to promise, to the subject of these volumes. The charge of a very general ignorance on this question, made by Dean Stanley in his Lectures on the Eastern Church, may yet be sustained. Discussions which have arisen out of recent proposals for the union of Christendom, reveal, on the part of clergy and laity, not only a mistaken conception, but an absolute ignorance of the history, discipline, and dogma, and in some cases almost of the existence, of the largest, the most conservative, the most influential, and in many particulars the most ancient religious establishment in Christendom. For while the continuity of the national religious establishments of the West has been broken by schism, and dislocated by rival factions, the line of the Russian Church has been maintained unbroken and unentangled since the first Russian sovereign received the rite of baptism at the hands of the Patriarch of Constantinople. The power of the Russian Church is co-extensive with the power of the State. In Russia, the State is the Church. The religion of the people is bound up with their law, their patriotism, their social life. A religious schism would be regarded as a political revolution. The allegiance which fifty millions of subjects yield to the Czar is as much a matter of creed as of nationality. In the face of such facts as these, the general ignorance which prevails respecting the Russian Church would be unintelligible, were it not for two reasons, which probably furnish the explanation. The first is, that the literature of the subject is scanty, and in most cases practically inaccessible, locked up in a language little known beyond the immediate limits of the empire. The second and perhaps the more cogent reason lies in the fact that the history of the Russian Church is less romantic and picturesque than that of the various branches of the Church of the West. Her schisms have been few and unimpressive, her roll of notable martyrs is but brief, her hierarchy has furnished only here and there an illustrious name to the annals of the saints, her pulpits are without fame, her aggressions on the domain of paganism have been feeble, and, though of immense influence within her own territory, she has no claim to catholicity.

The tide of progress, which has given infinite variety and incident to the Western Churches, obliterating their ancient landmarks, altering their coast line, and invigorating them with fresh life and beauty, has beaten against the Church of Russia, as against a belt of rocks barren and immovable.

But the comparative absence of incident in the history of the Russian Church need not lessen the actual interest and profit of the study. There are features in it which are to be found in no other church, and which all churches should emulate. Its persistent fidelity to tradition may be studied with advantage in an age when novelty has so potent a charm, and when progress means less the improvement than the entire abandonment of the past. Its strict toleration of all divergent creed and worship-a toleration all the more remarkable, because proselytism is forbidden, and Russian faith is almost fanatical-is a living lesson to all Christendom. And, in the words of Dean Stanley :

"We may learn something from the otherwise unparalleled sight of whole nations and races of men, penetrated by the religious sentiment, which visibly sways their minds, even when it fails to reach their conduct. . . . From the sight of a calm strength, reposing in the quietness and confidence of a treasure of hereditary belief, which its possessor is content to value for himself, without forcing it on the reception of others. . . . From the sight of churches where religion is not abandoned to the care of women and children, but is claimed as the right and the privilege of men; where the Church reposes, not so much on the force and influence of its clergy, as on the independent knowledge and manly zeal of its laity."

The ordinary interest of the study is enhanced, in these days, by the unsettled state of religious opinion, by the craving on the part of many after a union of Christendom, and more especially by the summoning of a so-called Ecumenical Council by the Roman Pontiff.

The vast districts which are now comprised in the Russian Empire were known to ancient times under the general designation of Scythia. They were peopled mainly by the Sclaves, a race of great daring, and with an almost savage passion for war. Their religion, though pagan, and founded mainly on the worship of nature, was singularly pure. Their forests and fields, their joys and sorrows, their wars, their personal destinies, were placed under the protection of tutelary deities, but they acknowledged the existence of one Supreme God. Their domestic manners were gentle, their habits simple, and their general culture considerably in advance