himself. He had travelled
much, and had been an attentive observer. Whether he had ever been
in America was doubtful, but he had certainly been in Turkey, and had
fraternised with various Russian sectarians, who are to be found in
considerable numbers near the Danube. Here, probably, he acquired many
of his peculiar religious ideas, and conceived his grand scheme of
founding a new religion--of rivalling the Founder of Christianity! He
aimed at nothing less than this, as he on one occasion confessed, and
he did not see why he should not be successful. He believed that
the Founder of Christianity had been simply a man like himself,
who understood better than others the people around him and the
circumstances of the time, and he was convinced that he himself had
these qualifications. One qualification, however, for becoming a prophet
he certainly did not possess: he had no genuine religious enthusiasm in
him--nothing of the martyr spirit about him. Much of his own preaching
he did not himself believe, and he had a secret contempt for those who
naively accepted it all. Not only was he cunning, but he knew he was
cunning, and he was conscious that he was playing an assumed part. And
yet perhaps it would be unjust to say that he was merely an impostor
exclusively occupied with his own personal advantage. Though he was
naturally a man of sensual tastes, and could not resist convenient
opportunities of gratifying them, he seemed to believe that his
communistic schemes would, if realised, be beneficial not only to
himself, but also to the people. Altogether a curious mixture of the
prophet, the social reformer, and the cunning impostor!

Besides the Molokanye, there are in Russia many other heretical sects.
Some of them are simply Evangelical Protestants, like the Stundisti, who
have adopted the religious conceptions of their neighbours, the German
colonists; whilst others are composed of wild enthusiasts, who give a
loose rein to their excited imagination, and revel in what the Germans
aptly term "der hohere Blodsinn." I cannot here attempt to convey even
a general idea of these fantastic sects with their doctrinal and
ceremonial absurdities, but I may offer the following classification of
them for the benefit of those who may desire to study the subject:

1. Sects which take the Scriptures as the basis of their belief, but
interpret and complete the doctrines therein contained by means of
the occasional inspiration or interna