shed historical
pictures. In Russia the history of religious art has been entirely
different. Instead of distinctive schools of painting and great
religious artists, there has been merely an anonymous traditional craft,
destitute of any artistic individuality. In all the productions of
this craft the old Byzantine forms have been faithfully and rigorously
preserved, and we can see reflected in the modern Icons--stiff, archaic,
expressionless--the immobility of the Eastern Church in general, and of
the Russian Church in particular.

To the Roman Catholic, who struggles against science as soon as it
contradicts traditional conceptions, and to the Protestant, who strives
to bring his religious beliefs into accordance with his scientific
knowledge, the Russian Church may seem to resemble an antediluvian
petrifaction, or a cumbrous line-of-battle ship that has been long
stranded. It must be confessed, however, that the serene inactivity for
which she is distinguished has had very valuable practical consequences.
The Russian clergy have neither that haughty, aggressive intolerance
which characterises their Roman Catholic brethren, nor that bitter,
uncharitable, sectarian spirit which is too often to be found among
Protestants. They allow not only to heretics, but also to members of
their own communion, the most complete intellectual freedom, and never
think of anathematising any one for his scientific or unscientific
opinions. All that they demand is that those who have been born
within the pale of Orthodoxy should show the Church a certain nominal
allegiance; and in this matter of allegiance they are by no mean very
exacting. So long as a member refrains from openly attacking the Church
and from going over to another confession, he may entirely neglect all
religious ordinances and publicly profess scientific theories logically
inconsistent with any kind of dogmatic religious belief without the
slightest danger of incurring ecclesiastical censure.

This apathetic tolerance may be partly explained by the national
character, but it is also to some extent due to the peculiar relations
between Church and State. The government vigilantly protects the Church
from attack, and at the same time prevents her from attacking her
enemies. Hence religious questions are never discussed in the Press,
and the ecclesiastical literature is all historical, homiletic, or
devotional. The authorities allow public oral discussions to be held
durin