eathens_, in order to acquire the fame of a more
exalted sanctity. Yet the same discipline, as I have shown in my
_Letter_,(98) is constantly practised at _Rome_ in some of their solemn
seasons and processions, in imitation of these _Pagan enthusiasts_, as if
they searched the Scriptures to learn, not so much what was enjoined by
true religion, as what had been useful at any time in a false one, to
delude the multitude, and support an imposture."--(_Middleton's
Miscellaneous Works_, vol. v., p. 11, _et seq._)

The same author justly observes, that "under the _Pagan emperors_ the use
of _incense_ for any purpose of religion was thought so contrary to the
obligations of _Christianity_, that in their persecutions, the very method
of _trying and converting a Christian was by requiring him only to throw
the least grain of it into the censer or on the altar_."

"Under the _Christian emperors_, on the other hand, it was looked upon as
a _rite_ so peculiarly _heathenish_, that the very _places or houses_
where it could be proved to have been done, were, by a law of Theodosius,
confiscated to the government."(99)--(_Ibid._, p. 95.)

I shall conclude this essay by a short sketch of the superstitious
practices prevailing in the Graeco-Russian Church, which will be the
subject of my next and last chapter.

Chapter VIII. Image-Worship And Other Superstitious Practices Of The
Graeco-Russian Church.

The Graeco-Russian Church is perhaps the most important element of the
politico-religious complications in which Europe is at present involved.
It is, moreover, not a fortuitous cause of these complications, but has
been growing during centuries, until it has reached its present magnitude,
though its action upon Turkey may have been prematurely brought into play
by accidental circumstances. It comprehends within its pale about
50,000,000 of souls, whilst it exercises an immense influence upon
13,000,000 of Turkish, and a considerable one upon more than 3,000,000 of
Austrian subjects, professing the tenets of that church, though governed
by separate hierarchies. To this number must be added the population of
the kingdom of Greece, amounting to about 1,000,000: so that the whole of
the followers of the Eastern Church may be computed in round numbers at
66,000,000 or 67,000,000 of souls.(100)

The Russian Church differs from other Greek churches, not in her tenets,
but in her government. From the establishment of Christianity in