they use the greatest care to avoid intermixing their eatables or utensils with such as are unholy. The Russian proprietors of estates (who are resident in the Crimea) for the most part find it more convenient in all respects, and accordant with their circumstances, to keep the fast ; but the more wealthy observe it variously some keeping the first and last week, and others disregarding it altogether; and perhaps it may be considered one proof that the present age is becoming more enlightened, since the younger part of families are beginning to look with a very doubtful eye at the efficacy of that self-denial which aboundeth unto evil, rather than to good.
A Russian priest called upon us, with some other friends, during Lent, and I felt sorry that we had nothing to set before him that I thought he would eat, except some pickled fish : he however soon relieved me from this regret, and while partaking of that which the rest of the party were eating, he said, " we understand as well as you the nature of fasting; not that which goeth into the mouth defileth the man is it not so ? but yet it is not necessary that all should see so clearly." His own clearness of sight, I was told, was more frequently impeded by drinking than eating ; however, those who are less liberal than he, never think of abstinence from drink, or any other intemperate desire; and that self-denial which can abstain for five or six weeks from animal food, is expected to make amends for the breach of all the remaining catalogue of sins. " Thank God," said the murderer of the Jew's family at the Karagoss tracteer, devoutly crossing himself as he spake thank God, I never broke the fast !" A Russian thinks it not needful to enter his closet, to offer up his morning or his evening orisons to the great Being he worships ; but does it through the intervention of some saint, whose picture hangs suspended in a corner of his sitting-room, to which he bows, and crossing himself, prays in a low or inaudible voice, regardless by how many he is surrounded. This, as a public acknowledgment of his faith, however it may be deemed meritorious, has decidedly its disadvantages; and I have frequently remarked, two at leastof his senses not occupied by the ceremony he was performing, namely, those of sight and feeling ; the former wandering to other objects, and the latter excited by that little animal., which seems to share with the lord of the soil the possession of a Russian peasant.
In the solemnity ofpublic worship, in which all as one family join in adoration and prayer, or in that of private devotion, our hearts are too often cold and wandering : shall we not then find fresh obstacles in praying publicly, when those around us are not engaged in the same duty? The Russian never passes a church, or rather the image of the saint to whom the church is consecrated, without crossing himself; yet the inefficacy of this outward bearing of the cross is abundantly testified in all his works.