I expressed my soitow to my Mount Athos friend, that he was still imder the Turkish sceptre instead of belonging to liberated Greece, but I found him of quite a different opinion. "It was much better as it was," he said, " and he and all his brethren were glad that they were to remain in the old way. The king of Greece was a papist, which was worse than being a Turk. The Greek king ought to have done as the Russian empresses did, and adopt the religion of the people, which was a right and reasonable proceeding ! " Nothing could exceed his contempt for the little Greek kingdom, and I found this way of thinking universal among the Greek clergy in Russia : those Greeks, on the contrary, who were military men, seemed very desirous of entering the Greek service, and showed no such preference for the Turks.
Father Arfael invited me afterwards to rest myself on the cushions in his cell ; and tliere I was obliged to relate something concerning the great theatre, which stood not far from his convent, and whose interior was an object of great curiosity to him. He had never been so far from the walls of his place of shelter. His cell was adorned with pictures of the Iberian cloister, done partly in Moscow, and partly in Venice ; his Greek books had likewise been printed in the two cities. Over his door a cross was painted,
and at the head of his bed a text, teaching contempt for all temporal, and reverence for all celestial matters. He had chosen the text himself, as all are wont to choose one, for the heads of their couches, and, moreover, he preached upon it for my benefit. " All things in this world were vain' and man the vainest. He and all else were but dust. Man should meditate on this day and night, and never loose sight of it. To-day man was here, and to-morrow he was gone. So was it with all men, but with him particularly, as he was suftering under a liver complaint and might soon expect death." This I should never have perceived in him, but I reioiced to hear that he made so good a practical use of the holy doctrine. I read with him some consoling passages from his Greek Bible, on which we conversed, and I left him in the twilight, cheered and comforted by reliffious views. Although I was quite in the mood to stay the year out with Arfael, and then withdraw with him to Mount Athos, there to await my happy end, yet as there was still much in the world that was new and interesting to me, I thought I might as well postpone my retirement, till I had seen what there was to be seen.
DIVINE SERVICE IN THE RUSSIAN GREEK CHURCH.
A man must feel all the wants of a poor Russian seminarist, who wishes to become a pope, or love idle ceremonies as much as a Russian Greek Christian who is never tired of churchgoing, to desire an acquaintance with all the services which the fancy of the priests and the people have invented for the collective 365 saints in the year, and for the adornment of the numerous interesting moments in the hfe of a man of seventy years of age, from his birth to his death. Something concerning them, however, is necessary to be known by a generally well-informed person ; we will endeavour, therefore, to give some account of them, which may be the less unwelcome as they have been generally overlooked by travellers. Let us begin with the birth, or rather with what immediately follows it, the baptism.
This office of the church follows the birth so quickly, according to the Greek ritual, that the mother cannot be present, and as it is supposed that the father is employed in cherishing and comforting his wife, neither assist at the baptism of their child. A male and female friend take their places. Some great patron is usually asked to be godfather. Should the emperor and empress, while on a journey, be in any town witliin Avhose walls a child has just been born, the parents have a right to request their emperor to be godfather, which is seldom refused, and his majesty has probably a larger number of godchildren within his empire, than any of his subjects.