ival the health of the invalid often revives as if by
enchantment. Alphonse Karr, a resident of many years, who knows every
nook and corner of the place, and who has cultivated a garden in its
environs as celebrated throughout the world as his own sparkling pen,
says well: "Who is there so downhearted as to resist the glorious heat
of the sun, the beauty of that deepest of blue seas, the loveliness of
the varied trees, the tropical vegetation, the scent of the
orange-flowers, the music of the brooks, the sight of the ever-changing
hues of the mountains of _Nizza la bella_?"

R. DAVEY.

THE RASKOL, AND SECTS IN RUSSIA.

FROM THE FRENCH OF ANATOLE LEROY-BEAULIEU.

I.--ORIGIN OF THE RASKOL.

For more than two centuries Russian orthodoxy has been undermined by
obscure sects, unknown to foreigners, and little known to Russians
themselves. Beneath the imposing pile of the official Church have been
hollowed out vast underground burrows and a labyrinth of gloomy crypts,
which form a retreat for the popular beliefs and superstitions. We
propose to descend into these catacombs of ignorance and fanaticism. We
shall attempt to map them out, to explore their remotest nooks, and to
lay hold in this, their hiding-place, of the character and aspirations
of the people. Nothing could yield better means of acquaintance with the
genius of the nation and the groundwork of Russian society. The
_Raskol_, with its thousand sects, is perhaps the most original
feature of Russia, and what most sharply distinguishes it from Western
Europe.

Like rivers colored by the soil through which they flow, religions often
change their characteristics according to the nations who practice them.
The Raskol is Byzantine Christianity issuing from the Russian lower
classes. In the thick and muddy waters of Muscovite sectarianism we can
distinguish foreign admixtures, sometimes Protestant, sometimes Jewish,
or even Mohammedan, more frequently Gnostic or pagan. The Raskol,
nevertheless, remains wholly different, in principle and in tendency,
from all the religions and religious movements of the world: it is
original and national from the foundation up. So thoroughly Russian is
it that outside of its native country it has never made a proselyte, and
even within the empire has hardly any adherents excepting among the
people of "Greater Russia," the most thoroughly national of all. So
spontaneous has been i