volumes of controversy are
overspread with cobwebs: the doctrine of a Protestant church is far
removed from the knowledge or belief of its private members; and the
forms of orthodoxy, the articles of faith, are subscribed with a sigh,
or a smile, by the modern clergy. Yet the friends of Christianity
are alarmed at the boundless impulse of inquiry and scepticism. The
predictions of the Catholics are accomplished: the web of mystery is
unravelled by the Arminians, Arians, and Socinians, whose number must
not be computed from their separate congregations; and the pillars of
Revelation are shaken by those men who preserve the name without the
substance of religion, who indulge the license without the temper of
philosophy.

Chapter LV: The Bulgarians, The Hungarians And The Russians.--Part I.

The Bulgarians.--Origin, Migrations, And Settlement Of The
Hungarians.--Their Inroads In The East And West.--The
Monarchy Of Russia.--Geography And Trade.--Wars Of The
Russians Against The Greek Empire.--Conversion Of The
Barbarians.

Under the reign of Constantine the grandson of Heraclius, the ancient
barrier of the Danube, so often violated and so often restored, was
irretrievably swept away by a new deluge of Barbarians. Their progress
was favored by the caliphs, their unknown and accidental auxiliaries:
the Roman legions were occupied in Asia; and after the loss of Syria,
Egypt, and Africa, the Caesars were twice reduced to the danger and
disgrace of defending their capital against the Saracens. If, in the
account of this interesting people, I have deviated from the strict and
original line of my undertaking, the merit of the subject will hide my
transgression, or solicit my excuse. In the East, in the West, in war,
in religion, in science, in their prosperity, and in their decay, the
Arabians press themselves on our curiosity: the first overthrow of the
church and empire of the Greeks may be imputed to their arms; and the
disciples of Mahomet still hold the civil and religious sceptre of the
Oriental world. But the same labor would be unworthily bestowed on the
swarms of savages, who, between the seventh and the twelfth century,
descended from the plains of Scythia, in transient inroad or perpetual
emigration. Their names are uncouth, their origins doubtful, their
actions obscure, their superstition was blind, their valor brutal, and
the uniformity of their public and private lives was neither s