th. The ever-increasing numbers
of strange and attractive places of worship which are springing up in
all countries bear witness to man's invincible need to find shelter
behind immediate certainties, even as their elaborate outer forms
reflect the variety of his inward aspirations._

_In the great forest of ecstasies and illusions which supplies
spiritual nourishment to so many of our fellow-humans, we have here
confined ourselves to the examination of the most picturesque and
unusual plants, and have gathered them for preference in the soil of
Russia and of the United States. These two countries, though in many
respects further apart than the Antipodes, furnish us with
characteristic examples of the thirst for renewal of faith which rages
equally in the simple soul of an uncultured peasant and in that of a
business man weary of the artificialities of modern life._

_Many of us held mistakenly that our contemporaries were incapable of
being fired to enthusiasm by new religions, whose exponents seemed to
us as questionable as their doctrines. But we need only observe the
facts to behold with what inconceivable ease an age considered prosaic
and incredulous has adopted spiritual principles which frequently show
up the lack of harmony between our manner of life and our hidden
longings._

_The religious phenomena which we see around us in so many complex
forms seem to foreshadow a spiritual future whose content is
illimitable._

_Such examples of human psychology, whether normal or morbid, as are
here offered to the reader, may well recall to mind some of the
strangest products of man's imagination. The tales of Hoffmann or of
Edgar Allan Poe pale before these inner histories of the human soul,
and the most moving novels and romances appear weak and artificial when
compared to the eruptions of light and darkness which burst forth from
the depths of man's subconsciousness._

_These phenomena will interest the reader of reflective temperament no
less than the lover of the sensational and the improbable in real life._

CONTENTS

PREFACE: THE FOREST OF ILLUSIONS

PART I

THE SALVATION OF THE POOR

A. THE ORGANISED SECTS

CHAPTER

I. THE NEGATIVISTS
II. THE WHITE-ROBED BELIEVERS
III. THE STRANGLERS
IV. THE FUGITIVES
V. THE SOUTAIEVTZI
VI. THE SONS OF GOD
VII. THE TOLSTOYANS
VIII. THE SPIRITUAL CHRISTIANS
IX. A LABORATORY OF SECTS
X. THE DOUCH