eben das; so vergleichen sie sich wohl cher, weil sie noch im Be fitze ihres unverwüsteten Landes find. Betrachtet dies als euer Unterpfand, und das desto mehr, je besser es angebaut ist. Schonet es, so lang' ihr könt, und macht euch durch ihre Verzweiflung den Sieg nicht schwer. Verwüsten wir's, hingeriffen - durch die Beschuldigung der Mitstreiter; so sehet zu, daß ihr nicht Nachtheil und Schande über den Pelopones bringt. Wer den Städte oder Einzelne beschuldigt; so kan man es widerlegen: aber Krieg, der von Allen wegen einiger übernommen, und des fen Ausgang nicht voraus gesehen wird, endiget may nicht mit Anstande. Man nenne es nicht unmänlich, wenn viele nicht gleich wider Eine Stadt anrücken. Sie haben nicht wenige, und zins bare Mitstreiter. Krieg wird nicht so wohl mit Waffen als mit Gelde geführt, welches die Waffen erst brauchbar macht, besonders der Meerfernen gegen die Eiländer. Mit diesem versehn wir uns also erst; und fangen auf das Zureden der Mitstreiter nicht an. Wir bekommen gewiß in beyderley Hergängen am meisten zu thun; wir müssen auch für etwas davon in Ruh sorgen. Laf fet es euch nicht kümmern, daß man euch besonders Aufschub und Zögerung vorwirft. Eilend höret ihr später auf, weil ihr unbe reitet unternehmt. Unsere Stadt war stets frey, und berühmt; und jenes kan sehr überdachte Mäßigung seyn. Wir allein überheben uns eben deswegen des Glückes nicht; und wir weichen dem Unglücke weniger als andere. Lob locket uns, wider unsere Einsicht, durch sein Angenehmes nicht in Gefahr: und will man uns durch Tadel reizen; so wirket auch dieser Schmerz nicht auf uns. Das Ziemende macht uns kriegerisch, und behutsam: das erste, weil die Scham viel Mäßigung hat, und der Mutige nicht schamlos ist; behutsam, weil man uns zur Verachtung der Gefete zu einfach erzieht, und selbst mit Strenge zu mäßig zum Ungehorsame gegen sie.”

In number IX. page 128, Homer II. III. second line, read nur instead of mir.

we must think their territory to be nothing but an hostage, and so much the more, by how much the better husbanded. The which, we ought, therefore, to spare as long as we may; lest making them desperate, we make them also the harder to expunge. For if, unfurnished as we be, at the instigation of the confederates, we waste their territory, consider, in so doing, we do not make the war both more dishonorable to the Peleponesians, and also more difficult. For though accusations, as well against cities as against private men, may be cleared again, a war for the pleasure of some, taken up by all, the success whereof cannot be foreseen, can hardly, with honor, be let fall again. Now let no man think it cowardice, that, being many cities, we go not presently and invade that one city, for of confederates that bring them in money they have more than we; and war is not so much war of arms as war of money; by means whereof arms are useful, especially if it is a war of landmen against seamen ; and, therefore, let us first provide ourselves of money, and not first raise the war upon the persuasion of our confederates; for we that must be thought the causes of all events, good or bad, have also reason to take some leisure, in part, to foresee them. As for the slackness and procrastination, wherewith we are reproached by the confederates, be never ashamed of it; for the more haste you make to the war, you will be the longer before you end it; for that you go to it unprovided. Besides, our city has been ever full and well thought of; and this, which they object, is rather to be called a modesty proceeding upon judgment; for by that it is, that we alone, are neither arrogant upon good success, nor shrink so much as others in adversity; nor are we, when men provoke us to it with praise, through the delight thereof, moved to undergo danger, more than we think fit ourselves; nor when they sharpen us with reprehension; both the smart thereof yet the more prevail upon us. And this modesty of ours, maketh us both good soldiers and good counsellors; good soldiers, because shame begetteth modesty, and valour is most sensible of shame; good counsellors, in this, that we are brought up more simply than to disesteem the laws, and, by severity, more modesty than to disobey them.

Account

Account of some of the latest Changes that have been made with respect to Religion in Russia.

[BY PROF. PETRI, OF ERFURTH.]

ON N considering the present state of affairs in the Russian Empire, where every attempt towards the introduction of a more liberal way of thinking in matters of faith and speculation, is checked by dread of the Knout or banishment to Siberia, we shall not be incited to form very sanguine expectations of soon seeing the spirit of rational investigation and enlightened zeal for the promotion of religious improvement gain ground, and the prejudices, superstition, and bigotted attachment to unmeaning ceremonies, which have so long formed distinguishing traits in the national character, lose their hold on the minds of the people. The spirit of the dominant Orthodox Greek church, as it styles itself, is altogether unfavourable to such a reformation, and as long as this spirit remains the same as it was centuries ago, the religious treatises, which are circulated under the sanction of the Directorial Synod, can have but small effect in promoting real religious improvement amongst the nation.

Since the accession of the present Emperor, however, various alterations have been made in Russia, with regard to the adherents both of the Protestant and Roman Catholic confessions. Though both these parties have always been allowed a great degree of liberty in the exercise of their respective forms of worship and religious ceremonies, they are still subject to many restrictions from the established church. Not only no person born and baptized in the Greek church is permitted to embrace any other religious confession, but even those who have voluntarily come over to the national church (for the Greek clergy cannot be accused of being overzealous in making proselytes,) are not allowed to return to the sect to which they originally belonged. If in Livonia, as sometimes happens, an infant receives the rite of babtism from a Greek priest, for want of a protestant clergyman to officiate, he must remain for life a member of the greek church, must be instructed in the creed of that church, and observe the whole ritual of its public ordinances. On this account the consistories of Riga and Reval take all possible means to prevent the rite of baptism being administered to the children of Protestants by Greek priests.

It is not long ago that the Jesuits, who. with their usual address,

address, had acquired a considerable degree of influence at the court of St. Petersburg, procured a standard form of catechism to be drawn up, which it was intended to introduce into all the protestant schools of the empire, and it is difficult to say how far their project might have succeeded, had it been concerted under the reign of the present monarch. Under Catherine the second, however, who in matters of religion guided her conduct by the most liberal principles of toleration, it miscarried, the catechism being rejected as an infringement on the ecclesiastical privileges of the protestants.

Very considerable changes have of late been made with respect to the Roman Catholic party in Russia. Since the time of Peter the Great, they had possessed the priviledge of having chapels and prayer-houses in all parts of the empire; but this wise monarch had very carefully guarded against the introduction of priestcraft and monkery in his dominions. For whatever pains the Catholics, according to their usual custom, may take, to gain over proselytes to their religion, an insurmountable barrier is opposed to their exertions by the abovementioned law, that all children born of parents belonging to the Greek church, must be educated and instruc ed in the creed of the established religion. This law is put in practice with the utmost rigour. If a clergyman of any of the tolerated sects marries a couple, one of whom has been born and brought up in the Greek religion, or if he knowingly baptizes the child of such parent, he is immediately deprived of his functions. Both these ceremonies, must therefore be performed by a Greek priest, though sometimes none can be procured for the purpose, except from a great distance and with much trouble. As such a child grows up, new difficulties arise. According to the laws of the country, he is the property of the lord of the manor to whom his parent are vassels. In this situation he has no opportunties of receiving instruction in the Greek religion, or of attending the public worship of the Greek church; and in the Protestant religion the laws do not allow him to be educated, The consequence generally is, that he grows up like a young colt, without any religion at all, or else every possible means is taken for evading the law.

Formerly the religious establishment of the Catholic congregations in the Russian Empire, was subject to the immediate controul of the Congregatio de propaganda fide at Rome, whose decrees however required to be approved and ratified by the reigning sovereign. This was the case under the reign of the Empress Catherine. But as the Catholic Congregation at St. Petersburgh was not only not provided

by

by the society at Rome with a proper number of pastors pos sessed of the requisite knowledge of the German, French and Polish languages, but priests who understood no other. language than the Italian, were frequently sent to them, they grew very much discontented, especially with their superiors, who disposed of the church revenues according to their own pleasure, and often raises sums of money without the privity of the congregation. Application was therefore made to the Empress, who issued a decree which contained many new regulations, and put an end to the grievances complained of. According to this decree, the Roman Catholics are no longer permitted to assume the title of missionaries of the Catholic congregations, but must all belong to the franciscan order. By a later Ukase, issued in the year 1782, upon occasion of the archiepiscopal see of Mohilon being established, it was decreed that only born or naturalized Russian subjects should perform clerical functions, and that all foreign priests both those who were already invested with appointments, and those who only officiated ad interim, should be dismissed. Formerly priests and monks frequently emigrated from Poland into Livonia, Esthonia and Courland, where they lived at the expence of the Catholic families, collected their scattered brethren in the towns and country, held conventicles, and when the inhabitants were tired of them, returned to their homes well laden with Russian rubles. But these devourers of widow's houses are now no longer suffered to levy contributions on the country. No monks of the Catholic religion, whose employment it is to stroll about and collect alms, in short, none who do not belong to some privileged monastery, are now tolerated in Russia. Those in White Russia, who formerly were indulged in the possession of all their privileges, provided they did not act contrary to their duty towards the sovereign, are at present in so far subject to the archiepiscopal see of Mohilon, as to be no more under the controul of any foreign ecclesiastical jurisdiction. The archbishop, indeed, swore the oath of fidelity to the pope, but in terms far less implicit than was formerly customary. Without the approbation of the sovereign, no decree of the pope dare be received or promulgated. The Jesuits, indeed, have several times attempted to shake off their subordination to the archbishop and render their order independent; but so far from succeeding, a particular Ukase has been passed, by which they are enjoined to acknowledge and obey the archbishop as their superior. Moreover, they are not suffered to interfere in any concerns but those of their own order; in the whole Russian Empire, White Russia excepted, they are forbidden