The rationalistic sects, though so very peaceful now, are
in reality more dangerous to the existing order of things
than the old Rascol was. They have touched the root of
the evil in traducing the existing institutions before the
tribunals of reason and conscience. They are consistent
and thorough, and they do not, from superstition, shun the
orthodox masses. The negation of the authority of the
Oovernmont, whether absolute, as with the Dukhoborzy, or
conditional, as with all the rest of the rationalists, has up
to the present time only led them to individual acts of pas-
sive resistance. It may become a collective one in time;
it may change its nature altogether. Religion can express
everything, assume any shape. The spirit of active re-
bellion is unmistakably growing among the peasantry out-
side the realms of sectarianism. Why should it not invade
the sects also when their power to satisfy the actual desires
of the people shall be exhausted? At all events, it is im-
possible to depend much upon the loyalty of a well-or-
ganized body of perhaps three or four millions of people
who, for aught we know, may become ten or twelve in a
few years, and who all view the existing government as
admittedly wrongful. The religious question in Bussia is
to some extent a riddle.
THE TRAGEDY OF RUSSIAN HISTORY.
CONCLUSION.
In throwing a rapid retrospective glance over all that has
been said upon the economical, social, and intellectual life
of our peasantry, we shall everywhere perceive the existence
of a deeply rooted dnalism. Two hostile principles are in
a death-strnggle in all the spheres of popular life — the one
springing from the inner consciousness of the masses, the
other forced upon them from the outside by those in power.
