and is entitled to respectful consideration and earnest study from all who, without as well as within the empire, sympathize with the progress of liberal ideas.
It has been and is vastly more difficult, if it be not impossible, for the Bezpopovtsi than for the Popovtsi to arrive at any definite ecclesiastical organization. The fundamental principle of their doctrine, by destroying all faith in the sacerdotal character of the clergy and in the existence of a priesthood, or of a Church upon earth, seems to preclude all hope of any such result.
They are deprived of all spiritual bond of union among themselves, acknowledge no authority as guide, nor any restraint upon individual opinion. They claim for each the right of free interpretation of the Scriptures, and the exercise of this liberty, together with the habit of inquiry which it engenders, has led them to wander from the dogmas of Orthodox belief, or, if retaining them in theory, to accept such explanations of them as suit the wildest fancies and vagaries of the imagination.
Their sects have become innumerable, ever shifting and varying, undergoing constant change and transformation, with incessant divisions and subdivisions; new ones spring into existence as the old die out, affording evidence of the vitality and energy animating the movement. They recognize no ministers save their elders or "readers," who, chosen by themselves, are generally virtuous and worthy men, well, and sometimes deeply, versed in Scriptural knowledge; but frequently most extraordinary, even monstrous, caprice governs their selection. Vulgar, loudly self-asserting fanatics impose themselves upon a congregation, or, under the influence of sensual and erotic excitement, which, among ignorant communities where self-indulgence is unrestrained, often accompanies excessive religious exaltation, females of vile and
