There are no pews to be sold to the highest bidder--no 'reserved seats;' the oneness and equality before God are always recognized.

A Russian gentleman, as he prays, does not look around, and move away from the poor beggar next to him.

At St.Peter's the crowd stands or kneels--at St.Isaac's they stand; and they stand literally on the same plane.
"I noticed in the crowd at St.Isaac's, one festival day, young girls who were having a friendly chat; but their religion was ever in their thoughts, and they crossed themselves certainly once a minute.

Their religion is not an affair of Sunday, but of every day in the week.
"The drosky-driver, certainly the most stupid class of my acquaintance in Russia, never forgets his prayers; if his passenger is never so much in a hurry, and the bribe never so high, the drosky-driver will check his horse, and make the sign of the cross as he passes the little image of the Virgin,--so small, perhaps, that you have not noticed it until you wonder why he slackens his pace.
"Then as to government.

We boast of our national freedom, and we talk about universal suffrage, the 'Home of the Free,' etc.