IV
BACK TO MOSCOW
The Russians are considerably more interested in
religion and religious ideas than other nations.
Perhaps that is due to the greater national growth
and greater national changes: questions about
destiny rise to the surface of each man's mind. The
appetite for religious discussion is robust and eager.
You go to a debate which begins at eight in the
evening. Some one reads a lecture which lasts three
hours and then there is a three hours' general
discussion. The room is packed, no windows are
open, but every one is keen. A roar of general
conversation ensues at the ten-minutes interval every
hour and a half.
A curious story enacted itself whilst I was in Moscow this spring. A journalist discovered a group of Hindu philosophers doing a turn at a smart cabaret restaurant. In the midst of a vulgar music-hall programme they were performing rather beautifully on their native instruments. They seemed somewhat out of place; and the journalist, knowing English, sought them out and entered into conversa-
