LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA

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ST. PETERSBURG. 147 other ,Japanese. I feel more and more a heavy re­sponsibility is resting upon my shoulder. TO MR. AND MRS. HARDY. CoPEl'iHAGEN, September 3, 1872. We did not stay long in St. Petersburg, only five days; visiting there the University, a training-school, the Fonndling Hospital, Museum, Hermitage, etc. The Fonndling Hospital is very large building and can accommodate nearly 6, 000 persons. There were 800 babies under care, and all of them are only a few weeks old. What struck me most among the large collections of the Hermitage was the painting of the Holy Family by Raphael. St. Petersburg is very striking city. It is built on a grand scale. The pal­aces and government buildings are very extensive and beautiful at a distance, though some of them may be hardly called beautiful in the architectural view. The churches are also large, and the interiors of the cathedral and Isaac's Church are exquisitely wrought. They very much resemble Roman Catholic church. The pictures of Holy Family and relics of old saints are numerous and are kissed and bowed before by the ignorant people. The devoted Russians make regular Japanese bow before them and also make a double cross before their chests when they pray. I have a great sympathy with those devoted Russians, for they appear very earnest in their devotion, but am sorry that they are led away by a false method of worship or a false notion of doctrine. I must not forget to mention to you that :famous mammoth in Museum, which was discovered in an ice­bank in Siberia in 1799. It is proved that it is non­existing creature in the present age by two main

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