Historical View of the Languages and Literature of the Slavic Nations Part 8

DICTIONARIES.--ENGLISH. Parenoga's _Lex. Anglinsko-ross._ and _Russian-English Lexicon_, 4 vols. 1808-17. Zdanof's _Angl.-ross._ and _Russian-Engl, Dict_. St. Pet. 1784. Constantinon's _Russian Grammar and Dict_. 3 vols. 8vo. Lond. _A Russian-Engl_. and _Engl.-Russ.

Dict_. 18mo. Leipz. Tauchn. 1846.--GERMAN. Heyne's _Russisch-Deutsch und Deutsch-Russ. Worterb_, Riga 1795-98. The same writer's _Russ.

Deutsch and Frauz. Worterb_. in several forma and editions, Riga 1796 to 1812; also Moscow 1826; last improved edit. Leipz. Tauchn, 1844.

Oldekop's _Russ.-Deutsch und Deutsch-Russ. Worterb._ St. Pet. 1825.

J.A.E. Schmidt's _Russ.-Deutsch und Deutsch-Russ. Worterb_. Leipz.

Tauchn, 1841. The same writer's _Poln. Russ. Deutsch. Worterb_. 2 vols. 8vo. Breslau 1834-6.--FRENCH. Tatishtchefs _Nouveau Dict.

Franc.-Russe_, etc. 2 vols. 8vo. Moscow 1832.]

CHAPTER II.

HISTORY OF THE ILLYRICO-SERVIAN LANGUAGE.

SECTION I.

LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE OF THE ILLYRICO-SERVIANS PROPER.

The literature of the western Slavo-Servians has. .h.i.therto been altogether separated from that of their brethren of the oriental church, and treated as a distinct branch.[1] Their language, however, being essentially the same, we do not see why the rather accidental circ.u.mstance, that the former use the Roman letters, while the latter adhere to the Cyrillic alphabet, should be a sufficient reason for such a separation. The literature of neither of them has as yet treasures enough, to renounce willingly the claims which their mutual and naturally rich though uncultivated language gives to the one upon the productions of the other. We now proceed, in a short historical introduction, to show the origin of this separation; after making a few preliminary remarks on the character of the language as a whole, unaffected by its division into different dialects, not more distinct indeed from each other than is the case in almost every other living idiom.

The Servian language is spoken by about five millions of people. It extends, with some slight variations of dialect, over the Turkish and Austrian provinces of Servia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Dalmatia; over Slavonia and the eastern part of Croatia. It is further the property of several thousands, who emigrated from their own country on account of the Turkish oppression, and are now settled as colonists along the south-western bank of the Danube, from Semlin to St. Andre near Buda. The southern sky, and the beauties of natural scenery existing throughout nearly all these regions, so favourable in general to the development of poetical genius, appear also to have exerted a happy influence on the language. While it yields to none of the other Slavic dialects in richness, clearness, and precision, it far surpa.s.ses all of them in euphony. The Servian has often been called the _Italian_ among the other Slavic idioms. Comparisons of this sort are always superficial, and tend to give a false view of the character of an object. Be this as it may, the Servian is decidedly the most melodious of the Slavic languages, rich in vowels, and abounding alike in soft and powerful accents. The acc.u.mulation of consonants, with which the other dialects are so often reproached, is rarely, if ever, to be met with in Servian. The reader may compare the Servian _wetar_ with _wjtr_, _krilo_ with _krzydlo_ or _skrzydlo, pao_ with _padl_, etc. Those who ascribe this mildness of the Servian language to the Italian neighbourhood of Dalmatia, forget that the eastern Servians are remote from Italy. It is true that the dialects of these latter are at the same time full of Turcisms; but these are mere excrescences, which may easily be removed without touching the essential structure of the language. The Turkish words adopted into the Servian, are mostly nouns, and verbs derived from them; and may naturally be explained by their political relation to the Turks during so many centuries. If we may confide in a remark of the profound philologist J. Grimm, _some_ foreign ingredients are useful and even necessary to languages. They act as a cement, and fill up gaps; nay, they not seldom serve to give to the expression colouring and pliancy.

The attention of the civilized world, although directed at the beginning of the present century to the Servians and their heroic struggles, has only recently been excited in respect to their language; and this through the efforts of a single individual. We shall have more to say on this point in the section devoted to the literature of the Servians of the eastern church.

The ancient Illyric.u.m comprised all the countries situated between the Adriatic and the Black Sea, and along the Danube and Save.[2]

Towards the middle of the seventh century, we find this vast country mostly occupied by a Slavic people of one and the same race, alternately called Bulgarians, Croatians, and Servians. We find also six kingdoms gradually established by them: Bulgaria, Servia, Bosnia (Rama), Croatia, Slavonia, and Dalmatia; some of them powerful and of great influence in their time, but now and long since sunk into ruin, and existing only as Turkish or Austrian provinces. An impenetrable night rests on the early history of these regions; and if the judicious criticism of modern philologists has thrown comparatively some light on this general topic, still, their investigations have been of little consequence for the history of the language. All that it concerns us to note here, is, that as early as the seventh century a part of these nations were already Christians, converted by Romish priests. Among the remainder, Christianity as taught by Greek missionaries found a welcome reception in the eighth and ninth centuries, and soon was fully established. The oriental Servians had the chief seat of their power in the present Turkish province of Serf-Vilayeti; and governed by princes called _Shupans_, we see them in a constant war of resistance against the Greek emperors, and during several centuries also against the powerful Khans of Bulgaria; now conquered, subjugated, destroyed almost to annihilation, but recovering with effort and rising again in power, with such energy as to enable them under the great Tzar, Stephan Dushan, not only to hold all their neighbours in awe, but to take a menacing position towards Byzantium itself, and dictate conditions of peace to the imploring envoys of that proud imperial court. But this brilliant point of Servian glory, which even now after five hundred years still lives in the hearts of the people, and is the subject of a thousand legends and songs, was only a meteor. It vanished in almost the same moment that it appeared. Stephan's immediate successors, enfeebled by their domestic dissensions, sunk under the superior forces of the Turks, who had broken into Europe thirty-four years earlier. They soon became the conquerors of the Servians, though not without fierce and b.l.o.o.d.y struggles; and they still remain their masters and oppressors.[3]

The western Servians were early divided into small states, some of which adopted an aristocratic republican form of const.i.tution. Among these, only the republic of Ragusa requires to be mentioned here, as the cradle of the Dalmatian branch of Servian literature. The local situation of these western states made them dependent on Hungary; and thus Croatia, Slavonia, Dalmatia, sometimes under the t.i.tle of kingdoms, and now as dukedoms, became at length mere provinces of that larger kingdom, and ultimately of the Austrian empire. Bosnia and Herzegovina, which form the boundary between the Servians of the East and West, were subject to the influence of both; and are to the present day divided in religion and in language.

1. _Literature of the Servians of the Oriental or Greek Church_.

However small the circuit of country, properly called Servia, is in proportion to the whole extent over which the southern Slavi are spread, the name of Servians nevertheless appears to modern philologists as the best adapted for being employed as the common name of them all. Dobrovsky thinks it even appropriate to become the general appellation for all Slavic nations. Although of obscure derivation, it is at least sufficiently ascertained that it is of pure Slavic origin; glorious a.s.sociations are attached to it; it is moreover still a living name, while the learned appellation of _Illyrians_, formerly more in use, is dead; and that of _Bosnians_, preferred by some Dalmatian writers, rests upon no satisfactory grounds. The name of Servians, however, was never, till recently, applied to the Dalmatians. It is indeed still rejected by themselves; and they continue to call themselves _Illyrians_.

Under the present head, besides the Servians proper, of whom great numbers have emigrated in early times to Hungary, are also strictly comprised the Bosnians, the greater portion of the inhabitants of Herzegovina, the Montenegrins or Czernogortzi, and the Slavonians of the Greek Church. These all use the same language and alphabet; but the four latter have no distinct literature, except some collections of popular poetry.

The literature of the eastern Servians, the result of their intellectual life as a nation, does not yet date back a hundred years; nay, if regarded from another point of view, it is not yet forty years old. Up to that time, all the Servians belonging to the Greek Church, notwithstanding the honourable example of Russia to the contrary, had written in the Old or Church Slavonic; or, in more modern times, in a language mixed up from this latter and several other dialects.

Schaffarik remarks, that out of about 400 Servian books printed between the years 1742, or more properly 1761, and 1826, about one eighth part are written in Old Slavic; another eighth in the common dialect of the people; while all the rest vary between these two in innumerable shades and degrees.[4] This eighth part written in ordinary Servian, and essentially the same language which the Dalmatians and the greater part of the Croats speak, are all of very recent date. Indeed, with the exception of a single writer, Obradovitch, who found no immediate followers, the dialect of the people was in general despised by the clergy and those who laid claim to education, as being wholly unfit for books, and (as Vuk Stephanovitch strongly expresses himself) only proper for "cowherds and swineherds." How the once flouris.h.i.+ng literature of Ragusa could ever have sunk into oblivion to such a degree, is hardly to be conceived; as indeed, in general, the division so sharply drawn in respect to literature between those two branches of the same people, while they were still bound together by the strong ties of one and the same language of common life and in part also of the same government, belongs among the most remarkable facts in literary history.

The most ancient doc.u.ment of the Servian Old Slavic language, is out of the middle of the thirteenth century, viz. the Hexaemeron of Basilius, with a preface by John, exarch of Bulgaria. Then follow the "Acts of the Apostles," written by the hieromonach Damian, A.D. 1324.

Of higher historical importance are some secular writings from the end of the thirteenth to the middle of the fourteenth century, viz. a genealogical register of the Servian princes and the events of their reigns, called _Radoslov_, written by archbishop Daniel; a similar work called the _Tzarostavnick_; and above all the statutes of Tzar Dushan the Powerful, A.D. 1336-56. These statutes, dated from the year 6837, or A.D. 1349, not only afford us a good survey of the const.i.tution of the Servian kingdom, but are a remarkable contribution to the history of its moral state at that early period, The philanthropist cannot but perceive, with satisfaction, the rare union that reigns in these laws of stern justice and true Christian benevolence, attempting to alleviate those evils which it was not in the power of an individual to abolish,--thehards.h.i.+ps of slavery, the insecurity of property peculiar to those barbarous times, and those rash and b.l.o.o.d.y acts of self-protection, which are preferred by the powerful all over the world to the slower steps of avenging justice.

It is indeed remarkable to observe, how these statutes not only counteracted the grosser vices and crimes, (which for the most part is the only object of laws,) but also favoured the characteristic virtues of the times, for instance hospitality. One statute ordains, that when a traveller asked for night-quarters at the dwelling of a landed proprietor and was not admitted, he had the right to take lodgings in his village wherever he pleased; and did he lose any thing, not his host, but the proprietor who had refused to harbour him, was bound to remunerate the loss.[5]

The monks of this and the following centuries must have written a great deal; as is proved by the many ma.n.u.scripts that still lie acc.u.mulated in the numerous Servian and Macedonian monasteries,--the mere remnant of those which perished in the long tempests of b.l.o.o.d.y wars and desolating conflagrations. About fifty years after the invention of printing, some of the church books from time to time were published in Servia and Syrmia. The earliest Servian print extant is from the year 1493, viz. an Octateuch, published at Zenta in Herzegovina. In Russia they did not begin to print until sixty years later. In 1552 the Gospels were printed in Belgrade; in 1562 another edition in Negromont. But these faint signs of life soon became extinct; and we hear no longer of the least trace of literature among the Servians of the Turkish empire. Among the Austrian Servians also, literature seems to have been equally dead; with the exception of a History of Servia, written and left in ma.n.u.script by George Brankovitch, the last despot of that country, towards the close of the seventeenth century. A genealogical work published by Dshefarovitch at Vienna in 1742, had to be engraved, for the want of proper types. In the year 1755, under the reign of Maria Theresa, when some attention began to be paid to the schools of her Illyrian provinces, the archbishop of Carlovitz was compelled to have Smotrisky's Grammar[6]

printed in Walachia, because no Slavic types were to be found in the whole Austrian empire. Some years afterwards, A.D. 1758, a private Slavic press was founded at Venice. In Austria, Cyrillic-Slavonic books could not be printed earlier than A.D. 1771, when a printing office was established at Vienna; the monopoly of which for all Slavo-Servian scientific works throughout the empire, was given to the university of Buda. From this one point, therefore, the whole literary cultivation of the Servians of the oriental church in the Austrian empire, could alone proceed.[7]

After the partial revival of Servian literature in 1758, a considerable number of works were composed; and there are among them not a few, which, notwithstanding the mixed and unsettled idiom in which they are written, attest the general capacity of the nation, and may serve as imperfect specimens of the ma.s.s of talent buried there.

Among the historical writers, we must name above all J. Raitch. He wrote on many different subjects; and also left behind him a whole library of theological ma.n.u.scripts. His 'History of the Slavic Nations'[8] has given him a lasting reputation. Other historical writers of some merit, are, Kengelatz, Magarashevitch, Julinatz, Solaritch.[9] Writers on different subjects of natural philosophy and medicine, are, Orphelin, Stokovitch, Beritch, Jankovitch, P.

Hads.h.i.+tch, etc. On statistics and geography the above-mentioned Solaritch, Vuitch, Bulitch, Popovitch, and others. In the department of theology, we hardly meet with a single book of a doctrinal character; but there are quite a number on ethics. The princ.i.p.al writers of the language, therefore, may perhaps be more properly arranged under the heads of philosophy (comprehending logic), rhetoric, ethics, etc. as Obradovitch, Raitch, Terlaitch, Lazarevitch, Vuitch, Davidovitch, Masovitch, etc.[10]

Poetry and belles-lettres being more dependent on the state of the language than purely scientific works, we can proceed no further, without first making our readers acquainted with the recent innovations of a few patriotic individuals.

It was Dosithe Obradovitch, born A.D. 1739 in the Banat of Temeswar, who first among the eastern Servians ventured to write books in the despised language of the country. The fortunes of this person are, in several respects, of uncommon interest. Brought up in a monastic school, he became monk when he was only fourteen years old. After several years of severe struggles, he fled. For twenty-five years he travelled over all Europe; and then returned to his comparatively barbarous native land, where he died in 1811, as inspector of the schools, and the instructor of the children of the celebrated Kara George. He left several works.

A far greater influence, however, has been exerted on Servian literature by Dem. Davidovitch and Vuk Stephanovitch Karads.h.i.+tch, who have not only followed the same literary course, but were the first to defend both theoretically and practically the principle, that the Servians ought to _write_ as they _speak_. Their boldness met with strong and decided opposition from the old school; and the contest and rivalry which have been the consequence, although tending for a time to prevent the progress of the good cause, cannot but have, ere long, beneficial results, by exciting the minds of the people to a higher activity than they have had until then occasion to exert.

Davidovitch published from 1814 to 1822 a Servian newspaper in Vienna, not exclusively of a political character, by which he intended to diffuse information on various subjects; the first undertaking of the kind in his language. His influence however is not confined to the language alone; as secretary of Prince Milosh, then at the head of the Servians, his influence on the general cultivation of his countrymen was very decided.

Vuk Stephanovitch Karads.h.i.+tch, born 1786 in Turkish Servia, is the author of the first Oriental-Servian grammar and dictionary; and in the arrangement of the former has manifested the true spirit of a genuine grammarian. Besides these he has written several works of value, a biography of Prince Milosh, a series of annuals, a volume on the Proverbs, and idiomatic phrases of the Servians, etc.[11] But the best proof which he could give of the beauty, richness, and perfectibility of the vulgar Servian dialect, is his Collection of the Servian popular Songs, in four volumes, comprising nevertheless only about the fourth or fifth part of the similar treasures hidden among the mountains of his country. In making this collection, he very judiciously wrote down only those songs which he had himself caught from the lips of the Servian peasantry. There had already been a rumour among the literati of Europe, for more than fifty years, of the beauty and singularity of the Illyrian national songs, founded mostly on the communications of Italian travellers and the citations of Dalmatian dictionaries. Herder, in his valuable Collection of popular Poetry, gave two historical fragments from the work of a Dalmatian clergyman, A. Cacich.[12] Goethe also has a beautiful tale, taken from Abbate Fortis' Travels among the Morlachians. Both translated by means of the French; and although this double translation could not possibly do justice to the originals, they were sufficiently admired. But when Vuk's collection appeared, and a part of its contents was made intelligible to the civilized world by a translation attempted by the author of this work, imperfect and deficient as any translation of popular poetry must necessarily ever be, the public and the critics were nevertheless alike struck with the strong expression of the high and incomparable beauties of nature. All that the other Slavic nations, or the Germans, the Scotch, and the Spaniards, possess of popular poetry, can at the utmost be compared with the lyrical part of the Servian songs, called by them _female_ songs, because they are sung only by females and youths; but the long epic extemporized compositions, by which a peasant bard, sitting in a large circle of other peasants, in unpremeditated but perfectly regular and harmonious verse, celebrates the heroic deeds of their ancestors or cotemporaries, has no parallel in the whole history of literature since the days of Homer.[13]

Vuk Stephanovitch Karads.h.i.+tc,[14] in his successful attempts to reduce a language, which hitherto had been merely an unwritten dialect of the common people, to certain general rules and principles, had, besides the more philosophical part of the work, also to adapt the Slavonic alphabet to his purpose. The mixed and unregulated language, which up to his time had been employed, had been written alternately with the Old Slavonic and the Russian letters. To the Russian language, with its mult.i.tude of sounds, the latter is perfectly suitable; in Servian, however, several letters could be easily spared; while others had to be added. Some change of the alphabet seemed therefore necessary. As those Servians among whom Vuk was born, and among whom chiefly he had gathered the treasures of remarkable poetry, which serve as so beautiful a base to their young literature, all belonged to the Greek or Oriental Church, he seems never to have thought of the possibility of adopting the Latin alphabet, which had already served for several centuries for the once flouris.h.i.+ng literature of their Catholic brethren, who spoke essentially the same language.

We are ready to acknowledge that the Slavic alphabet, as arranged by Vuk, is better adapted to express the sounds of the Slavic languages, than the Latin; it is at once simpler and richer. But we nevertheless cannot help regretting, that he did not yield to the various reasons, which on the other side spoke in favour of the Latin alphabet. It was already used by some millions for the same language, and had been so for centuries. It would have given a _history_ to the young Servian Literature built on the solid foundation of that of Ragusa. It had been, with the exception of the Russians, adopted by all the other Slavic nations. It would have indeed estranged him, seemingly, from his nearer countrymen, who made the most pa.s.sionate objections against his innovations, even as they were; but as they, at any rate, had to go to Austria for a literary education, this opposition would probably not have lasted longer than it will last now. There was some fear, that, with the Roman alphabet, the Roman chair would try to get possession of their church; but those were not the times of Rome's power; and the Turkish patronage seemed to secure them against such arrogance. One thing is certain. Instead of strengthening for ever the artificial wall of separation between the two cla.s.ses of Illyrico-Servians, it would have undermined that which already existed; and Vuk, by his strong philosophical-grammatical talent, would soon have gained influence enough on the Illyrico-Dalmatian literature to mend the imperfections of their orthography, and to induce the Croats and Servians to give up their capricious varieties.

The many detached parts of the products of Illyrico-Servian intellect would have grown into one great whole; and would have become at least accessible to foreigners; who, puzzled by all these varieties of letters and forms of writing, lose the courage to penetrate into a structure where they meet so much confusion at the very door. Indeed, whether they turn to the eastern or to the western branch of the Southern Slavi, they find equal individual and provincial anarchy; a state of things which the latter at least have taken great pains to amend.

Vuk published at Vienna, in 1824, the Gospel of St. Luke, as a 'Specimen of a translation of the New Testament into Servian.' What part he had in the version printed at Leipsic by the British and Foreign Bible Society, and now circulated among the Servians, we are unable to say.[15] Modern educated Servian poets, upon whose writings the very general interest which the national popular poetry has excited, and no doubt also their own consciousness of its power, have had a favourable influence, are the following: Lucian Mus.h.i.+tzky, bishop of Karlstadt, a writer in many departments, and the author of odes and other lyrical pieces, all of them highly esteemed by his countrymen; Milovan Vidakovitch, Mich. Vitkovitch, J. Popovitch, G.

Kovatzevitch, etc.

More generally known is Simeo Milutinovitch, the author of several small volumes of poetry, and of a larger epic poem ent.i.tled _Serbianka_, which describes the Servian war of 1812. In 1837 he published an historical work on Servia during the years 1813-15. Both these latter narratives are valuable, as he himself had been an eye-witness of many of the events described; had acted as secretary to Czerny George, who could neither write nor read; and was afterwards also employed by Prince Milosh.[16]

Two interesting collections of the popular poetry extant among the inhabitants of Montenegro and Herzegovina were published in the course of a few years by Tshubar Tshoikovitch; one of them edited by J.

Milowuk, himself a modern Servian writer of praiseworthy activity; the other by the collector himself.[17]

Last, although not least, the present Vladika or bishop of Montenegro, must be named among the modern Servian poets. The const.i.tution of this little mountain state, half warlike, half patriarchal, is an anomaly in the system of European state governments in general. They form a community of about 20,000 families, pressed into the valleys and scattered along the slopes of the dark mountain ranges between Cattaro, Herzegovina, Bosnia, and Albania; covering a surface of 80 or 90 geographical square leagues. Hitherto they have been permitted to enjoy a perfect independence in respect to both their great neighbours, Austria and Turkey. They look up only to the emperor of Russia as a kind of liege lord; but more in his quality of Head of the Slavic-Greek Church, than in that of a powerful sovereign. They stand under the rule of a Vladika or bishop; who, besides being their spiritual guide, is their chief judge and their leader in war; as also, since 1832, exclusively their executive magistrate. Up to that time they were accustomed to elect a _governor_; but he a.s.sumed too much power; and the post had become hereditary in the family of Radonich. They therefore dismissed him; and his functions were likewise intrusted to the bishop.

Although the office of the Vladika had been formerly purely elective; yet towards the close of the seventeenth century, through the influence of Vladika Daniel Petrovitch of Niegosh, it became hereditary in his own family; a member of which since that time has always been appointed by the Russian emperor. As the Greek bishops belong to the monastic clergy, who of course are not permitted to marry,--while the secular clergy are _required_ to do so,--the succession goes in a collateral line. The present Vladika, Peter Petrovitch Niegosh, a man of uncommon size, handsome features, considerable talent, and a highly respected character, was partly educated in Russia. When his predecessor died,--a powerful man who had ruled for fifty-three years, during which time he had led his flock to many a b.l.o.o.d.y battle, and who was canonized as a saint by the present bishop,--this latter was appointed by the emperor Nicholas. But as he was then only fifteen years old, Montenegro was governed by a sort of guardian; and the Vladika did not enter upon his office until he had completed his eighteenth year. The wisdom, the energy, the consistency in his improvements, which, he has displayed since that time, const.i.tute him, in connection with his youth, one of the most remarkable personages of our time. His chief aim seems to be to make Montenegro a member of the great civilized family of Europe, without depriving her of her freedom and independence; and the firmness with which he proceeds further and further in a course, where he meets with difficulties at every step, deserves praise and admiration.

The first circ.u.mstance which directed the attention of literary Europe to this remote corner, was a visit of the present king of Saxony, who in 1838 made a botanical excursion into those "black mountains." [16]

Since then, the celebrated Egyptian scholar, Wilkinson, has visited it; and this country is no longer closed against travelling artists.

The Vladika has naturally the manners of a gentleman; he is said to speak French, and to understand German, Italian, and of course Russian. That he is considered as one of the best riflemen and hors.e.m.e.n in his country, we cannot esteem as of much importance in a bishop; but he studies also the cla.s.sics and translates the Iliad for his own pleasure. His Servian poems seem mostly to have been written on particular occasions. He addressed an ode to the king of Saxony after his return to Dresden, which unfortunately not a person of the whole court could understand; and the author of this volume, who happened then to be at the "German Athens," was applied to for a translation.[17] In their own productions, all these educated writers imitate the modern literature of other nations further advanced in civilization, especially the Germans. Milutinovitch has even a tinge of their philosophy. There is no want of talent; but there is no nationality in them. Nothing of that wonderful amalgamation of the East and the West; of mountaineer wildness and Christian principles; of barbarism and civilization; nothing of that interesting blending of Asia and Europe, which we feel ent.i.tled to expect from the poetry of _Servians_, who stand on the border between Muhammedanism and Christendom. Nothing which these educated writers have hitherto produced, can be compared with the effusions of their old blind men, and of their peasant lads and girls, that is, their popular poetry.

Vuk's grammar, printed at Vienna 1818, before his dictionary, has since been rendered accessible to other European nations by Grimm's translation. Another Servian grammar has been published in German, by Schaffarik. Vuk's judicious alphabetical arrangement and orthography, we are sorry to say, have not been generally adopted; and the Russian alphabet is still partly in use, with a number of letters superfluous for the Servian language, which has not the shades of sound they are meant to denote.

The political movements in Servia, during the last twelve years, have of course been exceedingly injurious to the development of its infant literature. While it seemed, under the energetic administration of prince Milosh, in a fair way of progress, the confused cries of war and insurrection since his abdication have drowned the modest voice of the young muse. Of late, indeed, intelligence from that country has been so rare, that we are unable to give a picture of the present state of things.

2. _Literature of the Dalmatians or Illyrico-Servians of the Romish Church_.

a) GLAGOLITIC LITERATURE.

It is not without some hesitation that we approach a region, into which we cannot penetrate without stepping through a border of perfect darkness. We allude to the introduction of the Glagolitic alphabet; the great antiquity of which, supported by numerous traditions and legends, as well as by its venerable and almost hieroglyphic look, Kopitar's recent investigations and discoveries have again made probable; without, however, throwing any more light upon its origin.

As Christianity was first introduced into Dalmatia by Romish priests, the Latin language was of course adopted for religious purposes. But so soon as the people became acquainted with the liturgy of Methodius in a language intelligible to them, this innovation met with such a general and heartfelt welcome, that all the severe decrees of synods, nay, of the holy chair of Rome itself, were unable to stop its progress.

Even more than a hundred and fifty years afterwards, when Methodius was solemnly declared by pope Nicolas II. a heretic, and the Romish ma.s.s again introduced, the attachment to their own language was too deeply rooted to be taken away at once. Hence the Old Slavic idiom, with the pope's reluctant permission, continued to be the language of the Church service. It appears, however, that the alphabet which their priests employed for writing their ecclesiastic doc.u.ments, was not the same with that used by other Slavi of the oriental church: but was of a different character, and evidently _not_ derived from the Greek, with the exception of a few letters. It was called the _Glagolitic._

_Glagol_ signifies in Old Slavic _the word_ or rather _the verb_; but the reason of the application of this term to the Illyrico-Servians of the catholic communion (_Glagolitae)_, and to the language of their sacred writings (_Glagolic_ or _Glagolitic_), has not yet been ascertained; all that has as yet been a.s.serted by Slavic philologians being mere hypothesis. The oldest monument known up to 1830. in which these letters were extant, was a Psalter of A.D. 1220. This Psalter was by tradition ascribed to St. Jerome himself, who was in general called the inventor of the Slavic, that is the _Glagolitic_ alphabet.

According to a popular legend of the Dalmatians, this father, who was a native of Illyria, also translated the whole Bible into the Slavic; but it has been since clearly proved, that while (as is well known) he corrected the old Latin version of the Bible, he yet never wrote a single line of Slavic.