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$46 COXE’S TRAVELS IN RUSSIAs
guage in which the church-fervice is ftill performed, is the fame which was fpeken in
the ninth century by the Sclavonians fettled on the banks of the Danube, in the coun-
tries now called Hungary and Bulgaria, from whom the Ruffians are undoubtedly de-
fcended. The tranflation of the Bible made in that century being ftill in general ufe,
has afcertained its original, and preferved it in its priftine ftate; and it is remarkable
that the feveral dialeéts of Sclavonian, fuch as Polifh, Ruffian, and Bohemian, have a
greater refemblance to this mother-tongue than to each other *. -
The Cyrilian alphabet employed by the Ruffian church is compofed of thirty-nine
chara&ters, fome of which contained, according to our mode of fpelling, three or even
four confonanjs; but, as new modified in 1707, for common ule, is reduced } to thirty
letters.
The Sclavonian, in its different diale€ts, is known through a larger extent of coun-
try, and {poken by a greater number of people, than perhaps any other language in the
world. It is the native tongue in Bohemia, Moravia, Croatia, Carinthia, Carniola,
Sclavonia, Bofnia, Servia, Albania, Dalmatia, different parts of Hungary and Bulgaria,
Poland, and Ruffia, in a word, a traveller acquainted with that language would be
underftood from the confines of Germany to the Sea of Kamtchatka.
The Ruffian diale&t of the Sclavonian, which is faid to be extremely rich and har-
monious, has not, till lately, undergone any cultivation; having been chiefly confined
to affairs of government, ecclefiaftical writings, and to unconnected chronicles and
journals.
; Some authors, in confidering the fmall advances made by the Ruffians in the arts
and fciences, when compared with the progrefs of the more enlightened nations in
Europe, have erroneoufly attributed this deficiency to the effects of climate, or to an
innate want of genius. ‘The latter affertion fcarcely deferves a ferious refutation; for
all intelle€tual improvement muft arife from culture, and the greater or lefs degree of
knowledge mult ultimately depend upon the greater or lefs degree of inftruction.
Befides, this illiberal reflection is fufficiently refuted by the bare mention of feveral il-
luftrious Ruffians, who, amongft many others, might be felected on this occafion: Phi«
laretes and Nicon; Sophia Alexiefna; Prince Vaflili Galitzin, and Peter the Great;
the learned Theophanes ; the poets Lomonozof and Sumorekof, and Kherefkof; and
the prefent hiftorian, Prince Sherebatof.
With refpect to the objection, that the genius of this nation has been fettered by the
intenfe cold of the climate, it may be remarked: if climate has an invincible effect upon
mankind, where fhall we draw the line of the greateft intelletual ability? Shall we
fuppofe a point, in which the human mind is at its greateft perfection, from which, in
proportion as it recedes, it gradually degenerates? Is the influence of climate uniform
or cafual? If uniform, why is modern Greece no longer the feat of arts and learning ?
Why was Iceland onice the chief repofitory of northern literature? Why are the Swedes
more enlightened than the Ruffians? And why are not the Ruflians of Aftracan more
civilized than thofe of Peterfburgh and Archangel? If the effects of climate are cafual,
they are then counterbalanced by other circumftances; and it ceafes to be a pofitive
criterion of diftinétion.
Many impediments arife from the government, religion, and particularly from the
vaflalage of the peafants, which tend to check the diffufion of the arts and f{ciences,
without the neceflity of having recourfe to a fuppofed want of genius, or to the effect
* Schloetzer Prob. Ruf. An. p. 189.
+ Ruffian Dictionary, 1778. In Charpentiere’s Grammar there are thirty-two characters.
of
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