t 
408 oration of Lomonofsoff. Oct. 265 
convince themselves by. experieace how great advane- 
tages arise to the individual and community irom 
a curious scrutiny of foreign countries. The wide 
gat.s of Rufsia were then thrown open: "twas then 
that the sons of Rufsia, like the flux and reflux in 
the extensive ocean, departing to seek knowledge in 
the various sciences and arts, and returning loaded 
with experience, books, and foreign engiwes, flowed, 
through her ports in unremitting motion. It was 
then that due respect, im the sacred person of Peter, 
_ clothed in purple and crowned with laurels, was 
paid to mathematical and physical knowledge, for- 
merly reckoned witchcraft and necromancy*, What 
advantage of every kind was derived to us from the 
arts encircled with such rays of Majesty, 1s.maniics- 
ted by the plenteous profusion of varied convenience, 
of which, before the time of the great enligntener of 
Rufsia, our ancestors were not only deprived, but 
of which they had even no conception. How many 
useful articles, which were formerly brought into 
Rifsia with much difficulty, and at a great expence, 
are now made at home ; and serve not only to obviate 
our own wants, but supply also the necefsities of 
distant nations! Ihe neighbouring nations vaunted 
formerly that Rufsia, an extensive and powerful 
kingdom, could neither make war, nor carry on 
trade without their afsistanee: that in itself it had 
* Lomonofsoff himself among his other acquiremets was a greas 
proficient in mathematical knowledge ;_ on which subject he has left 
Several treatises that are much esteemed. 
