IT* 



ORECII. NIKOLAY IVANOVICH. 



ORF.CH, NIKOLAY IVANOVICH. 



Lip and I tvfefonltiii in 1GJS ; a tu.tUrof the lew moment, inasmuch 

 aUliad.,oomp*t patrimony. He died October 8, 1651 



Mr. GrwTw paid much attention to weight. and measures, and 

 iriblrtH in 1617 a UbrourM on Uie Roman Foot and Denarius, 

 from bx*, at from two Principles, th. Measures and WeighU used 

 bY UM Aaeiente may be deduced? The bulk of hi* work* relates to 

 Cfrieotal (tocrapby and astronomy. H. wrote *< m '? r ' 

 ud aad* om* proem* in a Persian lexicon. In 1645 he proposed a 

 jthrmr for gradually introducing the Gregorian alteration in the 

 ralaAr commonly called New Stjle, by omitting every 29th of 

 February tor forty years. A collection of bis minor pieces WM 

 puUUbed by Dr. Birch in 1737, 3 vola, 8vo. 



I Want, /.iro.) 



ORKCH or GRETSCH, NIKOLAY IVANOVICH, an able and 

 WT industrious RuaiUn author, tome of whoie works are, from the 

 judgment which has been shown in the choice of their subjects, 

 tndMpenuble in a Ruaiian library, and also of general interest Grech, 

 who was bom at St. Petersburg on the 3rd of August (old style) 1787, 

 is the descendant of an old Bohemian family, bearing for arms, appro- 

 priately enough, a pen. His ancestors in the 17th century embraced 

 UM iTotastant faith, and were compelled in consequence to take refuge 

 in Prussia. His grandfather, who studied at Leipzig and Marburg, 

 UCOSOM acquainted with tome Russian students there, leaned their 

 language, obtained a professorship first at the grammar-school of 

 MitUu, and afterwards at St. Petersburg, and in 17SS published a 

 work in Russian on ' Politics! Geography.' The professor's son, Ivan 

 Ivanovicb, a lawyer, became secretary for Polish and German affairs 

 to the Senate at St. Petersburg ; but instead of making a fortune, as 

 is usualiy the case with those who hold the post, was recorded in the 

 new>pspers of 1803 to have died so poor that his effects were sold by 

 auction for forty-one roubles. UU son was thua left at sixteen to 

 make his own nay in the world, and give what assistance he could 

 to the ret of the family. Originally intended for a lawyer, he had 

 been educated at the School for Young Gentlemen of Birth, which 

 was then the first stepping-stone to a legal career in the Russian capital, 

 and at the age of seventeen he was introduced to a clerkship in the 

 'chancery ' of one of the government offices ; but he soon resigned the 

 monotonous employment in disgust, and for some years earned a live- 

 lihood by the business of teaching, while diligently occupying his spare 

 time in the improvement of his own education. He continued partly 

 engaged in tuition, chiefly in teaching the Russian language, till 1816, 

 when he resigned his post at the Pedagogic Institute, which has since 

 been erected into the University of St. Petersburg. His great ambition 

 however, even from boyhood, was to become an author. He tells us, 

 in an amusing paper of his own recollections, first published in 

 Bmirdin's ' Novosel'e,' that the first author he ever saw was Tumansby, 

 who had written a now-forgotten history of Peter the Great, and came 

 on some legal business to his father. " I could not," says Grech, " take 

 my eyes off him ; and squeezing into a corner of the room, I kept 

 repeating to myself, ' That is an author ; that is the author of a book : 

 what comes into his head is read by thousands in all corners of Russia, 

 and will be read even after his death.' " The next author he saw was 

 of a different cast. In 1803 Derzhavin [DEHZHAVIN], who was before 

 the appearance of Pushkin the greatest of Russian poets, and who at 

 that period was the minister of justice, came to one of the examinations 

 of the school of Young Gentlemen of Birth. Grech, who was the first 

 pupil called up before him, was unable to answer a question. " I 

 saw," be says, " neither the uniform, nor the stars, nor the ribbons ; 

 but I looked at him instantly in the face, and rushing through my 

 mind were the ' Ode to God,' the ' Waterfall,' and the rest. ' Tell us 

 the position and the divisions of ancient Greece,' said our tutor. I 

 looktd at him without an idea in my head, and again fixed my eyes 

 on the poet. ' Ancient Greece,' whispered my companions, ' lay in 

 Europe between the thirty-seventh and forty-first degrees of northern 

 latitude.' 'I know,' said I, quietly; and still kept my eyes on 

 Derxhavin. The tutor, out of all patience, called up the next pupil, 

 and I stood on one side, nearer Dcrzhavin than before. The director, 

 who knew me from previous examinations, told him something about 

 me, and Derxhavin, turning to me with an air of kindness, said, ' What 

 is thia r 1 pointing to a roll of paper I held in my hand. ' It is my 

 works,' I replied, with the undisguised vanity of youth, and handed 

 them to bin. He opened the roll, read a few verses (I remember 

 they were very bad), and laid, returning them, ' This is very good : 

 go on." Imagine my rapture ! Derxhavin had spoken to me 

 Dvsbavin had read my verses Derzhavin had praised them! 

 There are rapid momenta which influence the fortunes, the deeds of 

 UM whole after life. The few words of Derzhavin had a magic effect 

 on me ; it Memed to me that he, the high priest of Russian literature, 

 bad opened to me UM entrance to its mysteries, and that duty com- 

 manded me to follow tbe call" It is noticeable, as this was his chief 

 encouragement to a literary career, that in the subsequent collection 

 Of his ' Works,' not a line of verse is to be found. He commenced as 

 a contributor to periodicals, and with come small separate publi- 

 cations, which acquired him a reputation that led Uvorov, Olenin, and 

 some other official personage* when in the great crisis of 1812 it was 

 thought desirable to establish a new patriotic periodical to invite 

 him to become the editor. They were at a Ion for a title, and just 

 at that time Grcch happened to receive a letter from his brother, a 



military officer, who died soon after of his wounds at the battle of 

 Borodino, concluding with the words, " I shall die a true ' Suiu 

 Otecheatva ' (' son of tho country,' or, more literally, ' son of the 

 fatherland')." These words were adopted at once, and the 'Snin 

 Otechostva ' began to appear about the time that the enemy entered 

 Moscow. Tho contents consisted of jiatriotic sermons, poetry and 

 declamation, and, above all, of news from the seat of war. Its success 

 was great; and when, after the conclusion of tho war, the editor 

 began to give it a literary turn, it continued successful, and was for 

 some time the leading Russian magazine. The articles of criticism 

 on current literature by Grech had considerable influence, and were 

 remarkable for the neatness and finish of their style. By successive 

 enlargements it became the prototype and progenitor of the present 

 gigantic periodicals of Russia, the most voluminous in Europe, each 

 monthly or fortnightly number of which often contains from 300 to 

 400 closely-printed octavo pages. Grech ceased himself to have any 

 connection with it iu 1839, and a few yours after it came to a stand- 

 still, though we believe it hag since revived. One periodical seems to 

 have led to another. In 1825 he established with Bulgarin [BULOARIN] 

 the newspaper entitled ' Syevermya Pchela ' ('The Northern Bee'), 

 with which he appears to be still connected. In 1334, while editing 

 the ' Suin Otecheatva,' he was unanimously chosen by a meeting of 

 Russian literary men, who proposed to found another magazine, tho 

 editor of the ' Biblioteka ollya Chteniyn,' or ' Circulating Library, 1 

 which soon passed into tho hands of Senkovsky, and still continues 

 one of the leading periodicals of St. Petersburg. He also set on foot, 

 in 1835, the ' Entsiklopedechesky Lexikon,' or great Russian cyclo- 

 paedia ; but this proved an exception to the usual good fortune of Ids 

 undertakings. He relinquished tbe editorship before the end of the 

 seventh volume, and tho publication camo to a final close with the 

 fourteenth, though supported by the patronage of the emperor. It 

 was probably conceived on too gigantic a scale, the fourteen volumes 

 which were issued not carrying it beyond the third letter of the 

 Russian alphabet, which contains more than thirty. The ' Military 

 Cyclopaedia,' commenced in 1836 by himself and the Baron von 

 Zeddeler, was brought to a successful conclusion, and is a great store- 

 house of information with regard to Russian military matters and tho 

 biography of Russian soldiers. 



These great undertaking* were far from absorbing the whole of his 

 activity. In 1822 he published a 'History of Russian Literature,' 

 which has formed the ground-work for all that has since been written 

 on the subject. The plan is very convenient a general view is first 

 taken of the course, tendencies, and leading events of each literary 

 period, and a short biography is then given of the principal authors, 

 with a list of their works. These biographies are so brief, nnd iu 

 many cases so dry, that tho work cannot be styled an entertaining one, 

 but if the same plan had been executed on a larger scale in three or 

 four volumes instead of one the work might have been made as 

 attractive as it is serviceable. With the exception of the ' Biogr 

 of Ecclesiastical and Secular Authors,' by Eugeue liolkhovitiuov, it is 

 almost the ouly work in Russian literature which supplies precise 

 and accessible information on points of its literary history. It is 

 singular that both of these authors have been the victims of the most 

 unblushing plagiarism ou the part of Germans. A work bearing the 

 name of 'Gelehrtes Russland,' by Strahl, is merely a reproduction of 

 one of those by Bolkhovitinov, and a certain Dr. Otto issued a ' History 

 of Russian Literature,' in which nine-tenths of his statements were 

 pillaged from Grech. The book was unfortunately rendered into 

 English by a translator who knew little of German and nothing of 

 Russian, and the English reader is to this day presented with a garbled 

 and mangled version of Grech, at second hand, under the title of 

 'Coxe's Translation of Otto.' In 1827 appeared two of three 

 mars of the Russian language written by Grech one a detailed and 

 the other a practical one, which were followed in 1830 by an abridged 

 grammar, which has become for Russia almost what Liudley Murray 

 has been for England. 



A great change in the Russian language was effected by Karamzia, 

 and that change was first presented iu a methodised form by Grech, 

 who hod Koramzin's occasional advice and assistance. The grammar 

 of Vostokov, which has since followed, may bo more learned and more 

 elaborate, but Grech's seems likely to retain the pre-eminence as a 

 grammar for practical purposes, the more so perhaps that tho author 

 was not deeply skilled in the other Slavonic languages, being, as we 

 find in his travels through the Bohemian Desert, entirely unacquainted 

 with Bohemian. The detailed grammar has been translated into 

 French by Reiff, and it is still generally considered the standard 

 grammar of Russian. Grech's other works are of less importance. 

 Of his two novels, the ' Trip to Germany,' which is light and humor- 

 ous, is considered more successful than the ' Black Woman,' which in 

 mysterious and sentimental. He has also published some amusing 

 light reading in the shape of narratives of travels one of a visit in 

 1817 to France and Germany; another of a visit to those countries 

 and England in 1838. As he stopped less than a fortnight iu London, 

 and was unable to speak English with fluency, his observations on 

 England are not very profound, but they are in general good-humoured. 

 Of the history of English literature he is so uninformed that he com- 

 passionates Sir Walter Scott for having received only forty pounds for 

 nU ' Waverley.' Two of his works are in defcnce.of Russia from foreign 



