Modern Languages. % 115 



Klewberg, Leopold, and Lidner, are perhaps 

 entitled to the most honourable mention, and fur- 

 nish examples of Swedish style according to its 

 latest and best improvements.. In 1786 a literary 

 association, under the name of the Swedish Aca- 

 demy, was established at Stockholm. The prin- 

 cipal object of this institution is to cultivate the 

 language of that country; with which view it is 

 said to be preparing for publication a national 

 Grammar and Dictionary. s 



RUSSIAN LANGUAGE. 



The Russian Language, during the period under 

 review, has also been much and successfully cul- 

 tivated. This language, which is a dialect of the 

 Sclavonian, was, at the beginning of the eighteenth 

 century, in a wretchedly irregular and neglected 

 condition, very few compositions of dignified cha- 

 racter having then appeared in it. Since that 

 time it has employed much of the attention of 

 learned men ; grammars and dictionaries have been 

 formed, with many successive improvements; nu- 

 merous translations from other languages have con- 

 tributed greatly to enrich and polish it; the Rus- 

 sian academy has long been diligently engaged in 

 its cultivation; and writers of taste have done 

 much to confer upon it regularity and ornament. 

 Previous to the year 1707 the alphabet of this lan- 

 guage consisted of thirty-nine letters. In that 

 year it was newly modified, and reduced to thirty. 

 These are chierly made up of Greek and Roman 

 letters, together with some characters, to express 

 sounds, which are peculiar to theSclavonian tongue. 

 Though the language of Russia is still imperfecta 



i Sec A General View of Szvedert, by M. Catte.\u. 



