512 SLAVIC LITERATURE 



know of translations and discussions of the philosophical writings 

 of William James, of the sociological writings of Henry George, and 

 of many others in several of the Slavic languages, it is by no means 

 so easy to trace their further effects upon the contemporary thought 

 of the nationalities among whom they have appeared. 



Still less capable of an exact valuation is the influence exerted by 

 individual Americans who have come in contact with foreigners and 

 have by their personal activities turned people's attention to the 

 intellectual pursuits of the New Continent. Of these champions of 

 Americanism there has been no lack, especially in the second half 

 of the nineteenth century. An energetic consul, or other person in 

 the diplomatic service, may have directed the energies, not only of 

 individuals, but even of whole nationalities, upon what they deemed 

 to be American ideals: such, for example, was the activity of Still- 

 man, whose memory lives among the Cretans and the Greeks, and 

 that of Eugen Schuyler, who, besides his keen interest in Russian 

 affairs, is hailed as the real author of the articles of St. Stefano, by 

 which Bulgaria obtained its independence. Such also is the activity 

 of those missionaries, and Americans in general, who have estab- 

 lished schools for natives, from Spain to India, to serve as seminaries 

 of ideas current in the United States. The importance of these 

 schools is still further enhanced by the fact that a certain number 

 of the pupils educated in them have come to America to complete 

 their education, after which they have returned home, still further 

 to increase the influence of American ideals. One of the most potent 

 factors of this kind has been Roberts College in Constantinople, 

 which has trained a whole generation of men from all the countries 

 of the Balkan Peninsula. 



This latter activity of the American School Board brings us to 

 another factor, to which, more than to any other, several nationalities 

 owe their incipient literary impetus the activity of the missionaries 

 abroad. At the present time the missionary work has fallen into the 

 hands of mostly half-educated men who arc in search of lucrative 

 positions, and arc willing to risk the religious propaganda of their par- 

 ticular denomination in distant lands. By their religious fanaticism 

 or narrow-mindedness they now are gaining a rather unenviable 

 reputation abroad; but in the first half of the nineteenth century 

 the missionaries were for the most part college-bred men and women, 

 whose chief desire was to carry American education abroad. Thus, 

 while Americans surreptitiously aided the Greek Revolution in the 

 first quarter of the century, and Dr. Howe was actively connected 

 with the revolutionists, the missionaries stationed in Greek territory 

 were busy printing pamphlets and gospel extracts in the spoken 

 idiom, and these were at that time almost the only accessible text- 

 books in the Greek schools. Thus the printing-press at Malta became 



