12.4 RUSSIA IN EUROPE. 



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the settlement was in 1765, with distinguished privileges from th» 

 imperii;! court. 



Literature. ...The Russians have hitherto made but an incon- 

 siderable figure -in the republic of letters : but the great encourage- 

 ment lately given by their sovereigns, in the institution of academies 

 and other literary societies, has produced sufficient proofs that they \ 

 areYjo -way deficient in intellectual abilities. The papers exhibited by 

 them at their academical meetings have been favourably received all 

 over Europe ; especially those that relate to astronomy, the mathe- 

 matics, and natural philosophy. 



Universities. ...Three colleges were founded by Peter the Great . 

 at Moscow ; one for classical learning and philosophy, the second for 

 mathematics^ and the third for navigation and astronomy ; but they 

 appear to have been neglected and suffered to fall to decay. The 

 empress Catharine II, also founded a university at Petersburg, and 

 invited some of the most learned foreigners in every faculty, who are 

 provided with good salaries ; and also a military academy, where the 

 young nobility and officers' sons are taught the art of war. It ought 

 also to be mentioned, to the honour of the same royal benefactress, 

 that she iounded a number of schools for the education of the lower 

 classes of her subjects, throughout the best inhabited parts of the 

 empire. 



Language. ...The Russian language is an improved dialect of the 

 Slavonian, which, with its charactevs, is still in use in the offices of 

 religion. The Russian alphabet has thirty-six letters, though some 

 make the number amount to forty-one; but of these several are only 

 notes of accent in pronunciation. They have a great resemblance in 

 form to the Greek characters. The language is copious, expressive, 

 and requires great pliancy in the organs of utterance. The Pater 

 Nosttr in Russian is as follows : Otshe nash, eje esi na nebesech ; da 

 svyatitsya imya tvoye da fvricdet tzarstvije tvoye ; da boodet volya 

 tvoye, yako no nebese ee na zemle chleb nash nasooshnie dajd nam dnes ; 

 ee ostavec7iam doije riasha ycikoje ee me ostavlyae?n doljneckom naahim t 

 ee ne vovede nas vo i&kooshenie no cczbave nas ot loocavago ; yako 

 tvoc est tzarstvo, ee seela, ee s'ava, vo vekee vekov. Ameen. 



Antiquities. ...Russia affords very few remains of antiquity : the 

 catacombs or burying places near Kiow, which are a kind of sub- 

 terranean labyriiKns of considerable extent; and some brass idols of 

 the pagan ancestors of the Russians, occasionally found in tombs, con- 

 taining likewise weapons and ornaments; are perhaps all that can ■ 

 deserve notice. 



History.. ..We cannot, with the smallest degree of probability, 

 carry our conjectures, with regard to the history of Russia, higher 

 than the introduction of Christianity, which happened about the tenth 

 century, when the princess of this country, called Olga, is said to have 

 been baptised at Constantinople, and refused the hand of the Greek 

 emperor, John.Zivnisces, in marriage. Photius, the famous Greek 

 patriarch, sent priests to baptise the Russians, who were for some 

 time subject to the see of Constantinople ; but the Greek patriarchs 

 aftenvards resigned ail their authority over the Russian church ; and 

 its bishops erected themselves into patriarchs, who were in a man- 

 ner independent of the civil power. It is certain, that, till the year 

 1450, the princes of R.ussia were but very little considered, being 

 chiefly subjected by the Tartars. About this time John Basilides, 

 or Ivan Vussillievitch, conquered the Tartars, and, among others, the 



