THROUGH FINLAND. 
3 CI 
demic bowers, far diftant from the din of arms. Finland had been 
conftantly expofed to the incurfions of its neighbours. The Finns 
were themfelves invaders in the beginning of the chriftian era, and 
were afterwards in their turn invaded by their neighbours, the 
Ruffians, the Swedes, and the Danes, who carried on a predatory 
war againft them, laying all wafte in their incurlions. At length 
the Finns were at once converted and fubjugated by the fword of 
Eric the ninth, king of Sweden, who having, in the year 1150, 
made them the fervants of the chriftian religion, annexed their 
country to Sweden. From that time their fituation became im¬ 
proved, and poetry, which even before that epoch had cheered 
“ the dull abode of the fhivering natives,” extended its influence,, 
and taking the lead of letters, was purfued by them with a dili¬ 
gence and fuccefs, which, every thing confidered, is very remark¬ 
able. 
The fpecies of verfe employed by them is called runic, from the 
ancient Gothic word runoot. It is compofed of lines of eight 
trochees, or long and ftiort lyllables, w'hich do not rhyme with 
correlpondent endings, but are allitterative, or have like begin¬ 
nings, that is to fay, have two at leaft or more words which 
agree in a letter or fyllable. To explain this kind of verfe r we 
will give the reader a fpecimen from the only poem exifting in 
the Englifh language compofed in this allitterative ftyle, which 
is “ The Vifion of Pierce Plowman,” a curious monument of 
ancient poetry, written in the fourteenth century, and printed for 
the fecond time in 1550. The poem begins thus,. 
“ In 
