THIRD PERIOD.

From Lomonosof to Karamzin, A.D.1741—­1796.

We have now reached the epoch from which the temple of Russian literature, as it appears at present, must be dated.  It was Peter’s hand that laid the corner-stone; it was Lomonosof who raised it above the ground; whilst the fortunate turns of Elizabeth’s and Catharine’s vanity caused it to be filled with more worshippers than would otherwise ever have sought the way thither.  Academies were founded for the sciences and arts; numerous institutions for the education of all classes and ages were created and endowed with true imperial magnificence.  In the year 1758 the university of Moscow was founded; while other scientific institutions of all descriptions were established by Catharine’s unbounded liberality.  In the year 1783 the free establishment of printing offices was permitted; of course not without reserving to the government the privilege of a strict censorship.  A seminary for educating teachers for popular schools was erected, with the intention of founding Gymnasia all over the country.  These measures, no doubt, had an essential and beneficial influence on the general civilization of the nation.  But the common people, the peasantry, remained entirely neglected.

It was however in a family of the lowest standing, that Michael Lomonosof was born, A.D. 1711.  His father was a fisherman in the government of Archangel.  During the long winters, when his father’s trade was interrupted, Lomonosof learned to read of one of the church servants.  The beauties of the Bible, and the singing of the Psalms during the church service, in the rhymed translation of Simeon of Polotzk, first awakened his own poetical faculties.  An ardent desire for an education caused him to leave home privately and seek his way to Moscow, where, he was told, was an institution, in which foreign languages were taught.  Circumstances proved fortunate; he found liberal patrons; was educated afterwards in Kief and St. Petersburg, and obtained means to go to Germany.  Here he connected philosophy with the mathematical studies which he had hitherto chiefly pursued; devoted a part of his time to the science of mining, at the celebrated school in Freiburg; and sat in Marburg at the feet of the philosopher Wolf.  In passing through Brunswick, he escaped with difficulty the horrors of the Prussian military system.  He succeeded in reaching Holland, and thence returned to his own country; where he was well received and honourably employed by the government.  He died A.D. 1765, in the enjoyment of high general esteem, but not that degree of reputation which has been allotted to him by a more judicious posterity.  He first ventured to draw a distinct boundary line between the Old Slavic and the Russian languages; which hitherto had been confounded in a most intolerable manner.  In his Russian Grammar, he first laid down principles and fixed rules for the general compass of the language; without however checking the influence