The popular poetry which is scattered over all Slavic countries, has at last received the attention due to it.  That of Russia is not so early as that of some other branches of the same family; with the exception however of certain songs for harvest, weddings, festivals, funerals, and some other like verses, sung or recited on certain stated occasions.  There are among them some, which in their most essential portions are derived from pagan times.  The Ukraine, and indeed Malo-Russia in general, and all the regions where Ruthenian tribes have settled, are particularly rich in popular poetry.  Valuable miscellaneous collections have been made by Prince Tzertelef, Maximovitch, Sacharof, by the Polish literati Bielowski and Siemienski, Bodianski, etc.[45]

To the philological works enumerated on page 84, we may add the following productions of the present period:  Brosset, on the Literature and Language of Armenia and Georgia;[46] also the Dictionaries of these languages by Chodubashef and Tschubinof, the latter (Georgian or Grusinian) the first which was ever published; a Chinese grammar by the priest Hyacinth, who prepared likewise a history of China some years ago, which we must suppose has been published.  A new Turkish dictionary was published in 1830 by Rhasis.  Prince Alexander Handsheri prepared another of French, Arabic, Turkish, and Persian; in aid of which the Sultan subscribed for 200 copies.  Sjogren, an academician, known by his Studies on the Finnish Language and Literature, devoted himself in connection with the latter to the Caucasian idioms, and published the results in the Transactions of the Academy.  A Turco-Tartar grammar was written by Kasembeg, a Tartar by birth, but educated in European Russia, and professor of those languages at the university of Kazan.

In the different departments of natural science, although the Russians may be still called beginners, their progress has recently been immense.  This has resulted in a great measure from the judicious plan of the government, in sending out annually a certain number of young men to study at German universities.  Philosophy as a science was formerly despised, and considered as the exclusive property of German pedants and bookworms;[47] but since German philosophy has seemed to take a more practical turn, it has begun to excite more interest.  The government, which in the first affright after the conspiracy of 1825, had abolished all the professorships of philosophy, began to relax; and went even so far as to send young men to Germany for these studies, and to re-establish the chairs in several of the Russian universities.  It was, however, still regarded as a dangerous science; and the learning which some young clergymen acquired in it—­Golubinski, Gabriel, and above all Sidonski—­was carefully watched, and proved of little value to the public.