is perfectly suitable; in Servian, however, several letters could be easily spared; while others had to be added.  Some change of the alphabet seemed therefore necessary.  As those Servians among whom Vuk was born, and among whom chiefly he had gathered the treasures of remarkable poetry, which serve as so beautiful a base to their young literature, all belonged to the Greek or Oriental Church, he seems never to have thought of the possibility of adopting the Latin alphabet, which had already served for several centuries for the once flourishing literature of their Catholic brethren, who spoke essentially the same language.

We are ready to acknowledge that the Slavic alphabet, as arranged by Vuk, is better adapted to express the sounds of the Slavic languages, than the Latin; it is at once simpler and richer.  But we nevertheless cannot help regretting, that he did not yield to the various reasons, which on the other side spoke in favour of the Latin alphabet.  It was already used by some millions for the same language, and had been so for centuries.  It would have given a history to the young Servian Literature built on the solid foundation of that of Ragusa.  It had been, with the exception of the Russians, adopted by all the other Slavic nations.  It would have indeed estranged him, seemingly, from his nearer countrymen, who made the most passionate objections against his innovations, even as they were; but as they, at any rate, had to go to Austria for a literary education, this opposition would probably not have lasted longer than it will last now.  There was some fear, that, with the Roman alphabet, the Roman chair would try to get possession of their church; but those were not the times of Rome’s power; and the Turkish patronage seemed to secure them against such arrogance.  One thing is certain.  Instead of strengthening for ever the artificial wall of separation between the two classes of Illyrico-Servians, it would have undermined that which already existed; and Vuk, by his strong philosophical-grammatical talent, would soon have gained influence enough on the Illyrico-Dalmatian literature to mend the imperfections of their orthography, and to induce the Croats and Servians to give up their capricious varieties.  The many detached parts of the products of Illyrico-Servian intellect would have grown into one great whole; and would have become at least accessible to foreigners; who, puzzled by all these varieties of letters and forms of writing, lose the courage to penetrate into a structure where they meet so much confusion at the very door.  Indeed, whether they turn to the eastern or to the western branch of the Southern Slavi, they find equal individual and provincial anarchy; a state of things which the latter at least have taken great pains to amend.