care of several Asiatic nations,
and founded auxiliaries in the deserts of Siberia, and also in the
midst of the Kozaks of the Don and the Circassian provinces. In A.D.
1820, this society had fifty-three sections and 145 auxiliaries; and
the number of copies of whole Bibles and of New Testaments
distributed, exceeded 430,000. But in 1822, the society held its last
aniversary; and three years later, some of the more important Russian
clergy succeeded in closing the series of annual reports. In April
1826, the activity of the society was ultimately terminated, or, as it
was expressed, _was suspended_, by the Ukase of the emperor Nicholas,
at the instigation of the metropolitans Eugene and Seraphim. Since
that time, only the sale of the copies already printed has been
permitted.[30]

The Russian Bible Society stood of course in connection with societies
for Foreign Missions; but was active in this respect chiefly through
the agency of the United or Moravian Brethren. In 1823 the Moravians
of Sarepta sent, with the express consent of the minister of
Ecclesiastical Affairs, two missionaries to the Kalmuks; into whose
language the Gospels had been translated at St. Petersburg by Schmidt.
In the same degree that they found the people susceptible for divine
truth, did they meet with opposition from the priesthood. The Khans,
yielding to the influence of the priests, threatened to emigrate; and
the Russian government found it advisable to withdraw the mission. An
interesting report of this mission was published in 1824, in the
Journal of St. Petersburg. In the year 1824, a mission of the Greek
church, at the instigation of the bishop of Archangel, was sent to the
Samoyedes. This was the first attempt ever made to convert that
savage people to Christianity; of the results we are not informed.

The compass of Russian literature extended itself during the course of
Alexander's reign, or rather from A.D. 1800 to 1822, with a most
remarkable rapidity. In the year 1787 the number of books written in
the Old Slavonic and Russian dialects, did not exceed 4000;[31] before
1820 twice that number was counted; the year 1820 alone produced 3400
works, 800 of them translations from the French, 483 from the German,
and more than 100 from the English. Sopikof, in his bibliographical
essay, enumerates the titles of 13,240 Russian and Slavonic books,
printed in Russia from A.D. 1552 to 1823. But at this time literature
seems to have reached its