,
beneficial results, by exciting the minds of the people to a higher
activity than they have had until then occasion to exert.

Davidovitch published from 1814 to 1822 a Servian newspaper in Vienna,
not exclusively of a political character, by which he intended to
diffuse information on various subjects; the first undertaking of the
kind in his language. His influence however is not confined to the
language alone; as secretary of Prince Milosh, then at the head of the
Servians, his influence on the general cultivation of his countrymen
was very decided.

Vuk Stephanovitch Karadshitch, born 1786 in Turkish Servia, is the
author of the first Oriental-Servian grammar and dictionary; and in
the arrangement of the former has manifested the true spirit of a
genuine grammarian. Besides these he has written several works of
value, a biography of Prince Milosh, a series of annuals, a volume on
the Proverbs, and idiomatic phrases of the Servians, etc.[11] But the
best proof which he could give of the beauty, richness, and
perfectibility of the vulgar Servian dialect, is his Collection of
the Servian popular Songs, in four volumes, comprising nevertheless
only about the fourth or fifth part of the similar treasures hidden
among the mountains of his country. In making this collection, he very
judiciously wrote down only those songs which he had himself caught
from the lips of the Servian peasantry. There had already been a
rumour among the literati of Europe, for more than fifty years, of the
beauty and singularity of the Illyrian national songs, founded mostly
on the communications of Italian travellers and the citations of
Dalmatian dictionaries. Herder, in his valuable Collection of popular
Poetry, gave two historical fragments from the work of a Dalmatian
clergyman, A. Cacich.[12] Goethe also has a beautiful tale, taken from
Abbate Fortis' Travels among the Morlachians. Both translated by means
of the French; and although this double translation could not possibly
do justice to the originals, they were sufficiently admired. But when
Vuk's collection appeared, and a part of its contents was made
intelligible to the civilized world by a translation attempted by the
author of this work, imperfect and deficient as any translation of
popular poetry must necessarily ever be, the public and the critics
were nevertheless alike struck with the strong expression of the high
and incomparable beauties of nature. All that the other Slavi