to
the versions of the Scriptures into their own dialects are they
indebted, not only for their moral and religious culture, but also for
the cultivation and, in a great degree, the existence of their
national literature. The same influence Christianity is even now
exerting upon the hitherto unwritten languages of the American forest,
of the islands of the Pacific, of the burning coasts of Africa, of the
mountains of Kurdistan; and with the prospect of results still wider
and more propitious. Indeed, wherever we learn the fact, whether in
earlier or more recent times, that a language, previously regarded as
barbarous, and existing only as oral, has been reclaimed and reduced
to writing, and made the vehicle of communicating fixed thought and
permanent instruction, there it has ever been _Christianity_ and
_Missionary Enterprise_ which have produced these results. It is
greatly to the honour of Protestant Missions, that their efforts have
always been directed to introduce the Scriptures and the worship of
God to the masses of the people in their own native tongue. In this
way they have every where contributed to awaken the intellectual, as
well as the moral life of nations.

The present work has been prepared with great care; and with the aid
of the latest and best sources of information, so far as they were
accessible. The author, however, would be the last to desire, that any
one should regard the volume as comprising a full or complete history
of the literature of the seven or eight Slavic nations. Scholars
familiar with the subject, and especially intelligent Russian, Polish,
or Bohemian readers, will doubtless discover in it deficiencies and
errors. Limited to the resources of a private library,--for the public
libraries of the United States and of Great Britain have as yet
accumulated little or nothing in the Slavic department,--and without
the privilege of personal intercourse with others acquainted with
Slavic literary matters, the author desires to be distinctly
understood, as aiming only to present a _sketch_, an _outline_,--a
work which may fill its appropriate place, until it shall be
supplanted by something more perfect.

The preceding remarks have reference especially to the first _three_
Parts of the volume. In the _fourth_ Part, containing a Sketch of the
Popular Poetry of the Slavic nations, the author is perhaps still more
at home; and the reader, it may be hoped, will receive gratification
from the