and breathe, and dwell; aspiring high,
Even to the throne of Thy divinity.
I am, O God! and surely _Thou_ must be!

Thou art! directing, guiding all, Thou art!
Direct my understanding then to Thee:
Control my spirit, guide my wandering heart:
Though but an atom midst immensity,
Still I am something fashioned by Thy hand!
I hold a middle rank 'twixt heaven and earth,
On the last verge of mortal being stand,
Close to the realms where angels have their birth,
Just on the boundaries of the spirit-land!

The chain of being is complete in me:
In me is matter's last gradation lost,
And the next step is spirit--Deity!
I can command the lightning, and am dust!
A monarch, and a slave; a worm, a god!
Whence came I here, and how? so marvelously
Constructed and conceived? Unknown! This clod
Lives merely through some higher energy;
For from itself alone it could not be!

Creator, yes! Thy wisdom and thy word
Created me! Thou source of light and good!
Thou spirit of my spirit, and my Lord!
Thy light, Thy love, in their bright plenitude
Fill'd me with an immortal soul, to spring
O'er the abyss of death, and bade it wear
The garments of eternal day, and wing
Its heavenly flight beyond this little sphere,
Even to its source--to Thee--its author there.

O thoughts ineffable! O visions blest!
Though worthless our conceptions all of Thee,
Yet shall Thy shadowed image fill our breast,
And waft its homage to Thy Deity.
God! Thus alone my lowly thoughts can soar;
Thus seek Thy presence--Being wise and good!
Midst Thy vast works admire, obey, adore;
And when the tongue is eloquent no more,
The soul shall speak in tears of gratitude.

But the literary activity of Katherine II.'s reign was not confined to
its two most brilliant representatives--Von Vizin and Derzhavin; many
less prominent writers, belonging to different parties and branches of
literature, were diligently at work. Naturally, there was as yet too
little independent Russian literature to permit of the existence of
criticism, or the establishment of a fixed standard of taste.

Among the worthy writers of the second class in that brilliant era, were
Kheraskoff, Bogdanovitch, Khemnitzer, and Kapnist.

Mikhail Matvyeevitch Kheraskoff (1733-1801), the author of the epic "The
Rossiad," and of other less noteworthy works,