c
nations, or the Germans, the Scotch, and the Spaniards, possess of
popular poetry, can at the utmost be compared with the lyrical part of
the Servian songs, called by them _female_ songs, because they are
sung only by females and youths; but the long epic extemporized
compositions, by which a peasant bard, sitting in a large circle of
other peasants, in unpremeditated but perfectly regular and harmonious
verse, celebrates the heroic deeds of their ancestors or
cotemporaries, has no parallel in the whole history of literature
since the days of Homer.[13]

Vuk Stephanovitch Karadshitc,[14] in his successful attempts to
reduce a language, which hitherto had been merely an unwritten dialect
of the common people, to certain general rules and principles, had,
besides the more philosophical part of the work, also to adapt the
Slavonic alphabet to his purpose. The mixed and unregulated language,
which up to his time had been employed, had been written alternately
with the Old Slavonic and the Russian letters. To the Russian
language, with its multitude of sounds, the latter 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 obje