from the pagan period; but as
they have been preserved only by tradition, we must of course assume,
that their diction, has been changed almost in the same proportion as
the language of common life. Hence, national songs, before they have
been fixed by letters, are always to be considered as much safer
proofs for the genius than for the language of a people.

It is, however, probable that at least _one_ Slavic idiom was
cultivated to a certain degree in very ancient times; for from the
single circumstance, that Cyril's translation of the Bible, written in
the middle of the ninth century, bears the stamp of uncommon
perfection in its forms, and of great copiousness, it is sufficiently
evident, that the language must have been the means of expression for
thinking men several centuries before. There is, indeed, no doubt that
the state of the language, as it appears in that translation, required
no short interval of preparation.

The first attempts to convert portions of the Slavic race to
Christianity were probably made before the seventh century; but it was
only at the beginning of the ninth that their partial success became
of importance to their language and literature. It is true, that by
the last investigations of the late great Slavist, B. Kopitar, the
fact has been ascertained, that a portion of the Slavic race was
already in possession of an alphabet _before_ Cyril;[8] but as this
fact appears to have had no further result, we must still consider the
ninth century and Cyril's translation of the Gospels as the beginning
of their literary history, the dawn at least of a brighter day.

Before we enter upon our examination of the different branches, we
must not neglect to direct the attention of the reader to the whole
great trunk, which in the most ancient times appears to have ramified
into two principal stems.

A boundless confusion indeed reigns in the classification of the
Slavic nations among the earlier historians and philologists. It was
the learned Dobrovsky of Prague, who first brought light into this
chaos, and established a classification, founded on a deep and
thorough examination of all the different dialects, and acknowledged
by the equally great authority of Kopitar. Adelung, in his
Mithridates,[9] has adopted it. The specific names, however, Antes and
Slavi, which Adelung applies to the great divisions, and which were
first used by Jornandes, are arbitrary, and less distinct than those
adopted by