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 views and specimens there presented. Similar views, and a few
of the same specimens, were given in an article from the same pen, in
the North American Review for July, 1836.
In conclusion, it may not be inappropriate to remark, that
circumstances have combined to secure to the author some
qualifications for the preparation of a work of this kind, which are
not common to writers in the English language. A residence of several
years in early life in Russia, first in the southern provinces, and
afterwards at St. Petersburg, presented opportunity for a personal
acquaintance with the language and literature of that country. At a
later period, this gave occasion and afforded aid for an extensive
study of the Servian dialect and its budding literature; the results
of which were given to the public in a German translation of the very
remarkable popular songs and ballads of that country[4]. The field was
new: but certainly that can be regarded as no barren soil, nor that as
a fruitless labour, which at once drew the attention, and secured to
the translator the friendship and correspondence, of scholars like
Goethe, von Humboldt; J.
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