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there are few that contain a greater diverfity of objects than the work before us. M. LE CLERC feems to have been appre henfive that the aridity aud uniformity which reign in the earlier parts of the Ruffian history, and which are only now and then diverfified by aftonishing fcenes of frenzy and carnage, might prepoffefs the Public againft his work; he has therefore published at the fame time the 1ft volume of the Ancient, and the ift volume of the Modern Hiftory. In an ingenious and learned Introduction, prefixed to the fift volume of the former, he has placed fome political problems, of which he thinks the Ruffian hiftory more adapted, than almost any other, to furnish the folution. The ift relates to the infl ence of climate in forming the characters of men, which, if he does not rejec altogether, he reduces, at least, within very narrow bounds. The four following are thus propofed: 2d, Have particular phyfical conftitutions a predominant and decifive influence on particular characters? 3d, Particular characters, modified or changed by the form of government, (to which he attributes a very great influence) do they become national characters?He answers in the affirmative for reafons that are not inconteftable, and from a perfuafion that manners depend on education, and education on the principles and form of the government under which men live.-4th, What is the form of government that is moft advantageous for all people, without Exception? When you see where his book is printed, you may eafily and furely guefs how he answers. 5th, Is election to a vacant throne preferable to hereditary fucceffion?—No ———— And here the advocates for monarchy will fay, that he is undoubtedly in the right. Whatever difficulties may be ftarted against the reasonings of our author on these curious points, the citizen, the ftatefman, and the prince, will find many useful hints and important leffons in the course of his obfervations, which they would do well to carry home with them. In folving thefe problems, M. LE CLERC unfolds many of the fecret principles which effect flowly the revolutions and the decline of empires, and give rife to the different forms, which the fame political conftitution has been observed to affume fucceffively in its paffage from anarchy to oppreffion, from oppreffion to liberty, and in its return from liberty to fervitude.

We shall not follow our Author ftep by step in the Ancient Hiftory of Ruffia, which contains the reigns of its first fovereigns, whofe portraits, engraven by eminent art.fts, and accompanied with medals, ftruck, indeed, in after times, enrich the first volume. We shall give, however, fome fpecimens of the inftruction that is to be met with in this volume, and which will render it acceptable to the more inquifitive part of our

Deaders.

Such

Such Readers will find, among other things worthy of notice, a curious account of the peculiar character and genius of the Sclavonian and Ruffian languages, of the Ruffian nobility, of the ancient state of literature, arts, and population in that country, together with an hiftorical fummary of the customs, fuperftitious practices, and morals of all the conquered or tributary provinces. In this account the Reader will obferve the Ariking resemblance between the cuftoms, religious worship, and manner of living of the Tchoutchis, Tartars, Kamfchatf dales, Greenlanders, and Eiquimaux; as also between the temperature, animals and minerals of America and Afia. It is natural to conclude from thence, that the two continents were formerly one, which notion their prefent diftance from each other feems to favour, as the northern coast of Afia is, at most, but about seven leagues diftant, fays our Author, from the north-west coast of America. The extent of the Ruffian empire towards the eastern part of Afia has been reprefented by M. L'EVESQUE, as much greater than it appears to be in our Author's account of it; and we incline to the opinion of the latter, whofe refearches with respect to this object seem to have been made with capacity and attention. We know of no preceding writer, who has given fuch an accurate and circumftantial tate of the power and refources of this empire, the annual revenues and expenditure of each province, and of every thing that relates to the internal fituation and economy of this immenie territory.

The ninth century is the era of Ruffia, as a fovereign power; and M. LE CLERC exhibits a well sketched view of the political ftate of Europe and Afia at that period. His account of the origin of the Ruffian empire is clear and diftinct. The Ruffians are fupposed to have been a colony of the Huns, who fettled on the borders of the Boryfthenes, where they built the town of Kioff; and our Author is both learned and ingenious in the proof of this fact. It was upon the ruins of a republican ftate that they founded their sovereignty. This ftate was formed by the Slavonians, whofe origin our Author does not pretend to investigate, though M. L'EVESQUE has taken great pains in this research, and by an ingenious comparison of the Sclavonian language with the Latin, makes them to defcend from the ancient inhabitants of Latium. Whatever there may be in this fanciful hypothefis, it is obferved by our Author, that a body of Sclavonians fertled at Novogorod, grew powerful by their commerce, fubdued feveral of the neighbouring provinces who became their tributaries, and encloted their territory within the Lakes Ladoga, Onegi, Peipus, and Beilo Ozero. They maintained here an independent fovereignty under a form partly aristocratical, and partly democratical, fo far

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down as the year 862. It was at this period that their Conful (an officer of great authority in the government) engaged his fellow-citizens (among whom the intoxication and abuse of liberty had produced inteftine difcords, and the calamities from without that often attend them) to call to their affistance the Varaigue Ruffians from Ingria, to keep their enemies in awe, and to restore order and a regular adminiftration of juftice among themselves. What caufes had reduced the Sclavonians to this critical step, we do not learn; but we learn that they loft their liberty, and that Rurik, Cinaf, and Trouver, the Ruffian auxiliaries, became firft their protectors by choice, and afterwards their mafters by force. The firft of the three furvived his two brothers, and joining their portions of territory to his own, formed a ftate, limited by the four lakes above mentioned. His arbitrary measures made the Sclavonians revolt; but this infurrection only riveted their chains. His yoke became fo heavy, that even the Varaigues, who had followed him, could no longer bear to be either the accomplices of his barbarity, or the fubjects of a chief fo intractable and defpotic. They therefore withdrew to Kiof, where they trained to arms the Ruffians of that district, subdued the Kozars, and made conquests in Poland.

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Rurik, nevertheless, lived feveral years at Novogorod after this revolution, and died in peace in the year 879. His defpotic fyftem was carried on by Oleg, whom he left guardian to his fon Igor, who was an infant. Oleg was a man of a bold and enterprifing genius, and had recourfe to perfidy, where force was wanting to execute his purposes. He extended his domination on all fides by force of arms. Having made himself master of Kiof by a perfidious ftratagem, he fubdued feveral of the neighbouring nations; and at this period the Sclavonians and Varaigues being confounded in one mafs with the Kiovians, they all affumed the general denomination of Ruffians.

The expeditions of Oleg, and his fucceffor Igor, against the eaftern empire, are furprizing for this age. We do not wonder to fee fwarms of barbarians rufhing on to rapine with a diforderly violence, through plundered provinces; but we cannot contemplate, without furprize, an army of 80,000 men, in 2000 boats, failing along the Dnieper to the Euxine fea, paffing the feven cataracts which obftruct its navigation, in order to conquer Conftantinople and its Emperor. The two foveregns who fucceffively filled the throne after Igor, were a mother and her fon. The latter, who was a fierce warrior, and made feveral conquefts, weakened the empire by dividing it among his three fons. It was, however, re-united in the year 980, under the feepter of Wolodomir, who embraced Chriftianity, and abolished the idolatry of the Sclavonians. Our Au

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thor takes occafion from this event to give an ample account of the religious opinions and worship of this people, before their converfion; and his account is philofophical as well as hiftorical. The refult is, that the Sclavonians adored one God, the creator of the univerfe, but attributed the phenomena and operations of nature to a multitude of invifible beings, of an inferior order, fome of them good, and others malevolent. They also looked upon the elements, ftars, meteors, feas, lakes, &c. as fubaltern deities, and gave them accordingly a place in their religious worship.

In a climate fo inclement and rigorous as that of the Sclavonians, it was natural, fays our Author, that they should regard fire as the principal fymbol, or representative, of the deity. They had alfo, like the most polished and enlightened nations of antiquity, their fea and river gods, their tutelary deities for their houses, flocks, fports, forefts, and all the various productions of the earth. They had their gods of war and peace; and Lada, their Cupid, or god of love, had (who will believe it?) rich temples erected to his honour at Kiof. All these deities had their priefts, who pretended to foretel future events, and who drew omens from the flight of birds, the approach of certain animals, their different cries, the undulations of flame, and other circumftances of that kind. We fhall not follow our Author in his enumeration of all the rites and inftitutions that formed the fuperftitious worship of this rude uncivilized people, before their converfion to Chriftianity. It fhews us that natural religion, that is, the religion conformable to reason and the nature of God and man, is always disfigured, when man has no other guide to the knowledge of it, but unaffifted nature alone. While we were reading it, we thought ourselves at Athens or Rome, in the era of their glory. For favage tribes and polished states seem to ftand upon the fame footing, with refpect to religious knowledge, where a divine revelation has not been vouchsafed.

When the Sclavonians embraced Christianity, they adopted the rites and doctrines of the Greek church, in confequence of their connexions with the Greeks of Conftantinople. Thefe rites are described by our Author at great length. It is well known that the Ruffians follow the rites and liturgy of the fame church; but it is not perhaps fo well known, nor is it easy to be conceived, to what a degree ignorance and fuperftition reign among the common people in that country. Their images are numerous, and they pray before them, and illuminate them with lighted tapers at feftivals, as in the Romish church. But is it poffible that it should be a tenet even among the lowest of the people, that St. Nicholas refused to be God, but, after the reign of God the Father was ended, defigned to

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affume his place? This and other doctrines, little less abfurd, are laid to their charge in the work before us; and the details into which our Author enters concerning this fubject are really

curious.

Wolodomir, or Uladimir, who changed the Paganism of the Ruffians into the profeffion of a fort of Chriftianity, was the fifth fovereign of that people. He extended his conqueft confiderably, and added feveral provinces to his dominions, which at his death he divided among his children. He was, for bis age, a great prince, and made fome zealous and commendable attempts to introduce agriculture, and ufeful arts among his fubjects. His fucceffor Suitapolk was a monfter of barbarity, and, indeed, if we except the reign of Jaroflaf, the hiftory of Ruffia, during two centuries, from the death of Wolodomir, exhibits little more than a fatiguing and uniform feries of perfidious and bloody quarrels between rival princes. M LECLERC has ingeniously relieved the reader, in his paffage through these barren fands of hiftory, by interfperfing here and there judicious reflexions on the virtues and vices of fovereigns, and by parallels between the princes whofe hiftory he writes, and those of other countries and periods which are better known. These parallels he proposes to continue, and they will become, no doubt, ftill more interefting the further he advances towards modern times.

M. LE CLERC has given us a literal translation of the laws enacted in the year 1054, by faroflaf, a prince, who appeared as a beneficent luminary, in a period of barbarim and darknefs. This was the firft regular code of Ruffian laws, and they are preferved in the annals of Novogorod, which commence with the death of Igor, and are carried down to the fourteenth century. Thefe laws are few in number; and their fimplicity, precifion, and penalties, difcover a spirit of legiflation much fuperior to what we find in the laws of more polished ftates at this period of time.

It is a remarkable' obfervation of our Author, that from the time of Rurik to the reign of Jaroslaf, ambition did not lose a moment in Ruffia In every interval of peace, plans of war were formed; every day new enemies either appeared in reality, or were imagined, in order to occupy the reftlefs fpirit of the people, and employ them abroad, when their inquietude and violence became dangerous at home. And befides — to plunder and divide the fpoil, were expeditions of confequence to the Ruffians, who had little commerce, and were ignorant of the ufeful arts, which produce the neceffaries and comforts of life accordingly they were always at war, either from principles of policy, or the defire of pillage. Under Jaroflaf they were quite weary of peace; as they had no enemies abroad,

they

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