The Armenians, from the earliest period of their existence, through all the political disasters which have signalized their history, have exhibited a strong love for a national literature, and maintained themselves as a cultivated people amidst all the revolutions which barbarism, despotism, and war have occasioned. During so many ages they have faithfully preserved not only their historical traditions, reaching back to the period of the ancient Hebrew histories, but also their national character. Their first abode—the vicinity of Mount Ararat—is even at the present day the centre of their religious and political union. Commerce has scattered them, like the Israelites, among all nations, but without debasing their character; on the contrary, they are distinguished by superior cultivation, manners, and honesty from the barbarians under whose yoke they live. The cause is to be found in their creed and in their religious union.
Until the beginning of the fourth century A.D. the Armenians were Parsees; the literature of the country up to this period was contained in a few songs or ballads, and its civilization was only that which could be wrought out by the philosophy of Zoroaster. In 319, when Christianity was introduced into Armenia, the language and learning of the Greeks were exciting the profound admiration of the most eminent fathers of the church, and this attention to Greek literature was immediately manifest in the literary history of Armenia. A multitude of Grecian works was translated, commented upon, and their philosophy adopted, and the literature was thus established upon a Grecian basis.
About the same period, the alphabet at present in use in the Armenian language was invented, or the old alphabet perfected by Mesrob, in connection with which the language underwent many modifications. Mesrob, with his three sons, especially educated for the task, commenced the translation of the Bible 411 A.D., and its completion nearly half a century later gave a powerful impulse to Armenian learning, and at the same time stamped upon it a religious character which it has never lost. The period from the sixth to the tenth century is the golden age of this literature. Its temporary decline after this period was owing to the invasion of the Arabians, when many of the inhabitants were converted to the Mohammedan faith and many more compelled to suffer persecution for their refusal to abjure Christianity. After the subjection of Armenia to the Greek empire, literature again revived, and until the fourteenth century was in a flourishing condition. In 1375, when the Turks took possession of the country, the inhabitants were again driven from their homes, and from that time their literature has steadily declined. After their emigration, the Armenians established themselves in various countries of Europe and Asia, and amidst all the disadvantages of their position they still preserve not only the unity of their religious faith, but the same unwearied desire to sustain a national literature. Wherever they have settled, in Amsterdam, Leghorn, Venice, Constantinople, and Calcutta, they have established printing presses and published valuable books. Of their colonies or monasteries, the most interesting and fruitful in literary works is that of Venice, which was founded in the eighteenth century by Mechitar, an Armenian, and from him its monks are called Mechitarists. From the time of their establishment they have constantly issued translations of important religious works. They now publish a semi- monthly paper in the Armenian language, which is circulated and read among the scattered families of the Armenian faith over the world. They also translate and publish standard works of modern literature.
About the year 1840, through the influence of American missionaries, the Bible was translated into Armenian, freed as far as possible from foreign elements; school-books were also translated, newspapers established, and the language awoke to new life. Within the last twenty years the intellectual progress in Armenia has been very great. In 1863 Christopher Robert, an American gentleman, established and endowed a college at Constantinople for the education of pupils of all races, religions, and languages found in the empire. This institution, not sectarian, though Christian, has met with great success. It has two hundred and fifty students from fifteen nationalities, though chiefly Armenian, Bulgarian, and Greek.
SLAVIC LITERATURES.
The Slavic Race and Languages; the Eastern and Western Stems; the
Alphabets; the Old or Church Slavic Language; St. Cyril's Bible; the
Pravda Russkaya; the Annals of Nestor.
THE SLAVIC RACE AND LANGUAGES.—The Slavic race, which belongs to the great Indo-European family of nations, probably first entered Europe from Asia, seven or eight centuries B.C. About the middle of the sixth century A.D. we find Slavic tribes crossing the Danube in great multitudes, and settling on both the banks of that river; from that time they frequently appear in the accounts of the Byzantine historians, under different appellations, mostly as involved in the wars of the two Roman empires; sometimes as allies, sometimes as conquerors, often as vassals, and oftener as emigrants and colonists, thrust out of their own countries by the pressing forward of the more warlike Teutonic tribes. In the latter half of the eleventh century the Slavic nations were already in possession of the whole extent of territory which they still occupy, from the Arctic Ocean on the north to the Black and Adriatic seas on the south, and from Kamtschatka and the Russian islands of the Pacific to the Baltic, and along the banks of the rivers Elbe, Muhr, and Ruab, again to the Adriatic. They are represented by early historians as having been a peaceful, industrious, hospitable people, obedient to their chiefs, and religious in their habits. Wherever they established themselves, they began to cultivate the earth, and to trade in the productions of the country. There are also early traces of their fondness for music and poetry.
The analogy between the Slavic and the Sanskrit languages indicates the Oriental origin of the Slavonians, which appears also from their mythology. The antithesis of a good and evil principle is met with among most of the Slavic tribes; and even at the present time, in some of their dialects, everything good and beautiful is to them synonymous with the purity of the white color; they call the good spirit the White God, and the evil spirit the Black God. We find also traces of their Oriental origin in the Slavic trinity, which is nearly allied to that of the Hindus. Other features of their mythology remind us of the sprightly and poetical imagination of the Greeks. Such is the life attributed to the inanimate objects of nature, rocks, brooks, and trees; such are also the supernatural beings dwelling in the woods and mountains, nymphs, naiads, and satyrs. Indeed, the Slavic languages, in their construction, richness, and precision, appear nearly related to the Greek and Latin, with which they have a common origin.
Following the division of the Slavic nations into the eastern and western stems, their languages may he divided into two classes, the first containing the Russian and the Servian idioms, the second embracing the Bohemian and the Polish varieties. The Slavi of the Greek faith use the Cyrillic alphabet, so called from St. Cyril, its inventor, a Greek monk, who went from Constantinople (862 A.D.) to preach to them the gospel. It is founded on the Greek, with modifications and additions from Oriental sources. The Hieronymic alphabet, particularly used by the priests of Dalmatia and Croatia, is so called from the tradition which attributes it to St. Hieronymus. The Bohemians and Poles use the Roman alphabet, with a few alterations.
St. Cyril translated the Bible into the language called the Old or Church Slavic, and from the fact that this translation, made in the middle of the ninth century, is distinguished by great copiousness, and bears the stamp of uncommon perfection in its forms, it is evident that this language must have been flourishing long before that time. The celebrated "Pravda Russkaya," a collection of the laws of Jaroslav (1035 A.D.), and the "Annals of Nestor," of the thirteenth century, are the most remarkable monuments of the old Slavic language. This, however, has for centuries ceased to be a living tongue.