A few days since I called upon Mr.Lipoftsoff,and to my surprise discovered that he was totally unaware of any plan being in agitation for the printing of his translation of the Scriptures.
He said that he had had no communication with Mr.Schmidt for several months;and far from being able to furnish me with any information respecting the probable destiny of his work,he asked questions of me concerning it.He is a gentleman rather advanced in years,probably between sixty and seventy,but is nevertheless surprisingly hale and robust.He was very kind,and promised to give me any assistance in his power towards acquiring a thorough knowledge of the Mandchou;and,permit me to say,that Petersburg is the only place in Europe where such a knowledge can be obtained,for the manus and printed books in that tongue are very plentiful here,and there are moreover several individuals who speak and write it.I of course most gladly accepted such an offer,and shall endeavour to turn it to the best account.Mr.L.
speaks no European language but Russ,which I am not sorry for,because frequent conversation and intercourse with him will improve my knowledge of that language.It is a great error to suppose that a person resident in this country can dispense with Russ,provided he is acquainted with French and German.The two latter languages,it is true,are spoken by the French and German shop-keepers settled here.French is moreover spoken (to foreigners)by the nobility and a few of the officers in the army;but neither are so generally understood as in England -German far less so;and as for the Russians being the best general linguists in Europe,I am totally unable to guess how the idea could have originated,but am certain from personal experience that they are quite the contrary.
Petersburg is the finest city in the world;neither London nor Paris nor any other European capital which I have visited has sufficient pretensions to enter into comparison with it in respect to beauty and grandeur.Many of the streets are miles in length,as straight as an arrow and adorned with the most superb edifices.
The so-called Nevsky Prospect,a street which runs from the Admiralty to the Monastery of St.Alexander Nevsky,is nearly three miles in length and for the greatest part of the way floored with small blocks of wood shaped octagonally.The broad and rapid Neva runs through the centre of this Queen of cities,and on either side is a noble quay,from which you have a full view of the river and of what is passing on its bosom.But I will not be diffuse in the deion of objects which have been so often described,but devote the following lines which my paper will contain to more important matters.
The lower orders of the Russians are very willing to receive Scriptural information,and very willing to purchase it if offered to them at a price which comes within their means.I will give an interesting example of this.A young man of the name of Nobbs,in the employ of Mr.Leake,an English farmer residing a few VERSTSfrom Petersburg,is in the habit on his return from the latter place,whither he is frequently sent by his master,to carry with him a satchel filled with Russian New Testaments and religious tracts,with which he is supplied by an excellent English lady who dwells there.He says that before he has reached home,he has invariably disposed of his whole cargo to the surrounding peasantry;and such is the hunger and thirst which they display for the word of salvation that his stock has always been insufficient to answer all the demands made,after it was known what merchandise he brought with him.There remain at present three hundred copies unsold of the modern Russian New Testament at the shop which has the disposal of the works of the late Russian Bible Society;these copies,all of which are damaged from having been immersed during the inundation of 1824,might all be disposed of in one day,provided proper individuals were employed to hawk them about in the environs of this capital.There are twenty thousand copies on hand of the Sclavonian Bible,which being in a language and character differing materially from the modern Russ character and language,and only understood by the learned,is unfit for general circulation,and the copies will probably remain unsold,though the Synod is more favourable to the distribution of the Scriptures in the ancient than in the modern form.I was informed by the attendant in the shop that the Synod had resolved upon not permitting the printing of any fresh edition of the Scriptures in the modern Russ until these twenty thousand copies in the ancient language had been disposed of.But it is possible that this assertion is incorrect.
I must now conclude;and with an earnest request that you will write to me speedily,and deliver my kindest remembrances to Mr.
Brandram and to my other good friends at the Society House,Iremain,Revd.and dear Sir,your most obedient servant,G.BORROW.