students of abilities ordered to be sent to the latter from the other clerical seminaries, to be prepared for the office of teachers. In 1797, the spiritual seminaries of Alexandroff and Kazan were denominated academies; and, together with the former two of Kieff and Moscow, furnished with every thing answerable to their designation, as the first spiritual schools of the empire. The following year, the same course of liberal education which had been adopted in the academy of Alexandroff, was introduced into the other three academies, and into all the seminaries. It was also appointed, that the four academies should be particularly appropriated for training up the most hopeful young men to the office of teachers in the spiritual schools. After these arrangements were made, the system of education was again enlarged by order of the Holy Synod, and every class was, at the same time, furnished with a particular set of instructions for directing its studies. By an imperial Ukaz, also, in 1802, a medical class was ordered to be instituted at all

Nevsky, built by Peter the Great, in the vicinity of St Petersburg, from which monastery it takes its name; but it is also called the Spiritual Academy of St Petersburg. The present Rector of this academy is the Archimandrite Philaret, who is also the professor of divinity, and has been much distinguished of late years for his learned and eloquent sermons, many of which have been published.

the academies and seminaries of the clergy; and the several branches of learning taught in these schools at present are, grammar, rhetoric, natural and moral philosophy, divinity, some parts of the mathematics, history and geography, in the Latin and Russ languages. In the four academies, and in some of the seminaries, the Hebrew, Greek, German, and French languages, are also studied.

The number of spiritual schools in different parts of the empire, is 58; of which, four are 2 academies, thirty-six seminaries (one in every

diocese, under the particular direction of the bi3 shop), and eighteen inferior schools, in which the

Russian language, arithmetic, and the doctrines of Christianity, are the chief subjects of study. These eighteen schools were erected A. D.1800, at several of the seminaries, and in other parts of the empire, for the sake of those scholars, who were reckoned incapable of pursuing with advantage, the more extended course of education established in the academies and seminaries.

In these fifty-eight spiritual schools, upwards of 26,000 young men are at present educated, principally at the expence of government. The number of scholars in the four academies, is about 4000, with upwards of 50 preceptors; and, in the thirty-six seminaries, there are above

20,000 scholars, and 297 teachers. In the eighteen schools, there are nearly 2000 scholars, and 30 teachers.

The sons of the clergy are usually sent to these institutions when about ten years of age. They begin with the Latin and Slavonian languages; and, according to their progress in these, are advanced into the higher classes, to be instructed in the different branches of science above mentioned. The more advanced students are taught by means of public lectures delivered by the preceptors; and the younger ones according to the method adopted in common schools. Many of the elementary books are the same with those used in the universities, into which they have been introduced by the German professors; but their theological studies are confined to the writings of the Greek fathers, such as Chrysostom, Gregory Nazianzen, &c. and to the works of the Russian divines.*

* Among these, the most distinguished are the voluminous writings of our author Platon, late metropolitan of Moscow; of Demetrius, metropolitan of Rastoff; of Theophanes, archbishop of Pleskoff; and of Michael, the present archbishop of Tscherniga. The last is a man of profound learning and genuine piety, who, after travelling in foreign countries for his improvement, has raised himself, by his talents and eloquence, from the office of a common priest in the church of Ivan Voin in Moscow, to one of the first dignities of the Russian church. He has published several excellent theological

There are, properly, no regular academical degrees in the seminaries of the clergy; but I understand it is under consideration to introduce the same mode of education, and the same academical honours, into the academies and seminaries of the clergy, which now exist in the universities and civil academies.

In each of the clerical schools, an annual public examination takes place, under the inspection of the archbishop or bishop, when such of the pupils as have finished their studies have the choice either of taking immediate steps for ordination as secular or parochial clergymen, or of entering into the monastic life; which latter is often preferred by young men of talents, as it is the only channel for rising to the higher preferments in the Russian church.'

The mode of living in these seminaries is in every respect monastic; for the teachers and overseers are all monks, who have introduced into them a degree of abstemiousness in respect to diet, and of slovenliness in dress and other accommodations, which are hurtful, and not beneficial, as they pretend, to literary pursuits.

Except the four academies, all the spiritual

works, amongst which I have read, with great pleasure, his sermons, and a treatise in two volumes, On the Old and New Man.

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schools were formerly supported by tythes of corn from the lands belonging to the monasteries and churches; but, in 1764, the crown took possession of these lands, and appropriated the sum of 38,000 rubles per annum for their support. At that period, the number of schools was twenty-eight, in which about 6000 scholars were educated; but, in the course of about twenty years, the scholars increased to 12,000; in consequence of which, the annual sum granted for their support was raised to 77,000 rubles. Soon, however, the continual increase of the number of scholars rendered even this sum insufficient; and the Emperor Paul, accordingly, in 1797, augmented it to 180,000 rubles; and, by his present Imperial Majesty, Alexander, it was, from the same cause, raised, in 1807, to 362,555 rubles.

These schools have always been of essential advantage to the empire, not only as nurseries for those who are to fill the clerical office, but as they have produced many individuals, by whose services in various civil departments, society at large has been highly benefited.

At present, indeed, there is hardly an institution for education in any part of the empire, in which some of the young men brought up in these seminaries are not to be found holding the office