Creator, yes! Thy wisdom and thy word Created me! Thou source of light and good! Thou spirit of my spirit, and my Lord! Thy light, Thy love, in their bright plenitude Fill'd me with an immortal soul, to spring O'er the abyss of death, and bade it wear The garments of eternal day, and wing Its heavenly flight beyond this little sphere, Even to its source--to Thee--its author there. O thoughts ineffable! O visions blest! Though worthless our conceptions all of Thee, Yet shall Thy shadowed image fill our breast, And waft its homage to Thy Deity. God! Thus alone my lowly thoughts can soar; Thus seek Thy presence--Being wise and good! Midst Thy vast works admire, obey, adore; And when the tongue is eloquent no more, The soul shall speak in tears of gratitude. But the literary activity of Katherine II.'s reign was not confined to its two most brilliant representatives--Von Vizin and Derzhavin; many less prominent writers, belonging to different parties and branches of literature, were diligently at work. Naturally, there was as yet too little independent Russian literature to permit of the existence of criticism, or the establishment of a fixed standard of taste. Among the worthy writers of the second class in that brilliant era, were Kheraskoff, Bogdanovitch, Khemnitzer, and Kapnist. Mikhail Matvyeevitch Kheraskoff (1733-1801), the author of the epic "The Rossiad," and of other less noteworthy works, was known during his lifetime only to the very restricted circle of his friends. In his convictions and views on literature he belonged to the epoch of Lomonosoff and Sumarokoff; by birth and education to the highest nobility. More faithfully than any other writer of his century does Kheraskoff represent the pseudo-classical style in Russian epic, lyric, and dramatic poetry, for he wrote all sorts of things, including sentimental novels. To the classical enthusiasts of his day he seemed the "Russian Homer," and his long poems, "The Rossiad" (1789) and "Vladimir" (1786), were confidently believed to be immortal, being the first tolerable specimens of the epic style in Russian literature. In twelve long cantos he celebrates the capture of Kazan by Ivan the Terrible in "The Rossiad." "Vladimir" (eighteen cantos) celebrates the Christianizing of Russia by Prince-Saint Vladimir.