as our multiform language may fufficiently fhew. Our terms in polite literature prove, that these came from Greece; our terms in mufic and painting, that these came from Italy; our phrases in cookery and war, that we learnt thefe from the French; and our phrafes of navigation, that we were taught by the Flemings and Low Dutch. These many and very different fources of our language may be the cause, why it is fo deficient in regularity and analogy. Yet we have this advantage to compenfate the defect, that what we want in elegance, we gain in copiousness; in which laft refpect few languages will be found fuperior to our own. Let us pafs from ourselves to the Regions of the Eaft. The Eaftern world, from the earlieft days, has been at all times the seat of enormous monarchy. On them fair liberty never fhed its genial influence. If at any time civil difcords arofe among them, (and arise there did innumerable) the conteft was never about the form of their government, (for this was an object, of which the combatants had no conception ;) 'twas all from the poor motive of, Who fhould be their Master, whether a Cyrus or an Artaxerxes, a Mahomet or a Mustapha ? 'Such was their condition, and what was the confequence? Their Ideas became confonant to their fervile ftate, and their words became confonant to their fervile Ideas. The great diftinction, for ever in their fight, was that of a tyrant and flave; the most unnatural one conceivable, and the moft fufceptible of pomp, and empty exaggeration. Hence they talk'd of kings as gods, and of themselves as the meaneit and most abject reptiles. Nothing was either great.or little in moderation, but every fentiment was heightened by incredible hyperbole. Thus, tho' they sometimes afcended into the great and magnificent, they as frequently degenerated into the tumid and bombaft. The Greeks too of Afia became infected by their neighbours, who were often at times not only their neighbours, but their mafters; and hence that luxuriance of the Afiatic ftyle, unknown to the chafte eloquence and purity of Athens. But of the Greeks we forbear to speak now, as we shall speak of them more fully, when we have firft confidered the nature or genius of the Romans. 'And what fort of people may we pronounce the Romans? ---A nation engaged in wars and commotions, fome foreign, fome domeftic, which for feven hundred years wholly engroffed their thoughts. Hence therefore their Language became became, like their Ideas, copious in all terms expreffive of things political, and well adapted to the purposes both of hiftery and popular eloquence. --- But what was their Philofophy?- As a nation, 'twas none, if we may credit their ableft writers. And hence the unfitnefs of their language to this fubject; a defect, which even Cicero is compelled to confefs, and more fully makes appear, when he writes philofophy himself, from the number of terms he is obliged to invent. Virgil feems to have judged the moft truly of his countrymen, when admitting their inferiority in the more elegant arts, he concludes at laft with his ufual majefty, Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento, (Hæ tibi erunt artes) pacifque imponere morem, Parcere fubjectis, et debellare fuperbos. "From confidering the Romans, let us pafs to the Greeks. The Grecian commonwealths, while they maintained their liberty, were the most heroic confederacy that ever existed. They were the polited, the braveft, and the wifeft of men. In the short space of little more than a century, they be came fuch statesmen, warriors, orators, hiftorians, physicians, poets, critics, painters, fculptors, architects, and (laft of all) philofophers, that one can hardly help confidering that Golden period, as a providential event in honour of human nature, to fhew to what perfection the species might afcend. Now the language of thefe Greeks was truly like themfelves; 'twas conformable to their tranfcendent and univerfal genius. Where matter fo abounded, words followed of courfe, and thofe exquifite of every kind, as the Ideas for which they stood. And hence it followed, there was not a fubject to be found, which could not with propriety be expreft in Greek. "Here were words and numbers for the humour of an Ariftophanes, for the native elegance of a Philemon or Me nander; for the amorous ftrains of a Mimnermus or Sapho ; for the rural lays of a Theocritus or Bion; and for the sublime conceptions of a Sophocles or Homer. The fame in profe. Here Ifocrates was enabled to difplay his art, in all the accuracy of periods, and the nice counterpoife of dicHere Demofthenes found materials for that nervous compofition, that manly force of unaffected eloquence, which rushed like a torrent, too impetuous to be withftood. tion. Who Who were more different in exhibiting their philofophy, than Xenophon, Plato, and his difciple Ariftotle ? different, I fay, in their character of compofition; for as to their philofophy itself, 'twas in reality the fame. Ariftotle, ftrict, methodic, and orderly; fubtle in thought; fparing in ornament; with little addrefs to the paffions or imagination; but exhibiting the whole with fuch a pregnant brevity, that in every sentence we feem to read a page. How exquifitely is this all performed in Greek? Let thofe, who imagine it may be done as well in another language, fatisfy themselves either by attempting to tranflate him, or by perufing his tranflations already made by men of learning. On the contrary, when we read either Xenophon or Plato, nothing of this method and ftrict order appears. The formal and didactic is wholly dropt. Whatever they may teach, 'tis without profeffing to be teachers; a train of dialogue and truly polite addrefs, in which, as in a mirror, we behold human life, adorned in all its colours of fentiment and manners. -- "And yet tho' these differ in this manner from the Stagirite, how different are they likewife in character from each other? Plato, copious, figurative, and majeftic; intermixing at times the facetious and satiric; enriching his works with tales and fables, and the mystic theology of antient times. Xenophon, the pattern of perfect fimplicity; every where smooth, harmonious, and pure; declining the figurative, the marvellous, and the myftic; afcending but rarely into the fublime; nor then fo much trufting to the colours of ftile, as to the intrinfic dignity of the fentiment itself. "The language in the mean time, in which He and Plato wrote, appears to fuit fo accurately with the ftile of both, that when we read either of the two, we cannot help thinking, that 'tis he alone who has hit its character, and that it could not have appeared fo elegant in any other manner. And thus is the Greek Tongue, from its propriety and univerfality, made for all that is great, and all that is beautiful, in every fubject, and under every form of writing. Graiis ingenium, Graiis dedit ore rotundo Twere to be wifh'd, that thofe amongst us, who either write or read, with a view to employ their liberal leifure, (for as to fuch as do either from views more fordid, we leave them, like slaves, to their destined drudgery ;) 'twere to be wifh'd, I fay, that the liberal (if they have a relish for letters) would infpect the finifh'd models of Grecian literature; that they would not waste those hours, which they' cannot recal, upon the meaner productions of the French and English prefs; upon that fungous growth of novels and of pamphlets, where, 'tis to be feared, they rarely find any rational pleasure, and more rarely ftill, any folid improvement. To be competently fkilled in antient learning, is by no means a work of fuch infuperable pains. The very progrefs itself is attended with delight, and resembles a journey." thro' fome pleasant country, where every mile we advance, new charms arife. 'Tis certainly as eafy to be a scholar as a gamefter, or many other characters equally illiberal and low. The fame application, the fame quantity of habit will fit us for one, as compleatly as for the other. And as to those who tell us, with an air of seeming wisdom, that 'tis men, and not books we must study to become knowing; this I have always remark'd from repeated experience to be the common confolation and language of dunces. They fhelter their ignorance under a few bright examples, whole tranfcendent abilities, without the common helps, have been fufficient of themselves to great and important ends. But alas! Decipit exemplar vitiis imitabile --. • In truth, each man's understanding, when ripened and mature, is a compofite of natural capacity, and of fuper-induced habit. Hence the greatest men will be neceffarily thofe, who poffefs the best capacities, cultivated with the best habits. Hence alfo moderate capacities, when adorn'd with valuable science, will far tranfcend others the most acute by nature, when either neglected, or applied to low and bafe purposes. And thus, for the honour of Culture and good Learning, they are able to render a man, if he will take the pains, intrinfically more excellent than his natural fupe riors. 'And fo much at prefent as to general Ideas; how we acquire them; whence they are derived; what is their nature ; and what their connection with Language. So much likewise as to the subject of Language, and Universal Grammar. MONTH MONTHLY CATALOGUE, For February 1752. MISCELLANEOUS. 1. Tien eto the on HE remonftrance of the clergy of France; prefented to the king on levying the twentieth penny. Tranflated from the French. 8vo. 6d. Cooper. This remonftrance was prefented in August, 1749. II. Four volumes of the RAMBLER, 12mo. Payne and Bouquet. 125. These four volumes contain 136 numbers of this excellent paper, out of 200 now published; and still continued on Tuesdays and Saturdays. III. The court of queen Mab; containing a felect collection of only the most instructive and entertaining tales of the Fairies. Written by the countefs d'Aulnoy. To which are added, a fairy-tale in the ancient English ftile, by Dr. Parnel, and queen Mab's fong. 12mo. 3s. Cooper. IV. Genuine memoirs of the life and tranfactions of William Stroud, who was, at the quarter-feffions for the city and liberty of Westminster, fentenced to fix months imprifonment in Bridewell, and to be fix times publickly whipt. Written by himself. 8vo. 1s. Fuller. Other accounts of this notorious fharper have been published, but none deferve an equal degree of credit with this now published by himself; in which, however, it is not to be doubted, but that he hath availed himself of that art and deceit by which he hath for many years impofed upon the credulity of mankind. Nevertheless it must be allowed, that he hath given us his hiftory in an entertaining manner, without prolixity, or improbable embellishment. V. Letters from the Inspector to a lady, with the genuine anfwers. 8vo. Is. Cooper. These letters contain the particulars of the rife, progrefs, and breaking-off of an intrigue betwixt Dr. H. and Mrs. D. They are written with uncommon fpirit: but whethey are genuine or not, is as yet a fecret to the public, and to us, further than that an advertisement has appeared in the papers, difavowing them on the part of the lady. VOL. VI. L VI. The |