ranks of life too frequently facrifice to caprice, and a love of diftinction and novelty.

We here conclude our obfervations on a language, which by the commerce, the conquefts, and the colonies of the English, is at prefent well known in every quarter of the globe. Its reputation feems to increafe more and more, as it is of late years become the favourite study of all thofe foreigners who wish to complete a liberal education. And indeed it may be faid, without partiality or exaggeration, to merit their particular attention; fince it contains fome of the choicest treasures of the human mind, and is the vehicle of fuch intellectual vigour, fuch energy of thought, warmth of imagination, depth of erudition, and research of philofophy, as can with difficulty be equalled in any other nation.

The prevalence and flourishing state of our language depend not folely upon the inhabitants of the British dominions in Europe. In In many of the islands of the Weft Indies it is cultivated with diligence. Our extenfive and ftill increafing fettlements in the East Indies promife to infure its prefervation, and open a fpacious field for its wider diffufion. The United States of America cannot fail to perpetuate the language of their parent country; and the fpirit of literary and fcientific investigation, which is rifing among them, will conduce to this end; fince it will encourage the study of those celebrated productions, from which

the

the Americans have gained their knowledge of the beft fyftem of legislation, and their most correct principles of liberty.

When we confider the uncertainty and thẻ fluctuating nature of all human affairs, and particularly the great mutability of language, wé cannot help giving way to the melancholy reflection, that the time may arrive, when the English, which at prefent appears fo durable and permanent, as the ftandard of converfation and writing, will become obfolete. The caprices of fashion, the wide extent of our commerce, the general intercourfe with other nations, and more particularly the predominant influence of the French language, may produce great changes; and Hume and Johnfon, Pope and Goldfmith, may become what Speed and Afcham, Chaucer and Phaer, are at prefent. For the honour, however, both of true tafte and the good fenfe of mankind, we may prefume to expect, that the volumes of English literature and fcience will not fink into oblivion;-but that the language, in which they are written, celebrated for the choiceft productions, and ranked with the claffical tongues of Greece and Rome, will be referved for general improvement and pleafure, and will convey the works of genius, learning, and philofophy, to the moft diftant ages and generations.

CHAPTER

CHAPTER IV.

The Latin Language.

A KNOWLEDGE of this language introduces us to many of those works, which are defervedly claffed among the most elegant productions of the human mind, and are confidered as fome of the most correct models of literary excellence. If we estimate its comparative value and importance, it claims a place immediately after our own tongue; as not only the Roman writers have made it the vehicle of their genius, but it has been diftinguished fince the revival of learning, by the productions of many eminent authors.

The utility of an acquaintance with this language will be more immediately apparent, if we confider how much our own is indebted to it for many of the terms of art and fcience, as well as for moft of our polyfyllables. Without the aid, indeed, of the words which it fupplies, it is not only difficult to understand our older Authors, but to write or speak even a fentence of elegant English; fo that when a fcholar is engaged in ftudying the Latin, he is in fact making himself a more perfect mafter of his own language. It is equally ufeful, if he wishes to acquire the French, the Italian, · and the Spanish, as it conftitutes fo material a part of those elegant tongues. It is the prolific mother

of

of many children; and whatever difference may prevail among them with refpect to the various countries, in which they are fettled, or the foreign alliances they have formed, they discover the parent from which they fprung, by the most ftriking fimilarity of features.

Confidered with refpect to its origin, the Latin language derived many words from the Etrufcans and Sabines: it is however, for the most part, a very ancient branch of the Greek, and is chiefly formed from the Doric and Eolic dialects. Α colony of Arcadians under Enotrus are faid to have introduced it into Italy many centuries before the Trojan war. As it was feparated from the mother tongue at fo very early a period, it was deficient in that melody and sweetness which the other dialects acquired, when Greek afterwards reached its greatest perfection.

The Eolic and Doric dialects may be very clearly traced in the Latin language. From the Eolic genitive in aw were formed the feminine plurals in arum. From the Doric « pro n are derived the words of the first declenfion. From the Doric. third perfon plural in or for eo was formed the Latin third perfon plural in unt; from the genitive in oo was formed the Latin genitive in i.

"Muretus non dubitavit dicere, eos qui Græci fermonis expertes fint, ne Latina quidem fcripta penitus percipere poffe." Prolegom. ad Etymologicum Lennep, p. 6.

"Ipfe vir fummus Hemfterhufius fefe in Latinis intelligendis fic a Græcis adjuvari fentiebat, ut interdum negaret, poetas eos qui fe totos ad Græcorum imitationem contuliffent, nominatim Propertium et Horatium, Græce imperitis valde placere poffe." Prolegom. ad Etymologicum Lennep, p. 6.

Not

Not only innumerable terms, but the ancient forms of the Roman letters, prove the origin of the language to have been Grecian. From the fame fource it derived progreffive improvements. The firft Latin poets, Pacuvius, Ennius, and Plautus, modelled their works upon the Grecian plan, as is particularly evident from their frequent ufe of compound words. As foon as the art of public fpeaking began to be cultivated in Rome, the Greek language, which contained fome of the richest treasures of eloquence, became a favourite object of pursuit; and Athens was frequented by the Roman youth of fortune and family, as the best and moft approved feminary of education. The atten tion which was paid to the productions of Greece by the Romans when advancing towards refinement, fufficiently marks the high estimation, in which their literature was held. Cato, the celebrated Cenfor, at a late period of life learned the elements of that language; and Pompey, as a mark of diftinguished refpect to a Greek philofopher, lowered his confular fafces to Pofidonius the fophift, whom he vifited in his fchool at Rhodes. Greece was to Rome, what Egypt had been in more remote times to Greece, the fruitful parent of her literature and arts.

melody of

It has no

The Latin yields the fuperiority to the Greek language, not only with regard to found, but compafs of expreffion. dual number, and has only one tenfe to denote the past perfect, which does not exprefs whether the

VOL. I.

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action