the methods commonly used by interprèters; and proposed many probable conjectures highly instructive to the sacred critic*. Several other writers of considerable note have also presented the public with useful observations on the same subject.

* See Observations on divers Passages of Scripture, &c. 4 vols, 8vo, 1 76 and 1787.

VOL. II.

290

CHAPTER XV.

MODERN LANGUAGES.

IN this chapter nothing more will be attempted than

to present some brief and general remarks on the improvements which have been received during the last age by the more cultivated living languages of Europe. To propose a discussion of greater extent would be to engage in an inquiry altogether incommensurate with the design and the limits of the present sketch.

There is no living language in Europe which can boast of greater antiquity than five or six centuries. Derived from various sources, and rising from rude beginnings to a regular and consistent character, they have been gradually becoming more rich, copious, and polished during the greater part of this time. To trace the causes and the means of these improvements through their interrupted and devious course, is here neither necessary nor possible. It would be a task of great magnitude and difficulty to the most accomplished phiIologist.

The portion of these improvements which be longs to the eighteenth century may, in general, be pronounced to be very great, and to demand particular consideration in tracing the revolutions and the progress of this period. It deserves the more attention on account of its connection not only with the literary and scientific, but also with. the social and political interests of the age.

The increased intercourse of men, during the last century, led to important revolutions and improvements in the living languages. By means of this intercourse the learned of different nations have become more acquainted with the idioms and beauties of many other languages than their own; and this acquaintance has caused the respective treasures of each language to become in some degree the common property of all. Hence the more cultivated tongues of Europe have been very perceptibly enriched, within a few years, by the adoption of many significant words and phrases from each other, as well as from those which are in general less worthy of imitation.

The effects of this extended intercourse have been aided by the great number of translations, by which modern times are peculiarly distinguished. There never was an age in which the most esteemed literary productions of different nations were so extensively circulated, or exhibited to the world in so many different languages. The unexampled prevalence of this practice has rendered the characteristic peculiarities of various tongues better known, and produced the insensible incorporation of them with others. This is the great source of those imported" words and phrases, which have sometimes received the approbation of philologists, but of which they have, perhaps, more frequently and justly complained.

The numerous discoveries in science and the arts, during the period under review, also led to the introduction and familiar use of many terms of which the learned of the preceding age were entirely ignorant. Almost the whole dialect of phi

losophy, both natural and moral, has become new within the period in question. How rich and valuable the stores are, which language has received from this source, can only be adequately conceived by those who are able to take a distinct view of the improvements in philosophy, and all the arts of life, in the course of the last hundred years.

To the above considerations may be added the numerous instances of the new coinage of words, by popular writers, arising either from necessity, from caprice, from vanity, from affectation, or other causes. Some of these new emissions, how. ever they may fail on the score of authority, must be considered, on the whole, as useful additions to modern languages. From this source the augmentation of our literary treasures is constant; and if due vigilance be exercised to guard against capricious and wanton innovation, substantial advantages to the interests of language may thence be expected to flow.

The influence of all these considerations, taken together, has introduced an amount of modification and improvements into modern languages, within the last century, beyond all doubt greater than was ever introduced in any preceding, period of equal extent. That large additions have been made to the number of words no one can for a moment hesitate to admit. But this is by no means all that may be asserted.

The style of composition also, in most of the living languages, has been greatly improved since the commencement of the eighteenth century. The style of the best writers, at the present day, though perhaps inferior to the exquisite refine

ments produced by Grecian and Roman taste, is essentially superior to that which was employed by the most correct models of the preceding age. Modern languages now exhibit more grammatical accuracy, more precision, energy, and polish, and a more graceful, luminous, and philosophic construction, than they could boast at that period. We have thrown off "the useless load of words which incumbered our predecessors," and discarded their circuitous and tedious routes to a meaning, which formerly disgusted the literary traveller. In short, the first class of writers of the eighteenth century display a smoothness and force of manner, a taste in the selection of words, and a scientific perspicuity of arrangement, which are no where to be found so admirably united in those who went before them.

These remarks do not apply, with unqualified propriety, to all the living languages of Europe. The Italian language, it is believed, was considerably before any of the rest, in attaining its highest point of refinement. This was chiefly accomplished before the commencement of the last age, since which time it is not known that any radical or important improvements have taken place in that language. The French language also, if the writer do not mistake, had received by far the greater part of that cultivation which it now exhibits, before the period of this retrospect, Still, however, it is supposed that both these languages, and especially the latter, may with truth be represented as partaking in some degree of the large mass of improvement which has accrued to many, others within the last age,