reasons to call them) there were Greeks Ch. V. ftill extant, who had a Tafte for the finer Arts, and an Enthufiaftic Feeling of their exquifite Beauty. At the fame time we cannot without indignation reflect on these brutal Crufaders, who, after many inftances of facrilegious Avarice, related by Nicetas in confequence of their Succefs, could deftroy all thefe, and many other precious Remains of Antiquity, melting them down (for they were of Brass) into Money to pay their Soldiers, and exchanging things of inestimable Value for a poor pittance of contemptible Coin*. They furely were

what NICETAS well calls them, T xaλ ἀνέραςοι βάρβαροι, BARBARIANS devoid of tafte for the BEAUTIFUL and FAIRt.

* Κεκόφασιν [ἀγάλματα] εἰς νομίσμα, αναλασσό

τα

μενοι μικρῶν τὰ μεγάλα, καὶ τὰ δαπάναις ποιηθέντα με γίσαις ἐτιδανῶν ἀντιδιδόντες κερμάτων. Ibid. p. 408.

+ I have given the words of Nicetas himself, which precede the paffage juft quoted. In another part

P. HI.

AND yet 'tis remarkable, that these fad and Savage Events happened more than a Century after thefe Adventurers had first past into the East, above four-fcore years of which time they had poffeffed the Sovereignty of Palestine. But

COELUM, non ANIMUM mutant, &c.

HOR.*

THO' I have done with thefe Events, I cannot quit THE GREEKS without adding a

of his Narrative he ftiles them ILLITERATE BARBARIANS, who abfolutely did not know their A B C.— παρ' ἀγραμμάτοις βαρβάροις, καὶ τέλεον αναλφαβήτοις

P. 414.

It ought to be obferved, that tho' the NARRATIVE of Nicetas, whence thefe Extracts are taken, appear not in the printed Editions (being probably either thro' fraud, or fhame, or both, defignedly omitted;) yet has it been published by that honest and learned Critic FABRICIUS, in the fixth Volume of his Bibliotheca Græca here quoted, and is ftill extant in a fair and antient Manufcript of the two laft Books of Nicetas, preferved in THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY.

word

word
upon CONSTANTINOPLE, as to Li- Ch. V.
terature and Language, just before the
fatal period, when it was taken by the
TURKS. There is more ftrefs to be laid
upon my Quotations, as they are tran-
scribed from Authors, who lived at the
time, or immediately after.

HEAR what PHILELPHUS fays, who was himself at Conftantinople in that part of the fifteenth Century, while the Greek Empire ftill fubfifted. Thofe GREEKS (fays he) whofe Language has not been depraved, and whom we ourselves both follow and imitate, Speak even at this "time in their ordinary talk, as the Comic "ARISTOPHANES did, or the Tragic Eu"RIPIDES; as the Orators would talk; as "the Hiftorians; as the Philofophers themfelves, even PLATO and ARISTOTLE *.

SPEAK

* Græci, quibus lingua depravata non fit, et quos ipfi tùm fequimur, tùm imitamur, ita loquuntur vulgo hâc.

P. III.

SPEAKING afterwards of the Corruption of the Tongue in that City by the Concourse of Traders, and Strangers, he informs us, that the People belonging to the Court ftill retained" the ANTIENT

CE

Dignity and Elegance of Speech, and "above all THE WOMEN OF QUALITY, "who, as they were wholly precluded from "Strangers, STILL PRESERVED that ge"nuine and pure Speech of the ANTIENT "GREEKS, uncorrupted*.

ENEAS

etiam in tempeftate, ut Ariftophanes Comicus, ut Euripides Tragicus, ut Oratores omnes, ut Philofophi etiam ipfi et Plato et Ariftoteles. Philelph. Epift. in Hodii de Græcis illuftribus Lib. I. p. 188.

* The fame Philelphus in the fame Epiftle adds-` Nam VIRI AULICI veterem fermonis dignitatem atque elegantiam ritinebant; in primifque IPSÆ NOBILES MULIERES, quibus cum nullum effet omnino cum viris peregrinis Commercium, MERUS ILLE AC PURUS GRÆCORUM SERMO SERVABATUR INTACTUS. Hcd. ut fupra.

'Tis fomewhat fingular, that what Philelphus relates concerning the Women of Rank at the Court of Confiantinople,

ENEAS SYLVIUS, afterwards Pope by Ch. V.

the name of PIUS THE SECOND, was the Scholar of this Philelphus. A long Letter of his is extant upon the taking of Conftantinople by Mahomet, a Letter addrest to a Cardinal, juft after that fatal Event. Speaking of the fortune of the City, he obferves, that NEW ROME (for fo they often called CONSTANTINOPLE) had sub

tinople, fhould be related by Cicero concerning the Women of Rank in the polished days of the Roman Commonwealth; concerning Cornelia, Mother of the Gracchi; concerning Lalia, Daughter of the great Lalius; concerning the Mucia, the Licinia, in fhort, the Mothers, Wives, and Daughters of the most illnftrious Romans of that illuftrious age.

Cicero accounts for the purity of their Language, and for its being untainted with vitious novelty, precifely as Philelphus does.-Facilius enim MULIERES INCORRUPTAM ANTIQUITATEM CONSERVANT, quod, MULTORUM SERMONIS EXPERTES, ea tenent femper, quæ prima didicerunt.

This Paffage is no fmall ftrengthening of Philelphus's Authority. See Cicer. de Oratore III. 45. & de Claris Orator. 1. 211.

fifted