low, and held in that mighty contempt which fome foreigners, nay, which even some among ourselves, have fhewn for it.

The English language! say some foreigners (as remarkable for their vivacity, as their impertinence; and who are more fit to lead the way in the mode of a ruffle, or trip of a minuet, than to reafon on the strength, the genius, and the compofition of the English language; which, fay they) is only a botch-potch, compofed of all others *.

These are nothing more than the trifling and infignificant objections of pertnefs and vanity, and ought to be paffed over with that fcorn and contempt they fo juftly deferve: others however muft not be intirely paffed over in filence, fince they are not the falfe opinions of foreigners, but the prejudices of even fome of our own countrymen, and have stood against our language ever fince the time of good old Verftegan, who wrote about two centuries ago, i. e. early in the reign of James I.; and being an author of fome credit in antiquity and etymology, I shall defire leave to quote his own words, in his Seauventh Chapter of the ancient English Tovng; (which he would have to be purely Saxon) where he fays, p. 204, "Since the tyme of Chaucer, more Latin and French hath bin mingled with our toung, then left out of it; but of late wee haue falne to fuch borowing of woordes from Latin, French, and other toungs, that it had bin beyond all stay and limit; which albeit fome of vs do lyke wel, and think our toung thereby much bettred, yet do ftrangers therefore carry the farre leffe opinion thereof; fome faying, that it is of itself no language at all, but the fcum (-it may now furely with greater propriety be called the cream-) of many languages others, that it is moft barren; and that wee are dayly faine to borrow woords for it, as though it yet lacked making, out of other languages to patche it vp withal; and that yf wee were put to repay our borrowed fpeeche back again to the languages that may lay claime vnto it, wee fhould be left litle better than dumb, or scarfly able to speak any thing that should be fencible." So much then for the objections of foreigners; let us now hear his own : "For myne own parte, (quoth he) I hold them deceaued that think our Speech bettered by the aboundance of our dayly borrowed woords; for they beeing of an other nature, and not originally belonging to our language, do not, neither can they, in our toung beare their natural and true deryuations: and therefore as wel may we fetch woords fro the Ethiopians, or Eaft or Weft Indians, and thrust them into our language, and baptize them all by the name of English, as those which we dayly take from the Latin, or other languages thereon depending: and heer-hence it cometh, as

* Claudius Duretus tantam lingue Anglicana vilitatem ineffe contendit, ut ab omnibus aliis gentibus contemni, fpernique foleat; (fays Sheringham in his Preface) fcripfit ille librum linguâ Gallicâ, cui titulum fecit, Trefor de l'hiftoire des langues de cet univers; quo in linguam noftram acerbè et contumeliosè invehitur: "Cette LANGUE ANGLOISE, inquit, eft fi peu eftimee des eftrangers, qui vont en Angleterre, qu'il y en a peu qui veulent fe pener de l'apprendre, et de la parler, fi fe ne font les ferviteurs, ou facteurs pour l'ufage des chofes utiles et neceffaires a la vie lefquelles dependent du menu peuple, qui ne feait parler autre langue"-Nobis difficile non eft paria convicia, pariaque mendacia in alias gentes excogitare :-the bandfome and polite compliment, paid likewife to our nation by Janus Cæcilius Frey, medicus Parifienfis, (as mentioned by the fame author, p. 16) ought not to be forgotten; Nulli funt in Anglia lupi; et tamen ipfi maximè lupinis funt moribus.

Unà cum Grammaticâ difceptationem quoque emittere ftatui de antiquitate, progreffu, et præftantiâ linguæ Anglicana, (fays Sheringham, in his Preface) ut eorum convicia diluam, qui nobis linguam noftram improperant, eamque linguarum omnium fpumam vocant, quia ex aliis linguis decerpta quædam vocabula nobis in ufu funt; et quia lingua nostra multùm ab antiquâ dialecto deflexerit.

by

by often experience it is found, that fome Englishmen difcourfing together, others beeing prefent, and of our own nation, and that naturally speak the English toung, are not able to understand what the others fay, notwithstanding they call it English that they speak."

He then proceeds to give two examples of the fantasticalness of writing and fpeaking in technical terms, or terms of affected quaintness and innovation; but as the fame abfurdity has been more elegantly expofed by Addifon, I shall decline tranfcribing them; and only obferve, that notwithstanding this good old Anglo-Saxon has thus nobly stood up in defence of what he judged to be his mother tongue, (the Saxon) yet all those words in the foregoing quotation, which have been here purpofely printed in Italics, are neither English, nor Saxon, but undoubtedly derived from the Greek.

It would therefore almost make one fmile, to hear him abuse the English language, for having lent him words to abuse it with; and which are now become fo numerous, and confequently fo powerful, that it is not the writing of a Verftegan will ever perfuade the prefent race of Englishmen to revert back again to the antient Anglo-Saxon tongue, any more than an antient Anglo-Saxon lady could prevail on any of her modern English fair country-women at this day to adopt the manner of her garb; or, if any one, merely thro' frolic, fhould be hardy enough to attempt it, I believe she would not venture in that habit to walk openly in our public streets: such a dress might perhaps be admitted at a masquerade.

Our language therefore, even in the time of Verstegan, and undoubtedly long before him, had affuredly been bettered by the aboundance of our dayly borrowed woordes, and had received great ftrength and vigor from fuch firm ingraftings, as they may be called, of Greek and Latin, into the main stock, and strong branches of our antient Celt-English tongue: whenever, therefore, we may in future hear any one complain of the weakness and poverty of the English language, it may well raise a fcruple, whether that complaint ought not rather to be attributed to a deficiency in the complainant, than to any deficiency in the language itself *.

The English language, in the hands of good authors, like keeneft weapons in the hands of skilful artists, is much more powerful than what those complainants are aware of; witness the immortal writings of our best authors:-your best authors; which are they?-we have many noble and fublime writers; in whofe works, altho' there may be fome little imperfections, and inaccuracies of expreffion, yet certainly there are no defects of fuch mighty prevalence, as either to depreciate thofe writings in point of ftile, whatever there may be in point of thought; or give fuch doughty pedants any juft occafion to calumniate our

own tongue.

It is true indeed the English language is not an original one;-but what then an original language ought not furely to be admired, merely on account of its originality; for the first inventors of names, and letters, must unavoidably

Quòd autem femiliterati quidam nobis ab aliis linguis defumpta vocabula, variafque linguæ noftræ mutationes exprobrent, fuam infcitiam produnt; poffumufque nos viciffim aliarum gentium fermones pari ratione Hybridas, Proteofque vocare; cùm vix ulla fit totius Europæ lingua infignis, quæ non magis quàm noftra cum aliis linguis permixta,, et non æque etiam mutata fit: Shering. Pref.

have labored under many difficulties; as may be obferved from the paucity of their primitive roots*: and therefore to admire them only on account of their antiquity, (if there were no other excellence in them) would be as prepofterous and abfurd, as to prefer the appearance of a naked Pict, or Indian chief, with only his leathern, or his feathered cincture round him, or one of our antient British chieftains, (before the arrival of the Romans) with his skin punctured in a variety of grotesque figures, and then stained with woad to make him appear the more horrible in war, to a modern prince, or potentate, dreffed in all the enfigns of royalty the native nakedness of the former might inspire an idea of terror; but the comely dignity, and majestic appearance of the latter, will always strike its beholders with veneration and respect.

Others then may admire the flimfinefs of the French, the neatness of the Italian, the gravity of the Spanish, nay, even the native hoarfeness and roughness of the Saxon, High Dutch, Belgic, or Teutonic tongues; but the purity and dignity, and all the graceful majefty, which appears at prefent in our modern English language, will certainly recommend it to our most diligent refearches; and it will be found on a close examination, that our language is constructed chiefly on the bafis of the Greek tongue; but not on that alone, for it has been enriched and adorned by the adoption of the Latin, and many other foreign words likewife; and thus in a manner have we been taught at length to speak a language not our own.

This noble compofition therefore ought fo far from being looked on as a difgrace to our mother tongue, that thofe adoptions fhould rather be efteemed as the Decus et tutamen, the Ornament and defence, of the English language; and are like fo many graceful decorations to a noble building, they add both strength and beauty to the edifice.

In nations, cultivated and improved by letters, the works of those eminent men, the Greek writers, will always be read, and regarded with pleasure; for even now, at this diftant period, when the authors themselves have long ago ceafed to inftruct mankind, their writings conftitute the bafis, and are become the foundation of all that knowledge and learning, which can cultivate and adorn the human mind; for, what is all the knowledge and learning, which at present fubfifts among us? what is it all, but a knowledge of the works, and the labors, which thofe truly great men have tranfmitted to pofterity; and which have been fo happily, and fo fuccefsfully adopted by our beft English writers: for the Greeks and Romans have been thofe happy men, I mean in the more virtuous and refined periods of their commonwealths, who fpent their lives and their talents in the study of nature, and the various operations of the human heart; they devoted their hours to the fweet enjoyments of ftudy, and employed their whole leisure, not in folly and diffipation, but in the perfuit and contemplation of what

Thus, for inftance, our Saxon ancestors had not names in their own tongue for several things; that is, they had the things, but they had no appellations for them, and therefore were forced to exprefs their meaning by a circumlocution, which, tho' fome may admire on account of the fignificancy of the compofition, yet certainly fuch modes of expreffion betray at the fame time great poverty of language as for example, our Saxon ancestors had GRAPES; but, having no name for them, they were obliged to call them Wine-berries: they likewife had GLOVES; but, having no name for them, were obliged to call them Hand-fhoes; as the High Dutch do to this day: and, to mention only one more, they had the article of BUTTER among their delicacies; but having no name for it, they politely called it Kuofmeer, i. c. Cow-fmeer, or that unguent, which the cow afforded, and which they fmeered on their bread.

was good, what was just, what was honeft; and thefe delightful fubjects they delivered in language fo exalted, and in fentiments fo truly fublime, that the study of their works is become, as it ought to be, the darling delight of our younger years, and the more ferious employment of our maturer hours; and the man, who engages himself in the riper periods of his life in the contemplation of their works, will always enrich his mind, and improve his ideas, in proportion to the progrefs he makes in their writings; they being the standard of true eloquence, and the criterion of refined taste : the schools which the Romans undoubtedly planted among us, and the feminaries which they founded, tho' now utterly unknown, were, as I may call them, the cradles and nurseries of our own tongue.

Whoever then does but confider our language, as being thus compiled from all the elegances of the Greek and Latin poets, orators, and hiftorians, cannot but admire and esteem it the more, for being thus beautified and embellished with every ornament of antiquity, and modern polite literature; and as England is the Land of liberty, fo is her language the Voice of freedom; and the need not doubt but it will make a confpicuous figure in the province of letters, and shine with all the fplendor and perfpicuity of writing, and be read, and ftudied, fo long as there are men of learning, and men of reading in the world *.

The many noble and bold compounds; the ftrong and impetuous flow of epithets; the fublime ufe of metaphors; and the conftant flight of poetical figures, which our language fo readily admits of, and feems to be fo peculiarly adapted for; and above all, the infinite number of words, that have been fo glorioufly borrowed from the politest nations of the world, both antient and modern, in all the arts and fciences; have given it fuch a fluency and rapidity of expreffion, as may be very juftly compared to a noble and majestic river, enlarged and augmented by all the numerous ftreams that flow into it, and render it capable of conveying and diffufing fertility and plenty, over thofe extensive regions thro' which it may direct its courfe.

So far then from complaining of our English language, for being thus compounded of fo many others, we acknowledge it the peculiar happiness of our mother tongue, that it has been thus adorned and enriched with fuch an infinity of words, adopted and tranfplanted into her native foil; where they have florished fo long, and profpered fo much, where they have taken fuch ftrong hold, and caught fuch deep root, that they are in a manner become her adopted fons, and ought not any longer to be looked on as foreigners, and as aliens.

Nay, it would not be any oftentation to affirm, that our modern English language by far excells the modern Greek, as it is at present spoken, and written, if indeed written at all, in its own native country; which is now inhabited by a race of men, who, tho' defcended from their great progenitors, and tho' living in very fame climate, yet are now reduced to fuch a wretched ftate of ignorance and flavery, being in fubjection to thofe more than favage barbarians to all literature, the Turks, that they are not able now to speak their own mother tongue claffically, having intirely loft all conceptions of grammar.

the

Ego interea loci, (fays Maildunenfis, in Shering. 398.) ftrenuè caufam meæ patriæ defendam, et famam ejufdem modis quibus poffim omnibus promovebo, augebo, ornabo.

Such

Such is the mighty change which that noble language, the Greek, has undergone in its own climate;

Tantum ævi longinqua valet mutare vetuftas!

and fo true is the obfervation, that it has fared with languages, as it has fared with all the other arts and sciences; they have had their infancy and minority, as well as their maturity and manhood; and then, after having endured for a certain period in their most florishing and profperous ftate, they have declined and fallen away, till at last they are become in a manner exstinct, and may now with true propriety be called the dead languages; for even those two most noble tongues, that ever yet graced the dignity of human elocution, the Greek and Latin, have been in all these different ftates; as may be easily seen in the writings. of their antient laws and records; in thofe of a maturer date; and in their prefent state of barbarism: and yet, what is ftill more extraordinary, both those languages are continued down to us, even to this present time, with the utmost purity and perfection, I mean in the writings of their poets, orators, and historians, notwithstanding they have fo long outlived their primitive pronunciation: for the works of those eminent Greeks and Romans are totally different from those two languages, as now spoken by the prefent inhabitants of those countries.

Such furprising revolutions have those two tall pillars, those firm and graceful fupporters of the English language, undergone; not indeed as to their internal and original structure, but as to their prefent pronunciation in the modern dialect of their own climates: for, whoever were now to visit the shattered remains of those cities, where once they florifhed in fo much perfection; whoever were now to go to Sparta, where Lycurgus wrote; or to Athens, where Demofthenes pronounced his thundering orations; whoever were now to vifit imperial Rome, where Tully, and where Virgil, and where Horace lived ;-would be astonished at the mighty change, which has happened in those places, and to those languages, within that short space of time.

But, without going so far from home, let any one but confider what a mighty alteration has been wrought, and what a wonderful change has been produced, in the original language even of this our own ifland: with this only difference, that in the former inftances, the change has happened for the worfe; but in the latter it has happened for the better; and fhews the improvement which has been made in the original language of Britain :-the original language did I Britain:-the fay? which was that?-we have had so many invaders, and been oppreffed by fo many intruders, that it would be difficult to fay, which was the first and original language fpoken on this ifland.

Let the first however have been whatever it might, it is certain there is but wery little, if any, of it remaining at this day; and what at prefent pretends to that originality, is found to be fo harfh, fo diffonant, fo rough, and fo difcordant, as fcarce to be understood; and that the very little of it which is intelligible, is so far altered and transformed, that was an antient Briton to rise up among us at this period, he would not be able to understand his own mother tongue; and with respect to our modern English, he would be at a still greater lofs, and unable to afk for any of the common and ordinary conveniences of life; nay, he would be as utter a stranger to our prefent language, as we ourselves fhould

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