language, as it does in the French, to indicate a want of strength and spirit. It is the glory of the English language to be capable of supporting blank verse; which the French, from its want of energy and vigour, cannot admit even in tragic composition. Rhyme is frequently the source of redundancy and feebleness of expression; as even among the most admired writers instances frequently occur of the sense being so much expanded, as to be on that account extremely weakened, because the poet is under the necessity of closing his couplets with corresponding sounds. The translation of Homer by Pope, and of Virgil by Dryden, afford striking proofs of the truth of this observation. The verbose passages in many of the finest tragedies of Corneille, Racine, and Voltaire, arise from the same cause. In rhyme the sense is usually closed with the first line, or at least with the second. This produces a tedious uniformity, which is particularly unpleasing to those, whose ears are accustomed to the varied periods of the classic authors. Rhyme appears not so well adapted to grand and long, as to gay and short compositions. Its perpetual repetition in the Henriade of Voltaire is tiresome: in the stanzas of the Fairy Queen of Spenser its recurrence, although stated and uniform, is more tolerable, because the pauses pauses are more varied: but it certainly is of all compositions best suited to the lively turn of an epigram, and the ludicrous descriptions of a mockheroic. A wider and more accurate survey of nature, and a more diligent cultivation of art, by gradually opening new channels of knowledge, have increased the number of words. Hence we find, that the moderns excel the ancients in copiousness of language upon many subjects, of which abundant instances occur in the terms which express certain metals, semimetals, earths, plants, animals, amusements, and recreations, various machines, implements, and materials employed in agriculture, navigation and chemistry. In several branches of science discoveries have been made, which were entirely unknown in ancient times. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. THE impressions made by the conquerors who have settled in any particular nation, are in few respects more clearly to be traced, than by the change they have produced in the language of the natives. This observation may be applied with peculiar propriety to our own country: for after the Saxons had subdued the Britons, they introduced into England their own language, which was a dialect of the Teutonic or Gothic. From the fragments of the Saxon laws, history, and poetry still extant, we have many proofs to convince us, that it was capable of expressing with a great degree of copiousness and energy the sentiments of a civilized people. For a period of six hundred years no considerable variation took place. William the Conqueror promoted another change of language, which had been begun by Edward the Confessor, and caused the Norman French to be used, both in his own palace, and in the courts of justice; and it became in a short time current among all the higher orders of his subjects. The constant intercourse, which subsisted between France and England for several centuries, introduced a very considerable addition of terms. Such were the grand sources of the English tongue; but the stream has been from time to time augmented by the copious influx of the Latin and other languages. The same countries, which have supplied the Eng lish with improvements, have furnished the various terms by which they are denoted. Music, sculpture, and painting, borrowed their expressions from Italy: the words used in navigation are taken from the inhabitants of Flanders and Holland; the French have have supplied the expressions used in fortification and military affairs. The terms of mathematics and philosophy are borrowed from Latin and Greek. In the Saxon may be found all words of general use, as well as those which belong to agriculture, and the common mechanical arts. But notwithstanding the English language can boast of so little simplicity as to its origin, yet in its grammatical construction it bears a close resemblance to the most simple language of antiquity. Its words depart less from the original form, than those of any other modern tongues. This simplicity of structure renders our language much easier to a learner than Italian or French, in which the variations of the verbs in particular are very numerous, complex, and difficult to be retained. ous. The English language is uniform in its composi tion, and its irregularities are far from being numerThe distinctions in the genders of nouns are agreeable to the nature of things and are not applied with that caprice which prevails in many other languages. The order of construction is more easy and simple, than that of Latin and Greek: it has no genders of adjectives, nor any gerunds, supines,. or variety of conjugations. These peculiarities give it a philosophical character; and as its terms strong, expressive, and copious, no language seems better calculated to facilitate the intercourse of mankind, as a universal medium of communication. 1. BEAUTIES OF THE ENGLISH A Language which has been so much indebted to others, both ancient and modern, must of course be very copious and expressive. In these respects perhaps it may be brought into competition with any now spoken in the world. But its excellence is in fewer respects displayed to such advantage, as in the productions of our poets. Whoever reads the works of Shakespear, Spenser, Milton, Dryden, and Pope, will be sensible that they employ a kind of phraseology which may be said to be sacred to the Muses. It is distinguished from prose, not merely by the harmony of numbers, but by the great variety of its appropriate terms and phrases. A considera-` ble degree of beauty results likewise from the different measures employed in poetry. The Allegro and Penseroso of Milton, Alexander's feast by Dryden, the Ode to the Passions by Collins, and the Bard of Gray, are as complete examples of versification, judiciously varied according to the nature of the sub jects, |