On the LEARNED LANGUAGES. SIR, TH norance? Is not the real, the essential, the useful knowledge which we both possess equal? Is not my acHE subject upon which I pro- quaintance with the general current pose to trouble you with some of events, with the causes that proremarks, is one that has often been duced them, with the consequences discussed; and it very lately became that resulted from them, as full, as to a certain degree popular, from its complete, as beneficial as his? Am I being thrown as a gauntlet of defiance not enabled to draw the same inferby a political writer of some note. As ences? To make the same applicaan object of general consideration, it tions? To apply the same reasonings ? can never be uninteresting, as the Can I not estimate with the same question is how shall we employ the accuracy the motives of the actors? most precious part of life, in the ac- Cannot I acquire the same general quirement of knowledge, or in that of and accumulated stock of informawords? tion? In fact, that useful knowledge pe Things and not words ought to be which consists in the concentration the primary concern of a rational be- of events for the purpose of applying ing and the former are to be ob- them by way of comparison, illustra tained as well in an English as in a tion, or argument when needful, is Latin or a Greek dress. I will take possessed equally by both of us and history as an example; for this spe- willingly may be resigned to the cies of composition is principally con- dant, the empty, air-blown, frivolous versant about those subjects essential fame of possessing two or three words to general and useful knowledge.— for the same idea, where I have only The man who reads Livy, Tacitus, one. Perhaps it may be said, my Sallust, Cæsar, Xenophon, Thucy- knowledge will not be so accurate, dides, &c. in their original language, because translators may mistake the comes forward with a haughty mien, meaning of an author, or may wilfully with a scornful look, with a bloated pervert it: to the first objection I anself-importance, and boasts his learn- swer, I probably might be as mistaing: I grant, his learning is two-fold; ken as he, supposing I knew the orihe knows the facts, he knows also ginal; owing to the obseurity and the languages in which those facts confusion in which many parts of the are narrated:-the man likewise who classics are involved: and, as to the has read these authors in approved second, allowing that a man may oc translations, or who has digested their casionally be so warped by prejudice essence in comprehensive compila- or party as to purposely pervert the tions, may also step boldly forward meaning of an author, yet this is not with the conscious independence of always the case, and others may be merit, and with an unblenched coun- found who have more impartiality, tenance enter the lists with the more for of almost all the classics there is pompous linguist. I ask, in what more than one translation extant. does the boasted superiority of this What has been here said of history latter consist? If in any thing it con- will apply equally to ethics, criticism, sists in this where I read citizen he philosophy, dialectics, &c.—But with reads civis where I read and, he regard to poetry and eloquence, the reads et; where I read a man of re- case differs. Here the imagination, fined taste, he reads homo emuncta and not the judgment, is brought into naris; where I perhaps read solid play. We are to be amused, delightfriendship consists in the same desires, ed, charmed, but not instructed. We the same aversions, he probably reads are to rise from perusal, our ears idem velle, idem nolle, firma amicitia tickled with harmonious versification, est: &c. &c. But, heavens! is this our fancies bewildered with beautiful a knowledge upon which a man is to imagery and apt similies, our minds pride himself: is this school boy ex- loaded with metaphor, anaphora, meercise of memory, this mechanical tonymy, synecdoche, dactyls, sponoperation of the human faculties, to dees, iambics, pyrrhics, amphibrachs, draw the line between genius and and a chaos of abstract personificastupidity, between erudition and ig- tions, which are indeed infinitely 496 On the learned Languages. amusing and often enrapture the soul an emulation which at a remote pe lapping it in Elysium, but which riod produced the most important have no more real and necessary con- events: but the bastard learning of nection with substantial, useful know- the middle ages is more easily praised ledge, than an ear for music, an eye than read. But even so lafe as the for painting, or a palate for haut close of the fifteenth century, the gout. And even here the utile Medicean family in their laudable efextracted from trans- forts for the preservation of classical may be lations, though certainly the dulce remains, only built as it were a cradle will evaporate. But these things are in which future literary heroes were at best agreeable recreations for idle to be nursed. Three of the greatest fancies: and the man who never read names of modern Italy were a cenHorace, but in the imitations of Pope tury anterior to this, Dante. Boccacio, (by far the liveliest transcript of his and Petrarca; and at that time there manner) or Virgil, but in the transla- were few manuscripts yet discovered, tion of Dryden, or Homer, but in the and those few difficult of attainment. version of the former, will have little (See Vie de Petrarque par de Sade.) reason to complain of his loss, while Sallust, Livy, some of the works of in addition, he has free access to the -Cicero, and a few of the poets: what beauties of Shakespeare, Milton, assistance then, did those men derive Dryden, Pope, Akenside, and a host from the Latin classics? and Greek of native poets. And the same may was altogether out of the question, for be said of all works purely imagina- it was not till the subversion of the tive. Those who argue on the oppo- Eastern empire in 1452 that the fugisite side of the question, and maintain tive Greeks brought their language the utility of the Learned Languages, and literature to Italy. It appears, have not one of them, formed a right therefore, that to the exertions of naconception of the case. They con- tive genius the knowledge of ancient found perpetually the languages with languages is by no means an indispenShakespeare knew the things contained in those lan- sible appanage. guages, They talk of the beautiful them not, and who regrets that he did morality of Xenophon, of the pro- not? Burns knew them not, and fundity of Tacitus, the elegant pre- where is he that thinks for a mocision of Sallust, usque ad nauseam; ment, his genius would have exerted they never consider that this morality, itself more vigorously if he had? But that this profundity exist as effectually this is somewhat irrelevant to that in our versions of them, as in the ori- part of the question which I am more ginals, Will any man venture to tell immediately anxious to controvert.— me that after reading the Cyropaedia Knowledge may be considered under of Xenophon in Lord Lansdown's two different points of view; its actranslation, I have not as clear an idea quisition and its application; these of the virtues that constitute an amia- two are quite distinct, for there are ble prince and a wise legislator, as he some who store up mines of intellecwho learnedly mouths it in theGreek? tual wealth, and have not the talent Or, will it be asserted, that I shall to bring it into circulation. Knownot feel the same detestation of the ledge is nothing but an aggregation of vices of Cambyses, as related in He- ideas derived from experience, from rodotus, because I read the account of books, or from reflection: we are ac. them in English? What a mummery quiring the first from the day of our is this! They talk idly about the re- birth to the day of our death the sevival of learning, and think they cond only a favoured few acquire; have established a wonderful fact and the third a still more favoured when they discover that to that re few. I shall confine myself to the vival we owe our present advance. second. The consciousness which This is some- we have of any thing is an idea, and ment in science. thing like a man who should tell the question is not, how this consci you it is dark at night, and light ousness is acquired, but whether it be in the day time. The discovery actually acquired. If I know that of ancient manuscripts certainly en- Cyrus defeated Croesus at the battle gendered an ardour for learning, and of Thymbria; if I know that Egypt an Thebes had a hundred gates and could fectation of learning, and shew, with send fourth 10,000 armed men at the absurd parade of a scholar, the each; if I know that Semiramis use they have made of their own Greek! Greek! Latin! crossed the Indus, or that Sardanapa- utensils. Jus was a weak and effeminate king, Latin! that's their acropolis, that's and the last of the Assyrian monar- their bulwark; that's their defence; chy; that the grandeur of Nineveh and that they imagine is to be a gag perished with his falling fortunes; if of silence upon unlettered reasoners, I know all this, what does it matter to strike them with awe, to strike whether I have learnt it in Greek or them with humility and submission. English? The Grecian or the Latinist They complain, that they find a difmay tell me, you have lost the beau- ficulty in understanding words deties of the original, you have lost all rived from the Greek and Latin; that that indefinable grace which cannot they confound their significations; be transfused into a foreign language, that they never have clear ideas of the harmony of periods, the charms them. All this may be so; and if it of antithesis have totally escaped you; be so, I am not bound to shew the though he should tell me this, and reason why it is so, though there probably what he tells me would be needs "no ghost come from the grave But I will maintain, that true, yet I would reply that my know- to tell us.' ledge, ny useful, my substantial a man of common sense may have as knowledge, was not one whit inferior accurate an idea of a vocable derived to his: I am prepared to draw all the from the Learned Languages, as it results which my reason can draw, is used in our own, as he who knows and that is the knowledge of reflec- its radix. I say, as it is USED IN OUR tion. I will illustrate this from ex- own; for the stability of a language ample. A linguist reads in Tacitus is or ought to be such, as to preclude obtrectatio et liverpronis auribus acci- innovation; and although I may piuntur: an unlettered man reads know that a certain word bears a mulenvy and detraction are willingly re- tiplicity of significations in its original, ceived: the former, reads in Seneca, yet I am bound to use it, not accordcuræ leves loquuntur, ingentes stu- ing to those primitive significations, pent; the latter, light sorrows are but according to its received and legiclamorous, severe ones are dumb; c. timate ones in my native tongue; and c. and I would ask whether the a man who knows no language but moral truth of the one or the other be his own, may yet acquire his own, in not as perfectly possessed, relished, the fullest and completest sense of the and understood by both? What is word, by the study of the best writers there so all-commanding in these lan- and the use of the best dictionaries. guages, that our native idiom is to be I have also heard it urged, that studegraded as fit only for transacting dents in anatomy have had a clearer our daily duties? The miserable affec- idea of the several of the human parts tation of scholars has produced this body, after, they had learned Greek blind resignation of our sober facul- than before. But I know, that the ties; scholars, who themselves desti- first surgeon now in England, and, tute of native powers, seek to en- who resides not far from St. James's, hance the reputation of what they has no more Greek than an Ethiohave acquired, and magnify their own pian; and another medical gentlepursuits; like the tanner, the stone- man, a friend of mine, who has risen mason, and the carpenter in the fa- to the top of his profession, knows no ble, who were for having respectively language but his own and yet I'll the walls of their town made of lea- answer for it, he would amputate a ther, stone, and wood.-But there is limb, or perform an operation, with another advantage which the advo- as much skill and success as a Greek cates in support of the Learned Lan- surgeon; nay, he has often succeeded guages mantain; viz. that the know- in delicate cases, which the first proledge of our own is wonderfully im- fessional men have declined as hopeproved by them. This, in futility, far less. But in good truth, such jargon transcends the other. They entrench can only be tolerable in the mouth of themselves behind the wretched af- a mere scholar, who possesses not one 498 ATTALUS. THE BEE.-No. VI. Floriferis ut apes in saltibus omnia libant, omnia nos. CESAR. LUCRETIUS. tittle of native genius, and who erects tongue, which, God help them! they his self-sufficiency simply and solely may have been learning thirty or forty upon the plodding diligence with years by telling them" you don't which he has turned over dictionaries know Greek; you don't know Latin; and grammars. The knowledge of ergo, you know nothing, not even languages is certainly an ornament English. Sir, it is impossible that you to the edifice of genius; but when can understand the meaning of synecthey exist solitary in a barren mind, doche, sycopa,metaphrase, misogamist, which produces not one indigenous misogomy, for you don't knowGreek!" plant, which merely bears, and that I smile when I think of such lannot in a very flourishing manner, guage, and pity those who use it. I remain. Sir, &c. whatever is transplanted into it, I then look upon them as a very humble sort of merit indeed. They can Liverpool, November 23, 1807. aspire no higher than to the poor applause of successful diligence; a diligence in which every man can become their competitor, and many bear away the laurel. It requires just the same temper of feeling by which the TERRITA quesitis ostendat terga Britannis, says Lucan, (lib ii. woodman fells a tree, or the hedger excavates a ditch; they know that line 572), who, though a Pompeian, their strokes constantly repeated will always does justice to Cæsar's bravery at length produce the desired effect. on every other occasion; and indeed The linguist also knows that a heavy the above seems strongly confirmed and inflexible perseverance must ulti- by the elegant historian himself in his mately bring him to an end, and im- relation of his expedition here. It print upon his mind the vocables of will not need the partiality of a Briton But to incline him to believe there was the language he is studying. when we compare this humble merit more of truth than party in the poet's with the higher occupations of the reflection; since, if it were otherwise, mind, when we compare it with the it is hard to assign a good reason why flights of fancy, the daring combinations of genius, the sublime pictures of imagination, when we compare it with the successful investigation of moral truth, the discoveries of science by which life is rendered happier and our ideas of the Creator expanded; when we compare it with almost of the native energies of intellect, how poor, how despicably mean it sinks; give them their due praise; assign them their just rank; and in their own minds let them estimate them as highly as they please; but let them not sink into the common and disgusting error of making the learned languages every thing, and every thing else nothing; let them not place Greek and Latin as the boundary between all that is great and wonderful and lovely, and what is poor, unworthy and disgraceful: let them estimate truly what they have, and they will then find that words do not always give knowledge; let them not come forth with a magisterial air and a vain parade of learning, to frighten plain, wellmeaning men out of their mother any the supposed conqueror, so soon after his arrival here, should weigh anchor and steal off in the middle of the night, (Cæsar de Bell. Gall. 1. 4. c. 26.) after a battle, or why he should bring with him in his second expedition above 700 ships more than in his first. 1 PICTURESQUE. This word is derived from the Italian Pittoresco, which, literally rendered, would be painterish; and it may be observed, that our ish, the Teutonic isc, the Italian esco, and the Greek xos, are all of one family. BUFFON. Early to bed and early to rise, The truth of this old proverbial "In my youth, I was very fond of sleep, which robbed me of much time. My poor Joseph (a domestic PRINCE OF conde. who served him sixty-five years) was footed and tired, she one day sat down of great utility to me in overcoming on a bench by the side of a countryit. I promised him a crown every woman, who did not know the queen, morning he could make me rise by and requested her to tell the cause of six o'clock. He failed not next day her pilgrimage. On being informed, to torment me-I abused him. He she replied, "O my dear madam, it came the morning following-I is all in vain! Our rosy canon has threatened him. Friend Joseph, said been dead for these two months." I to him in the evening, you have gained nothing, and I have lost my A little time before the memorable time. You don't know how to manage battle of Rocroi a council of war was the matter-think on my promise, and called, at which the necessity of posnever mind my threatenings. The sessing the town was powerfully reday following he accomplished his presented: "But what shall we do," point-I begged, entreated, then said one of the generals, "if we lose abused, and would have turned him it?" I do not consider that," exoff. He raised me by absolute force, claimed the Prince of Condé ; " my and had his reward every day for my death will happen long before that." ill-humour in the moment of waking by thanks and a crown an hour after; indeed I owe to poor Joseph at least ten or twelve volumes of my works.". DUKE OF GUISE. Greatness of mind and cool genuine courage was strikingly exemplified in the following conduct of the Duke of Guise :-Some little while before he was murdered by the order of Henry the 3d, a note was brought to him intimating the king's intention. Taking out his pencil, he wrote under with great coolness, "He dares not;" and then went on with his dinner, as if nothing had happened, and attend ed the monarch's levee the next morning with the same confidence as usual. Too late he found the melancholy truth of the intelligence. THE ROSY CANON. A REVIEW of the POLITICAL CON- (Concluded from p. 398.) THE HE momentous business of the regency first gave the Irish parliament an opportunity of exercising its novel authority. In this instance, to the great surprise of ministry, the sentiments of Ireland, as expressed by her representatives, were directly opposite to those of England, promulgated through the same channel. In spite of every effort of the lord-lieutenant toward procuring an adjournment, the court was left in a minority of fifty-four! As we studiously avoid all review whatever of those scenes of fanaticism on one hand, and of massacre on the other, which have polluted the fertile shores of Hibernia, in the years immediately preceding the great and final act of political connection between that country and her potent neighbour, little remains for the fidelity of the examiner to report. But, of that little, the major part is far from unsatisfactory. On entering the wood of Boulogne, the Hyde Park of the Parisians, by Passy, on the right is the castle or house of la Muette, formerly royal. It was a seat of the secret pleasures of Louis XV, whose palled appetite required a frequent change of mistresses. In the village of Passy, a street where Dr. Franklin lived retains his name. The medicinal waters of Passy are impregnated with iron, so as to load their course with ochry incrustations of a reddish brown colour. They were chiefly frequented by barren ladies, and were found efficacious when administered by young practitioners. Anne of Au- In 1795, the Irish catholics solicited, stria, having passed sixteen years at the feet of the throne, a relief from without producing an heir to the all those disqualifications by which French monarchy, went on a solemn they had been so long oppressed. pilgrimage to all the saints. Bare- According to Grattan, the tithes, In 1793, the appointment of the vice-treasurers of Ireland was transferred from the English to the Irish government, as a counterbalance to the influence added to the crown by some fresh appointments in the East India departments. |