LES MEURS. SIR, TO THE EDITOR OF THE MONTHLY MIRROR. WILL you allow a constant reader to enquire through the medium of your excellent work, whether any particulars are known of the author of a little French work, intitled "Les Maurs ?” It is a treatise on the moral and social virtues, written in an easy but elegant style, and contains precepts which prove the author to have been no less a sound and rational philosopher, than a pious and accomplished gentleman. I should likewise wish to know whether this charming work was ever translated into the English language. The insertion of the above will very much oblige, Sir, Bedford Place. Your humble servant, F. H. SCRAPIANA. VACUUM. THERE are some persons, from whose conversation we retire with a thorough conviction of the existence of a vacuum. A CLEAR POINT. A preacher, in a sermon on repentance, in which he enforced that actions, and not tears and pious exclamations, were true signs of a sincere repentance, concluded with this illustrative apoTogue: A bird-catcher having caught his prey, used to kill them by strangling, and in in the action hurt one of his fingers, and shed See," says a young bird, "he shews "Do not mind his eyes," replied an old tears on the accident. FORTUNE'S EXCUSE. a common complaint that fortune, or the god of riches, comes among men of probity. Lucian accounts for it by Plutus say, "I am blind; and as among men there is a great majority of rogues, is it a wonder I should not be able tofind the smaller number ?" POGGIUS. ON THE UTILITY OF THE GREEK AND LATIN LANGUAGES. "S THOU HOUGH men," according to Locke, "have no further design in learning languages, than the ordinary intercourse with society," it is evident that he who has the advantages of a liberal education, feels himself always at ease in every company: on the other hand, a man who has pursued no such studies, (unless truly he have an uncommon share of assurance) in finding himself without an easy flow of words, feels himself particularly distres sed and embarrassed. The light, which a torch emits, passes unnoticed, when the sun shines in all his splendour. The greater luminary confounds and dissipates the less, and the dulness of the one serves only to shew to the greater advantage the lustre of the other. In like manner is the difference, which subsists between lettered and unlettered men, and so much do the shining qualities of the one, dazzle the feebler intelligence of the other. Having premised thus much concerning language in general, let us now give our attention to the Greek and Latin languages; and weighing every thing fairly and impartially, proceed to determine upon their utility and inutility. In every thing of human acquirement, excellence is attained by slow and gradual approaches; but when once realized, transmission and diffusion are works comparatively of little labour. Those who aspire to eminence have only to conform to the mo dels already provided. Thus statuaries and painters are always eager to gain and imitate the copies of the best masters; to restrain their fancy if too luxuriant, and assist it when jejune and feeble. In like manner, the best specimens of language will always be an important desideratuin to those who study its perfections: and as a model, therefore, on which to form the expression of our ideas, and to improve or preserve the purity of our native dialect, the knowledge of the Greek and Latin tongue is particularly valuable. V We mark the several stages of their progress to that just and legitimate refinement, which does not enfeeble, or d degenerate into puerile conceits, and a meretricious excess, and affectation of ornament. We observe also their de cline. Taken at the proper period, which is clearly and distinctly ascertained, being in a manner universally agreed upon, they furnish a standard, which may be had recourse to with the greatest advantage by men of all nations. Of this period are the writers whose works are accounted classical. Though highly cultivated and improved, a just simplicity reigns throughout, and yet with this simplicity is combined a loftiness and sublimity, or majesty of expression, united to the greatest sweetness. To use the words of the poet Τε και απο γλώσσης μελιτος γλυκίων ξεεν αυδη. Homer's Iliad. A close attention to the rules of syntax, gives often an unnatural harshness, yet we can never perceive in that grammatical precision, so striking a feature in the ancient languages, any thing but the greatest elegance, and most natural arrangement. We cannot wonder then that the works of the classic authors have always been read with the greatest avidity. A celebrated character, lately dead, has told us that had he not read them daily, he should have felt himself very uncomfortable; and that they were to him as necessary as meat and drink. However this might be, the least that can be said of them is, that they are like to a noble prospect where no obstacles rise to check the view,—a prospect not the same in every direction, but diversified with hill and dale, rocks and mountains, flowery meads, and soft enamelled plains. The Romans were perfectly sensible of the beauties of the Greek language, and the many defects of their own. To remove these defects was no small object with them. Their nobles, as well as their orators, daily exercised themselves in the study of Greek authors. Continual labour, with increasing zeal and resolution, effected the end proposed; and so necessary was the Greek tongue thought to a noble among them, that it was as necessary for them to go to Athens, as for our youths to the different universities. CICERO studied eloquence at Rhodes; the language of Greece at Athens. CÆSAR, VIRGIL, HORACE, in every part of their works mention their stay at Athens to be instructed in the elegancies of their more erudite neighbours. Their taste was formed upon the Greeks; and whilst they followed this model, their own language acquired copiousness, suavity, and an elegant simplicity. As the Greek polished the Roman language, so did they both combine in overcoming the ruggedness and want of harmony in ours. That this is the case, a short review of the state of the English language, from the twelfth century to the present day, will clearly evince. In the twelfth century, overrun as we were by a host of Norman invaders, little room was left for the cultivation of the Nine Sisters. But what little poetry has been transmitted to us of that period, is harsh and inelegant. The best specimens, without any fixed metre, seem to be nothing more than a recital of warlike actions, in high-sounding prose, tiresome with an endless tautology and sameness, both of thought and expression. If we come to the century in which CHAUCER, and his master GoWER, flourished, when our language was beginning to raise its head, we find that the poets of the age had universally a smattering of Greek and Latin. They thought fit to drink at the Grecian spring, and hence we may date an increasing harmony in our language. Yet still, in spite of native genius, its inherent defects are strongly marked. In the 15th and 16th centuries, the Latin authors came into high estimation. Every child was initiated into its mysteries. Yet though the Latin was much in vogue, the Greek was not neglected. We perceive a general taste for the classic authors gaining ground. HoMER was translated. THEOCRITUS, VIRGIL, OVID, and MARTIAL, quickly followed. The man of taste admired their beauties, and attempted to imitate them. His efforts succeeded. The state of our language was greatly improved. Fresh words were daily added, and with them harmony of composition, and expansion of thought. If we take up a volume of CHAUCER, it wants melody, it is grating to our ears; but the works of SPENSER, SIDNEY, and others of that age, interest our feelings. At present, it is absolutely necessary to be well acquainted with classical literature. No poet of celebrity exists, who has not imitated the classical authors. We have poets and other writers, perhaps scarcely inferior to the ancients. But the purity of the Augustan age, we know, quickly declined. And as modern statuaries and painters, notwithstanding the present height of their arts, still recur to the original models; so must linguists, if theirs, the noblest of all acquirements, does not rapidly degenerate. In languages there is the stronger necessity for this, as the former have always before them their great and infallible guide, the works of nature; but a pure and polished diction is not immediately derivable from this source. Writers indeed of the present day have need to be continually reminded of those approved and acknow ledged standards of excellence, which are as much opposed to all Nedum sermonum stet honos et gratia vivar. Quem penès arbitrium est, et jus, et norma loquendi. Whereas, while our youths in schools and colleges are duly conversant with the most approved patterns of antiquity, the taste which a study of them gives, is universally diffused, and produces the happiest effects even on those who are totally unacquainted with them, In the very nature of things, no living language, even with the assistance of the press, can be long stationary. How much has our own altered since the time the Bible was translated, although used in most schools for the instruction of the young, publicly read in our churches, and so essentially requisite to be frequently consulted by all descriptions of men? In the fluctuations then of a living language, I would ask how purity of diction is to be preserved under its several changes? The answer is obvious. There exists but one possible method: and that is, to keep our eye steadily fixed on some dead language of acknowledged excellence as a standard which will always continue to impart to our own, its inherent perfections. By which means, though the form of our expressions alter, there will be no deterioration, and without doubt what has already polished and refined the medium of our intellectual intercourse, is the fittest for preserving that advantage. It is obvious that the advantages which have been ascribed to a competent acquaintance with the Greek and Latin writers, cannot be obtained by means of translation. Ideas may be partly transfused, but not language, not idiom, not composition, not the peculiar force, spirit, character, energy, elegance, or any thing valuable that belongs to them. Even POPE'S Homer conveys not to the reader the slightest perception of the inimitable excellence of that divine poet; and what is an elegant translation now, a few years or ages hence will be obsolete and scarcely intelligible. But if the taste continue correct, that is, to be founded on solid principles such as have stood the test of many centuries, however fashion may vary, the garb |