"Such was necessarily the progress of arose from the same motives which geography in all the inhabited points of induced the Carthagenians to throw the globe; but is only known to us with every voyager into the sea who approachregard to a small number of people, ed Sardinia, lest the sources of their whose history is preserved to us with commerce and riches should be discov. some degree of certitude. ered. 66 "Founded in the same manner, all the These quotations are sufficient to shew primitive systems present some traits of the research and philosophical mind of resemblance. The common bases of the our author. He consecrates the first first geographers were taken from the volume entirely to the history of geograprejudices of unenlightened ages. At phy, down to Humboldt. The second first, every people naturally fancied him- volume is devoted to the mathematical self placed in the centre of the inhabited and physical theory of the earth in all world. This idea was so generally its relations. His disquisition on the received, that the Indians bordering on origin and progress of languages is highthe equator, and the Scandinavians prox- ly curious. If all researches as to the' imate to the pole, have two words, and primitive language of the world be abanwhat is more remarkable, two similar doned by the truly learned, they have words, Midhiama and Midgard, to sig- at least succeeded in fixing the number nify the dwelling of the middle; and of mother-tongues, or of those radically they were frequently employed to de- different in their syntax and grammatical signate the countries inhabited by these inflexions; but, as to which is anterior two people. The Olympus of the to the rest, it is impossible to determine. Greeks passed, like the Mountain Merou It is therefore indifferent where we beof the Indians, for the centre of the whole gin to count the links of a chain which earth; and the habitable world was rep- is buried in the night of ages; and we resented like a vast disk, bounded on every side by a wonderful and inaccessible ocean. At the extremities of the earth were placed imaginary countries, fortunate islands, and nations of giants and pigmies; the immense vault of heaven being supported by enormous mountains, or mysterious columns.--The shield of Achilles presents us, in an authentic manner, the primitive idea of the cosmography of these ages: the earth is figured on it as a disk, surrounded on all sides by the river Ocean. It may appear extraordinary to suppose the oceana river; yet such was the idea of the ancients. Hesiod describes its sources in the western extremity of the world; and Herodotus tells us that such was the opinion of geographers in his time." shall, in the first place, take the Indo Germanic languages, which extend from the banks of the Ganges to the shores of Iceland. The principal branches of this family pursue the following geographical order :-The Sanscrit reigned anciently throughout all Hindostan; from the Sanscrit descended the Dewanagara, the purest idiom of India, the Tamulic, and several other dialects spoken in the Deccan. Besides a certain number of roots, which the Sanscrit has in common with the Greek, the Latin, the Sclavonic and German, it also offers, in its numerous declensions and extensive conjugations, the most striking affinity with these mother languages of Europe, particularly with the Greek and Latin. Persia presents us with three ancient lanM.Malte-Brun is so strongly persuad- guages-the Zend, which appears to ed that to the commercial spirit of man- have been the sacred language; the kind are indebted for all geographical Peleoi, or language of ancient Media; knowledge, that he hazards an opinion, and the Parsi, the idiom of Persia, from equally ingenious and probable, that the whence in part is derived the Persian great father of history and geography, and the Kurdic. In all these languages. Herodotus, was a merchant:" at least,' we find many German words. says he, "it affords the most natural so- grammar, infinitely less rich and less lution of his long voyages, and numerous perfect than the Sanscrit, has several connexions with nations by no means points of affinity with the genius of the friends of the Greeks." His silence re- English and German tongues; the hisspecting commerce, our author fancies sing consonants, unknown to the Sans The 기 ii. 578, and vol. iii. 268. crit, are found in the Parsi, &c."Vol. eral words in the national language. This custom is also found in Africa, &c."-ii. 582. "The Oceanique (or countries in the great Southern Ocean) presents us with In the summary of the various religa singular custom. The princes, on ions in the world, our author offers the their accession to the throne, change sev- following estimate : Sin Europe.. 88,000,000) Roman Catholics 116,000,000 The Greek church 70,000,000 : 60,000,000 50,000,000 100,000,000 100,000,000 425,000,000 What a glorious prospect for the va- terminates this ignoble repose, so contrarious Bible Societies! Upwards of four ry to the destinies of man. A ship unites hundred millions of souls to be saved, the most distant parts of the world; citand bibles and prayer-books to be given ies and whole nations transport themselves away!We highly applaud their zeal, to other climates in the midst of the and hope this will augment it. They do hordes of peaceable savages the tumult well to convert the unsophisticated idol- of civilization arises; an universal imators to the religion of truth, which is pulse is given to mankind, and he is led every day rapidly losing ground in Eu- to the conquest of the globe. rope. "The fate of the great families of the The third and fourth volumes contain human race has been decided by the the descriptions of all countries, except- direction they took on emigration, the ing Europe, which is reserved for the nature of the countries they inhabited, fifth and concluding volume. The con- but especially by the position of the vulsions which have lately agitated this grand seas of the globe, and the results quarter of the world, and the numerous they were able to derive from it. The changes which have recently taken place, eternal infancy of the Chinese, is it not have delayed the appearance of this last principally owing to their ignorance of volume, which is now in the press. the art of navigation ? On the contrary, We cannot better conclude our review if the Japanese and the Malays have of this highly valuable and original work, shewn a vigorous character, more enterthan by the reflections with which the prising and entirely different from the author terminates the second volume. rest of the Asiatics, it was at the period "In the history of man, the progress when their squadrons traversed the great of navigation will always hold the first Southern Ocean, at this day filled with place after agriculture. The civilization their colonies. The African nations are, created by agriculture is only local, and as it were, benumbed in the middle of a is suspended at the point where the great continent, deprived of gulfs or wants of nations are supplied. There arms of the sea. It is this circumstance the agricultural nation, ordinarily divided which, by preventing navigation from into indolent masters and miserable transporting industry there, has powerslaves, isolate themselves from the rest of fully contributed to brutalise the African the world more by their laws and cus- nations. The Europeans alone have. toms than by their great walls. Naviga- been called by Providence to extend tion troubles this Chinese felicity, and their empire over the globe. The na40 MON. MAG. No. 286. tions who peopled Europe had to over- those hills, now covered with aromatic come the difficulties presented by the plants, will be adorned with cities and Caucasus, the Euxine, the Baltic, the palaces. In those bays, now shaded Archipelago, the Adriatic, and the Med- with groves of palms, will be seen a foriterranean. Such great obstacles slack- est of masts. Gold and marble will be ened their march at first; but at the same drawn from the virgin bowels of the time they developed and fortified that mountains. Coral and pearls will be great character of activity and daring, sought in the deep profound, to ornacommon to the Europeans. In a little ment new capitols; and one day, pertime the children of Canaan, the Pheni- haps, Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, cians, lost the empire of the seas; Athens jealous and astonished, will find dangerbalanced Tyre; a Greek city ruled over ous rivals in countries whose existence is conquered Egypt; Carthage bowed to now scarcely regarded. Rome, and Europe seized the sceptre of the world. At this period all civilization was collected round the Mediterranean; it was almost the only sea navigated, and the high road of all polished nations. 66 "Thus, in the history of mankind, the past, the present, and the future, connect themselves with the position of the great seas of the globe and, the progress of navigation." A second epoch commenced, and it We have insensibly exceeded the was again owing to the progress of navi- limits destined to this interesting article; gation, which is intimately connected and can only say of the Atlas, that it is with the advance of civilization. The the most perfect that has ever appeared: Scandinavians preluded by their daring M. Lapic has spared neither care nor voyages, which extended even to Ameri- expence to render it unique, and adapted The compass and Columbus ap- to the present state of knowledge. The peared- -a new world hails our vessels introduction contains an account of the a new Europe arises, and grows in these authorities on which each boundless deserts, and the Atlantic Ocean is become the new Mediterra ca. nean. drawn. GRAMMAR. Le Nouveau Maitre Anglais, &c. The New English Master; or, a French and English Grammar: edited by Louis Henry Scipio, Count de Roure. 1 vol. 8vo. The "But the march of civilization is far from terminated-the wonders of Europe may yet be effaced. Will the Europeans rest on the bounds of this Atlantic Ocean, which, immense as it appeared to the THIS edition of the Grammar, which Hercules' of Phenicia and Greece, is has always borne on the title-page the nevertheless but an arm of the sea com- name of William Cobbett, has been pared with the great ocean of the globe, long in the press, and it is from the proof which, under the names of Indian, Paci- sheets that our article is framed. The fic, and Southern, extends from pole to Grammar itself has been long celebrated pole. Already the light barks of the as the best for teaching English, though Americans fearlessly traverse this aqua- it was exceedingly imperfect. tic hemisphere; already English colonies Count du Roure at length undertook the have begun to conquer those immense editing of it, and enriching it with an countries. Those innumerable islands, abundance of original and highly curious which form, at the south-east of Asia, a notes. For this task, perhaps, no man fifth part of the world, and the most was fitter than the Count du Roure, the beautiful of all that magnificent Ocea- son of the Marquis du Roure and Lady nique, will offer, perhaps, ere a few cen- H. Knight, only daughter of the late turies elapse, the spectacle of the greatest Earl of Carlow: he received his educacivilization it is permitted to man to tion at Oxford, and afterwards went to hope, or the limits of the terrestrial globe France to take possession of his paternal admit. May another Cadmus bear there estates. The commencement of the rethe torch of the arts and sciences, which volution found him, at Paris, an enthuhas enlightened Europe; and colonies, siastic lover of liberty in its genuine escaped from our civil wars, found at forms. He took a distinguished part: Otaheite and Pelew a new Greece. Then all the higher offices of the republican government were pressed upon him; he that of painting in succession all the accepted that of governor of the Hotel great passions which agitate, torment, of the Invalids, and he is still remem- and develope the human heart? To bered with gratitude by the veterans. perfectly succeed, it was not to the uniAmongst the other regulations he made ties of time, place, and action, he ought for softening the cares of those who had to subject his genius; but to the unity of nobly bled in their country's cause, he interest to that of the passion, to the ordered every man a bottle of wine per semper sibi consonans of the personage day; which they have enjoyed ever he had chosen to display. I will not ask since, until within the last few months. who has been more faithful to these preIt was the custom for the governors to cious unities than the immortal Shakreceive a certain poundage on every speare, the only man, perhaps, who pipe of wine the count refused it, say- perfectly knew all the windings of the ing, "Let the wine be of much better human heart. These precious unities quality." Detesting the character of a exclude the unities of Aristotle; for, slave, the Count du Roure equally de- properly to paint a passion, we must tested that of a tyrant; and, when Na- unravel its causes, attend its progress, poleon seized on the liberties of the peo- and display its fatal results; and it is ple, the count thought the post of hon- thus, if I am not completely mistaken, our a private station, and entirely retired that he has painted ambition, love, jea from public life. One of the fruits of lousy, &c. It is the sublime moralist, his solitude is the work now under no- the most astonishing and true painter of tice; and we may fairly pronounce that the human heart, that we must admire the English language is more indebted in Shakspeare, rather than the simple to him than perhaps any other person. dramatic author," The English language he compares with Possessing a perfect knowledge of the the so highly vaunted classic tongues of two tongues, it is greatly to be lamented Rome and Greece, and shows, in a that the count, instead of bestowing his striking manner, its superiority over immense erudition upon a Grammar rathem both. He distinguishes it by the dically imperfect, had not chosen to name of Particulaire, or a language in compose one entirely original, which which the particles form its grand dis- would have no rival to contend with; tinction from the desinential languages. He enters the lists with Horne Tooke; and has clearly the advantage over that great philologist. He shews, at some length, the advan tages of the English over the French language; and he justly censures the great negligence of English authors as to grammar. The French language owes all its merit to great writers-the English owes nearly all its own to its admirable syntax, which allows it to perfect itself insensibly, in appropriating, without any efforts, all the riches suitable to it in the languages of its neighbours, and sometimes in those of antiquity. The count frequently enriches his notes, with observations on subjects we should not expect to find in such a work; as, for instance, the following apology for Shakspeare: "He has been constantly reproached with having despised the sacred laws of the three unities: but was it not necessary to attain the object he had in view, and, as no person is so highly sensible as himself of the necessity of such a work, and no one is equally capable of writing it, we will hope that the indolence of ease will one day be overcome by the ardent desire to benefit his fellowcreatures. Histoire Naturelle de la Parole, &c. Natural History of Speech; or an Uni versal Grammar for the Use of Young Persons, by Count de Gibelin; with a Preliminary Discourse and Notes, by Count Lanjuinais, Peer of France, &c. &c.-3 plates, 1 vol. 8vo, It is a delightful, object to behold one of the most illustrious of the sons of freedom and lovers of true liberty, not latter, but boldly defending the princionly maintaining the principles of the ples of justice and humanity, and stoop *He refused to vote on the case of Marshal Ney, because, he said, "The Chamber of Peers had uo jurisdiction to try him; and, if Paris, which the Chamber refused to hear it had, he was saved by the capitulation of alleged in his defence." ing to "teach the young idea how to shoot." It is a singular coincidence, "Of all the general grammars, or prethat two of the worthiest champions of tended universal, philosophical, or raisliberty should have devoted their talents sonnées, I do not know one that truly emto the same object, the Count Lanjui- braces all that is common to all languanais and the Count du Roure; both oc- ges. On the other hand, I do not know cupy themselves on grammar, not as one which does not treat but of what original authors, but perfecting what is only common to all languages; not one others had begun. The Count Lanjui- even which treats of all the grammatical nais thinks it necessary to trace a sketch steps of all languages, nor even all those of his qualifications for this task, being of certain determinate languages; and I formerly professor of law, professor of know but very few which do not treat legislation, and pro temp. professor of of many particularities, as of matters grammar at Rennes. really common to all idioms. His views of the importance of gram- "We have but few good treatises of mar is admirable.- "I have long been comparative grammar; but, as to the convinced that the science of general general science of languages, or that grammar might be blended with good which embraces their filiations, their metaphysics and good logic, and even histories, their irregularities, their alphalay the foundation of natural morals.". bets, their lexicons, the methods of "When elected a member of the teaching them, and their grammatical French senate, and following a noble literature, it is scarcely known in France. example set me by my illustrious col- Italy, Spain, Germany, and Russia, have leagues in the other sciences, to satisfy in alone, that I know of, produced works part the necessity of public instruction, of this kind. It does I gave at Paris public lessons on legis- "However it may be, I do not dislation; and recommended, with success cover in antiquity scarcely any thing reto my pupils, the study of general gram- lative to general grammar. The Indians mar and the other parts of rational phi- quote their grammarians, and possess losophy." grammars of the Sanscrit, which they After tracing at some length his philo- believe, with much probability, to be logical pursuits, and the literary and anterior to the Christian æra. moral character of the author he had not appear that they ever had an idea chosen to comment upon, he traces his of general grammar; but their grammars, ideas of general grammar, and gives a in whatever age they may have been rapid sketch of the works published on composed, contain a part wanting in general grammar prior to that of his every other known grammar-it is a author. General grammar is the expression of our ideas by discourse. treatise on the formation of words, which teaches not only the analysis or etymology of usual words, whether de"It is properly a science, and not an rivative or composed, but which teaches art, for it is principally composed of co- the regular creation of new words acordinate facts, and the explanation of cording to our wants; the idea alone of these facts; it describes in what various such a treatise, is a beautiful article of modes we may, with the faculties of general grammar." our mind, and our vocal organs, or the We cannot follow our learned author aid of writing, express our ideas with through a long historical dissertation on clearness and precision, at least in certain languages. "Every particular grammar being a collection of rules to practise, consti tutes an art. grammar, which affords a splendid proof of the unwearied attention he has applied to this important science; but what we have cited will show that no one was more capable than himself to supply the "General grammar is a general science, desideratum so long justly complained of. because it has not for its object any de- If there be one thing we would wish to terminate idiom, but treats either of change, it is, that instead of being an matters common to all languages, or excellent commentator, he had chosen matters common to several. to compile an entirely original work. It |