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book-learned his books to the controverfy-the pedant would cleanfe the root, and filth is his portion; whilft the Florentine bee pitched on the lively flower is fucking the sweetest honey from each petal! Little doth it matter I think where the record is of fo old a date, and affects not any right or property, and gives no authority to any system, and brings no weight of favour or oppofition to the opinions of the day;little doth it matter, whether the history is compofed of abfolute facts, fo long as it bears the characteristics of truth and nature.-The Venus of Zeuxis furely might be pronounced equally eftimable, whether the ftory of the five beauties of Agrigentum was true or falfe.

Lord Bolingbroke, looking over the general profpect of history ancient and modern, and confidering its tendency merely as to the knowledge of men and manners, fays-he would chearfully exchange the books of Livy we have, for those we have not; he enumerates the advantages Livy had in his latter books of painting characters he knew, and thofe too of the greatest; of describing events he was concerned in, facts he had from the immediate actors,-quæque ipfe miferrima vidit.

"But furely a contemporary hiftorian of fuch turbulent times might be too apt to exaggerate through adulation or conceal through fear; to give the precepts not of the philofopher, but partizan; and colour Facts into harmony with his own fyftem of patriotifm or friendship. Cecina in his letter to Cicero fays" much have I been neceffitated "to refrain, many things have I been obliged to pafs over lightly, "many to curtail, and very many abfolutely to omit-thus circum"fcribed, restricted, and broken, as it is, what pleasure or what use

ful information can be expected from the recital?" So wrote the hiftorian Cæcina, and fo probably did Livy write; but this apart;-have we not fufficient pages blotted with the follies and vices of great men Have we no annals to refer to for the confequences of luxury, the progrefs of venality and corruption, and liberty undermined? Or are we yet to learn that one and the fame is the downfall of virtue and of freedom, and that with equal pace individuals become vicious, and a com munity enflaved? Writings enough exift tracing the corruption of men and states through every mode and degree;-the period of antiquity characterised by a wild and impetuous generofity, by an enthufiaftic patriotifm and dating love of freedom,-that age wherein the virtues were indebted to the paffions for more, than ever fince the boasted aid of reafon could afford them, has been delineated but by few great mafters; and for the honour of humanity not a line thereof should be effaced. I would not barter one page of the early accounts of the republics of Athens or of Rome for the most accurate acquaintance with all that Auguftus ever did or thought."

Our philofophical hiftorian proceeds to give a regular narration of the rife and progrefs of the Athenians, occafionally intermixed with fuch political reflections as naturally refult from

-Sed tamen me fuftinui, multa minui, multa fuftuli, complura ne pofui quidem;-fic tot malis cum vinctum tum fractum studium fcribendi, quid dignum auribus, aut probabile poteft afferri? Ciceron, Ep. fam. Lib. 6. Epift. 7.

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the fubject. We fhall felect from the latter the following paragraph on Civil Liberty and Colonies.

"Civil Liberty confifts in the fecure poffeffion of a particular station and property, not to be affected but by the diffolution of the state which afcertains and enfures them: when a form of government circumfcribes the latitude of conceffion to its fubjects of equal rights and participation,-civil liberty is confined; when its policy and laws are inadequate to regular administration,-civil liberty is infecure: the pretenfions of a juft and wife legiflation are fo to modulate its force and its fecurity, and fo to provide for general eafe and happiness, as to leave as little controul for the free-fpirited, and as little licentioufness for the man of a quiet and homely turn, to make the fubject of anxiety, as are compatible with each other, and as abfolute neceffity requires. "Men of an improved genius and capacity will yet fometimes push their idea of polity to a refinement, calculated to difguft them with any inftitution they may be born fubject to; and men too in the extremities of an hot and active, or of a peaceable and domestic spirit, will find wherewithal to colour their situation with difcontent, and deprecate the controul of government or licentiousness of the people, respectively as they are fitted for enterprize or quiet,-for the forum of Rome, or farm at Tibur.

"It is certain that no diffatisfaction with the constitution of his country, can authorise an individual to plot an innovation, ever pregnant with danger to the whole community; and that the neceffity must be very obvious and preffing, and the authority of very many must affent, to make any plea for commotion good and adequate.

"But happiness, it will be faid, is the great end of all political ordonnance or arrangement;-that states may not be of the best inftitution, that even thofe of the best may have deviated from their first principle; and furely it is equally hard for a polished and wife man to be aggrieved by the errors of a favage anceftor; or to ftand with his head under a ruin, becaufe in a better ftate it had been a comfortable habitation to his forefathers. This reafoning will have weight in every country which permits not a free egrets from its dominion; where fuch migration is restricted, the canon is unjuft, and agrees not with the great axiom-" Lex eft fumma ratio"-for reafon favours the contentment and good of each, when it interferes not with that of any.

"That a body of men may leave their native country, and that fo doing they withdraw themfelves from the parent itate, its protection and its powers, I think queftions fo inteparable, that had not a contrary mode of reafoning been of late much and often enforced,--[ fhould fuppofe the argument too obvious to neceffitate the detail; affuredly those who depart on a conditional expedition, as they are benefited, fo are they obligated by the conditions thereof; but the voluntary exile who leeks refuge in the ftorms of the ocean, and trufts his body to foreign climates and exotic diet; who forgoes. the delights of habit, and fweets of long connexion, who flies from fo many attachments to fo much danger,-flies not from diilike to his paternal giebe or private fociality, it is from fuppofed or real grievance of fubjection that he efcapes, and if the imperious rule is to purfue him to his regreat, the permiffion to quit the fhore is at best trivial and infulting. The

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"The Colony embarking for a region of fixed and regulated fo ciety, of courfe muft acquiefce in the previous compact; but landing on a yet unappropriated fpot, have furely as juft a right to adopt the fyftem of affociation, their prejudices or wifdom may fuggeft.

"This was the reafoning of old, and was fupported by the demeanor of the ancient republics towards the various fettlements formed in diftant parts by their difgufted or neceffitous citizens; for neceffity, or from over-population, or from other cafualties incident to fociety, might often and perhaps moft frequently occafion many to seek other fortunes and another country. On the motives of quitting the original people, depended their fucceffive favour and partial protection (for that partiality may actuate and attach very large and removed focieties, this, and in confutation of Dr. Price every history will evince)-and the Colony had a conditionally refpected plea for the tender and gratuitous interference of the mother country, in all cafes of exigency and danger."

Of our author's ftile of narration let it fuffice to fay, that it is concife, nervous, and fpirited; we wish we could add that his language in general is equally correct and elegant.

R.

Archaeologia or Miscellaneous Tracts relating to Antiquity, publifhed by the Society of Antiquaries of London. 4to. Vol. IV. 11. Is. in Sheets. Sold at the Houfe of the Society in Chancery-Lane, and by the Book fellers.

(Continued from Page 331.)

Article the IVth contains the Illuftration of a gold enamelled Ring, fuppofed to have been the Property of Alhftan, Bishop of Sherburne; with fome Account of the State and Condition of the Saxon Jewelry in the more early Ages. By the Rev. Mr. I egge.

V. An Account of Human Fones filled with Lead. In a Letter from Mr. Worth, late of Difs, F. A. S. to Edward King, Efquire. With Obfervations thereon, by Dr. Hunter.

VII. Remarks on the Antiquity and the different Modes of Brick and Stone Buildings in England. By Mr. James Effex of Cambridge.

VIII. Obfervations on Kit's Cotty Houfe, in Kent. In a Letter to the Honourable Daines Barrington, from the Rev. Mr. Pegge.

IX. Account of a fingular Difcovery of Bones in ChriftChurch Priory, Hampshire. By Guftavus Brander, Efquire. In a Letter to the Prefident.

X. An Account of the Great Seal' of Ranulph Earl of Cheiler; and of two ancient Infcriptions found in the Ruins of

St.

St. Edmund Bury Abbey. By Edward King, Efquire. In a Letter to the Rev. Mr. Norris, Sec. A. S.

XI. Obfervations on a Coin of Robert Earl of Gloucester, addreffed to the Prefident. By Mr. Colebrook.

Art. XII. treats of the origin of the word Romance, being a letter from the Rev. Mr. Drake to the Secretary; in which are controverted fome opinio s of thofe claffical critics Mr. Warton and Dr. Percy, refpecting the origin of Romancewriting as well as of the term itfelf: we fhall therefore give it our readers entire.

SIR,

"The literary world is much indebted to the ingenious Mr. Warton for his valuable hiftory of English poetry. It is indeed an acquifition in that branch of learning fo happily inttructive as well as amusing, that it must have its admirers, whilst an elegance of taile remains among us. However, with the utmoft deference to fo fuperior a genius, I cannot help thinking, that, though that fpecies of writing, called Romance, is the principal object of his book, he is very much mistaken as to the origin of that sword. He makes it wholly of French extraction, mentions it as fuch in various parts of his work, and, in one place particularly, makes it fynonymous with the French language. The communication of the Armoricans with the Cornifh, fays, he, contributed to give a roughness to the Romance or French tongue. This opinion alfo he endeavours to illuftrate, by introducing in a note this paflage from his brother's effay upon Pope. The Latin tongue ceafed to be fpoken in France about the ninth century, and was fucceeded by what was called the Romance tongue, a mixture of Frankish and bad Latin. Hence the first poems in that language were called Romans. The ingenious editor of the Reliques of ancient English poetry had made the fame quotation before him, and he alfo concludes, that the Romances of Chivalry were first compofed in France, from whence, adds he, they had their name. Notwithstanding fuch refpectable authorities, I think, it will not be difficult to prove, that this word Romance is not of French, but of Spanish original; which, if you will give me leave, Sir, I will endeavour to do.

"The Spanish language, in the early part of their history, was a mixture of Celtic, Egyptian, Phoenician, and Punic; for all these different people had frequent intercourfe with that country, and fome of them long refidence in it. The Romans were called into Spain foon after they attempted to carry their arms out of Italy about the year of the city 530, and from that time till their total expulfion by the Goths in the reign of Honorius, which is a period of eight hundred years, they were in fome degree inhabitants of that kingdom. When we confider the numerous armies, which were fent over from Italy in the Punic, Sertorian, and civil wars, and reflect upon the infinite multitude of Roman citizens, the government of the province, or the purfuit of commerce, muft neceffarily introduce into Spain; we muft fuppofe that the original language of the country muft gradually wear away, and be at laft totally abforbed in the Roman. For it was an

established

established maxim with those mafters of the world, to communicate their tongue to every people that had the misfortune to fall under their yoke. By thefe means the whole province were habituated to speak the Latin as their mother tongue, except a few of the ancient inhabitants who retired into the wild and mountainous countries where they and their dialect remained unmolested. It was at this interval that Spain produced fome of our later claffic authors: both the Senecas, Silius Italicus, Martial, Quinctilian, Lucan, Mela, and Columella, being the natives of this country, who feemed to have rivaled Rome itself in the purity and elegance of their diction. The Spanish language thus became totally Roman, nor did the irruptions of the Goths and Vandals affect it in any material manner; they fomewhat corrupted it indeed, but it ftill continued radically and effentially the fame. It was in this fituation, when the Moors from the coaft of Barbary made their famous fettlement in that kingdom, and erected fo many principalities on the fouthern part of the country. The Arabians carried with them their religion, language, and manners; and having little connection with the natives but what was of a hoftile and military nature, they preferved them for many centuries pure and uncorrupted. Upon this establishment of the Moors in Spain, we now perceive two languages prevailing through that kingdom, the original Roman or Latin, and the Arabic introduced by these new inhabitants. Hence what was written or spoken in the firit of those tongues, was called Roman or Latin; and what was uttered or appeared in the latter, Moorish or Arabic.

"Here we have the certain origin of the word Romans made use of in its primary fignification, as a contradiftinction to the Arabic. And that this distinction between these two particular languages was retained in Spain at all periods, even down to the time of Cervantes, we have a remarkable paffage in that author to confirm. When the Spanish captive is relating his story to the company that was aflembled about Don Quixotte at the inn; he tells them, a Moorish lady falling in love with him, conveyed to him a letter, which not understanding, as it was written in Arabic, he procured a renegado to interpret it to him; who tranflated it verbatim o the Spanish language, and finished his explanation in these words, "Todo lo que va aqui en Romance fin "faltar letra, es lo que contiene efte papel Morifco." "All that," fays he, which I have now tranflated to you into Spanish, without altering a fingle letter, is that which this Moorish paper contains." You may hore obferve, Sir, that the word in the original Romance is ufed as fynonymous with the Spanish tongue, and in oppofition to the papel Morifco, the letter written in the Arabic one. In further confirmation of this point, we may appeal to the learned Jefuit Mariana; who, in his excellent hiftory of Spain, tells us, that the Caftilian tongue was called Romance, and affigns this reafon for it, because it has fo great an affinity with the Latin, even infinitely more than the Italian can boast of. Lengua Caftellana compuetta en particular de la Latina corrupta, de que es argumento el nombre que tiene, porque tambien fe laina Romance." "The Caflilian language is compofed principally of corrupted Latin, of which its name is an argument, for it is called Romance." In another part of his hiftory, the

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