our author, when a nation is arrived at a certain pitch of politeness, it often becomes a prey to another less civilized. This was the case, continues he, with the Etruscans and Romans. As the one increased in power, the other, who before were held to be the most accomplished nation, sunk in esteem; as is usual with a conquered people.

"The Etruscan language (a species of corrupt Greek) being at length extinct, the materials designed to preserve it were soon destroyed or buried in ruins; the too common fate of monuments, wherever ignorance prevails. Here they underwent a long night of oblivion, till the revival of true learning, which is always accompanied with a veneration for antiquity. These monuments, as time and chance brought them to light, were carefully preserved by persons of curiosity; who, though they understood them not, yet judged that hereafter they might be intelligible to others, and therefore worth preserving. It is more than a century since some of these inscriptions have been made public, and in this last age a new scene of literature has been opened by their means; whole volumes have been filled with Etruscan sculptures and inscriptions, and attempts have been made to illustrate and explain them."

It does not appear what letters the most ancient Celta used in writing; the remains of their language now to be found in works being written in the common character of the country where their descendants lived. The author thinks it may be taken for granted, that they made use of hieroglyphics only, as we said before of the Scythians in general. But the Goths are an exception; for they had an alphabet peculiar to themselves, consisting formerly of sixteen letters, which is thought to be just the number in the Greek and Phoenician alphabets. In short, as all languages, says he, were derived from one, so it is

but reasonable to think the same of all alphabets; and their affinity with each other serves to prove that they had all the same source; viz. the Hebrew, or Cadmean.

Thus we see through what regions of conjecture, doubt, and palpable obscurity, our truly inquisitive author has explored his way. He catches every gleam of light that an extensive acquaintance with the ancients can afford him; but he often, however, seems to have a favorite hypothesis in view, by which, we doubt, he is biassed somewhat from the truth he professes to investigate. It can no way affect the interests of our religion, though we should not admit the Jewish nation to be that fountain of learning and letters from whence the rest of mankind have been supplied: which would be allowing them greater marks of honor than their best writers ever arrogated to themselves. This way of thinking appears to have been most warmly embraced by Eusebius, and other Christian writers, through a laudable, though perhaps mistaken zeal for a cause of which they were the champions. But it is more our business to exhibit the opinions of the learned, than to controvert them.

IX.-BAYLY'S INTRODUCTION TO LANGUAGES.

[From the Monthly Review, 1758. "An Introduction to Languages, Literary and Philosophical; especially to the English, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew; exhibiting, at one view, their Grammar, Rationale, Analogy, and Idiom. In three parts. By Anselm Bayly, LL.B."

8vo.]

SCALIGER assigns the man he would have completely miserable, no other employment than that of composing grammars and compiling dictionaries;† perhaps with reason, as there is not, in the whole Encyclopædia, a more laborious, yet a more unthankful study, than that bestowed on the rudiments of language. The labor employed in other parts of science may be great, but it is also apparent in this, as in the mine, it is excessive, yet unseen. This consideration may probably have been the cause that few good essays upon language are to be found among us: men whose talents were equal to such an undertaking, choosing to employ them on more amusing studies; and those who were unequal to the task, showing only by their unsuccessful attempts how much

[Afterwards LL.D.

He published also, "Alliance of Music, Poetry, and Oratory," the "Old Testament, English and Hebrew, with Critical Remarks, &c. ;" and died in 1794.]

+ [See, in Gent. Mag. 1748, p. 8, Scaliger's epigram on this subject; and also in "Johnsoniana," 8vo. edit. p. 370, the opening lines of Murphy's translation of Dr. Johnson's Latin verses, written after revising and enlarging his Dictionary :

"When Scaliger, whole years of labor past,
Beheld his Lexicon complete at last,
And weary of his task, with wondering eyes,
Saw from words pil'd on words a fabric rise,
He curs'd the industry, inertly strong,
In creeping toil that could persist so long:
And if, enrag'd he cried, Heav'n meant to shed
Its secret vengeance on the guilty head,
The drudgery of words the damn'd would know,
Doom'd to write Lexicons in endless woe, &c."]

a well-executed performance of this kind was wanting. To echo back the rules of former grammarians, to translate Latin grammars into English, or English grammars into Latin, requires but small abilities, and has been the practice of many late writers in this species of erudition. But to trace language to its original source, to assign reasons for the justness of every rule in grammar, to show the similitude of languages, and at the same time every distinguishing idiom of each, was reserved for the ingenious writer before us.

In the first and second parts of his work we have the rudiments of the four languages referred to in the title, explained with the utmost precision and brevity; those rules which serve for one language being adapted, with very little variation, to the other three. Here no technical term is used, till it be first made plain by a definition; and reasons are always assigned for the peculiarities of languages and usages in syntax.

The third part contains four Dissertations; in which, as these are calculated for entertainment as well as instruction, our author often indulges some peculiarities, ingeniously supported, though very liable to be controverted.

The first treats of the possible number of simple sounds in speech, of which he presents us with an alphabet; by these sounds alone he would have children taught to read, being of opinion, that they might learn by this method in a few months, what they are years in acquiring by the other, now in use among us. The author is led from his inquiry concerning the origin of simple sound, into an examination, whether language is the natural result of man's own industry, or whether communicated to him by some superior power. "If," says he, "in the ordinary course of things, language is transmitted in a constant series from parents to children, we must go back till we arrive at some point of time, wherein the first of the human species, whether one, two, or a

thousand, could not receive language in this channel; but it must have been derived to them in as extraordinary a manner as their existence, from the same fountain that gave them their being. We cannot help apprehending but that the first man's creator must be his instructor in languages as well as duty, teaching him how to form articulate sounds and words, giving him knowledge of things, their attributes, actions, and relations, as well as the power of assigning them their names." To the same origin our author attributes the use also of alphabetical writings, and is of opinion, as we have hinted in the preceding article, that the alphabet was first given by God to Moses on the mount. His reasoning on this head is curious, if not satisfactory; however, we must decline the particulars for want of room.

The second dissertation treats of the changes of sounds in pronunciation; how far they may be imitated in writing; and the chief causes of the variation in words. As we have seen some modern innovations in our language, with regard to spelling, Mr. Bayly may be a useful monitor, to warn writers against such affectation. "Language," says he, "by following pronunciation in writing, may be so altered from itself as to become new, and rendered so vague in its meaning, that books written even but a hundred years past, have the appearance of being barbarous, and to the surviving generations are scarce intelligible. Pronunciation might be left to take its course, vary ever so much and ever so often; but writing, as being the only preservative of a language,

* ["Talking of the origin of languages:-JOHNSON. It must have come by inspiration. A thousand, nay a million, of children could not invent a language. While the organs are pliable, there is not understanding enough to form a language: by the time there is understanding enough, the organs are become stiff. Inspiration seems to me to be necessary, to give man the faculty of speech; to inform him that he may have speech; which I think he could no more find out without inspiration, than cows or hogs would think of such a faculty."-Boswell, vol. viii. p. 198.]