cal at the fame time that it is original. These are the fair colours of ftyle, which adorn the elegant, luminous, and flowing periods of Gravina and Lowth; and the harmonious and polished verses of Milton, Vida, and Sannazarius.

CHAPTER V.

The Greek Language.

THE affertion will not perhaps be liable to be controverted by those, who are beft acquainted with fuch fubjects, and are beft qualified to make extenfive and juft comparisons, if it be faid that the Greek claims the fuperiority over all other languages. In its numerous modes of expreffion there is precifion without obfcurity, and copioufnefs without redundance. It owes the former to the various and diversified inflections of its words, and the latter to the great number of its derivatives. In its general structure and formation, a proper regard is paid to the ear, as well as to the understanding; for its energy and strength are not more ftriking than its harmony. The ftrictnefs of its rules does not impofe too much reftraint upon its expreffions, and its grammatical fyftem is in every part exact and complete.

From a fhort view of its history and characteriftics, it will be evident, that this language deferves to be held up as a perfect model of expreffion, and that it fully juftifies the praise of those scholars

• See Monboddo's Origin of Languages, vol. iv. p. 25, &c.

and

and critics, who have celebrated its excellence in proportion as they have enjoyed its beauties, and derived taste, improvement, and pleasure from the perufal of its incomparable writers.

The Eaft was the fruitful fource of the literature, as well as of the fcience, and mythology of the Greeks. Letters were communicated by Cadmus and his Phoenician followers to them; and they were more indebted to the roving difpofition, or the neceffities of ftrangers, than to their own active curiofity, for this acquifition. It is probable that, before they received this valuable fpecies of knowledge, they represented their thoughts by delineating the figures of plants and animals, as the Egyptians did in their hieroglyphics, because the Greek word Yeager fignifies both to paint and to write; ygaμμa is a picture as well as a letter; and onμara, or nu, mean as well the images of natural objects, as artificial marks, or characters.

:

The oral language of ancient Greece, before it rofe from a state of barbarifm, was fimple and uncompounded. It was formed from the primitive dialects of the Hellenians and Pelafgians. So fmall was the original ftock of Grecian eloquence, that all the words are derived from an inconfiderable number of primitives. But the acute and ingenious fpirit of the people gradually difplayed itfelf in the increafe and improvement of their modes of expreffion, as they advanced in the cultivation

M 4

tivation of other arts, and the progreffive ftages of civilized life.

The names of the original characters of Phonicia and thofe of Greece are fimilar; and the refemblance of their forms, and the ancient mode of writing from the right hand to the left, which is common to them both, furnish a decifive proof, that they had one and the fame origin. In procefs of time they changed their arrangement in writing, and infcribed their characters in alternate order, from the left to the right, and from right to left, as was before obferved, when we fpoke of language in general. Some letters were afterwards added, the powers of others were altered, written vowels were introduced to fupply that deficiency which was common to Greek with all the Oriental dialects; and the combinations of vowels called diphthongs were introduced, which are in a great degree peculiar to the Greek language. The divifions into dialects were gradually formed by the independent and unconnected people, whofe names they bear; and as they had no common metropolis, they adapted their modes of speech to their own provincial manners and characters. The Doric, of which the Eolic was a branch, was fpoken in Boeotia, the Peloponnefus, Epirus, Crete, Sicily, and all the Grecian colonies planted upon the coafts of Italy. It was characteristic of the unpolished manners of the Dorians themselves, and bore fome analogy to that grandeur and fimplicity of defign, which are vifible in the remain

ing fpecimens of their architecture. They pronounced their words very broad, and inferted their favourite A, wherever they could fubftitute it for another vowel. The moft perfect examples of this dialect, which the ravages of time have fpared, are the Paftorals of Theocritus, the Odes of Pindar, and the mathematical treatifes of Archimedes. Although the Ionic is the prevailing dialect of Homer, he has diverfified his works with the various forms of expreffion which the others fupplied. The favourable opportunities afforded by his travels into the different parts of Greece and its colonies, furnished him with this advantage, and gave him a complete command of every kind of provincial phrafeology. The Ionians were fond of extending their words to a greater length than the other Greeks, for they added letters, refolved fyllables into their component letters, and divided diphthongs". Progreffive improvements were communicated to their dialect, which was spoken on all the populous coafts of Afia Minor, as well as in the territories of Attica, the original fettlement of the Ionians. The witty and ingenious inhabitants of Athens, advanced it to that state of refinement, elegance, and sweetness, which charm the claffical reader in Sophocles, Euripides, Ariftophanes, Xe

f

They ufed for inftance, τιμα for τιμη, μεγάθος for μέγεθος, σελανα for σεληνη, εικαι for εικοσι, Αινεια for Aives, τιμᾶν for the gen. τιμῶν, γελᾶν and ελῶν for the particliples γελών and ελῶν, &c.

Inquiry into the Life and Writings of Homer, p. 282, &c. and Plutarchus de Dialectis.

# They ufed for inftance Σαμίοισι for Σαμίοις, Αινesw for Asves, θέσεων των μέσων, ήμιες for ήμεις, λόγοιο for λογο, ώυλος for αυλος, θώνμασας (οι θαυμασας, δε,

nophon,