Latin riod of the French tongue; and we think that age proLanguage. duced a race of learned men, in every department superior in number and equal in genius to the literati who flourished under the noble and envied constitution of Britain during the same age, though the latter is universally allowed to have been the golden period of this country. The British isles, we hope, enjoy still as much liberty as ever; yet we believe few people will aver, that the writers of the present age are equal either in style or in genius to that noble group who flourished from the middle of the reign of Charles I. to the middle of the reign of George II.; and here despotism is quite unconcerned.

ver age greater

science

In the east the same observation is confirmed. The Persians have long groaned under the Mohammedan yoke; and yet every oriental scholar will allow, that in that country, and under the most galling tyranny, the most amazing productions of taste, genius, and industry, that ever dignified human nature, have been exhibited. Under the Arabian caliphs, the successors of Mohammed, appeared writers of a most sublime genius, though never was despotism more cruelly exercised than under those fanatics. The revival of letters at the era of the Reformation was chiefly promoted and cherished by petty. despotical princes.

"It

We cannot therefore be persuaded, that the despotism of the Cæsars banished eloquence and learning from Rome. Longinus indeed has attributed this misfortune to that cause, and tells us, égrfaı rı yag ixam ra Φρονήματα των Μεγαλοφρόνων ή ΕΛΕΥΘΕΡΙΑ, &c. is liberty that is formed to nurse the sentiments of great geniuses, to push forward the propensity of contest, to inspire them with hopes, and the generous ambition of being the first in rank." When Longinus wrote this, he did not reflect that he himself was a striking instance of the unsoundness of his observation.

198 As to science, the fact is undoubtedly on the other The writers side. That Seneca was superior to Cicero in philosophy, of the sil cannot be reasonably contradicted. The latter had read, and actually abridged, the whole extent of Grecian phimasters of losophy: this displayed his reading rather than his learning. The former had addicted himself to the stoic than their sect; and though he does not write with the same flow predeces of eloquence as Tully, he thinks more deeply and reasons more closely. Pliny's Natural History is a wonderful collection, and contains more useful knowledge than all the writings of the Augustan age condensed into one mass. We think the historical annals of Tacitus, if inferior to Livy in style and majesty of diction, much superior in arrangement and vigour of composition. In short, we discover in these productions a deep insight into human nature, an extensive knowledge of the science of government, a penetration which no dissimulation could escape, together with a sincere attachment to truth both with respect to events and characters; nor is he inferior in the majesty, energy, and propriety of his harangues, wherever an equal opportunity presents itself. Quintilian, Pliny the younger, Suetonius, Petronius Arbiter, and Juvenal, deserve high esteem; nor are they inferior to their immediate predecessors. We think there is good reason to conclude, that the loss of liberty among the Romans did not produce the extinction of eloquence, science, elevation of sentiment, or refinement of taste. There were, we believe, other cirVOL. XVI. Part I.

+

cumstances which chiefly contributed to produce that revolution.

The same Velleius Paterculus whom we have quoted assigns some plausible and very judicious reasons for this catastrophe. "Emulation (says he) is the nurse of genius; and one while envy, and another admiration, fires imitation. According to the laws of nature, that which is pursued with the greatest ardour mounts to the top: but to be stationary in perfection is a difficult matter; and by the same analogy, that which cannot go forward goes backward. As at the outset we are animated to overtake those whom we deem before us, so when we despair of being able to overtake or to pass by them, our ardour languishes together with our hope, and what it cannot overtake it ceases to pursue; and leaving the subject as already engrossed by another, it looks out for a new one upon which to exert itself. That by which we find we are not able to acquire eminence we relinquish, and try to find out some object elsewhere upon which to employ our intellectual powers. The consequence is, that frequent and variable transitions from subject to subject proves a very great obstacle to perfection in any profession."

This perhaps was the case with the Romans. The heroes of the Augustan age had borne away the prize of eloquence, of history, of poetry, &c. Their successors despaired of being able to equal, much less to surpass them, in any of these walks. They were therefore laid under the necessity of striking out a new path by which they might arrive at eminence. Consequently Seneca introduced the stile coupé, as the French call it; that is, a short, sparkling, figurative diction, abounding with antitheses, quaintnesses, witticisms, embellished with flowers and meretricious ornaments; whereas the style of the Augustan age was natural, simple, solid, unaffected, and properly adapted to the nature of the subject and the sentiments of the author.

The historian Sallust laid the foundation of the unnatural style above mentioned. Notwithstanding all the excellencies of that celebrated author, he everywhere exhibits an affectation of antiquity, an antithetical cast, an air of austerity, an accuracy, exactness, and regularity, contrary to that air degagé which nature displays in her most elaborate efforts. His words, his clauses, seem to be adjusted exactly according to number, weight, and measure, without excess or defect. Velleius Paterculus imitated this writer; and, as is generally the case with imitators, succeeded best in those points where his archetype had failed most egregiously. Tacitus, however excellent in other respects, deviated from the Au gustan exemplars, and is thought to have imitated SalJust; but affecting brevity to excess, be often falls into obscurity. The other contemporary writers employ a cognate style; and because they have deviated from the Augustan standard, their works are held in less estimation, and are thought to bear about them marks of degeneracy.

That degeneracy, however, did not spring from the despotic government under which these authors lived, but from that affectation of singularity into which they were led by an eager but fruitless desire of signalizing themselves in their mode, as their predecessors had done in theirs. But the mischiefs of this rage for innovation did not reach their sentiments, as it had done their Y y style;

Latin Language.

Latin style; for in that point we think they were so far from Language. falling below the measure of the writers of the former age, that in many instances they seem to have surpassed them.

199 Writers of great talents during the silver and

brazen

ages,

With respect to sentiment and mental exertions, the authors in question preserved their vigour, till luxury and effeminacy, in consequence of power and opulence, enervated both the bodies and minds of the Romans. The contagion soon became universal; and a listlessness, or intellectual torpor, the usual concomitant of luxury, spread indolence over the mental faculties, which rendered them not only averse to, but even incapable of, industry and perseverance. This lethargic disposition of mind seems to have commenced towards the conclusion of the silver age; that is, about the end of the reign of Adrian. It was then that the Roman eagle began to stoop, and the genius of Rome, as well in arts as in arms, began to decline. Once more, the declension of the intellectual powers of the writers of that nation did not arise from the form of the government, but from the causes above specified.

As the Roman genius, about that period, began to decline, so the style of the silver age was gradually vitiated with barbarisms and exotic forms of speech. The multitudes of barbarians who flocked to Rome from all parts of the empire; the ambassadors of foreign priuces, and often the princes themselves, with their attendants; the prodigious numbers of slaves who were entertained in all the considerable families of the capital, and over all Italy; the frequent commerce which the Roman armies upon the frontiers carried on with the barbarians; all concurred to vitiate the Latin tongue, and to interlard it with foreign words and idioms. In such circumstances, it was impossible for that or any other language to have continued pure and untainted.

This vitiated character both of style and sentiment became more and more prevalent, in proportion as it descended from the reign of Adrian towards the era of the removal of the imperial seat from Rome to Constantinople. Then succeeded the iron age, when the Roman language became absolutely rude and barba

rous.

Towards the close of the silver, and during the whole course of the brazen age, there appeared, however, many writers of no contemptible talents. The most remarkable was Seneca the stoic, the master of Nero, whose character both as a man and a writer is discussed with great accuracy by the noble author of the Characteristics, to whom we refer our readers.

About the same time lived Persius the satirist, the friend and disciple of the stoic Cornutus; to whose precepts he did honour by his virtuous life; and by his works, though small, he showed an early proficiency in the science of morals.

Under the mild government of Adrian and the Antonines lived Aulus Gellius, or (as some call him) Agellius; an entertaining writer in the miscellaneous way, well skilled in criticism and antiquity. His works contain several valuable fragments of philosophy, which are indeed the most curious part of them.

With Aulus Gellius we may rank Macrobius; not because he was a contemporary (for he is supposed to have lived under Honorius and Theodosius), but from his near resemblance in the character of a writer. His

Latin

works, like those of the other, are miscellaneous; filled with mythology and ancient literature, with some philo- Language. sophy intermixed.

In the same age with Aulus Gellius flourished Apuleius of Madaura in Africa; a Platonic writer, whose matter in general far exceeds his perplexed and affected style, too conformable to the false rhetoric of the age in which he lived.

Boethius was descended from one of the noblest of the Roman families, and was consul in the beginning of the sixth century. He wrote many philosophical works; but his ethic piece on the Consolation of Philosophy deserves great encomiums, both for the matter and the style; in which latter he approaches the purity of a far better age than his own. By command of Theodoric king of the Goths this great and good man suffered death; and with him the Latin tongue, and the last remains of Roman dignity, may be said to have sunk in the western world.

There were besides a goodly number both of poets and historians who flourished during this period; such. as Silius Italicus, Claudian, Ausonius, &c. poets and historians to a very great number, for whom our readers. may consult Joh. Alberti Fabricii Bibl. Lat.

200

There flourished, too, a number of ecclesiastical writ- Elegant ec ers, some of whom deserve great commendation. The clesiastical chief of these is Lactantius, who has been deservedly writers in dignified with the title of the Christian Cicero.

The Roman authors amount to a very small number in comparison of the Greek. At the same time, when we consider the extent and duration of the Roman empire, we are justly surprised to find so few writers of character and reputation in so vast a field. We think we have good reason to agree with the prince of Roman poets in the sentiment already quoted.

Latin.

201

Latin

Upon the whole, the Latin tongue deserves our at- Excellency tention beyond any other ancient one now extant. The and usefulgrandeur of the people by whom it was spoken; the ness of the lustre of its writers; the empire which it still maintains tongue. among ourselves; the necessity we are under of learning it in order to obtain access to almost all the sciences, nay even to the knowledge of our own laws, of our ju dicial proceedings, of our charters; all those circumstances, and many others too numerous to be detailed, render the acquisition of that imperial language in a peculiar manner at once improving and highly interesting. Spoken by the conquerors of the ancient nations, it partakes of all their revolutions, and bears continually their impression. Strong and nervous while they were employed in nothing but battles and carnage, it thundered in the camps, and made the proudest people to tremble, and the most despotic monarchs to bend their stubborn necks to the yoke. Copious and majestic, when, weary of battles, the Romans inclined to vie with the Greeks in science and the graces, it became the learned language of Europe, and by its lustre made the jargon of savages disappear who disputed with it the possession of that quarter of the globe. After having controuled by its eloquence, and humanized by its laws, all those people, it became the language of religion. In short, the Latin language will be studied and esteemed as long as good sense and fine taste remain in the world.

SECT.

Celtic

Language. SECT. IX. Celtic, Gothic, and Sclavonian Languages.

202

Origin of

the Celts,

203

part of

§ 1. Of the Celtic Language.

In treating of the origin of the Latin tongue (see Sect. VIII.), we observed that a great part of it is derived from the Celtic. We shall now endeavour to give some account of the origin and extent of that ancient language; still leaving the minutia to grammars and dictionaries, as we have done with respect to the other dialects which have fallen under our consideration. Our candid readers, it is hoped, will remember, that we are acting in the character of philologers, not in that of grammarians and lexicographers.

The descendants of Japhet having peopled the western parts of Asia, at length entered Europe. Some broke into that quarter of the globe by the north, others found means to cross the Danube near its mouth. Their posterity gradually ascended towards the source of that river; afterwards they advanced to the banks of the Rhine, which they passed, and thence spread themselves as far as the Alps and the Pyrenees.

These people, in all probability, were composed of different families; all, however, spoke the same language; their manners and customs bore a near resemblance; there was no variety among them but that difference which climate always introduces. Accordingly they were all known, in the more early times, by the general name of Celto-scythæ. In process of time, becoming exceedingly numerous, they were divided into several nations, which were distinguished by different names and territorial appellations. Those who inhabited that large country bounded by the ocean, the Mediterwhom were ranean, the Rhine, the Alps, and the Pyrenees, were denomina denominated Gauls or Celts. These people multiplied ted Gauls. so prodigiously in the space of a few centuries, that the fertile regions which they then occupied could not af ford them the means of subsistence. Some of them now passed over into Britain; others crossed the Pyrenees, and formed settlements in the northern parts of Spain. Even the formidable barriers of the Alps could-not impede the progress of the Gauls: they made their way into Italy, and colonized those parts which lie at the foot of the mountains, whence they extended themselves towards the centre of that rich country.

By this time the Greeks had landed on the eastern soast of Italy, and founded numerous colonies in those parts. The two nations vying as it were with each other in populousness, and always planting colonies in the course of their progress, at length rencountered about the middle of the country. This central region was at that time called Latium. Here the two nations formed one society, which was called the Latin people. The languages of the two nations were blended together; and hence, according to some, the Latin is a mixture of Greek and Gaelic.

As the Gauls were a brave and numerous people, they certainly maintained themselves in their pristine possessions, uninvaded, unconquered, till their civil animosities and domestic quarrels exposed them as a prey to those very Romans whom they had so often defeated, and sometimes driven to the brink of destruction. They were not a people addicted to commerce; and upon the whole, considering their situation both in their primary

Celtic

seats and afterwards in Italy, they had little temptation or opportunity to mingle with foreigners. Their lan- Language. guage, therefore, must have remained unmixed with foreign idioms. Such as it was when they settled in Gaul, such it must have continued till the Roman conquests. If therefore there is one primitive language now existing, it must be found in the remains of the Gaelic or Celtic. It is not, then, surprising, that some very learned men, upon discovering the coincidence of very great numbers of words in some of the Greek dialects with other words in the Celtic, have been inclined to establish a strict affinity between those languages. The Resemancient Pelasgic and the Celtic at least must have nearly blance beresembled each other, admitting a dialectical difference tween their language only, and that discrimination which climate and a long and that of period of time must always produce.

204

the Pe

Some have thought that the Gauls lost the use of their lasgi. native language soon after their country was conquered by the Romans; but Monsieur Bullet, in his Memoires de la Langue Celtique, has proved almost to a demonstration, that the vulgar among those people continued to speak it several centuries after that period. When a great and populous nation has for many ages employed a vernacular tongue, nothing can ever make them entirely relinquish the use of it, and adopt unmixed that of their conquerors.

Many learned men, among whom is the lexicographer above mentioned, have shown that all the local names in the north of Italy are actually of Celtic extraction. These names generally point out or describe some circumstances relating to the nature of their situation such as exposure, eminence, lowness, moistness, dryness, coldness, heat, &c. This is a very characteristic feature of an original language; and in the Celtic it is so prominent, that the Erse names of places all over Scotland, are, even to this day, peculiarly distinguished by this quality. We have heard a gentleman, who was well skilled in the dialect of the Celtic still spoken in the Highlands of Scotland, propose to lay a bet at very great odds, that if one should pronounce the name of any village, mountain, river, gentleman's seat, &c. in the old Scottish dialect, he should be able, by its very name, to give a pretty exact description of its local situation.

To discover the sources from which the Celtic tongue is derived, we must have recourse to the following expedients.

I. We must consult the Greek and Latin authors, who have preserved some Gaelic or Celtic terms in their writings.

2. We must have recourse to the Welsh and Basse Bretagne dialects; in which, indeed there are many new words, but these are easily distinguished from the primitive stock.

3. If one would trace another source of the Celtic, he must converse with the country people and peasants, who live at a distance from cities, in those countries where it was once the vernacular tongue. We have been credibly informed, that a Highland gentleman crossing the Alps for Italy, accidentally fell in with an old woman, a native of those parts, who spoke a language so near akin to his native Erse, that he could understand her with little difficulty; and that she on the other hand, understood most of his words. That an event of this nature should actually take place is by no Y y 2

means

Celtic and accidental; nor was their native dialect in the least Language. affected by it.

208

Their language, however, did not degenerate, beCauses of cause there existed among them a description of men the purity whose profession obliged them to guard against that misof the fortune. Every chieftain retained in his family a bard Scotch dia- or poet laureat, whose province it was to compose poems lect of this in honour of his lord, to commemorate the glorious exlanguage, ploits of his ancestors, to record the genealogy and con

ancient

Essays, &c. by James Grant, Esq. advocate.

nections of the family; in a word, to amuse and entertain the chief and his guests at all public entertainments and upon all solemn occasions. Those professors of the Parnassian art used to vie with each other; and the chiefs of families often assembled their respective bards, and encouraged them by considerable premiums to exert their poetic talents. The victor was rewarded and honoured; and the chieftain deemed it an honour to himself to entertain a bard who excelled his peers. The ancient Gauls, as we learn from Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, Tacitus, Lucan, &c. entertained persons of that profession; and certainly the ancient Britons did the same. Those bards were highly revered; their persons were deemed sacred; and they were always rewarded with salaries in lands or cattle (see Section Greek). Those poetic geniuses must have watched over their vernacular dialect with the greatest care and anxiety; because in their compositions no word was to be lost, but as many gained as possible.

The use of letters was not known among the ancient Celta; their druidical clergy forbade the use of them. All their religious rites, their philosophical dogmas, their moral precepts, and their political maxims, were composed in verses which their pupils were obliged to commit to memory. Accordingly letters were unknown to the Caledonian Scots, till they learned them either from their southern neighbours or from the Romans. The Irish, indeed, pretend to have letters of a very ancient date; the Highlanders of the country in question make no claim to the use of that invention. Their bards, therefore, committed every thing to memory; and of course the words of their language must have been faithfully preserved. We find that the celebrated poems of Ossian, and others of an inferior character, or at least fragments of such poems (see OSSIAN), have thus been preserved from father to son for more than 1000 years. The beauty, significancy, harmony, variety, and energy of these verses, strike us even in a prose translation: how infinitely more charming must they appear in their native form and poetical attire!

In order to exhibit the genius of the Celtic in as striking a light as the nature of our present design will permit, we shall lay before our readers a very contracted sketch of the Gaelic or Caledonian dialect as it now stands; which we hope will go a great way to convince them that this is the genuine offspring of the other. In doing this we shall borrow many hints from a gentle* whose learning seems to equal his zeal for his native language; which, in compliance with the modern practice, we shall for the future distinguish by the name of Gaelic.

man

The Gaelic is not derived from any other language as far as we know, being obviously reducible to its own roots. Its combinations are formed of simple words of a known signification; and those words are resolvable into the simplest combinations of vowels and consonants,

2

The sudden sensations of heat and cold, and bodily pain, are expressed by articulate sounds, which, however, are not used in this language to denote heat, cold, or bodily pain. A sudden sensation of heat is denoted by an articulate exclamation hait; of cold, by id; of bodily pain, by oich. All these sounds may be called interjections, being parts of speech which discover the mind to be seized with some passion. Few of the improved languages of Europe present so great a variety of sounds which instantaneously convey notice of a particular passion, bodily or mental feeling.

The pronouns he and she are expressed by the simple sounds e and i, and these are the marks of the masculine and feminine genders; for a neuter gender is unknown in the Gaelic. The compositions of rude and barbarous ages are universally found to approach to the style and numbers of poetry; and this too is a distinguishing character of the Gaelic. Bodily subsistence will always be the principal concern of an uncultivated people. Hence ed or eid is used upon discovery of any animal of prey or game: it is meant to give notice to the hunting companion to be in readiness to seize the animal: and hence we believe edo " to eat" in Latin, and ed in Irish, signifies" cattle ;" likewise in Scotch edal "cattle," literally signifies" the offspring or generation of cattle." Coed or cued," share or portion of any subject of property," literally "common food." Faced" hunting," literally "gathering of food." Edra" the time of the morning when cattle are brought home from pasture to give milk," literally "meal-time." These are words importing the simplicity of a primitive state, and are common in the Gaelic idiom.

Traces of imitative language remain in all countries. The word used for cow in the Gaelic language is bo, plainly in imitation of the lowing of that animal.

209

In joining together original roots in the progress of improving language and rendering it more copious, its combinations discover an admirable justness and precision of thought, which one would scarce expect to find in an uncultivated dialect. It will, however, be found, Excellency upon examination, that the Gaelic language, in its com- of Gaelic bination of words, specifies with accuracy the known compounds. qualities, and expresses with precision the nature and properties which were attributed to the object denomi

nated.

An appears to have been a word of frequent use in this language, and seems to have been originally a name applied indefinitely to any object. According to Bullet, it was used to signify "a planet;" hence the sun had the name of grian, which is a compound of gri" hot," and an "a planet." Re signifies originally and radically" division." The changes of the moon and the variety of her phases were early employed to point out the divisions of time. The present name for the moon is geulach: a word derived from her whiteness of colour. To these we might add a vast number more whose signi fication precisely indicates their shape, colour, effects, &c. Many of these would be found exactly similar to

Greek