to the world's stage, that the comparison shall not hold in their case, by cultivating a purer taste in the amusing, and less of the burlesque and farcical in their serious parts. On the contrary, the comparison will be justified, if laughter be the only object, and consumption of time, or gaining of money (no matter by what degradation) the only wish and effort. Low characters, ludicrous dresses, and indecent dialogue, may be then introduced without offence, and continued without obstruction; for what can impede such irregularities, when all the rules of taste have been violated, and all the motives for proper acting discarded ?

It may yet be allowed that, even in our theatres, there are periodical returns of, at least, a profession of amendment. Those who peruse the newspapers will discover, at the approach of the winter season, many large promises of reformation, excellent actors engaged, capital pieces committed to rehearsal, and schemes of œconomy formed. All that was formerly offensive to taste or morals, is to be banished; and new scenes, dresses, and decorations, are preparing to embellish the coming novelties, that applause may be secured, and interest promoted.

Life has its seasons, too, when it is not

unusual to form similar resolutions, and to prepare for the better performance of its duties. The commencement of a year is that season, when every man thinks he is entering on a wiser plan, because he has lived to see the errors of the former. They will be disappointed, however, if they practise, on themselves, the deceit which the caterers of theatrical amusements practise on the publick; if they encounter the same temptations, and the same difficulties, without a higher strength than can be derived from mere resolution, and if they think reformation easy, merely because they have found a date for it.

THE PROJECTOR. N° 54.

"Is France at last the standard of your skill?
Say; does her language your ambition raise,
Her barren, trivial, unharmonious phrase,
Which fetters eloquence to scantiest bounds,
And maims the cadence of poetic sounds?"

AKENSIDE.

February 1806.

ALTHOUGH it is acknowledged by all who have studied the antiquities of the English language, that it is a that it is a compound of many other languages; yet, as the labours of those antiquaries in tracing words to their native country have not been very easy, we may conclude that our ancestors were somewhat shy in adopting words of foreign growth. We find that, in most cases, they had either the modesty or the roguery to conceal the theft, by subjecting them to the process of an English polish and rounding, before they would admit them into common use. Hence it is, that, although our Dictionaries prove that the English have a great many words derived from other languages, they

have comparatively very few which still retain their foreign appearance, or which have not been mulcted either in their spelling or pronunciation, as a species of alien duty necessary to be paid before their admission to the privileges

of natives.

It cannot be denied that, when thus naturalized, foreign words have contributed to strengthen and enrich our language in no common degree, without lessening its dignity, or impoverishing the nations from whence we derived them. Indeed, I must do them the justice to say that they have seldom thought it worth their while to contest the matter, or reclaim their fugitives; and in this forbearance they have shewn no little wisdom. Besides that nations have now something more important to quarrel about than words, the pedigree of the latter is so uncertain, the deeds of conveyance so illegible, and the original claims so confused, that it would perhaps not be very politic in any one nation to set up lofty pretensions to originality and independence, in defiance of the rest. The farther we go back in tracing the history of any language, or indeed of any object whatever, the more we have reason to conclude with the wise man, that "there is nothing new under the sun."

But, notwithstanding all these advantages of importation and naturalization, some persons have, of late years, imagined that the English language was falling into decay, that it could no longer stand alone, and that it became necessary to replenish by fresh importations from the Continent, and principally from France. So urgent did this necessity appear, that it was resolved to lose no time in waiting for the laws of prescription, and the requisite forms of naturalization, but immediately to circulate the article in its pure and unmanufactured state. And this has been accomplished with so much eagerness and rapidity, that a great deal of our conversation, especially of that part which is called polite, might be published, if it were worth publishing at all, under the school-book title of "Dialogues in French and English."

Upon what ground an opinion so discreditable to the copiousness and energy of our language was taken up, I know not that I shall be able to explain, and I am afraid very few of those who have adopted it are very anxious to inquire. Whether they supposed that the poverty, or pretended poverty, of our language arose from the prodigious waste occasioned by