THAT is not a humane sentiment; for though we
have wrongs from England, yet I wish a war put off as long
as possible.* Though I see that in the nature of things
“offences will come, and wo to him by whom they come,”
says the scripture. The ultima ratio regum, though the
most effectual, is the hardest logic that can be introduced.
But when I used the words,

“Once more to the breach,”

“Another whet at the ram.”

It is a matter of great self-denial in me not to introduce
more quotations from the Latin classics; but I am
unwilling to incur the imputation of pedantry, which persons
who do not understand the language, are apt to bestow
upon those who indulge themselves in this liberty
of quotation from the Roman writers. And yet to myself
it is extremely pleasing; because I see great beauty
in the turn of expression in that language; but still
more in the Greek; though I do not quote it, because
there are few printers who are furnished with Greek
types, and can set the words. As to French, I am not

[figure description] Page 096.[end figure description]

unacquainted with it, but never have come to like the
language; that is, to relish it, and to feel the delicacy of
an expression perfectly, as setting off the thought. Nevertheless
I am not wholly insensible of the neatness and
perspicuity of the stile of some writers in that language,
in preference to others, as of Voltaire, or Russeau, compared
with the bulk of those who have gone before
them. But of all languages that I have ever tasted, the
Greek, unquestionably, with me, has the preference;
and yet it cannot be supposed that I understand it as
well as my vernacular; nor within many degrees of it;
and yet I think it a thousand times superior. Bred in
a soft air, and warm climate; whereas the English
would seem to have been frozen in the north, before it
began to be spoken by man; or rather it was first spoken
by frozen men. Certain it is, that cold climates give a
rigidity to the fibre, and harden those muscles by which
the articulation is performed. Pinkerton the greatest
philologist of modern times, at least that I am acquainted
with, thinks that the Greek is derived from the German;
and that the German is the original Persian: that
in some convulsion of the Persian empire, at an earlier period
than we have any account of, some portion of that people
had emigrated, and passing to the north, had made the
circuit of the Caspian, and Euxine seas; and, at length
established themselves in the heart of Europe. I can
more readily conceive the Persian hardening into the
harshness of the German sounds, than of the German
softening into the fluidity, and sweetness of the Greek
accent; but that there is a great affinity between the
German, and the Greek, there is no one who understands
both languages, but must admit. Both have a
dual number; but independent of this, it is a proof of
the affinity, that a German can easily learn to pronounce
the Greek gutturals; whereas to those of most other
nations, it is difficult. That the Germans used the Greek
alphabet in the time of Julius Cæsar, appears from his
commentaries; though some have attempted to lessen
the evidence of this, by changing the words, Grecis literis,
into Crassis literis utuntur; but clear it is, that a
long time must have elapsed in the amelioration of the
German into Greek; though I do not altogether reject
the idea of these being the same language originally, as
Pinkerton has endeavoured to prove, both by the authority
of writers, and by an historical deduction of the

[figure description] Page 097.[end figure description]

origin of ancient nations. I must acknowledge that until
I had read his dissertation, I had been inclined to
think that the Germans had been a people distinct from
all others from the creation of the world; for it is remarkable
that in the time of Julius Cæsar, before any
mixture of other nations had intervened, the colour of
the eye, and the hair of all, were the same; the blue
eye, and the yellow hair—


Cærula quis stupuit, Germani lumina, flavam
Cæsariem— —
This quotation is from Juvenal, who puts this national
characteristic of feature, upon the same footing as to being
common with the swelling of the neck in Switzerland.

Quis tumidum guttur miratur sub alpibus.

[figure description] Page 098.[end figure description]

on interrogating individuals as to their sensations, I have
been informed by them, that they are sensible to every
change of weather, from dry to moist, and can perceive,
to use their own term, a fluttering in that part of the
neck, on the approach of rain. I am not of opinion,
however, that the cause, whatever it may be, has the
least relation to marsh miasma; for the locus in quo, as
the lawyers say, where this disorder is known, is as free
from fever, as the driest regions.

But I return from this digression to the subject we
were upon, the origin of the Germans, and the language
of that people. I feel the more interested in this disquisition,
because the Saxon, which was my vernacular
tongue, is a dialect of the ancient German; and the mother
of the English. The dialect that is spoken by the
common people in Cumberland, and the adjoining country
of Scotland, called the low lands, is Saxon. It is in
this dialect that the old comedy of Gammer Gurton's
Needle is written, which is the prototype of the Gentle
Shephard of Allen Ramsay. Many of the scenes, that
of Maudge the witch, in particular, are evidently borrowed,
so far as respects the character of the personage.
I wonder that it is not looked up, and printed with the
Gentle Shepherd, that it may be seen how nearly they
resemble. It will be found in a collection of old plays,
by Dodsley; amongst which the model of Shakespeare's
Othello, in a tragedy by a certain Jan, or John Pafre,
will be seen. In looking over these, it will appear that
what is called blank versification, was written with great
felicity before his time, in that fluent way which he has
preserved, and which is the only way in which it is tolerable
to me, that of Milton excepted. For the versification
of neither Thompson, or Young, do I greatly relish;
and that of Cowper as little. Congreve comes the
nearest what I can bear.

But I recur to a consideration of the language of nations,
not meaning stile in composition, but the sounds
by which ideas are expressed; and those sounds attempted
to be communicated by letters of the alphabet; I say,
attempted; for after all that can be got by the arbitrary
marks which we call letters, it is by the ear alone that
we can catch the real sounds that are intended; it is
only by a length of time that the ear can catch a sound, or
the tongue be brought to imitate it. It for this reason
that it is thought that those who have a taste for music,

[figure description] Page 099.[end figure description]

and some facility in catching a tune, could most easily
acquire the pronunciation of a language; though I have
my doubts of this; for there seems to be no immediate
connection between the faculty of singing, and of speaking
merely; not that I will undertake to say that softness
of features and softness of voice are not connected;
for beautiful features always appear to have more delicacy
of expression, than the homely; and a handsome
woman to sing more sweetly, if she can sing at all, than
one that is what we call an ordinary person; whether
it is that the imagination cheats the ear, and what is
more lovely to the eye, is also more pleasing to that organ.
A young man in the pulpit is thought to possess
greater powers of oratory in proportion as he has the advantage
of personal appearance. In fact the goodly person
has the advantage before any audience. Cicero considers
stature, as an advantage to the orator. A public
speaker must be tall; or have such powers as to be able
to make those that hear him forget that he is of a small
stature. This was in the power of Garrick, according
to the poet Churchhill.

It strikes me as very extraordinary that those whose
province is speaking, do not think of assisting the personal
appearance more, by the article of dress: I mean
in the costume or model of the coat, which is that of the
labourer, rather than of the man of the gown; I meant
to have said of the long robe; for the vest and coat that
sits close to the body, and is short, has not the dignity of
a more loose and flowing garment. And hence a speaker
appears better in what we call a surtout, than in that
which sits tight to the body. He will feel more easy in
such a vestment; though he must be careful when he
turns his back to the fire not to burn the tail; but at the
same time, it will not do to take it up in order to warm

[figure description] Page 100.[end figure description]

his backside, because a delicate man will not wish to
have it brought into view that he has a backside to warm.
For nature having an antipathy to the posteriors has turned
them behind, which Longinus notices, as an illustration
of a precept of good writing. It is true the jocky-coat,
being slit behind, a corner may be taken up under
each arm; but the attitude is ungraceful. A friend of
mine once, for whom I had a great good will, introducing
his son, asked my opinion what he should do with
him—He had given him some education, and was at a
loss, whether to put him to study law, physic, or divinity.
I recommended to a handycraft employment. But
an experiment of a learned profession being uselessly
made, the father, after some years, wondering at the sagacity
I had discovered, having had no opportunity at
the time I had given my opinion, of knowing any thing
of the lad, but just seeing him on his being introduced to
me, enquired on what ground I had formed my judgment;
I told him frankly, that I had seen at a glance
what he was in the stamina of his mind, by the manner
of his turning his back to the fire, and taking up his coat
behind. For there is a delicacy of feeling which always
accompanies genius; and which shews itself in even the
smallest particulars. A diligent observer will find in
what may be thought the most indifferent actions, enough
to indicate the portion of intellect which has fallen to the
share of a young person. For as a great general at a
coup d' oeil, or glance of the eye, can catch all the advantages
of ground to draw up upon, and manœuvre his
army; so one acquainted with the human physiognomy,
and is attentive to the movements of the body, can give
a pretty good guess whether the boy is to be denominated
a John Bull-calf, or Nicholas Bottom the weaver.
I have not the same skill in the female character, and
might be mistaken in my ideas of what a young lady
might be brought to be; but having been employed a
great part of my early life in the academies, and in the
instruction of youth, I had acquired some degree of sagacity
in distinguishing the aptitude for pursuits in life.
And I cannot say that this has been the source of much
advantage to me; but on the contrary, of much vexation,
to see those whom nature intended for hucksters, and
haberdashers of small wares, pushed forward into the
learned professions, and calling themselves lawyers, or
affecting to be politicians, and conductors of the affairs

[figure description] Page 101.[end figure description]

of government. I well know that no man's opinion can
be considered as importing absolute verity; but so far
as my opinion will carry weight with it, I can say that
I have known judicial characters who, if things had taken
place according to their gravity in the moral world,
would have been at the bottom of the stair-case; at
least would never have risen higher than keeping a shop
of merchandize, and in that situation might have been respectable.
For far be it from me to undervalue men's occupations
under whatever denomination. It is the unfitness,
the incongruity of talents for the occupation, that I arraign.

Felices agricolæ, sua si bona norint.

But returning from this digression to the thread of
our discourse. I take it, the Basternæ were that people
from whom the Saxons of the Weser and Vistula were
principally descended. For after their repulse by the
Romans, under Augustus, when they attempted to enter
Thrace, they would seem to have pressed upon the
west of Europe, and occupied this quarter. The Getæ
or Goths, were more upon the Rhine, and the heads of
the Danube.

Turner, in his history of the nations which have emigrated
from beyond the Elb, has proved or rendered it
extremely probable, that a great country was lost during
the dark ages, on the west of Europe, of which Greenland,
and Iceland are remains. For it appears from the archives
of Denmark, that from very ancient time, that kingdom
had colonies in that quarter; and an intercourse had
been kept up which had been discontinued during the
adumbration of the north from the inundation of barbarous
nations. We are certainly but little acquainted with
that corner of the earth; the Romans having had no
knowledge of it; much less the Greeks living more remote
from the scene. It is but extremely little we know
of the earth we live upon, so far as respects mankind;
nor, perhaps, is it to be regretted; for to what purpose
would it be to know more, but to increase our knowledge
of bloody battles; or, of individual misery. Would it
not rather be desirable that the whole remembrance of
past events was struck out of our minds, and that we
had to begin a new series? What happens every day

[figure description] Page 102.[end figure description]

now, is so like what happened before, that the sameness
is wearisome. Instead of consuming so much time in
acquiring a knowledge of history, we might employ ourselves
in searching the mountains for simples, or digging
for minerals. Chemistry begins to be once more a fashionable
study; but the fine arts, music, painting, poetry,
and architecture, occupy so much of the time of
education for a young person, that there is not leisure,
or space left for the more useful pursuits. I have not
mentioned statuary; for there are few amongst us that
handle the chisel in any other way than as joiners, or
carpenters. Caruchi was guillotined as being concerned
in constructing what was called the infernal machine,
for the purpose of blowing up Bonaparte. It is astonishing
that one so far above his species in the divine art of
imitating a man by the fabrification of the hand, should
have thought of destroying an original. It was this Caruchi
that proposed the representation of in
sculpture, ringing the rivers from her hair. David the
painter, is also one of those wonderful personages; for
such I call them, who possess the sublime of genius in
one of the fine arts; that of painting what would seem
extraordinary; he was said to be one of the most bloody
of the revolutionary tribunal, at least subservient to them.
Now there is a delicacy, and fineness of mind, so to speak,
in such kind of intellects, that it astonishes me, how cruelty
can find its way to mix with it.

Is there reason to suppose that this earth is, with respect
to some superior order of beings, but a beehive;
and that they are amused looking at our working? It
is humiliating enough, to conceive so of our insignificance,
and therefore I repel the idea; but supposing it
be so, it must be amusing to them to see the same revolutions
over again in the moral world. The like abstract
notions in metaphysics, and theology, with similar experiments
in government. For it is true what the wise
man observes, “there is nothing new under the sun.”

I have no idea that the Theagony of Hesiod, as it is applied
to action in the Iliad, and Odyssy of Homer, and
continued down in the Eneid of Virgil, will be revived
in the faith of nations while any vestige remains of the
credence. For there must be novelty in the hypothesis
that will attract. Though I will admit that boldness, or
rather extravagance in the belief, is most likely to be
successful.

[figure description] Page 103.[end figure description]

The preceding dissertation on the origin of the languages
of Europe, and incidentally upon other subjects,
may seem incongruous with the nature of this work;
did it not occur to a diligent observer, that there can be
nothing incongruous, or inconsistent, with a book which
embraces all subjects, and is an encyclopedia of the sciences.
It is an opus magnum, which comprehends law,
physic, and divinity. Were all the books in the world
lost, this alone would preserve a germ of every art.
Music, painting, poetry, &c. Statuary it says the least
about. Nevertheless, some hints are given that will
serve to transmit the reputation of Phidias and Praxiteles;
and stimulate the efforts of the chisel upon stone,
in generations yet to come. Yet, disliking egotism, and
all appearance of vanity in others, I am unwilling to emblazon,
beyond what is moderate, a production of my
own. But, to speak my mind a little freely, leaving the
bible out of the question, which taking it even as a human
composition, may be termed a divine book; a collection
of tracts unequalled in all ages by other writers; and conceding
to Homer his superiority; and to Shakespeare,
and Plutarch's Lives, I do not know, but I certainly flatter
myself, that my performance may occupy the next
grade. But I will not say more at this time, least I be
accused of boasting, and be called a braggadocia; an imputation
carefully to be avoided by all who would escape
envy, and the vexations of that malignant passion.

eaf801n3

* This was written before the war.

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