Now, if it

at all, but had it read to me. had been read to me with the English pronunciation, fuppofe I had been accustomed to that pronunciation, I could not have understood it by the found of fo many letters being comfounded, and fome not founded at all.

Before I conclude this chapter, upon the fubject of modern Greek, I cannot help obferving, how much fo noble a people as the Greeks have degenerated, and loft those arts in which they excelled all the world, even that art of the greatest use and moft conftant practice, the art of fpeech. This art the Greeks have loft, not by getting another language in place of their own, which has happened to fome, (for the words of their language, with the exceptions of very few, are all Greek), but by lofing the grammatical art, and so far returning to barbarity, as to speak a barbarous language, in place of the politest and most cultivated language that ever was fpoken. Their example should be a warning to other nations, not to neglect the

ftudy of the ancient languages, where only the grammatical art is to be learned, and by the imitation of which, they may improve, or at least preserve from becoming worse, their own language.

CHA P. XIII.

Of the found of the English language.-It confifts chiefly of monofyllables.--The words crouded with confonants, and many terminated with the afpirated t.—This fault of the language aggravated by modern use. -No melody or rhythm in the English language. The words and fyllables, at the fame time pronounced with a great variety of tones; but thefe not reduced to any rule.--The wonderful art of the Greek language in this refpect. Of accents in English-They give a variety to the pronunciation of the language, and make our verfification more various and beautiful than that of other modern nations.--The abufe of our modern accents in our modern ufe of them.-Not to be compared, though ever so properly used, to the rhythm of Greek and Latin.-The words in English confidered as fignificant.—In this respect, the language is ftill more inferior to the

Greek and Latin, particularly in the verb. The time of it not expreffed, except by one flexion of the word; nor the numbers except in one inftance.-Defective also in the expreffion of perfons. We had once a mood expreffed by the termination; but that is now loft.-Only two participles expreffed by termination.-The English more defective fill in voices, than in tenfes or moods.—No middle voice.-And no tense, mood, or participle in the paffive voice, expreffed by flexion.-The clumfy circumlocutions that we are obliged to use to fupply the defects of the paffive voice. As to nouns in English, they have no genders nor cafes, and therefore may be reckoned indeclinable words. -The compofition alfo of words very defective in English; and alfo the etymology, as it is not an original language.

TH

HE next modern language I fhall mention, is our own language, the English; and I will confider it as I have done other languages, beginning with the found of it.'.

The words are, for the greater part, monofyllables, except thofe of Greek or Roman extraction. Then they are crouded with confonants, and the afpirated is much used, even in the end of words. Now, one cannot well conceive a harsher, or more abrupt found than a monofyllable, fuch as we have many concluding with a-th. It is a found that could not be endured by a Greek or Roman ear, and cannot be pronounced by a Frenchman or Italian. The most of our words conclude with mute confonants, such as b, d, g, fometimes a little foftened by the addition of an e at the end; this must make the found of the language exceeding harsh and rough, compared with the Greek, or even with the Latin, the voice being fo often interrupted by fo many ftops betwixt words, and the mouth fo often fhut by those final mute confonants, and by the * termination with m. This fault of the language, is not at all mended by the mo

*See what Milton fays upon this fubject, pag. 104of this volume.