MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS. 347 



when that language will be so mature and independant of its parentage as to 

 be prepared to set up for itself? The warmest advocate for Greek and 

 Latin will pause before answering the question negatively. We doubt 

 whether any one will so answer it. Within a century from this date, Eng- 

 land will be the native tongue of upwards of three hundred millions of the 

 human race. Must that immense population, whose number the mind is 

 unable to grasp, still depend, and, notwithstanding its sudsequent boundless 

 increase, still continue to depend, on Greece and Home for their intellectual 

 nourishment ? — for their literature and their mental discipline ? The fancy 

 is preposterous. As well may it be contended, that they will derive from 

 those spots of earth their corporeal food. No ! they will have a language of 

 their own, answering to all their wants, and competent to the manifestation 

 of all their powers. In fact, with the slight restrictions heretofore men- 

 tioned, the English and their descendants have such a language now, and the 

 time will arrive, when to oppose this opinion will be considered as much the 

 result of antiquated prejudice, as to advocate it now is considered the work 

 of a spirit of innovation. Nor do we hesitate to believe, that ages hence, 

 when the Greek and Latin languages shall have been neglected and forgotten, 

 English literature, in common with general and professional science, will be 

 in a state of much higher perfection than it has hitherto attained. Greek 

 and Latin are destined to become the Sanscrit of future times, known only 

 to the antiquarian and the virtuoso; while English, in an improved condition, 

 will be as lasting as our race — Da Caldwell's Thoughts on the Study of the 

 Greek and Latin Languages. 



The Grecian and Homan Sculptors were celebrated for their nice 

 imitation of Nature, but the heads of their gladiators and philosophers are 

 always represented differently, in strict conformity with phrenological prin- 

 ciples. They had never heard of Phrenology, yet they never once violated 

 its principles, because its principles are founded in Nature, and they took 

 Nature only for their guide. — Philosophy of Phrenology simplified, p. 26. 



Does the Hook Crow (Corvus nudirostris ) ever Imitate the Notes 

 OF the Daw Crow (C. monedula) ? — I do not think the Rook is guilty of 

 ventriloquism ; but I have often put the above query to myself when I 

 have seen a number of Rooks pass over my head, and have every now and 

 then heard the noise which I supposed to proceed from the Jackdaw, without 

 being able to observe any difference in the size of the birds overhead. — W. 

 C. He wit SON, Bristol^ October 10, 1836. 



