78 STUDtES OF NATURE. 



(ions of phrafeology, of thofe decompofitiohs of 

 words, and of thofe embarraffed fyntaxes, which 

 render the metaphyfical ftudy of all Grammar tire- 

 fome and barbarous ; but it is becaufe the Writ- 

 ings of thofe great men fparkle with maxims of 

 virtue, and prefent us with a thoufand perfpedives 

 of the Deity. I have no doubt that the fublime 

 fentiments which infpire them, illuminate them ftill 

 in the order and difpofition of their Works, feeing 

 they are the fources of all harmony. From this, 

 if I am not miftaken, tefults the unalterable charm 

 which renders the perufal of them fo delicious, at 

 all times, and to the men of all Nations. Hence 

 it is that Plutarch has -eclipfed moft of the Writers 

 of Greece, though he was of the age neither of 

 Pericles^ nor of Alexander ; and that the tranllation 

 of his Works into old French, by the good Amyoty 

 will be more generally read by pollerity than moft 

 of the original Works produced even in the age of 

 Louis XIV. It is the moral goodnefs of a period 

 which charafterizes a language, and which tranf- 

 mits it unaltered to the generation following. This 

 is the reafon that the languages, the cuftoms, and 

 even the form of drefles arc, in Afia, tranfmitted 

 inviolably from generation to generation, becaufe 

 fathers, all over that Continent, make themfelves 

 beloved by their children. But thefe reafons do 

 not explain the div-erfity of language which fubfifts 

 between one Nation and another. It muft ever 



appear 



