AQ2 
ther in words; for there must be a 
progress in all arts, from what is 
simplest and easiest, to what is com- 
pound and more difficult. 
“The first words, therefore, were 
as simple as possible, being only 
monosyllables: and there, I think, 
it is natural to suppose that they 
would stop a while; and by giving 
tones and rhythms to those sylla- 
bles, express their wants and desires, 
and so keep up an intercourse with 
one another. In this state, I ima- 
gine, the languageremained for some 
time, even in Egypt, where I sup- 
pose it to have been first invented : 
and while it was in that state, it 
found its way to China, with other 
Egyptian arts, and particularly hie- 
roglyphical writing, which M. De 
Guignes has shewn came from 
Egypt to China. See vol. 34th of 
the Memoirs of the French Acade- 
my. The Chinese, who, I believe, 
are, as Dr, Warburton has said, a 
dull uninventive people, have pre- 
served both the language and the 
writings of the Egyptians as they got 
them. But in Egvpt, I do not be- 
lieve that either of these arts conti- 
nued long in so infantine a state. 
That alphabetical characters were 
invented there, I think there can be 
no doubt, and also the three great 
arts of language, derivation, compo- 
sition, and flection. When they 
had got so far in the art of language, 
words of many syllables became ab- 
solutely necessary: the tones and 
rhythms of the monosyllables were 
nevertheless still preseryed ; and in 
this manner was formed such a lan- 
guage as the Shanscrit; which is 
now discovered to have been the 
ancient language of Egypt, and of 
which the Greek is a dialect. Thus 
was completed the most wonderful 
of all human arts; by which about 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1702. 
five millions of words were so con- 
nected together, as to be compre- 
hended in the memory, and readily 
used, and at the same time pro- 
nounced with a beautiful variety of 
melody and rhythm. 
“¢ But to return to the musical ac- 
cents of the Chinese language. The 
question is, whether they first learn- 
ed to articulate their monosyllables, 
and then learned these musical notes 
by which they distinguish them one 
from another? or, whether they first 
practised music, and then learned 
articulation ? And it appears to me 
very much more probable, that hav- 
ing first sung, whether by instinct, 
or having learned it from the birds ; 
and after that, having learned from 
some nation with which they had 
an intercourse, to articulate a few 
sounds, they still continued to sing, 
and, as it was very natural, joined 
their musical tones to their articu- 
late sounds, and so formed a musical 
language, and at the same time sup- 
plied the defects of their very scan- 
ty articulation.” 
The principles and rules of rhe- 
toric are well illustrated in the ex- 
amples of eloquence, which our au- 
thor brings from the Grecian and 
Roman writers, and particularly in 
an excellent critique on Demosthe- 
nes, in which the subject and the 
stile of his orations are distinctly 
considered, and fully illustrated. The 
volume concludes with an account 
of an oration pronounced at Oxford, 
by Lord Mansfield, on the subject 
of Demosthenes’s oration De Corond. 
Calvary ; or the Death of Christ. A 
Poem, in Eight Books. By Richard 
Cumberland. Ato. 1792. 
W 8 are sorry to observe an 
author whom we have Jong 
been 
