252 ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



ous languages, both the learned and vulgar, should treat 

 of their various properties, and show wherein each of thejn 

 excelled and fell short; for thus languages might be en 

 riched by mutual commerce, and one beautiful image of 

 speech, or one grand model of language for justly express 

 ing the sense of the mind, formed, like the Venus of 

 Apelles, from the excellences of several. And thus we 

 should, at the same time, have some considerable marks 

 of the genius and manners of people and nations from 

 their respective languages. Cicero agreeably remarks, that 

 the Greeks had no word to express the Latin ineptum; 11 

 &quot;because,&quot; says he, &quot;the fault it denotes was so familiar 

 among them, that they could not see it in themselves&quot;; a 

 censure not unbecoming the Eoman gravity. And as the 

 Greeks used so great a licentiousness in compounding 

 words, which the Romans so religiously abstained from, 

 it may hence be collected that the Greeks were better fitted 

 for arts, and the Eomans for exploits; as variety of arts 

 makes compound words in a manner necessary, while civil 

 business, and the affairs of nations, require a greater sim 

 plicity of expression. The Jews were so averse to these 

 compositions, that they would rather strain a metaphor than 

 introduce them. Nay, they used so few words and so un 

 mixed, that we may plainly perceive from their language 

 they were a Nazarite people, and separate from other na 

 tions. It is also worth observing, though it may seem a 

 little ungrateful to modern ears, that the ancient languages 

 are full of declensions, cases, conjugations, tenses, and the 

 like; but the later languages, being almost destitute of 

 them, slothfully express many things by prepositions and 

 auxiliary verbs. For from hence it may easily be conjec 

 tured, that the genius of former ages, however we may 

 flatter ourselves, was much more acute than our own. And 

 there are things enough of this kind to make a volume. It 

 seems reasonable, therefore, to distinguish a philosophical 



11 Orator, ii. 4. 



