656 DE AUGMENTIS SCIENTIARUM 



respectivae, quae scilicet diversorum populorum auribus gratae 

 aut ingratae accedunt. Graeca lingua diphthongis scatet ; Latina 

 longe parcius. Lingua Hispanica literas tenues odit, easque 

 statim vertit in medias. 1 Linguas quaB ex Gothis fluxere 

 aspiratis gaudent. 2 Multa sunt ejusmodi: verum haec ipsa 

 fortasse plus satis. 



At Mensura Verborum ingens nobis corpus artis peperit, 

 Poe'sim scilicet, non quatenus ad materiam (de qua supra) sed 

 quatenus ad stilum et figuram verborum ; versus nimirum sive 

 carmina. Circa quaB ars liabetur quasi pusilla, exempla acce- 

 dunt grandia et infinita. Neque tamen ars ilia (quam Proso- 

 diam Grammatici appellant) ad carminum genera et mensuras 

 edocendas tantum restringi debeat. Adjicienda enim sunt prae- 

 cepta, quod carminum genus cuique materia3 sive subjecto 

 optime conveniat. Antiqui hero'ica carmina historiis et en- 

 comiis applicaverunt ; elegos querimoniis ; iambos invectivis ; 

 lyricos odis et hymnis. Neque haec prudentia recentioribus 

 poe'tis in linguis propriis defuit. Illud reprehendendum, quod 

 quidam antiquitatis nimium studiosi linguas modernas ad men- 

 suras antiquas (heroicas, elegiacas, sapphicas, &c.) traducere 

 conati sunt 3 ; quas ipsarum linguarum fabrica respuit, nee 

 minus aures exhorrent In hujusmodi rebus sensus judicium 

 artis praeceptis praeponendum ; ut ait ille, 



Coenae fercula nostrae 

 Mallem convivis quam placuisse cocis. 4 



1 This is somewhat overstated. The Spanish generally retains the Latin tenuis at 

 the beginning of words and often in the middle. The tendency to the flattening 

 Bacon mentions is most marked in the case of p and 6. See Diez, Grammatik der 

 Romanischen Sprachen, i. 252., for a general table of consonantal changes in the Roman 

 tongues. A remarkable peculiarity in Spanish is the substitution of h (now dropped in 

 pronunciation) for the Latin / at the beginning of words. It is not however universal, 

 and belongs to a comparatively late period of the language, no trace of it being found, 

 according to Diez, in the poem of the Cid. 



8 Bacon no doubt refers to High and Low German. The Gothic itself commonly 

 called Moeso-Gothic, but which might perhaps be as fitly called Italian-Gothic, as the 

 existing remains of it belong probably to Italy in the time of Theodoric and his succes- 

 sors is much less charged with aspirates than the tongues which claim descent from it. 

 The last editor of Ulphilas, after pointing out the prevalence of liquids and tenues, ob- 

 serves rather fancifully : " Our ancestors were not a mountain people ; they must have 

 dwelt on plains under a moist, mild climate." The analogy of Gothic with Sanscrit is 

 very striking. Bopp remarks : " When I read the venerable Ulphilas, I feel as if I were 

 reading Sanscrit." 



8 This affectation prevailed about the same time in France and Italy, and a little 

 later in England. Jodelle was the first person, according to Pasquier, who produced a 

 French hexameter and pentameter. 



Augustus von Schlegel, in his Indische Bibliothek, has an interesting essay on this 

 subject, especially with respect to the Greek hexameter. He endeavours to determine 

 the modifications necessary in order that it may t>e really naturalised in modern 

 languages. 



4 Mart. ix. 83. 



