D a A D LANC*AES. 34$ 



X, The third age begins with the reign of 

 Tiberius. Seneca ieems to have contributed 

 pot a little to have deprived the Latin language 

 of irs energy and dignity, and to have fubftituted 

 the little tricks of llyle in its (lead, and fome- 

 times thole childifh exprefiions which the Italians 

 call concatti. Even Tacitus appears not to- have 

 ben quite free from thefe faults -, for his concife 

 and fen tent ions ftyle is not that of the golden 

 age ; nor likewife is that of the poet Lucian. 



XI. The fourth age of the Latin tongue is 

 th.it of the remainder of the middle age, and 

 the full centuries of modern times, during 

 which, this language fell by degrees into fo 

 great :hat it became nothing better 

 than a barbarous jargon. It is to the ftyle of 

 theic times that is given the name of low Latin ; 

 and, in fad:, it was fo corrupted, altered, and 

 mixed with foreign exprulions, that M. du 

 Cange has formed a voluminous gloflary, \vhi.h 



.iins thofe words and phrafcs only that are 

 ufcd in the low Latin, and which we mould not 

 be able to underftand without fuch helps. What 

 irxked could be ey t'roin this language, 



at a time when the barbarians had taken pofief- 

 fion of all Europe, but efpecially of Italy , when 

 the empire of the f . governetl by idiots; 



when there was a total corruption of morals ; 

 when the ar:s and fciences were in a manner 

 annihilated , when the priefts and monks were 

 the only men- of kttcrs, and were at the fame 



time 



