DEAD LANGUAGE?. 347 



nation. As to what concerns the Latin, each 

 nation pronounces it after the manner of its 

 own language, and each of them imagines their 

 pronunciation to be- the beft. It may be prov- 

 ed, however, by many arguments, that no man 

 now upon earth, pronounces Latin in the fame 

 manner as did Horace and Cicero. The fecond 

 inconvenience is the deficiency of the Latin 

 language with regard to us, as it has not terms 

 whereby to exprcis thofe inventions and difcovc- 

 ries of every kind that have been made fince 

 the exigence of the Roman empire. There arc 

 no Latin words for any of the furniture that 

 furrounds us, for three fourths of the dimes that 

 come upon our tables, for the drefs we wear, 

 for our intlruments of war and navigation, for 

 civil and military employments, and, in a word, 

 fur all our daily occupations. It is droll enough 

 to hear our authors call a cannon, bombarda ; 

 a peruque, capilamentum ; and a button of our 

 cloaths, globulus, &c. Whoever fhall doubt 

 the propriety of this obfervation, need only 

 the eflays that fomc able Latinilts have 

 made in our days to write gizettea in that lan- 

 guage, and they will there fee the pains thofe 

 writers have taken, and the ill fuccefs they have 

 had. We flull fay no more of a language which 

 v fcholar learns from his infancy, which is 

 I'.urope in fchools and colleges, 

 which there arc grammars, dictionaries, 

 and otiier inilrudive books without number. 



XIV. Paleography 



