356 UNIVERSAL ERUDITION. 



from thofe parts of France where it is fpoke cor- 

 redly , for, with all its advantages, the French 

 language has this inconvenience, thafit is pro- 

 nounced fcarce any where purely but at Paris, 

 and on the banks of the Loire. The language 

 of the court, of the great world, and of men of 

 letters, is, moreover, very different from that of 

 the common people : and the French tongue, in 

 general, is fubjecl: to great alteration and no- 

 velty. What pity it is, that the ftyle of the great 

 Corneille, and that of Mo lie re, ihould already be- 

 gin to be pbfolete, and that it will be but a little 

 time before the inimitable chefs d'ceuvres of 

 thofe men of fublime genius will be no longer 

 feen on the ftage ! The mod modern flyle 

 of the French, moreover, does not feem to be the 

 beft. We are inclined to think, that too much 

 concifion, the epigrammatic point, the anti- 

 thefis, the paradox, the fententions expreflion, 

 &c. diminilh its force : and that by becoming 

 more polifhed and refined, it lofes much of its 

 ?nergy. 



VI. The German, Italian and Englifh lan- 

 guages, merit likewife a particular application, 

 They have many real and great excellencies, and 

 are not deftitute of' natural graces. Authors of 

 great ability daily labour in improving them, 

 and what langurge would not become excellent 

 were men of exalted talents to make conftant 

 uie of it in their works ? If we had in Iroquois, 

 books like thofe which we have in Italian, Englifh 



and* 



