Modern Languages. 91 



in a light altogether new ; ascertained the meaning 

 of others, not discoverable by the methods com- 

 monly used by interpreters; and proposed many 

 probable conjectures highly instructive to the sa- 

 cred critic* Several other writers of considerable 

 note have also presented the public with useful ob- 

 servations on the same subject. 



CHAPTER XV. 



MODERN LANGUAGES. 



IN this chapter it will only be attempted to pre- 

 sent some brief and general remarks on the im- 

 provements which have been received during the 

 last age by the more cultivated living languages of 

 Europe. To propose a discussion of greater ex- 

 tent would be to engage in an inquiry altogether 

 incommensurate with the design and the limits 

 of the present sketch. 



There is no living language in Europe which 

 can boast of greater antiquity than five or six cen- 

 turies. Derived from various sources, and rising 

 from rude beginnings, to a regular and consistent 

 character, they have been gradually becoming 

 more rich, copious, and polished during the greater 

 part of this time. To trace the causes and the 

 means of these improvements through their inter- 

 rupted and devious course, is here neither necessary 

 nor possible. It would be a task of great migni- 

 tude and difficulty to. the most accomplished phi- 

 lologist. 



a See Observations on divers Passages of Scripture } &C. 4 vols. tfvo. 1 77^ 

 and 1787. 



