118 Modern Languages \ 



t> ~ "o ■ 



about the same time appeared the celebrated and 

 voluminous work of M. Court de Gebelin, be- 

 fore mentioned, in which, with great learning, 

 but with perhaps less judgment, he has investigated 

 the history of nations through the same medium/ 



Large and curious collections of languages re- 

 markably abounded in the eighteenth century. 

 Among these the collection of J.Lorenzo Her v as, 

 a native of Spain, but residing at Rome, deserves 

 respectful notice. This learned man, in his great 

 work, entitled Idea del U?iiverso, gave a general 

 synopsis of all known languages, their affinities, 

 differences, &c. of which the best judges have 

 spoken in terms of high praise. Of later date, the 

 Philosophical and Critical Estimate of Fourteen 

 Ancient and Modern European Languages, by D. 

 Jeniscii, of Germany, is also a valuable acquisi- 

 tion to the student of philology, 



But the most extensive collection of modern 

 languages which the last age produced, was that 

 formed, toward the close of it, by the learned aca- 

 demicians of St. Petersburgh, in Russia. The 

 Empress Catharine II. conceived the vast design 

 of compiling an i( Universal and Comparative Vo- 

 cabulary of all Languages," and ordered such a 

 work to be undertaken. Accordingly M. Pallas, 

 a distinguished member of the Imperial Academy 

 of Sciences, assisted by a number of other learned 

 men, engaged in the arduous task, and laid the 

 first part of the work before the public in 1786, 

 and another portion of it three years afterwards. 



his New System, or Analysis cf Ancient Mythology, he has displayed an ex- 

 tent, and a minuteness of information truly Avonderful , perhaps unequalled 

 by any other individual living ; and a degree of critical acumen, and philo- 

 sophic soberness of inquiry, joined with a love of truth, and especially of 

 Evangelic truth, which entitle him to the lasting gratitude both of the phi- 

 losopher and the christian. 



x Mondt Ptimitif analyse et Compart, avec It Monde Moderne. 9 tom, 

 <4to. 



