Sect. II.] Germany. 169 



short, before the death of this indefatigable la- 

 bourer, which happened in 1766, he had done 

 much to discountenance the wretched models 

 which were before implicitly followed, and to 

 bring into view principles and examples more 

 worthy of imitation. 



While Gottsched was engaged in these useful 

 exertions, the great object of his pursuit was aided 

 by the WTitings of Popowitsch and Meiners, who 

 both published extensive and important works 

 on the German language, and contributed to- 

 ward its improvement in a degree much to their 

 honour. But to no individual now living is this 

 language more indebted than to the celebrated 

 J. C. Adelung, who was mentioned in a former 

 chapter. His Grammar and Dictionary of the 

 i//<;A German lan^iiaire * are famous throu2:houL 

 Europe, and have proba]:)ly done more to explore 

 the etymology, to correct the orthography, and 

 to regulate the syntax of that language, than any 

 writer who appeared before him. To the above 

 named eminent cultivators of the German lan- 

 guage we might add, Voightel, Fulda, Moritz, 

 and many more, ^vho have published works on 

 the subject of various degrees of merit, and who 

 are mentioned with honour among the useful phi- 

 lologists of that country. 



* The language snoken in the middle and southern parts of 

 Germany is called iheHigk German, of which that dialect which 

 pre\ uils in Upper Saxony, especially in Leipsic, Dresden, ^t., 

 is reckoned the most pure and elegant. In Lower Saxony and 

 Westphalia the country people speak a language called Flat 

 German, or Loxo Dutch, but still differing greatly from the Loxv 

 Dutch of the United Netherlands. 



