1 7'2 Nations lately become Liteiriri/. [Ch. XXVL 



courses. Beside these, the names of Sturm, Cra- 

 mer, Sack, Less, Seller, Reinhard, Wurz, Braun, 

 and many others, are considerably distinguished 

 in the annals of sacred eloquence. 



From all these sources, the German language, 

 within the last fifty years, has drawn improve- 

 ments so rich and numerous, that it is said to be 

 one of the most copious and energetic li^ngqages 

 in Europe. It has gained astonishingly in con- 

 venient and sonorous compounds, in elegant 

 idioms, and graceful inversions j insomuch, that 

 the German writer, instead of being cramped in 

 every step of his progress by a narrow, confused, 

 and unsettled jargon, as was the case at the be- 

 ginning of the eighteenth centurjs has now a 

 language at command, rich, various, of most ac- 

 commodating pliancy, abundantly adequate to all 

 his wants, and capable of being modified to as 

 great a degree of perspicuity, suavity, and har- 

 mony, as almost any modern tongue. 



In consequence of these improvements in the 

 German language, it has been adopted, within a 

 few years past, in most of the courts of the em- 

 pire, instead of the French, which was formerly 

 the court language in almost every part of Ger- 

 many. Nor is its currency confined to the Ger- 

 man empire. It has lately become one of the 

 fashionable languages of Europe, and the acqui- 

 sition of it is now considered nearly as important 

 a part of polite education, as the acquisition of 

 the French or English. 



While the German language was undergoing 

 this rerdical and important reform, other objects 

 pf a, literary and scientific nature engaged the 



