181 
language. 
^ted to us, none have been fo eminently diftinguilhed for 
their literary accomplilhments, as well as acquaintance 
with the polite arts, as the Greeks; nor are we as yet ac¬ 
quainted with a language poffeffed of fo many advantages, 
with fo few defefts, as that which they ufed, and which 
continues (till to be known by their name. The original 
founds of the Greek language are the moft harmonious, 
and the moft agreeable to the ear, of any that have hi¬ 
therto been invented. They are indeed agreeable to every 
perfon who hears them, even when the meaning of the 
words is not underftood; whereas almoft all other languages, 
till they are underftood, appear, to an ear which has not 
yet been accuftomed to them, jarring and difcordant. This 
is the fundamental excellence of that juffly-admired lan¬ 
guage; nor did the people fail to improve this to the ut- 
moll of their power, by many aids of their own invention. 
From the progrefs of arts and fciences ; from the gaiety 
and inventive genius of the people; from the number of 
free ftates into which Greece was divided, each of which 
invented words of its own, all of which contributed to 
the general ltock ; and from the natural communication 
which took place between thefe ftates, which excited in 
the ftrongeft degree the talents of the people; it acquired 
a copioufnei's unknown to any ancient language, and ex¬ 
celled by few of the moderns. In point of harmony of 
numbers, it is altogether unrivalled; and, on account of 
the eafe as well as dignity which from the caufes above 
mentioned it acquired, it admits of perfeftion in a greater 
number of particular kinds of compofition than any other 
language known. The irrefiftible force and overwhelm¬ 
ing impetuofity of Demofthenes feem not more natural to 
the genius of the language, than the more flowery charms 
of Plato’s calm and harmonious cadences, or the unadorned 
flmplicity of Xenophon ; nor does the majeftic pomp of 
Homer feem to be more agreeable to the genius of the 
language in which he wrote, than the more humble drains 
of Theocritus, or the laughing feftivity of Anacreon. 
Equally adapted to all purpofes, when we perufe any of 
thefe authors, we might imagine the language was moft 
happily adapted for his particular ftyle alone. The fame 
powers it likewife, in a great meafure, poffeffed for con- 
verfation ; and the dialogue feems not more natural for 
the dignity of Sophocles or Euripides, than for the more 
eafy tendernefs of Menander, or the buffoonery of Arif- 
tophanes. In fhort, the powers of the Greek are vaftly 
beyond thofe of any other tongue. Whatever the Greeks 
defcribe is always felt, and almoft feen; motion and mufic 
are in every tone, and enthuftafm and enchantment pof- 
fefs the mind. 
Of the LATIN, and its DERIVATIVES. 
The Latin language, like every other fpoken by bar¬ 
barians, was in its beginning rough and uncultivated. 
What people the Romans were, is a point in which anti¬ 
quarians are no.t yet agreed. In their own opinion they 
were fprung from the Trojans; Dion. Halicar. derives 
them from the Greeks; and Plutarch informs us that fome 
people imagined that they were fprung from the Pelafgi. 
The fact is, they were a mixture of people collected out of 
Latium and the adjacent parts, which a variety of accidents 
had drawn together, toeltablifh themfelves on that moun¬ 
tainous region, in order to fecure their own property, and 
plunder that of their neighbours. They were in all pro¬ 
bability compofed of Arcadians, Sabines, Latins, Hetruf- 
cans, Umbrians, Ofcans, Pelafgi, &c. and, if fo, their lan¬ 
guage mult have been a mixture of the different clialeSs 
peculiar to all thefe difcordant tribes. The Latin lan¬ 
guage ought then to be a mingled mafs of the Arcadian, 
that is, the ALolian Greek, the Pelafgic, Hetrufcan, and 
Celtic, dialefts. Thefe jarring elements, like the people 
to whom they belonged refpectively, gradually incorpo¬ 
rated, and produced what was afterwards called the Latin 
tongue. 
The Arcadians were a Pelafgic tribe, and confequently 
Vol, XII. No, 831. 
fpoke a dialef! of that ancient Greek produced by the co¬ 
alition of this tribe with the favage aborigines of Greece. 
This dialed! was the ground-work of the Latin. Every 
fcholar allows, that the ASolian Greek, which was ftrongly 
tinftured with the Pelafgic, was the model upon which 
the Latin language was formed. From this deduction it 
appears, that the Latin tongue is much more ancient than 
the modern Greek ; and of courfe we may add, that the 
Greek, as it ftood before it was thoroughly polifhed, bore 
a very near refemblance to that language. Hence vve think 
we may conclude, that the knowledge of the Latin lan¬ 
guage is neceffary in order to underftand the Greek. Let 
us not then expedt to find the real ingredients of the Greek 
tongue in the academic groves of Athens, or in Smyrna, 
or in Rhodope, or in Haunos ; but on the banks of the 
Tiber, and on the fields of Laurentum. 
A very confiderable part of the Latin tongue was de¬ 
rived from the Hetrufcan. That people were the matters 
of the Romans in every thing facred. From them they 
learned the ceremonies of religion, the method of arrang¬ 
ing games and public feftivals, the art of divination, the 
interpretation of omens, the method of lufirations, expia¬ 
tions, See. It would, we believe, be eafy to prove, that 
the Pelalgi and Hetrul'ci were the fame race of people; and, 
if this was the cafe, their languages rnuft have differed in 
dialed! only. 
The Hetrufci were varioufly denominated by the Greeks 
and Romans. The former called them Tvg<rvm ; which 
was their true name, for they adtually emigrated from 
Tarfliifh, or the weftern coaft of Afia Minor. The -H£o- 
lians changed a into v ; hence in that dialed! they were 
called Tvgvjuoi, from Tarfus. The Romans ftyled them 
Tufci, probably from the Greek verb Qva, to facrifice, allud¬ 
ing to the (kill which that people profeffed in the ceremo¬ 
nies of religion. They called their country Hetruria, per¬ 
haps from the Chaldaic word heretum, a magician or for- 
cerer; a name deduced from their fkill in divination. 
The Umbrian or Celtic enters deeply into the compofi¬ 
tion of the Latin tongue. Whether the old Celtic differed 
eilentially from the Pelafgic and Hetrufcan, would be a 
matter of curious inveffigation, were this a proper fubjedt 
for the prefent article. The Latin abounds with ori¬ 
ental words, efpecially Hebrew, Chaldaic, and Pcrfian. 
Thefe are certainly remains of the Pelafgic and Hetrufcan 
tongues, fpoken originally by people who emigrated from 
regions where thofe were parts of the vernacular language. 
The Greeks, in polilhing their language, gradually dif- 
torted and disfigured vaft numbers of the rough ealtern vo¬ 
cables, which made a very great part of it. The Romans, of 
lefs delicate organs, left them in their natural ftate, and their 
natural air readily betrays their original. In this language, 
too, thereare notafew Gothicterms. How thefe found their 
way into the Latin, it is not eafy to difeover, unlefs, as 
Pelloutier iuppofes, the Celtic and Gothic languages were 
originally the lame; or perhaps we may conjedlure, that 
fuch words were parts ot a primitive language, which was 
at one time univerfal. There are, betides, in the Latin a 
great number of oblolete Greek words, which were in 
procefs of time obliterated, and others fubflituted in their 
room; fo that, upon the whole, we are perfuaded, that the 
moft effectual method to diltinguilh the difference between 
the early and modern Greek, would be to compare the 
ancient Latin with the latter ; there being, we imagine, 
very little difference between the ancient Greek and Latin 
in the earlieft periods. 
However that may he, it is certain that the Roman let¬ 
ters were the fame with the ancient Greek. Forma literis 
Latinis qua veterrimis Gracorum, lays Tacitus; and Pliny 
lays the lame thing, and for the truth of his affertion he 
appeals to a monument extant in his own times. Thefe 
old Greek letters were no other than the Pelafgic, which 
we have thown from Diodorus Siculus to have been prior 
to the Cadmean. 
That the Latins borrowed the plan of their declenfions 
3 A from 
