•201 
LANGUAGE. 
cation, would naturally have been employed, had he writ¬ 
ten a few years fooner, in cultivating a foreign rather than 
his native language." 
In the 1'ucceeding century, the language had made fuch 
rapid advances, that, even as early as the reign of Henry 
VI. we find it vary very little from that of the reign of 
Henry VIII. There are papers preferved by Rymer and 
others, written in the reign of Henry VI. and compofed 
with a force and precifion which may appear furprifing. 
The works of Fortefcue, in the following reign of Edward 
IV. are not only dictated by excellent fenfej but, fetting 
aftde the orthography, might even be perufed by the com¬ 
mon reader. In the reign of Elizabeth, a century after, 
the Englifn language had acquired fuch copioufnefs, dig¬ 
nity, force, and melody, as perhaps, in the eye of very 
diftant pofterity, moderns may be fuppofed never to have 
exceeded ; what is gained in elegance being generally 
loft in power. Sidney’s Defence of Poefy may be re¬ 
garded as a good fpecimen of Englilh profe; not to men¬ 
tion Hooker’s Ecclefialtical Polity, and other large works 
of that period, which continue to be read and admired. 
The common tranflation of the Bible is a noble fpecimen 
of the dignified profe of the following reign ; beyond 
which it is unneceftary to conduct this fketch, as our li¬ 
braries abound with the fucceeding publications. 
Of all the languages which have branched from the an¬ 
cient Gothic ftock, the Scotch and the Englifti have re¬ 
tained the neareft relationfhip to each other; lo near as to 
form no more than two diale&s of the fame tongue. Yet 
two remarkable differences exift; one reipefting the found 
of the vowels ; the other refpeCting the contrivances which 
have been adopted for foftening or melodizing the lan¬ 
guage. It is well known that the Englilh have fallen into 
a pronunciation of the vowels which is remarkably differ¬ 
ent from that of all the other nations who partake of the 
fame origin ; and confequently it is to be prefumed that 
the deviation from the primitive founds is on the part of 
the Englilh. It would be a curious inquiry, if any traces 
remain which might conduft us to the point, to alcertain 
at what time, or by what degrees, and by what caules, 
the peculiarities in the Englilh pronunciation were pro¬ 
duced. Whatever thofe caules might be, the Scots, it 
appears, were exempt from their influence ; and, in their 
dialeft, the founds of the vowels remained nearly the fame 
as in the languages of the other countries of Europe. Be- 
fides other differences in the pronunciation of their lan¬ 
guage, they have two founds of which the Englilh is de¬ 
prived; namely, that which we may denominate the French 
k, and the guttural or German ch. Thele are founds, the 
pronunciation of which it is found very difficult for Eng- 
lilhmen to learn; and the ufeof them renders complete in 
the Scotch dialefft the combination of all the founds which 
tire feveral languages of Europe contain : a circumitance 
which yields fome facilities to Scotchmen acquiring the 
pronunciation of foreign languages. 
Belides this difference in the founds of the vowels, the 
mode in which the Scots have falhioned the words for 
pronunciation is often peculiar; and the character of the 
changes which they have thus introduced well deferves to 
be remarked. They are altnoft all intended for thepurpofe 
of foftening the pronunciation; the Scottifh dialed!, there¬ 
fore, is conlidered as having, in point of fmoothnefs, great 
advantages over the Englilh. The Scots, by the opera¬ 
tion of fome particular caufes which it is not eafy to trace, 
anciently had a very mufical turn ; and the ear of melo¬ 
dy, being thus exercifed, naturally demanded a melodious 
utterance; conftituting one principal caufe of the fuperior 
fweetnefs which their dialed! is regarded by natives as ma- 
nifefting. This opinion, however, relpediing the harmony 
and fmoothnefs of the Scottifh dialed!, will be confldered by 
Engliftimen as Handing in need of proof. It is now' a pro¬ 
vincial dialed! ; and all provincialifm is apt to found like bar¬ 
barity. In fpeaking of the harmony of a dialed!, alfo, the 
■tcne, the mufical injUElions , with which it is fpoken, and the 
foftnels o! the dialect itfelf, though two very different 
V.ou XII, No. S22, 
things, are very liable to be confounded ; but any lan¬ 
guage may be fpoken with any tone. We may fpeak En- 
glifh with the tone of a Scotchman, or Scotch with the 
tone of an Englifhman ; while the foftnefs or harfiinefs of 
the articulation, or rather (if we might make a new word) 
the articulabiliiy of the language, remains (fill the fame. 
The foftnefs of a language depends on the difpofition of its 
vowels and confonants; and it is with refpedt to that dif¬ 
pofition alone that we are now confidering what may be 
called the northern dialed! of the Britifh language. When 
the vowels and confonants of a language are fo mixed, 
that too many vowels or too many confonants are never 
allowed to Hand together, that language is eafily pro¬ 
nounced, and is denominated harmonious. When too 
many vowels concur, the voice experiences a difficulty in 
paffing from the one to the other; and that difagreeable 
found is produced which the Latin rhetoricians called hia¬ 
tus. When too many confonants come together, it is ex¬ 
tremely difficult to make the voice give intimation of them 
all ; and the found emitted is that which we denominate 
harjh. Some of the vowels and fome of the confonants 
harmonize with one another better than others; and a 
concourfe of fome of them is lefs difagreeable than of 
others, or in fome cafes may be even harmonious; butthe 
general and grand caufe of harfhnefs of articulation is the 
running together of too many letters of the fame defcrip- 
tion. It will be found that by far the greater number of 
the differences in the words of the Scottifh language, as 
compared with the Englifti, are changes intended to pre¬ 
vent the difagreeable concourfe of vowels and confonants, 
where it has not been prevented in the Englifh ; and, as 
all the languages principally founded on the Gothic abound 
in confonants, it is to avoid the harffi concurrence of thofe 
confonants, that fuch changes have generally been intro¬ 
duced. 
Upon the whole, the Englifh tongue is perhaps poffeffed 
of a greater degree of excellence, blended with a greater 
• number of defefts, than any of the languages we have hi¬ 
therto mentioned. As the people of Great Britain are a 
bold, daring, and impetuous, race of men, fubjeft to ftrong 
paffions, and, from the abfolute freedom and independence 
which reigns amongft all ranks of people throughout this 
happy ifle, little lolicitous about controlling thele paf¬ 
fions; our language takes its Itrongeft charaCteriftical dif- 
tinCfion from the genius of the people ; and, being bold, 
daring, and abrupt, is admirably well adapted to exprefs 
thofe great emotions which fpring up in an intrepid mind 
at the profpeft of interefting events. Peculiarly happy 
too in the full and open founds of the vowels, which forms 
the characleriffic tone of the language, and in the ftrong 
ufe of the afpirate h in almoft all thofe words which are 
ufed as exclamations, or marks of ftrong emotions upon 
interefting occafions, that particular clals of words called 
interjections have, in our language, more of that fulnefs 
and unrellrained freedom of tone, in which their chief 
power confifts, and are pufhed forth from the inmoft re¬ 
cedes of the foul in a more forcible and unreftrained man¬ 
ner, than in any other language whatever. Hence it is 
more peculiarly adapted for the great and interefting feenes 
of the drama than any language that has yet appeared on 
the globe. Nor has any other nation ever arrived at that 
perfection which the Englifh may juftly claim in that re¬ 
flect ; for, however faulty our dramatic compofitions may¬ 
be in fome of the critical niceties which relate to this art, 
in nervous force of diCtion, and in the natural expreffion 
of thofe great emotions which conltitute its foul and ener¬ 
gy, we claim, without difpute, an unrivalled fuperiority. 
Our language too, from the great intercourfe that we have 
had with almoft all the nations of the globe by means of 
our extenfive commerce, and from the eminent degree of 
perfection which we have attained in all the arts and fei- 
ences, has acquired a copioufnefs beyond what any other 
modern language can lay claim to; and even the molt par¬ 
tial favourers of the Greek language are forced to acknow¬ 
ledge, that, in this refpeCt, it mu ft give place to the Eng- 
3 F lift}. 
