Ay 96: | 
tongnes in the univerfe > Thy Gotho- 
~gallic jargon, embellifhed by the fki!l of 
thy grammarians ana orators, became 
the language of the world, and the ve- 
hicle of knowledge, to the ends of the 
earth. “Ah! how are the mighty 
““ fallen, and the weapons of /earuing 
 perifhed !”? Boos hice 
Reader, we mean not, by this apof- 
trophe, to debafe the French nation, nor 
to throw any flur upon their late ex- 
‘ertions to fhake off the yoke of def- 
potifm, and vindicate their juft rights ; 
we are only penetrated with/forrow and 
‘regret, that the vindication of thofe 
rights fhould be attended with confe- 
‘quences fo fatal to LEARNING, and, we 
‘fear, to liberty itfelf, at leaft for a long 
‘portion of time. But is France at pre- 
fent without learned men? are the arts 
and fciences there totally negleéted ? 
Neither the one nor the other! “But, 
alas’! the number of truly learned men 
in. France, at this moment, are like 
the cleanings of the field: old age, exile, 
or the guillotine, has fwept the great 
harveft away ! and it will be yet a long, 
long winter before fuch another , crop 
can appear. "Che arts and fciences are 
ot altogether extinét; but they fhed 
only a faint light; the rays of which 
ferve chiefly to fhow what Vandalic de- 
vaftation’ has been made among their 
beft produdtions. . Let us turn our eyes 
from fo difmal a profpeét, and cherifh a 
hope, that the genius of France may 
yet trim his withered bays, and rife.to his 
former. renown. 
GERMANY, HOLLAND, &c. 
A petulant French Jefuit’ once made 
it a queftion, Whether a German were 
capable of wit? And not lefs petulant 
was the obfervation of an. Englifhman, 
that the Dutch carried ~their genius in 
their backs. “Odious aflertions! ‘Fhe 
German-Luther had at leaft as much wit 
as Father Bohours; and the Colloquies 
of Erafmus, of Rotterdam, contain more 
Attic humour than can be colleéted from 
the whole mafs of Englith writers, from, 
Chaucer to Swift. 
That the French, a vain and jealous 
nation fhould contemn German. Jite- 
yature, is not much to be wondered. 
‘They have fometimes affected to defjife 
their mafters, the Iralians. But that we, 
a Saxon.colony, fhould join in. the af- 
front, is certainly a matter of furprife. 
The truth is, that, although the Ger- 
man be the parent of our own tongue, 
er at leaf a fifteredialect, we have not, 
Liftory of Literature. 
caule we know no works of any 
35 
a 
until very lately, paid any attention to 
German books, unlefs they were writ~ 
tenin Latin. Yet Germany has, in the 
courfe of the prefent century, produced 
as many good works, in German, as any 
country, in the world. “We know not 
even if it be faying too much, to affirm, 
that more German books are annually 
publifhed than in one half of thé world. 
befides ; they are not all excellent, to be 
fure, but moft of them are good, and 
few intollerable; and there is not a 
branch of fcience which is not highly 
cultivated, efpecially in the Proteftant 
univerfities. Formerly, the Germaiis 
wrote in various dialeéts, as numerous 
as their various provinces; and ftill 
there are fhades of differerice in the 
languages of Berlin, Leipfic, and Vienna. 
But having now an excellent Lexicon, 
and feveral good Grammars, they feem 
to aim at fome fort of uniformity, both 
in ftyle and phrafeclogy. Their poetry 
is greatly improved, and every day im- 
proving. In novel-writing, they are 
more natural thanywe. Of their oratory 
we cannot fay fo much. In mathematics, 
natural hiftory, phyfic, experimental phi- 
lofophy, they are fecond to none. In ra- 
tional theology, they have made ¢reat pro- 
grefs; and in biblical criticifm, hold the 
very firft rank, 
What we have faid of Germany is 
more or lefs applicable to Holland, Swe- 
den, Denmark, and the other ‘northeth 
regions that border on Germany, and 
fpeak Peutonic dialeéts. To them the 
German has been chiefly the’ great ve~’ 
hicle of knowledge, which they have 
generally transfufed into their own 
tongues: but, in Sweden, of lat2, many 
very learned men have arifen, who, in 
philology, ‘and every fpecies of critical 
Knowledge, are not inferior to the Gers 
mans; and they have one of the beft tranf- 
lations of the Bible that have been made_ 
into modern languages. 
The literature of Holland is, in fome 
meafure, peculiar to itfelf. Although 
their language be a German dialect, it 
has not been much written in; their 
principal works are in Latin ‘or French. 
This latter was imported by the French 
refugees, who fled from the perfecution of ~ 
Louis XIV, and, through them, foon 
became familiar to the Dutch them- 
felves: almoft as many French works 
have iffued from the prefles of Ame 
fterdam, Rotterdam, and the Hague, as 
from thofe of Paris and Lyons. We 
{peak not at all of the Netherlands, be- 
great 
Fa2 meri€ 
J 
