Nugae literariae: prose and verse

373쪽

noss-of stusr 8 The Saxon always possessed more Latin than that strange rendering implies. Within my oWn recollection, much of the foregoing vocabulary has sunk into disuse. I have thus endeavoured to provo that tho speech whicli thesop derides and the sciolist denotances, is a pure, genuine, SelLSUStained, and self-goVerned, language. It Was bulli up by many other dialecis. We see in it, at a very early period, a large infusion os Latin and Greek. Tho former may be explained by the empire of the Romans, and the lalter is as satisfactorilyaccounted for by the faci, that the Latin is greatly derived Domthe Greeli, and preserves a Strong analogy to the molio idiom. Wo have not tho uncorrupted original of this Gothic longue,

language in iis pristino condition. Rich diluvian deposits havo the escaping Walers test bellind. We have been proud and

the scene a tender light and a lingering glory. Is in the courseos ages, those fragments Jould bo knitted into the masonry of a classic temple,-with sculptured capital and cornice and tracery,

374쪽

Ut silvae foliis pronos mutantur in annos, Prima cadunt: ita verborum vetus interit aetas, Et juvenum ritu florent modo nata Vigentque. Debemur morti nos nOStraque. Μortalia facta peribunt: Nedum sermonum Stet honos et gratia vivaX.Μulta renascentur, quae jam cecidere; cadentque, Quae nunc Sunt in honore vocabula, si volet usus; Quem penes arbitrium est, et jus, et norma loquendi.

None can regret the accumulation and refinement of this speech.

Ιt is no idie task to enter the quar out of Whose Shapetess andunWrought marble the Palace rose that contains a wealth and declares a fovereignty whicli climes, most rude and most remote, Seek and consess. It is no mean gratification to descend into the mine Dom whose en crusted ores and uncleansed genis the

375쪽

and anointed With the spirit os religion ,-seems destinod lo claimand signatise the intellectual and morat conquest of the worid lThe language of which we have spolim, is a nobi e Store, and like the province over Whicli it spreads, is various in iis sursace of sair and aWful scenery; while, stili like it too, iis mines are deo, ricli, and inexhaustibie. The more iis tertiis are investigated, the more replete Will they be Dund. Andothor Delings How in With these researches. They Who Spohethis language in iis strength and purity, ere it WaS OVerWhelmed, strugsed sor licti, but With darkness. Their spiriis stra ined

our proper destiny, Whicli can lin us up to tho summit of that poWer Whicli even humility may covet, and the most lowly heari may share. And is that be true os nations, as Weli as Os individuals, whicli Seneca observes in ono of his Episties, με Talis

est oratio, qualis Vita,''-so let the substantial core of Our speech find iis answer in the honesty of our hearis, et the SotandS, redolent of olden times, stir us to purer deeds and Worthier enter

376쪽

Eaque verba, quae dixi, etsi Singularum rerum Sunt, non, ut videntur, eaSdem res significant, sed aliquid differunt. CICERO. usc : Quaes: lib. iii., Sec. 34. Tironibus autem nihil saepius fucum facit, quam verba specie et appellatione synonyma, quae primo Similes ac Prope gemellos Vultus Offerunt, cum tamen Origine, aut ingenio, aut utroque, simul longe disserunt. GARDIN DUMESNIL. Double, double, toti and trouble. Incantation Scene, MACBETH.

377쪽

THIs thesis raises questions of philological importance, as Wellas ussords amusement; nor is the study to be discolanten cedas ultogether impertinent to those graver and more profound

ideas. The enunciation os particular solands is common to Certain classes of animal s, but their cries are feW, circumScribed,

and inflexible. The doue murmured as sWeetly plaintive When itplucked the olive os a neW Worid as noW When that Worid is againgrown old ; nor does the lion list up iis voice more majesticallythan when the forests of Lebanon Ahook With iis roar. The chir-rup, the note, the Song of the bird, are ianvaried: the belloW, thegrowl, the moan of the quadruped, are Unchanged. We maybe suro that there is no improvement, no addition, of their sens tions and impressioris: that their vocabulary is large as their Wants. But the voice of man, While contracted in iis poWersand consilied lo the litterance os certain sounds, has in it suci, a capability of rapid change and minute articulation, that, thoughiis original poWers are sar Dom unlimited, their applications arellitie less. Our thoughis multiply With the enlargement of knowledge and the progress of Society: We haVe reached Do si tionary potnt: and our language, instead os checking us, almost uniformi y anticipales the idea, becomes elastic, so to Speah, toour intellectual groWth, and Supplies a moSt poWerfui instru

378쪽

desinite Delings, is beyond ali parallel, and ouldoes ali originality. I Write, or figure doWn, ali that is passing in my minii,

my kinsman or my friend on the other fide of the planet, Dotio Dot with me, and that vast diameter does not prevent themost perfeci eXchange and intercourse of our fouis. I could not pour my spiritAV more distinctly into his ear-my organs could not more explicitly communicato with him than do theso mute ciphers and lines; and very frequently We feel that Writtentangvage has a greater force and perspicuity than parole, and refuse froni the lip What we request Dom the pen. The Wordpen is taken Dom one that signis es a Dather, perhaps not onlybecause that is the modern utensit of Wriling, but also hecause

iheir lotters on the roli of papyrus and tablet of WaX, came attength to bo understood of their phrase, and we borrow Dom itour Word When We spesi os an autho 's style os a style elegantor incorrect. Thus the plural of the Latin term, Litera, pro-Perly means a letter missive, as is this Wore the very design anduse of the contrivance of letters. Episue bears the fame Signification, not arbitrarily, not froni analom, but froni iis Greel.

379쪽

primitive, Whicli means to carry to or Upon. CorreSponden epreserves the fame thought, reciprocat ansWers. The inventionos printing, great as it is, Was not unnatural and improbabie, after tho connection was 'est lished belween fixod sortiis and fixod ideas. I havo somelimes seli surprisod that it should not bear an earlier date. But the reason is obvious. Wheni earning Was the property of the feW, the art of transcribinghecame a polite accomplistiment, and amply served every litera piarpose. When literature Was introduced more generalty into Europe, and the school arose as the rival of the cloister, thena Polygraphic eligine Was imperiousty required to satisfy thenUmerous and increasing demands of a Worid aWakonsed toattention, and bursting into light. Had there been earlier necessity, We cannot doubi that the means os supplying it Would have been earlier toO. Μechanism is seldoin flow in iis improvements When men reatly need iis superior ratios and facilities ovor manual skill and production. Is we do not perceive the extraordinary nature of the fel-lowship betWeen mere characters and ideas, it Will probablybe found to arise froin the Want of resection. The most common things, although the most curioUS and recondite, are generalty overtooked ; but to mahe plain the present remarh, and tooxhibit the singular arcana of language, let any man write down certain letters, syllabies, and Words. For example, be it tho solioWing sentenco :- This is a coid nisht V Look at tho sirst Word. What is there in these four m ks, Which We cali letters, and to whicli me attach, by agreement, four disserent poWers of sound,-What is there in that compound of letters, or, is pronounced, in that compound of sounds, hicli contains an indicativo idea that distinguishos the present nicti Dom ali future

is V That word impressos you With the idea of being and time; that the night is real in tho sense of faci; that it has a

relation to action, Or, more strictly, to active eXiStence. Then

380쪽

sollows tho sirst letter of our alphabet, which word, you know, is itself a pulting together of the sirst two letters of the Hebre or Greek series-Aleph, Beth ; or, Alpha, Beta. The letter a, in OUr Sentence, is a Word, or part of speech. A cold night: and it implies that this is not an unprecedented nor uncommoncaso, but that this is one of many cold nighis to whicli our climate is subjeci. Why should the last Word in the sentenceimply such a density of the atmosphere that a column os mer-cury shali be depressed, and our animal fibre constringed ΘΝight has nothing of essentiat referetice to the siluation of our globe, When part of it interposes itself betWeen iis and the sun. V et here is a sentence any other, talien by hagard, Would do aswell), is written, composed of the most arbitrary shapes is

I know that this may bo considered as tending to involve in dissicut ty What is itself most simple. We do not aci very philosophicatly When We speak of wordes meaning ideas. It would bo more just to say, that they represent such ideas. Is We read orhear a soreign language, With Which We are quite Unacquainted, it is a mere jargon to iis; but, by the laW of associations, thenative only Wonders that you can read and hear, as With an intollectual blank, what is so lucid and self-apparent to him. Signa sint verba Misissilia ; verba, signa audibilia,' says Auis gustin. An illustration may bo adduced froni the ari os music. Let a person ulterly unskilled in it,-ignorant, as it is called, of

m ks having distinct capitias and terminations. He is informed that ali the airs of the piece, and ali the rules for iis perform- ance, are Written down in that strange notation. There is eachsound ; there is tho timo it is to bo prolonged; there is the