old Inhabitants of the Northern Parts of Greece. Sect. 3. The greater Part of its Acquifitions it drew from Afia, Phænicia, and Egypt, by the way of Cyprus and Crete: Thefe, with the other Inlands, poffeffed chiefly by the Carians, were first peopled and inftructed in the Arts of Life: They lie most conveniently for Merchants failing from the above-named Countries; and it was either Trading People, or Perfons under a Neceffity of travelling abroad for fome bold Actions at home P, who were the first Inftructors of the ancient Greeks 9. THESE Adventures came to a Climate which inclines not Men to Solitude, and forbids Idlenefs: The Neceffity of Labour and Contrivance; a growing Commerce, and, more than any thing besides, the Number of independent Governments, and rival Cities, foon raised a nobler Lan guage than any of the Originals. It was at first fimple, unconfined, and free, as was their Life: The Politick Stile grew with their Conftitution; and was at its height when they had most Affairs of that kind, and of the greatest confequence to manage: And when a rough warlike People had stripp'd them of their Liberty, they had recourfe • (Κρητη νήσΘ-) πάση ἐπικείται τῇ θαλάωη, χεδόν 7ΕΛΛΗΝΩΝ ἱδρυμθρων εὶν θάλασαν πάλων. Αριςοτέλ. Πολιτικ β. P Danaus, Cadmus, &c. See the Marmora Arundel. Epoch. 9. concerning the Isv/nxóvTop: and the following Note. 4 Τὸν μὲ ἐπέκεινα χρόνον, οι δυσυχένες ἐν τοῖς βαρβάροις, ἢ ἑλληνίδων πόλεων ἠξίον ἄρχειν. Καὶ Δαναός μας εξ Αιγύπτε φεύγων, "ΑργΘ κατέχε. ΚάδμΘ δὲ ὁ ΣιδώνιΘ Θηβῶν ἐβασίλευσε. Κάρες ἢ τὰς Νήσεις κατώκεν. Πελοποννήσει η συμπάσης ὁ Ταντάλι Πέλοψ ἐκράτησε Ισοκρα). Ελένης Εγκώμιον. Sect. 3. course to Philofophy and Learning. The Coun→ cils of a free State are managed by Speaking, which quickly introduces Eloquence, and the Arts of Perfuafion: When thefe turn ufelefs, or dangerous in Publick, Men betake themselves to lefs obnoxious Subjects. THESE were the Stages through which the Greek Language paffed. It went thro' them flowly, and had time to receive the Impreffion of each: It lafted long, and far out-lived the Latin, as it had begun before: The reason was, that amidst all the Broils of Greece, they had ftill Liberty and Employment enough, either in Business or Literature, to keep alive fomething of their Spirit and Language: That will always follow our Fortunes, and be fitted to our Affairs and Condition . For, in fact, what else do we talk of? For this reafon, a flourishing, happy Nation, not over-difciplined at the Beginning, that after a long Struggle, and much Trial, comes to excel in every Art of Peace and War; fuch a Nation must speak the noblest Language; which, in its turn, because of the Inftability of human Affairs, has no Security for its Duration. AFTER fuch a Deduction, your Lordship is no doubt in Expectation, what is at length to be made of it? It is this, My Lord, "That "when by the Progreffion above-mentioned, "the Greek Language was brought to exprefs "all the best and braveft of the human Feelings, • Format enim Natura prius nos intùs ad omnem "and Horat. ad Pifon, "and retained a fufficient Quantity of its Ori- Sect. 3. ginal, amazing, metaphoric Tincture; at "that Point of Time did Homer write." I KNOW nothing more proper to convince us of the Truth of this happy Circumftance, than the Confideration of the Machines which he employs: The greater Part of them are natural; and except the Egyptian and Orphic Allegories (which he usually puts in the Mouths of his Gods f) they are told in the prevailing Language of the Country. It is given as a Rule in Poetry t, "To strip the common Accidents of “Life of their plain Dress, and ascribe them "to fome fuperior Power, in order to keep up "their Dignity; as for inanimate things, we "must give them Life, cloath them with a Perfon, and proper Attributes:" But few People imagine that the ordinary Language wore this metaphorical Habit at that time. Yet it wou'd be inexcufable elfe, to put Poetical Expreffions in the Mouth of any other than the Poet himself: 'Twou'd be really falfe Writing, and is a common Fault in many excellent Performances. Homer's grand Copier, who has wrought one wonderful Poem out of the other's two, seems to a very candid Judge, to have come fhort of his Original in this particular: It is the ingenious Monf. De la Motte I speak of, who thinks Eneas by far too great a Poet; and owns, that f When the Poet mentions them in his own Perfon, he commonly introduces them with pasì, They say. t See Boileau's Art of Poetry. Sect. 3. that he could not help feeling that Impropriety thro' the whole of the second and third Books of the Eneid; where the Hero is not lefs florid and figurative in his Narration, than the Poet himself is in the reft ". VIRGIL'S writing fo long after Eneas's Expedition, and in a Language too refin'd for the Manners then in use, makes this Incongruity the more perceptible: But in the Trojan Times, their Speech, as well as their Manners retained much of the Eastern Caft; their Theology was a Fable, and their moral Inftructions an allegorical Tale. When Priam came to beg the Body of his flaughter'd Son, Achilles comforts him with a parabolical Story concerning the two Veffels, out of which Jupiter difpenfes to every Man his Proportion of Good and Evilx; and Glaucus tells Diomedes, "That like the Leaves " of the Trees, first spreading, and then decaying, fo are the Generations of mortal Men y". Difcours fur l'Ode : & Reponse a la XI Reflection de Monf. Defpreaux fur Longin. y Iliad 2. x Iliad ய. Gravelot ing SECT. IV. NEX EXT to the Originals from which a Lan-Sect.4. guage is derived, the common Manners under which it is formed, and the critical Period of its Duration, it is chiefly affected by the Religion of a Country, and the Manners of the Times. These might have been included under the Common Manners of the Nation; but their Influence is great enough, particularly upon the Turn and Genius of the Language, to deferve a separate Confideration. |