best writings might probably be preferved with care, and grow into esteem, and the authors have a chance for immortality.

But without fuch great revolutions as these (to which we are, I think, lefs fubject than kingdoms upon the continent,) I fee no abfolute neceffity why any language fhould be perpetually changing; for we find many examples to the contrary. From Homer to Plutarch are above a thousand years; fo long at least the purity of the Greek tongue may be lowed to laft, and we know not how far before. The Grecians fpread their colonies round all the coasts of Afia Minor, even to the northern parts lying towards the Euxine, in every ifland of the Egæan fea, and feveral others in the Mediterranean; where the language was preferved entire for many ages, after they themselves became colonies to Rome, and till they were over-run by the barbarous nations upon the fall of that empire. The Chinese have books in their language above two thousand years old, neither have the frequent conquefts of the Tartars been able to alter it. The German, Spanish, and Italian, have admitted few or no changes for fome ages paft. The other languages of Europe I know nothing of; neither is there any occafion to confider them.

Having taken this compafs, I return to those confiderations upon our own language, which I would humbly offer your Lordship. The period, wherein the English tongue received moft improvement, I take to commence with the beginning of Queen Elizebeth's reign, and to conclude with the great rebellion in 42. It is true, there was a very ill tafte, both of ftyle and wit, which prevailed under King James the Firft; but that feems to have been corrected in the firft years of his fucceffor, who, among many other qualifications of an excellent prince, was a great patron of learning. From the civil war to this prefent time, I am apt to doubt

whether

whether the corruptions in our language have not at leaft equalled the refinements of it; and these corruptions very few of the best authors in our age have wholly escaped. During the ufurpation, fuch an infufion of enthufiaftic jargon prevailed in every writing, as was not shaken off in many years after. To this fucceeded that licentioufnefs which entered with the Restoration, and, from infecting our religion and morals, fell to corrupt our language; which laft was not like to be much improved by thofe, who at that time made up the court of King Charles the Second; either fuch, who had followed him in his banishment, or who had been altogether converfant in the dialect of thofe fanatic times; or young men, who had been educated in in the fame country; fo that the court, which used to be the standard of propriety and correctness of fpeech, was then, and, I think, hath ever fince continued the worst school in England for that accomplishment; and fo will remain, till better care be taken in the education of our young nobility, that they may fet out into the world with fome foundation of literature, in order to qualify them for patterns of politenefs. The confequence of this defect upon our language may appear from the plays, and other compofitions written for entertainment within fifty years paft; filled with a fucceffion of affected phrafes, and new conceited words, either borrowed from the current ftyle of the court, or from thofe, who, under the character of men of wit and pleasure, pretended to give the law. Many of these refinements have already been long antiquated, and are now hardly intelligible, which is no wonder, when they were the product only of ignorance and caprice.

I have never known this great town without one or more dunces of figure, who had credit enough to give rise to fome new word, and propagate it in most conversations, though it had neither humour,

nor

nor fignificancy. If it ftruck the present tafte, it was foon transferred into the plays and current fcribbles of the week, and became an addition to to our language; while the men of wit and learning, instead of early obviating fuch corruptions, were too often feduced to imitate and comply with them.

There is another fet of men, who have contributed very much to the spoiling of the English tongue; I mean the poets, from the time of the Reftoration. These gentlemen, although they could not be infenfible how much our language was already overstock. ed with monofyllables, yet, to fave time and pains, introduced that barbarous cuftom of abbreviating words, to fit them to the measure of their verfes; and this they have frequently done fo very injudicioufly, as to form fuch harsh unharmonious founds, that none but a northern ear could endure; they have joined the moft obdurate confo-. nants without one intervening vowel, only to fhorten a fyllable; and their tafte in time became fo depraved, that what was at firft a poetical licence not to be juftified, they made their choice, alledging, that the words pronounced at length founded faint and languid. This was a pretence to take up the fame cuftom in profe! fo that most of the books we fee now a-days, are full of those manglings and abbreviations. Inftances of this abuse are innumerable: what does your Lordship think of the words, drudg'd, difturb'd, rebuk'd, fledg'd, and a thoufand others every where to be met with in profe as well as verfe? Where, by leaving out a vowel to fave a fyllable, we form fo jarring a found, and fo difficult to utter, that I have often wondered how it could ever obtain

Another caufe, (and perhaps borrowed from the former,) which hath contributed not a little to the maiming of our language, is a foolish opinion, advanced of late years, that we ought to fpell exactly

as

:

as we speak; which, befide the obvious inconvenience of utterly deftroying our etymology, would be a thing we should never fee an end of. Not only the feveral towns and counties of England have a different way of pronouncing, but even here in London they clip their words after one manner about the court, another in the city, and a third in the fuburbs and, in a few years, it is probable, will all differ from themselves, as fancy or fashion fhall direct all which reduced to writing would entirely confound orthography. Yet many people. are fo fond of this conceit, that it is fometimes a difficult matter to read modern books and pamphlets; where the words are so curtailed, and varied from their original spelling, that whoever hath been ufed to plain English, will hardly know them by fight.

:

Several young men at the universities, terrribly poffeffed with the fear of pedantry, run into a worfe extreme, and think all politenefs to confift in reading the daily trash fent down to them from hence: this they call knowing the world, and reading men and manners. Thus furnished they come up to town, reckon all their errors for accomplishments, borrow the neweft fet of phrafes; and if they take a pen into their hands, all the odd words they have picked up in a coffeehouse, or a gaming ordinary, are produced as flowers of ftyle; and the orthography refined to the utmoft. To this we owe those monftrous productions, which under the name of trips, Spies, amusements, and other conceited appellations, have over-run us for fome years paft. To this we owe that strange race of wits, who tell us, they write to the humour of the age. And I wish I could fay, these quaint fopperies were wholly abfent from graver fubjects In short, I would undertake to fhew your Lordship feveral pieces, where the beauties of this kind are fo predominant, that,

with

with all your skill in languages, you could never bo able either to read or understand them.

But I am very much mistaken, if many of these falte refinements among us do not arife from a principle, which would quite deftroy their credit, if it were well understood and confidered. For I am afraid, my Lord, that, with all the real good qualities of our country, we are naturally not very polite. This perpetual difpofition to fhorten our words, by retrenching the vowels, is nothing else but a tendency to lapfe into the barbarity of thofe northern nations from whom we are defeended, and whofe languages labour all under the fame defect. For it is worthy our oofervation, that the Spaniards, the French, and the Italians, although derived from the fame northern ancestors with ourfelves, are with the utmoft difficulty taught to pronounce our words, which the Swedes and Danes, as well as the Germans and the Dutch, attain to with cafe, because our fyllables resemble theirs in the roughnefs and frequency of confonants. Now, as we Atruggle with an ill climate to improve the nobler kinds of fruits, are at the expence of walls to re·ceive and reverberate the faint rays of the fun, and fence againft the northern blafts, we fometimes, by the help of a good foil, equal the productions of warmer countries, who have no need to be at fo much coft and care. It is the fame thing with refpect to the politer arts among us; and the fame defect of heat, which gives a fiercenefs to our natures, may contribute to that roughness of our language, which bears fome analogy to the harsh fruit of colder countries. For I do not reckon that we want a genius more than the reft of our neighbours: but your Lordship will be of my opinion, that we ought to ftruggle with thefe natural difadvantages as much as we can, and be careful whom we employ, whenever we defign to correct them, which is a work that has hitherto been affumed by

the