Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

Ф

too great a regard to cuftom. This mode of education might be neceffary in thofe times, when the Language of our country was little cultivated or ufed, and when the works of the learned among us were written in Latin; but now that the English Tongue is not only become the vehicle of science, but is alfo the Language of the Orator, it is certainly ab→ furd that our youth fhould wafte that time in learning to write or fpeak a dead Language, which they might more. ufefully employ in ftudying their own. They fhould be able to read and understand the Claffics, but their compofitions fhould be English.

The Rudiments of English Grammar are exhibited with great accuracy and clearness in this little treatife, by Mr. Priestley. Upon the whole, we commend his brief manner of explaining and laying down his Precepts; but we could with that he had been a little more diffufe in the Syntactical part.

His Obfervations on Style, annexed to his Grammar, are, in general, judicious and ingenious; but he is certainly in the wrong to make it a doubt whether the antient Poets inrended the Srtucture or the Sound of their Verfes at any time to be expreffive of the Senfe. It is impoffible to read Vida's Art of Poetry, and at the fame time to entertain the leaft Houbt on that head.

For a fpecimen of our Author's abilities, as a Philologist, we fhall quote the following paffages from his Obfervations on Style.

1

From the correfpondence between mens thoughts and language, explained in the former part of thefe obfervations, we may infer, that in Style, as in every other production, there is room for an infinite diverfity, where the degrees of excellence may be the fame. For as every man hath some peculiarity in his manner, whether of speaking, or behaviour, which, as much as the peculiar form of his features, or fize of his limbs, diftinguishes him from other men; and which, if he have no affectation, is more becoming him, and better fuits his whole character, than any other manner whatever : fo likewife hath every man a peculiar manner of conceiving things, and expreffing his thoughts, which, were he fo fortunate as to hit upon fubjects adapted to his genius, would not want propriety or beauty.

"It is not nature that requires a perfect fimilarity of Style in all that write upon the same subject. The dresses of many

perfons,

3

[ocr errors][merged small]

perfons, of the fame age, the fame nation, the fame climate,
and even upon the fame occafion, may have equal propriety,
yet be confiderably different. In fome things a perfon
may innocently confult his own perfon and taste.

"This natural foundation for diverfity of Style, critics
feem not sufficiently to have attended to, and have, hence,
been too hafty in establishing general laws of writing from
particular inftances of fuccefsful compofition; and have de-
fined and circumfcribed the paths to literary excellencé, in
fuch a manner, that no writer, who pays a fcrupulous regard
to their rules, can ever arrive at it.

"It ought to have been confidered, that the infinite diverfity of the fubjects of human enquiry and fpeculation, might fuggeft an infinite diverfity in the very kinds of compofition, and that the diverfity of lights in which the fame fubject may be viewed by different human intelle&s, might occafion as great differences in the manner of treating them.

"Hence hath arifen the modern method of evading the force of established criticifm, upon compofitions of very common denominations, by inventing new titles to works. Thus the writer of Memoirs or Travels, is not confined by the strict laws of Hiftory; at the fame time that he gives us all the inftruction, and perhaps (if only from the variety of his method) more entertainment, than we could receive from the moft regular hiftorical performance. And all the rules of Epic writing are difpenfed with, and all the ufes of fuch works preferved, in the loofer drefs of a Novel or Romance; from each of which, being executed with all imaginable diversity of manner, (owing to the human genius being left to its native freedom, in a province as yet uninvaded, at least unoccupied, by the critics) the spirit of antient commentators, might have established quite different fets of rules for this fpecies of composition.

"Language partakes much of the nature of art, and but little of the nature of fcience; both because improvements in language have their ne plus ultra, and because it is a thing not exempt from the influence of fafhion and caprice; whereas true fcience is the fame in all places, and in all times, and admits of unbounded improvements.

"Both languages and arts, in their infancy, are compofed of rough unpolished materials, that barely answer the purposes for which they were intended; in procefs of time, and in consequence of more perfons being employed in improving

and

and using them, they acquire an elegance of construction, and beauty of finishing, while they ftill retain their ftrength and capacity for fervice: but, at laft, ftrength and fervice are facrificed to useless and fuperfluous ornaments, following the univerfal changes of tafte, which are, from the rough and unpolifhed, to the cultivated and manly; and from the cultivated and manly, to the effeminate and vitiated.

"The time when a language comes to its perfection may be nearly ascertained, from confidering the caufes that contribute to it. To refume our former comparifon; any art may be judged to be arrived at its perfection, when it hath been a confiderable time practised, and in reputation; for, in those circumftances, there could have been no want of motives, either from intereft or honour, to excite the ingenious to try every expedient for its improvement.

ແ Languages have hardly ever received any real improvement, after an entire century favourable to the polite arts; and, from caufes that have generally coincided, the period of literary renown in any nation, hath feldom been long after the time in which it made the greateft figure in arms and politics. Also the language of thofe times which produced the most and the beft writers, hath always been deemed claffical, and the standard of Style to thofe that have fucceeded them.

"We need make no doubt, therefore, but that the conjectures and apprehenfions we find in the writings of Addison, Pope, Swift, and others, their cotemporaries, that the language of their time would, at length, become obfolete in this nation, are abfolutely groundlefs. And it may be taken for granted, that the schemes of fome ftill more modern writers, to add fomething confiderable to the perfection of the English language, in order to contribute to the permanency of it, cannot, according to the courfe of nature, produce any effect. If the English language hath not already attained to its maturity, we may fafely pronounce that it never will; and if it be not now in a condition to perpetuate itself, and ftand the attacks of time, no method that we can at this day take, will refcue it from oblivion.

"More than a century is already elapfed fince Dryden began to be admired as a writer, and where is the probability of the prophecy of Mr. Pope ever coming to pass?

And fuch as Chaucer is, shall Dryden be.

[ocr errors]

"It is writing that fixes and gives ftability to a language; for hardly any of the causes that contribute to the revolutions of vocal language do at all affect that which is written. And when a language is fo much read, written, and diffufed in books through the bulk of the nation that speaks it as the English, in its prefent ftate, it would be abfolutely miraculous were it to receive any confiderable alteration."

The Life and Opinions of Triftram Shandy, Gentleman. Vsls. V. VI. 12mo. 5s. Becket and De Hondt.

THE

HE Authors of the Monthly Review being determined never to lofe fight of truth and candour, are neither to be mifled by favour, nor irritated by reproach; neither perverted by prejudice, nor borne down with the current of popular opinion. The books that come under their cognizance will be confidered with the fame impartiality, whether the Authors be their friends or fpes, in plain cloaths or prunella, in power or in prifon. They would willingly, indeed, have their cenfure fall upon books only, without any regard to their Authors; but it is certain that a man may be immoral in his Writings as well as in his Actions, and in that respect he will always be liable to the cenfure of those, who confider themfelves not only as judges in the Republic of Letters, but as members of fociety, and the fervants of their country.

Upon thefe confiderations, in reviewing the works of the learned, we are not only to obferve their literary excellencies or defects, not merely to point out their faults or beauties, but to confider their moral tendency; and this more particularly, as it is of greater confequence to fociety that the heart be mended, than that the mind be entertained.

Decency is the hand-maid of Virtue, and the votaries of the mistress never infult the fervant. Purity of heart always produces purity of manners; and not only the Chriftian fyftem has enjoined the latter, as being the vifible effect of the former, but it has been pleaded for by the wife of every age, and of every fect.

Had we not then a right to complain, if a perfon, by profeffion obliged to difcountenance indecency, and exprefly commanded by thofe pure and divine doctrines he teaches, to avoid it; ought we not to have cenfured such a one, if he

1

2

introduced obscenity as wit, and encouraged the depravity of young and unfledged vice, by libidinous ideas and indecent allufions?

In reviewing the Life and Opinions of Triftram Shandy, we have hitherto had occafion to lament, that, while the Author was exerting his talents to maintain the humour and confiftency of his characters, he himself was so much out of character; and we could with fincerely that we had now no farther reafon for complaints of that kind.

The fifth and fixth volumes of this work, indeed, are not fo much interlarded with obfcenity as the former; yet they are not without their stars and dashes, their hints and whiskers: but, in point of true humour, they are much fuperior to the third and fourth, if not to the first and fecond. Some of the characters too are placed in a new light, and the rest are humorously fupported. Uncle Toby is a confiderable gainer by this continuation of his Nephew's Life and Opinions. In the ftory of Le Fever the old Captain appears in a most amiable light; and as this little epifode does greater honour to the abilities and difpofition of the Author, than any other part of his work, we hall quote it at large, as well for his fake, as for the entertainment of such of our Readers as may not have seen the original.

"It was fome time in the fummer of that year in which Dendermond was taken by the allies,-which was about seven years before my father came into the country, and about as many, after the time, that my uncle Toby and Trim had privately decamped from my father's house in town, in order to lay fome of the finest fieges to fome of the finest fortified cities in Europe-when my uncle Toby was one evening getting his fupper, with Trim fitting behind him at a small fideboard,—I fay, fitting-for in confideration of the corporal's lame knee (which fometimes gave him exquifite pain)-when my uncle Toby dined or fupped alone, he would never fuffer the corporal to ftand; and the poor fellow's veneration for his master was fuch, that, with a proper artillery, my uncle Toby could have taken Dendermond itself, with lefs trouble than he was able to gain this point over him; for many a time when my uncle Toby fuppofed the corporal's leg was at reft, he would look back, and detect him standing behind him with the moft dutiful refpect. This bred more little fquabbles betwixt them, than all other caufes for five and twenty years together-But this is neither here nor there why do I

⚫ mention

« ПредишнаНапред »