vided their meaning be explained in this cafe there is no falfehood, because there is no intention to deceive: but, even in this cafe, if the common analogies of language were violated, the author would be justly blamed for giving unneceffary trouble to his readers, and for endeavouring capricioufly to abrogate a cuftom, which univerfal ufe had rendered more refpectable, as well as more convenient, than any other that he could fubítitute in its room. A word may be a fingle fyllable; or it may confift of two, or of feveral fyllables. Hence, in refpect of length, as well as of found, words admit of great variety. Some have faid, that the words of barbarous nations are very long; and that, as most nations have at one time or other been barbarous, moft primitive tongues in their uncultivated ftate are remarkable for the extraordinary length of their words; but that, by refinement and practice in fpeaking and writing, thefe come in time to be abridged, and made more manageable. And it cannot be denied, that into common difcourfe abbreviations of words are gradually introduced, which were not at first in the language. But we find, that the radical words of antient tongues are rather fhort than long. This is true of the Hebrew, and is fail to be true of the Chinese. In the Greek and Latin, though fome inflections of compound verbs fhoot out to a great length, the primitive verbs, nouns, pronouns, and the most effential particles, are comparatively fhort. Of the English too it has been observed, that its fundamental words words of Saxon original are most of them monofyllables. And though fome words of inconvenient magnitude may be found in every tongue, as notwithstanding and nevertheless in English, verumenimvero in Latin, and conciofiacofache in Italian, (which by the by are made up of fhort words joined together) yet it does not appear, that words are always improved by being fhortened. On the contrary, our English abbreviations don't,can't, fha'n't, &c. though they have long been ufed in converfation, are to this day intolerable in folemn ftyle. Travellers, indeed, inform us of certain words of monftrous length, that are current in favage nations; that, for example, in the dialect of the Ffquimaux, wonnaweucktuckluit fignifies much; and that, on the banks of the river Orellana in South America, the number three is denoted by a word of twenty letters, poetazzarorincouroac. But is it certain, that thofe travellers did not hear a sentence, a circumlocution, or a description, when they imagined they were hearing a fingle word?-A very great quantity is a phrafe of the fame import with much; and the third part of the number nine is a periphrafis for three. Suppofe a foreigner, paffionately fond of the marvellous, and who had formed a theory concerning long words, and was determined to find them among us, as well as in South America," should, after a week's refidence in London, take it in his head that the English exprefs three by a word of twenty-feven letters, and much by another of eighteen: would not fuch a mistake be natural enough in fuch a perfon? It is, I think, very improbable, that long words fhould a bound bound among barbarians. For fhort ones are more obvious, and lefs troublesome, and are withal capable of fufficient variety. And we cannot imagine, that they, whofe garments are but a rag, and whofe lodgings a hole, fhould affect fuperfluities in their language. Long words are faid to give dignity to language, and fhort ones to be detrimental to harmony. And there is truth in the remark; but it must not be admitted without limitation. Many long ones render language heavy and unwieldy and fhort ones are not harsh, unless where, by beginning or ending with hard confonants, they refufe to coalefce with the letters that go before or follow. For, in pronunciation, the voice does not make a paufe at the end of every word; and when two or three little words run eafily into one another, the effect in point of harmony is the fame, as if one word of feveral fyllables were spoken, inftead of feveral words of one fyllable. And therefore English lines of monofyllables, though fome criticks. condemn them in poetry as diffonant, may flow as easily and fweetly as any other: as, I live in hope, that all will yet be well.- And I know not whether there be in the whole language a finoother paragraph than the following; in which, of eighty-two words fixty-nine are monofyllables. "My beloved fpake, and "faid unto me, Rife up my Love, my fair one, "and come away: For lo, the winter is past, "the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear "on the earth, the time of the finging of birds "is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard "in our land: the fig-tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good finell: Arife, my Love, my fair one, and come away." The truth is, that a mixture of fhorter with longer words may be neceffary to harmony: but, in our language, a better found is heard from many fhort words of Saxon original, if their initial and final articulations admit of an eafy coalefcence, than from a redundancy of long words derived from the Greek and Latin. For in English, though there is much Latin, and some Greek, yet the Saxon predominates; and its founds are moft acceptable to a British ear, because most familiar. And hence, with all its ease and apparent carelefness, the profe of Dryden is incomparably more melodious, than that of the learned and elaborate Sir Thomas Brown. For the former adheres, where he can, to plain words of English or Saxon growth; while the other is continually dragging in gigantick terms of Greek or Latin etymology. If a language were to be invented, and words lengthened and fhortened upon principles of philofophy, there can be no doubt, that fuch as either have little meaning of their own, as articles, conjunctions, and prepofitions, or continually recur in fpeaking and writing, as auxiliary verbs and perfonal pronouns, ought to be fhort; fhort; and that other words, of more important meaning, or lefs neceffary ufe, may admit of a more complex articulation. And in fact, though languages are formed gradually; and though their formation, depending upon causes too minute to be perceived, is faid to be accidental, or by chance; yet we find, that this principle has influence in moft nations. Perfonal pronouns, articles, and auxiliary words, are commonly fhort; and though fome conjunctions are of unwieldy magnitude, the moft neceffary ones are manageable enough. * See Campbell's Philofophy of Rhetorick. Book iii. chap. 4. CHAP. |