whofe language one would trace, what tongue they spoke, and whence they

came.

All hiftory agrees that the Britons were the first inhabitants of this ifle. These were a brave people defcended from the Gauls, part of that vaft nation called Celtes, who, after establishing themselves in Gaul, now France, planted colonies here.

If we compare the modern Welsh with the ancient Gaulic tongue, the learned will freely acknowledge their identity, and that neither one nor the other differ from the old Celtic. So that I may venture' to pronounce fafely that the first tongue fpoken in this island was the British, a daughter of the old Celtic.

Now it remains to difcover by what metamorphofis the bold British speech has been transformed into the most melodious and nervous modern English.

When Britain, by little and little, was reduced to the form of a Roman province, the Latin was taken up. First about the time of Domitian, according to that notable place of Tacitus, where he reporteth that Julius Agricola, governor here for the Romans, preferred the Britons as able to do more by wit than the Gauls by ftudy. Ut qui fays he modo linguam Romanum abnuebant, eloquentiam concupifcerent: Inde etiam habitus noftri honor & frequens toga. Afterwards, when Roman Colonies were planted in Britain, and the people ruled by Roman laws, written in the latin tongue; but efpecially after that all born in the Roman colonies were enfranchifed citizens of Rome by Adrian the Emperor, according to St. Chryfoftom, or rather by Marcus Antoninus, as Aurelius Victor reporteth.

Nevertheless the British tongue overgrew the Latin in this ifle, and continues ftill in Wales, being very fignificative, copious, and pleafantly running upon agnominations, though harsh inafpirations,

Hence I may very juftly infer that the firft metamorphofis of the British tongue happened, when Britain became a Roman province. At which time the fruitful feeds of the Latin were planted here, and have fince been extremely pregnant; for by means of the letter e we can, and have incorporated the moft fignificant words of that learned and mafculine language to enrich our own, and have fo far transformed them into good English, that aliens cannot lay claim to them as theirs. For example, thefe Latin words candela, vinea, linea, brutum, centrum, and infinite others are made good Englifh by the help of e, in this manner, a candle, a vine, a line, a brute, a cen

tre.

The alteration and admiration of the old English, has been brought in by foreigners, as Danes, Normans and others, who have fwarmed hither on occount of traffick; for new words, as well as new wares and fashions, have always been introduced by the tyrant time, that altereth all things under the coeleftial roof by cuftom, which fways moft men, and has an abfolute dominion over words, and by pregnant wits, in which England abounds. was not till the reign of Henry the VIII. that the old English began to be beautified and inriched out of other tongues, partly by infranchising and indenizing foreign words, and partly by refining and mollifying old ones, partly by implanting new ones by artificial compofition, but fuch as never exceeded the limits prefcribed by Ho

race.

But it

"Whatever words we adopt always carry an English face."

Our tougne is as copious, pithy and fignificative as any other in Europe. I will not fay as facred as the Hebrew, nor as learned as the Greek; but as fluent and nervous as the Latin, as pɔlite as the French, and as amorous as the Italian, which many of their inamoratos, who, to court our English ladies, took the pains to learn it, have freely acknowledged.

But

But nothing has detracted more from the dignity of our tongue than our own affecting of foreign ones, by admiring, praifing and ftudying them beyond measure: whereas the wife Romans thought no fmall part of their honour to confift in their language, efteeming it dishonourable to answer a foreigner in his own tongue..

This noble example was formerly imitated by fome of our predeceffors, who juftly prefering their native language to all others, would neither write, nor fpeak in any other but their Own. For instance the English placed in the borough towns of Ireland and Wales, for a long time, would neither admit the Irish nor Welsh tongues among them. And for the honour of our native speech, Henry Fitz-Allan, Earl of Arundel, in his travels to Italy, and the lord William Howard of Effingham, in his government of Calais, (though neither of them was ignorant of foreign tongues) would answer no foreigner in word or writing, but in English.

What emolument would it be to Britain, if the great men in power, in this age, would pay the fame veneration to their native language, or at least would please to promote a learned English education, by encouraging perfons properly qualified to carry on fuch an excellent defign, inftead of being enthufiaftically in love with other tongues, efpecially the French, as if to make Britons learned, to learn Greek, Latin, or French was the conditio fine qua non. The Greeks and Romans wrote all their learned books in their mother tongue, and always had their grammar in their own language, and this it was and only this, that rendered their application to learning fo eafy and fuccefsful, that it was as rare to find any of their youth of either fex, who were put to fchool, fail of being learned, as it is for the youth of the prefent European nations to attain to fome little fmattering of it, after feveral years drudgery at fchool.

It is not any language as fuch, that, makes a perfon learned, but the wifdom and knowledge written in that language, which, without a gramatical education in the mother tongue, can never be well understood. The common people of Athens and Rome, though they could fpeak Greek and Latin from their infancy, were not one jot more learned than the vulgar in England and France.

If then learning does not confift in founds, but in fenfe, why may not an Englishman be as learned without Greek, Latin or French, as the Greeks and Latins were, without English? a common feaman or foldier may, if his memory be good, acquire the feveral languages of thofe countries where he tra vels, and fuppofe among them Hebrew, Greek and Latin, yet without a gram, matical education in his mother-tongue he is as illiterate as before.

What can we imagine to be the reafon that fo few among us, who are not bred fcholars, can neither speak nor write well, nor with any competent measure of understanding make ufe of our own English books? certainly it is not for want of Greek, Latin or French, more than of Welsh, Irish or Dutch; for words are but the conduitpipes to convey fenfe and learning, being in themselves neither learned nor unlearned. If you afk, how it comes then to pass that fcholars can speak and write with more fenfe and underftanding than others? the answer is very obvious. It is is not for having Greek, Latin, French, or any other language whatever, but because they have learned the art of grammar with thofe languages, which nevertheless they might have done far better, and with much lefs expence of money, time, and pains in their mother tongue, as the Greeks and Romans did.

Though the chief end of grammar be not to acquire a foreign tongue, any more than the mathematics or any other art, yet it is of excellent ufe to attain to all tongues, and all liberal arts

and

and sciences, for he that is a good Grammarian in his mother tongue, may without a miracle, if his memory be ftrong enough, attain to as many languages as Mithridates King of Pontus, with little or no pains in foreign grammar.

any

Can any thing be imagined more abfurd and ridiculous than to learn Latin, French, or any other language and the art of grammar at once? to learn an unknown tongue by an unknown art must needs be a barbarous and Gothic custom: certainly it is neither Greek nor Roman. Tully himself would have thought it fuch mortification in the height of his ftrength and wit, that it was more than probable the world would have never been bleffed with his excellent and learned works, had he been obliged to learn Latin in the fame manner that our poor children are forced to do, before they are ten years old.

Experience will plainly fhew, that a youth, who is made a good Grammarian in his mother tongue, may afterwards, under good conduct, read and understand all the Roman Authors extant, either in prose or verse, in as little, or less time than another of equal age and capacity can be mafter of Lilly's Grammar alone.

to the brave. The former battles which we have waged with the Ro; mans with different turns of fortune, left us ftill by leaving us the objects of hope and refource, the nobleft of British race: and therefore refiding in • the inmost recesses of the realm, we viewed not the coafts of flavery, and our eyes remained unviolated with the fcenes of defpotifm: dwelling where one common boundary is fet to our island and our liberties, the remotenefs, and obfcurity of our fituation has to this day been our defence. • But the extremities of Britain are now no longer concealed; and the conqueft of new regions is ever the object of ambition. Beyond us is no nation to afford us aid: to the ocean or the rocks we can alone retreat: in the heart of our country are the Romans, whofe tyranny you would in vain endeavour to escape by your refignation and difcretion.- Robbers of the whole globe! when no other country remained to feel the univerfal devaftation, the fea becomes the fubject of their ferutiny: the wealth of the rich among their enemies fti⚫mulates their avarice: the blood of the poor gratifies their ambition: un• fatisfied with all between the rising and the fetting fun, with them alone of all nations, opulence and poverty alike inflame their paffions for dominion. To rob, to plunder, and to murder, they falfely derrominate Empire; to make a nation one favage defert, is in their language, to efta• blifh peace.

< are worn out amidft contumely and the lash, in hewing of woods, and in draining of fens. They who are born to flavery are fold but once, and re⚫ceive from their purchasers their future fupport; but Britain buys daily her own fervitude by every daily tribute, and daily maintains it by every daily fupply: and, as in the private family, every new domeftic must feel the impofition and contempt of the older fervants, fo in this ancient family of the univerfe, we, the latest to receive their yoke, and held the left in their eftimation, are fought out for extirpation alone. And indeed there are no arable lands, no mines, " no harbours for which our labours might be referved: fortitude and intrepid refolution in vaffals are qualities the most disgustful to their lords: and remotenefs and fecrecy, though • means of fecurity, are caufes of fufpi', cion.-Deprived therefore of every hope of lenity, at length let us af fume the refolution of men, to whom their falvation and their renown are alike most truly dear. The brigantines, under the conduct of a woman' could lay wafte their colony by fire, and take their camps by ftorm; and had not their fuccefs degenerated into a carelefs fecurity, they might have fhaken off their yoke. And fhall not we hitherto entire and unconquered, and not now first to taste the bleffing ' of liberty, fhall we not fhew them in the first attack, what Heroes Caledonia has referved for her defence?

6

6

*

would prostitute their blood in the fupport of tyranny and ufurpation; that they would adhere to the Romans longer by fidelity and affection than by reftraint; and that the monients which put an end to their fervitude, would not terminate, on their part, every hoftile act.- -No, they are influenced by apprehenfion and terror alone; thofe weakest of all ties, where affection is concerned; remove but them; in fuch a cafe, to ceafe to fear, is to begin to hate.— Every incitement to victory is on our fide: the Romans have no wives to animate their valour; no parents to upbraid their flight: no country have many of them to fight for; to many their country is far remote: few in number, timid through perplexity, and viewing with distraction our ftrange fkies, feas, and forefts, the gods have delivered them, as it were environed and bound into our hands. Let not their empty fhew, or the luftre of their filver and their golden accoutrements affect you with terror; that fhew and that luftre can neither ward the blow, nor inflict the wound. In the very midst of their hoft we fhall not be deftitute of friends: the Britons will own their proper caufe; the Gauls will be mindful of their 'former liberty; and, as the Ufipian cohort did of late, the other Germans will defert their banners: and befides what I have enumerated there is not an object for our fear, their forts evacuated, their colonies are filled only with decrepit veterans, and tyranny and fedition difunite and diftract their towns. Before is their general and their army, the tri'bute, the mine, and all the penalties of bondage; thefe muft the immediate fate of this day either rivet eternally upon us, or for ever revenge: with these omens, then, advancing to the battle, remember the honour, the example of your ancestors: tranfmit your own together with your liberties to your pofterity.

6

* Boadicea.

you

CHINESE