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Page 5
Their great Condescension to Dr. _Hickes_ in allowing him to have been
a very curious Inquirer into those _obsolete Tongues, now out of use,
and containing nothing valuable in them_, is a Compliment for which I
believe you, Sir, will give me leave to assure them, that he is not at
all obliged; since if it signifies any thing, it imports, no less than
that he has employ'd a great deal of Time, and a great deal of Pains,
to little purpose. But we must at least borrow so much Assurance from
them, as to tell them, that your Friends, who consist of the most
learned sort of your own Countrey-men, and of Foreigners, do not think
those Tongues so obsolete and out of use, whose Significancy is so
apparent in Etymology; nor do they think those Men competent Judges to
declare, whether there be any thing contained in them valuable or not,
who have made it clear, that they know not what is _contain'd_ in
them. They would rather assure them, that our greatest Divines[A],
and Lawyers[B], and Historians[C] are of another Opinion, they wou'd
advise them to consult our Libraries, those of the two Universities,
the _Cottonian_, and my Lord Treasurers; to study your whole
_Thesaurus_, particularly your _Dissertatio Epistolaris_, to look into
Mr. _Wanleys_ large and accurate Catalogue of _Saxon_ Manuscripts,
and so with Modesty gain a Title to the Applause of having confest
their former Ignorance, and reforming their Judgment. I believe I
may farther take leave to assure them, that the Doctor is as little
concerned for their _Inference_, which they think _so plain from
what has been said, that they are not obliged to derive the Sense,
Construction, or Nature of our present Language from his Discoveries_.
He desires them not to _derive_ the _Sense_ and _Construction_ of
which they speak, in any other manner, than that in which the Nature
of the things themselves makes them appear; and so far as they are his
_Discoveries_ only, intrudes them on no Man. He is very willing they
should be let alone by those, who have not Skill to use them to their
own Advantage, and with Gratitude.
[Footnote A: Archbishops _Parker_, _Laud_, _Usher_, Bishop
_Stillingfleet_, the present Bishops _of Worcester_, _Bath_
and _Wells_, _Carlisle_, St. _Asaph_, St. _Davids_, _Lincoln_,
_Rochester_, with many other Divines of the first Rank.]
[Footnote B: The Lord Chief Justice _Cook_, Mr. _Lombard_,
_Selden_, _Whitlock_, Lord Chief Justice _Hales_, and _Parker_,
Mr. _Fortescue_ of the Temple, and others.]
[Footnote C: _Leland_, who writes in a Latin Style in Prose and
Verse, as polite and accurate as can be boasted of by any of
our modern Wits. _Jocelin_, _Spelman_, both Father and Son,
_Cambden_, _Whelock_, _Gibson_, and many more of all Ranks and
Qualities, whose Names deserve well to be mention'd with Respect,
were there room for it in this place.]
But to leave these Pedagogues to huff and swagger in the heighth of
all their Arrogance. I cannot but think it great Pity, that in our
Considerations, for Refinement of the _English_ Tongue, so little
Regard is had to Antiquity, and the Original of our present Language,
which is the _Saxon_. This indeed is allow'd by an ingenious Person,
who hath lately made some Proposals for the Refinement of the
_English_ Tongue, _That the old _Saxon_, except in some few Variations
in the Orthography, is the same in most original Words with our
present _English_, as well as with the _German_ and other _Northern_
Dialects; _which makes it a little surprizing to me, to find the same
Gentleman not long after to say, _The other Languages of _Europe_
I know nothing of, neither is there any occasion to consider them:
_because, as I have before observ'd, it must be very difficult to
imagin, how a Man can judge of a thing he knoweth nothing of, whether
there can be occasion or no to consider it. I must confess I hope
when ever such a Project shall be taken in hand, for _correcting_,
_enlarging_, and _ascertaining_ our Language, a competent Number
of such Persons will be advised with, as are knowing, not only in
_Saxon_, but in the other Languages of _Europe_, and so be capable of
judging how far those Languages may be useful in such a Project. The
want of understanding this aright, wou'd very much injure the Success
of such an Undertaking, and the bringing of it to Perfection; in
denying that Assistance toward adjusting the Propriety of Words, which
can only be had from the Knowledge of the Original, and likewise in
depriving us of the Benefit of many useful and significant Words,
which might be revived and recalled, to the Increase and Ornament of
our Language, which wou'd be the more beautiful, as being more genuine
and natural, by confessing a _Saxon_ Original for their native Stock,
or an Affinity with those Branches of the other _Northern Tongues_,
which own the same Original.
The want of knowing the _Northern Languages_, has occasion'd an unkind
Prejudice towards them: which some have introduced out of Rashness,
others have taken upon Tradition. As if those Languages were made up
of nothing else but Monosyllables, and harsh sounding Consonants; than
which nothing can be a greater Mistake. I can speak for the _Saxon_,
_Gothick_, and _Francick_, or old _Teutonick_: which for aptness of
compounded, and well sounding Words, and variety of Numbers, are by
those learned Men that understand them, thought scarce inferior to the
_Greek_ itself. I never cou'd find my self shocked with the Harshness
of those Languages, which grates so much in the Ears of those that
never heard them. I never perceiv'd in the Consonants any Hardness,
but such as was necessary, to afford Strength, like the Bones in a
human Body, which yield it Firmness and Support. So that the worst
that can be said on this occasion of our Forefathers is, that they
spoke at they fought, like Men.
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