It is said of Moliere, that before he would suffer a new play of his to be acted, he read it to an old woman, and judged, by the effect it had upon her, what reception it would meet with on the stage. It is a pity, some modern writers do not copy the example.
[27] Dr. Blair has made a few excellent remarks on this fault, under the article Precision, Lecture 10. I do not remember to have seen any other criticisms upon this subject.
[28] Ossian.
[29] See Blair, Lecture 6, and Condillac, in his Essay on the Origin of Human Knowlege. The dancing of David, and others, mentioned in the Old Testament, was a solemn exercise, in which action was joined with words to express ideas.
It is said to have been a dispute between Cicero and Roscius, whether the former could express an idea by a greater variety of words, or the latter by a greater variety of gesture.——"Satis constat, contendere cum (Ciceronem) cum ipso histrione (Roscio) solitum, utrum ille sæpius eandem sententiam variis gestibus efficeret, an ipse per eloquentiæ copiam sermone diverso pronunciaret."——Macrob. Saturn, 2. 10.
[30] I cannot think the French devenir prefixed to a verb answers exactly to both these English forms. The deficiency of the French in this respect, may be observed in the following passage:
"S'il est vrai que vous aimiez la justice, & que vous alliez en Créte pour apprendre les loix du bon roi Minos, n'endurcissez point votre cœur contre mes soupirs & contre mes larmes."——Telemaque, Liv. 4.
If we translate the passage thus: "If it is true that you love justice and go to Crete," &c. we lose the force of the verb alliez; for the sense is evidently, are going, are now on your journey. "If it is true that you love justice and are going to Crete," &c.
In French the verbs aimiez and alliez are both in the same tense, and have the same form of construction; in English the verbs should be in the same tense, but have different forms of construction. In French the force of alliez is collected from the sense of the passage; but in English, it is expressed by a particular construction.
[31] On the first invention of printing, letters were cut in wood and fixed. They were afterwards engraved upon metal, still fixed. The third stage of improvement was the casting of moveable types. It is probable that this was a work of labor and expense; and it must have been a long time, before they cast more than one kind of character. Hence the German character was used in England.