"Next after the Creed are in natural Order plac'd the Ten Commandments.
Is there any thing in Demosthenes or Tully more inverted than this Passage? And yet the meanest Persons understand it, and are not at all shock'd at it; and this cannot possibly, with respect to them, proceed from any thing else, but their having been from their Childhood accustomed to this Language in the Bible, and their still continuing frequently to hear it in the publick Offices of the Church, and elsewhere: From whence I am apt to think Mr. Pope's Opinion is not to be subscrib'd to, when he says,
"And what now Chaucer is, shall Dryden be."
It did not occur to that ingenious Writer, that the State of the English Language is very different at this time from what it was in Chaucer's Days: It was then in its Infancy: And even the publick Worship of God was in a foreign Tongue, a thing as fatal to the Language of any Country, as to Religion itself. But now we have all that Service in the vernacular Tongue; and besides that, the Bible in English, which may be properly called the Standard of our Language: For this Book contains a Variety of every kind of Stile, the Poetick, the Historick, the Narrative, and all framed after the manner of the most learned Tongues. So that whilst this Book continues to be as publickly used among us as it is at present, the English Language cannot receive any great Alteration; but all sorts of learned Men may write, either in Verse or Prose, in the most learned manner in their native Tongue, and at the same time be perfectly understood by the common People. Indeed, if ever we should be so unhappy as to be depriv'd[page 83] of the publick Use of that Book, all that came with it, must go with it; and then Farewel the English Language, Farewel Milton, Farewel Learning, and Farewel all that distinguishes Man from Beasts.
Decemb. 9. 1736.
I am, Sir, &c.
FINIS.
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Transcriber's Note LETTER I.: Page 3: Superfluous opening quotes removed from "Subject-matter LETTER V.: Page 42: Section numbered "3." in original; changed to "III" for consistency. LETTER X.: Page 79: corrected typo: 'primns' changed to 'primus' |