The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1803-07-04 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Eit °tiro tritium cognoiteri.

Ho x.

G LC:4,4AM GENERALE LT RAISONIS DE TORT
ROYAL. PAR ARNAULD ET LANCELOT'; TRECE-•
DEE D'UM EWA! SUR COWGIRL U LIES TROGRES
DE LA LANOUE TRANCAISE; PAR M. PETITO/, LT
SUITE DU COMMENTAIRE DL K. DUCLOS, ETC.
!Allis, 1803.
The name of Port Royal is classical in the history
of modern Literature, and the Universal Grammar
published under the name of that illustrious Society
was allowed to be the first methodical and success-
ful attempt to investigate the philosophical theory
of language. The subsequent Commentaries of M.
nuclos, secretary of the French Academy, fell little
short of it in celebrity. We have only therefore to
offer some remarks on the parts peculiar to the pre-
sent edition, viz, the Introduelion by Mr. Petitot,
and the notes subjoined, we presume by the same
editor, to Duclos's Commentaries.
The introduflory essays, according to Mr. Peti-
tot's declaration, is written en the following posi-
tion, that the improvement and decay of a language
are inseparable from the improvement and decay of
taste.

" Thr.syntax," adds he, " may b^ the crime, although the
anlitap,e is elienged....and its Under this point of view that
It A v e considered the French languar;e."
The author has not strialy adhered to this posi-
tion, and besides, he abounds in useless digressions
and desultory enquiries. We do not see any con-
seaion between the plan he lays down, and his re-
searches on the origin of language, which 611 nine-
teen pages of his essay ; and notwithstanding he has
chosen to thrusthimsell into this unnecessary field of
discussion, we do not see that he has immediately
confuted, as he th:nks, the respeaive systems of
Rousseau, Condorcet, and Condillac, on the sub.
jea. It is iiwortlly of a philosopher to conclude,
as he does, that " it is sufficient to deny their sup-
positions, naturally destitute of proofs, to destroy
any consequence to w hich they give rise ;" as in
any philosophical enquiries concerning the primitive
nature of man, and the earliest exertions of his
mind, we have no other principles than some ra-
tional suppositions, grounded on j.he ritual know-
ledge of his powers and affations. To cut short
all questions of this kind, as Mr. Petitot does, by
arming that " the gift of speech was coeval
with the creation, and the immediate work of God,
who willed that man should be thinking and soci-
able," can scarcely be tolerated in a system of divi-
nity. Though, like him, we profess the deepest
veneration for any revealed troth respeaing the na-
tural history of man, yet we do not think it impro-
per that some enquiries should he instituted on the
same subjea, as it may he understood, independently
of the doBrines of revelation. Haw unphilosophical
and absurd the fallowing conclusion is, the reader
himself may decide.
" Nobody can possibly doubt but man is endowed with the
organ of speech at his very birth. The want of this urgan w ould
lead us to believe that elan issued imperfect from the hands of
the Creator and that be became perfect by his own exertions.
This contradicts every rational opinion, and is confuted by the
example of all living beings, which we always six avail them-
selves of every organ."
After drawing this conclusion, and after a para-
. graph on the primitive sounds of the Arabic language,
which has, most evidently, no conneaion with the

subjeaa the anther fistet the following abrupt and
precipitate transition
It is incumbent on the learned to examine how modern
languages were formed, in the scathed decay of the Roman
empire, whets 'a swarm of barbarians snreassively occupied its
provinces, when southern and northern nations were strangely
intermixed, and Alien all these individuals, alien to one ano-
ther, in education, manners, and pmpensities, mingled their
uncouth idioms with the harmonious languages of Greece and
Italy."
Mr. Petitot should have left to philosophers the
task of enquiring into the origin of language, as he
has delegated to the learned that of examining the
rise and progress of modern idioms !
" These learned men," in the author's opinion,
" must, above all, enquire how, in the midst of this
disorder, a language could arise, svgliich, from/ its
perspicuity and elegance, and by its masterly pro-
duElions, was spr.-ad throughout Europe." As to
himself, he dectir.s, that his intention is, (and here
only we see the pLin of lii, essay) " to delineate the
origin and constitution rf the French language ;
than its progress from the reign of Francis the Fiat
to the days of Pasc;ial :11.1 Racine ; and lastly, its
decay in a period when every thing was in confu-
sion, when an unintelliginle neologism was adopted,
and when the same errors and sophistry were intro-
duced into literature as into politics."
From this plan, the reader may already anticipate
that the essay will exhibit little more than common
topics, atid hackneyed &alines concerning French
literature,its conneflion with the southern languages,
and the revival of science, after the dark ages. The
following historical remarks are all that we can find
worth copying on account of the information they
convey.
Aleut the middle of foe 14tb century," says Mr. Petitot,
" the French la nguaeh'e was divided into two cdaleets, one of
which w7ts spoken in the north of France, on this side of the
Loire, and the other in the south, on the opposite side of the
„m« river. The former pose seed all those barbarous termina-
ti..us which the Franks had introduced into the Latin words,
a it d was eansaqueuttv liable to uncouth anidisagrerable sounds.
Ttie latter was infinitely sweeter, especially after its mixture
wit:t the Italian, but had not, in return, that peculiar charac-
ter which is requisite for the establithmint or diffusion of a
language. To its natural licciaccv, adding all those which had
been adopted from Tuscany, it was not able to attain either the
grandeur suitable to serious performances, or that elegance anal
correctness which is respectively necessary to entertaining and
didactic works. The northern idiom, owing to different causes,
soon acquired its proper shape, and then became competent to
expreu any sentiment or idea, todelincate any picture, and to
assume any t0ne."...." These observations," concludes he,
" ma; be stiffitient to confute the opinion of those who regret,
it seems, that the Languedocian did not get the better ot the
Picard."
We have transcribed this paragraph merely as
tieing an historical remark not universair known ;
for as to the justness of it we have scale very great
exceptions, and we regret that the limits ot this
article will not allow us to cater into detail respeEt•
ing them.