New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1859-01-19
NIX. MARSH S LECTURES.

Nh. A5hSH - LEC SASo.
The Hor. Mr.. MAEsB resumed his eourse OF lectures
On the English Language on Nonisy, in the lec'ars-
room Of the Historical Society. His lecture was de-
voted mainly 10 the machinery OF expression intro
suoed after the invention Of let,ers-sach spaces,
points, paragraphs, sections, chapters, and the IN
fu,rce which lhsse and the exgenoes Of the printer
had hsd upon the language. He gave Is an illuars-
ton Of the way which the oldest MSS eItAIt were
writer the following sentence, which s good, excep;
tbs, the words OF the Greek aud Latin MSS are ZEN
ersrly much abbreviated:
it.lposet ktoresd yeat ospeilsb ata~eawh
use wore sandlettersarevithoatp
oiutsorstops Observation-Disclosures.
ne will pe the hest clerk % r-Ad yea u SPOIL ths sesd
.en;,uoe clauses aud letters stboo po'nis
al eou.inced tsfehsEI
Our machinery Of spaces and points wood have
made an old MS. difficult to the old Grsek or Latin;
Il would have been even more absurd and embarsss-
rs 10 him than TIE division of the Gospels isto chsp.
ten and verses done by Stephens 10 the AVIth Gen.
tu,y was 20 us now. The restoration Of the Old in
egrity of form was Amos, the only charge which We
would willingly see made in the English New resta-
ment TIE Semitic nations were leisurey rvsdsTs, and
they followed the words with the eye, generally did
so with the Ups aloud This vas probably the cAss
with the aDciepts; it was noted a. remarkable fact
that ST. Ambrose read by the eye Alone and not with
the organs of speech The ancient habit Of ogcs and
continuous thought did not need the multiplied hsps
OF easy reading which shallow thinking was cOa-
tinuslly demanding They relieved the brains At the
expense Of the eyes, but while they helped they fst-
tered. The free movement Of tbs thought Of Demos
themes or Thuoydid,s was unlike tho mstured step
Of our modern orators the fight Of eagle to the
ock.step Of the prison convict. There wa, however,
this apology for punctuation in the modern languages,
Ii at the atoms of the different portions OF the
tence were not indicated by mutations in the Az
Gent lapgusges. In English, without marks Of pune
iuation long period would be almost uuntslhgible.
Now as With Chsucer,
"A writer that ypoiut.th M,
good sentence doth ore, sriL,'
Mr. MARSH gave an amusing account Of the ipcon-
convenienoes which the mechanical eIigenses Of
printing occasion TO writer's TIE writer Who volun-
teered to Brighten the public through the press, Vas
often told that there room for only half column,
and was compelled to reduces bis article or TO see il
sppear in microscopic type. The rhymsster was often
puzzled by the inquiry which should be stricken
out that the piece might not over the page Of the
magazine. In early times, when fonts Of type were
small, book had to be printed at several offices, AID
often.mes he distribution was go badly cacuAtsd that
the last form Of aome one office would have several
blank pages. Then, when the photography Was
unsettled, the c0mpositor often peced oat short
line by adding another letter or t~o TO some Of
the words. The printers ruled Hume. In his
writings he adhered 10 the spelling iookt for looked
throughout all preterts in ed but he could not get
them printed so. An eminent French author wrote .
work in favor of spsrse punctuation, and he said that
when it appeared in print il looked a. though points
had been shaken on il from 9 pepperbox. Tnis ty.
raupy Of printers rales rendered it very doals 10
get On old book reprinted accurately, and the writer
who quoted Chsucer must expect to see the words
changed according to Webster. lie hiDself had never
been able to get grsy ghost mo types some print
er's boy was always kind enough TO correct il TO
grizzly. The dictionary maker and the printer con.
troled the language, suggested false etymciogies,
and e1erted in speech the same influence which the
modsts did in dress. The old copyists went further
and corrected what they supposed to be the OF
the author. The booksellers of Rome hsd kept slave.
copyists, and multiplied copies of work by having
one resd while the rest wrote. No reliance could b
placed on a copy unless 1t was contemporary with the
author, ard even then each copyist wrote in his
own dialect. MSS. of Dante Of diferent periods DIFF
fered as much in their photography original works
written at the periods Our classical MSS. had
been much changed in this way. And certainly the
copyst had good right to change editors had in
the Nineteenth Century. How much Of the original
text Of Shakespeare had we left
The next lecture will be given tomorrow (WedDss-
day, at p. m and will be on the Mechanical Effect
of Prir ting on the Epglish Language. .