But  the  learned  know,  that,  in  Homer's  time,  and  be-
fore him,  in  the  age  of  the  Trojan  war,  fpeaking  waa
become  an  art,  which  diflinguifhed  men  as  much  as  fight-
ing. Phoenix  tells  Achilles  that  he  received  him  from
his  father,

Nn^rtQr,  aim  li^od    if/,oi!ti  ^o^i/xoio,

but  he  taught  him
"Mv^uf  Ti^nTfi^  iyitvony  ir^mrv^fx  Ti  \^m%  lb. V. 244*

Even  at  this  day,  the  nations  of  North-America  have  an
art  of  fpeaking  ;  and  it  is  well  known  to  thofe  that  have
been  among  them,  that  their  orators  are  in  high  eftima-
tion,  and  that  they  are  as  attentive  to  preferve  the  purity
and  elegance  of  their  language  as  the  moil  civilized  nations


Book  IV. Progress  of  Language. 87

cide  among  the  Romans,  he  has  thefe
xfords  :    *  Etenim  quid  tam  eft  commune,

*  quam  fpiritus  vivis,  terra  mortuis,  mare

*  fluftuantibus,  littus   eje£tis  ?    Ita  vivunt,

*  dum  poffunt,  ut  ducere  animam  d^  coelo
^  non  queant :  Ita  moriunter,  ut  eorum  oflk

*  terra  non  tangat :  itajaCtantur  flu6libus,ut

*  nunquamabluantur:  Ita  poftremo  ejiciun-
^  tur,  ut  ncad  faxa  quidem  mortui  conquief-

*  cant/  Here  there  is  a  great  deal  too  much  of
this  artifice  of  compofition ;  and,  according-
ly, he  himielf  finds  fault  with  it,  and  pleads
for  bis  excufe,  that  this  oration  was  a  juve-
nile performance. But,  I  think,  there  is  too
much  of  it,  even  in  that  famous  oration
i/^hich  be  fpoke  for  Milo,  when  he  was  in
the  fiilnels  of  years  and  of  glory,  though,
from  what  he  fays  of  it  in  his  Orator  ad
M. Brut.c. 49. written  when  his  judgment

in  Europe. Yet  they  are  no  better  than  abfolute  barba-
rivM,  and  are  truly  what  we  call  them,  fa'uages^  com-
parod  with  the  Greeks  in  the  days  of  Homer,  or  the
Trqjan  war. For,  befides  the  many  neceflary  arts  of
life,  as  we  think  them,  which  they  want,  and  the  Greeks
then  had,  fuch  as  agriculture  and  pafluragc,  and  all  the
ieveral  arts  of  Vulcan  and  Minerva,  they  have  no  poe-
try, which  was  an  art,  as  we  fee,  perfe6lly  well  under-
flood  in  the  days  of  Homer,  and  which  contributes  fo
much  to  improve  language,  and,  by  confequence. the
cratorial  art. 