DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62267#0167
THROUGH ITALY.
157
Dis.
of one hundred and fifty or two hundred years,
it passed rapidly to the highest refinement; and
that in the days of Cicero and Virgil, it was
compared by the partial Romans, and not with-
out some appearance of reason, for copiousness,
grace, and majesty, to the most perfect of human
dialects, the language of Plato and of Demos-
thenes. Its decline was as rapid as its progress.
The same century may be said to have witnessed
its perfection and its decay. The causes that
produced this decay continued to operate during
ten or even twelve centuries with increasing ac-
tivity, during which Latin was first corrupted,
and then repolished and softened into modern
Italian. When this change took place, by what
causes it was effected, or, in other words, wdien
and from what the Italian language originated,
has been a matter of much curious research and
long discussion among the learned in Italy; and
where the most eminent native critics differ, it
would be presumption in a foreigner to decide.
As to the precise period when pure Latin ceased
to be spoken it would indeed be useless to in-
quire, because impossible to discover. Lan-
guages are improved and corrupted, formed and
lost almost imperceptibly : the change in them,
as in the works of nature, though daily carried
on, becomes observable only at distant periods,
while the intermediate gradations are so minute
157
Dis.
of one hundred and fifty or two hundred years,
it passed rapidly to the highest refinement; and
that in the days of Cicero and Virgil, it was
compared by the partial Romans, and not with-
out some appearance of reason, for copiousness,
grace, and majesty, to the most perfect of human
dialects, the language of Plato and of Demos-
thenes. Its decline was as rapid as its progress.
The same century may be said to have witnessed
its perfection and its decay. The causes that
produced this decay continued to operate during
ten or even twelve centuries with increasing ac-
tivity, during which Latin was first corrupted,
and then repolished and softened into modern
Italian. When this change took place, by what
causes it was effected, or, in other words, wdien
and from what the Italian language originated,
has been a matter of much curious research and
long discussion among the learned in Italy; and
where the most eminent native critics differ, it
would be presumption in a foreigner to decide.
As to the precise period when pure Latin ceased
to be spoken it would indeed be useless to in-
quire, because impossible to discover. Lan-
guages are improved and corrupted, formed and
lost almost imperceptibly : the change in them,
as in the works of nature, though daily carried
on, becomes observable only at distant periods,
while the intermediate gradations are so minute