Page:A Grammar of the Persian Language.djvu/10

 yet it seems to have been gradually decaying for the last century; it grows very faint in Italy; it seems wholly extinguished in France: and whatever sparks of it remain in other countries, are confined to the closets of humble and modest men, and are not general enough to have their proper influence.

The nobles of our days consider learning as a subordinate acquisition, which would not be consistent with the dignity of their fortunes and should be left to those who toil in a lower sphere of life; but they do not reflect on the many advantages which the study of polite letters would give peculiarly to persons of eminent rank and high employments: who, instead of relieving their fatigues by a series of unmanly pleasures, or useless diversions, might spend their leisure in improving their knowledge, and in conversing with the great statesmen, orators, and philosophers of antiquity.

If learning in general has met with so little encouragement, still less can be expected for that branch of it, which lies so far removed from the common path, and which the greater part of mankind have hitherto considered as incapable of yielding either entertainment or instruction: if pains and want be the lot of a scholar, the life of an Orientalist must certainly be attended with peculiar hardships. Gentius, who published a beautiful Persian work called the Bed of Roses, with an useful but inelegant translation, lived obscurely in Holland, and died in misery. Hyde, who might have contributed greatly towards the progress of Eastern learning, formed a number of expensive projects with that view, but had not the support and assistance which they deserved and required. The labours of Meninski immortalized and ruined him: his Dictionary pf the Asiatic languages is, perhaps the most laborious compilation that