Page:Reflections upon ancient and modern learning (IA b3032449x).pdf/66

 Men. By this Means all manner of Tunable Numbers may be formed in it with Ease; as still appears in the remaining Dramatick and Lyrick Composures of the Greek Poets. This seems to have been at first a lucky Accident, since it is as visible in Homer, who lived before the Grammarians had determined the Analogy of that Language by Rules; which Rules were, in a very great measure, taken from his Poems, as the Standard; as in those Poets that came after him. And that this peculiar Smoothness of the Greek Language was at first Accidental, farther appears, because the Phœnician or Hebrew Tongue, from whence it was formed, as most Learned Men agree, is a rough, unpolished Tongue; abounding with short Words, and harsh Consonants: So that if one allows for some very small Agreement in the Numbers of Nouns, and Variations of Tenses in Verbs, the two Languages are wholly of a different Make. That a derived Language should be sweeter than its Mother-Tongue, will seem strange to none that compares the Modern Tuscan with the Ancient Latin; where, though their Affinity is visible at first Sight, in every Sentence, yet one sees that that derived Language actually has a Sweetness and Tunableness in its