More pregnant still, perhaps, though at the same time less palpable, is the grammatical construction in general; which seems to shadow forth the relative proportion of passion or of principle in the framers of the language. Of this characteristic we have the opposite extremes in the Latin, which is the most inverted, and the French, which is the most direct, as already noted, of polished tongues. In the direct, or French order, the sentence commences with the agent, (nominative;) then the action, (verb;) then the manner of the action, (adverb;) after the object, (accusative;) then the quality of this object, (adjective,) &c.: whereas, in the Latin construction, all this is syntactically optional. The French generally contend that theirs is the order of logic and of nature. One of their lexicographers (whose name we forget) observes on this head, in his preface, that the Latin is the language of an impassionate people, impatient to express what they feel the most; the French the language of cool philosophers, aiming to exhibit things as they exist in reality, and in an order purely natural. That the direct arrangement is, in fact, the more logical, is attested by the pre-eminent perspicuity of the French prose, as above incidentally recognized; and that it indicates a correspondent peculiarity of intellectual conformation in that people may be illustrated when we come to note, as the proper or the principal object of philological studies, the improvement of language as a logical instrument.

The naturalness of the direct order, however, is disputed by other able critics, even of the same country; who insist that the order of Sensation, not that of Conception, is really the natural. The mere immensity of this question would preclude it here, however interesting and relevant, from further consideration.

In fine, as the disposition of words in the sentence, so the disposition of sentences in a discourse, or what is commonly called Method, may likewise seem to indicate the calibre and the culture of a nation, in quality and degree; of which we shall presently have a characteristic example, and an ample illustration.

We might in this way traverse the entire circle of the sciences,exhausted in fact implicitly by the three general divisions of metaphysical or logical, physical, and social, which have been specified,and exemplify in all, that man, "the interpreter of nature," is himself and his works to be best interpreted by language, considered simply as a series of natural phenomena, and, independently of its functional character, as the science or art of expression. But, leaving some future occasion more fully to enforce the importance of the subject in the latter aspect of development, it was deemed principally requisite, within the limits here allowable, to insist upon what have

been called the statical conditions, as being much less explored than the etymological, or rather scarce adverted to at all; while at the same time more generally available and popularly instructive. With a view to the same aggregate of considerations, we are particularly anxious to commend these suggestions to two descriptions of public writers, who might thus make themselves the most usefully influential, being amongst the most universally read in our day. We mean critics and travel-writers. There are no hands in which a general acquaintance, acquired so easily, of the principles of philology, would bring so much literary dignity, while benefiting the public in an equal proportion.

Nor is it to be dissembled that improvement in this quarter is needed deplorably, at least in our English literature. Indeed, it might be questioned, that a single new principle has been introduced into our periodical criticism, since the earlier series of one or two of the British Reviews. Even the variations of application and form seem long since exhausted. And as to the books of travels,-which bid fair, with the march of intellect, or at least of steam, to be soon abandoned entirely to voyaging apprentices, retired sempstresses, and police-reporters,-they are in general sunk into mere chronicles of personalities, commonly below the columns of a gazette. The corruption and degradation of public taste is of course proportional.

Nor can the case well be otherwise, under the circumstances. Of such books, in an especial manner, the only rational object is information. But to common minds the ordinary current of things rarely offers anything to remark, except the variations of personality; especially where the novelties of place have been forestalled,-which is to say, in the present day, the civilized world over. Yet, throughout all the analogies of nature, the most common things are the most important to know, whether for the purpose of judgment or action. But it is the privilege of only vigorous and principled intellects actively to vary the ordinary aspect of things, and find interesting novelty in the most familiar appearances. The intellectual vision would seem to be the reverse of the physical. By the latter, the common eye sees but, as it were, inferentially, while the artist has the faculty of seeing no more than is actually visible. Of the moral scene, the ordinary mind perceives, on the contrary, but the mere outlines; whereas the philosopher attends but to the reality they suggest. But philosophy, like poetry, being the gift of too niggard nature, we are only entitled to exact from those who set up for teachers of their fellow-men, that they avail themselves at least of what should serve as a decent semblance of it, if not a tolerable substitute,

especially in the departments particularized. That the science of language supplies such a substitute is evident, we trust, already to the intelligent reader of the preceding remarks: in which, however, we have merely sought to characterize the four material aspects of the statical application,-the quality of sounds, the texture of words, the structure of sentences, and method of composition,—without at all alluding to the numberless indications derivable from their mutual combination and comparison. All this, however, and still other modes of subserving general inquiry in this instrumental way, will receive ample, though incidental elucidation, from the ensuing consideration of the subject in its more direct and proper province. There it will be made palpable, that words afford, directly or indirectly, the clew to every convolution of the whole system of human opinion; with whose growth in fact they have grown, and of which they continue perpetually to support the actual structure, as the osseous frame does the animal system, as the trellis does the vine. And if they hold thus to the sentiments and institutions of mankind by so many and intimate points of contact, it is not easy to overrate the control over human motives and principles to be derived through philological science; particularly in the diffusive hands of the two classes of writers upon whom we have taken the liberty specially to urge it. It is not because this discipline would redeem the critics from being in general a satire upon the censorial office, and open to the travellers new sources of fresh and fruitful observation, in even those countries now the most nauseously trivialized by their thousands of itinerary volumes; but that it would render both, additionally, the most efficient of agents in propagating and accelerating the grand tendency of modern society towards a noble community of sympathy and thought, as well as the lucrative commerce of merchandise and manufacture. Why may we not expect the science of language to do for the heart, what mere etymology has done already for the history, of our race?*

We have purposely omitted mention of this latter application, too, of philology, its importance being already recognized to the full. In truth, it has succeeded in reforming the whole aspect of history, with regard to the origin of nations, the migration of colonies, the derivation of dialects. It bids fair to end with explaining the variety of races, and may reduce the Babel of tongues to a few ultimate types, if it cannot reach of itself the still fewer principles which have been in all time at the bottom of this apparent chaos.

As a consequence, natural enough, of these astonishing results,

* It has been recently remarked (Michelet, Le Peuple) that "history is a resurrection.” In that case etymology were the magic wand of the exorcism.

the genealogical investigation of language is coming to pass for its science, and the science (so conceived) to be regarded but as a mere handmaid to history, ethnographical or theological. At least this is the case among the Germans, who cultivate the subject with especial diligence and distinction; and the English, whose proneness to the immediately available is content to take the German authority for both the doctrine and method. But has not language a proper and a paramount object of its own? And is it not susceptible of a distinct science, and a system in reference to this end? Most persons, of intelligence in the matter, would probably answer both these questions in the affirmative. But as most persons are yet more influenced by a productive example than a principle, however paramount; and as, moreover, all deference is due to the great intellects by whom the example in this case is supposed to be authorized, we feel bound to point out directly some of the more essential defects of the prevailing system of philological inquiry, before proceeding to an outline of the positive considerations which have led us to adopt a nearly opposite course.

ART. VII.-OTTO VON GERLACH'S COMMENTARY ON THE NEW TESTAMENT.

Das Neue Testament, mit Einleitungen und Erklärenden Anmerkungen. Herausgegeben durch Otto Von Gerlach. Dritte Auflage. (The New Testament, with Introductions and Explanatory Remarks. By Otto Von Gerlach. Third Edition. Berlin, 1844. Two vols. 8vo.)

"CAN anything good come out of Nazareth?"-is a question of more than one application. No country has been, in these latter days, so placed under the ban of the Christian world as Germany. We have been accustomed to think of the Germans as men who run riot in all wild and monstrous speculations; and in this opinion there is much of truth; for, like the schoolmen, they are debarred the privilege of a healthy range of thought. Shut out, until within a year, by an unrighteous absolutism, from all participation in politics, the fervid warmth of their nature has been spent upon questions of theology, philology, and philosophy.* The German author was not so far wrong, who said, jocosely, that, while the French had the dominion of the land, and the English that of the sea, to his coun

*The unobstructed discussion of questions pertaining to national well-being gives a people a practical mode of thinking, which will be felt in all departments of life and knowledge.

trymen belonged "cloud-land, gorgeous land." It is all their own; no wonder that they people it, at times, with strange creations,

"Confused, commingled, mutually inflamed,
Molten together, and composing thus

Fantastic pomp of structure without name."

"The Germans," said Coleridge, who was partial enough to them, "are not altogether wrong, and never altogether right." The world is now beginning to decide upon them with judicial impartiality. We have learned that the fountain does send forth, at the same place, sweet water and bitter. The region abounds in gold, but the metal must first be assayed. In matters of erudition we must be content to go to school to these men of long sittings at books; in questions of theory, we have some sober logic of our own. In many respects it is happy for us, that the prejudice against them and their writings is passing away.

But the Germans are progressive; and, most fortunately, have of late gone forward in the right path. They have attempted some bold experiments with the Gospel, and, after all, are content to take it as it is. The rationalist has tried to destroy its soul, and the mythologist to steal away its body, but it has risen again with new life and glory. It is some comfort to know that "the wise and prudent” have, after their doubts and questionings, returned to that simple religion which is given alike to all mankind; for there is no learned way to the kingdom of God. Bacon knew this so well, that he took it as an axiom, and laid down a like path to philosophy. "The access," he teaches us, "to the kingdom of man, which is founded on the sciences, must resemble that to the kingdom of heaven, where no admission is conceded, except to children." In religion, men must evermore be disciples; the theory that harmonizes reason and revelation, will not be reached by expelling from religion its divine life, and reducing it to a nonentity. Reason must wait, learn, and grow. One of the uses of metaphysics is, that by the good we can expel the bad; and so the great learning of Germany has helped to set her aright. As an indication of the returning evangelical spirit-an early sheaf from the abundant harvest which we may expect-is the Commentary on the Old and New Testaments by Otto Von Gerlach. It is in six volumes, small 8vo., of which we have seen but the two on the New Testament, and to these our present notice will be confined.

Among the wretched features of the neological writings, none is worse than the contemptuous tone in which they speak of popular instruction. Even the judicious Ernesti himself, though not a neoFOURTH SERIES, VOL. 1.-18