Purity of LANGUAGE. Both the Greeks and Romans were particularly careful of preserving the purity of their language. It seems amongst the Romans to have been a point which they thought worthy the attention of the state itself; for we find the Cumeans not daring to make use of the Latin language in their
public acts without having first obtained leave in form. Language Tiberius himself would not hazard the word monopolium in the senate without making an excuse for employing a foreign term. Seneca gives it as a certain maxim, that wherever a general false taste in style and expression prevails, it is an infallible sign of corruption of manners in that people: A liberty of introducing obsolete words, or forming new ones, is a mark, he thinks, of an equal licentiousness of the moral kind. Accordingly it is observed, there are scarce more than eight or ten instances of new words to be produced from the most approved Roman writers, in the course of two or three centuries. If this mode of reasoning concerning the morals of the state was introduced and applied in our own country, no nation on the face of the earth could appear more abandoned; for no nation is more fond of adopting new words; though our language is sufficiently copious. This delicacy of Seneca appears to be carried a little too far, and his manner of estimating the morals of the people must be a little fallacious. The Greeks were very remarkable for their discernment of provincialisms, especially the Athenians, whose dialect was inconceivably sweet and elegant.