The few touches which his father bestowed upon the revisal of the
book, though they are minutely set down by him in the preface, are so
inconsiderable, that it is not necessary to mention them; and it may
be much more agreeable, as well as useful, to exhibit the short
account which he there gives of the method by which he enabled his son
to show, so early, how easy an attainment is the knowledge of the
languages, a knowledge which some men spend their lives in
cultivating, to the neglect of more valuable studies, and which they
seem to regard as the highest perfection of human nature.
What applauses are due to an old age, wasted in a scrupulous attention
to particular accents and etymologies, may appear, says his father, by
seeing how little time is required to arrive at such an eminence in
these studies as many, even of these venerable doctors, have not
attained, for want of rational methods and regular application.
This censure is, doubtless, just, upon those who spend too much of
their lives upon useless niceties, or who appear to labour without
making any progress; but, as the knowledge of language is necessary,
and a minute accuracy sometimes requisite, they are by no means to be
blamed, who, in compliance with the particular bent of their own
minds, make the difficulties of dead languages their chief study, and
arrive at excellence proportionate to their application, since it was
to the labour of such men that his son was indebted for his own
learning.
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