able, if the old learning about the flight of birds and the entrails of beasts should be abandoned for Homer, and if the mysteries of the bidental should be neglected for Thucydides and Plato.
The Roman language and literature, thus enriched and improved, was destined to still prouder triumphs. The inhabitants of the greatest part of Europe and of the North of Africa, educated in every respect like the Romans, became in every respect equal to them. The impression which was then made will never be effaced. It sank so deep into the language and habits of the people, that Latin to this day forms the basis of the tongues of France and southern Europe, and the Roman law the basis of their jurisprudence. The barbarous hordes which triumphed over the arms, yielded to the arts of Rome. Roman literature survived the causes which led to its diffusion, and even spread beyond the ancient limits of the empire. The Poles and Hungarians were led neither by any pressure from without, nor by any artificial encouragement from within, to make Latin their language of education, of literature, of business, and, to a very remarkable extent, of ordinary colloquial intercourse. They did so, we may presume, because their own language contained nothing worth knowing, while Latin included within itself
