when ever such a Project shall be taken in hand, for _correcting_,
_enlarging_, and _ascertaining_ our Language, a competent Number
of such Persons will be advised with, as are knowing, not only in
_Saxon_, but in the other Languages of _Europe_, and so be capable of
judging how far those Languages may be useful in such a Project. The
want of understanding this aright, wou'd very much injure the Success
of such an Undertaking, and the bringing of it to Perfection; in
denying that Assistance toward adjusting the Propriety of Words, which
can only be had from the Knowledge of the Original, and likewise in
depriving us of the Benefit of many useful and significant Words,
which might be revived and recalled, to the Increase and Ornament of
our Language, which wou'd be the more beautiful, as being more genuine
and natural, by confessing a _Saxon_ Original for their native Stock,
or an Affinity with those Branches of the other _Northern Tongues_,
which own the same Original.

The want of knowing the _Northern Languages_, has occasion'd an unkind
Prejudice towards them: which some have introduced out of Rashness,
others have taken upon Tradition. As if those Languages were made up
of nothing else but Monosyllables, and harsh sounding Consonants; than
which nothing can be a greater Mistake. I can speak for the _Saxon_,
_Gothick_, and _Francick_, or old _Teutonick_: which for aptness of
compounded, and well sounding Words, and variety of Numbers, are by
those learned Men that understand them, thought scarce inferior to the
_Greek_ itself. I never cou'd find my self shocked with the Harshness
of those Languages, which grates so much in the Ears of those that
never heard them. I never perceiv'd in the Consonants any Hardness,
but such as was necessary, to afford Strength, like the Bones in a
human Body, which yield it Firmness and Support. So that the worst
that can be said on this occasion of our Forefathers is, that they