4450. LANGUAGE (Latin), Models of composition.—[continued].
The utilities we derive
from the remains of the Greek and Latin languages
are, first as models of pure taste in writing.
To these we are certainly indebted for the
natural and chaste style of modern composition,
which so much distinguishes the nations to
whom these languages are familiar. Without
these models we should probably have continued
the inflated style of our northern ancestors, or
the hyperbolical and vague one of the East.—
To John Brazier. Washington ed. vii, 131.
(1819)
