Note 928 — Chapter VI

With the single exception of Porson, not one of the great English scholars has shown an appreciation of the beauties of his native language; and many of them, such as Parr (in all his works) and Bentley (in his mad edition of Milton), have done every thing in their power to corrupt it. And there can be little doubt, that the principal reason why well-educated women write and converse in a purer style than well-educated men, is because they have not formed their taste according to those ancient classical standards, which, admirable as they are in themselves, should never be introduced into a state of society unfitted for them. To this may be added, that Cobbett, the most racy and idiomatic of all our writers, and Erskine, by far the greatest of our forensic orators, knew little or nothing of any ancient language; and the same observation applies to Shakespeare. On the supposed connexion between the improvement of taste and the study of classical models, there are some remarks worth attending to in Rey's Théorie et Pratique de la Science Sociale, vol. i. pp. 98–101.