Dead Language and Dead Languages. By J. P. Postgate, Litt.D.
(John Murray. ls.)—Professor Postg,ate magnifies his office, and does it very effectually. Here we have the inaugural lecture which he delivered on appointment to the Chair of Latin in the University of Liverpool. He reminded his audience of many things, of how much of civilisation, material and moral, they owed to Rome, and, chiefly, of what the language really was to them. It is an admirable discourse which we shall not attempt to analyse. But we must repeat a quotation from a certain IL Brunet, who professes the history of the French language at the Sorbonne. N. Brunot speaks of "ce pauvre idiome latin " and " cette littera- tare seek°, sterile, at mediocre," and selects Petronius (!) as one of four authors whom he defies the Latinist to compare with Dante, Shakespeare, Goethe—and Flaubert.
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