“. . . Having first delineated the character of the [Russian] people, I meant then to have pointed out to the English, and to every civilised nation, how much they had to dread if ever such a people, or rather if such machines should be put in motion against them as enemies, and to have called their attention to the prodigious extent of the Russian Empire, and the gradual encroachment of its Sovereign, first in Asia from south to north, and now in Europe from north to south. After a due consideration of these facts, I flattered myself that I might be able perhaps to persuade the English to dissolve their present alliance with Russia. In this I now think I was too sanguine, but it is not improbable that my representations might in time have produced a good effect . . .
“Another project soon occurred, which would not have
been difficult to execute. I had not pored long over my books before I was
struck with the difference in the combination of the words in the German and in
the English languages; the one the language of imagination, yet minutely
accurate and metaphysical in its distinctions; the other the language of
reflection, simple and philosophical, for such do these languages appear to me
to be. When I shall have considered them better, it may be that I shall find
myself mistaken. As I proceeded with my reading, this difference of arrangement
became to me still more remarkable, and at length suggested the idea of
attempting an analysis of the German language, and a comparison of it with the
English. With the minutiæ of the grammar of both I had no concern; that would
have been more than I could have grasped; I meant only, from several well
chosen sentences in both languages, to select of each that sentence which
should seem to me most complete for my purpose, to analyse them both, tracing
the order of ideas, and placing them in various points of view, and then to
compare them
| A LONG WALK. | 341 |
