From the subjection of the Britons to the Saxons, the Saxon language underwent no material alteration, during a period of six hundred years. The Danes, indeed, during this time, overran the country, and for a scason held it in subjection, and doubtless some Danish words were introduced into the Saxon. These seem not to have been very numerous, and made no material change in the form of the language, which may be accounted for from the fact, that the Danish and Saxon were but different dialects of the same parent, Gothic.

able literature, but also from the circumstance that for many ages it was the common medium of communication between the learned of the nations of modern Europe, and was therefore well understood by every English scholar.

Still, however, after all its changes and augmentations, the Saxon remains the basis of the English language. Almost all the words in common and familiar use, and those which relate to agriculture and the mechanic arts, are of Saxon origin. He who speaks Saxon English, speaks plain English, which every person understands. If we were to speak of the circumambient air, which is Latin English, some persons might be found who would not fully understand us. If we say the surrounding air, which is Saxon English, we shall be distinctly and universally understood.

A much greater change in the language was effected by William the Conqueror, who, in 1066, subdued the English. He, with his followers, spoke the Norman French, a language formed by a mixture of the Celtic, Latin and Gothic languages. William attempted what few conquerors have done, to give law Of all the distinguished English writers, to the language of his subjects, and to intro-none is more remarkable for a general use of duce the Norman French in the place of the Saxon English, than Addison. It gives a peSaxon, by causing the intercourse of the culiar simplicity to his style, and perhaps was court, and the proceedings of the courts of one means of securing to the Spectator, to justice, to be held in the Norman French. which he largely contributed, the unbounded But this conqueror found it more easy to sub-popularity which it enjoyed with the mass of due the English nation, than to conquer the Saxon language. Although the Norman French was, for a time, spoken by the higher ranks of society in England, and some of its words found their way into the native Saxon from this circumstance, yet the Saxon language maintained its ground in Britain, essentially unchanged. By the intercourse which took place between England and France, for several centuries afterward, many more French words were introduced into the English. These were adopted, with very little change from their original form; and hence has arisen the similarity between many words in the two languages, which is now so clearly visible.

In later times, the words of the English language have been exceedingly augmented by the introduction of many derived from the Latin and the Greek, and occasionally from the French, the Spanish, the Italian and the German. The Latin, in latter times, has been the primary source whence the English has been enriched and adorned. This has arisen, not only from the fact that the Latin was the language of a people highly cultivated and refined, and embodied a great variety of valu

readers, at the time of its first publication. Dr. Johnson, equally celebrated, is especially distinguished for the use of Latin English. His Rambler, which was issued as a periodical, like the Spectator, though it contains more depth of sentiment, and greater splendor of imagery, which have ever rendered it a favorite with scholars, was by no means as popular with the mass of readers, when it was first issued, as was the Spectator.

The terms in the English language which relate to music, sculpture, and painting, have been derived from the Italian, as it is from Italy, especially, that the improvements in these fine arts have been derived. The words which relate to navigation, have been derived from Holland and Flanders, countries which were early distinguished among the nations of western Europe for the cultivation of this art. The French have ever been celebrated in the art of war, and from them have been derived the terms which relate to military affairs. The mathematics and philosophy, which owe their advancement chiefly to scholars, have derived their terms from the Latin and the Greck.

Him,

"Who touch'd Isaiah's hallowed lips with fire!"

It has generally been the case, that the re- could have preserved that precision, force and finements of a language have kept an equal beauty of the originals, which it so signally pace with a nation's advancement in civiliza- exhibits. With the exception of a few obsotion, and the state of a language, therefore, lete words and phrases, the common version forms a good criterion of the state of general of the Scriptures is regarded by literary men, improvement among a people. This has been at the present day, as an English classic; and emphatically true of the English language. many an orator has kindled the fire of his cloUnder the reign of Elizabeth, in the sixteenth quence at this great fountain of light and century, the national manners advanced in of warmth, and many a poet has adorned his refinement, and the language made equal and imagination by a careful attention to the imsignal advances in its character. Spenser and agery of the prophets. Pope, in his "MesShakspeare, among the poets, and Hooker siah," one of his most elegant and sublime among the divines, of that period, gave illus-productions, in admiration no doubt of the trious proofs of genius, and contributed essen- splendor of the prophet, invokes the aid of tially to improve the language of which they were ornaments. Of Hooker, Pope Clement VIII., who would not be likely to entertain an undue partiality for a Protestant, said: 66 This man indeed deserves the name of an author. His books will get reverence by age; for there are in them such seeds of eternity, that they shall continue till the last fire shall devour all learning." The works of Shakspeare, the prince of Dramatic writers, whom no man in this department has ever rivalled, or probably may ever hope to rival, are well calculated to give a very favorable idea of the respectable advances which the language had made, at the time in which he flourished. The conceptions of his transcendent genius appear to have been not at all cramped by the language in which he wrote; and what author ever wrote, who showed more versatility of talent, or who required a more flexible, strong, and copious language to give life and animation to his varied and extraordinary conceptions?

It is scarcely possible to calculate how great has been the effect of a book of such a character, so widely circulated, and so generally sive has been its influence in promoting a read, upon the public taste; and how extengeneral acquaintance with the beauty and force of the English language. If the Scriptures had not trained up a nation of intelligent readers, distinguished authors would not have their beauties, and to estimate their worth. addressed a public so well prepared to admire writers arose, in almost every department of In the seventeenth century, distinguished literature and science, to instruct the world by their wisdom, and to cultivate and adorn the English language. In this rapid sketch, but a few of them can be noticed.

Milton, an epic poet, to whom no age or nation has produced a superior, who is more sublime than Homer, and more diversified, and not less elegant, than Virgil, contributed The writers of the seventeenth century nobly not a little to the cultivation of the language carried on the work of improving the English in which he wrote, and signally displayed its language, which their predecessors had so compass and its power. Waller, Dryden, honorably begun. The present authorized and others, in the department of poetry, conversion of the Scriptures, which was first tributed largely to the improvement of their published in 1613, under the reign of James I., native tongue. Locke and Newton, in phiconsidered merely in a literary point of view, losophy, who flourished in the latter part of is a most remarkable production, honorable this century, contributed to the precision and to the translators, and to the character of the perspicuity of the language, and evinced that language, at the time when it was written. it is as well adapted to the purposes of the The subjects of this volume are vast and sub-philosopher, as it is to those of the poet. lime; its variety is well nigh boundless; and The divines of the seventeenth century although it is designed to be, as it is, a literal were particularly distinguished for the copitranslation of the original Hebrew and Greek, ousness and force of their language, as well it must have been no common language which as for the depth and compass of their thoughts;

In the latter part of the seventeenth, and early in the eighteenth century, a galaxy of authors appeared, who have left a track of light across the literary hemisphere. The reign of Queen Anne has been denominated, This work, it was the high honor of Dr. and not without reason, the Augustan age of Samuel Johnson to perform; and by doing it English literature. Then flourished Addison, so ably and so satisfactorily, he became one who brought philosophy from the schools to of the greatest benefactors to the English landwell among the common people; whose wri-guage and literature, that has ever lived. tigs are distinguished for a simplicity and When we consider what a vast compass of

reading it required to collect the unnumbered ruptions are permitted to creep in and perver

quotations from distinguished authors, by it. which the meaning which he has attached to The latter part of the eighteenth century words was illustrated and supported; the was particularly fruitful in distinguished au discrimination which was necessary to fix ac- thors, whose works have received the highes curately the import of terms, and to assign to finish of style. Johnson, not only by th his authorities their proper place; and the publication of his dictionary, but by his mis patience and labor which a work so complica-cellaneous writings, has done much to im ted and extensive required for its completion, prove his native tongue. While his constan we cannot fail to regard this as one of the most astonishing efforts of literary industry and skill. Happy it was, perhaps, for the world, that Johnson was comparatively a poor man. Necessity is not only the mother of invention, but the parent of industry. Johnson had eaten up the avails of his dictionary by the time he had completed it; and while he was toiling for the benefit of his own age, and of generations unborn, without being stimulated by the certainty that they would duly appreciate his labors, he had the ever-present stimulus of a desire to procure his daily bread. His "Rasselas," also, one of his most elegant productions, was the fruit of a week's labor, to procure the means of defraying the expenses of his mother's funeral.

Johnson's Dictionary, immediately on its publication, and in every period since, has been resorted to as a standard of the language; and from his authority there have been few appeals. Johnson understood, and confined himself to the true province of a lexicographer, which is, not to give law to language, but merely to ascertain and promulgate it. His is an orginal work, totally unlike everything which had gone before it; and later lexicographers have mostly lived upon his labors.

Since the time of Johnson, the English language has been adorned by many distinguished writers, and the advancement of the arts and sciences has required the adoption of many new terms. These have, by different editors, been incorporated with the work of Johnson. Some words have also been gleaned up, which Johnson, in the extent of his range, had overlooked; and so complete has the catalogue of authorized words become, and so definite have been the meanings which have been attached to them, that the English must be regarded as a settled language. The "dailychanging tongue," of which our motto complains, will not be ours, unless foreign cor

use of words of Latin derivation gives a de gree of stiffness, and sometimes of pedantry to his style, it has yet the highest redeeming qualities. The nice discrimination with which he applies his epithets, the splendor of his imagery, and the majestic flow of his periods. have received, as they have deserved, universa admiration. The poetry of Cowper has excellencies of its kind, not inferior to those of his distinguished predecessors. In history Robertson has given the finest specimens of a dignified elegance, and Gibbon of a lofty splendor of style. Goldsmith has writter with a simplicity, correctness and elegance which have never been exceeded. Melmoth has all the ease and grace of Addison, without his negligence and slight incorrectness.

Among the favorable circumstances respecting the English language, which have latterly taken place, the new turn which has been given to fictitious writing, deserves to be mentioned. The character of works of this kind, som forty or fifty years since, was miserable in the extreme. Many of them were written by halflearned men, or pedantic women; and they were generally most extravagant in their incidents, and clothed in a style which set all good taste at defiance. It is well that the reading public have agreed to make a bonfire of these works, and that the shelves of circulating libraries no longer groan beneath them. To this change, the prose writings of Si Walter Scott have essentially contributed. He, in conjunction with some others, has been the means of bringing the authors of fictitious writings in some measure back to nature; and has caused the public taste on this subject to flow in a new channel.

The English language has excellencies which place it, at least, on a level with any language that was ever written or spoken; and perhaps such various excellence was never before combined in any tongue. The great versatili

ty of this language is among its distinguish- eloquence of Robertson; the dignity and eleing features. It is alike adapted to history, gance of Robertson are unlike the loftiness to philosophy, to poetry, to oratory, and to and splendor of Gibbon; and the chaste the less elevated kinds of composition. In beauty of Goldsmith is unlike them all. The the hands of a skilful writer, it is sometimes same remark holds true in every other desmooth as the stream which scarcely ripples partment of literature. Addison is widely as it runs, and sometimes it is impetuous as different from Johnson in his style, and Melthe mountain torrent, which dashes from pre-moth is different from both. There is a varicipice to precipice, in fury and in foam; some-ety in the character of English literature, times it is beautiful as the gentle cascade; which would probably be sought for in vain and sometimes it thunders like the Falls of in any other language. Niagara.

If the English language is less sonorous than the Greek, it is more copious; if it is less majestic, in the ordinary flow of its periods, than the Latin, it is more precise and more various in its import. If it wants something of the familiarity and ease of the French, it is much better adapted to the higher kinds of writing. For the purposes of poetry, it has a vast advantage over the French. The accented and unaccented syllables of the English enable it to approach very near to the poetic feet of the Latin and Greek. This adapts it alike to rhyme and to blank verse. The French poetry cannot be sustained without rhyme, which must be regarded, in a greater or less degree, as a clog upon genius; and as a substitute for blank verse, their only resort is to poetic prose, a good example of which is to be found in the Telemaque of Fenelon. How poor a species of poetry this is, contrasted with English blank verse, must be evident to all who have compared them. The English, unlike most other languages, has a dialect that is appropriately poetic; and by the natural division of genders, it has a preparation, by the application of the masculine or feminine gender to an inanimate object, to convert the simplest form of speech into a bold personification.

The grammar of this language is more simple than that of any other tongue, if we except the Hebrew, without the points; and the facility with which its grammatical construction may be acquired, is one of its advantages. The article has no variation. The adjective is only varied to express the degrees of comparison. The verbs have but one conjugation, and the original verb remains mostly unchanged in all the moods and tenses, which are chiefly expressed by auxiliaries. He who, with great labor, has mastered the various inflections of the Latin, Greek or French verbs, will know how to estimate this advantage. The order of the words in the construction of sentences in the English is the order of nature; nor does the idiom of the language allow extensively of inversion, except it be in poetry. This gives to it a philosophical character.

But if the English language has distinguished excellencies, it has also its defects, which it would evince a want of perspicacity or of candor to deny. The short words with which the language abounds, which extensively terminate with consonants, detract much from the harmony of its pronunciation. The similarity in the form of the verb, in different tenses and different persons, often creates an ambiguity in regard to its import, which can only be removed by a careful attention to The diversified character of English poetry that which precedes, and that which follows displays, in a striking light, the richness of it in the sentence. The division of accented the language. Milton bears no resemblence and unaccented syllables in English, though to Young; nor Young to Dryden; nor Dry-it fits the language for poetry without rhyme, den to Thomson; nor Thomson to Pope; nor is by no means as well defined, and as extenPope to Cowper; and yet each has distinguished excellencies of his kind. The same diversity will be found in the historical writers of the language. Their sentences are never cast in the same mould. The simple neatness of Hume is quite unlike the dignified

sively productive of harmony of versification, as were the long and the short syllables in the Latin and the Greek. By the transposition of words, also, they could secure a variety of cadence, and a harmony of pronunciation, to which the English language can never attain.